Weekending- Graduation!!

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

Friday was a day to get things done and I did 'er. Here's what I did: Went to the BMV to get a license plate for Abby's car to replace the temporary tags, went to Wal-mart to pick up photos and to get some groceries, went to Sam's Club to get more groceries (for Abby's grad dinner and for Donnie's work), went to the bank (because I'm ancient and I don't take pictures of checks on my phone to deposit them nor do I use an ATM so physically going to the bank to deposit most of a check(s) and then getting some cash (if we need any) from said check(s) makes sense), made a balloon garland for Abby's grad dinner, made a cookie cake for Abby's grad dinner (but did not decorate it), ran four miles on the tready, made pizza for dinner (thought about ordering it... but will be eating lots of unhealthy items this weekend and dinner on Friday was one meal to eat, not the pinnacle of a healthy meal, but not terribly unhealthy a la a greasy and delicious pizza from a pizza restaurant), weeded in one of my garden spots (I think I mentioned that Rineer Quarter Acre has not one but two vegetable garden plots??) and planted a few more plants in each garden spot.

AND last but not least, found out information about lightening: this was precipitated by the three of us (Alyssa, Donnie and I) sitting inside the covered patio in the evening when the predicted- "severe weather" occurred. It started lightening and thundering and we wondered if we were safe in a covered yet open (on one side) space. Alyssa took a picture of the space (that showed the roof yet the open side of the space) and sent it to the AI so that AI could tell us if we were safe or not (and then I did the old lady move of, you know, googling it). Bad news is that we were not safe there, better news (vis a vis the covered porch...) is that you're really not safe anywhere, best news is that lightening strikes are rare. We did go inside when a boom of thunder made us all practically jump! 

Some pics from the day:

Our little 'Boro is too small to have a license branch but one of the towns very near ours does- Franklin

This mural was on a building near where I parked in Franklin (OH) to go to the DMV

I got a specialized (personalized) license plate for Abby for the car she just got. It's a combo of the type of car that she got and her favorite WWE wrestler. As one does for a specialized plate! The employees at the DMV were cracking up with I told them the meaning (when you get specialized plates, you have to tell employees what the letters stand for or represent).

At Sam's Club- pop n' water for the employees of AMF :)

Cookie cake makin' time!

Balloon arch making time!

Pizza dough rising time!

Saturday:

Woke up early (grrrr- 4:30) and ran outside and then started doing things in the kitchen with Alyssa. We made potato salad for the next day (we were having people over for a meal for Abby on Sunday, the day after her graduation). Made the dressing for the pasta salad. Made homemade Mounds bars. Went to Wal-mart for things forgotten the last time I was there (you know, the day before) and new things thought of to buy... Did some decor for the dinner and then it was time to get ready to go to Abby's graduation!

Aww- so bittersweet driving to Oxford (OH) to see Abby there as a student for the last time! Miami had an all campus graduate ceremony earlier in the day. Then, throughout the weekend, there were individual schools' graduation- ie the business school had its own graduation, the college of arts and sciences had its one, etc. Abby decided she wanted to go to her school's own which was at 4:00 pm. It was pretty nice but I have to say that I was appalled at the number of graduates and their families who left after their students' name was called and diploma received 

We went out to dinner after the ceremony with Abby and her boyfriend. I had wanted to go to a nice steakhouse in Cincinnati but even trying to get reservations two months ago for the evening was not possible until about 8:00 pm and we didn't want to eat that late. Abby knew of a place in nearby (bigger city than her college town) Hamilton that she liked called Basil's so we went there. The food was really good and we had a great time together. We drove the kids back to Oxford and then we came home. It was late and I was tired!

Some pics from the day:

In Hamilton at Basil's

This adorable candy store was right next to the restaurant but it wasn't open.

Pretty post office

Fierce war memorial

Back to Oxford to drop the kids off before we headed home.

Sunday morning, I woke up early, ran and then got started for the day- lots to do! It's cute that I thought we'd go to church. It turned out we were busy about the entire day getting ready to have guests come over for a grad dinner for Abby. We did watch church outside on the patio but we didn't make it to church. We had a nice time with family over to help Abby celebrate her college graduation.

The desserts turned out tasty and were easy on the eyes, if I do say so myself.

Still shots from a video that I made for my family...