Graduation Day

First i want to say a big THANK YOU! for everyone who sent a comment to Sarah to congratulate her. She was really happy to get them. so thank you :o) you all rock and are awsome readers!! and i luv ya for it!!

We had a GREAT day!! The whole day worked out as planned and other than the graduation nerves themselves....This was pretty much a stress free day. I couldn't have asked for a better day. And it went a little something like this:

8am....Woke up, made a quick breakfast.

8:30 - 10:30....I straightened Sarah's hair. She has very thick hair that is naturally curly. Long small bouncy curls that look great wet, but as soon as it dries her hair does this incredible shrinking thing and goes from being past her shoulders to right up around her neck and frizzes out. She would never get that cap on unless its straightened. I normally do this once a week anyway so it was no big deal and I took my time so that it was perfect.

I keep telling y'all I gotz skilz!!

11am....She runs to the beauty shop to get a quick trim cuz her ends needed it. She was done in no time as the shop just opened and she was probably the first one there. After that she went to pick up her friend and then me and by...

Noon...Were off to shop. Sarah needed to get a new top and a pair of shoes and her friend needed to get shoes as well, plus we needed to get one of those throw away cameras cuz the digital pics always come out to dark. We gave ourselves 3 hours.

they need to be at school by 5pm. Graduation is at 6:30.

first stop.... Rainbow Shop. We looked around and they had some cute stuff but nothing that screamed "gotta have it!!". She already had the slacks to wear so we were just needing a blouse and shoes to go with it. She found a really cute pair of shoes that were perfect and pretty reasonable (on sale!) too. Until we got to the counter and she said $45.oo (reg price) and well...They weren't THAT cute! So we decided to check out the other store and if we couldn't find anything better, we would come back and get those. Her friend found a really cute pair of black sandals that were on sale so she got them.

Next stop was The Avenue. Another store with really cute stuff and she actually found some tops that were really cute and tried them on and decided on this one blouse that I really liked a lot and went really well with her pants. Best of all it was on sale and I didn't even know it!! gotta love that :o) so she got that and a lace thing to wear under it and now off to get shoes.

The shoe store...(which was conviently located two stores down)...On our way there we past a hallmark store and I realized that I never got a card for her so I snuck in there while they were looking at shoes and found a couple of cards for them and when I went back to the shoe store I was informed that everything in the store was buy on get one at half off today. So of course I say....."Does that include my daughter?" heh

they had the same shoe she picked out at the other store for half off the other store but they didn't have the color she needed. So they called another location and they did have the color so off we went to the other store where she purchased her shoes and now MISSION COMPLETE and it was only 2:15pm!!

so of course that left us time to have some lunch. Off to Subway was the food of choice and we got subs. We dropped off her friend and Sarah and I went home to eat lunch and just as planned.....

3:00pm: the "getting ready" process starts.

there was one small little glitch. I/we forgot all about the camera. So after lunch I ran out and got a camera came home to rest a little as I also worked the night before and only got about 3 hours of sleep and was pretty tired. My body was hurting really bad too due to rain we were expecting. The whole day was beautiful but we were expecting thunderstorm's. The sky was lit up bright blue with dark clouds scattered around....You can see that the storm was coming but just didn't know when. But weather wise it was perfect day. It wasn't hot or cold....Just right. and it rained just after the ceremony ended for a few minutes.

4:30: we go outside to take some before graduation pictures and I was reminded of my graduation and all the pictures we took then....But she looked really cute and yes I have pictures.....They will be posted soon. Have to get them developled.

5pm: we get to the school and Sarah leaves me and I wait with the other parents outside like a bunch a cattle waiting for them to open the doors so we can rush in to get that perfect seat in the perfect row to see your perfect child. Since we were early I was pretty much one of the first 10 to arrive therefore giving me prime spot in line. They let us into the gymnasium (?) and its relatively easy to find a good spot in the bleachers. So I sit. Now mind you the ceremony doesn't start for another hour and a half. So I sit and watch the people come in. I saved two spots for the roomie and her daughter as they were her guests and I sat. And sat. And watched. The place filled up pretty quickly and the temperature started rising as we were indoors. There were rows of bleachers on two sides of the gym and in the middle were 450 chairs waiting for the grads. It was a very emotional moment for me.

