Funny Leonie Photos

The refreshing cucumber mask.
Sorry you didn't get to use yours too, Daniel....

With Renee at Horton Plaza in San Diego :)
At the Rongbranch Restaurant in Julian. Something must have been in that Apple Cider.

Caught by the cops at the DC Fair!

Road Trip

This morning, Diana, Amanda & Mary left for Portland together. Yes, I'm praying a lot for their safety!

They dropped off Diana at her friend Kimberly's apartment. Kimberly & Diana will spend Saturday, Sunday and a lot of Monday at the Anime Convention in Portland. For all the people that thought Diana might give up her Manga/Anime stuff - it ain't happenin'!

Amanda & Mary are hanging out with Mary's boyfriend & his buds, I guess, until they all come home again on Monday.

I am sure they will all have a blast, and all I can do is pray for their safe return! Eek! Mom of an 18-year old girl!!!

I didn't worry about Trevor as much at OIT. Maybe because I knew he spent most of his time in front of the computer or in the dorms?

Big Upset

Of the eight diving competitions, the Chinese won seven.

Matthew Mitcham kept his cool and did a fantastic dive to get the Gold Medal in the 10 meter platform when the leading Chinese divers both inexplicably developed nerves and did their worst dives of the competition. Amazing.

Matthew thought he'd won the Silver when he saw his name above the other Chinese diver who had gone before him (who had been in 1st place throughout the competition - and then flubbed the final dive). Then the next Chinese diver did so poorly, he fell to fourth place and Matthew had the Gold!

This was a pretty cool Olympic moment :) I'm glad Lee was watching with me when I saw this one :)

Diana turns 18

Becky, Amanda & Mary.
Corrine (Curry Sauce), Ruby (Ichigo), Haley (Penguin), and Cherinee.
Diana had these guys over to watch a movie (Stranger than Fiction), eat spaghetti, oogle Olympic men's platform divers (touch your butt!), eat delicious yumminess (pound cake, fresh blackberries & cream cheese/whipped cream concoction), and play Apples to Apples.

Becky wins for most 'adult' gift with the black velvet, white ostrich feather-trimmed thong underwear. Diana modeled it over her clothes with her accompanying Groucho Marx eyewear (and nose wear?).

Diana's full episode available online now

Yesterday Diana's full MADE episode was posted on the MTV website.

I doubt you can watch it if you are outside the US at this point, but it may be uploaded to an unrestricted server soon, and if/when we find that, I can post a link :)

My poor mom & sister in Canada still haven't seen it!! Or Crystal, or relatives in Germany...

I'm adding the link on the right, and here it is as well:

Diana MADE on MTV - Full Episode

Aaaaaaggghhh! Olympics on Tivo!!

I have 40 hours of Tivo'd Olympics I have to watch!!! I've gotten through about 25 so far, but I had to stop at fencing until Diana gets home so she can watch with me.

Of course, Olympics bumped anything else we watch, so it didn't record the "Burn Notice" with Michael Shanks (aka Daniel Jackson on SG1). Poop. I'll have to watch it online now.

I am using the Olympics to recover from the 16-hour drive (all driven by me) yesterday. Yes, Lee offered to drive, but I wouldn't have slept while he was driving anyway, and he doesn't mind me driving.

I have enough of a break to read blogs, sort laundry, post on geocaching and do this. We still have to upload the photos from Diana's camera, and then we can post with those :)

Thanks again to Steve & Anna Marie & everyone who came out to the reunion. It was awesome and we had a great time.

But we might take the train down next time. Or maybe do it closer to us? Meet in Yosemite & take over the campground? I dunno. We'll come up with something, huh?

I am So There!

Foods that Lower Your Cholesterol

These are among my favorite things to eat and drink! Whee!

I found this while reading about tofu not being so great for your brain after age 65. Tuna & Salmon are very good for your brain though.

My grandmother had Alzheimer's, and I try to follow current recommendations as much as possible.

