I have been blessed with not one, but TWO, incredible families

I moved to Massachusetts 11 years ago this August. When I decided to move out here I didn't know a soul except for the fact that my 10th grade yearbook advisor from Arkansas had moved here. I looked her up - never knowing if they even still lived in Massachusetts - and not only did she remember me but they invited me to come stay with them.

My senior year of college I came out here for spring break to look for a place to live. When I moved out here the following June I lived in their basement for 2 months while I waited to get into my condo. Their daughters took part in our wedding and Deb and Michael threw us a wonderful post-wedding brunch the day after our wedding.

Their daughters - Shani and Kristen - have become my little sisters. They have become my "East Coast" family. They have become another set of grandparents to my children. I am so blessed to have them in my life.

But it never hit me just how included we have been in their family until last night. I've always felt loved and included but this was different. We co-host the Derby party with them every year and they introduce me as their daughter. We've always been tight and have taken part in family events. Like I said, they played a big part in our wedding - not only by throwing us a brunch but also acting as "host and hostess" at the wedding.

Last night was Michael's retirement party. He is retiring from his position here in Massachusetts and has accepted a new job in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The party was put on by the people he works with. It was a great evening.

The evening was to be for co-workers and his family. It didn't surprise me that they had us added to the guest list but it did sort of surprise me that we were at the head table. That's right. The table of honor. It blew me away. Lincoln and I sat there with Deb and Michael, Shani, and Michael's wonderful children from his previous marriage. (Kristen was out of town on a previously planned graduation trip.) I have never felt so honored.

I have loved and respected and cherished them for so many years but I have never felt so loved and cherished as I did last night.

I am proud to be part of that family and I can't thank them enough for letting me - and my husband and children - into to their lives all of these years.

Houdini

Tonight we had Kristen's graduation party at the bowling alley. Right as we left the house a major thunderstorm started. I felt terrible leaving Leo in his crate because he is terrified of thunder but I figured it would be better for him to be in his crate at the house then for him to be terrified in the back of our car.

We had a great night at Pinz and we all had fun bowling. After we finished bowling the "grown ups" went home (i.e. my East Coast parents and Deb's parents) and Link, Hannah, Jake and I played laser tag with Shani, Kristen, and Erika. What a blast! We had so much fun.

After laser tag we played in the arcade for awhile and when we got in the car at the end of the night Hannah informed me it was one of the best nights of her entire life. I have to say, I would agree. We really had a great time as a family and as an extended family. I really do love the Walkers as my own and we are so blessed to be a part of their family.

But I digress, this post started out about Houdini.

We had to leave Leo home in his crate by himself. By the time we got home I was very anxious to get in the house and let him out of his crate. Well guess who met me at the door? That's right, the individual who I thought was locked in a crate in another room. He did pretty good though. Other than tearing up some paper that was near his bed in the office he didn't really do anything to the house. Considering he's a 9-month old puppy I think we're pretty lucky.

But......we still obviously need to get a padlock for his crate.

Time flies

When I first met Kristen I was in the 10th grade, her mother was my teacher, and she was one year old.

Tonight I'm going to her high school graduation.

What the heck were they thinking?

Today is my "little sister's" 18th birthday. Shani and Kristen are the daughter of my very good friends Deb and Michael Walker. Deb was my high school yearbook advisor when we lived in Arkansas when I was in 10th grade.

We moved to Arkansas when I turned 15 and was entering the 10th grade. The first class that I went to was Yearbook which was taught by Mrs. Walker. Some of my closest friends that I made in high school were in that class or the class period immediately before it which was Newspaper. At the end of the year my friends Sheri and Andrea and I went over to Mrs. Walker's house to work on the end-of-year slideshow. Sheri and Andrea were the co-editors of the yearbook and Andrea and I were putting together the slideshow. That was the night I first met Shani and Kristen who would have been 2 and 1 years old, respectively, at the time.

Following my sophomore year of high school Deb and the girls moved to Massachusetts where her husband Michael had already moved for his job. In October of my junior year of high school Andrea, who was a senior, found a "buy one, get one free" airfare deal and we decided that we would fly up to Boston to visit Mrs. Walker. We called her and found out they'd be around that weekend and, with the permission of our parents, bought the tickets and flew up to Boston for a 4-day weekend.

