world's biggest pizza

To celebrate my birthday, mom ordered a bit of pizza from The Pie, my favorite pizza place back in the day when I was a starving student. It was the biggest pizza ever. The 3' square pizza box took up the entire kitchen counter.

Amy Hale made birthday cake. I think darling Suzanna helped with the frosting, or at least the tasting of the frosting.

I flew home that night to have Missy pick me up at the airport and be home with Becca and Miss for the last of another great birthday.

Sherri

there and back again

So my darling husband was home for a week to attend Becca's graduation, mow the lawn (twice), catch up on his sleep and BBQ duties. He's back in Indiana now, heading for Ohio, Georgia, and then California before he comes home at the end of July. Of course, he has some amazing stories of places he's been - Churchill Downs, Louisville Slugger Museum, Annapolis waterfront. I'm sure you all get tired of my sleepless-night postings when he is gone from home, but dang it all, I'm tired, too.

Becca and Kristen were both darling graduates. Ryan, Megan and Trey joined us at the ceremony as well as Missy, Chantz and Lindsay. I am thrilled to have all my little ducklings through the public school system. On to the next phase.

But before the actual graduation, I dropped over to SLC for a bit. Mom had another surgery on her knee, and Grandma Farrell was staying there at the house. Seemed like a good time to head over, walk the dog a few times, play chauffeur, pick up a few groceries and some late-night Häagen-Dazs for the household. Bonus points: got to see Brad and Susan and their darling Hale-mob as well as Lor and Jer and their own little Wangsgard-mob. Scott and Amy even showed up, Amy with the kids first and then Scott from his interview in Washington D.C.

I also had the opportunity to spend much of my birthday with Grandma Farrell. We took her little dog to the groomer and then went by her house to pick up a few more of her things and some clothes. She took me to lunch at Sandy's for my birthday, and everywhere we went, she would introduce me and tell people it was my birthday. She told me all kinds of stories about her and Grandpa, about her friends and people she knew, about living in Ohio and traveling in the military. She is truly an amazing woman, and I enjoyed every minute.

I love my family. When we were all little, family was sometimes all we had. Sibs. Cousins. Grandparents. Maybe that's what made our bond that much stronger. I think it comes from the combination of our nomadic moving, and Papa and Grandma's clear and often exuberant dedication to the family structure. Oh sure, we've always scrapped with each other, hurt each other's feelings, drifted. But faced with a challenge, we have proven to come together for each other. Time and time again.

My hope is that my own children, all of them, feel loved like that. I know that I felt very loved throughout this latest visit to Utah. And I know that I feel loved here at home. Family love crosses state lines and is also wireless. And having Rick out of town just means that we have to hang out on the phone for the entire hour of Deadliest Catch so that we still get to "watch" it together. That's what I'm talking about.

Sherri

Becca and Scott are graduates!

Becca decided late last summer that she wanted to graduate a year early. I told her if she did all the footwork, I would support her. She has done an amazing job, and on June 18, she will graduate from the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics - a full year early. She has taken college classes before and after her regular high school day in order to double her credits this year, and it has required tremendous focus and sustained effort from Becca.

I am so proud of her.

On Wednesday last week, Becca presented her project to an open group and then to the school panel and defend her thesis. Missy and I attended. Becca was nervous, but I doubt anyone could tell - I could, but I'm her mother. She did a fabulous job. She was clear, her ideas were concise and detailed, and she smiled and answered the questions directly and with concrete examples and explanations. I almost cried, and I'm not much of a public crier.

Becca's senior project began as a research paper about darkroom techniques lost in the "progress" of digital photography. The final art component is a series of 15 portraits, three sets using various darkroom manipulation or printing techniques - one of which involves fire and may have set off the school fire alarms judging by the response from her faculty advocates when she talked about that one. The final show is on display at the school.

Literally as soon as she was done, we jumped in the car and drove to Seattle to pick up Uncle Brad at the SeaTac airport and get to Amy and Seth's house. Uncle Scott defended his PhD thesis on Thursday at the University of Washington.

At the university, Scott appeared calm despite the full gallery. Except that his pointer beam danced all over the screen for the first 10 minutes of his presentation. We learned all about Tolerance Induction in Peripheral CD4+ T cells through RAG-dependent TCR Revision. And if you ever have any questions about bi-transgenic mice, Uncle Scott is your man. Plus, now we can call him "Dr. Fatty."

The post-presentation reception was packed. Either graduate students were really excited about all those RAG-dependent T cells, or they were really hungry. Actually, I think they all just liked Scott. I met some very nice students and faculty who spoke highly of my little brother and his

work. He appears to have made a positive impact on this place at the university. To honor him, those geeky scientists made ice cream using liquid nitrogen poured right into the mix to freeze it. And topped it off with Scott's favorite root beer. How cool is that?!

After a brief campus walking tour, we all went out to dinner at Ray's Boathouse in Ballard. Excellent seafood. And chicken, for those of us who don't eat fish (Becca). The restaurant overlooks the Locks of Seattle, so it was a veritable parade of boats during dinner, and one sea lion.

In the company of my family, we ate a lot of food, told a lot of story, and at one point, I laughed until I cried. Brad says when his kids introduce him, they say, "This is our dad. He's never had a serious day in his life." And I believe it.

Mom did extraordinarily well considering she had major knee-replacement surgery just over a week ago. She even let Brad and Scott wheel her around the UW campus in a wheelchair. I think we wore her out a bit, but it was good to see her recovering so well.

I am proud of both my daughter and my brother and love them dearly. Congratulations to them for all their hard work.

The Momgoose