Just a minute of my time...

Real men do cry

Tonight I had the opportunity to go see a speaker at Kent State who talked about depression and suicide.  His name, Eric Hipple a quarterback for the Detroit Lions, who wrote a book called Real men do cry.   He shared a story of sadness and grief.  He has taken the loss of his own son to suicide and turned it into a mission to educate others and make them aware of depression and how to reach out to others.

His story is one of hope and recovery and he uses education as well as practical advice to help others live and enjoy life after depression and loss. 

He talks of how if you saw someone with any type of injury you would try to help them, yet with depression we usually don't know how to help.  He shared ways to reach out to others.  It was a very educational evening...

Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you. ~Annie Dillard

Finally some warmer temperatures

What a beautiful weekend we got to enjoy, and finally some warmer temperatures!  Everyone wanted to be outside, including these two.

Finished up working on my layouts with my Work in Progress kit.  I can upload them here on May 1st, which is already this Friday!  Where does the time go?

Weekend update

Had a long busy weekend and it's only Saturday...

Friday Chelsea came home and we went for a walk with the dog first thing in the morning, went to breakfast at Yours Truly and then did some shopping looking for shoes to match her dress for the wedding she's going to next weekend.  

Early in the week when we knew everyone would be home this weekend we planned a family dinner night out at Longhorn. 

 

It was a nice night out with a lot of laughs!

Saturday started with another early morning walk with the dog, Chelsea had a nail appointment and I had a pedicure, then off to do more shopping, meet up with Lisa and Buddha and then off to lunch at Panera.  Once we finished lunch we decided another walk/jog would be good, this time without the dog.

After Chelsea headed back to Kent is when Zach's evening began and he had a couple friends over and we ordered pizza for dinner.

I got a little scrapping time in and hope to do more tomorrow...

I love video's like this!

 

{found on Molly Irwin's blog}  With just two rehearsals, a group of 200 dancers created this wonderful surprise for passersby last month in Belgium. I love the notion that, when we allow it to be, life really is as hopeful as a musical production.

California

Chelsea had a wonderful time in California thanks to my cousin Stephen and his family. He took her to work out with his clients, to see the sights of LA and to many wonderful dinners, to name just a few of the things she did.

Who knew her return trip, being a red eye flight, would leave us all with red eyes!  She arrived at  LAX at 9:15, but that was 12:15 for us and then her flight didn't leave until 12:15 which made it 2:15 here.  Then the flight was delayed, waiting for another plane and it made it even later.  Needless to say she didn't board and I didn't go to sleep until almost 3 am.

So after Ben picked her up from the airport and got her home, she and I drove back to Kent to get all her stuff back and get her situated to resume classes again.

I'm so glad she had this opportunity to take this trip, learned so much and had so much fun!  Here are just a few of her pictures.  I know my sister is awaiting seeing them....

On the set of The Cleaner with Benjamin Bratt

Benjamin Bratt and Stephen

Chelsea and Bill Engvall

Chelsea and Tim Meadows

Malibu with Michele

Chelsea and Jr

First time having sushi

Quiet Saturday

I have a quiet Saturday with Chelsea in California, Joel at work and Zach over a friends house.  I hope to get into some scrapping projects and work with my kit, along with the usual house cleaning that always needs to be done.

Yesterday was beautiful with the sun shinning and warm temps!  After taking Zach to his friends I took the dog to the park for a nice long walk.  It wore him out because he pretty much slept the rest of the day.

Tonight we have a 16th birthday party to attend for Tasha!  And of course Joel always has work to do!

Chelsea has been having a blast in California and I can't wait to see all her pictures!  She has met Tim Meadows while working out,  Benjamin Bratt and Bill Engvall to name a few... went on the television set of The Cleaner with Benjamin Bratt and the set of the Bill Engvall show and met the cast.  She is just loving Los Angeles and hanging with my cousin and his family!

Ready for the weekend

Tomorrow I have the "geek squad" from Best Buy coming over to install our sound bar for our surround sound, and then I need to find my way into work for a few hours.

Today was spent getting ready for Chelsea to head to California.  We did some shopping, found her a bathing suit, and only had to try on two.  Besides for the countless ones she has tried on over the past few weeks...

We met my mom at Panera for lunch and then over to Target to pick up snacks.

And then we were off to the airport...

Her flight arrived 16 minutes early and all went well, besides for Stephen sending me into panic when he said he hadn't met up with her yet, and she must have gotten on the wrong plane!  Thanks Stephen!  She's there and I hope she has a blast!

Here we are at the airport before she left.  Luckily they let me go through security with her and wait at the gate.  We met up with Jen right away and Chel told me Jen got a picture of her getting off the plane when they landed in LA... thanks Jen!

So now I have the next few days to accomplish many things here from putting away my Easter decorations to working with my Work in Progress kit, and many things in between.

count down...

There are only two more days until Chelsea leaves for California and while I'm excited for her to go, I know I'm going to miss her like crazy!  But what an opportunity for her to check out Los Angeles with my cousin Stephen!

Easter weekend was a blast!  We had so much going on the weekend just flew by! Starting with the crop at Trish's on Good Friday, which Deb and I arrived to by 10am and were able to visit, laugh and scrap the day away!

Saturday Chelsea and I got up early and picked up flowers for the mom's, some more groceries and pies at Mama Jo's.  We got home with little time to spare before we had to head up to Serpentini to drop off Chelsea's car for service and from there we left and went to our first Indians game of the season.  We had a blast at the game, but the weather wasn't quite as warm as we had hoped for?  Although it was scarf day at Progressive field, they didn't help keep us much warmer and unfortunately the Indians didn't win this one.

 

After the game on Saturday and picking Chelsea's car back up we stuffed the eggs for the egg hunt on Easter, watched a movie and colored eggs in the evening. 

Easter was at our house, complete with dinner, an egg and a basket hunt.  What a beautiful sun shinning day we had!

Happy Easter!