I meant to post this before I went to Indiana, but as you can see it didn’t get done.  But I couldn’t just leave it out, so better late than never.

On June 20th, Jillian and Josh had me over for a cookout at their little house by the creek.  It’s so quiet and pretty back there.  They’re very fortunate to have found such a nice spot.

Josh was the grill-master.  I’d like to learn a thing or two from him.  I helped Jillian to make marinated vegetable shish-kebabs to put on the grill.  They were SO good.

Jillian is such a good cook anyway, evidenced here as she intently stirs the pot.  I guess I could take some lessons from both of them since I hardly ever do any cooking.  In addition to the kebabs, we had steaks and corn on the cob.

It was such a beautiful day, it would have been nice if we could have had dinner out on their deck and listened to the creek trickling by.

Keyona was a great source of love, laughter and entertainment, as always.  She is so full of energy and sweetness, you just want to squeeze her up and take her home.  Here she is modeling her new ring and necklace she got from school.  She’s such a great poser, I think she could be a hand model for the QVC jewelery show, don’t you?  That’s one of the many special things about Keyona… she can be so girly and sweet, but then get rough and tumble with you and have fun doing and being both kinds of girl.

I had such a great time spending the evening with Josh and Jillian, and I are looking forward to visiting them again after they return from their month long excursion to California.

I know we needed rain, but I have had more rain in the last few days than I cared for.  Two pairs of my work shoes are now eternally water logged, and doomed to make that annoying squeak and squish with each weary step.

I got stuck in Fairfax for an hour last night in the tanker due to flooding on nearly every street.  I turned this way and that until I could go no more and simply had to wait for the street to open.  I ended up taking my 40 ton truck over an 8-ton limit bridge, looking behind me all the while knowing for sure that I’d see the blue lights gaining on me.  Alas, I got away… 

And after three days, it is still raining here in the Valley with no end in sight.  On the bright side… I haven’t yet had to water mom’s plants since she left for the family reunion!  They’ll probably die from drowning and I’ll get the blame…

We had our second monthly Women’s Bible Study and Tea this past Tuesday.  It was so much fun, as you can see here from Jolene’s laughter.

We did another study in Proverbs on Family.  More specifically we looked at Spouse relationships and Parent/Children relationships. 

I think we all got some practical and applicable information out of it.  It was a good look inward.

Mom and Jillian are pretty intense here, don’t  you think?

The next one is being held again here at mom’s house on Thursday, July 20th from 10-2pm.  To all of my Aunts and Cousins: you ladies are invited.  If you do plan to come, please let me know so that I can send you the next study sheet.

Come prepared to participate in active discussion and fun fellowship with just the ladies!!  It’s going to be a great time as always.

On Monday, May 22 the Flory women and my best friend, LaShonda, had our first tea party that included a Bible study.  LaShonda, Jolene and I have been having ladies tea parties for about a year now.  LaShonda and I have been looking for a womens Bible study that takes place some time during the day, and  have had no luck.  So, we decided to have our own.  Mom and Jillian were there, too.

Jolene hosted a perfect tea party with her beautiful china.  Then we started in on our study.  We read in Proverbs about what Solomon had to say about friends. How apropos, right?  It was a great study where everyone contributed and I think we all went away having learned something.

After we finished the study, Jolene served us a lunch of Tomato soup and grilled cheese as we continued to just visit with each other.  It was a wonderful time.  We plan to do this once a month.  If there are any other ladies that would like to join us, we would love it.  In June, we plan to have it at Mom’s house from 10-2pm.  The date is still up in the air, but if anyone is interested, please let me know.

     On Saturday, May 6 I graduated from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. It was a beautiful day for commencement.  I have been working on this second bachelor’s degree now for two and a half years.  It’s been a struggle sometimes trying to do school work and work full time, but I did it.  Hooray! 

     I have been accepted to the Liberty University’s Graduate Program for Master of Arts in Professional Counseling.  I intend to start this program in the fall through distance learning, and continue to work full time.  My goal is to become a Licenced Professional Counselor and work in Christian counseling for adults.  It will take quite a few years yet to complete my Master’s degree, but I’ll get there!

     Much of my family came to the graduation ceremony to support me and hoop & holler as I walked across the stage.

     Mom and Dad were there, of course.  Jolene and her family came, which was a blessing.  Steve was my official photographer, which by the way I still need to get the pictures from him.  The kids were as sweet as little pies.  Jillian and Keyona came too.  Josh unfortunately had to work. 

