grads

This year we had a few graduates in the family. Kaelyn and Brandon promoted from 6th grade and will be going into Jr. High. Drew was the real graduate this year though. He finally graduated from high school!! I swear, there were several times during the last 4 years that I didn't think he'd make it. The kid is so damn smart but so damn lazy. He HATES doing homework. With a passion. I swear there have been times that I've felt so stupid when having a conversation with him so I could never understand why his grades didn't reflect his intelligence. Thank the sweet baby Jesus that he finally realized that you have to do homework to get good grades. It didn't happen until his senior year but at least it happened. He graduated with a 3.33 grade point average!! This is after failing several classes, taking summer school a couple times, getting several Ds, trying to pass off a fake report card, having to take ROP, etc. Ugh!! It's hard to believe that it's over. It went by so fast.

KK and her BFF Gaby (I can't tell you how much drama comes with girls this age and I know it's only gonna get worse next year.) :/

getting a hug from her teacher, Mrs. U

Mama needed to get to bed so we took a couple quick pictures after the ceremony...I thought about switching my schedule so I didn't have to work the night before but it wasn't in the cards for me. I needed the next night off for the real graduation.

she looks so grown up here

and now for the real graduation!!

taking some pics while waiting for Drew to get us our tickets....the school doesn't give the kids their tickets until the day of the graduation. Think they do that to try to avoid people making fake tickets. I worked the night before and was sleeping all day and Drew hung out with his friends so I didn't see him to get the tickets until after 5pm. I was getting a little nervous that our seats would suck since time was a factor.

Brandon didn't come to the graduation since he had his last baseball game the same day and he didn't want to miss it.

we were waiting for Drew outside the theater where the graduates had to meet before the ceremony....the parking situation was a nightmare so I'm glad we got there early....couldn't believe what some of the girls were wearing...some of them looked a little, uh, cheap if you know what I mean...and a special thanks to my husband for helping me deal with high school drama...guess what babe, we get to do it 3 more times!!

KK is wearing Grandma Bea's pearls

some of the graduating class

The school has a pretty good system for getting thru the graduation pretty quick. They split the graduates in half and put A-whatever on the north side and whatever-Z on the south side of the stadium and you only hear your side graduate. Much better than having to sit thru all 700 and something kids but it's a bummer that we didn't get to hear most of Drew's friends graduate since they were on the other side. I was half paying attention to Drew when he told me to get in the "north" line as he handed me the tickets and ran off. I didn't realize their were 2 lines until we started to get in line. Our line was soooooooooo long!! Didn't matter though, our seats were awesome! Some lady got in another lady's face trying to get to a seat. She was acting like her kid was the only one graduating. Didn't bother me though, nothing was going to ruin this day for me.

here they come!! I swear, I was a nervous wreck the entire day. I didn't think I'd be able to sleep. Just sitting there waiting for the ceremony to start made my stomach do flips.

There are those damn red shoes! Least it made it easy to spot him in the crowd.

his tassel was a little wonky...it was hanging more in the back and not on the side like the kid to the far right

someone probably paid big bucks for that balloon arrangement

getting ready to graduate

so close!! I knew I would get teary eyed, but I didn't think I would get as emotional as I did. I forgot to bring tissue with me so I tried my best to control myself. Didn't work very good. ;-P

there he goes! I was afraid they were going to say, "oops, we made a mistake, you actually failed one of your classes and can't walk." hahaha

WOOOHOOOO!!

one of Drew's good buddies Katrina....oddly enough, we sat right next to her parents...for the record her mom was crying too

beautiful skies overlooking the field....it was freezing that night

about to make it official

that's all folks, they graduated!!

after the ceremony there was a rush of people trying to get onto the field to take pictures. I wanted to take pics of Drew with his friends but he told me not to bother since it was going to be jam packed with people. Since I had to carry his phone (and iPod, earphones, wallet, etc.) I thought we'd never find him but he came up to the bleachers and found us. He was so happy that he hugged everyone. This is a rare occurrence people, he hugs no one.

damn you kid, making me get choked up all over again! A week or so after he graduated he told me that seeing me cry was adorable. Think he was just trying to get more cash out of me.

Love this picture. Poor kid was starving so we had to take some photos quickly so we could get to the restaurant. We tried Olive Garden but the wait was like an hour so we called Panda Inn and only had to wait a couple minutes. He said Del Taco would have been fine too since he hadn't eaten all day.

if only Hayley wasn't making that face...

aaaannnndd back to texting

gifts!! don't worry, thank you cards will be making their way soon

after our yummy meal

sadly, this is the only picture from Brandon's ceremony. Dad forgot the camera!! His ceremony was out in the sun which wasn't too pleasant. I won't mention how crabby I was after working the night before. I only skimp out on sleep for the kids. They better appreciate it some day. ;-)

So now we get to enjoy our summer! This may sound totally corny but I feel such a sense of relief now that Drew graduated. No more fighting about homework, tests and studying. From now on, what happens is totally on him. I think he realizes that too and it seems like we've been getting along so much better. I guess I must have done something right over the last 17 years.