Back Home and Back to "Normal"?

Things have settled down somewhat.

Kean's fever (whatever caused it...) is gone.

I did end up going to my high school reunion in Vegas,

which means Byron held down the fort for the weekend.

He proudly told me Kean stayed in these pajamas for two whole days.

(Not sure what to think).

But I do think this picture is dang cute!

 I'm so glad I went.  Even though I was terribly sore

from the car accident-- it was sure worth getting away.

Especially since I got to spend two days with two of my favorite people--

Chris and April Morgando.

April and I grew up together as neighbors in Vegas and oh boy, don't

get us started on telling stories.

 April picked me up from the airport and we immediately cruised our

old "hood", which really has become quite the hood.  Sniff, sniff.

This is one of the nicest houses in the area, just down the street from our houses.

We were always fascinated with this home-- the owner was Gianni Russo

who played a pretty significant role in probably one of my all time favorite movies,

The Godfather.

 I'd already heard our house was boarded up and in pretty sad shape

but that still didn't take away any of the sting.

I spent most of my childhood in this house-- we called it the "Taco Bell house"

because of the red tile roof.

Lot's of good memories here!

 We also drove by all of our old schools.  This was my high school which

always looked like a prison.  It is built around a courtyard, so all the

windows are on the inside facing the center.

As if it didn't look like a maximum security facility to begin with,

there are now metal detectors and permanent fencing all around the entrances.

How depressing.

Thankfully, I got to go to my high school reunion and cheer right on up!

It was great, great fun.

Jan in the middle was our student body president, Dawn on the right was

senior class pres and I was one of the student body officers.

Loved these girls.

 Okay, I had to throw this one in here to show Byron.

Keith in the middle is my old boyfriend from when I worked in North Carolina.

He was a great guy back in high school-- another student body officer and our

quarterback-- and yet not stuck on himself.  Loved seeing him.  He's still

a wonderful guy.

 And Lisa... geez, we've known each other for, forever.

 And if I can go back to before forever, it would be with this group.

Sherrill Brown Malo on the left was my bff all through high school.  She was my fabulous

and gorgeous date for the reunion.

I grew up with all of these guys in school and church.

John Henderson is my childhood friend that finds himself (especially his wife)

expecting a surprise baby with Down syndrome.  Perhaps you read the letter

I wrote to him.  He will be the perfect kind of dad for this very special little girl.

And Melanie Coutta' on the right is actually two years younger but crashed our

party so we could see her! 

And that was just Friday night.

We had the big, formal dinner and program Saturday night.

I'm horrible with guesstimates, but I'd say there were about 200 people there,

including a few teachers.  It was quite surreal to attend our 30 year reunion.

It doesn't seem possible to be that old.

I'd have to say the women- overall- looked better than the men.  But the best

thing about the reunion at this age, is that very few people seemed out to impress.

Most everyone was just normal, candid and comfortable with themselves.

How refreshing and how fun.