Here's where it gets a little crazy. It seemed normal to me at the time but as a parent now I think my parents must have been smoking crack.

I was 16 years....barely! I was flying with a girl who was only a year older than me to visit a huge East Coast city that they had never been to and didn't know anything about much less anyone who lived there. And we were visiting a teacher that I'm thinking they had probably only met at Open House and her husband who they had never met. What the hell? I am so, so, so glad they allowed me to go on that trip because it was one of the best experiences of my life and a huge reason why I moved to Boston after college but seriously, what were they thinking?

I lost touch with Mrs. Walker not long after that but I remembered that the last time I had talked to her she told me they had moved out of their apartment in Marlborough and to a town that was equal distance between Boston's Logan Airport and Providence's T.F. Green Airport....a distinctly important thing since flying out of Logan back then meant dealing with the Big Dig and was to be avoided whenever possible. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the town.

When I was a senior in college I didn't know what I was going to do after graduation. My parents had moved to Milwaukee between my sophomore and junior years of college. My sisters lived in Seattle. At the time I had no desire to move to Minneapolis but Milwaukee wasn't really home and Seattle never really did it for me as a city. I decided I would move to Boston and give it a try for a few years.

So what did I do? I got on the Internet and looked up all the Michael and/or Deb Walkers to be found in Massachusetts, got out a map, and used pins to mark all the cities where they lived. I then found the one that was equal distance between Boston and Providence and called them up out of the blue. The conversation went something like this:

Deb: Hello.

Me: Hi. Is this Mrs. Walker?

Deb: Yes.

Me: Deborah Walker?

Deb: Yes.

Me: The Deborah Walker that taught at Jacksonville High School?

Deb: Yes. (At this point she was starting to draw out the "yes" and I could tell she was wondering who the crazy person was on the phone.)

Me: Hi! It's Diane Lentz.

Deb: Oh my...hi!!!! How are you doing?

And so it began. I flew out for Spring Break that year to look for a place to live and ended up moving into their basement for two months while waiting to move into a condo that I had found in the same town.

And that is how their daughters became my little sisters and they became my other parents and the reason I met Lincoln and got married and had Jake and Hannah.

But seriously, what the hell were my parents thinking?

Just one of the carnies

Every year over the 4th of July Franklin holds their town carnival. Papa Michael is the co-chair of the carnival and usually also runs the booth sponsored by the Franklin Democratic Committee. This year his daughter Kristen is pretty much in charge of the booth. Every year Lincoln and I volunteer to help at the booth which sells bottled water, pizza, and calzones. While Lincoln and I work the booth Shani takes the kids around on all the rides. She works out a deal with the real carnies that in exchange for food they let her (and the kids) go on rides for free. It's a great deal. Today Hunter, Tracy, and Cheryl joined us and the kids had a blast. Here is a picture of Hannah and Hunter on "The Crazy Bus" ride.

While the kids had a blast, and Jake was even excited that he was tall enough to go on the swing ride right before we left, it didn't end on the best note. Jake ended up throwing up in the car on the way home. Luckily he made it into the trash bucket so there wasn't any real mess. Obviously we need to keep him off the wild wides for awhile. Hannah, on the other hand, LOVES them. She's quite the little daredevil at the carnival.

Here is a picture of Jake and Hannah on the ride that eventually did Jake in....

The lost photos of Lincoln's camera

Usually I carry our camera in my purse and I'm the one to take all of our pictures. Lincoln carries our old camera with him but I never actually think about the fact that he uses it. Tonight he took the pictures of the kids cuddling on the floor so I started flipping through his memory card and found these two delightful photos of Jake. I'm not sure when they were taken or what Jake was doing but I thought they were both adorable.

I also came across a bunch of photos that he took at the Kentucky Derby Party that we do with the Walker's each year. This year I had to miss the Derby Party because I flew out to Seattle for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. It was the first time that I had missed the Derby party in the 10 years I've been living out here. Michael always rents ponies for the kids to ride so here are a few pictures that Lincoln took that day. I just saw these for the first time when I was going through his memory card.