My mostly vegetarian diet supports the research pretty well. Again, I'm not vegetarian because I'm trying to 'save' any animals. I still wear leather & used to sell sheepSKIN seatcovers (and no, the sheep don't survive the process). Granted, that was before I started my current lifestyle diet, but I don't feel guilty about the slaughtered sheep anymore than I do for cows in the McDonald's burgers I used to eat.

My food choices are mainly for my family's and my own health. A nice benefit is that it's a lot easier on the planet to support a veggie vs. meat-based diet. Fish provide me with certain nutritional benefits which I prefer to get straight from the fish vs. vitamin capsule form.

Lee would probably go along with the fish thing if he didn't absolutely abhor anything remotely related to seafood. I think he OD'd on Mrs. Paul's Fish Sticks way back when.

Oh - the new edition of Popular Science shows a big agricultural tower for growing plants & fish. It's like a terrarium with fish supporting the plants, and vice-versa. I could live there...

Blueberries!

Leonie really loves our Oregon blueberries. She likes them frozen in a bowl or on waffles or pancakes. Mostly frozen though.

I had forgotten how much she liked them, and she reminded me once she got here.


The blueberry season is lasting a little longer this year, so Leonie & Diana came with me yesterday to help me stock up for the rest of the year.

These two bowls only filled 3 quart Ziploc bags, so I'll be going out tomorrow morning as well.

Leonie also enjoys Froot Loops and Raisinets. But I think the blueberries are her favorite :)

Connor's Best Day Ever

7:30: Wake up and get dressed. Wake up Mom & Dad by climbing in bed with them.
8:00: Eat pancakes for breakfast with butter & syrup on each one (cut into bite-sized chunks).
9:00: Play x-box
10:15 Go to the Fair with Dad.
11:00: Dad gets an wristband, and within 15 minutes it's paid for by riding the big slide over and over and over and over (etc.).
11:35: Do the funhouse, rope climb fun zone, bumper cars, and go to the slide in between everything else.
1:15: Mom picks up Dad & Connor at the fairgrounds, drive to Uncle Kraig & Aunt Nancy's house.

3:00-5:00 Swim in the pool - play tag with Uncle Kraig, Shane, Benjamin, Joshie & (mostly) Uncle Doug.

5:00 Eat a hot dog. Go back in the pool.

6:00-8:00 Ride horses with Diana, Leonie, Trevor, Daniel, Mom & Dad.

Thank you Aunt Nancy & Uncle Kraig!!

Four Teens

From Monday to Saturday, we had 4 teens living at our house.


Leonie is staying with Diana in her room, but Trevor & Connor are already maxing out the 'boy's room' so Daniel pitched a tent out in the backyard. The weather has been very nice, and until a little drizzle Saturday morning, had been nice & dry.

He said he liked sleeping out there...

They did typical teen things:



Go to the movies, go bowling, bike ride to the park (after picking up lunch at Subway), play video games, and go to the fair.



My two aren't actually that active when left to themselves. They both have this addiction with the computer, and it was very nice to see them out & about doing things away from their little glowing screens.



However, they both need to learn to be better hosts when they have company. They are so used to avoid each other, they forget to include someone when they are doing something that might be fun. Leonie mentioned Daniel was a very nice boy. He would offer her food when he made something for himself, and would ask her to join him watching TV or whatever.



Of course, I was raised feeling like a tour guide for Southern California - we always had some german relatives or friends staying with us over the summer. I would generally get to keep my room because we had a guest room available, but there were times when we'd kind of overlap people and I'd be with my sister, in the living room or even at a neighbor's house until my bed became available again.



Then again, both Leonie & Daniel were able to relax & read (Leonie is going through Diana's manga collection), and hopefully it's all a good blend of fun - not too busy, not too boring.


On the parent end of things, we've kind of shifted our time schedule two hours later. Wake up at 9:00 and go to bed closer to 1:00, vs. wake up at 7:30 and go to bed at 11:00 (at least for me). We wanted the kids to be able to enjoy themselves out a bit, so we let them come home later than typical - and of course once they came home, we had to hear what happened, etc.



That's fine. We have some summer left to enjoy before the school routine starts up again...


Up above, Dan's site looks kind of picturesque. In actuality, our yard is a little less pretty, huh?

