Em/Ashton's Graduation::22/52::May 26

(I told him to "smile"... so he closed his eyes really tight :) )


I'm so proud of her! At the beginning of the year, she was told that there was no possible way for her to graduate with her class at the charter school. The plan was to have her get as many credits as she could, and then take more classes at the adult high school.

Day 1 of school, she had a melt down. The next day, I checked her out of the charter school and headed to the alternative high school.

After jumping through hoops, I got her registered at the alternative high school, paid her fees, talked to the counselor, and learned that according to Utah State requirements for graduation, she was only .25 credit shy of graduation, as long as she passed all of her required classes throughout her senior year.

Well, the school and Emily worked miracles together, and she was done with all of her credits in March... which leads another story that I'd like to tell.

Emily has struggled with depression & anxiety for years and has had to be hospitalized for it. In March, with a week left in the term that she had been doing so well in, the depression kicked her butt and she had to go in for a week. She was disheartened, because at the charter school, it was so hard to make up a week at the same time as trying to keep caught up with the regular work that she ended up never catching up during the first term of her junior year. We were worried it was going to be the same scenario...

When I talked to the counselor, he said that he had talked to the teachers and had agreed that they would just freeze her grades where they were and she could be finished. I LOVE that school, the teachers, the counselors, and the administration! They treat students like people. At the beginning of the year, when she met with the counselor, he said that at their school, they believed in mutual respect: teachers showed respect to the students, and in return, the students were expected to show respect to the teachers. Emily was surprised and said, "That's not the way it was at my old school! Teachers don't show respect for students there." Unfortunately, she was telling the truth about many of the teachers there. I am amazed at the alternative school, and I couldn't be happier with her experience!

She has had a hard 4 years, and I couldn't be prouder of her that she stuck it out and saw it through! Congratulations to my 2015 Graduate! <3

♥ Melody

Whew!! Graduation and the end of school makes time fly by, it is so busy!! But I'm back... with some pics of Jared, of course! Before graduation: Receiving his diploma: My future graduate: After graduation, we went to the park and had cake with family: Celebrations are always such a whirlwind! In addition to Jared's graduation last week, we decided that since my dad was in town for Jared's graduation, we'd get some of the family together to celebrate his upcoming 80th birthday. And then, since it is hard to get everyone together in the first place, we decided that we should take a family pic of the family members that were there: This week has been a mixture of trying to get in a routine w/ the kids home for summer break and doctor visits. Hopefully everything will fall into place easily and we can get into a routine soon! Have a wonderful day!

Graduation - the family

Aiden was holding Josh's hand when he first saw Steve in the parking lot of the high school, so he poked up his little hand, wanting Steve to hold it too :)





Aiden kept looking at the ground and wouldn't look up, which Josh and I thought was weird, but then Steve realized that he was watching his shadow.



I figured that they were all dressed up anyway, so we might as well take a pic, right?



Such a cute little family!!

And this is why I am giving my blessing to their upcoming wedding:



I don't remember what was going on, but this is just how their are together. Look at her face! She is beaming. They really are so cute together :)

And the more that I'm around Tino, the more I see Steve in him. They say that a girl will pick someone like her dad, and a boy will pick someone like his mom and boy have we found that to be true with our kids! Not that Karen and Tino are clones of us or anything, they just have similarities, which is kind of endearing, actually. :)

Today I have nothing planned. Yet. But it is before 9:30, so that could all change, I suppose.... How about you? Anything fun planned? Or are you hoping to be a couch potato - with or w/o a tv- like me? :)

Have a great day!

Graduation

Sorry I missed you yesterday. The day just kind of got away from me.

Amber graduated on Tuesday evening. YAY AMBER!! So, of course I had to take lots of pics :)

With the Graduate:

Steve, Amber, and me


Amber and her paternal Grandma (I airbrushed out the name of the high school for privacy reasons. I hope that you understand. :)


Amber and Tino


Waiting.....


The 2011 class preparing to become official Graduates


Amber opening her Willow Tree "Wisdom" figurine from Regina (to Regina: She loved it!! Thanks so much :)


Amber reading her card from her maternal Grandpa (my dad :)


Jared gave her a donut :)


And we celebrated with cake:


Just a note to my Graduate:

Congratulations my sweet Amber! You have always made your daddy & me proud and continue to every day. We love you!

If I don't stop tearing up every time I think about her growing up I'm going to get dehydrated!

I couldn't believe how emotional I got when the graduating class moved their tassles from the right to the left. It wasn't just tears that came, but sobs that I had to control. I should've realize that since I get teary at other people's children's graduations, with my own.... well, I was just so proud! (as a side note: I did get ahold of myself before all of the whooping and hollering was over, so no one except Tino and Karen noticed... I hope.)

Earlier, I had gotten off of the stands to take her picture with her Principal in front of a school emblem that they had set up; she walked by and smiled at me and the whole time I'm thinking, "I'm not gonna cry. I'm not gonna cry." and I patted her on the back and walked on. Karen jumped up and ran over and gave her a hug. I was so glad that someone else filled in my gap! Later Amber told me how weird it was when I just patted her on the back like a football player (except it really *was* a pat on the back, not the behind! :) I laughed and told her that I knew if I hugged her I'd cry in front of all of those people and would have embarrassed her & me. What a baby I am!!

After the ceremony and visiting with friends at the school, we went to a park and had cake and opened her gifts. Her paternal Grandma gave her a card earlier, so I missed a shot of that, and her maternal Grandma is saving her card for her at her nursing home. My sister has a card for her. I suspect that there are probably many more cards, too. :)

Amber didn't want to "walk" at graduation, but graduation is such a Rite of Passage that I pretty much begged her to. She told me several times that she was only doing it for me. That was okay with me! Hopefully at some point she will realize that it was for her too. :)

As another side note, I don't think High School Graduation is only a Rite of Passage for the graduate; after going through it and experiencing all of those feelings, I am sure that it is also a Rite of Passage for the parent, too. Thanks for giving that to me, Am!

Today, we are going to celebrate Tino's birthday. He was born in the same month and year that *I* graduated from high school ... he is 23 today. (Wow! It sure doesn't seem that I graduated 23 years ago!!)

And a note to Tino:

Happy, Happy Birthday to my almost-Son-in-Law! You have already found a place in all of our hearts & we love you very much! Have a super terrific wonderful day today! :)

I hope that all of you are enjoying the end of the school year hustle and bustle celebrations and fun! Have your kids' school ended yet? Are any of them graduating from preschool, elementary, jr. high, or high school? I'd love to hear about it!