Ryves’ Med School Graduation

Thursday, we headed to Jackson to celebrate my cousin Ryves’ graduation from med school at UMC. Four years have flown by, and I could barely hold in the tears of pride and joy. Most of the time I don’t care if I embarrass Fuzzball, but this time, I tried to be on my best behavior. On Thursday night, I was able to attend his white coat ceremony and watch him put on that long white coat that he’s worked so hard to earn. And then on Friday morning, my parents and I cheered for him as he walked across the stage to receive his diploma and hood. The whole family celebrated with lunch at Julep afterward. Words cannot describe how proud we are of Ryves and how hard he’s worked to get to this point. No one deserves it more!

Ryves and Mary Chris recently told us that they are expecting a baby in November, and this weekend they revealed it’s a GIRL!!! Cheers all around! You should have seen Helen Grace’s big ole grin when Mary Chris told her!

Grabbing that diploma

While my parents and I were busy with graduation festivities, Aunt Glo and Grace Ann graciously kept up with Helen Grace. She was in HOG HEAVEN getting to hang out with them and followed them both around like a puppy.

Helen Grace took three days worth of swimming lessons from Melissa Brown this week at the Coats house (we missed the last half of the week because of our Jackson trip). Grandma took her the first two days, and she did great. No tears at all, and she was a pretty good sport. Not sure what happened, but when I took her on Wednesday, she LOST it during the middle of class. She did NOT want to put her face in the water, so when Ms. Melissa told her she had to and made her do it, she started screaming, “I want my mommy!” It was torture. She cried a little bit afterward and said she didn’t want to go back to our second session later in June, but when John asked her about it later that night and when others ask her about it since then, she says she loved it. I am so confused! But regardless, we were hoping that since Grace Ann is a swimmer, she could encourage her about learning to swim. They spent a good amount of time in Gloria’s pool, and HG went with her to swim practice too. Let’s hope we can get her ready and excited for round two of swim lessons!

Literally attached to Glo’s leg while she and GA got ready Friday morning HG wasn’t happy when we showed up on Friday afternoon and told her it was time to go back home.