Oh. My. Gosh ...

Talk about a crazy few days. Crazy beautiful but wow, I am exhausted. Well, scratch that. WAS exhausted. Hit my second wind, which means I am probably good to go for another hour or more. Just the way this body of mine works. It does not have an easy shut down button. And sometimes, even I wish it did.

Fairly lazy blogger post. Mainly pictures. Best sometimes anyway. The one thing I do not have, is a picture of me with all the kids. Seemed like we were always missing one, at some point or another. But on the whole, managed to capture most of the moments of the weekend. Later, when I do head to bed, whenever that may be, most likely the house will be still and quiet and I will wander upstairs, after everyone has gone to bed and I will briefly pause at the doorways of everyone's room. soaking in how lucky i am to have my older children here with me. Even Jess who comes and spends a couple nights a week here, when Matt is working a 24 or 48. I will sneak in and kiss the boys and I will gently re-tuck Zoey  and I will reflect on how absolutely blessed I am to be given this life that I have. How it has come to be, continues to confound me and astounds me. But blessed I am indeed

Danny's USC Graduation was incredible. Friday was a long day. 5:50 am, out the door for some and most of us home at 8pm. But boy can I tell you,  was it worth it. Charlotte, Zoey, the boys ... they were so well behaved, and the day, well, I hope it turned out to be all that Danny dreamed it to me and maybe, more so. He now holds a Masters in Engineering, no small feat, and something tells me, this is only the beginning.


The two finger victory salute that has become synonymous with USC. Even Zoey will do it when Danny breaks into the USC victory chant!







Next up ... Saturday's 'surprise' party for Danny at the beach. He knew though, someone let it slip, but it still was a wonderful celebration. The weather was not quite as we had hope but no matter. A good time was had by one and all. We didn't take as many good photos as I had hoped but I was looking through the ones we did have and noticed the new graduate and his little family, all in their USC attire. Alma mater proud or what? Ignore me in the one photo. I chose it for Catlin and Danny. I loved how tightly they were holding each others hand in the picture. As for me,  I was asked to give a little speech. Honored to do it but can I tell you, some of you may remember, I mentioned it before, that I failed, yes failed, typing in high school but also, another little known fact, I chose English Lit. over a cushy public speaking class due to my phobia of speaking in front for crowds. But I managed. Or at least I think I did.







Next up, Sunday. Which held, Joe's First Communion, his soccer game that immediately followed and no he did not wear his uniform underneath his church clothes, much to his dismay. Brunch was here and then, no sooner had Taylor arrived home from college a few weeks agao and whoosh, gone again. Moved into a 6 bedroom house today with some other girls who will be seniors at Pepperdine as well. She isn't far but I sure will miss her and Miss Zoey, she has loved having Taylor home and I think she will most definitely miss her presence here maybe the most. Picture marathon to follow, mostly for the East Coast contingent, who will be watching and waiting for photo documentation of all the festivities.


The favorite auntie, my sister, Shannon.


The crew minus Caitlin because they hadn't gotten to church and our window for photos outside was dwindling.


My mom and dad with 5 of the 17 grandchildren.


If only I knew what he was saying...




Taylor had already left by the time we got around to taking pictures. Would you look at Jake's face please? He looks at Joe like this often!


Can you tell my Joe's face that he is trouble? Sweet but boy is that child 'full of energy'.



Three generations of moms.


Some of the kids. Some of the grandkids. Better than nothing.


And, she's off ...


Mover Mark wearing of course his Kings shirt because least we forget that also today was game one of the Western conference finals. Joe is in his game jersey and was hoping to stow away in the back of the truck to go with Mark. That would be the truth, and he was clueless why that might not be a good idea.

Last but not least, Zoey, hanging out by the moving truck. Happy as could be. That child is a dream. She really is.



So just as I thought, up for another almost, another 2 hours. If you made it to the end, once again, thanks for that. Will try for some quick ones over the next week or so now that things are hopefully settling down a bit. Hopefully. But seriously, now that I think of it, do things ever really settle down around here anyway?