The Senate's Lion

Kurin woke me up very early this morning to tell me that Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) had passed away. My husband knows that I find it very important to know when famous persons pass on especially a Kennedy.
I obviously didn't know Senator Kennedy but who didn't know of Teddy Kennedy? The youngest member of probably the most famous and powerful family in this countrie's recent history. From the pictures, he was an adorable little boy, a handsome young man and a long-standing fixture in the Senate of the United States.
I am very saddened to learn of his death. He has always been around. If you want something solid to look at in our government, it was Senator Kennedy. He is really the only Kennedy that my generation was familiar with aside from JFK Jr.
Senator Kennedy was a man who fought for civil rights, women's rights, workers rights, education reform (no child left behind), health care reform and the rights of the disabled among so many other righteous causes. He was a powerful man and did his job with the gusto that many lack.
I admire Senator Kennedy so very much. He was such an accomplished man even in the face of tragedy after tragedy in his family and even when facing scandal.

Being the support of his, for lack of a better word, ginormous family when his 2 brothers were gunned down within 5 years of each other, an older brother killed in WWII, a sister killed in a plane crash, another sister who suffered from mental retardation and was institutionalized, his own plane crashing, a wife who battled alcoholism, a son who lost a leg to cancer, a daughter who suffered from cancer and a scandal in which he was the driver of a car that plunged into a pond in Chappaquiddick, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. He had been the family patriarch during the weddings of his nieces Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver, the trial of his nephew William Kennedy-Smith, the death of Robert Kennedy's son by a drug overdose, the death of another of Robert's sons due to a skiing accident and finally by the plane crash killing JFK's son, his wife and her sister in 1999 and his fatal battle with brain cancer, dying 2 weeks after his sister, Eunice.
Most people, myself included, would have snapped by that point but not the Kennedys. They fascinate me - I cannot fathom what their family is like dealing with such tragedy but doing so much good for this country. Such a tight-knit family who really have had too much put on them. They have survived and perservered. It's a shame to lose such a great man.
Thank you Senator Kennedy for all of the service you gave to this country and for making it a better place. May you rest in peace and you will be missed. God Bless You Uncle Teddy.

The Envelope Please.....

Bebe' got honorable mention! They name a king, queen, prince and princess but they also named Emily as an honorable mention - my thought is that she was super-close to the princess spot. Thank you all who voted. We appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and support and your votes ($) go to a great organization that does wonderful charitable works.
From the Ypsilanti Jaycees website Funny thing, my hairdresser's daughter was princess! Pretty cool! Thanks again to all of you for your faith in Emily. She will uphold her honorable mention...honorably ;)

Captcha Fun

I got this as a captcha yesterday when leaving a blog comment for a friend. It's my new favorite word.

Heritage Festival Weekend

I think the song goes "...you must have been a beautiful baby..." and that is what we believe in Emily. Don't get me wrong. I am not a stage mom, nor a pageant mom (Lord, those women need help) but I did enter Emily into the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival's Beautiful Baby Contest sponsored by the Jaycees. This is the picture we submitted.

The contest is based on votes purchased ($0.25/vote). There are prizes of savings bonds for a king, queen, prince and princess. The best part of the contest is that all contestants can walk in the Heritage Festival parade in a decorated stroller or wagon. I went on a mission to find a wagon which I did thanks to Heather M.! It was brand new in the box and a perfect little red wagon to decorate!

