Sarah and Teaghan

Sarah and Auntie Jan and cousin Ben

Sarah at her 8th grade graduation with pals Delany, Molly, Teagan, Ava, and Brooklyn.

Here she is with Mr. Jones, one of her favorite teachers there. He teaches Career Investigations. 

The cats seem to have adopted Sarah, and at one hundred seventy-four months old, she’s usually got one sitting on her if she’s hanging out at home. And/or one of them will climb into bed with her when she’s sleeping.

She’s always glad when BFF Brooklyn stops by. They took a walk on the trail that runs alongside our subdivision.  Both she and Brooklyn finished their eight grade (and final) year at Innovation Academy middle school. It was an amazing middle school experience for her – tons of friends and great teachers.  She’s pretty bummed out that it’s the end of her  time there. She earned all sorts of awards from her 8th grade graduation ceremony, and we’ll post photos from that soon.

Not sure what Sarah’s doing here on Kate’s laptop, but she’s probably enjoying the late spring porch weather here in central North Carolina. Won’t be long before it’s ridiculously hot outside, but her 174th month it’s pretty nice.  She’ll sit out there, sometimes with a cat, and sometimes with her phone to FaceTime her friends.

Also in Sarah news:

• She had her 9th grade orientation for Early Collage Academy, where she’ll be starting in the fall, taking both high school and college classes.  She’s really excited, and we’re proud of all the hard work she did to get in there.
• She’s doing well with braces still and gets them adjusted every month or so.
• Sarah was happy to see all the family who came into town last month for Ted’s graduation – we had 14 people visit us!
• She had her audition for one of her summer camp theatre programs (Clayton Theatricals) and worked really hard preparing for it.
• Sarah had a couple of friend sleepovers in her 174th month, which she kinda lives for.

Who’s got two thumbs, a graduation cap and gown, and is two hundred eighteen months old? This kid. That was pretty much the month of May for Ted who wrapped up the last high school class (chemistry) and a couple of college classes (Linux, Sociology) to finish up CTLA.  Pictured here in front of the weird statue in front of Tart Auditorium.

So many family members came into town to be there and support Ted, it was amazing. We all spent the weekend hanging out, eating, bowling a little, and eating more. We’ll post some photos soon.

Kate and I are immensely proud – high school isn’t easy and high school packed with college classes is all the more challenging.

There was time for a little auto maintenance during Ted’s 218th month. They’ve been driving for almost an entire school year now, taking the Volt. Keeping your tire pressure to spec gets you the best gas milage, of course.  In August he’ll start commuting to Raleigh for classes at Wake Tech.

And here’s the last day of school photo. A good deal taller than the first day of school.

There will be more school, for sure, but this is the end of Johnston County Public Schools and is a pretty big milestone in this house.

I’m trying to skateboard again, at least a little. A side effect of two years worth of weekly yoga sessions is that my balance is pretty good. I’m not looking to do any tricks, I’ll be happy to go in a straight line and turn a little.

Real Willy Wonka boat ride energy driving through the carwash with the all-around cameras on.

Related: Kate spent some serious time in the garage cleaning and reorganizing and maybe for the first time ever we had two cars in there? It was amazing.

We have two charging cords set up, one for the Volt and one for the Bolt, but rarely have to use both at once. We charge the Volt for Ted every night (since one charge = one round trip to school) and my car gets charged about once a week.

Sarah and her pal Brooklyn before the school dance.

Sarah and Myles.