Cami's Graduation Day!!!!

June 19, 2015.   

The long awaited graduation day was finally here and Cami couldn't have been more excited about it.  She left bright and early for what was not just the culmination of four years of hard work for Cami, but, with as much planning as she'd had to do for it, it was also the satisfaction of a shorter term job done as well.   She was heavily involved in planning the graduation ceremony,  helped arrange the senior gift, had spent hours and hours polishing her speech, and  had even chosen and invited the guest speaker to give the convocation speech.     

A few hours after Cami left, we headed for the  ceremony  at the GMU Patriot Center.   We took up almost an entire row with our family, Pete and Mika's family, and Cami's friends, Matt and Katy.   

We had warned the kids that the ceremony might feel a little long, especially during the part when they were calling all the graduates' names, so Ellie came prepared with a little neck pillow just in case she needed to take a nap.   

With Cami's name on the program as many times as it was though, there was no falling asleep in our row!    Cami introduced a couple speakers, presented the senior class gift, and gave a valedictory speech.    

Cami wants me to point out that, although what she gave was technically a valedictory speech,  our district  does not officially name valedictorians.   They had chosen 2 speakers from among the 16 graduates who achieved over a 4.0 GPA.   Whatever you call it, it was still quite an honor for Cami and she did a fantastic job delivering it.  

Glen has been right in the middle of a HUGE project at work, which has had him working 80+ hours per week for the last couple of months.     Everything with the project was coming to a head this weekend, which meant leaving work to come to Cami's graduation was actually quite a stretch for him.   He came late and left early, but he was there and I have photographic proof! 

Cami and the other 3 graduates who played a part in the program were saved for last in actually receiving their diplomas.    

She had her own excited cheering section when they heard her name called! 

After that, they tossed their caps into the air and exited the arena as official high school graduates! 

Cami was so excited that she could barely contain herself.  

Everyone in the family wanted their turn to pose with the happy graduate...

including siblings and cousins! 

We are so thankful for Pete and Mika (and family) for sharing in this happy day with us.  

After the ceremony we went out for dinner at Cheesecake Factory, then on to the National Theatre to see Newsies.   The singing and dancing were delightfully AMAZING and we are now hooked on the soundtrack!  

And in a funny story for another day.... we were a little shocked when we realized when we got to the theater that Ellie was totally shoeless.   Thankfully not many people seemed to notice her shoelessness, and  I am happy to say that she didn't contract any strange diseases walking through the streets of Washington DC barefoot.    

It was a wonderful day and we couldn't be prouder of our Cami Rose!   

Weekend in NUMB3RS

I had 13 kids at our house most of the weekend, including 9 that slept over here on Friday night.

Cami was getting paid to take care of 5 of the kids overnight and for most of two days.

4 of the kids were my nieces and a nephew that Ellie had been begged to have over for a night.

3 of the guests had fevers.

I  fed bowls of egg noodles in broth to 2 kids who are allergic to eggs.    Thankfully neither reacted to it.    The mom suspects that it's because the noodles only contained egg yolks and not the more allergenic whites.  I feel majorly horrible, especially since I pride myself in being uber  careful about people's food allergies.   I think I was thrown off because the kids were sick and not eating anything else I served.    

Cami had 1 cupcake order and 1 tutoring job during her babysitting stint, which is why I was feeding kids without her around.

Glen and Spence both completed legs of a 70-mile relay.

Glen ran about 10 miles, Spence about 14.     Two friends did all 70-miles themselves.

I worked on the yard for 2-hours in the heat of the day, mostly to escape the noise on the inside of our house.  The kids found a beautiful white-marked tussock moth caterpillar, while I found that I have the capacity to sweat A LOT.

It was 1/2 hour before the evening session of stake conference was supposed to start and I realized that I hadn't showered, I was wearing my grubbies, still had 13 kids at our house, hadn't made dinner yet, and was covered in grass stains from working on the yard.   I opted not to go.

I spent 20-minutes cleaning up after a little blender "incident" that one of my children had (see picture below).   

 I was fine most of the weekend and it wasn't really until the next day that I got a little overwhelmed....mostly after  viewing the aftermath of this weekend on our house (see a glimpse in the pictures above and below). 

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Here are a few pictures of our crazy weekend...you know, so I can look back at all this with nostalgia someday!

Did I forget to mention that my brother is back from his nearly 3-month European tour and is hoping to find a job here?    

A Clean Sweep for Cami

   You'd think that things would start winding down stress-wise by last week or two of school, but, as it somehow always happens,  things are crazier than ever.   And that's with only one of my children in public school this year!    

These are the things which are overtaking our lives right now:      

1.   end-of-year concerts, recitals, etc.   2.  end-of-year banquets, award ceremonies, etc.

