Steven Graduates

Sunday was a long challenging day. We started off the day at Stake Conference which is never very fun when you have a toddler. Ruby spent the beginning sitting with her Grams Hatch but then she started wandering and I had to go grab her a few times as she began to wander away from all of us. The lady next to me did not seem very toddler friendly and that made me anxious when Ruby was on my lap. Ruby is in a very touchy phase of life. Then the last speaker went over time and that made me even more anxious since we were on a tight schedule for the day. Ironically he was talking about Martha and Mary and focusing on what was more important but that is really hard when you have anxiety. I understand Martha's plight.

After Stake Conference, I went right to work setting up for Steven's Graduation Dinner. The weather was perfect so we set everything up in shady spot in Gram and Poppy Brady's yard (our yard has no shade). It was windy and things kept blowing away. The Hatch's were nice and helped tape down the tablecloths. My center pieces kept blowing over so I ended up grabbing Steven's archery trophies and using those instead. It was a good move. Then I clipped the pictures that I had for centerpieces onto the banners. 

After I had everything set up, I went to pick up the food from Olive Garden. My mom was nice and came along for emotional support. Thankfully everything went smoothly with the pick up. They brought out the food when we got there and had everything I had ordered. I should have picked it up earlier though because it came with chafing kits and you need to put boiling water in the pans to use them. I was still boiling water when the first few people arrived. Once it was set up though, all was good. The food was delicious overall. My only complaint was the breadsticks- they were tough and not very well seasoned. It was disappointing. But everything else was really tasty and we didn't end up with too much leftovers.

We had a great turn out, there were only 2 couples that were unable to make it. We had Steven's old seminary teacher Bro Herd and his wife, the Bishop Bro Davies and his wife, Bro Perriton who seems to have just always been with the young men and his wife, Bro Wells a counselor in the Bishopric and then of course we had both sets of grandparents there. It was the perfect amount of people and I would highly recommend a graduation dinner with your kid's mentors. It felt much more meaningful than a crazy big open house. We started with eating of course. Then everyone filled out a little quiz to see who knew Steven best. Steven got to go over his answers and some of his answers actually surprised me- like him preferring country over city and books over movies. He never reads but whatever. Ben got the most amount right which seemed reasonable. When we finished with that, I started cleaning up the food so I could bring out the cake and I spilled a whole pan of water on myself- thank heavens the water was only luke warm and I  didn't scald myself along with embarassing myself. I went and changed out of my wet pants and everything was cleaned up by the time I came back out so I am grateful to all those who helped. I had my ice cream cake and a cheesecake and everyone was very complementary. The last thing I had the guests do was fill out bucket list of advice for Steven. I plan to put those in a little book for him. There was some good advice given.

All in all I think the party went well for everyone, except for maybe me. Ruby was crazy and I should have followed my intuition and had Grace watch her. Ruby was just a whiney mess and up to all sorts of crazy antics like sticking her hands down my shirt and saying she likes my boobies. That's super awkward in general but even worse because I was sitting next to Bishop

After the party we were off to the graduation at EMU in Ypsilanti- almost an hour drive away. Ruby fell asleep in the car and did not wake up happy. She was crying in the parking lot for a bit but thankfully calmed down before all the security lines. We were not early enough to get seating in the lower sections so we ended up high. Ruby touched a girls leg while we were going up the stairs and the girl cried "Ewww" So embarassing. And then she kept touching the hair and heads of people in the row in front of us. She was just super wiggly and fussy and she didn't seem to be interested in anything I had packed in her diaper bag. Tyler eventually went and bought her chips but that only calmed her for a bit. The ceremony itself was nothing exceptional. I did think the principal gave a nice, sentimental speech- probably because his daughter was graduating. But the Academic Honors girls that spoke- a gaggle of girls who all took turns talking- were hard to listen to. They basically all said the same thing- we all dreamed of being princesses and firefighters when we were young but now our dreams have evolved.  The orchestra played a nice number from La La Land. And then there were 300 names to be read. All in all this would have been better without Ruby but it still would have been boring.

There was a beautiful sunset on our way home and I was quite happy to be done with the crazy of the day.

