More Sebastien!

More baby pictures! Soon, we'll have the pictures with Amy, and me, and of course, his mom. He is a cutie, and is so little. His mom will be moving to St. Louis in September, so we all have to get a lot of hugs and spoiling done before then. He is already rolling over and seems anxious to just get on with life, in general.

His newer pictures will show that he has filled out since these shots. He has a slight red cast to his hair. I'm sure hoping he doesn't develop a temper to match! Right now, he's a sweetie, very alert, with lots of funny faces. A baby's main job is to be adorable, and he's doing a fine job of it. We will post the new pictures soon.

Our New Grandson!

Please welcome Sebastien Hunter Neal Menendez to the world. He was born on May 17th, was 20 inches long, and has dark hair with just the first hints of red. He is very photogenic, as you can see. Sleeping is his favorite sport. He does lots of yawning and sneezing, but very little crying. This, of course, makes him very popular!

We think we'll keep him! We will have more photos soon, so check back often.

Running out the door!

First, a couple of prom photos. Lovely! Alright then, a big update! Yes, I have been accepted to the IU Nursing Program! I can barely believe my good fortune. I'm still bouncing up and down! My school advisor said "It's a long time till August. You better quit that before you hurt yourself!" I'm just SO excited at all the wonderful things I am going to get to do. I've been invited to join the Honors Program, as well. It requires an extra 18 hours of additional work, like an internship and a research project. I am going to do that because it allows you to be provisionally accepted for the Master's or PhD program upon completion. Way cool. I already have bought one pair of scrubs in Bright Red. I wonder if it's the required color because red means DANGER, hmmmm?! I have bandage scissors, a penlight, a lab coat.....I am like a kid with new toys. I can't wait to get my first stethoscope, maybe in burgundy. Yes, they come in colors now, even colors like lilac and spring green! Wow!

Everyone should have a dream, a passion, that drives their life. We should focus on making it happen, going at it full steam ahead. Life is so short, just sitting on the sidelines is not something we should allow ourselves to settle for. I am having such a great time stretching and striving for this goal to finish my degree. All of us have great reserves of talent that we could nurture. Remember! Green and growing, or ripe and rotting.

I will keep you all updated as I ready myself for this next chapter. I have lots of vaccinations to get (Ugh!) and a CPR certification and an orientation class. Gonna be one busy girl!





Me and my pretty girl....

Conspired against? I think so....

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I am not in the slightest bit girly. So, it is no surprise that prom was not something on the top of my list of things to do. (It wasn't on the list at all!) But, it seemed that getting me to Mormon Prom was on everyone else's to do lists.

Shantelle bugged me for weeks about going to Mormon Prom. She actually cornered a guy and tried to talk him into asking me. (He was unable to attend prom because of a school thing.) Every time my mom and I were out shopping, she would go and look at prom dresses and try to get me to try some on. My dad (yes, even he was in on it), while working, ran into a guy from our old ward. They talked about some of the young men - my dad was young men's president for a while - and prom came up. One young man was going to prom, but had no date. My dear dad volunteered me - without asking me! (This, by the way, was one week before prom.) My dad sprung the news on me at church. I'll admit, I was pretty mad. I decided that I would go straight home and call him and use some made up excuse about how I was unable to go to prom and I hoped he had a good time andyway. But, I'm too much of a nice guy.

So here I am one week away form prom with no dress and no idea how I was going to get ready (you know me, I don't know how to be a real girl). Thankfully, I know some great women. Sister TJ Pini did hair and make-up for me and my two friends Shantelle and Kiersten. My amazing youg womens president, Sister Shawna Taylor, got my dress ready in no time. This was no easy task either. I needed sleeves attatched to make it modest and because I'm vertically challenged, i needed about a foot of material cut off the bottom. She even made me a purse with the extra fabric!

My date was Jeff Loper from Shelbyville. We were good friends when I lived there. We pretty much grew up together. We were the only mormons in all of Shelbyville's school district, so we relied on one another. Though we hadn't seen or talked to each other in two years, we had no trouble picking back up where we left off. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Olive Garden (which he paid for with his own money - what a gentleman!) and arrived at the Fisher's building right on time.

I don't know if it takes a village to raise a child, but it sure takes a village to get this tomboy to Mormon Prom!

Here I am with Sister Pini, the magician. Somehow she got three crazy

girls ready without breaking a sweat!

Here is my date Jeff and me outside the Fisher's building.

This is the day after at church:

me, Shantelle, and Kiersten

(somehow all of us managed to keep the hair and make-up

together! It must be Sister Pini's magic!)

Heather, me, and Shantelle

(Heather made her own dress. Didn't she do such a great job?)