Weekending in three different directions!

Before I start in on our busy tri-directional weekend, I want to show you part two of the series featuring our four dogs ~ painted by our resident artist "Sara"! If you missed the first of the series, click here - "Ode to Scout" and you can check it out...that
is when we discovered Sara could really paint and I commissioned her to paint the rest of our dogs.  If anyone is interested, you can send her a photo and she will paint your pet for you! 

This is Libby...Ellen's Golden Retriever...she is the most active of our dogs and comes from a famous hunting blood line in Texas.  We bought her in Liberty, Texas on the Fourth of July weekend, thus she was named Liberty and we call her Libby for short.  True to her heritage (52 hunting championships in her bloodlines) she is an awesome huntress and hunts anything that moves, but most importantly, is a great duck hunter! 

This weekend brought three different activities for three different girls!  Elizabeth had her initiation in Kappa Delta sorority - and since I am an alumni of KD from LSU, I flew up to "pin" my pin on her!  

Ellen performed her long awaited production of Suessical Jr.! I did get to see it on Thursday and it was, as their productions usually are, fabulous! One of the few middle school drama clubs in LA, they are equal or above the level of most high school drama clubs...our drama coach has been at this for around fifteen years, takes every single person that tries out, and always pulls a great performance from them.  It is months and months  of work and stress but worth it in the end.  Ellen loves it!

 Ellen and some of her buddies. 

And Sara had her "Sadies" dance ~ she and her friends dressed as a bowling team! Gary held the fort down for this one...and and deserved an Oscar for his performance in the role of  Mr. Mom! He even hosted the after party, serving ribs and fries, lighting a most awesome bonfire (so I am told) and was the hostess with the mostess! Unfortunately, I missed all of this event as I was not here, but have this photo courtesy of Sara texting it to me!
Love technology for letting us stay in touch 

when we can't be in three places at once!

 So, here we are ~ at Elizabeth's KD initiation...there were only three other Mothers there, so it was pretty special to be a part of this.  Being so far from Elizabeth, I have only been to see her once while she was in college, thus, I was quite excited to visit again, and to meet all of
 her friends she has been telling me about. 

We did not do this "back in my day" You form a K and a D with your interlocking fingers. 

Makes for a fun photo! Well, that and those two cute girls ......:)

If I look like I have some dark circles under my eyes, it is because I had to leave at four AM to catch a six o'clock flight as the function was Friday evening and I didn't want to take the chance of a delayed flight causing me to miss it.  After attending the play Thursday night, I got home late and just ended up staying up the entire night as I couldn't sleep for excitement about the upcoming weekend!  (and things that needed to be done just kept popping into my head.)  I have been awake for about 36 hours here!

Here I am before the initiation...with my "pin" which didn't surface until the last minute! 

When you are in college, you don't think about saving all your stuff for a child that might follow in your footsteps one day! Seems SO FAR away when you are young and nineteen...but, here we are; and it is weird to think that all this time has passed!

Some of Elizabeth's friends who were getting initiated with her....such cute girls they all were. 

Not sure what group this was! My job was to snap LOTS of photos! My next request is to upload all of them to facebook for them!  I am not a facebook person, but guess I will figure it out!

 Elizabeth's "BIG" ~ which is what they call their big sister!  She has been wonderful to Elizabeth and showered her with love and lots of wonderful  little KD gifts...many of them home-made! She has been more then generous to Elizabeth and
Elizabeth adores her! 

Here Elizabeth is writing a paper, and her roommate is hanging out too.....I did what Moms do when they come visit and their daughters have to do homework...CLEAN! They actually keep their room fairly straight but it needed a good wiping down and dusting...so that kept me 

busy while Elizabeth got her work done! 

I would be smiling like that too if my Mom was scrubbing and cleaning 

my room from top to bottom! 

I found the most adorable Inn...an old house turned into a hotel - it had so much charm and character!  So while the college kids went out on Saturday night, I snuggled down in my cozy little room and just had a ball hanging out by myself!  Isn't it funny how you don't mind peace and quiet when you get older?  I would have been so lonely and depressed when I was younger to be by myself on a Saturday night in a hotel room, but now I love it...I can knit, blog, read or watch a movie...

order room service - it is wonderful! 

In front of the KD house....

 One of her good high school friends who now attends Birmingham Southern, was on 

Spring Break  and stopped by to visit.

Here we are on the way to the "Steakhouse"...their university features a "holistic" education and has a five star steakhouse on campus that is part of their meal plan.  They can eat there once a week.  At first glance, one says ( I did) that is ridiculous! 

But the logic behind it, is to "teach" students how to eat in a fine dining establishment....the waiters and waitresses "correct" manners, educate students on different types of foods from various parts of the world, teach them how to order from a menu, what utensils to use for what courses..etc.  Students have a nice meal and have to carry on conversation ~ in this day and age of texting....that is a skill 

that needs to be practiced! 

No alcohol is served but wine glasses are used!  It is really nice! The logic is that you will use these skills just as much as book knowledge, if not more, to interview for jobs and dine out with executives for the rest of your life.  After four years of dining in a nice establishment once a week, with someone looking over your shoulder, you will be able to pull it off without thinking about it, and focus on what you need to be focusing on for your interview or meeting. 

Students have to dress nicely; boys wear ties, girls wear skirts or dresses - they turn off cell phones  and practice their very best manners and conversation! Just one of the many different concepts put into play at this university! The president has some unique ideas and does not hesitate to implement them!

We are giving Andrew a tour ...everything is in bloom and beautiful!

Elizabeth is in the gardening club and is the only student that has remained faithful to showing up and planting the bulbs and plants populating the campus right now....in fact, she was asked by the Head of the Landscaping department to give a speech to the faculty at a meeting in April about gardening on campus. ...too bad I am not close enough to be able to attend that as I would love to hear it. Maybe, she can have someone video it and email to me...Hint, Hint Elizabeth ~ if you are reading this!  

I left on Sunday, but not before I took this hungry crowd out for a good breakfast to a local diner...it was so nice to have some time to get to know Elizabeth's friends, and see first-hand how well she has adjusted into college life ~  great friends, her grades are good, and most importantly she is HAPPY! I came home to a nice clean house...a fridge that had been cleaned out ( WOW) and even some folded laundry!  That is just the icing on the cake of a fabulous weekend! See why I want to award Gary an Oscar...but I kind of think that Ellen and Sara deserve one for best supporting actresses!!!!!!!