Busy weekend

The last few days have been incredibly busy. Friday night Hannah, Tracy, Hunter, and I went to the Brad Paisley concert down at the Comcast Center. It was a great show and I highly recommend going to see him if you're a country fan. Hunter is a huge fan of Brad Paisley and knew all the words to the songs. He just sat there with the most mesmerized look on his face the entire time. Hannah is less thrilled with concerts but I think she had a fun time anyway.

Saturday morning Hannah had Little League and it was a beautiful sunny day. The kids played a good game although now that it is kid pitch they don't actually do much hitting which is rather unfortunate. The other team had a pitcher yesterday who threw a great fast ball but didn't have much control. Unfortunately he took out a few kids in the process. Hannah got a nice hard ball on the hip but luckily she just shook it off and took her base. She is usually such a baby when it comes to injuries but when she's playing with the boys she does a great job of taking everything in stride.

Saturday afternoon Hannah, Tracy, and I hung out at the pool. Hannah and I are still the only two that are willing to brave the cold water but we all had a great time just hanging out and enjoying the sun. Jake is definitely going to grow up to be just like his father. He kept coming out and asking us if we wanted lemonade and then he'd bring us out a glass. Then he wanted to serve us something "on a tray" so he took our orders for snacks and brought them out to us. It was a very fancy bowl of Cheez-its and cheese and crackers. He will make a GREAT husband someday.

Saturday evening Kristen came up to babysit and Lincoln and I headed out for dinner and then to see Kathy Griffin at the Wang CitiCenter before going to a late showing of The Hangover at the movie theater. The "double feature" date was us taking advantage of having a babysitter that we didn't have to worry about wanting us to rush home. Kristen just ended up crashing here and heading home in the morning. Today was supposed to be Hannah's last day of Little League, and my day to work the snack shack at the baseball fields, but luckily it poured rain all night and has continued on and off all day. Instead of baseball we're all spending a quiet day at home. The kids are playing Clue in the next room, Lincoln is doing laundry, and I'm working on getting our stuff organized for our upcoming trip to Martha's Vineyard.

This week is Hannah's last week of 2nd grade. It's hard to believe she's going to be a 3rd grader next year. She has class on Monday, a field day on Tuesday, and a half day on Wednesday and that's it for 2nd grade. I remember her starting kindergarten like it was just the other day. Times flies by way too fast.

Graduation weekend

Yesterday my little sister graduated. She's not my biological little sister but she's pretty darn close. When I was living in Arkansas in the 10th grade I had a yearbook advisor by the name of Mrs. Walker. After my 10th grade year she moved to Boston with her husband Michael. When I graduated from college and decided to move out here I looked them up. I stayed with them during Spring Break of my senior year and then moved into their basement for 2 months when I first got out here. They are my east coast family.

When I was in 10th grade Deb and Michael's daughters were 1 and 2 years old. When I moved out here in 1999 they were 7 and 8. When Lincoln and I got married they were both in our wedding. It is so hard to believe that Shani just graduated from high school and Kristen will be graduating next year. Shani is actually headed out to L.A. for college so we're really going to miss her.

Last night we attended Shani's graduation at the high school and then went out to dinner with the family. Tonight Kristen and their half sister Erika threw her a surprise graduation party at a local bowling alley. Everyone had a great time and the kids were excited because they hadn't gotten to go with us last night. They absolutely love hanging out with the Walker's.

It's hard to believe that Hannah will be graduating in 10 years. Time flies by so fast. These girls used to be babies. I met them when I was a sophomore in high school and now they are graduating. That is just insane.

Tomorrow is Derby Day!

Ever since I moved out to Massachusetts I've been celebrating the Kentucky Derby with the Walker's.  It's a fantastic party and there is also some fun betting.  Nothing too serious but still a lot of fun.  I don't put a lot of thought into which horses I bet on.  Usually I pick the ones with cool names.  This year one of the best names is actually the horse favored to win so I'm pretty excited about that.  The favorite is I Want Revenge.  I'll be putting down some money on him tomorrow.

