2 Down 1 to Go

 That's 2 graduations down and 1 to go.  

Kyle and Reed "graduated" from 8th grade today, although they made a big deal about calling it a farewell ceremony instead of graduation. 

I had an insider on the front row that snapped some pictures for me.  You'd think being my children they would at least crack a smile.

I did get them to almost smile while they were in line to have their names called.

Reed got distinguished honor roll for all 3 years (he never made a B), the English award, and the 4-sport athlete award.

Kyle passed Spanish 2 after not learning anything in Spanish 1, so we'll celebrate that too. 

Me!

 So everybody else might be graduating this May, but I've been keeping myself busy too!

I got dressed up and went to a charity ball with Jason. 

Although it was so hot that day I was worried I was going to sweat through my dress, so I brought a portable fan in the car to try and keep me from doing just that. 

I got "inducted" for another year on the PTA board.  This will make year 4 for me.

And I went and relieved the "good ol' days", and saw New Kids on the Block, Salt n Pepa, En Vogue, and Rick Astley.

Rick Astley totally saw my hat, acknowledged it and waved to me. 

Everyone but Me

 Everybody in the family is graduating from somewhere this May but me.

JR is graduating from high school, Kyle and Reed are graduating from 8th grade, and Jason graduated from his program at Wharton. 

Thank goodness he's married to me and used to costumes, who would have thought I could prepare someone for the Ivy League! 

By the way, the diplomas are very fancy.  

He even had his picture made with Ben Franklin ("Ben on a bench") which is what you are supposed to do when you graduate.

Jason is now an alumni of A&M, UT, and U Penn! 

More Lasts

 Kyle and Reed also finished up their umpiring season.  

They both umpired championship games, but Kyle's lasted longer than Reed's so Chloe and I came up to see the end.

Our neighbor was taking pictures for Reed's game, so I got some umpiring action shots of him.

This is the last week of school.  Just gotta make it to Thursday! 

Last Lasts

 JR had his last last day of school on Monday.

Here's his first day of Pre-K and his last last day of school.

He also umpired his last game.  I think he has enjoyed umpiring more than most anything.  He was the crew chief this year, and being in charge certainly suits him.  

Chloe and I went up to watch one of his last games and Chloe wanted a picture with him.  I don't think this is the first game he ever umpired, but it was definitely in that first year. 

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm sad, and I'm really not.  I'm so excited for him that it's not sad. 

I Will Always Win a Parade

 Yesterday was the senior car parade and I've been saying for 2 years I was going to have the best "float" in it.  I guess somebody caught wind of my comments, because the rules clearly stated no floats.  But that certainly didn't stop me from bringing in the big guns. 

Somebody thinks they're going with "Jar" to live in the dorm, but I think she may miss her mother a bit too much for that.

I was super excited to pose with my handiwork.

I've been joking that you need an engineering degree from A&M to decorate an Ole Miss car, and thank goodness I'm married to one, because Jason made my Walk of Champions arch a reality.  

(Sure I could have made the arch without him, I just couldn't have made an arch that you can drive down the street without falling over without him!)

It looked just as good from the back!

The parade was a huge hit as usual.

Caroline drove so JR could do his thing, and so we could enjoy watching the parade.

And JR certainly did his thing. He started off slow.

But of course he whipped off his shirt when he saw his biggest fans. 

I told him I had pictures and videos of him sent to me by everyone I've ever met.

Thankfully I've got 4 years to come up with what Jason can engineer me for the other 2! 

He was Lost but Now He's Found

 On Sunday night Reed reported to us that Stewart (his hamster) had escaped his cage, but he wasn't really sure when he had escaped.

I didn't look for Stewart at all (because I can't with anything in the rodent family) but there was lots of looking for Stewart upstairs.  Jason kept saying there was no way Stewart could climb down the stairs of our house. 

The housekeeper came on Tuesday and I figured she might discover Stewart.  When she didn't find him, I figured we'd eventually be able to smell him.

I walked in the house this afternoon (Thursday!) and Chloe didn't greet me at the back door, which is super unusual.

I found Chloe acting super squirrely in my closet and I knew what was happening. I immediately started screaming and saw that she was "playing" with Stewart.  I was on the phone with a friend, and I accidently hung up on her.  She called back immediately because she was making sure I "wasn't being murdered," but figured I'd seen a mouse. 

My screams distracted Chloe long enough for Stewart to run in to my bathroom.  I shut the door, and ran around the house screaming and looking for something to try and catch him with.  I was hyperventilating, turning in circles, and screaming "they don't pay me enough for this".  

I came back with his food dish thinking I could do something with that, and when I opened the door, found him rustling around in the trash can.  I grabbed up the trash can, ran him upstairs, and dumped the trash can in to his cage.  He tried to escape again but I pushed him down in the cage.  (A mother's love for her son knows no bounds.)

He immediately ran over to his water bottle and went to town. 

I couldn't get his cage top locked and had to make a face time call to Jason at work for him to help me.  I finally got it locked, but put the trash can on top of it just to be sure.  

This is the text the family received to let them know that Chloe and I had saved the day.

And here's a picture Kyle took of his hamster, Hammy, with the fancy camera...because this is as good a place as any to put it. 

Mother's Day '22

 I had a great Mother's Day, especially since I declared it "Mother's Day Weekend" and pretty much made Jason do everything I wanted to do all weekend long.

On Sunday we went to my favorite brunch in all the world with all the moms. 

And I got a picture with my all my babies, including my favorite daughter. 

Disgruntled Employe

 The middle school yearbook came out this week, and we couldn't help but laugh that whoever was in charge of the football page was clearly perturbed that they weren't on the 8th grade B team. 

Pointing out that it was the only touchdown of the season is some seriously shady shade! 

Modeling Portfolio

The other day my camera was sitting out and Kyle picked it up and started snapping pictures of Chloe.

Normally she turns her head when the camera comes out, but I guess she was in the mood for a photo shoot.

She posed for smiling portraits

And serious glamour shots. 

WhataYear

 We had prom last weekend and the 8th grade dance this weekend. 

 All the lasts of all the schools.

Reed is officially taller than me and Kyle is fast approaching. 

They had a sushi dinner with their friends

and took pictures that they'll one day say "I can't believe we thought we looked cool."

Jason dropped them at the Whataburger themed dance

I got one picture from the inside from a friend

And Reed sent me this video

They said the dance had all the Whataburger you could ever want to eat (hamburgers, chicken, taquitos) and that it was "more fun than they thought it was going to be".

These days "more fun than they thought it was going to be" seems to be code for "you were right, it was fun".

The Boys are Back

 He just can't help himself, as usual, he stole the show.

JR was asked to be in the senior guy dance for the Spring Show of the drill team.  About 90% of the guys are the boyfriends of the senior girls, but he has quite a few close friend-girls on the team, so he was told he had to be in it.  

(But of course, that's totally a rabbit in the briar patch situation as we all know he would have been upset if he wasn't in it.)

And it was actually way better than I thought it was going to be.  I've seen girls have less rhythm trying to do a high kick line than these guys!