Monday morning Poppy Hatch bought breakfast from Leo's for all of us. Then I took them out to the farm in Kensington. I even managed to get Steven to go with us. The weather was perfect for an outing. We managed to make friends with a goat, see some fat pigs and tall horses and we took a little walk to the shore of a lake and threw sticks in. It was a good time until it wasn't. There was definitely a time when Steven and Ruby expired. Steven manifested it by complaing and Ruby manifested it by crying. 

After Kensington we all ate leftovers for lunch and then not too long later it was time to take Tyler's parents to the airport. It was much too short of a visit with them.

Tuesday morning Ruby and I went for a walk with Miss Grace to the library. We had a nice chat at the library while Ruby played with the toys there. She was in one of her nice moods where she was happy to play alone and was not fighting. It was a really good outing. We even found some good books to buy in the little used bookstore they have at the library. She got a book that plays Jesus songs that she has been thoroughly enjoying since.

Tuesday after dinner, the grandparents wanted to go get ice cream at Dairy Twist while Ben was working. I had been having stomach issues so I didn't get any. It was quite sad to be there and just watch everyone else eat all the delicious things.

After we got ice cream, I went over to Grace's to color. We had not done that for ages and it was really nice. She had also made her delicious homemade salsa and that made me very happy.

Wednesday evening Steven had seminary graduation. Another hard event with a toddler. The youth that spoke did a good job though and at least there were less than 20 teens graduating so the reading of names did not take long at all. 

Thursday we hosted the preschool coop group at our neighborhood beach. Lucy's friend Mila came as well. I felt pretty out of place at first. All the other kids were not getting in the water at first so the moms sat away from the shore eating. My girls were all in the water so I needed to sit close to shore so I could make sure Ruby was safe. I only 90% trust Lucy and Penny with her. That meant I was by myself for quite a long while. Honestly I didn't talk much with the moms overall- it was an off day I suppose. When the other kids came over, it somehow became my responsibility to pull them all around on the kids' kayaks I had brought. It was fine, it beat sitting alone awkwardly. Julie had talked about coming and I wish she had, I could have used the friend. She said she didn't come because she wasn't up to hanging out with new people- she is such an extrovert I don't quite understand that but whatever. I was just frustrated because I have gone out of my comfort zone for her many times. 

Friday was busy for the girls and I played the chauffeur. I took Lucy to go mow the lawn for Sister Miller and while she mowed we did our traditional walk to Scarlets Park. Then we all went out to lunch with Grams and Poppy to Tropical Smoothie and Subway. After that the girls went to their new friend's house (Brooklyn and Linda). They discovered that these friends had some pretty cool pets- axolotls and sting rays. They also got to swim in their heated pool. Then the girls had a sleepover at Anna and Lara's house- this time it was for reals their last sleepover with them. So an exciting day for them but not a super thrilling day for me.

Saturday we picked Penny up from the sleepover and went to her last soccer game. Her team creamed the other team- the other team seemed a bit smaller/younger than her team so it was kind of hard to watch them get creamed.

After the game we went out to lunch at Taco Bell. It is always fun to see Steven working. I love embarassing him. Then the girls were off to another social event- Mimi's birthday party. I went to Salvation Army after I dropped them off. I was on the hunt for sleeveless tops or dresses that work with the new open sleeved garmets. I managed to find one top. The new garments really don't work with most sleeveless tops.

We ended the day going to Eva's Graduation Party (Tyler, me and Ruby). I hadn't seen Stefanie in probably a year so part of me didn't want to go- I kind of felt a little hurt by her but I am glad I went. I think she was happy I was there and I felt like I did the right thing. That didn't mean it wasn't awkward though, because it definitely had its moments. We didn't know anyone else so I sat by her and she was sitting with 2 ladies she has been friends with since middle school. Stefanie left often to greet people so it was often just me trying to make awkward conversation with her besties. Ruby had no problem making friends with everyone though, and she had fun following their dog around. She even offered the dog her waterbottle which it promptly licked- and then Ruby drank out of it. Blech. They had Chipotle and yummy cookies and beautiful cupcakes. It was a beautiful party but due to the awkwardness we didn't stay too long.