Only 3 days till we head out on VACATION!

The crunch is on now, only 3 days to get the laundry done, pack and get the kids ready to head to Iowa and us to head out on our cruise....Whew, it seemed like I had so much time and now I'm wondering how it snuck up on me so fast? Oh well, I've done it before, I can do it again...

How about an update from this week?

We didn't hear from Leah till Thursday afternoon, but she did really well on her first time away to Girl Scout camp. She arrived home at 6:15 on Friday evening and all of the Girl Scout troop met her and Madelyn so we could go directly to the Girl Scout/Phoenix Mercury Lock In. Both girls were dirty and tired, but we forged ahead....and we were not disappointed! The event was exciting (the Mercury won in OT) and fun (lots of events planned for the girls) Here are some pics to show you some of the action...

The girls were really excited when they got to see themselves on the "Jumbotron" Leah said it was a night of firsts...her first time going to a pro basketball game and her first time on TV! I think the cameraman zeroed in on them as they were all waving their "Rally flags" and screaming at the top of their lungs!

After the game, the Hip Hop squad performed, they had a Q & A session with one of the players, there was Pizza for everyone, they rotated to some really great sessions including games on the Suns and Mercury practice court, an hour in "The Jungle" a really cool game and climbing arcade and finally sleeping in some of the suites overlooking the court. It was a long night (ended at about 4am) but very fun.

When we got home, Bryan let me catch about 4 hours of sleep and Leah layed down for a quick "nap" and woke up 8 hours later to take a long shower to get the weeks worth of dirt off of her and finally sit down and just relax.

I hope to update you all before we leave for Tulsa on Wednesday....but if not, I plan on updating the blog while on vacation since we upload our pics along the way...Till then,

WALK ON,

WALK STRONG,

Terrie

Whew....What a Weekend!

Well, we made it through recital week and everything actually went really well!

Remember I told you I was nervous about Leah getting ready for dress rehearsal by herself? Well this is how her hair and makeup turned out (without my help!) I think she did a great job!

We attended the performance on Thursday night and we only got a few pictures that turned out.

Here is one where amazingly enough, she is right in the middle of the frame and totally in focus! I thought that was kind of cool that it turned out like that...

After the performance, Ian presented his sis with a dozen roses.....I made Bryan capture the moment!

Since we didn't get real good shots at the performance, I took a few at her last perfomance last night. I was the "dressing room mom," so these are candids, but fun none the less and at least you can see her up close!

She made some really good friends this year at dance...

Here she is with two of them!

Ok, as soon as we got home, we headed to bed as we had to have Leah down in Central Phoenix to catch the bus to Girl Scout Camp at Shadow Rim Ranch. She is attending the "Hike and Bike" session with her friend from school Madelyn. She put on a good front, but I think she was a little nervous? I'm sure she will have a great time and not miss us at all, but I must admit it is just not the same without her here tonight : (

Here are some shots from the drop off....

And not to forget what a special day it is, here is a picture of Bryan wearing one of his gifts!

Actually he is wearing two, one (the shirt) that Leah made and gave to him when she was two (he wears it every year on Father's Day) and the second is the paper tie that Ian made for him in school before they got out. I think it makes him look rather sophisticated....don't you?

Hope your weekend was restful!

WALK ON,

WALK STRONG,

Terrie

Recital Week Starts at the Dodd Household!

Well, it is that time of year again, and recital week kicked off with a bang today at 1:00 with our tech rehearsal for the Green cast....

I will include pictures as the week goes on, but tonight we are all packed for dress rehearsal tomorrow (which I cannot attend as I have to work) Bryan will take Leah and sell concessions in the lobby during the dress rehearsal. Leah's hair is in curlers tonight and she will do her make-up (by herself) for the first time tomorrow. I gave her a few pointers like "less is more" and "use the eye-liner pencil instead of the liquid to avoid unfixable mistakes." I hope she listens... I will have Bryan take some pictures if he remembers.

Gotta go now, but will plan on checking in tomorrow..

Terrie

Busy Saturday!

Hi again, we had a very busy day today....

I went to the dance studio and did my first volunteer stint for recital week, selling tickets. Most everybody must already have theirs as business wasn't too brisk.

We have wanted to get rid of our lone Queen palm in our front yard for a long time and we decided today was the day.....

Here's a pic of Ian by our palm that was only about 6 foot tall when we moved in November of 1995...

We headed out to Moon Valley Nursery and came home with a Chilean Mesquite tree. We wanted some shade and decided with this quick growing tree we would save a lot of money to buy a small tree and then watch it grow the 6-8 feet a year instead of pay $350 to have a bigger tree planted right away.

OK, so we have a new tree...we need to get rid of the palm. Bryan digs around the root ball to loosen it up and then we call Bryan's Uncle Larry to bring over his truck and we proceed to very easily pull out the 15 foot tree.

Here is a pic of the kids by our newly planted Mesquite! We figured if we put them in the picture, we could watch the tree grow along with the kids!

Training for the three day is moving along well. I haven't been real good about getting my walks in early as I'm really enjoying sleeping in for now, but with the cruise coming up, I'm hoping some of our ports will allow Bryan and I time to get out and geocache which should offer some good mileage. I hope to post from my Mom and Dad's after the cruise so you can all see what we got to do on vacation.

Well, I'm tired and am off to bed now,

Walk On,

Walk Strong...

Terrie

I'm Baaaacccckkkk!

Hi again!

Well our Girl Scout trip to Disneyland is in the books and we all made it back safe and sound and tired.

Here are some quick photo's to show you what a good time we had........

Here are the girls right before going to the "It's A Bug's Life" show...

Here is Madison with one of the local's from "Pirate's Lair" formerly know as Tom Sawyer's Island.

And last but not least, one of the most famous residents of Disneyland poses with Leah!

I'm trying to get back on track now that the kids are out of school... Ian had a tooth filled this morning under anesthesia and then we had to run to the Girl Scout store to get the badges the girls earned this year plus some fun patches to remember all of our activities.

I also wanted to include a picture of the awesome rosaries our women's group at St. Gabriels makes for the newly baptized babies. I have been part of this ministry for several years and really think these rosaries are special!

My 3-Day training went extremely well while I was at Disney...probably about 5 miles trekked each day for 3 days!

Well that's all for tonight...The Mayo School of Health Sciences will have a ceremony to award certificates tomorrow, so I will probably have some pics from that. Till then......

Walk on,

Walk strong,

Terrie