It’s that time of year… graduation! Which made this week’s time travel theme very easy to decide. So, what do you remember about graduating from high school? Was there anything special about the actual ceremony you remember? What did you do after graduation?

I remember bits and pieces from my graduation night. I remember wearing a light turquoise strapless dress that my mom made for me (under the cap & gown). I remember walking across the stage and waiting in a big room to line up. Our graduation was at the Myriad Convention Center. I remember my bff Darla finding me and crying. I remember taking a picture with my twin friends (Shelli & Kelli), they are under 5′ tall and I was towering between the two of them. The picture below is shortly after my graduation. I was dating Matt at the time. My graduation was a bit of a blur, and then we came home to have a party with family and friends.

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This picture is one of my senior pictures. Check out the 80′s hair! Yikes!

Next year I will watch my baby daughter walk across that stage! Amazing. Where does time go?

All this talk about graduation! You can get a really good deal on graduation invitations. I guess we have one year before we start looking for graduation announcements and party invitation printing services. VistaPrint offers printing in quantities as low as 100 for standard size postcards or 50 for over sized postcards. Their proprietary technology means that they can print your cards in small quantities and still offer you the best value anywhere. Historically, custom card printing and design have been hands-on, laborious processes for both the supplier and the customer. VistaPrint has not only fully automated the manufacturing of card printing, but also the manner in which orders are created and submitted. Because they have lower costs, their customers enjoy lower prices for higher quality printing. VistaPrint offers a wide array of printing services including: business cards, checks, rubber stamps, announcements, and car magnets! You can customize all of their products to your liking! VistaPrint has tons of graduation invitation design templates to help get you started. Choose a design template and proceed to our free online card design studio. Customize your invitations with text and upload your logo or graphics. VistaPrint also offers over 70,000 free stock images to help you create your custom invitations. If you already have your invitations designed, you can simply upload your file to print!

Today was Emelia’s awards assembly at school.

She got several awards.

A medal for following life principles, honor roll, honor choir…

You can tell from her smile she was proud of herself.

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I have this weird way of getting hooked on a particular meal or certain food and then eating it every meal until I am sick of it and never want it again. Right now the meal of choice is: A grilled chicken breast, salad with butter lettuce and fresh parm cheese, honey mustard vinaigrette dressing, and fresh green beans microwaved for a few minutes. I plan to have this meal every night this week or until I decide it doesn’t taste good anymore. It is also healthy and fits in my diet plan! So, it’s a win-win situation … Matt objected to having it a few meals this weekend so I mixed it up a bit. I will make other things for the rest of the crew if needed.

This week is full of graduating seniors. Tomorrow is the CHS graduation. Amanda is ushering and my nephew Chance is graduating. Today Amanda’s boyfriend’s sister graduated… yesterday my forever friend Melody’s daughter Megan graduated… and Friday night my niece Sarai and Amanda’s friend Melissa are graduating from HHS. Pretty exciting stuff. It will be Amanda’s turn next year! I can hardly imagine her graduating. Time flies!

The Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas, houses one of the nation’s most significant collections of American Western art. It began as a vision of H.J. Lutcher Stark and his mother, Miriam Lutcher Stark, an enthusiastic collector of art, furniture, and decorative items from around the world. Lutcher Stark developed a similar passion for collecting, with a particular interest in nature and art depicting the American West. Both Miriam and Lutcher Stark shared the desire that one day a museum in Orange, Texas, would display the works of art they collected.

Lutcher Stark began building his collection as an undergraduate at the University of Texas, when he started purchasing works from Texas artists. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he began collecting American Indian objects from New Mexico.

He married Nelda Childers in 1943, and together they continued to build the collection. From 1944 to 1962 they traveled annually to their ranch in Colorado, stopping along the way in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, to meet with artists. From these visits they built a collection that strongly represents the Taos Society of Artists, a colony of artists drawn to the area for its scenery and culture.

In the 1950s, they expanded the collection with the rare five-volume set of John James Audubon’s Birds of America as well as letters and first edition copies of publications by Audubon and John Woodhouse Audubon. In that same decade, they collected porcelain birds and flowers by Dorothy Doughty and Edward M. Boehm as well as a series of Steuben Glass pieces, including the complete set of The United States in Crystal. In the late 1950s, the Starks added 230 works by Paul Kane, which was their last major purchase for the collection.

Inspired by their shared passion, Nelda and Lutcher Stark founded the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation in 1961 to enrich the quality of life in Southeast Texas through education and the arts. After Lutcher Stark’s death in 1965, the Stark Foundation, under Nelda C. Stark’s direction, built the Stark Museum of Art, which opened on November 29, 1978, and continues to acquire new works of art today.

What is one habit, negative pattern, or sin that has been passed down your family line from generation to generation that you do not want to pass down to your own family line? What steps are you taking to make sure the habit, pattern or sin is not repeated in your own family?

I know it will sound weird to say I cannot think of a single habit, negative pattern or sin passed down from generation to generation. My dad almost raised himself, his mom died shortly after giving birth to her tenth child. His dad remarried and enlisted him in the army at the age of sixteen. He turned from the life he knew and found God. He has always been a generous, good person. I think we all have habits, negative patterns and things that need to be worked out but they are all different. I sure hope I pass on good things to my kids, not negative things!

The wildest experience I have ever had while on vacation was going to Epcot in pouring down rain while in Orlando. There are so many things to do in Orlando! I think we were crazy for going to Epcot knowing it was raining all afternoon, we just didn’t want to waste a single minute of our time in Orlando. It was pouring down rain, picture the rain coming sideways… and we were all drenched. About the time we found a kiosk to buy a ton of really expensive parkas… you guessed it, the rain stopped! And it didn’t rain again until the next afternoon. I figured the pattern out finally. It was really beautiful in Orlando and I loved the tropical plants. I quickly realized it was a perfect environment to grow those beautiful plants and trees. It really ruined our Epcot experience, but I’m still glad we went even with the rain. There were some cool things there and the Nemo ride was pretty much awesome! If you are looking for Trusted Tours and Attractions, you should sign up for this newsletter. Who knows, you might just find some new sightseeing tours to go on. Chicago things to do are limitless, although first thing I would do is get tickets to Oprah! Trusted Tours and Attractions offers discounted tickets to the best sightseeing tours in 23 cities across America. Planning your next vacation? Looking for ideas on what to do? Sign up for the Trusted Travels eNewsletter and enter to win a $150 iTunes gift card Offer ends Saturday, May 31st, 2008.

Words Ending in ING ~ I Ask, You Answer

1. Avoiding…you answer? starting the day…

2. Baking…you answer? I wish my mom was baking cinnamon rolls!

3. Camping…you answer? is dirty.

4. Decorating…you answer? is fun.

Want to play along? Visit Saturday Special

Saturday 9: The One Song

1. Name the one song that reminds you of your most current or recent relationship. “grow old along with me”

2. Name the one song that was way overplayed and you hate. “I like big b*tts.”

3. Name the one song it seems everyone loves but you don’t. Any screaming rock type song or almost any country song.

4. Name the one song you think everyone hates but you love. “Nothing Compares 2 U”

5. Name the one song that is sung by someone you’d love to date. ???

6. Name the one song this season that was sung best on American Idol. nothing stands out right now…

7. Name the one song that you think is the best love song of the 00’s thus far. “I can only imagine.”

8. Name the one song that you think was the best 90’s song. “more than words.”

9. Name the one song from a TV theme that you like the best.