Doobie Brothers at the Fair

My friend, Rose, and I went to the fair tonight to see the Doobie Brothers.

It was a pretty dang fun show. I recognized a lot of songs from my teen years (Oh black water, keep on rolling, Mississippi moon won't you keep on shining on me -- which they changed to "Oregon moon" and that got a lot of applause).






















Anyway, at the concert, Rose told me that two of the guys on stage were from the original band. When I got home tonight & looked up Doobie Brothers on Wikipedia, I found this band has added & subtracted members almost every single year since they got started! They began as a 4-guy band, and at one point had eleven guys in the band!

Tonight they played mostly the pre-Michael McDonald stuff. "Black Water" "Jesus is Just Alright" "China Grove" "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" and "Listen to the Music." So we didn't hear "What a Fool Believes, It Keeps You Running, Minute By Minute, Real Love or You Belong To Me" since those were all Michael McDonald songs (he went on to do a solo career with songs like "I Keep Forgetting" and "Yah Mo B There)."

The amazing part is they sounded just like their records! I guess they just get people that can make that specific sound of the Doobie Brothers when they hire them in, or else is mostly those two original guys? I don't know. They are the two on the far left in the lower photo, by the way.

Really lots of energy and lots of fun from guys making hits from the early 70's!

Still kind of famous

Last night when the kids went to the bowling alley (there's only one in town), Diana went to go get some french fries. There were three guys at the counter, and they recognized her from the show.

Boys: "No way! OMG! No way! It's you!!!"
Diana: "Um... Hi."
Boys: "We're only in town for a week, we were joking about finding you! Can we take your picture?"
Diana: "Oooo Kay..."
Boys: "Cool!"

Then she got her fries & left. She would have maybe chatted with them a bit, but the bowling was timed and she was trying to get back before it was her turn again.

You know, it's not like she's wearing the cat hat around town... Think of the reaction if she did!

Enjoying the Summer

I have four teens in my house (plus Lee, me & Connor)!

Leonie is staying in Diana's room, just like when she was doing the exchange with us. Trevor & Connor share their room, so Daniel pitched his tent in the backyard, and that's where he'll be staying (he could take the couch in the living room if he wanted it...).

Leonie has been reading Diana's Manga every spare moment she has, and she still doesn't think she'll get through them all. Trevor is now done with the English class he took at UCC and is still looking to find some work. I'll keep you posted on that. Diana is still doing her job downtown, and her mornings are hanging out with Leonie, or at her computer. Daniel just arrived this afternoon, and settled in with everyone very well.

I expect the foursome will have quite a bit of fun over the next few days. They went bowling tonight, it's fair week (gotta go at least twice), and there's a bunch of movies out that are good for teens. Daniel also brought his bike (and a hard hat?!?) and if it's not too warm, they can do a ride and a picnic or something. Maybe we can do a little more geocaching.

I'll see if I can get a photo of the four all together soon. Maybe after I cut Trevor's hair...

Pretty Nice Campus

This is a university with a lot of history - since 1876, it's the second oldest university in our state.
I took photos of the places Diana will probably be most often - the Library, the Business building, and Panda Express...

Here's a nice wikipedia article with a lot of good info: U of O - Go DUCKS! (Oh yeah - that's how all the presenters at our IntroDUCKtion ended their speeches).

Diana will be able to sign up for free football & basketball tickets as well. The bus system is free to all students for the entire county - which means she can go from the mountains to the coast. Pretty cool.


There's also a Subway on campus, and a bunch of little coffee shops. The bookstore has all the art supplies she can eat - I think she'll be there a lot too.


Finally, Diana was recognized by about 12 people from the MTV show. It was kind of funny... they'd say, "This might sound stupid, but were you on MADE?"

Eventually, if someone said, "Excuse me..." Diana would just say, "Yes, I was on MADE." Then they'd get all excited, take photos of her with their cellphones, chat with her a bit about it (especially whether or not she & Trae were still in touch), and stuff like that. My favorite were the parents that got all excited - ha.

So Diverse!!!

This University prides itself on being incredibly diverse. They have demonstrations for everything and your mom. They have people studying there from 90-some countries, and students can study abroad in 165.

