Weekly Review June 8 '12

This was a week of graduations!  Seminary graduation for Scott on Sunday, High School graduation for Scott on Monday, and Middle School graduation for Jared on Wednesday.   So it was quite a memorable week. 

Saturday was busy; I spent a lot of the day shopping in search of a swim suit as well as Sunday appropriate summer clothes.  It was exhausting but I did have a little bit of success.  I've decided that the top half of my body doesn't look good in anything though.  It's very easy for me to find cute skirts that look good on me, but it is almost impossible to find blouses that do.  They look good on the hanger but not on me!  My top half must be oddly proportioned.  Anyway, I found a swimsuit I liked but of course they were out of the size that I knew would fit the best.  So I came home and ordered the correct size online.  It was expensive but I hope it will last me for several years.  Tanner and Scott went to a graduation party for a friend from school.  I took some cookies to some new girls in YW.  Frank and I went shopping for a graduation gift for Scott.  Then I realized that I had forgotten to buy something I needed for YW the next day so I had to go back to the store for that!  I was thoroughly sick of stores by then.  I cleaned the kitchen floor and gave Seth a bath and wrote thank you notes to all the people who helped us when Frank had appendicitis.  Frank was doing some computer work for a client and neither of us got to bed until after 1:00 am.

We were definitely ready for a day of rest!  Sunday was much more relaxing.  In the picture below, Frank is grating cheese for dinner.  I thought the two little beggars waiting next to him were so cute! 

Look at the intense concentration on that dog's face!  (And yes, they both got a little something.)

That evening Frank and I went to Scott's Seminary Graduation.  It was really nice.  They had refreshments in the gym afterwards; I laughed when Scott and a couple of his friends got together and threw their ties up int he air--I guess that's what you do for Seminary graduation instead of throwing a hat up in the air.  Here is Scott with his Seminary diploma:

Frank worked from home on Monday since we needed to leave for Scott's graduation around 5:15.  After Jared got home from school we had Scott open his graduation gift:

He got a razor

Some chocolate

And a tool belt (to wear when he's doing his "techie" stuff)

Scott had to be at graduation by 6:00 (the ceremony started at 7:00).  All the high schools around here hold their graduations at Mount St. Mary's College, which is about 20 minutes north of Frederick.  They have a nice big arena, but I have to say that the benches are incredibly uncomfortable.  Scott's friend David (who graduated last year) came with us.  Here is Scott's friend Colette singing the national anthem.  (She did a great job!):

 Here is Scott marching into the arena (sorry these pictures are blurry and not the best):

Here he is marching to his seat:

I liked the patriotic colors of the graduates.  All the boys were in blue and the girls were in red.  Their mascot is the patriot and their school colors are red white and blue.  I think they look pretty sharp!  (But blurry):

 There were over 400 kids in his graduating class:

I thought the ceremony was nice.  There were only a few speeches and they were short.  The principal's advice was to "be nice".  She said everyone has the ability to be nice but not everyone chooses to do so.  She said that you will always be better if you choose to be nice.   I liked that!  Another speaker listed a few statistics and she said that they are TJ's only graduating class ever to have no snow days, delayed openings or early closings their entire senior year and the only one who did have a day off for a G-8 summit.  They were also the only class to have their last graduation practice interrupted by a tornado warning!

When it was time for all the graduates to recieve their diplomas, we almost couldn't hear them read Scott's name.  That's because the lady sitting right in front of us was yelling at some people down the row who had happened to stand up right when she was trying to take a picture of her graduating grandchild.  But that's ok; he graduated anyway!  It was kind of a fun evening, to feel the excitement of all those kids.  Scott's school is cool and they actually let them throw their hats up in the air (my high school wouldn't allow it).  His school also has kind of a unique recessional tradition--there's a place where two rows of kids come together in order to march out, so they arranged the seating so that each graduate would meet a good friend (they got to choose who) at that point.  Each pair of kids were allowed to do whatever they wanted as they came together--hug, shake hands, high five, etc.  It was pretty fun to see all the different things they came up with.  Here is Scott outside after the ceremony:

With me (I'm holding his white rose--they each received one when they got their diplomas so they all had some white to go with the red and blue.):

And with Frank:

 Here Scott is with his friends Ellen (his "twin"--they have the same birthday) and Colette:

 And here he is with his friend David:

After the ceremony they have a huge all night party called "Safe and Sane"--basically to keep the kids from going out and drinking and getting killed in car accidents--not that I was worried about Scott doing that.  They had swimming and games and food and prizes and all kinds of activities such as riding a mechanical bull and moon bounces.  It's supervised by parents all night and afterwards buses take the kids back to the high school to be picked up.  (Except Scott came home with Ellen's dad because he was helping with the party all night.)  Scott got home shortly before 6:00 and since he was awake anyway he went to Seminary with Tanner.  Then he came home and slept until late afternoon.

