The Prom!

The Prom was Saturday night!  I was so very thankful that they were going to have an actual prom this year that I wasn't too annoyed that it was chilly and rainy on Saturday.

That messed up plans for outdoor pictures but the kids didn't seem to mind.

I picked up Peter's tux on Friday afternoon and brought it home for him to try on since he had Senior Retreat Friday and wouldn't be home until late.  Luckily it fit perfectly so we didn't have to go back to make any changes.

On Saturday morning, I went to the florist and picked up the boutonniere we had ordered for Sarah's date. Her date was Oscar, one of her best friends since 2nd grade.  Peter did not take a date although there were a couple of girls interested in going with him but he chose to go stag.

At 2:00 I took Sarah to have her hair done because while she's usually good at fixing her hair, she knew she wouldn't be able to get it prom ready and she also didn't want the hassle of worrying about it.  (She and I are still both traumatized from her having a bit of a meltdown when her hair didn't look the way she wanted it for the 8th grade dance.) It was definitely worth the $20 having a professional curl it.  

Sarah's prom group was meeting in High Point at the Country Club for pictures. Then they were heading to Winston-Salem for dinner at Jeffrey Adams and then the prom which was being held at the Millennium Center.  One of the mom's texted all the other moms on Thursday wondering if anyone would be interested in getting the kids a party bus so they wouldn't have to worry about driving in the rain, parking downtown, getting wet, possibly getting into an accident, etc.  I was all for that because I had been a little nervous about that. Sarah said that the girls were all driving together and the boys were all driving together. I only know one  of the girls in this group and wasn't sure how good any of their driving is and didn't like the idea of Sarah driving all over late at night in the rain.  It was definitely $70 well spent.  

Peter's group was meeting in Greensboro at the Starmount Forres Country Club for pictures and then they were also having dinner there as well. Then they were each driving to Winston-Salem.  The senior parents weren't worried about anyone driving so they were left to their own devices - no party bus for them! :)

I snapped some pictures of the kids before they each headed out to meet their friends and then Dan and I went to High Point to take pictures of Sarah and her date.  Obviously since Peter didn't have a date, he didn't want us there taking pictures as that would have been a little weird.  (The only downside to that is that I don't have a lot of pictures of that group.)

Okay, enough of those.  They are all very similar but I love those two kiddos so much that I couldn't just put ONE....

Here are some of Sarah and Oscar...

The cute couple...

 

 

 The group...

On the party bus headed to dinner....

At dinner...

Here are some pictures of my favorite 18...

Here's Peter's group...

(When your mom doesn't go with you, you might get a picture where you are stuck behind a pole and half of your handsome face is obscured.) I'm hoping Peter can get someone to send him a picture from a slightly different angle so I can see him better but if not, this one will do!)

 Edited on 6/7/2021 with the updated photo!

Peter with Owen and Corbin - the bros!

Peter and Rhett (Rhett is the other guy that went stag so they thought it would be funny if they got a picture together.  Rhett had joked earlier that he was going to bring Peter a flower!  😄

All the guys...

 After the prom, the kids both went back to friends' houses for the after party and stayed the night.  They both got home in time for Sunday lunch at Grandma's and were very, very tired.  

They both said they had a great time and I'm just so very thankful that it happened!

Also, just wanted to include a picture of Sarah's hair before the rain and humidity and wind got to it. She also had a braid in it on the side...it was so pretty!

Here's what's happening in our neck of the woods.

 It's been a while since I've done an update post so....

On Monday, Dan text me this picture:

 I've been anxiously awaiting the return of our hummingbirds since the end of March.  I always get antsy and put out the feeders a few weeks too soon but I figure it's better to have them ready and waiting in case they come early.  

Last year, we put a feeder outside of the window of the room that Dan uses as his work-from-home office and the birds right now seem to be enjoying this feeder a lot more than they are enjoying the three hanging outside the kitchen windows for my pleasure.  I usually see them visiting my feeders in the evening when I'm fixing dinner but they keep Dan entertained all day.  Here's the first picture I snapped of my little friends:

I will try not to post too many pictures of hummingbirds over the spring and summer but I can't make any promises.

On Tuesday evening, we headed to the school for the National Honor Society Induction Ceremony.  Peter attended as a current member of the NHS and Sarah attended as a new inductee!

