Three Down, One to Go...

My third child graduated from high school last night. I'm not sure if I'm thrilled or devastated by that. Maybe a little of both. lol Seems like only yesterday he was entered into the baby crawling contest for the 4th of July festivities there in Valparaiso, Florida. Where did the time go, eh? Just look at him now:

Kaleb graduated Cum Laude. The gold braid is for being an Honor Student, the beribboned medal is for being a Texas Scholar. He finished in the top 10% of his class which consisted of 476 students. All that while working 4 and 5 nights a week in order to pay for his own car and insurance. Pretty good, right? This kid has a great work ethic when it comes to what needs to get done. He's awesome and we just couldn't be prouder of him.

This next picture is of Kaleb's row at graduation. School officials made a huge deal out of keeping certain things from the ceremony...things like beach balls, for instance. The kid sitting 3 chairs down from Kaleb just couldn't resist, though. He managed to smuggle in two. He had them down the front of his gown and was blowing them up, slowly but surely. Here's the first one that he managed to inflate and set free (I didn't get a picture of the second one. lol)

And here's the school official, who kept up a glaring vigil for the remainder of the ceremony. He didn't take his eyes off of Kaleb's row after the second beach ball was launched. lol

Here's Kaleb and Jacob, goofing off after we got home from graduation. Jake's biting down on Kaleb's medal - said he wanted to see if it was real.

Kaleb and Jacob again:

Remember when I mentioned going to see my dad during my last post? Well I have to say that Desiree' and I had a really nice time up in Oklahoma. We drove up there Friday morning, went straight to the airport where we picked my sister up, who had flown in from Florida. Des and Sherri conspired to go eat lunch at Toby Keith's restaurant before we went to Dad's (in all fairness, Dad isn't that crazy about driving into Bricktown so we knew he wouldn't be upset at having missed that particular thrill. lol) We actually went up there to take Dad to the new Star Trek movie, since he was always a fan of the original series. The movie was great, by the way, although Dad thought it was too long. I think going to the movies may not be really high on Dad's list of things to do these days. That's okay, though. It was fun anyway and he did seem to enjoy being with us. That's what it's all about, right? Anyway, here's Des and Sherri at TK's restaurant, laughing at me for feeling the need to take their picture for my blog:

Saturday evening, we had a get together at Dad and Wendy's (my stepmom) with our cousins whom we hadn't seen in, literally, YEARS. I don't know how our family drifted so far apart, but circumstances put me in contact with my cousin Frank and his wife, Becky, back in February and we arranged to meet up the next time I headed up that way. Ironically, I found out back then that Frank drives to Ft. Worth several times a week for his job - I've lived in this area for over 4 years and didn't know that! Geez. Now we get to see each other more often, which is fantastic. Anyway, here's my dad with my cousins: Kenneth, Chip and Alonna (who, by the way, has survived breast cancer twice. She's our hero!) It's been a long tine since I've seen my dad so animated - he had a great time visiting with his family. It's amazing how he kind of cut himself off from that over the years - all these guys live within 5 miles of him but he just sort of stopped socializing with them. I'm hoping that they'll all start visiting a little more often now. And I will make it a point to get everyone together whenever I visit. It was just so wonderful to see Dad acting more like his old self again...the life of the party.

Here's Dad with Kenneth. I told him to smile and this is what I get. lol (But see how happy he is???)

Finally, here's a picture of my cousin Frank, his wife Becky, me, my sister Sherri, my dad Joe and my stepmom Wendy, in front of the Denny's in Midwest City. We met up there for breakfast before Sherri, Des and I headed on home.

Here's the same group with Desiree' instead of me. (Dad's messing with her, which seems to thrill her to no end. lol) It was great for Des to meet up with some of her extended family, too. She hadn't seen any of these people since she was about 11 years old. It was nice to see her laughing and smiling and knowing that it was real.

I didn't get a chance to visit with any of my blogging or my high school friends on this trip to Oklahoma (but I thought of you guys A LOT, Annie and Penny!!!). I just knew I wouldn't have an opportunity to take some "me" time because of all the family things that had been lined up. Next time, though, if you guys are interested, I'd love to meet up with you. I'll e-mail you beforehand, just in case you're able to get together with me, even if it's only for coffee. :)

Guess I'd better stop, eh? This is the longest post I've done in forever and a day. It's nice to have something good to talk about, though. Hope I didn't bore you too much!