A 2nd place...beauty?

"Pauline Valentine"

"Michelle Jackson" and "Pauline"

I am so...proud? My hunny was the 2nd runner-up in the pageant. Sorry the pictures aren't any better, but I could not get a good shot of him (her?) Every time I'd snapped, he'd (she'd) move. After the pageant was over, I did get a picture of "Pauline" with "Michelle Jackson", who was the 1st runner up. Again, this isn't the best of pictures, but I caught John just as he was disrobing, and I had to make him re-dress. I knew asking them to go to a place where there was more light was out of the question. LOL "Michelle" is Leroy, one of John's techs in the x-ray dept. I have a feeling the x-ray dept. will take a good ribbing on Monday. :)

Even though John wasn't really looking forward to doing this, he did end up having a good time. I knew he would because he can make the best of even the worst of situations. Two of his former employees are cancer survivors, so he did this for them.

Fortunately, no one in our immediate families has been stricken with this dreadful disease (or at least no one that I know of), but we know so many people who have been. My (step)daughters lost both their maternal grandfather and an uncle to cancer, and their (step)father is currently battling the disease. My very dear friend Karen is watching both her father and an aunt as they begin their battles with lung cancer. My best friend's mom is a survivor of breast cancer, as is one of my mom's best friends. Another of my mom's best friends lost her life to ovarian cancer (I think it was ovarian) a couple of years ago. Two of my co-workers were given the horrible diagnosis of Wilm's Tumor when their daughter was 7 months old. Thankfully, Ivey is a very healthy and happy 3rd grader today. You'd never know she'd been sick. One of our retired special education aides is a breast cancer survivor. Of course, many people in bloggerland have been touched by the loss of Tuesday last week. I've thought of her family and friends all day. I hope the celebration of her life went perfectly this morning. And of course, my bloggy friend Mary will be taking her son Dennis in for a oncology appointment soon, and I pray for a continued clear report. I know I could go on and on, but we all get the picture. Whether we have received the diagnosis or not, we all know someone who has. As one of the contestants said last night, cancer doesn't care about age, race, sex, or religion. I guess we could call it an equal opportunity disease.

I hope a cure is found. Soon!

It is an absolutely gorgeous day here. The sun is shining, there are no clouds to be seen, and the temperature is perfect. I'm letting in all that delicious, fresh air. Once the oven is cleaned, I'm gonna go play!

Have a GREAT Saturday!

♥