" Contentedly Exhausted "

Mom, Me, Katie and Ginny



Yes that's exactly what I feel. Contentedly exhausted! Katie Rose left about 9:30 this morning with her sister Ginny, and Daniel. They packed up the car and took off for their first stop in Nashville. Then they will be off again Tuesday for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to " Dollywood " where they will hopefully enjoy their day at the amusement park before they leave for Raleigh. Boy it makes me tired just thinking about it!

As you can see Katie's graduation class was fairly large. One-hundred and fifty two I believe. And of all of the graduations I have been to, I must say that this one was one of this best. Katie is not one to show much emotion but woke up very happy even without much sleep the night before. Her class had a graduation party that ended around 9:30p.m. and of coarse Katie was very wired up, happy and excited! So sleep did not come easy for her. Also that evening my daughter Ginny and Daniel arrived around 10:00p.m. They stopped here first before heading to their hotel so we could meet Daniel and say our hellos.

Meeting Ginny's love of her life for the first time deserves it's own chapter. We had heard all about him of coarse but it still is not the same as actually meeting someone in person and getting to know them. My first thought about Daniel after he and Ginny's brief first visit, was that he seemed to be a very warm, sincere,polite and nice man. I knew time would not allow us to get to know him more but we did manage to have some conversations and laughs with him. As the weekend quickly went on, I soon discovered why my daughter fell in love with Daniel. While I am sure that he has his faults as we all do, he seems to be a wonderful person who would very easily be excepted into our family, crazy as we all are, with open arms.

Now back to graduation day. Saturday morning. Everyone was very relaxed and happy. And everything ran very smoothly. That in itself was a real treat! We were able to get good seats. Baby Jack was very well behaved as usual. The speeches were short yet sweet. And of coarse Katie was very proud of herself as well as the rest of us. I did have one panic moment which still makes me so angry, just as my Katie was receiving her diploma, my camera messed up. Not only did I not get a picture of her receiving her diploma, I did not get to see it as the moment came and went so quickly while I was frantically trying to fix my camera! Fortunately Ginny got it on video and can make a still photo for me from that. Also Jake and I purchased a DVD of the whole event. Still I am so mad about it. I don't know what happened with my camera at that moment but it started working just fine after that moment. Another strange thing, at least it is to me. I didn't cry. I guess I had done so much crying the days and weeks previous to the moment that I was all out of tears. But I was very proud!

After the graduation, Katie was very anxious to get out of there. I don't know if it was because she was finally done with eighth grade or she was very hungry and just wanted to get to Applebees, whatever the reason when it was done we were out of there!! We all had a nice lunch and then it was back to the house for ice cream cake. Katie had a few gifts and cards to open after which my son and his family went home to rest and Ginny and Daniel went back to the hotel for a nap.

A few hours later everyone came back for party time. Katie had five of her friends who also graduated, spend the night. My son Frank, his wife Amy, my granddaughter Sarah and grandson Jack were there. My daughter Ginny and Daniel. Three of Ginny's childhood friends stopped by as well. We Barbecued, had some beers , had a fire for the girls and the girls had some very loud music. There was a time or two we thought it might rain but it didn't and we all got some really great cloud photos!

After everyone left, Jake and I stayed outside as late as we could with the girls. They were all spending the night. I believe that they all had a good time even though all they kept doing was texting each other! Around midnight I told my hubby that I could no longer stay awake so we packed everything and everyone up and went inside. I got to sleep around 1:00 a.m., Jake about 2:00a.m. and the girls around 3:30a.m.


Katie's very last walk over the school bridge, last day of eighth grade. Dad snuck this photo in of Kate, we picked her up together that day!



It was a very long day. But a good time was had by all. I don't know at this point that I could do it all again with as tired as I am. But it was memorable and Katie was happy.

Congratulations my Katie girl!!