They really take it to extremes though. I never really considered whether I'm a black or white toilet seat type. But dang it, at U of O, you have that choice!!!

Big Dorms

I think the beds can actually be stacked to make bunk beds, which would give the room even more space - but they weren't set up that way for us. People will also get risers to hike up the beds for more storage under them.

We stayed in the new dorms for our visit - everything was pretty decent. The floor is just cement, and there's no sink in the room, so Diana's quad is already a step up, and she won't be sharing her actual bedroom - just the kitchen/bathroom.


There are nice big wardrobes in here, altho not a full closet. You'd want to use Rubbermaid bins & stuff to hold the rest of your stuff.

This room looked out toward a nice lawn, and the opposite building has a coffee shop/snack bar. The other end of our building was facing Hayward Field, where a lot of Track & Field events take place. I'd expect it to be pretty loud during those times...

The dorms themselves were loud. All the sound from below (chatting, laughing, whooping) came right up into our room. Hallway noises, from people on cell phones to just doors opening & closing were also very loud. Obviously once people move in & the space isn't so open, it won't be as bad - but for this trip I had to use earplugs to be able to sleep.

The bathrooms were pretty nice, but they ran out of toilet paper during our visit. The building is only accessed by an electronic key, the same for the elevator & doors up to the rooms. It seemed pretty secure, unless you prop a door open to let your friends in later...

This room, by the way, is the "deluxe double." Apparently it's quite a bit bigger (and more expensive) than the typical double.

IntroDUCKtion

The girl & I will be heading up to Eugene tonight. We have two full days of registration, orientation, "interest sessions" and who knows what else. I've been through this before with Trevor, but I gotta say, it will be a lot less stressful this time - mainly due to the fact that Diana has her way almost completely paid! Also, I know what to expect this time :)

We hope to get a chance to see what her housing looks like, since it's not on campus, and see how far she'll actually have to walk to get around. I think she'll be very interested in the Study Abroad session :) I believe both Germany & Japan are offered as locations - wheee!

Anyhoo - I'll probably be able to check email, but that's about it. Be back again Friday evening.

:)

Mo' Money! Er... not really.

Diana had a scholarship interview last week. She wasn't sure what the scholarship was for, and never got around to asking before it was her turn for her interview (I had asked her to call).

When she finally realized 3/4ths through the interview that the scholarship was for two years at the community college (which would have been fantastic before she got the Ford Scholarship), she didn't want to tell the folks that she couldn't accept their scholarship - instead she opted to just finish off the interview and figure they probably wouldn't award it to her anyway. She didn't want to make them think they had wasted their time.

Well... she got the scholarship. She had gotten a call from the guy, but was at work at the time. She called back, but I don't think he got the message. He called us again, and Diana was at work again that time, so he just went ahead & told me she'd gotten it.

Then I had to ask if he was aware Diana had been accepted at U of O. And was there another applicant that could accept it since Diana had to respectfully decline? He said there was, and congratulated her and wished her luck.

*sigh* All this would have been avoided if she'd just asked in the beginning what the scholarship was for. I'm still proud she would have had her two years of community college paid, but I don't like having her have to turn down something like that. Oh well.

Welcome back, Leonie!

Diana was really surprised - when they showed up, she threw herself at Leonie & started to cry :) Good surprise!!

I am SO proud of myself! I kept a really big secret for FOUR months! I'm not very good at secrets, as I wind up being the one that accidentally spoils the surprise party by coming across the 'surprisee' on their way into the surprise (Sorry Lori F.).

In any case, Leonie emailed me back when and said she & her parents were planning to come out to visit us. Martina & Juergen are going to do a bit of sightseeing around Oregon, and Leonie will stay with us - until San Diego! W00t!!
On Saturday we did a little hike to Susan Creek Falls.
We have had some wonderful weather here lately - mid 80's and just lovely. Perfect for a nice hike.

We also surprised Amanda at her job at Abby's Pizza. That was fun.

Trevor spilled the beans to Mary, so we didn't get to see her reaction to the news.

