Celebration Time!

Barclay's wonderful department here at WIU held a celebration in honor of our baby girl this past weekend. Donna & DeWayne were up from Alabama for the weekend, so they were also in attendance. We had a grand time hanging out. One thing that he said from the first time he visited here (and I agreed the first time I hung out last spring) is that his dept. has some great folks. His former chair, and Southern historian, Larry, loves to joke with us about being Southern. His latest was that we "needed" a blue tick hound in celebration of our new offspring. What Southern home is complete without one of these? (He also asked Barclay if he was bringing "a can of fatback" for the can food drive. Nice.) He's pretty funny. The new chair, Ginny B., as she is called (there are 3-4 Jen or Ginnys in the dept.) is great with kids. She gave L. some great books as "big brother" gifts. And she supplies the toys-to-play-with at these events. Ginny G., or "Grandma Ginny," as she is known to us, is a grandma, and therefore knows how to interact with even a tired or hungry toddler. There are so many more...and I know I'll forget someone, so I'll stop there and say that we are extremely thankful for all those people and for our gifts (several hundred dollars in Target gift cards + many "big brother" gifts). The party was great. Also, I want to give a "shout out" to Nichole and the Oden-Shabazz family , who attended as friends. Thanks for celebrating our new one. Many other friends were invited, but thanks to the flu, were not able to make it.