A very productive day

Today has been pretty productive. Not only is the weather nice and therefore we can get some yard work done, but I've also been plugging away at the house. Mom and Dad are coming to visit in a week and a half and I want the house to look nice when they come. Usually I don't put too much effort into prepping for their arrival because Mom always cleans my house while she's here anyway (thanks Mom!) but we did so much re-arranging and re-decorating over the holiday break that I want to make sure the house looks nice when they get here. Unfortunately I won't be able to do much cleaning next weekend right before their arrival so I have to get it all done this weekend.

Next weekend is going to be a CRAZY busy weekend. Not only is it the weekend of the Kentucky Derby (on Saturday), and the infamous Derby party with the Walkers, but it's also the beginning of Hannah's little league season, with both practice and team pictures (on Sunday). It's also the annual Loyalty Day parade. That and a million other things are going on that weekend. Like I said, there will be NO time for cleaning the house.

Just for the record, I'm only 30

Yesterday Tracy and I were talking about the teachers that our kids have next year. She was asking if I knew anything about Mrs. Warren which is who Hunter has. I said that she's young and blonde but Tracy thought she was a brunette. Hannah had Mrs. Warren for Healthy Living last year so we asked her.

Me: Hannah, is Mrs. Warren blonde or brunette?

Hannah: Blonde

Me: Is she young? About my age? Or is she younger?

Hannah: Yeah. She's 36.

Me: Hannah Grace! I am only 30!

This also ties in well with a conversation I had with Kristen Walker last summer right after I turned 30. I took Hannah, Kristen, and Shani to go see the Aly & AJ concert with Corbin Bleu and Drake Bell. I told them I felt old being there since they're all Disney Radio stars. Kristen's response was: "You're not old. It's not like you're 30 or anything!" Just for the record, Kristen was 15 at the time.

Mommy is an addict

This morning when I came downstairs Lincoln and Hannah were playing Super Mario Brothers 3. Hannah asked me to play because she wanted to watch me do what I did last night but I told her I just couldn't. I can't get drawn back into that again. I still can't believe I spent 4 hours on it last night. It went by really fast. I know if I start to play again I'll get sucked right back into it. Hannah is such an enabler.

Instead I worked on some PTO stuff I've been putting off and then went down to Franklin and worked another 2 hours in the booth for the Walker's. After that Lincoln and the kids and I went to lunch. Tonight Tracy and I are getting together for a few drinks and to hang out sans kids for a little while. We've been hoping for a little sun this weekend so they could all come over and hang out in the pool but it looks like it's going to be a pretty cloudy, rainy weekend.

Jake the Waterboy

Today Lincoln and I had our shift selling pizza and calzones at the Franklin Democratic Town Committee booth again. Shani and Kristen took the kids around on the carnival rides and played all sorts of games. Even with all the wheeling and dealing the kids were doing exchanging free pizza with the carnies for free rides, they still spent $80 today. I guess that's our contribution to the Democratic party for right now - our time for $80 worth of carnival crap.

At the booth we were also selling water. Jake was getting bored with going around the carnival so he came in to help us. He had a huge Rubbermaid tote to stand on and whenever anyone ordered water he'd bend over and get one out of the large Rubbermaid garbage bin full of ice and water. He had no problem digging his hands into the ice and melted water and he had a blast. Here is a picture of him and Lincoln selling water. I realize in this picture that it sort of looks like we're set up in a little tent village but it's actually a pretty elaborate, and classy, set up. Unfortunately it has been raining on and off all week so there are a lot of tarps up.

Hard working woman

Tonight was my first shift working the Democratic Town Committee booth at the Franklin 4th of July carnival. Michael Walker-Jones is in charge of it and whenever Lincoln and I are in town for the 4th we volunteer to take a couple of shifts to help them out. To be honest, we haven't helped them in a couple of years. I signed up for a 3 hour shift tonight and tomorrow both Lincoln and I are working a 4 hour shift. So that's 7 hours for me of selling pizza, calzones, and bottled water. It was pretty busy tonight because it was also the Franklin fireworks so there were lots of people there. I like when it's busy though because it makes the time go by much faster.

Now I'm off to bed so I can get up and do it all over again tomorrow.

The horses not bet on...Damn it!

