Hooray for Jodi!!!!

Congratulations to our new grad!!!!
We are so proud of you!!

This past week has been quite a blur. The weekend consisted of going to graduation ceremonies and CELEBRATING!! We were fortunate to have family come and visit for Jodi's graduation, which stepped things up a notch as far as craziness goes here. Squeezing a dozen people into our tiny place certainly made for good times :) At the pinning ceremony in the morning, they had it indoors because of rain. They said the seating would be "first come, first served." So we showed up at 8:45 for a 10:30 ceremony. Only to find out that they weren't letting anyone in until 9:30. So while there were only about 20 people there before us, people continued to arrive and push their way to the front (with Abby and the twins there, standing in one spot for even 10 minutes was a stupid thing to attempt, let alone 45 minutes). What a dumb thing to do, say something like that and then not open the doors until over a hundred people are there. They were just asking for a brawl.

The pinning ceremony went lovely, and the evening ceremony was awesome, too, with Governor Tim Kaine being the keynote speaker. I was waiting for them all to toss up their little caps, but I guess that's a little high-schoolish. Jodi was so excited through all of it, though, and rightly so. I am so proud of Jodi and all of the hard work she put into her studies and everything she has done over the past few years. All of the hard work, long nights, endless care plans, and countless Saturdays gone to clinicals, have finally paid off. You deserve every bit of this. She is so excited and happy that it is all done, and so are Abby and I. In the words of one of the grads, "Mommy's back!"

The only complaint I have from the whole weekend is that I was sick. Some stupid bug that left me congested, coughing, and tired. And poor Abby has been sick too, coughing half of the night and actually asking for medicine. I hope that isn't a bad sign of things to come...

One of the nights family was here, there was a really bad thunderstorm. Abby has been scared of thunder ever since a camping trip when she was going to sleep alone in the tent and a huge crack of thunder scared the crap out of her. So she did not want to go to bed by herself, and ended up staying up later than I think she ever has before - at least 10pm :o She preferred sitting on the couch next to her Opa and Oma.

She was very quiet most of the night, and you can tell that she just looks exhausted. Luckily, the power only went out once for a few seconds. Normally here at our complex, if strong winds come through the power flickers. And if there's rain, the cables must run through some stream bed somewhere because any amount of rain gives us cause to worry. We were lucky, though.

On Saturday, we went strawberry picking. That is something that is a must for anyone who has ever lived in the Charlottesville area, I think. Abby absolutely loves it. Unfortunately, our camera was dead when we got there (good job remembering to plug it in, Rob). Fortunately, however, Mom Kirk and Dan came along, and Uncle Dan had his camera and took plenty of videos. And I have a few of them. This one is pretty good - Abby is such a nutball sometimes :) The other girl is her friend Marin, who was there along with her mom Emily.



And here is a great video of an encounter with a caterpillar.



Dan has posted many more videos that I do not have (or do not want to upload, since he already has). To see them, go to his page and see journals 2a and 2b. (thanks, Dan!)

We went to Richmond yesterday and again did our best to find somewhere to live. This trip was a lot more successful; we have it pinned down to a few different places. All of them are within walking distance of St. Mary's (where Jodi will work). Some are smaller, some bigger, some without D/W, one is somewhat questionable. But all are possible. We will hopefully have it nailed down by the end of next week. Jodi has been totally awesome with all of this, and it will hopefully be all over soon. Abby was totally awesome for the trip - didn't hardly complain at all, despite being sick. So she got a reward.


She was so excited to pose for the picture so that she could see it afterwards. And of course, Daddy had to try on her new stuff, too.

Abby took that picture - she's a photographer in the making. There would be a picture of Mommy wearing the jewelry as well, but it somehow got deleted off of the camera...

So again, congrats to Jodi for her amazing accomplishment, and a special thanks to parents, family, and friends who all were there to support her. We now have some awesome opportunities ahead of us. If we can now just get out of Charlottesville, things will start moving forward for us.

Oh and Laura, thank you so much for your awesome gift - Jodi wasn't expecting it at all and it was a special surprise. And tasty, too!



Abby especially loved the grapes!