I kept thinking about all this stuff. Tears started coming....I quickly stopped that and got on the phone and called the roomies and told her to get her butt over here quick as I had to fight off many a parent for there "saved" spots. The place was filling up quickly. Finally they arrived. In such close quarters you can imagine I made a few friends like the woman sitting behind me who profusely apologized about every 2 seconds each time her knee went into my back and the gentleman in front of me who I apologized to several times for doing the same thing. The man next to me for whatever reason I got a really strange vibe from cuz whenever I would move away from him.....he got closer. Creepy.
FINALLY....I see the roomie. She of course was on the other side of the gym looking in the other set of bleachers on the other side, so I yell her name. Doesn't hear me. I'm waving my arms and I yell again. Nothing. Then as I'm waving and getting ready to yell again...The roomie looks over in my direction and everyone around me yells out her name and starts waving...It was funny. Turns out she knew the woman in front of her and we all became best buds.

while waiting for the ceremony to start...What is one to do while killing time.....Check out the people and read the program. Looking at all the names, looking at the list of all the speeches and songs we have to get through, then I hear the lady behind me say....."Wow look at this name" and proceeds to say Sarah's full (she has about 6 of them but they listed 4) name. Its a pretty name but very long. So I listened for a minute, then laughed.....Of all the names to read she picked Sarah's right off the top....LOL. I turned to my new friend and was like...."Hey! That's my daughter!!" and we both laughed. So I proceeded to point out all the walmart people I saw there, the roomie pointed out all the people she knew....I pointed out friends that I knew, kids that worked at WM, and finally the ceremony begins.

they started to come in and fill up the seats in front of us and finally I see Sarah in her gown and she looked really happy and I was so proud of her. ya know....Even though I wasn't there when she was born, I wasn't there for her first step or her first word. I never really seen much of her growing up.....I reflected back to the day when she first came into MY life, and I remember feeling that instant love a mother has for her child when they are just born and to watch her grow in the two years she's been here. She's grown in so many ways from this little girl who didn't really know anything to this grown woman who held a job for two years, got good grades in school, got her license, made friends...Good friends, made a life for herself with me here through good and rough times and now off to college. How could I not be a proud parent. So as they started to fall in, I reflected on all that and became a blubbering mess.

ok back to the ceremony.......

put the roomie and I in a room with a bunch of people we don't know and we will find just about everything wrong with this picture and crack jokes about everything that is going on. It is the funniest thing!! Of course were not loud about it...But damn funny. Like the photographer who was pretty much taking pictures of the back of this guys ear (from our view...He was most likely taking pictures of the Valedictorian who was speaking.....But from our angle...It looked like the back of this mans ear). Then he went behind this kid who was in a wheelchair and mentally challenge and you can tell the the repetitive clicking behind his head was getting to be quite annoying cuz I kept seeing him turn his head with this look of rage on him. Poor guy. The Valedictorian quickly started to sound like Charlie Browns teacher after the first 200 words as his speech was as boring as bat shit. I'm sorry but it was way to long!! They should put a 500 word limit to these things people. This kid, though smart and top of the class...Impressive....Was quoting shit from American history class. the next speech...Second in class....Salutation (?) now he was funny. I heard every word of his speech. He went up to the mike and put on these funky 2005 glasses and talked about the potty protest and had us laughing. His message of change was also really good.

we were told not to applaud after each name and that we can applaud AFTER each row was called. So of course us as Parents don't listen.....And we were hootin and hollorin at almost every name and had to be told several times....To applaud after each row!! LOL so of course when Sarah was called we hollered and laughed at ourselves. Were such rebels.

after the names were called the graduates stood and moved there tassels over to the other side of the cap and WALA! They graduated!! yaay

so we made our way through the crowd and I finally got to her and she was happy. So I was happy. Her feet hurt like hell but she made it through. It took like an hour to get out of the school it was moving soooo slow. And it was getting hot.

after that we met up with her friends family and went to dinner and had cake at there house afterwards. We ended up getting home after 11pm and we were tired. I actually had to do the work at home gig, but fell asleep and didn't wake up till 5am. I'm still tired but making it through. I've been doing the WAH gig and I'm getting really sleepy. Thank god only another 2 hours to go then its off to bed again. Sarah took the film in with her today so ill the pics scanned tonight for ya. Can't wait to see them. :o)

Have a great Holiday Weekend and be safe!
love & hugs, jeannine