Whew! We have had nothing but chaos around here for the last couple of weeks. We've had a new job start, two kids graduate from high school, a big party, lots of relatives visit from out of town, two really great photo shoots, a bit of clothes & shoe shopping and lots of memories created around here. It was fun -- sooo FUN, but so darn exhausting. We don't have lots of company and have never had a party at this house. So it was tons of work but so worth it.
First my sweet hubby started a new job. He was working at a snack manufacturer and had told me that there were enough company facilities here in the Metroplex that he could theoretically work at the snack manufacturer for the rest of his career. But after 18 months of working 14-15 hours per day, he was exhausted and he felt like he was spinning his wheels every single day. He started a job search and at the same time heard about a great opportunity from a former co-worker. He has excellent interviewing skills so he had about four job offers by the time the search was coming to a close. After giving notice at the snack manufacturer, he was informed that he was on the "fast-track" to an upper level management position. He had never heard this in the entire time he worked there. Later he found out that his boss "forgot" to tell him about that part of his career plan. A few days after that in a completely unrelated incident that same boss was fired from the company for "cooking the books!" It worked out great in the end though because now Bruce is working at a fabulous new position at a beer manufacturer (and we're the proud owners of a free case of beer this week!) tee hee!
This photo is one from a photo shoot I did in my garage. I had never tried the garage photo shoot thing but decided it was time. Whitney was graduating in a few days and I knew that everyone was going to be asking for pictures. I hated her senior pictures so I thought I'd just give the picture taking job a whirl. We both loved the results and that is saying alot because Miss Whitney has turned rather picky these days. She has started saying she is going to start charging me a modeling fee for these photo shoots but I refused to pay. When she starts paying rent and pitching for all those HOUR-long hot showers she takes, then we'll talk modeling fees! LOL
Then we started on the journey towards graduation. Bruce & I have kids the same age so he flew out to see his daughter graduate and I stayed here in town to see Whitney graduate. (I'd love to post a pic of my step-daughter but I don't have her mom's permission to post her pic on the internet.) After graduation practice, Whitney returns to the car and informs me that she needs sensible shoes for graduation. What 18 year-old high school senior has sensible shoes?! So we go shoe shopping and that results in new shoes for Whitney and three pairs of shoes for Mom. I really did need them though!
I pick my Mom up from the airport and we head out to graduation. We both talked about crying at the commencement ceremony and made sure we took lots of Kleenex with us. But honestly there was no way we could have cried if we wanted to. I've never been to a more rowdy graduation in my life. The ceremony was in a big arena where I've attended many concerts. There was a big JumboTron in the center of the arena and the kids were on the JumboTron as they walked across the stage. Most of the graduates were not shy about celebrating their walk across the stage. They danced, they kicked up their heels, they waved to the crowd and in general took their sweet time relishing their moment in the limelight. A few kids stopped to don their sunglasses and took a picture of themselves on the stage before accepting their diploma! We had never seen anything like that in our lives. But, unfortunately, there were 684 graduates in the 2005 class, and it took a little over 3 hours for them all to have their "special moment" on stage. It was tiring but we will have stories to tell about that one for years to come.
After the ceremony, I had the pleasure (and I use that term loosely) of seeing all my ex-inlaws and my ex-husband and his girlfriend/wife/whatever she is this month. The ex-inlaws are divorced and remarried and they really don't want to be around each other. I was the good mom and took pictures of Whitney with everyone and got out of there without having to converse with any of them too much.
In comparison, Bruce says his daughter's graduation ceremony was calm and sedate. He said the kids were all like they were on Prozac and there was definately no rowdiness. He got to spend some quality time with his kids and he loved that. He was especially glad to spend some time with his older daughter as she is leaving for a semester long intership at DisneyWorld in Orlando for which she will receive college credit. We are so glad she is finally finding her path in life.
So on Saturday we had the BIG party. I was so thankful that all of my immediate family was able to come to town for Whitney's party. We don't all get together at the same place very often so it was special times for sure. We had 17 family members, a handful of adult friends that know Whitney and about 25 of Whitney's friends show up to the party. It poured rain that day so we wound up setting up tables in the garage for the kids. They ate, partied, listened to music and generally had a great time. I only had to tell one kid to quit cussing in front of my very religious in-laws. And I only had to go into the garage once to asked them to bring the volume level down one notch. Great kids and great fun! Whitney got mostly money for graduation and she is going to be able to afford a pretty nice car. Go Whitney! :)
Sunday the family came over for a little quality time and we managed to sneak in an impromptu photo shoot. This pic is one of the best in my opinion.
My mom said she doesn't have one picture of her and all her kids now that we are grown up. So we fixed that for her. Not a bad looking family if I do say so myself. Great genes! And doesn't my mom look great to be in her mid-60's and have 3 kids and 6 grandkids? We got tons of other great shots that day too. My brother took pics with his camera and I took them with mine. We burned them all to CD and exchanged CD's with each other. I'll be making a scrapbook for my mom for Christmas this year and probably mini scrapbook for my siblings too.
After everyone left, we had lots of cleaning to do. We got all the cleaning done on Sunday afternoon. That left Monday for us to relax and recouperate from all the excitement.
It was a very busy few weeks but so worth it. I loved seeing my family and friends. I'm so proud of all of our girls. In the next few weeks, Whitney will be attending driving school, car shopping and enrolling in college. My older step-daughter will be getting used to her new apartment and learning her new job (possibly enrolling in night classes also). My younger step-daughter will be moving to Chicago to attended Columbia College (not to be confused with Columbia University) and study film. Bruce will continue to learn the ropes at his new job. And I guess my stay-at-home mom gig will be over and I'll start looking for a job too. Lots of new things in this new chapter of our lives -- lots of new experiences and probably some more great memories.