School's Out for Summer!!!

Olivia is so happy to be able to put behind her fourth year of teaching!!! For those of you who remember junior high days/your first Spanish class and enjoy a good David Letterman Show, we have compiled a top 10 list of things that Olivia will not miss for the next two months....

10. Unwarrented, unfair insults
9. Coming home with tiny pieces of paper and paper clips in her pockets
8. Reading Graffiti...everywhere
7. Greeting adolescents who arrive fresh from gym class
6. Consuming 20-minute lunches
5. Hitting "Snooze" on the 5:30 a.m. wake-up alarm
4. Intercepting, Picking up, and Finding Paper balls
3. Listening to he phrase "Puedo ir al bano, por favor?" spoken in various degrees of fluent pronunciation
2. Seeing, hearing, or touching anything with an alligator, gata, or gator on it
1. WORKING!!!

The Last Dance

So, Kristi Yamaguchi took home the trophy tonight on "Dancing with the Stars," which means our Monday and Tuesday nights just got really boring again. We will have to find another show to consume us for the two hours each night we watched people dance. We were happy with the outcome, though.
Here is a clip of Kristi and her dance partner, Mark, performing the jive, our favorite dance they did all season. Before the dance is some recap stuff — in case you missed the season. Enjoy! 

Joke's On Me!

Wouldn't you be excited to receive this in the mail? Olivia thought she was one of the lucky people to have received her stimulus payment today. It arrived in thin, smaller-than-letter size packaging...just the thing to hold, say, a stimulus check. It was actually only a notice to say that her payment would be arriving later this week.

déjà vu: this baby makes two!

We're so excited about the upcoming addition to the Linares family! We missed the official announcement that was made at Victoria's first birthday party (Cortney said she and Fico gave her an "I'm a big sister" T-shirt). Baby # 2 will be here around Christmas, and we can't wait to meet the next dimple-cheeked bundle of joy.

Here is a picture of Cortney and Fico at a baby shower before Victoria was born.

Congratulations, y'all!

Moving Out

Karen and Jimmy's house in Culkin will be the first abode where Eric Brown (our friend who works at The Vicksburg Post) and his new bride, Brooke, will live starting in January of 2009. The house is nearly 100 years old and needs some sprucing up before the soon-to-be Browns call it home.

Located on Mullens Drive, this house has been in Jimmy Mullen's family for a long time.  We look forward to visiting the porch on days when we are not on our own!


This room was purple, but, of course, Eric wanted it BROWN.  Kathleen Miles, renowned for her own decorating skills, joined our Tuesday night painting party.  



What would a dream house be without a dream catcher?

Meanwhile in Bovina.....

Tom and Emily, our neighbors and friends who have lived about two blocks away from us until now, are moving more than seven miles away into a house they are currently renovating.  We caught them in action when we went to look at the new digs they purchased this week.  

Emily and Tom hope that painting the ceiling of their garage light blue will deter dirt-dobbers from the need to nest there.  Time will tell...

Sessums & the City

Our friend, Karole Sessums, recently showed us an article her brother, Kevin Sessums, author of "Mississippi Sissy," wrote on Sarah Jessica Parker. The excitement here is two-fold. For one, we met him when he did a book-signing at the H.C. Porter Gallery downtown, where Olivia now works after school. Lauchlin also wrote an article about Kevin when his book was published.
Here's a picture of Karole and Kevin.
Also, we are very excited about "Sex & the City: The Movie." So, we thought we'd share the article he wrote.

Kevin's article

Pool Time

We had great weather for our first weekend with the pool! Since it was Mother's Day weekend, Lauchlin's mom was in town. She brought May over to help us break-in the pool. We grilled out by the pool Saturday with Janie and the Spanglers.
Olivia and May playing mermaids.

May wore herself out swimming.

Here's a video of Ellen and the pool. So cute!