Indianapolis 500 Parade

Florence Henderson is rumored to be 77 years old, but in her case it is years young.







Kellie Pickler took part in festivities surrounding this weekend's Indianapolis 500. She debuted her new single, "Tough," at the Parade.





Fuel game costs Patrick yet another win at Indy. : - (((



Jim Nabors will never be as old as he looks.



Anderson Cooper was named as Grand Marshal. Guess what? He was second choice. They first asked Donald Trump, but certain people didn't like it that Donald wanted to see the birth certificate. It went something like this: INDIANAPOLIS - A groundswell of pressure is starting to build on Indianapolis 500 officials to dump Donald Trump as pace car driver at this month's race.

A Facebook page has rallied more than 7,500 supporters who have placed calls or posted comments on social media sites of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, corporate sponsor IZOD and Chevrolet, sponsor of the pace car program.

They want Trump, well, fired. Personally, I wanted to see it too!



Teresa Scanlan--2011 Miss America




She is pretty. I'll give her that and maybe some was Brady's photography, but her butt really is big for a Miss America. I'm just saying. I wasn't close enough to really see her, but Mike was. I asked him if it was really that big and he said yes. If she was Miss USA Donald Trump would have had something to say about that too. Plus, I don't like that dress. It looks 70ish.

I love going to the Indianapolis 500 Parade, and it takes a whole lot for me to miss it. As a matter of fact, I think the only time I've missed it in the last 20 years, was when I was in China. This week we had 3 surgeries, but we still made the parade. I'll post parade pictures later.


For now, I want to shout out a praise to Jesus that Bret's surgery went wonderful! She was burned in China and she has had about 6 cosmetic surgeries. Her surgeon has tried several techniques to deal with some of the burns. I think he did an awesome job this time, and I'm very excited to see the results when she heals up!!!





Bret is such a beauty!!!





Cokie is moving a little slower, because of her broken arm, but she is doing just fine. She also has a head full of staples. She, like Bret, was burned in China. Her teacher this year adores her and stopped by to visit her. He is retiring after 40 years and said he was glad Cokie was one of the last students he taught. He was very good to Cokie this year.






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My nephew, Eliot made all As on his report card. He says he thinks he has figured out how to do it from here on out. I'm so proud of him.




Lyric came in 2nd place in the 2nd grade Spelling Bee!!










My niece Darby.



Bubble blowing is serious business.



My three sons, Brady, Stafan and Shepard. Now I will miss the race. I gave my ticket this year to Brady and good tickets ain't cheap!







My sister with one of her 6 daughters.



Her youngest daughter.



I don't think cousins come any closer.

Where do I begin?

We were getting geared up for Bret and Cokie's surgeries on Tues. Things were right on track. Friday was a beautiful day, so after school Mike decided to take the kids to the park. I stayed home to watch my new favorite TV show "Wind at My Back." He hadn't been gone 15 minutes when he phones and says "Cokie broke her arm!!!" Men lose it. It ended up being her elbow.



Looks like things are under control, but this was after we took her to one hospital and they put her in an ambulance and rushed her to our children's hospital. They said it was a bad break and they were worried about nerve and artery damage.


Lyric is feeding Cokie french fries.



They did surgery at 12:30 am and we stayed up all night. : - ( Well, I came home at 3:00am. Mike stayed, because he is the best Dad ever. Prove it, you say? How many men have adopted 10 kids? And he is crazy about each one of them, although I suspect like a lot of Dads, he sometimes spoils his girls too much and is too hard on his boys.



Back at home her cousin, Darby brings her a frappuccino



Bret is already putting in her dinner order for after her surgery. They know Mike and I will buy them anything they want to eat. It is usually Panda Express. Weirdly, both Bret and Cokie kept going on about wanting beef jerky.



Bret has a knack for making adults like her. Here she is working on a card to give to her doctor. He has done a lot of surgeries on both Bret and Cokie. : - )



Today, he operated on them back to back. Cokie went first. So now Cokie has a brace on her foot, broken arm and who knows how many staples in her head. I'll count them later. : - ) Lael says "Cokie is going to be a strooong woman."









She started out with DQ that her Uncle brought her. Actually, we had already stopped at Panda Express on the way home.



I wanted to blog about the new wing the hospital built. Oh my goodness! It is nice. The room Cokie was in Friday night has two flat screen TVs, private bath with shower, refrigerator, wii and a great view of the city.


If you look to the right side of downtown, you can see Indy's football stadium and the new JW Marriott that was built for the Superbowl next year. Mike worked on the heating and cooling contracts for both buildings, so if you're uncomfortable at the Marriott or a Colts game, you can blame him.



OK, so in the Bible it says when you get to Heaven (if you accept Jesus and I have) you get a crown. Well, I don't want a crown! I want a mansion and I want this green tile!!!!!!!!!!!



The hotel--I mean hospital--is really, really pretty. The huge donor was Simon, which is weird because he is an Obama supporter. People should give because they want to and not because the government makes you.



Sigh...they are drop dead gorgeous. I want another one--no I don't--yes I do.







It was a long day.