Well, there goes my theory...unless...

Well, I am not a normally a person who believes in superstition. There are the few unusual coincidences that I have found to be pretty consistant in falling into that catagory. For instance, I have always found that celebrities usually do pass away in threes. Now, many will say, well what is the time limit and who do I consider a celebrity? Well, in the last week and a half, I would say it would be pretty clear. Within this week and a half Ed McMahon (sorry for poor spelling), Farrah Faucett and Michael Jackson have all passed away. Today (or possibly yesterday) Billy Mayes (yeller seller is what I called him). For those of you who don't know the name, just imagine the infommercials where the guy yells a lot. That is Billy Mayes. Now, according to the passing in threes rule, if you count him a celebrity, then another two will follow close behind him. It is unfortunate, in that his death, though tragic will not most likely be as media covered as the others. He was a salesman and not a celebrity in my eyes, thus exempt from the passing in threes rule. I know he will be missed by his family and maybe it is a good thing that he doesn't have the noteriety, his family can mourn him in peace and most likely quiet.
This post was in no way meant to disrespect anyone, so please don't take it that way.

A Sad Coincidence in an Unusual Turn of Events
For most of you, Carl and my yearly trip to Las Vegas is no surprise, however as you read on there are a couple of surprises that all of you would not have been able to see coming! We didn't even see it coming! We received an email from Carl's uncle about a great deal at Mandalay Bay. We have wanted to stay on that property for quite a while and were thrilled that the prices were low enough for us to take advantage of it! So I researched the shows as usual and the restaurants to see what we would be doing and what yummy food we would be having. We finally decided, since the only Cirque show we haven't seen was dark during our stay that we would try seeing The Lion King musical. So we made reservations and off we went.

We had a nice dinner at a mid range Chinese restaurant in Mandalay Bay and then to see the show. It was very good! Carl is not the "musical" type but he did enjoy the puppetry and the stage design and the music. I agreed, however, there were a couple of slow parts that could have been left out (there are reasons that those scenes were not in the animated film!).

The next day we decided after a nice big breakfast, that we would take a walk and then go out by the pool for a few hours. I am not a lie-out-in-the-sun type anymore and especially in Las Vegas where the temperature was about 100 (yes, dry, I know, still hot!) so we were looking for some shade. Well, it was packed, and absolutely no shade to be had. Carl decided we could afford to rent some nicer lounge chairs with an umbrella. Sounded good to me! This included a big bucket of ice and all the water bottles we could drink! Very nice! So we had a nice private little area for a while. We watched people, went in the wave pool and then as we were watching people, a family of four decided to rent some chairs and an umbrella too. The only ones available were to Carl's left. So the family settled down beside us. We nodded our hello's and resumed our conversation. Well, with my sunglasses on I studied our neighbors...The gentleman looked very familiar. Well, after a while (he was beside Carl), we got to talking a bit and I noticed his voice. Well, that cinched it! We were sitting next to Jermaine Jackson and family? So, now you are thinking, Wow, what a coincidence, right? I was totally unprepared to hear of Michael Jackson's passing today and I thought back to how nice his brother was (we never mentioned we knew who he was) and what a nice conversation we had with him and his lady friend. We have never seen anyone famous in Las Vegas before! He mentioned that they have houses in both LA and Las Vegas. He said that their nephews were visiting and that they thought it would be nice to go to a nicer fun pool than at the house. The boys (I later found out) are his sons from a prior marraige and he is in the middle of a custody battle because his ex has been accused of child abuse! I can only assume that he didn't want his children talked about in case anyone did recognize him. He was also with a blonde lady who was definitely not his last wife or any girlfriend that has been linked to him.

He spoke so softly that I could barely hear anything he was saying, but Carl talked with him a bit. As we talked, he asked what shows we've seen and we said most of the Cirque shows, he agreed that they were all good! I asked him if he had ever been to the Red Square Restaurant (where we had decided to eat) and he had and highly recommended it.

After that bit of light excitement we went inside and got ready for our evening. Here we are...Dinner at the Red Square Restaurant. I had Salmon with mushroom risotto and puff pastry and Carl had Filet Mignon Stroganoff. Both were delicious!

This was the dessert! Yummy! Carl had lava chocolate cake with warm strawberries and ice cream, and I had my favorite...Creme Brulee! Love the presentation!