The girls are planning to do some bowling & stuff together, which will be fun for all of them.

Leonie & Diana will also probably meet up with them for fun at the fair.

And anyone who is coming to San Diego will get to meet Leo before her flight on Saturday.

Whooo Hoooo!

Happy Birthday Lee!

He's 47 today. This was taken yesterday on our hike to Susan Creek Falls.

Today he is celebrating his birthday by doing things one-on-one with his kids.

Trevor is taking him to see Batman.

Connor will go on a bike ride to Burger King with him.

Diana will go roller skating with her dad (but it will have to wait until he picks up his skates from the shoe shop).

I made some triple-berry jam this morning, and then a fresh blueberry pie. He likes my pies.

We'll have dinner tonight with our guests from Germany.

Happy Birthday Lee!

Closing Ceremonies for Camp Shriver

Lee & I attended the closing ceremonies yesterday for Camp Shriver Special Olympics. Connor got a towel, a snack, and a ticket to to the local baseball team's game on Saturday.

The ceremonies were a little on the long side for him - a lot of thanking everyone, which is obviously necessary, but doesn't mean anything to him.

They had him pass a basketball back & forth with another teammate to demonstrate what he'd learned, but he was already on the upper edge of anxiousness by then, so he started off kind of teary. Once he saw Lee & I in the audience, he brightened up saying, "Hi Mom! Hi Dad!" We're all "Great job, Connor - keep moving!" lol Other folks were saying, "Go Connor! Good job!" I don't know who they were, but it tends to be the same folks associated with special needs kids when you participate with stuff like this.

I think he had a great time with the experience, and we'll certainly sign him up to do it again next year!

New Roses

While Carolyn & family were visiting, we took a tour of Harry & David. They also own Jackson & Perkins, which sells mail order roses among other things.

I went around stopping to smell the roses, and at the end of the tour, I thought it would make a nice addition to my garden.

Hopefully I won't kill them too quickly. I did look up how to plant them and did my best to give them the best environment to survive.

These are called "Memorial Day," which I thought was actually a little nod to my dad. He passed away on Canada's Memorial Day weekend, and we went to his memorial on the US Memorial Day weekend. How like my dad to make things as convenient as possible for others & giving us an extra day off of work to have more travel time.

The small plant in the middle is a lavender bush (someday) and the bigger plant on the right is my lilac bush.


This is our dopey dog, Liberty, who loves me to death. Because I feed her.

She's a good dog, but the bone meal I put in the planter to help the roses was very interesting to her. I put some on an old bone from the neighbors so she'd leave the roses alone :)

Oh My

Diana has spent all afternoon answering Fan Mail from the show.

She's had over 10,000 hits on her Life After MADE videos. People watching noticed that she was on Deviant Art on the show when she's showing her video, so they went hunting for her, and so she just put her website URL on the MADE comments so she wouldn't have to be googled :) There are a few comments here on my blog already for her ;)

The Anime/Manga community is very excited to see one of their own - and these guys honestly have a real sense of community that spans all boundaries. I got a little taste of that with Riki on the flight home from the San Diego trip. They are saying they were just flipping channels & saw the cat ears & had to watch. Wow.

Lots and lots of positive, nice comments. There are the occasional 'trolls' who are just looking to make trouble (saying they knew her, and she had a boyfriend, etc. Or that it was all scripted). None of that is true, of course. I was worried things might be edited to look different than how they actually happened, but nope - it all goes like things actually went.

It's extremely weird to have her be this popular (online, anyway - she's still sitting at the computer at home). If she had a facebook or myspace, she'd be inundated with friend requests. Our rule on that is that she has to wait until she's 18. However, she's very very excited to have so many people watching her on Deviant Art. That means every time she posts something, they'll get an email to come & take a look :)

We thought it was over now!!! It looks like this is another stage in the whole thing - gak!

Life after MADE

Whew! The episode aired, and we're really happy with it.

I was a little worried that some people wouldn't like how things were edited, but it came off really well. The comments from people watching the show on the link below are very cool as well. I noticed Mary already posted in there too :)

Life after MADE

The whole episode will be available to view later. I'm putting this link over on the right as well with my other links :)

She's been blogged!

