The weekend after prom was Memorial Day weekend. So everybody had Friday and Monday off - looong weekend. On Friday, the entire family went to Metro Park by bike for a lunch picknick. It was a lot of fun. The spot we chose for our picknick was at the very end of the park, close to the water, with a great view of the lake. The weather was perfect. After we had eaten, we played baseball on a nearby old baseball field for a while. It's a fun sport, it was actually the first time I ever actually played baseball. I'm definitely not the best batter, and here's one advice: Don't ever attempt a homerun being barefoot. It hurts.
Later, Courtney and I wandered off and found a pretty little tree full of flowers to lie under and talk. All in all, it was a really nice day.
I am not sure if we did anything important on Saturday... I forgot.
On Sunday, we went to church like usually. Later that day, after dinner, I went to Walmart with Gary and Autumn to get birthday presents for Justin, whose birthday was the next day. I got him a reaaaaally cool Speedracer toy car (it does a barrell roll) and a notebook to write down ideas for the book we make him write ("Justin's Logic."). After that, we stopped for ice-cream at Dairy Queen, and then we went to Autumn's for a while. Rosie liked it. Especially the fact that I brought my flip flops - she liked them so much that she ate one of them :D well, partially. I love that puppy. She's so funny.
Monday was Grayson's actual birthday, and, of course, Justin's birthday. So during the day, I was home and we celebrated Grayson's birthday a little bit more and made little cookies that he could share with his classmates the next day. Later, Gary picked me, Ross, and then Autumn and Ronnie up and we went to Justin's for his birthday party. Eric, Alex, and Garrett were there also, and later, Roo, Kyle, and a couple other people joined us. It was fun. We had a barbeque, and the cake Autumn made for Justin later, Justin really liked his presents, and there was also a bonfire. Unfortunately, when Gary was going to take me home around midnight, his car wouldn't shift out of park. So he had to borrow Mrs Hanigan's car, and then his car was broken for a week.
I don't remember doing anything important on Tuesday. I did get a call that day though, from the school - my cap and gown were finally there.
On Wednesday, Gary went to the school with Justin in the morning. Justin had to stay there and finish a painting, and in the meantime, Gary borrowed Justin's car to come and get me so we could pick up our gowns (his had finally arrived, too). After that, we went to McDonald's (coffee for me and breakfast for Gary). Then we basically just drove around wasting Justin's gas for a while (I bought new flip flops at Family Dollar) and ended up at Autumn's. We then went to Taco Bell, where Gary got a call from Justin who wanted him to come pick him up. When Gary came back, Autumn and I were so disappointed that he hadn't brought Justin with him ("He didn't want to!") that we decided to go to Justin's house for a while, where we only stayed for a little bit because Justin had to go buy fancy pants for graduation and Autumn and I kind of wanted to go home.
The graduation ceremony was on Thursday at the huge Bethesda Church. It reminds me more of an opera house than of a church. I was supposed to be there at 6 p.m., but didn't get there until 6.30 because of traffic, and on top of that, I had lost my tassel somewhere. I wasn't the only one being late, but unfortunately they had already run out of extra tassels. I found Autumn and my name card (the purpose of those cards will be explained later), and when we were asked to line up and stand with the people we would like to sit next with, we found the guys in a corner. Standing there waiting, I noticed one of the teachers walking by with an extra tassel in her hand, so I hurried over there and asked her for it before anyone else could. A little bit later, we started walking through the back hallways to the auditorium where they had reserved the front rows for the graduates. Unfortunately, Gary got separated from us, and I got put in the row next to Autumn and the others, although I was supposed to sit with them. But it was okay I guess. There were a couple speeches of some graduates and other important people, and then they started sending row by row up to the stage. Before going up the steps, everybody posed for a picture with a diploma folder in front of a USA and a Michigan flag. Then we had to line up by the left of the stage behind Mr Miller, whom we had to give our name card before we walked over the stage. We told him how to pronounce our name right, he announced it, and then we walked over the stage to our principal Mr Mulcahy, while another picture was taken of us walking. Mr Mulcahy gave us a diploma folder (we didn't get our actual diplomas, or, in my case, a Certificate of Attendance, until later). Then we had to shake his hand and keep walking past all those important school officials, shaking everybody's hands, receiving a "Congratulations!" from every single one and constantly mumbling "Thank you!". It was pretty cool. But with one person walking across the stage at a time, and about 400 graduates, it took a looong time.