This is outside the restaurant, the statue is of Lenin without his head. In the restaurant, you can go into their Vodka Ice Vault and drink off of Lenin's head. I think you have to buy a bottle of Vodka from the Vault (a $200.00 min.) but the food was phenomenal!

So as you can read, we had a great time and rubbed elbows with a celebrity. I did feel sad today knowing he had to cut whatever relaxing time he was having to rush home without even having the opportunity to say good-bye to his little brother.

So, even though Michael Jackson's life has been rather a freak show, his brother seemed very down to earth and I am sorry for his loss.

Summertime Fun now that temps are up! Well, temperatures are finally going up. Today it is a lovely 80 degrees or so, and bright. There are still clouds hanging around and every once in a while a breeze kicks up that makes it downright chilly! The kids were finally able to get outside and play in the water! Yippee! I try to get them outside at least once a day. That helps with getting them to bed at night. If they play inside all day (ps2 or computer or reading) they are not that tired at night. So they get the buckets out or the water guns or just the hose and have a blast.

Cole still has his motorcycle big wheel trike thing, and barely fits on it, but he fills it with water and then goes as fast as he can spilling water as he goes. For some reason he really enjoys it! Kaleigh is just happy to be playing with Cole. He could care less if he has a playmate. He would just as soon play by himself for a couple of hours. Kaleigh is the opposite. She plays alone out of neccessity. That lasts maybe 30 minutes or so, then it's, "Cole can we play something now?"

Usually he is ok with that.

They get along far better than any other brother or sister I knew growing up. They still bicker and get annoyed with each other, but all in all they are each others best friends. Kaleigh would beg to differ. She has a best friend. She lives about 45 minutes away though so we don't have the option of just going over there whenever we want. We have to plan. There are a couple of kids in the neighborhood that come over and they have fun too. I hope this summer will be a fun filled non complaining good time. We can only hope!

Last Day of School!! Elementary Style! Well, my shy little boy is no longer! Cole is now quite out of his shell and loves to make a spectacle out of himself as you can see! The photo is him ready to go under the limbo line (made up of flower lei's tied together. Not a stick. Weird but whatever works!) So the first time he goes under the normal back bendy way, then the next time around he does this! My hammy child...hmmmm wonder where he gets that from??? Any guesses? His teacher and aide absolutely loved him and they cried when they said good bye! I am glad I had to work (I came for a few minutes to get photos and stuff and said hello and thank you and everything.)

Kaleigh's class was a little more subdued (not by much though). They stayed inside and had a pizza party and then they did games on the pre school playground! I missed that part but I hear I will be getting some photos from the other mom/teachers that were there! Yay! Anyway, this is Kaleigh with her two best friends. Mostly the dark haired girl named Grace. Emma is the other girl, who by the way, is as tall as me! Whew! Anyway, they had a great year and we spent the first day (today) out of school, just hangin' at home, playing games, playing on the computer, playing playstation games and then we also went over to Carl's grandfather's house to clean out a few things to help Carl's uncle get rid of some items. I collect mice and so did Carl's grandmother, so I took those. Then Carl got all of his grandfather's Mcdonnell Douglas photos and whatnot.

Pretty neat stuff. So we are officially off for the summer! The weather doesn't know it yet, so shhhhhh! It was only 71 today! Yay again! I know the hot weather is coming, but I like it like this for now!

End of the Year! Well, this teaching year has almost come to a close. My last day teaching these little ones is Monday the 8th. Some I will miss quite a bit, some I am going to miss a little. There are none that I will not miss. I had quite the range of development in this class. I had two students that were literally a year apart in age. Two were very immature and have grown a lot but are not as developed in maturity as the others. I have 5 that are leaving our school and 5 that are continuing on to Kindergarten at our school. I hope they will visit me! Our last day will be a Tropical Luau and it should be a nice party day. Then temps are actually cool and we won't swelter in the heat like the last couple of years!
I keep a photo of each class that I teach and put it up in the room where I am that particular year. This is the photo for next years wall. Somehow the professional group shot is always missing people!
It never looks as good as our playground shot anyway! So, I say good bye to these guys and look ahead to who I will get next year! Pray that it is a good group!