I worked at the school all morning on Tuesday, finishing up pledge drive stuff for the year.  I got my hair done that afternoon.  Wednesday was busy with errands.  Scott had an appointment with the dermatologist that afternoon.  Jared's 8th grade graduation was that evening.  I forgot to take the camera with me, so all the pictures are from Frank's phone and the quality is not very good.  Here the principal is welcoming everyone.  Jared is in the front row on the far left side of the picture.
   

The ceremony was mostly a mini talent show (Jared chose not to do anything--about half the kids performed) and it was nice.  Here is Jared getting his certificate:

After the 8th graders got their certificates, they picked up some flowers which they presented to their parents and then they sat with us to watch a slide show with pictures of all the 8th graders.  It was very sweet.  The thing I found funny about it is that all the pictures looked familiar to me, not just the ones of Jared.  I think that's because he's been with so many of them for most of his school years and I remember what they all looked like as little kids!

 The woman on the left is Jared's former teacher, Miss Kim.  She taught him (and several of the other 8th graders) in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades.  She is a fabulous teacher; I just loved her!  It was nice that she was able to come to the graduation--she teaches at another school now.

Here is Jared with his friend Rhiannon--they've been friends since Kindergarten:

 Here's Jared with his middle school teachers.  First is Miss Julie, the IA--she was the IA for his Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade years as well as both middle school years so she's been with him a lot!  Next is his Science and Math teacher, Mrs. Wilhelm.  She had Tanner for both 7th & 8th grades too and she is an excellent teacher.  On Jared's left is Mrs. Fultz, his social studies and language arts teacher.  Tanner had her for 8th grade also.  She is amazing!  Another teacher that I just love!  I hope she sticks around until Seth is in middle school.  (Sadly, Mrs. Wilhelm is moving to another school next year.)

After the ceremony we met a few other families at Wegman's (a grocery store) for dinner / ice cream.  We just had ice cream because we'd already had dinner.  Here Jared is with his friends Spencer, Max, and Stephen:

I forgot to get a picture of Jared with his certificate at the ceremony, so I took one this morning:

So that was all the graduations!  We did a few other things this week.  Tanner had a big project for one of his classes that he put off until the last minute so he was working hard on that for a couple of days.  Here he is working on the computer:

We were a bit upset with him for putting it off so long, but he got it done.  We were also frustrated with him because he came home Monday telling us he had to pay $40 for water damage to his Biology book.  Frank and I both told him more than once last week end to empty out his back pack to make sure everything inside was dried out, after the drenching he got on the way home from school Friday.  He never did it, and the book was much worse for the wear.

While we were at Jared's graduation, Scott was at a job interview with Subway.  An older teenager in our ward works there and he got Scott an interview.  The guy did agree to hire Scott, but Scott was pretty turned off by him because he gave him a bad time about wanting Sundays off and kept pressuring Scott to agree to work on them.  Scott stuck to his guns (I was proud of him for that) and said he would only work on Sundays if it was an emergency.  He filled out all the paper work and turned it in yesterday but we don't know yet when he will start.  Hopefully it will all work out ok. 

Tanner and Scott attended a drama club awards ceremony last night.  Scott came home with a couple of awards including a "letter" for drama because he's helped with more than 2 plays.  I guess he and Tanner both "need" letterman jackets now.  Yesteday was also field day--Jared was pretty involved in that because the middle schoolers design and run the stations.

Today was the last day of school and a party mood prevails in Frederick!  Here is Seth in the car after I picked him up from his last day of Pre-K: 

All of us except Jared went tonight to help clean the church.  Jared is at an end of school year party at a friend's house now (I have to go pick him up very soon) and Scott is watching a movie at a friend's house.  So now it is officially summer vacation, and in honor of that I put out some new salt & pepper shakers:

Aren't they cute?  Happy summer, everyone!!