Tim's Graduation

This has been such a fantastic week, full of celebration! Last Tuesday, I was able to see our class of 2009 graduate from high school. Ontario Christian put on a wonderful ceremony which honored the Lord and kept the focus where it should be. My kids sang one last time, and that was that. School is out for summer!!!!

I think I'm still in a wee bit of shock that the year is over and also that I was able to survive this great challenge. God is so faithful and by the end, I was able to see the fruit of my labor and for the first time in a long time, ended the year with energy and excitement for next year. Truly a testimony to God's work.

This last Saturday, June 13th was Dave's 27th birthday. It was also the day that my brother graduated from college so Dave and I celebrated early. We went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (yum, yum!), back to the house for German Chocolate cake, and then opened presents. It was such a nice day to celebrate Dave.

Happy 27th Birthday, DAVE!

Friday morning, Dave drove me the airport where I caught a flight to Seattle. When I stepped off the plane, I got dizzy either because the oxygen level is SO much greater than CA or because I was breathing so deeply to get every last drop of clean sea air. Either way, I was in my happy place. I ended up renting a car and as I drove north from the airport, I was in awe of the beauty all around. Trees, green ones and grass as far as the eye could see. No garbage on the side of the road, drivers who were ALL going 64 miles an hour. Bizarre and beautiful.

I spent several hours shopping at Alderwood and enjoyed the familiarity of my former stomping grounds. After spending WAY too much money, I headed north to Bellingham where I got to spend some time with just Tim and Heather before their best friends, Seth and Emily arrived from Walla Walla. Seth and Emily were bringing up the newest edition to the Davis family, Draco, the obese corgie that Tim and Heather plan to rescue.

Tim and Heather had frantically researched dog handling techniques from Ceasar Milan, the dog whisperer, and were anxious to get started. It was so great to watch them try and work with the dog. By the time they had the dog all settled down and in the house, the dog greeted them by throwing up all over their floor. Welcome home, Draco!

Draco is beautiful, but if you got a side view, you'd see that he is actually 56 pounds, COLOSSAL!

When Mom and Dad, Nana and Pappy arrived, Tim and Heather put on an amazing bar-b-que.

Saturday morning, we headed to the Bellingham farmer's market. Talk about fantastic. Vendors with delightful treats and food from all over the world. I was overwhelmed with a sense of "home". These are my people in all their hemp and chacos and fleece. I have felt like a foreigner all year in CA and now I was back...ahhh...so great. After a trip to REI (duh!) we got dressed for graduation.

Tim's speech communication disorders department hosted a reception for all the graduates. It was great to meet Tim's professors and see the brand new facility where Tim takes all of his classes. When you enter the audiology floor, you are greeted with a huge picture of Tim doing a procedure. Of course, we had to take lots of pictures.

We were all prepared for a monumentally boring graduation. Think about it, a state school's graduation is bound to be eternally long. However, Western Washington surprised us. They have four seperate graduations each year, one for each quarter, and three seperate ceremonies just on Saturday. The whole thing went like clockwork and was actually very nice. At one point, the speaker was talking about how a Western Washington education is comparable to many ivy league schools. One of the schools he brought up was Vanderbilt and we all had to cheer because Tim was one of only 12 students chosen for his elite audiology program there. We were SO proud of Tim and all that he accomplished.

Tim, post diploma

There always has to be a kissing picture. It's the law.

Saturday night we had an extravagant meal at Anthony's Hearthfire. Delicious food, good champange, great company. On Sunday morning before we all went out seperate ways, we celebrated Adalie's first birthday with an IHOP breakfast. Addi enjoyed a panake covered in whipped cream and the rest of us enjoyed taking millions of pictures.

Our sweet girl

Whipped cream, yummy

Uncle Tim and Aunt Heather get some baby time

Sunday afternoon after everyone had left, I met up with my good friend Amanda in Bothell for a little Pen Thai (our favorite). I was able to stay over at Amanda's house and it was wonderful to catch up on anything and everything. Amanda was my closest friend when I lived in Seattle and we have done a terrible job of keeping up, so it was great to fill each other in on the last wild year.

Monday morning I was able to head back to BCS for a visit. I led staff devotions in the morning and was able to get lots of hugs from my kiddos before school. My heart broke when these little faces looked up at me and said, "Mrs. Panther, are you going to be our music teacher next year?" I would do just about anything to be able to say, YES!

Since arriving back in CA, Dave and I have decided to head back up to WA a week early in order to be there for his Aunt and Uncle's 50th wedding anniversary. This means that I have two days to get our entire summer packed up and ready to go. Things are frantic, but also exciting. In a few days we'll say goodbye to this wasteland and hello to the richness of our beautiful northwest. We can't wait!