Surprise Visit with Von

I got home from work last Friday afternoon, and had an email from Von that they were on their way over to Olympia/Lacey from their home in Eastern Washington for a cross country meet! I was so excited! We haven't seen each other since we attended the Victoria Sampler retreat in April, so it was wonderful to spend all day Saturday with them at the beautiful Capitol Lake Park. In between cheering and clapping for all the runners, we had a great time catching up with Von, hubby Gary and two of their kids, Kevin and Kyle, who did very well in the freshman boys race.

This is a picture of one of the girls races. They ran all the way around Capitol Lake, about 2.2 miles or so. Amy and granddaughters also joined us...it was a gorgeous day and we all ended up a little sunburned!!! After a late lunch/early dinner at Taco Bell, we exchanged hugs and kisses and said goodbye. What a treat it was to see Von again. There is just something about long-time friends that warms the soul!! Especially when we share a passion for stitching!!!

Life has been very busy this month, with school starting, and new routines to have to get used to. I passed my Insurance Test last week, Hooray! That's two parts down and one to go, but I'm not going to tackle that until next year.

My parents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary next week!!!! Wow! I have been helping Mom with invitations and getting ready for a big party on Sunday the 28th. It should be a fun afternoon! Congratulations Mom and Dad!!!

Daughter Alli had a high-resolution ultrasound this morning to check on the baby. She was also scheduled for an amniocentesis, but they ultimately decided against it. Her blood tests last month that check for Downs Syndrome were all very, very normal, and the regular ultrasound they had done found no indications in head and brain size for anything but a normal baby, but they found a small spot of calcification in the baby's heart, which can be a marker for DS. The high resolution ultrasound found NO other markers, (Back of the neck, brain, fingers, etc), so the risk of the amnio was greater than the risk of finding Downs. We are all a little relieved that no other markers were found, and so are trusting for a healthy baby....little dickens wouldn't open it's legs, so we are still going with the "probably a boy" from the last ultrasound!