OH MY GOODNESS!!!!

Sooooo- what a crazy fun weekend! The events in question are:

The Sound to Narrows 12K and 5K run, and Jade graduating from COLLEGE!

THAT'S RIGHT- COLLEGE- I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT EITHER!!!!

So these events are in order of when they happened not in order of importance- cause Jade's graduation was alot more important than a run!

OK, we were running in the Sound to Narrows run Saturday morning! Jade, Kent and our fave cousin Kyle were doing the 5K (3.1 miles), and I was doing the 12K (7.45 miles). Here we are getting ready to run. I was sooooo thankful that it didn't rain on us, the weather said all week rain so I was kind of bummed. But now rain- I said I would not complain about how cold it was if it didn't rain, well, it didn't rain, but I couldn't help whining a little bit about the cold. I couldn't help it! But once I started running it was OK!

The kids' 5K started before my run, so after they took off, Jeromy got this one of me getting ready to start mine.... I ran my 12K in 1:16:01, I ran it almost 2 minutes faster last year- oh well!

Afterwards, we stayed a little for the awards, and Kyle- of course- placed! He won 3rd place overall for the 5K running it in 18:04.... he really is amazing. That's running a mile in 6 minutes... insane! Jade got 36:25, and Kent got 35:22.

The bib numbers were really colorful this year- love that!

Here we are all in our new tech shirts! This was the Sound to Narrows 40th anniversary run!

OK, Kent really needed a haircut! Like it so far??

OK- onto Sunday! Even tho we had Jade's graduation to get ready for we did go to church cause I hate to miss it. Still in Proverbs... some good reading people! We also got the last minutes decorations for Jade ready. Her colors were red and white.

Awesome Costco cake, Jade wanted the hat to be red and they did it!

There she is ready to put on her cap and gown!

That's alot of graduates. I think they said there were over 1,000 graduates- the biggest class that OC has ever had they said during announcements.

Proud mom and grandma waiting to hear Jade's name called...

 There she is walking across the stage! All who came to watch Jade graduate: Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Lee, Grandma Claire, Mom- me!, Jeromy, Aurora, Kent and the kids' dad Josh. We were all so proud of her!

Afterwards I told Jade she could go anywhere she wanted to go for dinner, she chose Famous Dave's. Everyone seemed happy with that choice! Jade wanted her some ribs!

And she got 'em!

Jeromy loved his hamburger, too, once they made it with out the cheese!

After dinner we all headed back to our house to have some cake! Here's Jade with her dad and Grandma Claire...

HOW CUTE IS THIS GIRL????

My college graduate- somebody pinch me!

 Our kids: Aurora, Jade and Kenton...

Jade with grandma and grandpa...

 Our family... so blessed... I can't believe my baby girl is a college graduate...

Jade cutting her cake...

Hey... how'd that picture get in there??

 Unbelievable....

 Jade, a college graduate, received her ATA in Early Childhood Education... now it's time to get a job!!! Maybe we'll give her a couple of weeks to take it easy.... then the job hunting begins!

Taken too soon...

 So I snapped a couple of pictures of Jade too soon yesterday. She was all dressed up for her last day of class that she was having to give a presentation to. I took her picture when she was squeaky clean right from the shower. Well after I had posted them, Jade got even more dolled up! She put some make-up on, she asked me to help. Neither one of us hardly ever wear make-up so it was kind of comical me putting it on her lol! Anyway she also borrowed one of my necklaces. And then she straightened her hair a little. So this is how she looked heading out.

And don't miss the fancy silver high-heels!

Jade's last day of college!!!

 So today is Jade's final day of class! She has a final presentation to give tonight for her practicum 3 class- that's why she's dressed kinda fancy-like! She's such a cutie-pie!

 Also Kent and I headed to the DMV- greatest place on earth I say... NOT! Anyway we got his permit today and once we got on our street, Kent and I traded places and he drove for the first time up the hill. I called Jade so she could capture Kent driving up and into the driveway.... I had him stop far from the house, little nervous lol.... he said he felt pretty comfortable tho.... we were going about 5 miles an hour... lol

 Here we are getting out of the car!

