Action Packed weekend

Hi everyone! What a great weekend here. I have some great pics to share. I had a great time judging the McCracken County Fair pageant with sisters Jessica and Chelsie Harrison. Those two beautiful gals have been competing (and winning) pageants all over since they were both tiny.

We had a great time talking to the candidates for queen. What a beautiful and talented group of young ladies.

My daughter Rosemary spent Saturday morning over at the Dixieland Dolls and Darlings pageant. She was excited to win Grand Supreme.

I had to miss watching her since our FEAT (Families for Effective Autism Treatment) group hosted a national author and speaker, Dr. Stephen Shore. What a wonderful person! Dr. Shore was diagnosed with autism as a toddler and at the age of 4, it was suggested his mother put him in an institution. He is now married, and a professor at Adelphi University in New York.

The turn out was great and the story ended up on the front page of the Paducah Sun newspaper today. I think we were able to get a positive message out and help educate others in our area who needed more information on autism and aspbergers syndrome.

Busy week coming up. We leave for Central America on Saturday morning.

Stephen Shore, Beauty Queens and Toy Story 3

Hi everyone!

WOW what a weekend. I had the pleasure of picking up Dr. Stephen Shore at the airport today. Our FEAT (Families for Effective Autism Treatment) group is hosting him as a guest speaker tomorrow. He was interviewed by the newspaper tonight. Tomorrow he will be speaking at the Easter Seals West Kentucky Child Development Center in Paducah. He is a very nice man. Very impressive. At the age of 4, it was suggested to his mother that she put him in an institution. Now, he has a Ph.D in Special Education and he helps other children who are on the autism spectrum. We are excited to have him here.

Speaking of kids, I know that all four of mine are anxiously awaiting Toy Story 3. The boys are all so excited to see it this weekend!!!!

Rosemary is excited because she is competing in the DixieLand Dolls and Darlings Pageant in the morning. After the Stephen Shore program I will hurry over to the Ritz Hotel to catch the end of her pageant.

It is a busy crown and banner day because after the pageant (the first one) then Rose and I are off to the McCracken County Fair pageant. I am judging again this year and Rose will be assisting Suzy by greeting people and handing out programs. Rose is excited to wear her Regional NES crown and banner (I think she likes it because it is so big). :) I love judging this pageant. There is always such a nice group of girls and that makes it a lot of fun.

I had to re-post this pic of Marshall County Fair judging. We had a great time. Joni (the lady on the left) and I both traveled over together. We had dinner and enjoyed a nice evening....it was a big pageant....they had the Little Miss group and then went all the way up to the Miss.

I can't wait to update tomorrow night with pics of all events. I get to show off that beautiful Mrs. KY US crown.....it sure gets a lot of comments. Everyone thinks it is beautiful...and I love it too because it is so comfortable. :) Stay tuned!

Panama Trip Update

Hi everyone, I have had a lot of emails about our upcoming trip to Panama for Patrick's stem cells. We fly out one week from this Saturday. We will be in Panama for one week, flying home the next Saturday. Patrick is very excited!!! He keeps handing me the Panama vacation guide book and telling me that "Patrick wants to go to Panama."

I had to include a pic from our recent trip to Holiday World. It took me three tries to get a pic where they were all looking, by the third try Bob had quit smiling at me. This was right before we headed down to the water park side section of the park to cool off so I also think they were getting fairly warm in the little train.

Patrick's Dr is sending me a kit to get some new labs done before we leave so we can have some comparisons that are current for when we get back from Panama. I am also completing an autism behavior assessment on line so we can re-do it about one month when we get back home. It will be interesting to compare the results! Thank you for your prayers for our safe trip and a successful procedure for Packy.

My favorite time of the year!

"Pageant" and "Racing" season is upon us. I think this is one of my favorite times of the year. June is a busy month for my family. My husband has a couple of races scheduled and he is twisting my arm to get behind the wheel of the #13 car! Which of course I am definitely up for!

Rosemary and I have been making some fun appearances together. She is Midwest NES Little Miss and she LOVES wearing her own crown and joining me. We had a ball at the Indiana Railway Museum. Our entire family got to take an old fashioned train ride with a couple hundred fourth graders! WOW. :) Despite the heat we had a ball at the Superman Festival last weekend. The boys wore their own super hero costumes until the heat was too much. Of course we got to meet Superman....again. This year they decided to be Bat Girl, baby Spiderman, Spider Boy, and Batman. Of course, dad and mom pulled out our Superman and Supergirl costumes for the occasion.

Our family had a great time promoting Autism Awareness at Holiday World. Above is a pic of Pat and I in our autism T's on the kiddy train. Luckily, I have started teaching Rose how to use the camera.....we have way too many pics of dad with the kids or mom with the kids. We decided it was time to get more of mom and dad having fun too!

We have our Panama trip coming up at the end of the month. This weekend will be a busy one too. I have Stephen Shore and the FEAT group on Saturday morning and then I get to be a judge at the McCracken County Fair pageant. This is one of my favorite pageants to judge. We always have so much fun here. I received so many positive comments about my appearance list that I keep on the All American blog that I decided to go ahead and post it on here as well. I have more planned for July and I will keep you posted.

Have a wonderful day!