I was a nervous wreck the night before the parade and didn't sleep well. I was afraid I would over sleep and miss the being in the parade. It was fun that Kurin came to record it on our camcorder, grandma and Cedo came to see, Aunt Brenda and cousin Karen watched us and Gay and Ben came down too. I hadn't been in or to the parade since I was a senior in high school and marched in it with the LHS marching band. **Tangent: Ok, no offense to anyone who may have/know someone in the current band but boy did they look sloppy! No uniforms, just polos and shorts with tennis shoes. The lines were not straight. The sound was alright though. The band is huge now so that's a plus. They also have a trailer to carry equipment! WTH? I miss it but it's not the same if you didn't wear the cowboy hat with the white heeled orthopedic shoes :)**
The parade was a lot shorter than I remember, well, it always seemed to take hours to march it back in the day and walking at my own pace with a bunch of other families was a ton different than standing at attention or marching while playing the fight song ;)
The weather was phenomenal. It was actually CHILLY! Yes, CHILLY! I had on a long sleeved zip-up hoodie and we had to put bebe' in a sweater and jacket over her clothes. Unbelievable. At parade time, it was probably in the low-mid 60s! In August! Unheard of! Enough exclamation points! haha
It was a great experience and bebe' seemed to enjoy herself except near the end she seemed to get tired and kind of flopped over in the wagon. I'll definitely enter her again next year. It was a lot of fun and the Jaycees did a great job.
By the way, we are assuming that Emily did not win as we were not notified. That's ok though. We can't seem to find out who won. There is no longer a local newspaper and none of the related websites have listed the winners of any of the contests. Here are some pictures of our winner:


Emily and daddy before the parade and Emily yawning after waiting to get started
Here we come! As you can see in the second picture, she's just about had it by this point :)

Ohmigodyouguys!

I found the sheet music to Legally Blonde the Musical and actually tapped out a few bars of some of the songs the other evening. Other than my piano being seriously out of tune, it was AWESOME. I cannot wait until I can devote a little more time to it than I have right now. It was so exciting!

More Ramblings...and a bit of Sunny Days

Some things seem to be brightening up. It looks like I'm going to Kentucky with my mom, bebe', cousin Karen and Aunt B. Hey...it will have to pass as a vacation. Lookout Harlan County, here we come!
Granny's headstone has been installed ... finally. I haven't been to see it yet. Sometimes I feel just blank about it but then I get really sad. It's like sometimes it's more real than others. I know those of you who have lost someone might know what I mean.
On a happier note, bebe' is getting her 5th tooth! It's little edge has popped out of the gum. She is getting to be quite the little girl lately. She sits up and acts like such a big girl. She likes to play Pop-Up where she is sitting on my lap kind of squatting like and then she "POPS" up straight and laughs and laughs. She also loves her toys. She especially loves her Zoo activity play toy that sings songs and she can put the animals on a turntable and watch them go 'round and 'round. She is also very interested in me talking. She will sit in my lap and just stare at my lips and touch her fingers to them. It's super cute when she does this while I'm singing her nighttime songs for bed and she's very sleepy.
The beasts dogs went to the vet this weekend. Theodore is at 74 lbs and is in great health for what the vet terms "middle-aged", at 8 years old. What impressed me most is how impressed they were with his teeth! They thought we had been having them brushed regularly. I love the pooches but I'm not too keen on the idea of trying to scrape their plaque. The doc said his teeth are like 98% of perfect! Sweet! Oreo is a whopping 76 lbs. He is very thick. I don't know any other way to say it. He's thick. Like a log. He did very good and has only been itching the last 2 days because they gave him a dog biscuit and those make him itch (boo...). Other than that, everyone is in fine health! Thankfully our animals are in good health as it is so costly to take them to the vet. Once a year I can handle. I believe in maintenance...just like with any vehicles :)
BFF and I are back in business on eBay. We took a break..well, I took a break because my lazy butt just couldn't get motivated to post anything. I listed 3 items and wouldn't you know that within 48 hours, 2 of them had sold! Yay! I'm looking forward to selling more and we are looking into other opportunities for selling as well. Also, BFF needs to get her etsy store up and running too. I'd like to get started but anything I did for etsy would have to be small and quick to make.
Speaking of quick to make (as if this post isn't long enough), I have decided on what I am doing for Christmas for my husband's family this year. I hope they go over well. I doubt they read this blog but I'd hate for anything to get leaked early. I don't care so much if they know what they're getting, I just don't want them to not like it ahead of time LOL.
Well, I will try to be more regular about posting. I've been in a deep funk the last few weeks and I'm trying to pull myself out.

OH! One last thing....Phillipa Gregory's latest book came out today The White Queen!

OMG, I can hardly wait to get it!!