Alyssa's Graduation

This is the reason for getting up in the morning!

David (20) Chelsea (17) Alyssa (18) Baryn (16). Hey Sis - I think this means we are getting old. 2 more graduations to go, then we get to look forward to the weddings!

Last night my niece Alyssa graduated from high school. We had a get together before the ceremonies. There was alot of food and I am very proud of myself for not standing around and grazing in the kitchen. We had very very lean hamburgers on wheat buns, small amount of baked beans, a bite of potato salad and a cauliflower/brocolli salad. I didn't have cake, but I did have some unsweetened fruit with sf ff cool whip and 1/2 of a small brownie. I could have taken my NS food, but I want to be able to learn to eat real food and not go crazy. The only thing I could have done better was drinking more water. I got it all in, but it meant drinking water until 11:30 last night which interrupted my sleep more than once. Somthing else makes me wonder-hmmmm, I had a 2.4 lb loss this week, would it have been a bigger loss if I'd eaten NS food or a smaller loss. Did that REAL food throw another log on the furnance in my body or was it because it was just different food. Or, was it because I didn't have a loss last week and my body was just catching up. That's probably it! I'd forgotten about last week's non-movement of the scale.

This has been a nice weekend, I took a vacation day on Friday and I'll also be off on Monday. I've got to start using my vacation days because the year is almost halfway over and I've only taken 1 week with approx 6 weeks left. I always have to roll over 2 weeks at the end of the year but that's all I can roll, anything leftover I lose. I spent most of Friday at my sister's house trying to research our family history. It's been very interesting. This all began about 3 years ago when my grandmother died and after the funeral a great aunt started talking about the history of our family and that her great great grandfather was full blood Cherokee. We've always know this but she actually had a name. Leigh Ann and I went to the library and search the Dawes rolls but found out that our ancestor got off the Trail of Tears in Missouri. So we thought our proof of Cherokee blood would never be traceable. Then about 2 months ago one of my employees was telling me that he had just gotten his tribal card, I told him my story and he said his ancestor was the same way. He was able to trace his lineage back to the White River Band of Cherokee Indians in Missouri and Northern Arkansas. So we were back on the search. During this we also got some more information on my Grandfather's side that traces Cherokee back to my GGG Grandmother. So that would make me approximately 1/64 on my Grandma's side and 1/32 on my Grandpa's side. I've never been very good at fractions but I think that calculates to 3/64. Is that right? So we've got branches of family trees all over ancestry.com, a little here and there and we are trying to tie the tree together. It would be nice to be able to get our tribal cards to help send the kids to college and also for medical care if they aren't able to afford health insurance when they are on their own. If nothing else it's been fun.

You know something that I haven't talked about in a while is my knitting - that last project wore me out and I haven't knit since January. I put everything away while I was painting and just haven't gotten it back out yet. But I've got the bug again. I'm going to knit this tank. It should ber very simple and not take too long, plus it will be nice for this summer and I can probably even wear it to work. It's made out of cotton so it shouldn't be hot. I really miss my knitting, I think I might even go to the yarn store tomorrow and pick out the yarn for this tank and get started on it. What color should I get? I have alot of clothes this color of green so I need to get something else. Maybe turquoise??? What do you think. Leave me comments and let me know.

I've got a new picture that I want to post - it looks a little better than the girls night photo. Chelsea took this of me last night before we left for graduation. At least I've got makeup on and my hair doesn't look crazy. In the girls night photo I look like I was getting ready to bend over, kinda hunchbacked, a little wild eyed. This pic actually looks like me (most of the time)...

Okay back to the graduate.

Alyssa plans to go to our local university this fall and apply for the nursing program as soon as she has met the requirements. I wish I could have gotten the picture of her actually receiving the diploma, but my cameral has a split second delay and by the time I pushed the botton she was already walking away. I took another picture of her when she was walking to her seat at the beginning and by the time the camera actually captured the picture, she had almost walked out of the frame. (I wish I would have spent another $100 and gotten the Fuji 5100 - trying to save a buck isn't always the best).

Here she is wearing the sunglasses. They released the balloons and are getting ready to throw their hats in the air. It was a great night, even though it was very hot, sweaty, and my butt hurt so bad sitting on those metal bleachers for a couple of hours. Congratulations Alyssa, I'm very proud of you!!! Love ya Teresa.