Other news: So as most of you know, Jade is graduating from college this weekend, and Kent is graduation from high school next weekend. So their dad, Josh, is coming up for Kent's graduation but he's not able to come up, from california,for Jade's due to money and available vacation time. So that is kind of a bummer, but both kids are excited to see their dad either way.

Sooo, secretly, I've been working with Josh to find a way to get him up here no matter how we do it. He needs to be here for her college graduation. He told me just about 2 weeks ago that his boss told him to go ahead and take the whole week off  so he's able to go to both kids' graduations woo-hoo!!!!

So we decided to keep it a surprise for Jade and just have him show up at the ceremony. Well, I'm horrible at secrets. But I was really making an effort to watch what I say, we really wanted to surprise her. So today... lamo me... I was talking to Jade and asking if we should go out to dinner after the graduation then back to our house for some cake, or maybe have snack foods and cake at our house, you know just kinda planning our fun day, and with out even thinking I said maybe we should just ask your dad and see what he thinks.... LAMO! I still didn't even realize what I had said. Jade just stared at me and said "what?" cause this whole time Josh and I have been telling her he can't make it up here, he's really sorry blah blah blah. So she just stared at me. And I couldn't recover... so I said "Dang it... surprise!" And Jade burst into tears she was so excited! So we had to call her dad right away, to say first- I'm let it slip, and second Jade needed to hear from her dad that he was really coming. She was so excited, it was so cool to see her so happy, and that it means that much to her to have her dad there, I think it made him happy knowing it meant that much to her also.

Next couple of weeks are going to be pretty exciting around here!

Kent's last day of school...

 Poor Kent... he is emotionally and mentally exhausted- BUT HE IS DONE! He is so happy to be done!

So he got a little nap in this afternoon. But not much, tonight he has his first driver's ed. class!!! He is so excited about that! He's been wanting to go for a few years now, and finally, he is going!

That is all!

More house work...

 We were doing more work on the house this weekend. But first- Jade was making us a yummy lunch so we'd have our strength! Potato skins- yummy! And she used Jeromy's goat cheese (which tastes pretty good) so he could eat them, too!

Ok, now onto work. As encouraged by our Realtor, we were painting the window sills down stairs cause they were looking kind of bad. Jade was tasked with that job...

She painted 3 of them. Looks good Jade!

 Kent was vacuuming the whole upstairs and along the molding cause you know how dust likes to collect there...

 Another item the Realtor mentioned- painting the banister railing that had alot of paint chips in it. Another job for Jade. It actually made a big difference. And it is the first thing people see when they walk in.

 Been working on getting the craft/exercise room cleaned out. Lots of room now. Hopefully the new potential owners will be able to picture their stuff in this space with less of our stuff distracting them...

 I was tasked with straightening up the laundry room. Here's the before...

And the after- yeah... lookin' pretty good....

 Another angle of the "before"....

And then after. It sure feels good to throw away so much garbage and getting things straightened up and organized... I think my mom is shedding a tear right now...

So after church today, I met with my old high school friend Teresa for lunch at Applebees. I forgot my camera :o(

Then my parents took my kids out to see the Men in Black 3 movies then we all met up for dinner at Red Robins... I am FULL!

Time for a nap......

I got a few more days...

So Kent got a letter in the mail from group health.

It started out:

Dear Kenton,
Congratulations, you are now an adult! Now that you're 18...

And so on and so on.

I felt like that letter was a smack in the face- I'm mostly joking here... mostly.

He's not quite 18 yet, I still have 11 more days where he's still a minor and totally dependant upon me for his every need... sniffle sniffle... uh-oh here comes the whining..

WHERE DID THE TIME GO? HOW CAN HE BE ALMOST 18 ALREADY??? WHY? WHY? WHY?


OK, thanks people. I had to get that out of my system. But I'm sure there's more where that came from.

I leave you with this adorable picture of Kent when he was 3 months old... I love that little face so much...

And Kenton now at 17- almost 18 years old... so handsome...

Nanny Jade! Nanny Jade!

Jade is getting some nanny practice in with the Cooler Schooler girls!

Then Jade made her amazing Lumpia! Here she is... so cute...

Kent (and the rest of us,too!) loves Jade's lumpia!!!