Saturday...Cat's Graduation Day!

Saturday….Catherine’s Graduation Day! Once again, we woke up early. Actually, we could have slept a little later but woke up and could NOT go back to sleep. Oh well! The night before, the kids asked for muffins so I made them 3 packs of muffins and every single one was eaten! We just hung out here most of the day. When the time came we all got ready for the Graduation. I straightened Cats hair and made sure it would look good while wearing that lovely cap. Time to leave….we picked up Laura’s friend Chelsie, our other daughter, and Larry’s 2nd cousin Clydine, who is more like an Aunt to him. The graduation was held at the University of Central Missouri, in the basketball arena. We got there 40min. early and it was packed! There were 12 of us looking for seating plus 2 more people that we saw that wanted to sit with us. We finally found a place that we all could sit. Larry videoed and I took pictures. As Cat walked in, our hearts swelled. We all screamed for her! When she got to her seat, she turned and found us in the stands. She smiled a huge smile and waved. At that moment, we were so proud and our excitement for her grew.
The Valedictorian did a great job with her speech. The gist of it was that we are all different and that we all have strong points and weaknesses and that’s okay…And…You don’t have to know everything about everything, just be you and be good at what you know. Ok, that was SO not the words she used but in my words it sounds pretty good too.

After the ceremony was finished we found Cat to take pictures. She was so excited. She is very family oriented but at that time, she was more interested in seeing some of her friends before they left. Funny, when I first met Cat she was shy and very much an introvert. Now that she has been exposed to ME, the person who can talk to a stop sign and get a response, we now want to tell her to slow down and hush. Just joking! We are SO happy and proud that she has opened up and is becoming her own person. She has a personality and is now showing it! Larry and I are both outgoing and never meet a stranger….we have finally rubbed off on her. You know, as a step parent, you never know IF you will be an influence in the lives of your step children. I have not only influenced them but I have also become a mother to them and a friend. I feel that I have helped to shape their lives and their futures.

After all the grad stuff was done, Catherine went to “Project Graduation”. It is something that the community is really supportive of. It is a lock in for the seniors if they want to attend. It was also held at the college. They fed them, had the pool open for swimming and had activities lined up. Of course the activities were things they enjoyed like; Seumo wrestling (They put on a ‘fat suit’ and wrestled), Fly trapper (Where you put on a suit that is fuzzy, jumped on a small trampoline and jump onto a wall and Velcro themselves to the wall), Bungee pull, Twister, on an inflated surface, and just lots of cool stuff like that. She had a blast and we did not have to worry about her; who she was with and what she was doing!!!!! Not that we have had to worry about that stuff with her. When it comes to doing “the right thing”, she has done well.

Early Sunday around 5am, when Cat was leaving Project Graduation, she sent us a text saying, “Thank you for a great weekend and I made it to Mom’s safely”. Later on Sunday, she brought the kids by to pick up some stuff and told us that she had a great weekend and thanked us again for all that we had done because it was so much fun! That made the rushing, the money spending, the prep and the pushing ourselves to exhaustion worth wild. My Momma said that when you have kids, you do for them first and make sure they have what they need. Well, once again, Momma was right. Larry and I had no idea what we were wearing to graduation until a few hours before we left. However, we got the kids new clothes and new shoes for the big night before we left for Germany. I’m not patting myself on the back; I’m just saying that what you do when you have kids is beyond what you can imagine and letting Momma know that she was right.

Also on Sunday…we got up to say goodbye to Tommy and Pat. They left around 7am. We went back to bed and slept until 11:30! Yes, Larry Parr, Military man, slept until 11:30! We SO needed the rest!

It’ has been a big weekend in the Parr house. We are proud of Catherine for graduating with honors. She left high school with an A+ average and we are proud of her. But most of all, we are proud of the Christian lady she is. Don’t get me wrong, good grades are awesome but being a Christian is much more important and is much more honorable than a grade from a test.

Congratulation Catherine Michelle Parr. We are SO very proud of you and thankful for you! Next step, college bound…then it will be; Catherine Parr, DVM. (Doctor of Veterinarian Medicine) Hey, that works well for us…Molly’s sister will be her doctor….hahaha!

Please pray that Catherine keeps God first in her life and looks to him for direction.

*Funnies: Catherine came in the house on Sunday and I asked, “So, how does it feel to be a bum?” She looked at me with a questionable look. I continued and said, “Well, your not a high school kid and your not yet a college kid…you’re a bum”. She gave me a look that said, Huh?! Then she said, “Oh, ha ha, very funny”. We tease Cat because she is smart but sometimes a BLOND. I just laughed. Little did I know that Larry said the same thing to her? The funniest thing about Cat is; she makes fun of herself. She says, “I’m such a blond”….and she laughs at herself more than we do.

(Just FYI, I did 2 blogs at the same time. I’m SO behind! There was a blog before this one titled; Friday...Graduation Party)