(by someone other than her parents!)

Some kid's blog

I'm not sure how he (she?) found out sooner than we did, but on July 10, this kid found out Diana was going to be MADE and posted on his livejournal.

Ha.

Diana posted a response.

Too funny.

This is it tho - enjoy your "fame" honey :)

Diana's article in the paper

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RHS student "Made" by MTV

Funny thing - the only other people interviewed for this piece are the teacher that gave Diana the worst experience out of the whole thing, and a student that says he "confronted" but he actually assaulted Jen, the camera gal. Both of these people had to have conversations with the principal at the high school for their poor behavior.

Weird how they are the people the News Review found to talk to?

Diana still comes out looking like she had a great time & it was a good thing - which it was :)

Camp Shriver

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I really like living in a smaller town!

Our daughter gets to benefit from a fantastic scholarship program only available to students coming from cities of 30,000 or less people. The sense of community is very strong here. You meet people you know every time you go shopping. And you only sit in traffic when it's Graffiti night, or the train is taking too long (they are working on a fix for that..)

Another way cool thing is we tend to get opportunities like Camp Shriver. Roseburg was one of the six original sites to host a Special Olympics camp for kids with developmental disabilities three years ago. It started with a $10,000 donation from the Kennedy Foundation (JFK's sister Eunice Shriver started Special Olympics in her backyard long ago). It continues through community support along with the Kennedy Foundation funding. It's at our YMCA, and Connor is LOVING it.

This is his first year (which is fine - he tends to wander, and he's old enough now to better stick with the group). I don't know how long he will continue to be able to attend -- but we'll have him go as long as he can. As you can see by the photo below, he's pretty athletic. He loves the outdoors, and anything he can do that involves running, jumping, climbing, or swimming, that's what he wants to do.

The first day at the camp was really last Friday, when Lee took him to get assessed for the various sports. He had to have a simple health exam done (thanks Sue!!) and they checked his vision and hearing as well - hearing is great, but he'll probably need glasses soon & join the rest of the family :/

Lately he's been growing out of shoes pretty fast. I had just gotten him some Vans-type shoes at the end of the school year, and those were already too small a month later. We'd been having him wear the rubber clogs, because they're loose and comfortable. But those aren't the best thing for playing basketball & kickball. I'd been looking around town with him, but shoe shopping is not a favorite activity. Monday night we took him shopping again - determined to find something. Fred Meyer was having a clearance sale - I seriously have a problem with $50 shoes that my kid will outgrow in 3 months!! I think Connor tried on 6 or 7 sets and practised running in the store before we found this pair. Connor's seen commercials for Sketchers, and that's what we started with, but they didn't fit him right - these are Shaq's, but Connor calls them Sketchers Shaqs. Hey - it works for him :)

He loves his new shoes because they help him run & jump better :)

Newspaper Interview

Diana had a 20-minute interview on the phone this morning with our local paper on the "thing." Yay! That means I don't have to try to call everyone we know - w00t!

It will be either in Friday or Sunday's paper. There was a person from MTV on the line at the same time making sure nothing was said that would spoil the show (and affect the contract we'd signed with MTV to not disclose stuff to the media!).

If you're local & get the News-Review, could you save your copy for us? Thanks!!






Oh - this is on the front page of today's paper - I'll need extras of this one too please!!


Camp Shriver athlete Conner Kiester, 10, at left, runs to first base with his partner, Wryland McKnight, also 10, during a game of kickball during Tuesday's Camp Shriver activities at Stewart Park. The Roseburg boys teamed up together to compete.JON AUSTRIA/The News-Review
(Connor is actually on the right, but you knew that...)


:)

Visit with Carolyn, Part II

On Friday, we all met for breakfast at Casey's Diner. After that, Lee took Connor to the YMCA for sign-up stuff for Special Olympics (more on that later). I joined Carolyn & her family on a little trip down to Medford to tour the Harry & David's facility. They have a full tour and store there.

