I Love It When a Plan Comes Together!

In my last post I said the rabbits were hoping and to be honest I don't know if they were. I DO know they were hopping. 😊

Okay, on to my post...

We've spent the last two weeks planning for this surprise! I posted recently that Sharaya graduated with a degree in Education, but because the school was in Arizona she decided not to walk with her class.

So...

We secretly went on-line and bought her cap and gown, plus the sash, tassel, the whole thing! Then we checked with Diana to see if she had time to fly out here and she was able to get tickets for Father's Day weekend.

It was so hard keeping it a secret because Sharaya and Diana are so close, they text constantly. And we didn't want to tell Beth because she's not that great at keeping secrets like this. I couldn't write flight information or anything on my wall calendar in case Sharaya came over. We watched Allie last Wednesday night and she loves to hang out in the den so I had to move the cap and gown into our closet... I was so afraid we were going to spill the beans!

The night Diana's flying in, I decide to tell Beth. THEN, Sharaya asks if she can take Beth shopping so she could buy something for Chuck for Father's Day. Yikes! I ran downstairs and told Beth she couldn't say ANYTHING about Diana coming! Chuck suggested I tell her things she could talk about (great idea!) and as soon as Sharaya dropped her back off at home she texted me, "I didn't say anything Mothera!"

Course, we left for the airport before they got back so I texted them both to say we were... uh... going to watch the sunset. Which we did, we stopped so I could get a picture for our alibi. 😊 I posted them about the time we arrived at the airport

By now I'm a basket case. I am so excited to see Diana and we still had the actual surprise the next day!

We told Sharaya we had gotten her a little graduation gift and could we meet for brunch on Saturday? The 4 of us get to the restaurant but they wouldn't seat us until the entire party was there! So we were standing outside when Sharaya walked up. She seemed to stare at Diana for about 3-4 seconds. Then her eyes lit up, "Oh hi!!" 

It. Was. Awesome!

We gave her a few gifts and took some graduation photos. We're just so proud of her. What a huge accomplishment. And, I'm so glad everything worked out! No one spilled the beans and Sharaya was completely surprised!

 

Hard Work, Perseverence and Blood, Sweat & Tears

Sharaya's spent the last few years as a single mom, working full time and getting her teaching degree. It hasn't been easy and she's taken breaks to go to Denver to help Chuck's sister recover from surgery, to San Diego when my dad died... but when she gets home she gets right back to it. Well, she sent us these pictures the other day:

Her diploma!! She got a Bachelor of Arts in Education Studies. And graduated Magna Cum Laude! What an accomplishment! She's worked hard and we're so proud of her!

I have school pictures around here somewhere but for now here's her Kindergarten picture:

We Surprised Her Again and She Really IS a Ninja!

On the spur of the moment last week we stopped in at Little Caesars to see Beth at work. She was really busy! These stacks are wrapped in plastic and there are 50 boxes in each stack.

Here she is putting the glue on top of the box.

 

 

 

Then she sticks the coupons on...

 

 

 

 

And folds the top back to reveal the next one.

 

 

Once she gets all the coupons on, she then folds each box.

Behind her are the stacks that she's done in previous weeks.

 

After we got home, I received this text from her job coach:

"Beth did SIX stacks tonight. Wahoo!! I am so PROUD of her. She is AMAZING!"

 

I know I've been posting about her at work a lot lately, but she's doing such a fantastic job!

We're so proud of her!

Summer Might Not Be As Bad As She Thought

Beth got her uniform for her job at Little Caesars! Okay, so it's only a too-big t shirt, but it's hers!  And she's so proud of it!

When she got home last night, she showed us her paycheck, then pulled out an envelope her boss had given her. "I got a tip!" That girl got $20 in tips this weekend!! She IS the genius!

 

A Playground Story

Beth graduated from high school 6 years ago. As I read all of your back to school posts, it makes me think of when my girls were in school. So many memories! I want to share something with you that happened to Beth when she was in the 6th grade. Oooh, you're gonna like this one! Mwuahahaha! :)

In the 6th Grade, Beth was in a special needs classroom, but they had lunch and recess with the entire school. The playground assistants noticed that a group of kids, some troublemakers were hanging around Beth. And we began to notice that Beth was using language that we did not tolerate. We knew she wasn't being defiant, she just didn't understand that those 'friends' were trying to get her into trouble. The playground assistants tried their best to keep them away from Beth, but it was difficult to do in a school with 1500 kids.

One day Beth was sitting at her desk and her teacher noticed she was fumbling with something in her hands. She struggled with it for a few minutes when her teacher decided to go tell her she needed to get back to work. As she approached her desk, Beth's face brightened. She held up 'the finger' and yelled, "I did it!!"

Ahh, such a proud moment.