Lunch at The Boathouse-- July 10, 2010

Corinne Maheu Houghton, Carolyn Daghlian Stec, Christie Beck, and Michelle Boxell


Corinne, Carolyn, and Christie


Lynn Sanders Banks, Corinne Maheu Houghton, Jeff Franks, Sally Olinger, and Carolyn Daghlian Stec

Michelle Boxell, Maureen McElroy Goodman, and Shari Bibler Skaggs

*On Saturday of reunion week-end, close friends gathered at The Boathouse for lunch. Interestingly, many of us used to spend our Fridays and Saturdays on this very location some 30 years ago-- when the building hosted a roller skating rink instead of a nice lakefront restaurant. We had a great time with visiting over lunch. For some of us, five years have passed since we were able to be together. In other cases, 11 years; in still other situations, we had not seen each other for 30 years. Yet, in spite of those years (and marriages, deaths, children, careers, etc.), our bonds stood the test of time, and we laughed and chatted just the same as we did in the summer of 1980, right after graduation.

WCHS Pre-Reunion Party-- July 9, 2010

Maureen McElroy Goodman, Carolyn Daghlian Stec, Corinne Maheu Houghton, Lynn Sanders Banks, Michelle Boxell, Lisa Snider Floyd, and Christie Beck


Lynn Sanders Banks, Shari Bibler Skaggs, Corinne Maheu Houghton, Michelle Boxell, Christie Beck, Lisa Snider Floyd


Michelle Boxell, Corinne Maheu Houghton, Christie Beck, Lisa Snider Floyd, and Lynn Sanders Banks

*We gathered in Warsaw for our 30th high school class reunion, and we kicked off the week-end with a pre-reunion party at Greg Sasso's amazing lake-front house. Words really can't do justice to his incredible estate, and we were all very grateful for his hospitality and generosity. His home provided a tremendous backdrop for reconnecting with classmates, sharing funny stories from yesteryear, and celebrating now life-long friendships.

Skit team is State-bound!! July 8, 2010

After a VERY long day of driving and competing, I'm safely home with Chelsea and her friends on the 4-H skit team. They were selected to represent District Two at the Ohio State Fair on July 28. During the long drive to Wooster and back, they slept (LUCKY!!) and read their AP summer reading (okay, maybe not so lucky!). Tomorrow, Chelsea and I are off to Indiana for my 30 year class reunion (yikes!) while Roger stays home with the little girls. Although my friends and family would love to see them too, it's just too much driving for a short trip, AND we need to haul back some large items from Robbie's house. Chelsea and I are just going to be road trip buddies for a few more days :)

Quick Update-- July 4, 2010

Hi Everyone--

The summer continues to fly by!! Over the past 10 days, Emmy has been to art camp at the Dairy Barn, a local arts facility, and Chelsea has been to tennis camp at the College of Wooster. We're in the middle of re-doing our flooring on the main level of our house, requiring quite a bit of shuffling furniture and chaos, and Roger and I are both teaching online. When they're in the house, Emmy is working on her 4-H projects (food, dog, and photography), and Chelsea is busy with her AP summer reading.

Ellie-Kate continues to grow-- physically and socially. I'm amazed by how much that she understands and by her overall awareness of where she is in relation to her surroundings. When she turns 16, she's certainly not going to have trouble with getting around Athens! She absolutely LOVES to go outside. In fact, often, the first words out of her mouth in the morning are "go outside?" She really likes to play ball (either t-ball or basketball) or drive her little purple car. She even stops to fill it up with gas, well, actually, grass. (She pretends that grass is the fuel of choice for her little car.) When we say that it's time to come inside, she implores us to let her "try again."

Overall, life is going really well for us... We're all still adjusting to not having Britti here at home, and we're eager to visit her in October. Personally, I really miss her sunny face AND her great shoulder massages and help with pictures. Moreover, though, I know that the little girls yearn to see her around her. Skype helps, but it's not the same. Still, it truly helps to know that Britti's having a blast at Disney and that she's setting a great foundation for a potential future with the company.

I hope that summer is going well for all of our blog readers!! We have another hectic week of travel ahead of us (district skit at Wooster, my reunion in IN, and then tennis camp at Wooster) in addition to three evenings of chaos as the men come to lay the rest of our new flooring. Please pray for safe travel as we head off on all of these adventures :)

More soon!!

Christie

Happy Fourth of July!! July 4, 2010

After an awesome church service this morning, we ate a quick lunch and then went to the Fourth of July parade in Athens. We sat near the fairgrounds, and we really enjoyed watching the various entries. It's so cool to live in a small town!! We knew the grand marshall as well as lots of the people in the parade. We could have lived without the sirens from all of the fire trucks and emergency vehicles, but, overall, it was a very relaxing and entertaining way to begin the afternoon.

Ellie-Kate was a bit confused though... After being a bit scared by Chuckie Cheese, we decided that it might be a good idea to show her the video of our family when Emmy was 3 in Disney World. Emmy was terrific about seeing the characters-- not scared at all. Anyway, Emmy quickly dubbed the video "The Show about Us." Ellie-Kate has re-named it as "The Baby Emmy Show." We watch it over and over and over and... Well, the video also has clips from the various parades at Disney World, and Ellie-Kate thought that all parades have Disney characters. Although disappointed, she still liked the Athens parade, and she said "try again?" as soon as we told her that it was over. (Whenever she wants to repeat something, she says "try again?")

After the parade, Roger took the girls swimming while Christie went for a walk. Later, we had a fun cook-out, complete with hotdogs and s'mores. Overall, it was a great holiday!!

July 3, 2010: Hocking Hills day trip :)

July 3, 2010: Hocking Hills trip