May-hem & Memories

Whew! I thought toddlerhood and the preschool years were busy, but it's a whole 'nuther kind of crazy when the kids hit these middle years! Orchestra concerts and choir productions and piano recitals and field trips and award ceremonies and my calendar looks like the Sharpie package exploded. After this week, the extra-curriculars will all subside as my kids have their finals next week. Of course, with a high-schooler, that just means more trips back and forth to school as my boy can exempt up to 3 finals. And the finals he does take are in 2 hour blocks. Not that I'm complaining....these years are sifting through my hands like windblown sand.

And speaking of quickly flying years, I am surely too young to be celebrating such an auspicious occasion as the one occurring today! I even received this card in the mail acknowledging this grand event!

For those of you unfortunate enough not to recognize that beautiful landmark, that is the Tower on The University of Texas campus. The inside of this beautiful card read:
Sigh. May 21, 1983. Has it really been 25 years? I used to think people were really old who had been out of school this long. They must have been younger than I thought. Or I'm older than I want to admit!

One of the fun things about graduating in 1983 was that it was UT's centennial. So there was even more fanfare surrounding the graduation ceremonies. And we were the cool class that got to wear the burnt orange graduation gowns instead of the traditional black.

The fact that black is a much more flattering color on me, and burnt orange makes me look like death warmed over, is totally irrelevant, of course! School spirit takes priority on such an occasion!

Of course, I can't remember graduation without remembering the NCLEX-RN, also known as State Boards, which followed 6 weeks later.

Yuck. It almost makes me break into a cold sweat just thinking about it and looking at that website. And way back then, there was no vast internet with oodles of websites for review. We had to bubble in the answer sheets. (Yeah and if it hadn't been July, I'm sure I would have walked barefoot in the snow to get there! Actually it was probably 103 degrees!) Two solid days of testing, 8 hours each day, and it took a month to get the results. So it was mid to late August before I got the letter in the mail that said I was officially a Registered Nurse. Now they test for 5 hours on a computer and get the results almost instantaneously.

I'm officially old. Think I'll go churn some butter....

Before I forget, like I have for the past month. . . . be sure to notice the blog button at the top of my sidebar for the Siesta Fiesta in San Antonio August 22-23! My girl has the nerve to turn 13 on the 22nd, so I may not get there until the 23rd, but I'm sure hoping to meet lots of you! And be sure to visit the blog, whether you are going or not. Kim (connorcolesmom) and Patty (of Girlfriends in God) have done a fantabulous job on it.

I know the button's big, but hey, it is gonna be in