Graduations all around!

Whew what a weekend.  I haven't gone to a graduation in a few years now and I had two to go to in one weekend.  They weren't as unbearable as I thought they would be.  Usually graduations have terrible speakers that I find to be really boring.  At Christopher's graduation they had a number of musical performances which sped up the process and then it was really hot at Nick's so all the speakers kept it short and concise.  Thank goodness.  At Nick's they asked that the audience stay for all of the graduates, but as soon as we heard Nick's name we cheered and then were out of there.  We had been there since 12:45 to take family pictures and the commencement didn't even start until 3pm (he had to line up at 1:30).  I think that if we would have stayed until the end of the ceremony that his little cousins would have passed out.  I'm pretty sure that one of the little girls was starting to get heat stroke because her face was really pink and she was very quiet and sitting very still, which is abnormal for her.  It's also good that we left early because I was really burnt and probably would have been crispy like bacon if we would have stayed.  I usually don't burn, but I sure did this time!  I used some of Mr. Fong's sun screen but only put it on my shoulders so my chest and arms are really red.  There's also a funny finger-like tan line where I haphazardly applied the lotion.  At least I know that his screen screen works.  I went out and bought 100+ SPF at Target the other day.  I've read once that your body can only really absorb SPF 40 or something like that, but I'm not taking any chances on the cruise.  I already have dress-shaped tans on my chest.  Aiya!

Christopher's Graduation

The top picture took me forever to get Christopher's attention.  When they lined up to go on the stage they all had their backs facing me so whenever one of his friends sort of turned around I was flailing my arms wildly.  Morgan finally saw me (I probably looked like I was have an upright seizure) and I was able to get a good picture of Christopher before he went up to the stage.   The boy in the bottom picture is Christopher's fellow Eagle Scout, Pierce.  We're going to be going on the cruise with their family.  I remember when this kid was shorter than me!  When we go through all the old scout pictures for Christopher's Eagle Scout Court of Honor it makes me feel old that they're both so big and I get all sentimental like they're my kids or something.  I've always told Pierce that since he doesn't have a big sister that Christopher will share his, which gives me license to give him a hard time.  I thought that it was nice that at his Eagle Court of Honor that he said that my parents were like a second mom and dad to him. 

Graduation BBQ

I finally got to meet baby Briana!  She's so cute and little.  I like how quiet she is.  I want a quiet baby.  Hahah, but doesn't everyone?  Christopher's bbq was a success.  Yes, that's a mini mortar board on Nick's head from Christopher's cake.  That's my boyfriend!  Mr. and Mrs. Fong came for the celebration and got along splendidly with my aunts and uncles. It was abnormal to hear so much Cantonese being spoken at one of our get togethers.  Usually my family only speaks Chinese to my grandma.  Nick and I could hear my Uncle Tommy going in and out of English and Chinese while he was telling all of his traveling stories.  It was pretty amusing to hear. 

 

Emmy's wall

While my parents were out at Nick's graduation dinner they put Emmy into my bathroom.  She's usually okay in there, but this time she completely freaked out.  I think it was a combination of us leaving her two days in a row, once for Christopher's graduation the night before, and having the light off.  Whenever we leave her in the bathroom it gets super hot so I tried putting our oscillating fan in the bathroom for her.  That didn't help much.  My dad realized that it was the lights that was making the room so hot.  Edward and I had always thought that doggies could see in the dark so they turned off the lights and plugged in a night light for her, but I guess that just made her snap.  She tore off the door frame and part of the dry wall while she was literally trying to claw her way out of the bathroom.  At least she had no stress poops (little raisin sized poops that happen when she gets scared) since she was busy working at the wall.  So this week I've been plastering the wall back and will get a new door frame once we get back from vacation.  The bathroom is in dire need of a painting anyway, so I'll probably do that as well and then it shouldn't be noticeable that she got to the wall.  Next time we'll just have to leave the lights on even though it gets hot.  Her crate is disassembled now because she tore that apart too and I didn't want to put her back in it when she could cut herself on the plastic.  I think she hated the crate because it's what she goes in when she flies.  She is much better in the bathroom, well except this time.  I guess whenever she comes back we'll have to leave the light on for her.  I'm pretty certain that it was having the lights off that scared her.  She didn't even finish her peanut butter bone because she was so freaked out. She always finishes her peanut butter bone.  Poor little Woof.

Father's Day dinner

Since we'll be on the cruise for Father's day I decided that I'm going to make my dad a grilled dinner tonight.  We're going to have grilled shrimp and scallops.  He also requested ceviche so I have that marinating too.  I had to squeeze so many limes for the ceviche that I broke the lime juicer.  I must be stronger that I thought I was.  I think I was only on the second out of 19 limes that I juiced when it broke.   I have a little mark on my hand from where the plastic snapped and caught my skin in between the pieces.   I ended up having to squeeze all the limes by hand with a fork.  I don't want to see limes for a while unless they're in my beer.  I have since switched the ceviche into a glass bowl because we were worried that the acid would do something to the stainless steel and make it leech into our food or something.  Hopefully it turns out well.  My dad had said that he didn't want to get sick before the cruise.  Well maybe he should have thought of that before he requested it and I bought all the seafood.  If it's questionable then we'll just eat the grilled stuff.  It would just be a waste and shame if we didn't end up eating it.  There's a pound and a half of bay scallops and a pound of shrimp in that.  He better at least try it!