A Graduate!

Entering for the ceremony

"We're graduates!"

A proud young lady and her family

Just part of the table full of food for a big party.

What an exciting night!

Graduation Week

We are having an open house Thursday night after the ceremony and yesterday I made these little things. The recipe is from this Taste of Home online recipe, but I modified it a little. I used Ghiaradelli chocolates on top of miniature Reese cups (both upside down). The tassel is blue fruit roll-up held in place with a blue M&M (Andrew got the job of slicing the fruit roll-up into thin strips). (I guess they might need to be trimmed a little so they lay flatter.) The "glue" is chocolate frosting, the homemade kind that gets a little hard as it sets up. I think I'll use them for decorations, but have a feeling that they will disappear as the evening goes on . . .









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So today I bake a cake and continue getting ready. Fortunately, other than going to evening programs (kindergarten graduation, baccalaureate, and then graduation on Thursday) I don't have to be at school until the senior luncheon on Thursday. It is wonderful to have some preparation time over the next couple of days.

It is an exciting time.

Ups and Downs

**UP: The cat's remarkable recuperation this week. I wonder if maybe her problem was not due to her lymphoma - if maybe the decadron really is working, but maybe she had a blockage or something that caused her not to be able to eat. Because now she is eating like crazy - wants two cans a day - and is rapidly regaining her strength.

**UP: My daughter's safe return from her senior trip.

**DOWN: Mike has to work and will not be able to hear Andrew's quartet sing tomorrow night in church.

**UP: I am on top of the end of the year activities at school.

**UP: I just had a strawberry-banana-yogurt-orange juice smoothie. Delicious!

Friday and DONE

It is Friday at 1:30. ALL exams are written, given, graded, and recorded. ALL report card work is completed. That's for five subjects!

I still have work next week - meetings, year end things - but the schoolwork part of it is DONE.

Oh, yes, one other detail - We do have a graduate next week!

Nine Lives and More

I really thought that cat was on her way out. For two nights Andrew and I thought we'd get up the next morning and find her. . . .

Well, as described in the last post, she rallied slightly yesterday.

Then this morning she ate about half a can of cat food AND the better part of a chipmunk she killed. I know that because the remains are deposited by the back door.

It would appear that she is on the mend - again.

Call me a believer in the nine lives of cats theory!

Kitty Is Still With Us

Kitty is rapidly using up her nine lives. She'd already used at least three of them that we knew of, long before this episode. But at least twice this week, we thought she'd gone off for good, and were wondering how we'd break the news to ML on her senior trip.

Kitty is skin and bones; she's had two shots which have helped her do well since the end of December. But the third shot didn't work nearly as well. The vet said that that would be the case at some point; he said cats with lymphoma sometimes last up to a year with shots about every two months. The shots only cost about $10 apiece, so I'm happy to get them for her to keep her with ML a little longer.

Anyway, she's not eating, and is barely drinking. She staggers when she walks and when she's lying down usually keeps her head on the ground. I thought last night was probably it. And then this morning, when I went out to check, she was back from one of her trips to the woods - was actually walking better, and she was interested in at least the broth from a can of cat food. And when I looked toward the door, she was on the step watching me in the kitchen - which is what she used to do.

I still don't think she's going to last long, but hope she holds off long enough for ML to get home.

Revolving Door

Daughter left at 8:00 Saturday morning for senior trip.
Son came in about 2:00 Saturday afternoon from college.
Just got a phone call from son: Is it OK if some of us come hang out at the house for awhile?
Life continues. . . .

A Play

It can't be Wednesday already.

I hardly have time to think these days, and when I do, the thinking is fuzzy.

Monday night I took 42 students to Greenville to watch Love's Labour's Lost. Andrew had a small part in the play. We left early enough to get a behind-the-scenes tour at 4:00, which was a real treat. Then we went to eat, then back for the play.

Students who went early got to see a 20-minute preparatory video about the production of the play. Andrew is in that too.

Lately these students have gotten more and more interested in attending plays. It's a big undertaking to get them all there, but in a day of video games and other electronics that consume their lives, I'm glad to get them to something that opens their eyes to something different and worthwhile.

One More Historical Picture

This is a picture of Mike's grandfather's store back in the early part of the last century. We have a framed copy that may be going to the county museum for a display on the downtown area in that time period.

Saturday

Random thoughts on a Saturday:

**This time of the year about does me in. Today I have to go to the piano recital. That's about the hardest thing for me to attend, when none of my kids are in it. But all teachers must attend one of the recitals. So, even though I'm already there six days a week, I'll go on the seventh day as well - today - to do what I'm supposed to do.

**My daughter is officially finished with me as a teacher. She exempted my exam. I feel like a certain kind of weight has been lifted. She does too!

**I am glad, very glad, that my husband has a job. But they are going to kill him. That's a literal statement. He just can't work this hard any more, on night shift to boot. He was off last night, and slept all night. Now he's slept all morning. But that's a good thing - he has to work 12 hours all night tonight, and for the following five nights as well.