Posts Tagged ‘graduation’

Posted on June 4, 2010 - by Mary

My Baby is All Grown Up!

Wow has this past week ever been eventful! Let’s see, my husband’s parents arrived last week on Wednesday and had dinner with Jeff. I was at youth group and got home just in time to meet them at the door as they were heading over to their motel.

Thursday, we went to Mackinaw City and spent much of the day just walking around. It was very nice out and we got a surprise while we were there. Karlie, my baby who is now 18, was on her Senior trip with some of her classmates and stopped through MC on their way home. It was pretty cool being able to see her there instead of having to wait until later. She did decide to travel the rest of the way home with her classmates and then her boyfriend dropped her off after school. They wanted to spend some time together…teenagers! Ha.

Thursday, my “God daughter” Briana arrived, too. She is staying with us until after the Big Ticket, so pretty much the whole month of June

Friday was spent shopping for Karlie’s graduation dress. After watching Karlie try on several outfits at various stores, we finally found a store with a lot of things she liked. Aleene was now able to determine Karlie’s style and picked out a couple of things she actually liked and tried on. We did end up finding 2 dresses there and I told her to get them both. She doesn’t have very many dresses in her wardrobe and she could use one for her open house, which is this Saturday. When we were checking out, they ask for your name because they keep record of how often you shop there and stuff. When Karlie told the store associate her name, he turned around and pulled her application for employment out of the stack and asked if she wanted an interview! How cool is that? She had the interview yesterday and is awaiting a call.

Speaking of job interviews, Karlie had one at Subway and was hired. She began her first day of work at her first “real” job (other than babysitting) on Monday. She also had to work a few hours on her birthday, but its good for her.

Jeff and Tom went to the tire place to price out new tires for the truck and found a good deal at the dealership in Boyne City. They were put on the truck this morning after Jeff got off work and his final night of midnights for this round.

Saturday was her graduation. I’m surprised at how well I did NOT crying. I’m usually a big cry-er, but I held it together really well. There were a couple of moments when I started to tear up, but I managed to pull myself together, which is unusual for me. I’ve noticed I’ve been doing that a lot lately. Hmmmm? Makes me wonder what has changed?

After the ceremony, we went to Pizza Hut with the family, most of it anyway. Kaleb had to work and Brandon had a birthday party to go to for one of their friend’s two year old’s. After Pizza Hut, we went around and walked in the park, down by the waterfront in Petoskey. The boys (my grandsons) loved it! They had a blast.

Sunday was church and Jeff’s parents joined us there. Then Jeff had to come home and sleep because he started midnights Sunday night. We had lunch at and then his parents went back to the motel and I think we all took a nap. They came back later, after supper, and visited for a couple of hours and said their goodbyes, as they were leaving the next morning before 8 am.

Monday was Memorial Day and I was able to get my hair done by the amazing Lora. Then Trisha and I went shopping for Karlie’s open house. I got all the decorations at the dollar store! And ones she actually likes. Have you gotten the idea that Karlie is very picky? Yeah, uhhum!

Monday night we cooked out over at Trisha and Ben’s and had a bonfire and made smores. It was a great Memorial Weekend.

Tuesday, I got some work done during the day, and then we celebrated Karlie’s 18th birthday. We went to Trisha’s and made Karlie’s favorite meal, stroganoff and garlic bread. I also made brownies with Reese’s peanut butter chips in them and we had ice cream to go with the brownies. We played games and had a fun time.

Wednesday was youth group day again, but this time Briana came with me. We had our usual two meetings, lunch at Bamboo Palace with Pastor James and my amazing friend Angel and then James took Briana and I on a field trip. Haha. He took us to his house and showed us his very green lawn. We watched him try to kill a mole with a pitchfork, tried to name everything that was growing in their garden, tried to figure out why there were dry spots right by each sprinkler, talked about what would be a good way to rearrange the trees that line the driveway, got hairy shorts from Bailey, his golden retriever, went to the house across the street where his cousin was tearing out the carpeting, came back to the office for a bit, then went back to Biggby while he had a meeting and Bri and I sat and chit-chatted. How’s that for a long day? It was fun though! I really enjoyed it.

Wednesday night was our usual youth group and then aftewards we went to Applebee’s for half off appetizers and then I drove to Vanderbilt to take one girl home and then across to Camp Ten to take another one home. It was a long ride, but not too bad actually.

I have most of the pictures posted on facebook and it’s getting late now, so I don’t feel like uploading them here. For Karlie’s graduation pics, click here and for our Mackinaw City pics, click here. There are also more graduation pics in  the photos added by others as well.

Okay, this is a really long post. Hope you enjoyed my recap of the week How was yours? Do you have any graduates this year?

Posted on May 24, 2010 - by Mary

Graduation is Upon Us-Where to get Graduation Gifts

My baby is graduating this year. It’s kind of weird when your last child graduates from high school. Sadness hasn’t hit me yet, but probably will when she walks across the stage to receive her diploma. Or no, I know when it will definitely hit. She attends a small charter school which focuses on the performing arts so each year at graduation they have a slideshow of all the Graduates throughout the years. Yep that’s when it will hit…I know it. My oldest daughter graduated from this school and that darn slideshow does it every time.

We have the open house all planned out, now we just need to purchase the decorations and cake. She is going to attend cosmetology school in the fall and wants beauty school decorations for her open house. I’ve done some looking online for them, but haven’t been successful at finding them yet. I am planning on going to the dollar store here in a couple of day. I’m looking for cute little combs, scissors, curlers, etc. for center pieces and whatever else I can find that would represent cosmetology well. It will be fun and cute, I think.

Being in the youth ministry, we also give the graduates at our church a little gift in honor of their achievement. We usually try to find a devotional or prayer book. I’ve found some in the past at ChristianBook.com at very reasonable prices as well as on Amazon. This year we got our graduates the Prayer of Solomon. It’s a really good prayer journal and the teens seemed to like it and found it easy to read and follow. This is the 2nd year in a row that we’re giving it to them.

ChristianBook.com has some really nice personalized graduation gifts, as well as gifts for all other occasions, like Weddings and Father’s Day. I use them often and have always gotten great service and have never had to return anything. Their prices are also very reasonable.

Where do you shop for graduation and other gifts?

Posted on June 8, 2009 - by Mary

My Son Graduated from High School!

Yesterday was an exciting day. My son, Kaleb, graduated from high school. He is so happy and we are very proud of him. He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was little and has always struggled in school. He’s gotten better as he’s gotten older, but still had a hard time getting along with others and has some anger issues, which gets him in trouble.

But, he pulled through and is going to go to college in the fall at North Central Michigan College, then probably go to Colorado where his Aunt lives and pursue a degree in Recording Engineering. He loves music so this will be a good field for him and something he will really enjoy.

Kaleb also excels in downhill skiing and was Captain of the ski team his senior year, taking his team to State and placing 3rd! Other areas he excels in are woodworking and art; a very talented young man!

Here some photos from yesterday’s events. His graduation party is next Sunday at 1:00. It will be at a park by one of the lakes in our area. Pray for good weather!!!

Posted on May 18, 2009 - by Mary

Another Graduate

My niece, Kara is graduating from high school as well this year. As you can see in the pics below, she has a baby girl, therefore she attended a school for teen mothers. We’re so proud of Kara and her accomplishment, and so I wanted to share the excitement with you all. We are having a graduation party for her and I’ll be working on an announcement soon (for those of you who were wondering).

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