I hope you were able to watch Michelle Obama’s speech on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, but if not, you can read the transcript by clicking here. She delivered an excellent speech that aimed to pull at the emotional heart strings of mothers, daughters, wives and the general person in pursuit of the “American Dream” regardless of their race, or background. Her words were very uniting and outlined the struggles she and Barack have overcome and the successes that will allow Barack Obama to be the next president. You could tell how emotional it was for her and the passion behind her words. I was truly touched and found myself wiping the tears away. As a daughter and a wife and a future mother and someone who as a young, African American woman has “beat the odds”, it was just so easy to relate to. I felt really proud to be watching history unfold.

I did listen to what some of the CNN analysts said about the first night being too “soft” and not directly targeting McCain, but I think it was so much more powerful and dignified to focus the attention on Barack Obama and why he should be our president versus why McCain should not. I think Donna Brazile and Hilary Rosen supported the tone of the evening, but some of the other analysts felt it should have been harsher.

Anyway… I look forward to the rest of the convention and am even sadder now that we did not get tickets to Barack’s speech later this week.

And by the way… wasn’t the satellite video exchange at the end between Barack and his two daughters so cute!!

Below is my favorite excerpt from Michelle Obama’s speech:

“And as I tuck that little girl in and her little sister into bed at night, You see I think about how one day, they’ll have families of their own. And one day, they — and your sons and daughters — will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They’ll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, how this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country — where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House — that we committed ourselves, we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.” (that’s where the tears starting rolling)

EDIT: Beow is a video of Michelle Obama’s speech

I think I officially feel “grown” now since the mail these days frequently includes “Save the Dates”, wedding invitations, and baby announcements (not from relatives, but from high school and college friends). The trend of weddings and births is definitely in full swing. Here is he summary:

2006: 1 wedding, 2 births

2007: 7 weddings (including ours), 2 births

2008: 4 weddings, 1 birth, 2 pregnancies

2009: 1 wedding (already set) and I am sure more to come

It’s pretty much an even split between William’s friends and my friends, yet William is having the hardest time adjusting to us getting older. He will still be saying, “I can’t believe Neil has a kid” at Noah’s high school graduation.

I don’t think I mentioned it before, but a photo I took of Invesco Field (Mile High Stadium) was chosen to be posted on Schmap, publisher of free digital travel guides. Well… I received an e-mail yesterday informing me that Schmap guides are now going to be available on the iPhone and iPod touch. She sent me a link to show me what my picture would look like. Check it out!

************Challenge Update**************

William and I did pretty well during our first week of “getting back on track”. He actually won this week, fitting in a workout every single day! I was only able to fit in 3 days of workouts, but I guess 3 is better than 0. This week is not going so well for me. I did some weight training Sunday, but that has been it so far. William and I will be in Jacksonville this weekend to attend his mom’s family reunion, so I am not even going to pretend that I will be working or choosing healthy options this weekend. I think he may be taking a break too, but we will be back on track after the weekend!!!

Happy Father’s Day to our Dad’s…Bill and Larry. We love you and celebrate you on this special day.

Happy Father’s Day also to our friends who are fathers…. Neil, RP, Kyle, Craig (almost).

What a great night!  I am thrilled that Barack Obama has clinched the democratic nomination and will be a candidate for President of the United States.  His speech was great.  I am so excited about feeling so strongly about a candidate and am ready to put my full support behind him.  It is also a great feeling to be part of such a historic moment having the first black candidate to become a major political party nominee.  Wow!  It will be interesting to see what transpires over the next 5 months until election day.  I hope things stay positive and our nation is proud to have someone like Obama as a nominee.

Happy mother’s day to out mothers, Betty and Sandra, and to all of out friends and family members (especially Kyllan’s friend and line sister “CP” who is celebrating her first mother’s day. )

That’s right…. if you forgot from last year, my sister and I have back to back Birthdays, so we get to continue celebrating today.  Happy Birthday Kim!

I would like to wish a very happy birthday to my wife, Kyllan. Luckily our timing worked out pretty well and the two of us were able to celebrate a few days early while she was still in Denver. We tried a new restaurant for dinner, but stuck to one of our regular stops for breakfast. Apparently Kyllan is a fan of Jamaican Jerk Pork Chops. Who knew? For those of you dying to find out, we managed to see Iron Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Baby Mama. I will save my reviews for another post. There are a few photos of our weekend on my Flickr account.

Call or Text message Kyllan now!

Kyllan at 5yrs old

Well… obviously this week has been very exciting for me, and to top it all off, I celebrated my 10 Year High School Reunion this weekend! Wow… 10 years! The time has gone by very fast. Most of my classmates look the same (just more mature). No one was unrecognizable. About 40 out of the 97 other people who I graduated with came to the reunion, so it was great to see many people who I had not seen since graduation. The school has changed so much since we left. I went to an all girls private school, Hockaday, and it was always a step above the rest, but now…. it is incomprehensible how nice it is . The amenities and technology our first rate…better than some college campuses. I had the honor of sitting on a panel of 10 Year Reunion women who spoke to the senior class on what to expect after graduation from college. It was interesting how most of us on the panel had gone in a completely different direction than we had thought on June 6, 1998 (commencement). However, we were all pleased with where we were and our many successes. We were asked to talk about what Hockaday did not prepare us for. Two of the panelists were expecting their first child, which they explained was one thing Hockaday did not prepare them for. We were also asked to give career tips, which led to everyone discussing the importance of networking. At our reunion gathering Saturday night, we had a chance to look at a questionnaire we filled out during our senior year…”where will I be in 2008?” Here were my responses:

What will you be doing: Completing my 2nd year of residency (I wanted to be a pediatrician)

What will be your greatest accomplishment: Being a doctor

Will you be married: Yes

Will you have kids: Maybe If so, how many: 1

What will have changed most in the world in 10 years: more world peace (wow… was I in a beauty pageant?)

Who will still be famous: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., LeAnn Rimes

Below is a picture of me with the 7 other African American girls who I graduated with. At the time, this was the largest class of African American girls to ever graduate from Hockaday. The second picture is the from the day we “officially became seniors”, otherwise known as “Ring Day 1997″. I have posted more pictures on my Flickr page.

As many of you already know, I joined Kyllan and her family on Tuesday/ Wednesday for a very unique and amazing experience. The story is going to be told by a 3rd party this Friday. Friends and Family please call or E-mail so that we can share the details.