There's a time for joy....a time for tears...a time we'll treasure through all the years.

Betty, Emma and I left early Friday morning for Endicott and Janna's Graduation party. The party was held in Warren Center, PA, at Grandma Abel's pond. Even though it's a different state, the pond is only about 20 minutes from Joe and Rindy's home. It was a wonderful party, nice weather and a great turnout!
It was a great opportunity to catch up with so much of the family that we don't get to see often.
Our niece Kate entertained us with her hula hoop dance (she's great). I know Emma is going to be mastering this after watching Katie!!

And niece Alice....she's the redhead who like it or not, takes after her Aunt Kitty.....well, maybe not the boobs, but pretty much every other trait!

This was a picture bus I bought for Janna when she was in Kindergarten....she did a great job of keeping it up each school year. It's a great keepsake and I love making the comparisons from year to year!

The awesome cake from Wegmans. I love the OFA Indian!!

Salt came over to go to dinner on Saturday evening and we stayed over in the motor home. Salt got down to the dock and found RIGHT IN FRONT of our boat, these three burned out boats. I thought it was probably a spark from some of the fireworks that were set off the night before, but supposedly a guy turned on his lights and their was a screw through one of the wires?????? I like my version better!

I keep thinking it's not "goodbye"....Keep on thinking it's time to fly.

It's graduation week.....This is my niece Chelsea (my youngest brother, Steve's youngest). They live just outside Albany, NY. I may be a little prejudiced, but I think it's fair to say we have beautiful girls in our family!!!
Here is Janna (Joe's 4th child) who graduated from OFA this weekend. We will be heading to Owego next Friday to attend Janna's graduation party. She was very wise and decided to schedule her party a week later, rather than have to compete with all her friends parties! Notice the gold (honors) cords...

Here she is with her parents Rindy and Joe. Wow Joe, your're looking good. He has been running 3-4 miles every morning and eating healthier!! Rindy, you always look great. Congratulations to all of you!!
And Thursday was our little Emma's 5th grade graduation. It doesn't seem possible she can be going into middle school....

Receiving her diploma from Mrs. Connerton....

Isn't she beautiful!!!!

The family....we always miss Mike at times like this. We will be heading out to see him in November!!

My little cutie Janna having fun at Strawberry Festival....

My cousins Daryl (below) and Shane were up for the annual fishing trip. Shane's son AJ was also with them but I have not received pictures of either Shane or AJ yet!!! These guys know how to fish!! Salt joined them for a fish dinner. I missed it this year since I am still in town.

I had Emma for 3 days this week, as she had half days and Betty was working full days. We had one of our "Grandma/Emma" days in Watertown. We started at one of her favorite restaurants...Ruby Tuesdays.

And she insisted she needed another pedicure before graduation. Zebra nails... :-)

The world it moves too fast....I miss my simple past...

I spent the morning at my brother (George) and sister-in-law's (Cheryl) this morning. It is always fun to visit with George, as he always has some new project going. He has the most awesome garden which he enlarges each year. He does all his gardening in raised beds and has amazing vegetables.
As soon as I started taking a picture of George, Niko stepped right into the picture.

Some of the early veggies they shared with us.

We're just mothers and we're just fathers of teenage daughters....

I was singing this very appropriate song to my daughter the other day and chuckling to myself, thinking...."your turn". Emma is at the lovely age when she is starting to know more than her mother and gives her the famous "eye roll". Yi Yi Yi deja vu!!

We attended her gymnastics recital on Saturday....she loves this sport and did a great job. Betty and I will be delivering her to Dunkley's Gymnastic camp the first week in July, where she will
stay for 2 weeks.
She loved the flowers from "Pop".

It was pretty difficult to get too many action shots as they move so quickly....Betty took a video.

After the recital, we girls took "Pop" out for Fathers Day at the Red Lobster. Emma was trying to talk him into Ruby Tuesday but gave in after I promised to take her to Ruby's next week when I have her for 3 days. She was however, very pleased when she was able to order popcorn shrimp at the Lobster.

If you don't know where you're going...you might end up somewhere else..

I guess over the years I knew that I was much too dependent on technology....for instance when I couldn't call anyone when I lost my cell phone because all my numbers were programmed. Yesterday I found out I am way too dependant on my GPS. My sister-in-law gave me directions to my nieces shower (which was only about 5 miles from where I was staying). The address wasn't in the GPS and of course I had not listened to her directions, since I thought I could GPS it. Yep....you got it; had to call her twice to get there. At least she said "right" and "left" and not North and South, cuz that REALLY confuses me.

Once I got there, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many old friends and meeting many of Emily's new ones. Em looked wonderful (happy) and the setting on the river at the home of of Sarah Youngs was perfect for a party.

The lunch was great. The food was not only delicious, it was also very healthy.

Was great catching up with Catie Bogenshutz (right) she is such a beautiful young lady. I haven't seen her in years other than pictures.

Niki (Bedour) and Jill Schultz...

Emily opening her many beautiful gifts....

And "mom" displaying them for her.....

Oh yeah....I was there too. Time for a hair color and a new bra....LOL

Emma's dad bought her own little 4-wheeler. She is a VERY happy girl. Grandma is getting used to the idea that she is growing up and responsible enough to handle one (I hope!).

I am still in town for the rest of this week or until Salt gets the satellite hooked up on the island. I am too into the trial to be without a TV.

Rollin..rollin..rollin on the river

No blogging the last week....that's because everyone can tune in to any of the news channels and follow my life...i.e., following the Casey Anthony trial. In fact, the last day Caylee was seen was at the nursing home in Mt Dora which is only 6 miles from us.

I did take a day off and had a "Girls Weekend" with Emma. We ended it today with a 3 hour tour (Eco tour) on the river.....(it was only 3 hours???? It seemed like 3 days). After living in a retirement community, this many little girls on a cold day on an enclosed boat is a bit different. They were actually all well behaved and we all enjoyed the tour.

Here they are getting ready to board the boat....

Our captain and tour guide.....

My daughter Betty, and "Minnie Me"..... (Emma looks so much like her mom!)

We made a stop a Picnic Point on Grindstone Island. We had hoped to walk the trails but since they were flooded out, it was a very short hike.

Here are the girls at the Sissy Danforth memorial.

The "short" hike....

One of the many Osprey nests on the river.

The baby ducks were waiting at the dock looking for any snacks the girls might have.

I love when I have one-on-one as I get to do "special" things with her. Yesterday I took her for her first pedicure......

The finished results. They couldn't do much with the mosquito bites.

Of course we had to make a stop at Justice, her now favorite clothing store. Pop was on the island, but Em and I stayed in the campgrounds for the weekend. Way too much going on this weekend to run back and forth (in the cold...June 5...what's up with that?).

I'll close with a updated picture of Mike (right) with some of his friends from Oregon. He is loving the west coast. I can't wait to visit....I also love Oregon! I don't want to live there though, it still gets way too cold there.