Hannah is Grad-u-fied!

I have no more babies. Hannah officially graduated 8th grade from St. Clare yesterday. They had a Mass in the morning and a big ceremony and party in the evening. What a day! She had different dresses for the AM and PM. Hannah was honored as the best art student and the best reading student. Guess that means she's half Ro and half me. I was extremely proud of her and all her pals. Such a nice group of kids.

Both sets of Grandparents came down for the evening festivities which was very cool. St. Clare has a tradition where the 8th graders learn ballroom dancing the second half of the year and show off their dancing moves at the evening party. They were surprisingly good. There is this 80+-year old woman who has taught dancing to the last 45(!) graduating classes at St. Clare. She runs the operation like a military sargeant. The boys have to ask the girls to dance, she teaches them the moves and then the boys have to return the girls to their chairs. Of course, as soon as their 4-5 ballroom dances were over, the tunes returned and the evening reverted to the Soulja Boy, Electric Slide and line dances again.

Tonight the Santoscoys are having the entire 8th grade class and their parents over their house. Crazy souls. It should be a good time. Hannah is having six of the girls spend the night over here after Nathan's party.

Movies Under the Stars

I think we have a new favorite thing to do outside. Saturday night, our wacky, keeping-us- young neighbors, Sean and Amber, had a movie night under the stars. They hung a sheet from the garage and put the first Indiana Jones in the DVD player and broadcast it through a projector. Since our driveway is their driveway, we had no choice but to partake in the fun. They had about 20 people over and provided ice cream, popcorn, lawn chairs and blankets and we all had a great time. We're going to do it again so I promise to take a picture.

Last night, we had a bonfire and s'mores. Don'tcha love holiday weekends when you don't go away??? We got lots of stuff done and still chilled.

I'm off to LA tomorrow. This is a crazy week. I'm back on the red eye flight Wednesday night/Thursday morning and Hannah graduates on Friday. I have spent the last few weeks scanning 300 images from her classmates for the graduation CD. They show it at the party on Friday night. It turned out well although I do think it is a bit biased toward Hannah and her pals. Hard work comes with privileges! I still have to find a way to get them duplicated before the ceremonies.

Quiet Mother's Day Morning

The guys are fishing, Hannah is sleeping, Java is outside. Ahh, heaven. Poor Ro must have said a million times, "Is it OK if we go fishing? It is Mother's Day. Shouldn't we be doing something with you?" Are you kidding? They'll be home by 11 and then chaos ensues. We'll be together all day. We're headed to Tim's at 2 and then Robar's after that. Peace and solitude are the best gifts a working Mom can ever receive.

I took Hannah, Taylor and Ella to see "Made of Honor" last night. It's been awhile since we've done the chick flick thing. Totally predictable, but hey, I stayed awake through the whole movie. McDreamy is cute and all, but Johnny Depp is way hotter.












Jackson and Arianna went to the Miltary Ball Friday night at the Light Guard Armory. Poor Jackson. Cass Tech played Pershing in baseball and the game ran long. He raced home (after a victory) and Arianna was already here. He flew into the shower and into his ROTC duds so fast. Sounds like they had a good time but Jackson is not one to share many details.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms!

Jackson the Hero

Last night, our elderly neighbor Alan called the house because he had fallen and hit his head. Ro and I weren't home because we went to a fundraiser with Santoscoys. Jackson handled it well. He went over, helped calm Alan down and called 911. EMS came about 20 minutes later and took Alan to the hospital. Jackson said there was a lot of blood. I'm very proud of my lad.

Alan is a guy who has had a really tough "golden years." In his younger days, he and his partner Joe, were big supporters over at the Belle Isle Conservatory. They used to run the neighborhood garden club and grew hundreds of hostas in their backyard. Everybody knew and loved them.

Well, Joe passed and Alan was pretty lonely. He let a child predator move in. The guy talked Alan into a second mortgage to fix up the house and then quickly took off with most of the money. A second dude, Douglas, moved in. He had a crack habit and started stripping metal from empty (and not so empty) houses. Now, Douglas is in jail for breaking and entering. Needless to say, all the neighbors have had enough of Alan and his friends.

Ironically, Jackson and I went over to help Alan with his trash can Wednesday night and we had a really nice chat with him. His house has finally sold and he's moving into a flat in Grosse Pointe in two weeks. It was like talking to the old Alan we loved. He was optimistic and focused. Sure hope this spill doesn't set him back.

Big Week

Ro and Hannah went on the 8th grade trip on Wednesday and Thursday. They needed male chaperones so Ro and Dan across the street stepped up. Looks like they had a blast! (The one photo is the whole class in the Bean in Millenium Park.) Hannah slept until noon yesterday. Next step: 8th grade graduation on May 30.

I guess I have to PhotoShop my face into this picture of Helen and Patrice. How dare they go to Chicago without me? (They brought me popcorn...aw shucks, they did miss me!)

While they were gone, I took Jackson to boating safety class on Wednesday (well, I didn't actually go to class...I went for a run on Lakeshore while he was learning) and then I took Gavan, Denzel and Jackson to Greening of Detroit tryouts on Thursday. Holy crap! 600 high schoolers trying out for 90 spots. They have a couple more steps in the process so hopefully some of the kids will drop out.

At work, I'm now supervising the marketing department at Automotive News again (on top of my corporate job). It feels good, but damn, it is going to be a lot of work for a little while. I'll probably have to start traveling again too.