Two Peas in A Pod

Dayne HATES sleeping alone so Oz joined her ... he seemed quite content, too!

The Last Lecture

About a year ago Donna (my mother in law) told me about an inspirational man by the name of Randy Pausch. He had been diagnosed with Pancratic cancer and was expected to live just a few months. He was featured on the cover of Parade magazine a short while after she told me about him and I read the article. It was quite inspiring! Long story short .... Randy passed away on July 25th of this year, but not before delivering what has been called "The Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon University. Not only that, he wrote a book (titled the same) as sort of a memoir to his three small children he was leaving behind.

I had the pleasure of reading the book and highly recommend it. He is an excellent writer - very colorful, very detailed, very down to earth and quite funny! And, it's a very quick read - easily done over the course of one weekend.

The Last Lecture (the actual lecture) is about an hour and a half, but worth the time to watch it. If you need something to do on a quiet afternoon, consider watching it. Here is the link: The Last Lecture.

If you do decided to read the book (which is not the same as the lecture) I recommend checking amazon.com since you can buy used books for dirt cheap! (Graden says I am addicted to books and I blame Amazon.com!)

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”—Randy Pausch

Go Hawkeyes!

Gotta give props to the newest and cutest Hawkeye Cheerleader!

Lexi Jo Benham!!

I think she brought them some luck today! They actually won!!

Happy 35th Birthday, Graden!

We were lucky enough to get to have Donna / Nana come for Graden's birthday and stay a few weeks! Although we didn't do many (okay any!) exciting things, it's always great spending time with her.

Donna arrived on the afternoon of Tuesday September 30th and plans to stay a couple weeks with us. We know Gretchen, TJ and Kylie will miss her, but we sure enjoy having her here!

We went to dinner Sunday evening for Graden's birthday dinner, since he will be in VA for his actual birthday on Tuesday. We went to the O.P. (the same chain as in Waterloo/Evansdale/Cedar Falls also has a restaurant in Overland Park, KS - small world considering those are the ONLY cities the Other Place has restaurants!). Donna also made her famous Banana Cake .... mmmmm! I think it is evil cake, really ... because it makes me want to eat it all in one sitting!