warning- no cute kid pictures

When my wonderful, only sister invited me to join her visiting my parents in Florida (no kids allowed) I barely gave it a second thought. After homeschooling her kids, Cher has now become a Disney princess, booking Disney vacations and exploring the whole D empire, while I have never spent a week without Jerry and the kids. I wasn't sure I really wanted to. Eventually, I began to realize that I shouldn't pass up an opportunity to spend time with my very wonderful parents.
Ariel and Jerry have very graciously managed my responsibilities at home and I have been able to talk to the kids on Skype so I have not worried (too much) about being away. Ariel is one of the most organized people I have ever known and has been able to get the kids to their piano lessons and sports practices, Ric to school, homeschool the kids, grocery shop and basically step into my shoes beautifully.

I am so grateful. The trip has been fabulous - filled with great conversations, eating, swimming, and sun, with a little shopping thrown in ;) . Ariel's car, which has 237,000 miles on it, made it without a glitch ( good thing, because it has a few things to haul back home).

As much as I have enjoyed this, I am so grateful that this is not my life. I love being with Jerry and my kids and I wouldn't trade my life with anyone in the world. That said, we have decided we need to schedule this as a yearly event. Hope that is okay with everyone in NC.

Graduations !

We enjoyed two graduations this month - one expected, the other a surprise. Katrina has been working hard for many years and was rewarded with a Doctorate in Pharmacy. In the first picture she is receiving the hood which is the symbol of a doctor.

Jerry's mom, dad, and sister joined us in Chapel Hill to celebrate. (The last time we met them in Chapel Hill was 8 yrs ago when Camila received her Doctorate of Law.)

We knew that Ryan was working toward his doctorate from LR Seminary, but didn't know that he had reached any milestones until just a few days before his graduation with a Master of Arts. My sons are not great communicators (although 3 of them have chosen wonderful wives who encourage them to do better, thanks Lindsay, Amber and Julia !). Ryan's graduation was at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, which is an amazing facility.

We are very proud of these two (as we are of all our kids) and relieved that our experiment in homeschooling (Katrina all the way through, Ryan except for 1.5 yrs on highschool to play soccer) doesn't seem to have handicapped them too much. It gives us the courage to go on with the ones still at home.