On Wednesday, the seniors started Senior Assassin.  It's a tradition at Bishop and any senior that wants to play signs up and pays $10.  One of the seniors serves as "Commissioner" and he's in charge of determining who has who and let's each person know.  There are a lot of rules involved but basically you must shoot your target with a water gun all the while trying not to get shot by the person who has you.  There's a private Instagram page where they all keep up with who is still in and even videos of them getting their targets. Apparently some people got their targets this morning as they were leaving their house for school.  Peter is very paranoid and made us check all around the outside of the house before he left this morning to make sure no one was lurking in the bushes with a water gun. 

Peter got his first target yesterday afternoon and is trying to figure out how to get the next one today or tomorrow.  Some of the rules include: there's a 15 minute grace period before and after the start of school so you can't try to get someone out there, obviously you can't play during school, you aren't allowed to shoot your target while you are driving your car, if you plan to shoot the target inside of their home you have to have permission from another family member to come inside, if someone is trying to shoot you but you get them with your water gun first then you are immune for 3 hours and they can't shoot you, etc.  There are a lot more rules that I can't remember but Peter is having a blast!  Oh, and there are 54 people playing so the winner gets $540!  

Next Saturday is the prom.  I am so excited that they are going to be able to have it this year.  They will have to wear masks, but I'm just so glad they are having it. As usual with trying to plan things with large groups of kids, there has been a lot of texting, snap chatting, etc. to determine where to take pictures, where to eat dinner, etc.  I think all the plans have officially been worked out. We've rented Peter's tux (I just need to pick it up next Friday) and Sarah has purchased her dress and shoes (we just need to go after school today to pick it up from the alterations place.  Sarah's a shortie so we had to have the dress hemmed.)  

That's all the news that's fit to print around here.  Have a great weekend!

It's finally over!

Last summer, a friend emailed us and asked if Sarah would like to participate in the Triad Area Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Student of the Year Campaign.  Our friends daughter recently competed and won.  

I asked Sarah if she was interested and while she was honored to be asked, she was hesitant.  Junior year is pretty hard (and important as it's the last full year of grades colleges will see as you submit your college applications in the fall of senior year), plus she was going to be a captain on swim team, serve as an officer for the school's Catholic Relief Services club, and was also going to be working on her Girl Scout Gold Award.

She weighed the pros and cons and decided to accept the nomination.  In early August of last year we had our first meeting with the local SOY coordinator for LLS and Sarah selected the team she wanted to help her with this venture.

Many, many, many more virtual meetings later and the 7 week campaign officially kicked off on February 18th.  It ended with the  gala this past Saturday night. Sadly, it was virtual as well but to make it more festive, we had appetizers, sparkling cider, and balloons.  The winner was announced at the end of the gala and Sarah came in second place!  She raised over $34,000 and received the Citizenship Mission Award as well!

While we were a little bummed that she didn't win first place, we are so very proud of our girl. She has worked so hard on this campaign.  She held meetings with companies to ask for funds, managed and met regularly with her team as well as with members of LLS, stepped out of her comfort zone and spoke to people she didn't know and learned how to make phone calls (kids today do not know how to do that!), learned the art of writing professional emails and other correspondence, and learned how to handle herself professionally.

The last 8 months haven't been easy.  There was a lot of hard work involved and every now and then, some tears.  But Sarah did not let any of this get to her.  She continued on with a fierce sense of determination. At one point, she realized she was not going to be able to do everything she had planned on this year and decided not to focus on her Girl Scout Gold Award until after the LLS campaign.  But now that the campaign is officially over, she hopes to work with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as her community partner for the Gold Award. 

I am so thankful for every single donation she received and for every person who donated. While it's easy to get caught up in the competition, it's important to always remember the ultimate goal of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Student of the Year Program - to raise money to find a cure to end blood cancer.  And with the help of so many friends and family members, we certainly did that! 

(And a special thanks to my faithful blog readers who donated money to this campaign even though we've never met in person.  💜)

A football update.

 I wanted to do a football update post. When I last left you we had completed our senior night and it was a loss for us.  At that point, that was our third loss with no wins.  The professional picture came back and I wanted to post it here for posterity.

The Friday after senior night we had another home football game and we weren't expecting to win that one - except WE DID!  And the best part about this game was that Peter's friend Daniel was able to break the school's all-time rushing record and now holds that record.  To do that at home with a win made it even more special.

That takes us to last Friday night.  We had an away game and weren't expecting to win.  In fact, it was this school's senior night. You typically play a weak team on senior night to ensure a victory.  

Our boys were pumped up and we scored fairly early in the game.  Then the other team scored.  Then we scored again but they scored again right before halftime.

