Hello, family!

I just chatted with my mom, fresh from Brooke's birthday (she was cute as a button and loved her garden tools set), Courtney's baptism (Courtney Rose mostly slept) and the Bice Family Reunion, where this very blog received some good press from Unkie. Perhaps this entry is being read by a first-timer. If so, welcome! I hear my recent pickpocketing incident prompted a lot of discussion. Feel free to leave comments about your own experiences of theft. Read, enjoy and check out the archives. I'll admit I sometimes don't think about my audience enough. I treat this like a diary instead. I'm trying to correct that and become more entertaining.

Well, to catch you up from the last post, the field day went just fine. I brought bubbles and various bubble wands. The kids acted too cool for them for a while, but before you knew it, they were blowing bubbles and running around waving the wands. And remember that day when I felt like curling up on the floor and crying? Well it turns out I'm sick, and as y'all know, when I get sick I get emotional. So that explains that. The doctor gave me some medicine and I should be fine quite soon.

I have just three days of school left, and I'm so excited for summer vacation! I'm also excited about coming back to Iowa from July 14 to August 14 (from Unkie and Helen's party to the Iowa State Fair). I'm bummed that I'll miss the State Fair sheep show, but I need some time to prepare for the new school year.

I'm so excited about coming home that I'm already mentally packing, and occassionally break into my Iowa Medley, much to the amusement/annoyance of my friends. "We are from Ioway...Ioway! Heart of all the land...joy in every hand. We are from Ioway, Ioway! That's where the tall corn grows.//Oh, there's nothing halfway about the Iowa way to treat you, when we treat you, which we may not do at all. There's an Iowa kind of special chip-on-the-shoulder attitude we've never been without, that we recall. We can be cold as our falling thermometer in December if you ask about our weather in July. And we're so by God stubborn we can stand touchin' noses for a week at a time and never see eye-to-eye. But we'll give you our shirt and a back to go with it if your crops should happen to die. So, what the heck, you're welcome, glad to have you with us, even though we may not ever mention it again. You really ought to give Iowa, Hawkeye Iowa, you ought to give Iowa a try!"