The Rest of the Story

On Tuesday we headed to Hollywood (can't leave the area without stopping at Pink's Hot Dogs). We stopped by Modesto and visited with my Aunt Terri; it was such a treat to visit with her. She has recently had some health concerns and lost her license because of them but she is in good spirits and always a kick to visit.


Wednesday we headed for Red Bluff. Our first stop: Hope's best friend Melissa. Hope practically jumped out of the car to see her. Then we went to see my parents. It was good to see them and catch up face to face. Thursday we dropped the girls off at their old schools which is ironic since it would have been their last day of school in TN. Hope spent the day with her favorite Jr. High teacher, Miss Rogers along with her eighth grade classmates and Grace ran into the arms of her old classmates. Her teacher, Mr. Threlkeld invited her to spend the day and even sing at the open house that night. We went and saw Bill and Vicki Greer while the kids were "in school". Later we went back to my parents house for dinner and then went to Jackson Heights to watch Grace and visit with the faculity. Oh, if we could only ship them to TN. What great people and what a blast catching up.

On Friday I went up to Graduation practice while Norm went to his old job to spend time with his former clients and co workers. I found out I made honors. We went back home saw Paul and Deborah Wright whom we are staying with but only briefly. We spent so much time at their home right before we left; it was good to see them. My aunt Carol came up for the festivities and we had dinner with Mom and Dad.
Graduation went great and reminded me of home since it stormed through the ceremony. Those should be some lovely pictures. I don't care. I was finished my last test yesterday and I couldn't be more happier.

Later we all went to Leatherby's, met my brother Gary there (he has a new job at Costco, yeah!) and visited with them and Kim and Dan Berry.

On Saturday (I can't believe we leaving so soon) we went to breakfast with Norm's family; Steve, Jay, Myrtle, Norma, Richard, Hallie and Michael. We caught up, passed the pictures and then went to Hope and Grace's pre-birthday, birthday party at my mom and dad's house. The girls had fun playing with Daniel and Matthew while we all chatted. My aunt Carol made Grace a beautiful dress (I see an opera in our future). We then went down to the Greers and met up with the Hagen's. Grace actually swam in the 60 degree weather. Once again we caught up and passed the pictures. These are what I miss; the people. It would be so great it everyone could come and visit.

That night the girls and Norm slept while I watched the clock; we left at 1:30am for our flight. It was sad saying goodbye, but I was looking forward to being home. We flew out, arrived in Knoxville by 5pm, picked up Mitchell (who had done great) and went home. It was a great trip and was such fun seeing everyone. We came home to beautiful weather and 8 foot tall bamboo.

-Tina

California Here We Come...

I am (finally) graduating from Shasta College.

I will now have an A.A. in Hospitality with a concentration in Culinary Arts. We decided to celebrate this occasion by going back to Cali for my graduation. Silly as it sounds, I really wanted to walk with my classmates. I took my last final the day we left but I am still in school (blogging) and have my last test on Thursday the day before I graduate. So while the girls are swimming I am doing homework. We decided since we were so close (yeah, right), we would take a little detour to Disneyland (the silliness just keeps getting sillier).

We drove to Nashville Airport even before I go to work (1:30am) and took a flight into San Francisco picked up the rental car and drove to Anaheim. Ah, the golden waves of ......weeds. The apmosphere hit back as we left SFO. Knoxville was about 75 degrees and overcast when we left. LA was 100 degrees and cloudless. I traded blossoming trees, rolling green hills for, well if you have been down I5 you know what I mean. I suprised myself how much I was missing TN (and maybe Mitchell a little; he is staying at a friend's house and has already been to DL).



The first day here we went to Disneyland California Adventures and had a blast. It was pretty crowded but we got to go on everything and had sourdough bread to boot (that and avocodo is what I miss food wise). The following day we tackled Disneyland and had a great time. We saw Bill Hill and the Hillbillies a few times (I guess I was missing people saying y'all). We crammed as much as you could in a day. Fun, fun, fun. It was great to have Norm there and no Mitchell. We handled the time change pretty well and had a great time I think secretly we are all looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. -Tina

An Answer To Soaring Gas Prices...........

I totally like Red Green. Unfortunately, none of our local stations carry his show, so I found some clips online. Hope you enjoy this one! -Norm