      I feel so blessed to have had most of my family join me in celebrating my accomplishment and hard work.  It means a lot to me that my family supports me and cares about whatever it is that I plan to do and work toward.

     This is me with Liz, one of my friends from school that I learned to know from being in a couple classes with her.  This past semester we had to make videos of counseling sessions together for a class assignment.  That’s where I really learned to know Liz.  She is a sweet, funny, genuine person that I feel fortunate to have met and made friends with.  She will be attending graduate school in Chicago in the fall.  I hope to go up and visit her there.

     As for the celebration party on Saturday evening after graduation, I say it turned out wonderfully.  Sanford’s and Terry’s were there.  A bunch of people showed up with their instruments, including Hannah, Two-Gun and Mike & Sarah Showalter’s son Joe.  After dinner, the music started and didn’t end until nearly 11:00.  It was truly a great time, and I wish everyone in the family could have been there.  Well, there will be another chance in a few years when I complete my Master’s.  Then we’ll do it again.

You’re Invited

to a

Graduation Reception / Birthday Celebration

Cookout and Music Jam

for

Javonne and Jim and June

following graduation

on

Saturday, May 6

at the

Jim Flory residence in Timberville

Social begins at 4:00pm

Dinner served at 5:00pm

Bring a dish, a chair, an instrument and a friend.

Please RSVP to Javonne at 540-560-9905

      On Wednesday, April  5th after my violin lesson my violin teacher Two-Gun Terry invited me to see the Count Basie Orchestra perform at the Court Square Theatre in Harrisonburg that same evening.

     This group plays big band music.  They were great!  I probably would not have thought to go see them on my own, but it was neat to go with Two-Gun. There were lots of old people there, but surprisingly there were many people my age too.

     The group played a lot of stuff I  didn’t know, of course, but there were actually a couple peices that I recognized, too.

     I enjoyed the guy that played the bass fiddle and the pianist the most, because of course that’s up my alley. I had not before heard someone actually use their bow on the bass.  The pianist had a style of playing that sounded almost off the cuff or impromptu, but it was good.

     We had a great time, and I  would definitely try something new like that again.

I am taking two classes this sememster.  One of the classes has an ethics portion that meets separately from the regular class.  I just went onto Blackboard and found some pictures that one of my teachers had taken during class.

In this first one, I am working with a girl in my collaborative group named Kelly.  She is great to work with because she contributes to the group and she’s funny.

In the second picture are two other people who I am in other classes with.  The guy in the foreground is Rob.  He is in my counseling class.  We’ve often worked together in class.  The girl in the back in the black sweatshirt is Shannon.  She’s in my Psyc of Motivation class.  The two of us have to meet once a week outside of class to work on assigned projects.  I like having her for a partner because she, too, pulls her weight and is easy to get along with.

I’m really enjoying my classes this semester, even though they stole a whole day away from my sewing retreat vacation.

This year’s sewing retreat is coming to a close already.  We’ve had a great time though.  It started on Friday here at mom’s house.  Here mom is showing me how to do handwork on a velvet babydoll blanket that Grandmother made for me.

After sewing here Friday Saturday and Sunday, the family went back to Highland Retreat for 7 days.  The place looked like a sewing factory within 2 hours of our arrival.

I had several projects that I was working on besides the doll blanket.  One was the queen size lattice quilt that Jolene and I started last year.  Another was the butterfly lap quilt that I pieced when I was younger and just now got around to finishing.  (It’s the only project I actually finished this week!)  The las thing I worked on was a mini conversion quilt that Aunt Julia taught everyone to make. 

This pic shows all of my projects.  There was also a basket class held on Wednesday, but I missed out on that due to school.

Most everyone stayed up until 2 or 3am every night just sewing away and talking.  Jillian and I hung out in the corner on Saturday night laughing and doing handwork.

The whole event even made into Saturday’s newspaper.  I think we all had a great time, and I can’t wait until next year!

Well, I just found out I won’t be moving into my new house until at least April.  My renters house is behind schedule becauase of the septic people.  I guess it’s a blessing though, because I still don’t have any dining room chairs.

School is going well, but it’s an awful lot of reading.  I enjoy the reading, but it’s difficult to get it all done within each week when you work full time.  I wish it came on tape like the book I’m currently reading while I go down the road.  Wouldn’t that be handy?