Category: Life-condensed

The clock is ticking. Dude graduates Tuesday night, but we took pictures early because well … that’s just the way I am.

In the meantime, now that he is done with school and has all of this free time, I’ve been “coaching” him on how he can stay busy during the day. He seems eager to hear my ideas, which is surprising. I think he realizes just HOW boring his days are going to become if he doesn’t have something to occupy his time.

He made a decision – he wants to get a job and work full time for a bit, then take one, or two classes, in the spring. This will give him some time off from school, save some money, get some experience out in the “real” world, and a chance to make some new friends.

It’s amazing how relaxed he already seems since taking his last final Friday. We went to a graduation yesterday for his cousins and it was really good for him to hear the motivational speeches about not being afraid to take the first step toward his future and to always give 100% in anything that he attempts. I really think it gave him food for thought (even though I’ve been telling him the same thing for a while now, it always sounds different when coming from someone OTHER than mom or dad). It also helps him to hear the plans of other kids and to understand that this whole job/future thing is a natural step to the next level.

At any rate, I’m sure I’ll have tons more pictures with family on Wednesday to share with you. The weather, as of now (Missouri weather changes so quickly), shows that it’s supposed to be sunny and mid-60’s on Tuesday so HOPEFULLY it’ll stay that way.

I’m getting really excited – especially after attending the graduation yesterday. I can’t wait to watch him walk across that stage and get his diploma!!

I mean … I GET what they’re saying, “take chances … blah-blah-blah” but seriously?? WHAT were they thinking?

Oh well. I suppose it won’t be one we soon forget, that’s for sure. “Remember the yearbook cover that the class of 2011 had??” 😐

Geez, people.

ADDED: Well, I read through the yearbook – it’s not bad. It’s definitely not a run-of-the-mill yearbook. This is the school’s 40th year and they wanted to do something off-the-wall. I’m not crazy about the changes … but they wanted different – they got different. I just hope next year they go back to the traditional format.

I adore this boy … er … man??

We “talked” Dude into dressing up and wearing his cap and gown this past weekend so we could take pictures of him. We did it mainly because I want to blow the best one up to 5 x 7 so I can put it in a frame that I had custom-made for him, but we also did it because I was afraid that with the craziness that is sure to happen graduation night, I was afraid we wouldn’t have time, or just plain forget in all the excitement, to take some really good pictures of him, and with us.

Kevin moved our photography lights up to the office. He then draped a black and white (not one sheet, two sheets) and we took pictures against the background. I think we got some pretty good shots.

I’ll post the pictures soon.

The pictures you see above were actually taken last fall in our backyard. I wanted to get a decent shot of him to put on his graduation announcements.

Though Dude scowls at all the picture taking, I think, deep down, he’s enjoying the attention.

As he should. He’s worked very hard to get to this point and we’re very proud of him.

This would be the view out of our back window right now:

Pretty, right?

WRONG!

That’s not rain on that window. That’s not even some kind of clear stained glass design, oh no, THAT, my friends, is our first cracked window EVER.

*sigh*

Someone (who shall remain nameless because I don’t want to get this person into trouble *ahem*), was using a weed-whacker on our lawn yesterday around our new patio when all of a sudden, I heard a loud *POP*. I was in the bathroom at the time, so I couldn’t run to see what the sound was, but Kevin (because we had come home for lunch when it happened), peeked around the bathroom door and said,

“Our window just shattered.”

A little tiny rock, (we’re assuming it was teeny tiny because when we went out to investigate we didn’t see any big boulder, which is the size of the rock I picture whenever someone tells me that a window shattered) must have hit our window just right because the next thing I see is a complicated spider web of fine cracks covering our entire window.

The creepy thing is, we continued to hear the window splintering and cracking for about ten minutes after initial impact.

It’s ironic because one of the reasons Kevin wanted to build a patio to begin with was to avoid having to mow / weed around the french doors and to prevent this very thing happening.

It happened anyway. Isn’t that the way it goes??

I text the boys and told them what had happened and to not slam the door when they got home from school. Because even though the window is still in one piece, I’m quite sure it won’t take much more than one firm *smack* for the whole pane to crumble at our feet.

Kevin and I made an unscheduled trip up to Lowe’s after lunch and ordered a new window – it’s supposed to get here in about two weeks. I was bracing myself for a coronary as far as the price was concerned because it’s one of those windows that has the shades built into it. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be so we can continue to feed our two teenage boys.

Thank goodness.

It was a complete accident (the guy didn’t even know what had happened) and well … life goes on. We have homeowner’s insurance, but this mishap wasn’t enough to cover our deductible, so we’re out the cost. Oh well. Considering we’ve been in this house for 18 1/2 years and this is the first window we have cracked/broken, I’d say those were pretty good odds.

Just one of the perks of being a homeowner.

Just got back from the spring library book sale …

Kevin and I went on our lunch hour. I’m always a bit surprised that Kevin even likes to go with me – he hardly ever buys any books. He likes to joke that he prefers to look at books, not read them.

HA!

However, I came away with 18 sweet gems.

In fact, most of these books were on my Amazon wish list so … SCORE! AND, I made sure to pick out the better quality books so I should be able to resell them after I read them.

DOUBLE SCORE!

All in all, we left with 21 books. (Kevin bought three – but not to read. He liked them because they’re old and will look cool on a book shelf! The man seriously cracks me up). We spent $60 bucks.

Twenty-one books for $60 bucks? NOT BAD!

This was only round one. I stayed in the “better” book section, I haven’t even browsed the older book section yet.

That’s round two.

This is the shortest I’ve EVER had my hair.

*commence freak out here*

I like it, but WOW, this is going to take some getting used to!! It’s actually a little too short, in fact, the gal that cut it was being conservative! She said, “Wow. I’m glad I didn’t cut it any shorter!”

You and me both, sister!

But it’s okay. It’s hair, it’ll grow out. She gave me a razor cut – I’ve always liked razor cuts, I think my hair handles those types of cuts the best. (It looks “piecey” instead of blocky, if that makes sense). I’m thinking it’s going to look pretty cool in about two weeks and I’ll just have it trimmed from that point on – so it’s all good. She also gave me a color and highlights. I sort of freaked out when she rinsed my hair out and it was ORANGE!! No joke, it was orange.

“You don’t think that’s a little orange?” I asked her.

“Oh no! I think it looks really good. It’s the fluorescent lights,” she said.

Yeah right, I thought.

“Let me blow a little of it dry and then we’ll go outside and look at it in natural light.”

So, she did. And we went outside. And I calmed down because it didn’t look NEARLY as orange away from the salon lights.

I watched her style my hair like a hawk. I have no idea if I’ll be able to get the height she got out of it, but I’m going to try. I’m going to buy some root lifter and a skinny flat iron (she used the flat iron instead of a curling iron and it really gave it some curl without going bonkers), so we’ll see how it looks tomorrow after I wash it.

But I like it. It feels so LIGHT. And I feel so COOL. As in literally – I didn’t realize how much heat my hair trapped on my neck. This is going to be so awesome for the summer months. And maybe I’ll actually be able to wear scarves in the winter time without feeling like I have a nuclear power plant inside my core.

I’ve always wanted to go this short, I’ve just never had the guts to go this short before. I think it makes my face look fat, but oh well, I’ll use the height to offset that little flaw.

If you live in the Springfield area, I went to Latter Rain Salon – HIGHLY recommend them. Sweet gals and reasonable prices.