Pomp and circumstance

It’s official! Jeremy graduated Friday, and we are DONE with school! It has been a long nine years of graduate work, but Jeremy now will enter the work world as doctor, doctor Hilty. It has been a joke with everyone about what to call him. Now, to start paying off the student loans that amount to another house payment each month… The good news is, I have a part-time job to help with that. I am “retiring” from journalism in three weeks. July 1 is my last day. Two weeks ago, I got a call with a job offer. I told them I was planning to be a stay-at-home mom and did not want a part-time, 20 hour job. They said they would work with me. So, I start July 5 at Partners in Prime working eight hours on Tuesdays. I will work a few extra hours from home the rest of the week, dealing with any media calls. My main responsibilities will be putting out a newsletter every other month, maintaining two websites, keeping up with social media sites and pitching stories to the media. I also will be handling some advertising accounts and some marketing. So, it is going to be a lot of work trying to learn the job, but once I have it down, I am hoping it isn’t too stressful. The good part is that since it is a senior services agency, they don’t care if I take Benjamin if I need to work on days without child care, because a lot of the clients love children.

Back to Jeremy. Benjamin got him a gift for his graduation. You can see Benjamin wearing it here.

Benjamin didn’t get to go see his Daddy walk across the stage, because he is too squirmy, and the ceremony was at his bedtime. So, he said congratulations to Daddy ahead of time.

Aren’t they the two best looking guys around?

My grandparents made the trek from Lorain to watch Benjamin for us so that I could go to the ceremony. My grandpa went with me, which was wonderful, because I didn’t want to go by myself. We got DRENCHED from a rain storm that struck just as we reached the parking garage exit.  We had to walk two blocks, and the water was shin deep on some sidewalks.

You can see I was still a little wet two hours later when I caught up with Jeremy.

I was so proud of him! He graduated in the top five or six of his class, even while working and helping me take care of Benjamin.

What was hilarious about the weekend was how Benjamin started calling my grandpa “Bob.” He can’t say grandpa, so it worked out well. He would walk around and call out “Bob bob!” They were fast friends. I am not sure what it is, but Benjamin loves men. Don’t get me wrong, he has never met a stranger and will be best buddies with just about anyone… but if one of his favorite guys is around… mama or nana or whomever is chopped liver.

This was the case last weekend when Nana and Papa came to visit.

He and his Papa were attached at the hip. When Papa went home, Benjamin walked around the house for days calling “Papa? Papa!” It was so sad.

We had so much fun at the zoo, eating ice cream, playing at the park and taking walks.

Nana and Benjamin played in the pool and hung out while the rest of us stained the deck.

Each morning, Benjamin and Papa watched cartoons on my dad’s ipad.

We have been loving the weather, having visitors and playing at every park around town!

Well, I can’t really remember anything else to write. The past few weeks have gone by in a blur!