We called early to reserve a spot on the tour and when we arrived, we were a bit early. I'd gotten some other coordinates for another geocache, so I asked the kids if they wanted to try that. Poor little Cole had done long hikes for his first two caches, so he was not thrilled about doing another one until I told him this one was going to be right next to the car.

It would have been a very quick grab & dash, except while we had the cache in hand, a guy came back to his car parked right next to the location to eat his lunch on his break! We had to wait until he was done before we could re-hide the cache! We were pretty sure he was a Muggle, but it's also completely possible that he was the one who hid it in the first place - we'll never know!

Then it was off to the tour of Harry & David's. I don't shop there - the pears cost $5 each, and no matter how delectable they are, it's not gonna happen :P But there was a free treat on the tour, so I got to try a mint melt-away & some almond raspberry cookies which were very tasty.

They were packing the Moose Munch, and I did buy a tub container, because it was on sale by a good bit, and I'll probably never get a chance to try it that inexpensive again. Then they had some rose bush plants on sale outside, so I got a couple of those. I got to use the $5 off coupon from taking the tour, and I was happy about that too.

I think my favorite room was the one where they were enrobing the graham crackers with chocolate. YUM!!

After Harry & David's we drove back to Roseburg and wound up getting Subway & Mickey D's to have a picnic at the Holiday Inn. Then the kids all played in the pool while the adults chatted. We all headed over to our place then to have ice cream and then we had to say good-bye. Carl & Carolyn were going to check out Graffiti Night while we took Diana to her Scholarship weekend thing.

And thanks Donna for keeping an eye on the boys while we were gone!!! :)

Visit with Carolyn

Carolyn & her family came through on their way home from Canada. They arrived late Wednesday night. I worked Thursday morning, but we let Connor stay home with Lee so he could go and enjoy the pool with his cousins
In the afternoon, we went for a hike at Susan Creek Falls. There's a geocache along the way, and we got to do that as well.


Hey Mom! I got a geocache!

Connor loves playing in the water at the falls.

In the evening, we left the kids at the house, and the four adults went to Los Dos Amigos for a nice dinner.

June 20th, at 1:00 Pacific Time

After that, it will be available to see online.

We were thinking of doing a party of some kind here in town, but Diana is not sure she wants to be embarassed in front of everyone she knows... We're trying to see if she'll go for a family gathering in Medford or Shady Cove.

Right now, the website is not showing the title or her name on the episode, but they told us it would be on at 4:00 their time, so that's 1:00 our time.

Diana's premier date Calendar

Oh boy!

On a side note, we went to the Ford dinner weekend thing over last weekend, and Diana was supposed to dress nicely for the event. She had a few things, but nothing really new, so we thought we'd go shopping at the nearby mall, while everything was on sale. Diana still had about $50 on a giftcard she'd gotten from the "thing," so she was able to buy a dress, shoes, and some jewelry to wear - everything on sale -yay! Her coaches probably wouldn't have been really thrilled about the outfit, because it was mainly black with grey & white on it - but hey, there were a lot of girls in black! If we'd found red beads, we would have had her wear her red shoes, but we didn't so she got little black flats instead.

Not Sure Now

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This was the best image on "confusion" I could find...

We had heard from some folks involved in the production that the air date for Diana's episode would be July 12th.


When we look at the website, however, there's no mention of a new episode, and if you look up the schedule for July 12th, there's only one episode showing, and it's an older one...


This coming weekend is also the Welcome & Orientation for Ford Scholars in Eugene. We're still working on whether or not both Lee & I can go, or if one of us needs to stay home to keep Connor from melting down. Trevor would be here - it's just that he tends to be the trigger to Connor's meltdowns. If anyone else is around, it reduces the boys' interactions with each other.

Yes, we're still working with Trevor to help him understand Connor, but he's not quite there yet.

So... we're going to keep the Tivo going, and maybe it WILL be Diana's episode, and it's just listed incorrectly. Or maybe it won't be, and hers is still coming up.


We can't say for sure one way or the other. We will get a copy of her episode on DVD, so whatever happens, if we're intending to see you anytime soon, we'll share that with you then! If not, once its up, I'll post the link to her episode on the MTV site, because they are all viewable online once they've aired anyway :)