John and Larry's Excellent Thailand Adventure

Most of the photos on this site are from my December trip to Thailand. I spent most of my time in Chiang Mai, doing day trips to fabulous places. John and Larry were able to visit Katie in March and they spend a few days in Chiang Mai but most of their time was spent in Bangkok and Phuket. Larry has a friend and a former business partner who has lived in Bangkok for more than 20 years and played tour guide while they were there. Katie joined them for a few days in Bangkok and then they all went to Phuket the beach area of southern Thailand. These are the some stunning pictures of their trip.

All in the Family

Izzy at 6 weeks (above)

Izzy at 12 weeks! (right)

Wow! How she's grown in just a month and a half.

We discovered this week that one of Izzy's brothers lives a few houses down from us! What an amazing coincidence.

I was out taking my 3 mile walk the other day, without Izzy; her little legs can't quite take it yet, when I caught up with a man walking a golden that looked so much like Izzy and about the same age. Of course I had to stop; his golden was so adorable and really who can pass up a puppy? We got talking about our puppies, their ages, where we got them and discovered that their dog Bobby came from the same litter as Izzy. We had both seen our puppies at the post office on the 4th of July. What are the odds of that? These puppies and their breeder must really make the rounds because two other people have stopped me to ask if Izzy was one of the "Williamston" puppies.

Izzy has since been over to play with Bobby where they tumbled, chased, nibbled, and froliced for an hour.

Drastic Changes

It was time! It was past time!

I needed a new look after, yikes, 20 years!

My good friend Wendy( see earlier post) shanghai-ed me and took me to her stylist in the Detroit area. So I put my head in Kendra's very stylish hands, told her I didn't want to be brown but still blonde enough that I looked blondish and that I desperately needed a new style.

Shocking at first. Yes! To me it looked more brown than blonde but I have recovered and am super happy with the color. Compare it with other pictures on this blog.

The Hole That Ate John's Head

Unbelievably, this is the hole John's head made when he tripped on his bed and went flying into the wall of his bedroom! He's OK, not much damage to his head; a bump and a little bruising but OH! look at that wall.

We always knew he was hard headed and strong minded figuratively but know we know this literally!

We're Number 1

Go TU! Taylor just received the U.S. News and World Report ranking of #1 in liberal arts colleges in the Midwest! For the past 10 years we have been ranked in the top three and this year Taylor received 100

points. A perfect score! We usually play second fiddle to St. Mary's the Notre Dame sister school, so we are particularly ecstatic to be # 1.

Katie and I have always known that Taylor was an outstanding school and we are very PROUD alumnae. We have always been proud of it ranking in the top three. In addition, Taylor was ranked #1 in peer assessment, freshman retention, and graduation rates. It placed second in giving and the % of freshmen in the top 25% of their high school class.

Wendy Hits the Big Time

Many of you know my amazing friend Wendy Fleming; you've seen her in various plays, have followed her singing career, or attended her workshops. She is an extraordinary performer and personality. For the past many years she has been a motivational speaker. And now she's on radio!!

This spring she was offered a 20 minute segment, once a month on a Detroit radio program called metrochickradio.com. She was a such a huge hit that they offered Wendy her own hour long program every week!

The radio station is branching out and becoming an all internet station and Wendy has her own show! You can catch her every Thursday from 9-10 starting August 23 or listen 24 hours a days since her show is always available. It is a talk and call in show and her topics are about self esteem and self acceptance. Next weeks topic is; "Lessons on Being Selfish".

So check out Wendy at metrochickradio.com. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be inspired.

Thailand Trip

This December I went to Thailand to visit Katie over the holidays. We had an amazing time and I met so many incredible people. Larry and John visited in March as well. Here are some of our photos.


Temples and Buddha

Dancer at Cultural Center
Monks at marketplace

In Laos part of the Golden Triangle where

Burma, Thailand, and Laos meet

Katie and I on the swinging, scary bamboo bridge that we had to cross to get to the elephants.

"...We Hold these Truths.."

What a great response I got from so many of you about the two new blogs. Many of you asked about the show I directed, 1776, and wanted to see some pictures.

I was honored to have received such overwhelming critical praise about the show from reviewers, to audience members to awards the show received. 1776 won multiple awards from our theatre and from the local newspaper. Among them were; best overall show, best musical, best director, choreography, set dressing, scenic design, choreography, costume design, music direction and acting awards for lead, character, and supporting actor.

