So, in all my postings about our trip to New York, I never did mention one of the main reasons we went up there in the first place!! We attended Kenneth's graduation banquet from the Engineering Leadership Development Program through Lockheed Martin! This has been a grueling 3 year program for him (and for me- trying to parent all these children without him!). I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished.We are so grateful to Diane and Joseph, (Kenneth's sister and her husband) for watching our 3 children while we went. Really Joseph deserves some major kudos here. He is a champ. Just to properly paint the picture of what a champ he is I will describe the events leading up to the evening: The kids and I hung out at D & J's all day. (Joseph actually watched my 2 girls and his little boy in the morning so Diane and I could go out garage sale-ing. We found GREAT things. Such fun. I even got my girls' Chirstmas present already) Anyway. Kenneth was still at the farm until shortly before we left for the event. We fed the kids dinner and Diane actually had to leave to go to a baptism at the church. Joseph took all the kids out in the backyard to play and swim in their wading pool. They seemed to be having fun. I had already forewarned the girls that we would be leaving to somewhere that evening. So, while they were out there playing I got myself ready and about the time we were supposed to be leaving, Emma had to come in for a bathroom break and so Joseph brought everyone in, so as not to have runaways. We were just about to walk out the door when Emma started to flip out. Bear in mind, she was in her bathing suit and was using the bathroom. So, now she is a naked Emma. There she was screaming, flailing and wailing while we tried to say goodbye. This set off Arianna as well. (Luckily, Grant was happy for the moment playing with toys in a nearby room.) Also to paint the proper picture, Arianna had had a runny nose for the majority of the time we were visiting NY. So, We are all fancied up and have a naked 4 year old clinging to us and a snotty nosed 2 year old also grabbing frantically at us. Kenneth tried desperately and, I believe successfully, to keep her from slimming his best suit with boogers. We pried them off and were able to shut the door and leave. I kind of wanted to cry. We really don't go out very often and leave them with someone else and I just felt bad that they were so upset. And I also felt bad for Joseph dealing with all of that. He calmed them down pretty quickly- toys, books and fudgesicles do that well.
The event was nice. Most of the graduates also finished their masters degrees in conjunction. Kenneth, has one more class left to finish. Most of the other graduates also didn't accomplish the myriad of other things Kenneth did in that 3 years: adding 2 children to his family, selling his first house and moving to D.C. for a corporate rotation and daily dealing with a crazy wife! The final class for his masters isn't offered until next Spring, so in one more year we will be celebrating another graduation. (And in the mean time enjoying having Kenneth around a little more often!)
