That Mom of Mine is Pretty Amazing

That Deborah Walters is at it again, being all awesome.  She won an Excellence in Education award this year.  There was a very nice dinner for the recipients last Wednesday at St. Mary of the Woods.  I've been hearing good things about her all over town.  

 

All of her children were there and a huge group from Davis Park were there too.   We could not be more proud of her. 

It's a Boy!!

There has been so much life going on lately it's been impossible to keep up.....  Zachary and Candice had a party at their house last week to revel the gender of their baby.  The cake gave us the word and the cake was blue!  I can't wait to meet my little nephew in early September.  Zachary and Candice are already wonderful parents.  

 

Tears of joy!!  Zachary was strutting around on cloud 9, pleased as punch with himself.  

 

First gender specific gift.

 

We had to wear the color of the gender we were guessing, pink or blue.  Kyle broke out a pink shirt for occasion.  Evangeline thought it was pretty darn funny. 

 

Let's see, what else...I celebrated my 34th birthday a few weeks ago.  It was a dandy as all birthdays are.  I'm grateful for my life and the people in it.  I love my family, my friends, my job, my town.  Everyday is a gift.  My heart is so full.

 

This was one of the pretty roses in the arrangement I received from Wayne and Karen.  It reminds me of a type of rose that grew in my friend Callie's yard when we were kids.  It was called the Lucille Ball.  I was in the height of my obsession with the old Nick at Night shows, I Love Lucy, Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dike, etc.  I loved how the orange rose was named for Lucy.  

 

Roy gave us some Mid-West Caviar.  Oh yeah, babe.  The smell of fried mushrooms hung in our house for days.  

 

 

Speaking of woodsy things..... I had a brush with Lyme's disease the other week.  After an inflamed tick bite, swollen lymph nodes, 4 viles of blood drawn, some antibiotics, a few discussions with the doc, a couple trips to the medical center, and a lot of worrying, my test results came back negative, thank God.  What a relief.  Another thing to feel grateful about.  I read up on Lyme's and it can be a nasty illness.  The ticks are very bad this year.  We will be taking precautions.

 

Morel Fest

We Hutsons took advantage of the gorgeous weekend we had and headed on over to Bean Blossom, IN for the Morel Festival.  We had a fun, fun time.  Evangeline had a few firsts over the weekend which included first time in the porta-potty and first tick.  Boy was she excited to camp.

There were some fun activities for the kids to do.  She got to decorate a mushroom cookie, decorate a flower pot and plant some wildflower seeds, get a balloon from a balloon artist, get her face painted and make a bracelet.  After listing to a few bands we went to Nashville.  We visited the shops and ate dinner at the Artist Colony.  Evangeline's favorite was the Christmas shop.  Her jaw dropped to the floor when we entered the place.  

Later that night we listened to a few more bands before heading back to our campsite.  Evangeline was a total dancing queen.  She was the only one out there.  There was a sea of people and a little girl just cutting loose between that sea and the band.  At one point between songs I asked her if she wanted to walk back up to the vendors and get a drink and rest.  Her reply, "no, I'm ready to rock". 

It was not a bad night sleep considering we were in public campground.  

We had a pretty spot.  Our site was framed in blooming Redbuds and there was a cattle pasture behind us.  

After we packed up and stopped for breakfast at the Scholars Inn Bake House in Bloomington, we headed to the farm for a hike in the woods.  

Evangeline has been talking lately about how she wants a pet ladybug like Lily's from Peter Rabbit.  She had a whole big plan for it.  It was going to live in one of her plastic eggs from her Easter basket....Well, we found a ladybug in the woods and she was SO excited about it.  She named it Florence.  I think she expected it would just stay with her and fly around after her.  She was disappointed when it flew off.  We had to have a little talk about realism/fantasy.  

Nature Girl insisted that she bring blankie into the woods with her.  

I thought this flower was so pretty the way it was growing out of this rock.  

Evangeline sat on Kyle's lap from the pond back to the house and "drove" the car.  She thought it was the best thing in the world.  

 

Grandma's apple and pear trees are in full bloom.