: )

Now THIS makes me smile...

It's The Little Things

I was reading a blog post the other day where someone mentioned how small things tend to bring us little moments of joy here and there as we go about our daily lives. And that's really true, I think. Here are a few things that made me smile today. As you can see, it's mainly flowers, but also a jar of shiny candy, a sweet bunny's face, little green tomatoes, a new flowerbed and the trio of plants on my porch that I have personally kept alive for almost a year now. Yea me!

Birthday Boy

With all the celebrations going on around here, I can't leave out the birthday boy who was 45 years young on May 26. He chose Mexican food for his birthday lunch, so we went to Mi Charrito just around the corner from our house. It was extra special to have Jeff's mom with us. He opened presents, which of course included Godiva chocolate. Gotta have his chocolate!

Senior Recognition at Wedgwood

Sunday night during the evening service twenty-six seniors were recognized with Bibles and given a copy of the book, Crazy Love. We celebrated with a potluck meal after the service.

The youth praise team and band led the service.
Excellent music!

Senior Girls

Adding the guys and Jay

A great group of kids, some of whom I've known all their lives. Sniff...sniff...

The Graduate

The long awaited day finally arrived -- Katherine's graduation aka the day of "How Can This Be?" It was a wonderful weekend of celebration and we were so grateful for all the family who came to support Katherine. Thank yous go out to Grandmother, Nanny, Stella, Uncle Mike and Aunt Dorothy, Uncle Gary, Uncle Bob, Hannah, Aiden, Uncle Heath and Aunt Lesa, Tori and Zach. And, a huge thank you to the many others who couldn't come but sent fabulous gifts!

Many gifts were received.

A few photos were hurriedly taken...

The graduates lined up...

and posed...

and celebrated!

Afterwards there was a reception at the church and we enjoyed looking at the accomplishments of all the graduates. These boards were the stress of many of the moms, but I enjoyed doing it -- like one big scrapbook page!

Family looking through Katherine's scrapbook

We are so proud of the beautiful young lady Katherine has become and look forward to her many accomplishments at Stephen F. Austin University in the fall. Axe 'em Jacks!

Just Something I've Been Wondering...

How did this...

...end up as this?

Today Is Your Day!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the girl who'll decide where to go.
~Dr. Seuss

Graduation day is finally here! Lots of excitement and stress going on at our house. I told Jeff this morning, "I can't imagine what preparing for a wedding must be like if graduation takes this much out of you!" And, Katherine, having overheard that said, "Let's just not worry about stuff like that right now." Whew...

Of course I will post later about the event in detail, but for now some lovely photos of the soon-to-be-graduate taken by the lovely Michele, of Hannah Michele Photography.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~Attributed to Mark Twain

A Little Poolish

"Pool-ish" is my made up word for how the girls smell when they come in from swimming. It's a perfect blend of chlorine, sunscreen and sun on warm skin.

And it's about that time. Time to officially open the pool for summer! Of course, it's WAY too cold for me to hop in yet, and it will probably be awhile before it hits the 80-82 degree mark of perfection for my body. Katherine and Abigail took a little pool preview today and actually swam for awhile. Brr...is what I say. But, summer's comin'.




Summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James

I can't wait!

Is It Too Early?

For some reason, I'm starting to hum "Pomp and Circumstance." I don't know why except that Katherine graduates in...oh my...three days! And, I don't even know if Grace Prep uses "Pomp and Circumstance." They could play "Free at Last!" or "Victory in Jesus" for as much as I can tell you about a GPA graduation. I do know it will be a wonderful, meaningful ceremony and I'm going today to pick up some waterproof mascara. And some Kleenex. (Puffs Plus, actually because should there be any other kind? I think not.)

But Wait...There's More -- Piano Awards Recital

Because we didn't have enough to do today, we decided to add in one more thing -- another "last thing" for Katherine, her final piano recital. Abigail received many awards that she had won during this last year: a Gold Medal for her ensemble performance, a medal for Theory Test (I couldn't do that!) and several certificates for other competitions. Abigail played a sonatina, while Katherine played "Knight Rupert."