We managed to pull ahead in the 4th quarter but we left too much time on the clock.  The other team scored with less than a minute to go and we thought all hope was lost.  However, we managed to pass the ball, the receiver caught it and ran SEVENTY YARDS down the field to score with only 29 seconds left on the clock.

IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE!  

And the best part of all was that Peter (who unfortunately has not gotten a lot of playing time this year) was actually on the field for that last play.  Due to an injured player, Peter had to switch jerseys so he could play offensive line and was on the field for that last play.  It was such an exciting game and I am so very happy for our boys.  (Who am I kidding - I'm happy for the parents and the coaches too! It takes a lot out of everyone to always be the underdog so any win feels like a huge deal for everyone.)

Our second to the last game was supposed to be tomorrow night but because they are calling for severe thunderstorms, it's been moved to tonight.  We play one of the best teams in the conference tonight so we really have no hope of winning.  Several of our players are hurt from last week's game and there hasn't been a lot of time to heal between games so we are going in even more of an underdog.  My hope for tonight is that no one else gets injured and that we can make it out without too much of an uneven score.  Those lopsided games are very demoralizing but also, I guess they are character building as well.

Here are a couple of pictures from last week's game.

Before the game (Peter is #22)

During half time.

In the locker room after the game!  Notice Peter's in a different jersey.

 

St Joseph of Cupertino's Intercession

You guys remember St. Joseph of Cupertino, right?  I've mentioned him here several times before.  He is the patron saint of students and test takers.  You can read all about him here if you are interested.

(Very) long story short in case you aren't interested in reading his life story, he was born in Cupertino in Naples in 1603. He wanted to be a priest but the other priests as well as his mother found him to be dull, lazy, and useless.  He had trouble remembering things when he studied and usually did poorly on tests but he wanted more than anything to be a priest. 

He asked to become a Franciscan, but they initially would not accept him. 'Finally he did join the Capuchins. However, for only a very short period of time. Eight months later, they sent him away. Sources say it was because he could not seem to do anything right. His mother was not at all pleased to have the eighteen-year-old Joseph back home again, so she finally got him accepted as a servant at the Franciscan monastery. He was given the friars habit and put to hard work taking care of the horses.

He finally was able to enter the Franciscan order and, eventually, study for the priesthood. Although he was a good and holy friar, he had a very hard time with studies. During his seminary exams, the examiner happened to ask him to explain the only thing he understood knew well, and so he was ordained a deacon, and later a priest'.*

And this is how he became the saint of test takers.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Because, in 2019, I started asking for St. Joseph of Cupertino's intercession whenever Peter and Sarah had tests or quizzes.  And then ultimately asking for his intercession every morning before they left for school.

Having kids in high school and nearing college is totally different than having kids in elementary school. You can no longer help them study by simply calling out spelling words or helping them memorize science terms.  Frequently they will  need your help with their homework and studying but you can't actually help them - not because you don't want to help them but you may not know or remember  the material or it's concepts or facts they just need to learn and understand on their own. 

Enter an intercessory prayer to St. Joseph of Cupertino.  There are a couple of prayers on the internet but this is the one I use:

O St. Joseph of Cupertino who by your prayer obtained from God to be asked at your examination, the only preposition you knew. Grant that I may like you succeed in the (here mention the name of Examination eg. History paper I ) examination. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked.
O St. Joseph of Cupertino pray for me
O Holy Ghost enlighten me
Our Lady of Good Studies pray for me
Sacred Head of Jesus, Seat of divine wisdom, enlighten me. 

 Of course, I substitute "me" for my kid's names".  

And when they are really nervous or worried before a test or something they are doing at school, I will tell them I'm praying for them and then I will text them this prayer and remind them to pray for themselves.

This prayer isn't a magic pill for not studying. (Oh how my kids wish that were the case!) But it does bring me peace knowing that by asking for St. Joseph's intercession, I have a holy saint in heaven praying directly for my kids.  It makes me feel like I am helping them even when I am not able to physical help them.

And I will say that this prayer *works*.  My kids have had much success in their school work even when things looked bleak.  (And success isn't always an "A" but sometimes a kid feels successful when they are struggling with the material and can pull out a "C" even though they though everything was hopeless.)

So next time your student is in the midst of studying for a test or struggling with a lesson or you just want to help them a little, ask St. Joseph of Cupertino for his intercession and let me know how he came through for you.

 

 

*Taken from this website.

Spring, football, a book, laughter through tears, and cake.

