Just Me!!

        We celebrated Valerie by having a graduation party June 10th 3 to 7 PM. We chose to do an open house theme at grandma and grandpa Nagel's so that people could just drop in and enjoy celebrating her graduation. It was a day packed full of lots of emotion and celebrations. Valerie had even invited three of her teachers to join her in her celebration and actually had one of them come! Mr. Zagar showed up and stayed a few minutes to congratulate Valerie! She was over the moon thrilled that he would be so involved! She had a fun day. At the end of the night all her and her friends, and my sister and her kids went roller skating. When we got home later that night Valerie opened her gift from grandma and grandpa Nagel and was so thrilled to get luggage that she wanted to start packing her stuff to leave for camp that next week. What a special day and a very special girl!!!

    My absolute favorite picture!!!!     Our Baby is Graduated. With Honors. With College credits to her name. We couldn't be prouder! Although the ceremony was slightly noisy, Mr Hartley gave a great Graduation Speech. He talked about "Healthy birds fly" ....and then finished it out by saying they fly "away." She is very prepared to fly! Valerie is 100% ready to take on the world. I hope ALL her dreams come true. All those in attendance: Grandpa and Grandma Wegley Grandpa and Grandma Nagel Shannon, Ryan and Lanie Jeremy and Kat Auntie Kathy Kasey Freudenstein Ethan, Charlie, Mark and I  

Megan, Val, and Laurel at Awards Night     Waiting for her sister's Grad Parade at Harvard There is a lot of posts this month with Valerie being the focus. It's funny how many pictures I have of her. The awards night was very interesting. She received several awards and a scholarship. We are still uncertain how much her scholarship is but we think it is probably around $550.00!  She received her Honor cords, and also her AP medallion that she will wear for graduation. Mom came to cheer Valerie on and thank goodness Dad was able to pick Ethan up for soccer or one of us would've missed the ceremony.  For her graduation parade she chose to go to Harvard Elementary because Charlie is there. She entered the FP school system at Ford Middle School. Charlie was so proud to have her there. These days are getting harder and harder because it means everything is changing.          Last Day of School Breakfast Celebration with the mom's!

    I can't believe this happened. Everyone says it goes fast...and it does and did! I remember taking her to her first day at Monticello Elementary and walking her into meet her teacher. I cried. It was hard for me but she handled it like a champ. She found her place out in the hallway, sat cross legged, and waited to be called into the classroom. Every year was the same, she was brave and dealt gracefully with the changes even though I did not. I remember hearing she isn't organized enough, she writes and draws on her papers too much, and and and and and....But they were wrong! She was/is perfect, smart, unorganized, and extremely talented individual. She amazes me everyday. She has such passion for life. Who would've guessed that this sheepish little girl would turn into this beautiful, competent, highly intelligent, extremely motivated lady in front of me today? Time did that, we watched that, she accomplished that!!!

   

Prom day and the ladies have woken from a good night sleep. Now let's work on making you both into Cinderellas'. Bippity Bobbity Boo....     Making sure her ride is cleaned and ready to go!    She may or may not have driven this car 🚗    Getting a haircut and style   Thank goodness that Mark let me know at 430 to grab a boutineer for her date! Yikes. Lucky for us they had one at Safeway!! Her Corsage completed her dress perfectly.     Picture us, a good looking couple!     At Johnny's Dock for dinner!   The view during dinner. Val had the Captains plate, and Braeden had Filet Mignon             The night went perfectly. Grandpa and grandma graciously drove them to the Temple theater and dropped them off. Valerie said she danced ALL night long (she gets that from grandma). Meghan, Braeden, Kasey, and Ethan stayed at our house and hung out till 0600 this next morning! Success!

I'm having surgery on Monday so I thought this might be a good thing to start early. I've successfully lost 20 so far and still have motivation to keep going. Graduation week has been rough on my need to snack though but I'm just trying to remember what a wise man once said, "make good decisions 80% of the time." Mark is so wise and prActical when it comes to loosing weight. He has lost 10lbs at the least with me thus far. He is a great motivator. I'm not going to say that I will make it to goal but I'm certainly "all in it to achieve it" right now. I want to do it for my health and so I could one day thing of wearing a bikini to Bora Bora! One thing I want to do is a motivation board. After graduation and surgery maybe I will have time for that.  My street tacos were so yummy! SW 228 CW 207 GW 135    Cauliflower fried rice and chicken drumsticks!      

Sunday was lazy day and we all dispersed for a couple hours and then eventually found our way back to the cabin for more games and dinner. After dinner Mark, Ethan, Val, and I snuck away to Timberline Lodge which was only 6 miles from the house. We had no idea till earlier when we saw a postcard of the lodge that this was the "Outlook Hotel." What a treat to see it in person! It was the Hotel that Stanley Kubrick used in his movie, "The Shinning." Unfortunately they didn't use the inside of the lodge for filming, but it has a history all its own and we toured it as well! We ended up going back to the lodge this morning because Charlie wanted to see the mountain and all the snow. It was packed with excited and thankful (that the snow was there) snowboarders and skiers.      Shopping Trophy Game Rules by Ethan. Buy for someone and have others guess who it's for!                            Monday when...