It's official, she's a graduate!

Just a quick entry to let everyone know... E graduated today. Not that there was ever any doubt. I won't go into my dramatic race across town to get there in time, but I was so nervous by the time I did actually get there, that I was shaking too much to take a decent picture. Damn traffic! Anyway, here's the proud graduate, with proud parents, under the picture tree. Just don't freak out when you see how much bigger she is than me. She was wearing heels.

boysen.berry

I am sooooo excited! On Friday we received E's acceptance letter to Berry College. I had already determined that Berry would be the perfect college for E to attend. Luckily, she is agreeing with me. Some of the characteristics that make it such a good fit are:
1. It's small, only around 2,000 students.
2. It has a great school of education.
3. It is picturesque and in a small town.
4. It has conservative values (it is Christian-based).
5. It has a cross country and track team.
6. It places a strong emphasis on work. (Academic work, of course, but here I'm talking about employment and work experience while still in school.)
Obviously there are other factors, but I won't bore you with all the nitty-gritty details.

Last night we received her scholarship letter. Her attendance at Berry was hinging on whether or not she would be awarded enough money. Well, suffice it to say that the dollar amount was exactly what we needed. Lookout, Berry College, here we come!

A few other interesting facts that I discovered about Berry:
1. It's online library website is boysen.berry.edu (hahahaha, that's cute!)
2. It has received financial contributions from Henry Ford and the Ford Foundation (Henry Ford was also responsible for building up The Hill.)
3. It is the largest contiguous college campus in the world. Yes, I said IN THE WORLD!
4. Deer outnumber the students by a ratio of 7 to 1.

Today I am officially a PROUD MOMMY!

blurted out

So we went to Carlito's for lunch to celebrate Lindsey's birthday. A large table of 10 people who don't know each other very well, except for the three of us at the end, me, Deb and Mary Ann. The waitress comes to take our order. Everyone else is indecisive, so I volunteer to start. I'll have a number 11, please. And how do you want those tacos, ma'am?
HARD. BEEF. I yell out because I'm at the very end of the table in the corner. Then I look up at Deb, our faces crinkle up, and we both start rolling. Then Mary Ann starts snickering, but she's much better at maintaining a front. And the three of us were like that for the rest of the lunch, bordering on hysterical. Unfortunately, no one else at the table appreciated our Beavis humor.

Happy Mother's Day to meeeeeee

Holy cow, I feel like a queen! I'm not sure why, but Mother's Day is becoming a bigger and bigger deal every year in the house of Beveridge.

Last year Stevie had not done well for Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, my birthday, our anniversary, April's Fools Day, or any other day, for that matter. I was getting frustrated. From time to time I need a materialistic outpouring of love. So I put in some serious pouting time during the days leading up to Mother's Day, and I dropped numerous hints about an ipod. Well, the boy gave in and delivered. Looooove the ipod!

2006 is different. The boy has been doing well all year, delivering plenty of gifts and baubles on the appropriate days. I would have been fine with some arts and crafts creations from the kids and maybe a new pot of flowers. But apparently the ipod set precedence, because he went out and bought me a new digi cam. Wooohooo!!! I've been wanting one for a while, as our old camera was almost toast. It held up well, considering it was almost 10 years old. But it was definitely time for a replacement. The new one is a Canon PowerShot SD550, and it is awesome! I also received a new pair of earbuds for my ipod (pink, of course), the new Red Hot Chili Peppers cd, a pair of Gap jammie pants and undies, and a cool vase (made in E's ceramics class) full of gorgeous roses. Yes, I'm S-P-O-I-L-E-D!!!














I'd like to say I spent the day hanging out with my kids, because they are the whole reason for the holiday. But they were having too much fun outside with the neighborhood gang, which left me to get some other things accomplished. I spent a while filling out E's FAFSA, but thankfully that didn't take me too long. Then I spent the rest of the day putting in some quality time with the Red Rocket. She really needed some TLC-washing, waxing, vacuuming. We went out for a little spin, and then posed for pictures...

Prom pics

As promised, E and the bow-friend... we're saving up to have the phone surgically removed from the side of her head.

a blog a month

What is wrong with me? It seems like I can only post once a month to this thing. It's not like nothing in my life is happening, so I have nothing to talk about. Au contraire mon frair... too much in my life is going on.

I went to VA last month, and the visit went well. I feel confident that my dad is able to take care of my mom and her illness, and he seems to be keeping it together. My mom's condition kind of freaked me out a little. She looked scary. Her face was swollen from taking steroids, and she only had a few patches of hair left. But worse than all that, she was in a perpetual state of pissed-off. It was uncomfortable to see her laser eyes at my dad, CONSTANTLY.

I did have a highlight to my trip, other than the peaceful time by myself in the hotel... I went to visit Monica at City Hall, and she cleared her schedule for the afternoon so she could take me around town. She drove me around and showed me everything I have missed in the last TWELVE YEARS. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed spending time with her. She is such a great girl, and I cannot believe how well she holds her life together - working full-time with sooo many programs, having a full family, running a horse farm, and growing, canning and pickling all her own veggies for the entire winter. Holy shit! I pale in comparison. I am but a peon.

So now that I am home, I have been helping E get ready for prom and finish up this whole college deal. I'm not even going to begin to go into the prom drama. Suffice it to say that the crisis was averted, she looked beautiful, and she and the bow-friend had a great time. (I'll post a couple pics as soon as I scan them.) The college thing, well, that's a whole other post unto itself. We are still waiting to find out if Berry College will offer her enough of a scholarship to make it feasible. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

On another subject altogether, I got an email from an old high school friend. It's been interesting catching up with him, and fun. I just can't shake the visual of him in high school, eye-liner and all. Here's a pic of John in his glory days while in his band, the Boom Choir. He's the one on the right. Q-T-pie!