After the ceremony, we stood and symbolically put our tassel from the left side of our cap to the right (that's a sign that we successfully graduated). Then we left the auditorium and went back to the room where we had met before to receive our diplomas. Outside of the building, I found Courtney, Grandma, and Michaela. Sheila and Grayson had gone to the car because Grayson was tired. Because I wanted a picture with Autumn and couldn't find her right away, I asked Justin for a ride so my family wouldn't have to wait so long. Lots of pictures were taken with lots of people, I will have to try and get all of them. When we finally left the place, Justin, Gary, Autumn, and I went to Taco Bell (I had been so nervous before the ceremony that I hadn't eaten much of my dinner before at home). There, we met Kyle, and Steve dropped by later. After that, Justin dropped me off at home.
Grayson's graduation from kindergarten was on Friday morning. I went to the school with Sheila when she dropped off Michaela and Jacob, we attended 9 o'clock mass, and then the graduation started at 10.30. Doug, who worked at home that day, came to see Grayson, and Jake and Michaela were also excused from class so they could watch their little brother graduate. It was a cute ceremony :) The kindergarteners sang, presented pictures that they had painted, and then got their diploma.
On Saturday, I went to Kyle Manikas' (my play co-actor ;) ) graduation party with Keith from about 2.30 to 3.30. It was a very nice day, and it was good to meet a few of the play people again. When I came home, my family had just left for church, but they picked me up after and we went to Ms Amber's house for dinner. It was a lot of fun, I played with Baby Vito and the other kids outside and got to talk to Daniella, their Korean exchange student. I think she's going back home this week.
Sunday was a lazy day. I spent most of it reading.
Yesterday was a GREAT day :)
I got up with the kids in the morning, and Grayson and I went with Sheila when she dropped off the other two kids at the school in the morning. The three of us then went to Grandma's workplace to switch cars with her because we were driving out to an outlet mall which is about 65 miles away - and it would take a lot of expensive gas to drive the huge van up there, which is why we took Grandma's little Ford. The outlet mall is amazing. It has some really cool stores and they had the GREATEST sales.
We first went into the GAP store, where I found some white shorts. At Big Dog, I found some really cute and cheap pj's. I bought underwear in the next store - for unbelievable prices, like $4 for a bra! - and then we got to Rue 21. I love this store so much. I tried on about a million pieces of clothing, and ended up getting a yellow and a blue tank top, a striped black and white top, a white top with yellow flower print, a white top that is almost like a mini dress, my very super favourite black/grey/white skirt with POCKETS, 2 pair of striped shorts - one brown and white, one green and white -, and a pair of brown shorts. Everything was on sale, most of the things were between $3 and $6. At Old Navy, I got a red top for 5 bucks. The last store where I bought something was Aeropostale, and they probably had the best deals of all: Everything was on sale already, and you got an additional 30% off of the sales prices. I got a pair of dark blue, long pants there, a really nice, grey summer jacket, yellow, short sweat pants, a dark red 3/4 sleeve top, a grey mini dress, grey shorts, and a striped green and white top. I know, that is a lot. I got like 24 pieces of clothing overall, but I only paid about $6.50 per piece on average. Sooo cheap! I'm done with my shopping for this entire summer, and probably for most of the next summer, too. That means I won't have to buy ridiculously expensive clothes in Germany for a while.
Okay, I'm sick of typing now. Here's some pictures.
Talk to you soon.
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