Best dollar I've spent!

When I was young we frequently had lemonade stands in the summer. I have many memories of sitting there with my little pitcher of juice and waiting...hoping. I would get so excited when a car would stop. Sometimes they would give me a dollar and say keep the change. I thought I'd really hit the big time! When business was good I would expand into offering two types of juice or buy some licorice. I usually lost money on the licorice. It's hard for a kid to just sit there with candy that close and refrain.

I love to keep a stash of coins and bills in my car so I can stop at stands during the summer. So I was sad that I'd missed out when my sister's son Johno painted some rocks and set up a little rock stand on their lawn. He had the rocks sorted by size and priced from 1$ to 3$.

(Can I just say, Johno is his father's son!) Well, the rocks looked great, but February apparently was not the best time to start a front-yard-business. And with the economy what it is, Johno's business went under. He was a little discouraged. I called him and said I'd heard he was selling some rocks and could he save some for me because I had a space on my shelf that needed something... it needed a colorful rock. He was so excited. He brought his rocks with him the next time we were out and he gave me the special "friends-and-family discount" (a $2 rock for half price - what a steal!). It was a tough choice, but here is the one that he and I decided would look best on my shelf:

McDonald's

I realize that I am very easily entertained, but I thought this was rather funny.

I have started taking my family members out for a birthday dinner (some times a week... or month... late. But who cares when someone else is buying your dinner, right?). Then I interview them and post the interview on our family website. Anyway, my little niece Lilian wanted to go to this little restaurant called "Max and Cheese" that had little kid meals like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And the tables were game boards to play on while you ate. Sounded really fun, but it isn't nearly as fun when it closed about 5 months earlier.

So, what was Lilian's second choice? "McDonald's!" of course. After we ordered our food, the cute girl behind the counter asked for my name, which I said and she wrote it on the receipt. I didn't happen to look at the receipt at first, but when I heard her call out "Dicky" several times I realized she meant me.

Ivy House Girls

Once upon a time there was a house, a cute little red brick house with ivy growing all over the front entrance. There were 6 girls who claimed "The Ivy House" as their humble abode and had many a happy memory created within its walls. There were late night talks, Sunday dinners, camp outs in the front room near the swamp cooler, bean bags wars, "Orange Colored Skies" dances, back flips over the couch, clogging (though never after 11 pm...who clogs after 11 pm?), concerts with wooden spoon microphones, roommate prayers, and life long friendships. Truly, good, good times were had in that little house.

Well, years later, those roommates are still friends, though we don't get to see each other near as much as we'd like to. We did have a weekend to catch up. We went to see Erin perform in "The Savior of the World" and then stayed at the Marriot. For Christmas a few years ago Betsy, one of the Ivy House girls, gave us all a sign that read "Together is a wonderful place to be." And so it is.

So, while at the Marriot we were a little crowded, but Erin was able to strap herself in for the night in order to save on space. Bless her heart!

Here is a very natural, candid shot of Betsy and Erin casually catching up.

Oh, wait, here's the candid one...
I realize that this was months ago, but the memories of good friends are never to old to keep me feeling happy in heart and mind. Ahhh, good times indeed.

So, this post is dedicated to some of those good friends, the Ivy House Girls: Karen, Erin, Betsy, Jenny, Caroline, and Vicki.