And I Think to Myself.....What a Wonderful World: More Proud Than Ever To Be an American!

Did you watch the Olympics opening ceremony last night? One word.....WOW! I don't know how it could ever be topped by any city. Beijing put on a beautiful show and I will not soon forget it. I was so proud to be an American! I also learned alot about other countries and realized how terrible my knowledge of world geography is. There were so many places that I had never even heard of. It also reminded me of how small my world is in the bigger scheme of things. There are so many other cultures, religions, and ethnicity's in the world that I would love to know more about. I am going to try really hard to teach Julia about people who are different from us so that she can think more globally!

This morning, we went to Linton's 2nd birthday at the John Hayden Smith park. This park will always have a special place in my heart because I got to know John Hayden's parents, Johnny and April Smith about 5 years ago when they were raising money to build this park in memory of their precious son John Hayden who died in a tragic accident. I helped them to write several grants to get the walking trail, signs, and other pieces of the park. I was so happy to be there this morning with Julia to enjoy the park and appreciated all of the hard work their family did to make the park a reality. It is beautiful and I know that we will be spending a lot of time there in the future!

Linton is Drs. Stan and Beth Bradshaw's son. He loves Thomas the Train and that was the theme of today's party. The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast!

This is one of my favorite ladies, Ms. Bradshaw (Linton's great-grandmother). Ms. Bradshaw is on the Chamber Board with me and also serves on the Hospital auxiliary. She is a great community leader and such a neat lady. I am so glad that I have gotten to know her better. Julia seems to like sitting on her knee!