This morning Jeff’s lifelong friend, Debbie, who has retired to Sumter from Indiana, came up to visit and bring Jeff some paint-by-number pictures she’d made for him. We had a great visit, and the pictures are perfect for him.

Zollie with his oldest grandchild, three-year-old Mary, and youngest grandchild, nine-week-old Heath. Such a precious time.

We have a very strong Veterans’ Committee at our church, so Memorial Day is always celebrated very specially. The decorations in the lobby were beautiful yesterday, including this tree decorated with pictures of servicemen from Clover who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and in some cases of their gravestones.

Sherri got to our house soon after noon, & we drove to Winston-Salem, where we loaded up with Andy & Amy. From there we headed to King to visit with Zollie’s family, as Josh, Hillary, & Jack were in town for Memorial Day weekend. Jack is six months old now, and I got a million pictures like this of him, because he loved the green light that flashes on my camera before it takes a picture. So, so cute.

Saturday afternoon I went to a graduation party for a girl from church who graduated with Mallory. Jessica has gone through four years of ROTC, and is going straight into the Air Force. I loved her cake, and those cupcake with the Air Force ducks on top – so cute!

And the big old bowl of the blue and grey and white candies – Clover’s colors – was so cute (and yummy.)

With her very, very proud and happy grandparents…

And with her buddy Charlie. Needless to say, we are all very proud of him…

I loved this picture of them after they all got their hats back after they’d thrown them in the air.

Afterwards, a big hug from her Emmy – her other grandmother. So sweet.

One more picture of Adam at his graduation. This is the back of the sweatshirt the school presented to him for being named Male Student Athlete of the Year. We were so, so proud.

This is the bracelet we gave Mallory for her graduation present. My friend Becky Coulter made it – she grew up next door to us in Murfreesboro. The turquoise and pearl combination was first popularized by Queen Victoria, and since Mallory is such an English history fan, that seemed perfect to me. She tried it on for us while we were at their house for the party.

Mallory offered the prayer at her high school graduation ceremony last night. She was chosen to do that as a member of the leadership team for FCA. She did a beautiful job, and we were just so proud.

Yesterday morning I was at Sullivan Middle School with Andrew & Jenny – only 3 tickets per student, so Jeff didn’t get to go. It was Adam’s middle school graduation, where he was recognized as an honor student, and also named the Male Athlete of the Year. We were just a little bit proud. I got this picture of him with his buddy Andrew after the ceremony.

Opening his gift we got him – a big bag full of his favorite snacks for the summer. He said he was going to save them to take to Wrestling Camp, but that’s not til July, so we may have to replenish the bag before then 🙂

This evening there were two hawks walking around our backyard. Not sure what they were doing, but they stayed there – on the ground – for maybe half an hour? You have to look close to see them both in this picture. It was very cool watching them.