3.  we're inundated with getting ready  (filling out forms, writing checks, volunteering, etc) for all the summer activities (and with my calling, this takes up A LOT of time)   4.  it's time to plan for the fall (when lessons are going to be, what sports will the kids do, which classes to take, etc)

With Cami being a graduating senior, her stress levels are high too.  Here's what's consuming her time:   

1.  teachers are jamming in all of the projects they can before the end of the year  2.  Normal end-of-year finals and stress  3.  signing up for classes at BYU--the stress of actually choosing a schedule, and then having to stay up past 2am on a school night to do the actual registering   4.  Still trying to work and save money for college--this past weekend she had an overnight babysitting job, a cupcake order, and a tutoring job.     5.  WRITING A GRADUATION SPEECH--The mentor/teacher that's helping with the speech is a hard-driver who has a very particular idea of what kind of speech she wants and she keeps Cami after school working on it for hours and hours per day....sometimes well into the evening hours.      

So earlier this week, on a normal busy day, I had an alert pop up on my cell phone that Cami had her sports award ceremony that night.    I was pleased that there were no other conflicts and I made plans to go.   Several hours later, when it was time to leave, Cami seemed surprised that I was attending and tried to talk me out of it.  She claimed that it would be long, boring, and definitely not worth my time.   Sadly, this is true about a lot of sports award ceremonies that I've attended over the years, but I figured that since it was her senior year, I would go despite her protestations.   

And thank goodness I did!  

Cami was the star of the night!  

She won every single award she was eligible to win and was definitely the most frequent visitor onto the stage...male or female.     

Here's a run-down of what she won:  

1.   $1500 scholarship (awarded to only one female and one male athlete at her school)

2.  a tri-athlete scholar award (for participating in three sports and maintaining an over 3.5 GPA)

3.  a four-year three sport award (for participating in three sports for all 4 years of HS--only a handful of other seniors received this)

4.  Coach's award for varsity lacrosse (only one awarded for each spring sport)

All four of these awards were a HUGE honor to receive and it was hard not to blush a little at all the really wonderful things they said about Cami during the night.    She is a hard-worker and that night was a little pay-back, for her and for me,  for some of that hard work from over the years.     We are so proud of our Cami Rose!  

Way to go, Cami!  

Six Down, Eight to Go...

With Cami's graduation from early morning seminary this past Sunday, we officially have six years of early mornings down.....only eight to go!  

It's a huge sacrifice to wake up an hour-and-a-half before the rest of your peers....

to study the scriptures BEFORE school each day....

but this amazing group  (plus about 30 others from our stake) did just that every day for FOUR YEARS! 

These three...

will all be attending BYU in the fall!

As a parent, I am so grateful for her  teachers (Bro. Goodson, Bro. Atchley, Bro. Koch, Bro. Ferrel, and Bro. Liljegren) who sacrificed not only their sleep, but also their time in preparing the lessons each day.  

Glen was a seminary teacher for a couple of years back when Emma was a baby and it was a relentlessly exhausting (but rewarding) job to do!    A job without pay...of course!

I am also grateful for Cami's good friends.   What a great influence they've been and I'm grateful that their friendship is such that it can continue as they all head off to Cougar territory this fall!

Trudging Through

So, I'm not blogging much, because truly our heads are barely above water right now.   I totally forgot how over-the-top stressful this time of year is, especially with a graduating senior.   There is stress oozing out of the walls of our house right now and I cannot wait to be able to relax a little.... maybe in August. 

I've been working on this blogpost on and off for two straight weeks and it's still not done, but since I don't want to get any further behind, I'm publishing it as is.    No video.   Nothing funny.   It is what it is.  

My little girl is graduating from high school in a couple of weeks.   

As per Vienna Ward youth tradition, we recently had a "senior roast" to honor all of the graduating seniors.  

This year we honored Katy H, Cami, and Kaili E. 

Each senior's family set up a display table featuring some important items from their lives.    Here's a little glimpse of Cami's table.   

And a close-up of some of the items....

We estimate that we had about 70 people in attendance...

We fed them an easy summer-style dinner of BBQ pork sandwiches, potato salad, coleslaw, and a vegetable platter.   We had easy finger foods for dessert.  

We played a Jeopardy game with questions the seniors had answered in advance.  It was a fun time-filler, since we didn't have as many seniors as we normally have, and it was a great way to get to know each senior better.   

After that was the highlight of the evening, when  each family presented a slideshow and told stories about their senior.    I eventually will  try and publish her slideshow here, but seeing as I've been trying to get it web ready for 2 weeks now and I'm still not done, I'm going ahead and publishing it without.   

Lastly, the seniors gave their "Last Will and Testament" where they bequeathed items and talents to other members of the youth.   It's always funny to hear what's important to them and to hear the youth's reactions when something is left to them.   One of Cami's favorite bequeathals was the baby of her Sunday School teacher, whom she left to two other nurturing YW who were always fighting for a turn to hold him.  The two girls literally squealed in delight when they realized there would now be one fewer baby-holder to fend off.  :)