1776 is a poignant, funny, and heartbreaking story of the writing of the Declaration of Independence.

White Coat Ceremony

Saturday, Katie was officially welcomed into the world of medicine. First year med students, or M1's as they are called, were given their official white coats and took the Hypocratic Oath.

The photo on the top right is of Katie and her roommate Eileen.

She is part of a class of 300 m1's this year. The federal government has mandated that all med schools up their enrolled to prepare for a shortage of doctors in the future. All those baby boomers "coming of age".

You can follow her life as a med student on her blog. The link is on this page.

"...And they call it puppy love.."

Many of you know that our wonderful and sweet dog Baxter died last August. I needed to take some time and distance from that before we were ready to bring another dog into our lives. John has been pushing hard to get another dog and I was delaying until Katie came back from Thailand so she could help in the process. We had been looking in the paper, visiting dog events, the humane society, and checking out pet finder but I wasn't moving very quickly on this one. Must be inertia. But on the 4th of July John called me and said a man had puppies at the post office. The breeder had stopped at the PO to mail something and had let the puppies out to frolic.Naively I thought we would find a puppy, explain to the breeder that we were having a huge party that day and couldn't possibly bring home a dog that day.

That thought lasted all of the time it took to drive to the PO. At that point there was no turning back. The first big decision was boy? or girl? John strongly pressed for a boy named, get this, Admiral Wolverine Lightning Bolt! Kate and I wanted a sweet little girl. You know, people talk about how they go visit a litter of puppies and there's always one that seeks them out or truly snuggles up to them. That is exactly what happened. The puppies all looked the same and Katie picked up one that just snuggled in and fell asleep in her arms. "We want that one!"
Turns out it was, you got it, a girl. We nixed John's name and tried for something more patriotic, after all it was the 4th of July and I had just finished directing the inspiring patriotic musical 1776. So we named her Liberty. For about 6 hours. John and Larry weren't big fans of the name so we began tossing out other names and checking names online.

I threw out Izzy and it seems to have stuck. So Izzy it is! She weighed in at a mere 5lbs 7oz's on her first vet visit and as of yesterday she's up to 14lbs.

And so it begins....

Kate has left home once again, this time not so far. She has moved into her apartment in Detroit about to start med school next week. This week is orientation and we join her on Saturday for Parent's Day and the white coat ceremony which is exactly what it sound like. She will receive her official white coat. More on that later.

I was more nervous about her moving to Detroit than I was about her moving to Thailand. However, she has found a fabulous apartment in downtown Detroit, blocks from both Greektown and the Renaissance Center in a high rise bounding Lafayette Park. She's on the 17th floor of a gated, guarded, building with a spectacular view of the city, Detroit River, and Canada. The apartment building has a pool, an workout center, and she's in a corner apartment with glass on two sides.

We had a great time last week doing the IKEA thing with her roommate Eileen and her mom. The last tenants added the glass on the wallopposite her windows, which reflects the city. The view at night is awesome. I'm looking forward to watching fireworks from there. (Don't worry, the fireworks are actually not on the 4th, so the party is still a go).

Beautiful Schroon Lake.

An odd name for a gorgeous place. Tucked into the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York is the delightful town of Schroon Lake. It's located on a nine mile lake and the home to one of my favorite places: SUMMER CAMP! If you've ever attended and loved summer camp you will know the feeling that the words "summer camp" evoke.

As a brave 7 year old I went to camp for the first time; intending to stay only a week and begging to stay one more. The following summer I stayed for a month and the summer after that for the entire summer. My dad and I would head upstate (in Michigan we call that "up north") for our 5 hour trip to Albany and then along the two lane highway, Rte. 9; the Northway did not exist then. Along the way we stopped an all the tourist oddities and picniced along the way packing our Scotch cooler with Cokes and our tin sand which box with fresh ham (pork loin I think) sandwiches on Pepperidge Farm's white bread, wrapped in waxed paper. And always a bag of Wise potato chips and NY style potato salad.

When we hit Saratoga my stomach would begin to churn in anticipation of arriving and I would roll down the windows for the first hint of pine air. Even today, I buy those corny sachet's of balsam pine and keep them in the car. In years past I would haul home giant bags of pine mulch that would " live" in the car during our entire vacation and nearly overwhelm us with the pine smell. I loved it!

Our destination was the Christian camp called Word of Life. At 7 I was going to the Ranch! Horseback riding, archery, swimming, crafts, and Bible study. Who could ask for anything more?