Yesterday was our trip to the Belmont Stakes. Neither Lincoln nor I have ever been to the races before so it was an entirely new experience for both of us. There was a total of 13 races and the program with all the horse information was a wee bit overwhelming. I have absolutely no scientific method for how I pick the horses other than the names that I like or think are interesting. It worked okay for me yesterday. I bet $75 total and won $56 so I was only down $19 for the day. Three things could have turned that around for me.

1) I bet a lot of money on Big Brown (My biggest individual bet of $16). It was stupid because even if he won, it wouldn't have paid out more than $20 or so. But at least it would have gotten me back into the black for the day. Of course, he didn't win. I should have played it smart and bet on some of the other horses because that was the big payout. And the one that I considered betting on, based on the name Da' Tara which in my scientific way of thinking is a lot like Tara from Gone with the Wind, actually won.....and paid out $79 for a $2 bet. Damn it!

2) I bet a Superfecta Key with Big Brown in first place with Denis of Cork, Da' Tara, and Ready's Echo rounding out the top four positions. Well, Da' Tara, Denis of Cork, Anak Nakal, and Ready's Echo took the top four (in that order) so I was close...but no cigar. Big Brown came in dead last. Damn it!

3) I didn't think we were staying around for races 12 and 13 so I didn't bet anything. At the last minute, because Michael and Shani decided to go down to the Paddock one more time, I thought about betting on Roll the Di in Race 12 but decided that I was already $19 in the hole so why make it $21? Well guess what....Roll the Di won and paid out $26.50 on a $2 bet. Damn it!

Those are a lot of "damn its" but I would say we definitely had a great time. Great company, great experience, great fun....but no great riches. Oh well. I'll have pictures to post later but I left the camera card reader at the office so I'll have to do it later this week.

Today we're off to the Red Sox game with Lincoln's brother's family. His niece turned 10 this past month so we got her tickets to her first Sox games as a gift. Of course this means our 2nd day at a sporting event in 95 degree heat. You'd think it was August around here!

Derby Day is Done

Yesterday was the annual Kentucky Derby party that we co-host with the Walkers and the Walker-Joneses. It was a huge success despite the poor weather. It ended up being cool (only in the 40's most of the day) but luckily the rain held off for the most part. Every now and then it drizzled but that never deterred the kids from playing outside. Michael hired ponies to come and the kids rode them for a couple of hours.

The outside games that Lincoln had purchased the day before were also put to use. For the most part the adults stayed in the house but luckily it never seemed too crowded. We had pushed the couch up against the wall and taken the coffee table upstairs to open up the room and that really helped. I never got an official count but I think we had at least 50 people here yesterday.

The food, as usual, was fantastic and the Walker's really out did themselves. Deb has passed down her super secret Mac 'n Cheese recipe to her girls and this year was Kristen's first time on her own. All 3 of her pans of mac 'n cheese were gobbled up before you could blink an eye. We also had ribs, pulled pork, chicken, and deep-fried turkey. And those were just the entrees.

Plus, I won $13 on Big Brown so it was a good day all around.

P.S. Mom and Dad, I know when you cleaned out the closet while you stayed at my house last month that you said not to buy any more paper products. Luckily I ignored your suggestion and went out and bought 4 more packages of plates. We went through those, two more that we had in the basement, plus all our odds 'n ends as well. Hopefully everyone had enough to drink by the end that they didn't think it was strange they were eating dessert on Finding Nemo and Christmas plates.

1 day til D-Day!

Tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby! Every year on the 1st Saturday in May the Kentucky Derby is held at Churchill Downs and the Derby party to end all Derby parties is co-hosted by The Walkers and us. Really the Walkers do all the work and we just provide the house and the alcohol. It's an unfair balance but they do such a great job at the food that it would be a shame to try and top them. There will be ribs, fried turkey, mac 'n cheese, pulled pork, and lots more. They also do mint juleps and whiskey sours from scratch. We have ponies for the kids to ride and the race itself for the adults. Kids and adults alike have a great time. Above is a picture of Hannah at the end of last year's Derby party. If a child's amount of fun can be determined by the amount of dirt on them at the end of the day, than Hannah had a really, really good time last year.