After graduation was over, Amanda opened all of her packages and cards. She was SO SURPRISED that we bought her a new laptop. She *really* needed a new one since Josh dropped hers awhile ago and put a dent in it and some other unknown person took a few of her keys apart. So, now she gets a new one and Josh will get the old one. We’re playing musical computers again (LOL). Nathan will now get the only remaining older desktop and now no one should need to be borrowing my computer anymore! WHOO HOO! Back to Amanda…

My mom and dad always give $$ and the exciting part is trying to figure out WHERE it is (LOL). Amanda opened up these very nice pillows from my mom and dad (and pillows WERE on her wish list.. but not this kind of pillow – lol) so she opened it up and thanked them and moved on to the next thing. I didn’t even know that this time grandma/grandpa had hidden $$ in the pillows. After awhile the suspense was too much to bear so we all started inquiring… no $$ in the card, no $$ in the wrapping, etc., but we KNEW there had to be $$ somewhere (LOL). Finally someone looked in the pillows and sure enough both pillows were stuffed with $1 bills. Imagine her surprise! They had given her the money all in $1 bills because of the treasure hunt we were doing where we needed to locate a $1 bill with 1067 in the serial #. We looked ALL through these $1 bills and didn’t find one… we did fine one later, but I’ll tell that story in a different blog entry.

You’re probably wondering why I’ve posted this goofy smile picture of Josh on an entry about Amanda. Josh has been working is little legs off mowing lawns and doing yard work to earn $$ for a go-cart he hopes to purchase by the end of this summer. He just shook his head and said :

KID QUOTE: “I have to WORK for my money. All she has to do is open a card.” – Josh age 9

That was SO FUNNY! We explained that she “earned” it by graduating from high school. The next day he was all gung ho to whip through his math books. Unfortunately, that was short lived and now he’s back to having to be told to do his math everyday (LOL).
Amanda received enough $$ that put together with the $$ she’s been saving for the last 3 years she was able to buy a new (used) car! She was SO EXCITED about that and I’ll blog about it another day.
WHEW… that was a lot of blog entries! I was not looking forward to posting them because I didn’t really know what to say. We’re happy and sad. We’re excited to see what her future holds and we know that she has grown up to be a Godly young lady with a strong work ethic and great character. We pray every day that God will direct her path and that she will follow closely after Him!
I’m happy to report that 2 months post graduation parenting still continues! Yes, graduation changes things but kids still need their mom and dad! And, that’s a VERY GOOD FEELING! I’m so glad parenting doesn’t end on graduation day as I must have somehow previously thought.