Happy Birthday, Henry!

This weekend we didn't make it to my nephew's birthday party in Lincoln, so we had Madelyn send a special message to 2-year-old Henry.

Memorial Day weekend

Finally, after several months, Jason was home an entire weekend over Memorial Day weekend. His job has kept him working most Saturdays, so it was a real treat to get to have three days together as a family.

We did a little shopping - and reading - at Target ...

And stopped by Old Navy for some flip flops - and a doggy ride.

 

We also played dress up.

 

 

 

Then we watched our nephew, Corby, play in a baseball tournament ...

 





While enjoying the playground, yummy snacks ...

And time with Aunt Courtney and Val.

A Top 10 Moment

This will come as no surprise to people who know me, but I LOVE meeting celebrities. I've been fortunate to have had more than a dozen encounters with famous people, including Harry Connick Jr., David Letterman, Jordan Knight, Eric Clapton and Bernadette Peters, and after last Friday night, I can add one more to the list: Shirley Jones.

Shirley has been a singer and actress since the 1950s, and stared in some of my favorite musicals, Oklahoma, Carousel and the Music Man. In two of them, her co-star was Gordon MacRae, an actor and singer whom I have LOVED since childhood.

I was in the musical Oklahoma in high school and in Carousel in Greenwich before I had to quit because my nanny schedule didn't work with rehearsal times.

Well, last Friday my parents and went to an event put on by the Omaha Film Institute at the Joselyn Art Museum. They had a showing of the movie Carousel, with remarks by Shirley Jones and Mandy MacRae Daley, Gordon MacRae's daughter who lives just blocks from my parent's house in Lincoln.

Before the film, both women spoke, and Shirley took questions from the audience. Unfortunately she didn't pick me, so I planned to ask her after the movie what her audition song was for Richard Rodgers and who inspired her early on as a singer. But because I always like to make things unique - and then they become difficult - I forgot to ask her the questions when I got her autograph. We both share the same middle name - Mae - so I asked if she would sign her name as Shirley Mae Jones. She either didn't hear me or was confused and instead wrote "To Mae, from Shirley Jones." She tried to correct myself and just asked her to put "Lisa" above the name, since that was my first name. Oh well!

After we met Shirley, my parents and I found Mandy and talked with her for a bit. She was so nice and very down to earth. She grew up not far from me in Lincoln and went to Southeast HS. She was 17 when her dad died. I was 9.

In our conversation, I showed her a photo of a blanket my parents gave me for Christmas that had supposedly belonged to Gordon MacRae. She smiled and said that she remembered that her aunt had crocheted that blanket for her dad toward the end of his life. :)

My dad told her about how he would see her dad at the neighborhood pharmacy and how he remembered him singing the National Anthem at Husker football games. We also told her how for many, many years we would go to her dad's grave on Memorial Day and sing "O What a Beautiful Morning," from Oklahoma. It's a song Madelyn and I have sung on the way to daycare each day (unless it is raining, and then we sing "Singin' in the Rain") since she's been 8 weeks old.

I was thrilled to get to experience this all with Mom and Dad because they're the ones who introduced me to old musicals and fostered my love of them and of celebrities. Thank you, Mom and Dad!

 

Here is a clip of my favorite song in Carousel, sung by Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae.

 

 

 

Could I have really put off blogging for four months? And sadly I'm not sure I have any real updates.

Here is an update:

December 2012

Silly Madelyn

Spending time with William and Samuel

Madelyn having fun with her cousins

Me and my hubby

Madelyn and grandpa in her new tent

New baby doll and stroller (ugly photo of me)

Madelyn and cousin Corby

Me at my little sister Kiara's baby shower

Madelyn greeting Santa

 

January

 

February

Enjoying a birthday donut

 

Playing with daddy and her new kitchen set

 

Happy birthday!

Valetine's Day puppy

With friend Gavin

Me at friend Heather's baby shower

Playing the snow for the first time

Look at those curls!

 

March

Watching a movie with daddy

Brushing teeth

Telling mommy which toys she likes

Birthday cake No. 2

She would only smile if her ducks were smiling too

The kid loves cheetos!

 

 

 

 

 

Job update

I'm so thrilled to announce that Jason took a new job as a superintendent with JE Dunn, a construction company out of Kansas City with an office in Omaha. He'll contineu to work in the medical division and already has lots of work lined up in Omaha.

Not only is Jason going to be happier, but our family has been blessed as well b/c he got a nice raise ... and in time, I will be able to quit my job and stay home full time. This has been a dream of mine since I was a child and especially since having Madelyn. I feel blessed to have had the job at the Catholic Voice and to have a daycare that I am happy with, but being able to spend my days with my daughter - and possibly another child in the future - makes me over the moon!

I mean, who wouldn't want to spend time with this girl!

 

 

Photography

I'm becoming more and more interested in the possiblity of putting my photography skills to use as a personal photographer. It's something I've always pictured myself doing - so hopefully it's in my future.

Here are some shots I took of Madelyn in October at a barn near our house.

And in September I took photos of my dad's cousin's family. It was a lot of work b/c there were so many people to work with, but we had a fun time.

I have some work to do - but am please with how they turned out.