Sen10r moment

We had a great night at Taylor's graduation, except the flames of hell couldn't be hotter than it was in that gym. As third in his class, he was named historian and therefore delivered the "historical facts of the class of 2010" speech at graduation. If you don't mind motion sickness and blurred vision, feel free to check it out below.



Or, you can watch him receive his diploma.

Jesus was a chick?

Had a crazy day at work, then drove down for Taylor's baccalaureate service tonight. They had some students pray, and the girl doing the invocation said, "... most of all, we're thankful for Your Son, who was born as a woman... I mean, born from a woman..." Hahahaha! Is it irreverent to laugh out loud during a prayer?

Tomorrow I'm going to hang out with Alisa, Shauna and Amy for a bit at ATU, then head to NLR for a meeting. Hope the tornadoes stay far, far away from my hotel room tonight.

Oh, and a disclaimer about my blog: it's purely for entertainment. Most of it is accurate, but I have been known to embellish the truth a bit for both humor and story flow. So please stop taking me so seriously, k? I am my mother's daughter. If a true story is funny, adding details that didn't happen might make it funnier.

Rest of the pics from tonight are here.

Beautiful boy

In so many ways this pic seems like just yesterday. Taylor's dreamed of being a Razorback since he was a small child. And this fall he'll realize that dream.

I can't believe our baby boy is graduating from high school! Baccalaureate is tomorrow night, then I'm headed to Little Rock for work. Friday night is commencement. This will be an emotional week, for sure. And while I'm sure some may find my attachment to my nieces and nephews to be a bit odd, they're my babies. I didn't give birth to them. Thankfully I don't have to pay for college. But I changed diapers and wiped tears and rocked 'em to sleep.

So this moment is so bittersweet! What an amazing young man Taylor's turned out to be. He inherited Lonnie's best quality: a great sense of self and of remaining likable but not influenced by what's cool. Rather, he's just himself, and always does the right thing, regardless of what others think. Our sweet, beautiful baby boy has turned into a great young man.

I'm thrilled he'll be close to me this fall. I asked him the other day if he knew how to do laundry, and he responded, "Nah. But I just figured I'd bring it to you." That sounds about right.

Graduation, v2.0

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've been working on a video project for a friend during every spare moment. Plus, I'm trying to catch up on some sleep. In the interim, enjoy some more pics from Jen's graduation.

Dr. Jen, Medicine Woman

Congratulations to the incomparable and amazing Jen, who received her hood tonight in preparation for medical school graduation tomorrow, which makes her irrevocably Dr. Jen from now 'til eternity. She even took the hypocritic oath, or whatever that's called. I was bored by that point.

The cookie cake; it looked better before a semi cut me off in Conway and it slid into the floor. That's why the "o" and "n" are missing. But it was still yummy!



For some reason, someone thought it would be smart to send three small boys and an 84-year-old with me by myself. In a parking garage. In downtown Little Rock. Yikes!



Jennifer being hooded. The red and white's for UofA. The green for medicine. The blurry photo is because I was too far away.



Jen with her most influential person. Really, she owes it all to me.



Dr. and Mr. Hester. Hahahaha.



The perfect pic of the whole family. Brady's wearing her cap, Peyton's pulling her honor cords, and Avery's actually being good.



More tomorrow; I've been up since 4:30 a.m. and am too tired to write any more.

Pomp and circumstance

There are two songs that always make me cry: "Pomp and Circumstance" and "The Star Spangled Banner." Play them in succession, and I can't stop the tears. Play them in succession and in conjunction with a big American flag and a gym full of adults who finished college degrees while working full time and taking care of their families, and I'm toast.

This is how I ruined my mascara this morning.

I'm officially tired. I'm not sure if it's the stress from work, allergies, or traveling so much (probably a combination of all of those things), but I'm just weary. I feel exhausted and lethargic.

Thankfully I was in Fayetteville when the alleged tornado hit Siloam today. All is well with me and my possessions.

There you go, Dad. I finally updated my blog.