It's a cloudy dreary Tuesday morning here so I thought I'd start with some pictures of the daffodils we have growing in our yard:

This is pictorial proof that spring is almost here!  Yippeeeeeee!

And just to brighten things up even more:

Lovely yellow tulips from Trader Joe's to brighten the inside of my house.  Y'all know I love me some tulips. 

Since the last time I posted, Peter has had two more football games and sadly we lost both.  It is looking like we may not win any games this year.  It's very depressing for him as he has been looking forward to this season since November 2019.  

This past Friday was Senior Night.  I still have my mask on in this picture so I am hoping the professional picture is better.  At least I won't have my mask on in that one!

Have you guys gotten your copy of Be Bold in the Broken by Mary Lenaburg yet?  Mary is my blog friend from way back and this is her second book.  I'm excited to read it because I thoroughly enjoyed her first book, Be Brave in the Scared.

Saturday, I joined my Care Group for brunch.  It was bittersweet but much needed. It was the first time we have all been together since our Christmas dinner in December.  In that time, one of my dear friends lost her husband to Covid and another one has been battling breast cancer. You know the quote from Steele Magnolias about "laughter through tears is my favorite emotion?" Well, I'm not sure if it's my favorite emotion but it summed up our brunch on Saturday and on that day, laughter through tears is what we all needed.  

 

And it didn't hurt that we all enjoyed delicious crepes.  Here's a few pictures of the dessert crepes we enjoyed after our savory crepes.

I got the results of all my blood work back and it's all normal.  Which means my aches and pains in my joints are just normal old lady arthritis and my weight gain is not thyroid related just over-eating, under-exercising related.  I figured this was going to be the case and honestly, it's the best news.  I don't need any other conditions or issues.  I guess my aches and pains just come with the territory.

Although, one of my kind readers, Pat Birnie, commented that she could recommend things to help. Yes, Pat!  Please!  I would love to know what you have found that worked for you.  I tried to email you back from your comment but it was a "no reply" email address.  So comment away on this post with anything that you found helpful. I am willing to look into anything at this point! :)

And finally, look at this pretty cake.  I baked it and Sarah decorated it.  I think she did a great job - especially considering she did it all with a plain plastic baggie the the end cut off.

Much too young....

Peter's first football game of the season was last Thursday.  His team lost but he was  happy with how he played (he made 8 tackles!) so he wasn't too bummed about the loss.  This team is one of the few this season that they had a chance at beating so it was disappointing to get the loss.  But, they will play them at home in a few weeks so maybe there will be some improvement.

The school they played was using Facebook Live for their video stream.  I have to give it two thumbs down.  This school is in the mountains and there is terrible cell service and I don't think they have wi-fi at their football stadium so the entire time the feed was freezing up and then when it started back it had jumped ahead to the live action so there were many times throughout the game that we missed multiple drives/plays.  It was very frustrating. At one point during the fourth quarter the feed was completely lost so we just sat there refreshing waiting for it to come back.  Two thumbs down.

This is a quick shot I took of the computer screen.  We tried to cast it from our phone to the TV using Chromecast but ended up switching to the computer because the video quality was better on the smaller screen.  This Friday there is an away game but we get to go so even though we will be cold at least we will get to see it!

Look at the pretty flower my bestie got me:

It's a gorgeous calla lily.  Doesn't it just scream spring to you?  And speaking of spring - it's sunny today!!!  YAY!!!!  

In other  news, I had my yearly physical today in which I discussed my aching joints with the PA. She's doing blood work to rule out rheumatoid arthritis.  I'm pretty sure it's just regular old lady osteoarthritis but if it is rheumatoid arthritis there are things that can be done to prevent it from getting worse. 

We also discussed my weight gain.  I'm pretty sure it's just regular old lady going through menopause weight gain but she is doing blood work to rule out thyroid issues.  Needless to say, they took A LOT of my blood this morning. 

Since I'm officially an old lady, I was planning on getting my shingles shot today but sadly they were out today but are expecting more in tomorrow. So now I will need to go back to get that.  I've had shingles once and I definitely don't want it again so I will be scheduling a nurse visit to get that taken care of.

As I was going through my list of bodily complaints with the PA, I said, "I'm much too young to feel this damn old."  Okay - I left the "damn" out because I'm polite but you get the idea.  And now I've been singing this all morning:

 

And do you know what really made me feel damn old?  When I was pulling up that video clip I read that this song was Garth's debut single  released on his debut album in 1989 which was THIRTY TWO YEARS AGO. 

If you need me, I'll be in my rocking chair for the rest of the day.