Group photo of Mrs. McKay's students

Mrs. McKay awarded Katherine a small scholarship
from the McKay Studio.

Trying out a few pianos at Steinway Hall

Katherine playing "Dawn" from "Pride & Prejudice"
Wish you could have heard it on that beautiful piano.

And here's the disinterested piano recital attendee

And here's my new ($716,000) piano...right, Jeff?
Jeff? Are you there, Jeff? Hello? Anyone?
Maybe next year...

Track Banquet - Let the Awards Continue

As I've already been blogging about this week, we've had a busy end of year attending banquets, awards dinners and the like. And, other than graduation, we've finally wrapped up all school events. Today was the track banquet, which saw even more awards brought home. As I've mentioned before, Rebecca absolutely loved track and was able to excel in it more than any other sport she has participated in. I give credit to the fact that she's a pretty fast runner and she had an amazing coach, Ron Abrams. I have secretly given him the "Best Coach at Grace Prep" Award.

Emma and Abigail with their awards

Bec with Alyx, who really mentored her this year

And now, in no particular order, the awards:

Outstanding Runner of 2010 Award
Girls Varsity 4 x 400 meter relay team

Most Dedicated Award
Coach A told the story about putting a freshman
(for the first time) into the 4x400 relay at the Texas Relays,
in front of 15,000 people and when she finished
the race, came off the track and said, "I loved that!"

All District Award

Varsity Letter in Track
(Letter Jacket to be ordered soon.)

Most Christ-Like Award

Junior High Team

Almost makes all those 5 hour track meets in blizzard conditions worth it....

Last Day of High School - May 14, 2010

College Shirt Day

Katherine's Final Class
One Week From Graduation

It's Not a Post As Much as a Confession

By now you are probably tired of reading about how Katherine did this, and Rebecca did that...well, unless you are Grandmother. It could be for the reason that we've attended 3, 127 banquets/award ceremonies this year. I mean, it's almost a hobby with us. We wouldn't know what to do with ourselves if we didn't have to dress up, go eat chicken and pick up a couple certificates. With that in mind, Abigail was invited to the "Junior High Awards Ceremony." Unlike every other event at GPA, the dress is casual and there is no rubber chicken.

Thinking back to a few years ago (nine to be exact) when Katherine received her first invitation to the Elementary Awards Day... we were so thrilled, honored, excited that OUR child would be given the respect she was due. We lauded her, we bought new clothes, we embraced every aspect of that day; and, she was rewarded and we beamed and snapped pictures. (Now that I think about it, we might have gone a little over the top. Maybe. It's been nine years, you know.)

Fast forward to 2010 -- Abigail's invitation comes in the mail. "Great," we think. "We'll have to sit through 2 hours of 1st through 6th grade awards before they even get to the 7th graders. Abigail, do you really want to go?" Shame. I know. I feel the shame just reading the words. My poor baby didn't even get a new shirt to wear to the ceremony. And, it was as nightmarish as I thought it would be. How many P.E. awards can there be? Must everyone be a "Presidential Physical Fitness" recipient?

Finally, finally we came to the Junior High portion of the night. Abigail, as expected was called up to receive the High Honor Roll Award. No surprise there. (2nd row, far right)

The surprise of the night came when she was awarded the Model Student in History. She hasn't received one of these awards since 4th grade, the biggest hindrance being that she doesn't like to participate/speak out in class. (a requirement for that award) I could tell she was pleased and I was so happy for her.

Abigail and friends showing their "High Honor Roll" Certificates
UPSIDE DOWN!
Before I took the picture they said, "Let's pretend we're not smart."
Teenagers!

All's well that ends well, I guess. I don't know why I said that except that I felt the need for some kind of closure and nothing else came to mind. While I still feel the need to do penance for my attitude towards my youngest child's awards day, I'm sure I will have another opportunity to put on my happy attitude at next year's ceremony, where I will have even longer to wait for the 8th grade awards.