Lauren graduated from Elementary School on the 14th of June. Following a Graduation ceremony at her school (where she received many awards!) we embarked on a cruise with all the graduates, teachers and parents. And let me tell you.....was THAT ever a hilarious experience!! After her school graduation we rushed home through the pooring rain (reminents of Hurricane Ariana..or something..) to meet our baby sitter who was to take care of Gilly and Bethy while we "cruised" around the Elizabeth river.

Once the babies where taken care of, we raced downtown to meet up with the ship. We made it with not a minute to spare... the very last family to get on the boat! After climbing up some very slippery stairs..and Mark having a run in with a really rude "cruise director" type guy...we arrived at the "Observation Deck" of what we later came to dub....."The cruise ship from hell"!!! LOL

This cruise ship must have been the most unorganized event we have ever been to. Unfortunatley because we where so late arriving, and also because the cruise ship allowed all its guest to sit wherever they liked.....all the seats seemed to be taken!! None of the staff members seemed to want to help us find seats...and to top it all off..the only place we could really stand was right beside the buffet...which anoyed the heck out of the kitchen staff, they kept telling us to MOVE!!

I was getting so furious and about to just leave when....get this...the DJ shines a spotlight on us and announces to the entire floor that we needed seats!! God..poor Lauren was sooooo embarased! He suggested for the people at the tables to put up their hands if they had a spare seat at their table...yeah that was gunna work...then we'd all be sitting at seperate tables! Luckly a waitress came to our rescue and found us a small table by the window....which thankfully turned out to be one of the better places to sit. So for twenty dollars per person..we where served chicken nuggets, corn dogs and cookies for desert!!! This place was making a hefty profit!!! And not only that, we where only allowed one soda per person...if we wanted more drinks, we had to pay extra for them!! LOL I should of taken a photo of THAT meal!!! He he he!!!

So once we settled in...and i calmed down from my mad rampage, things seemed to progress nicely. Lauren was having a wonderful time with her friends, taking lots of photos..and walking around with the video camera. We sat down to eat our "school cafeteria" food and our very small diet cokes...and watched on as the kids danced the Electric Slide (In MY day...wasnt it called The Bus Stop??)..then they went on to do The Conga.....

So onto a happier....and more hilarious note...once we had finished with the cruise and returned back to the city, we then had the task of trying to get back to the parking garage...while still in the middle of a huge rainstorm! I told Mark I'd go and get the car and drive it back to the marina (where the cruise ship was docked..and where Mark and Lauren would wait for me) Now i must tell you.... Our city usually floods at the first sign of rain....this is due to the fact that we are surrounded by rivers and and a large bay. So when we do get rain, there isnt anywhere for the water to go...especially during high tide! Now we happened to have a high tide on Wednesday...so coupled with the fact that we had reminents of a hurricane and torrential downpour...the city in most low laying parts was under at least a foot of water....probably more in some parts. So needless to say my journey back to the car was in a word....WET!!! I had to take off my shoes to wade through "ankle deep" puddles...which was kind of fun in a way! Made me feel like a little kid again! So I made my way to the parkinglot... shoes, parking ticket and twenty bucks in one hand...umbrella in the other. Only problem was... apart from being semi drenched....I had forgotten the car keys!!!!

What made it worse was the fact I didnt realise this until I actually made it all the way to the parking garage! Uuugghh.. so I turned around and ran back to the marina to retrieve the keys from my laughing husband! While all this was going on...the parking ticket in my hand was also getting drenched..and breaking apart into pieces...and then to make it so much more hilarious...I suddenly realised my twenty bucks for parking was missing!!!!

So to cut this way-too-long story short....I found my twenty dollar bill floating in a nice deep puddle...retreived it and ran back to the car for the second time.

MAN!!!! What a DAY!!! But despite all the drama's...Mark and I were so very proud of Lauren! She has worked so hard these past six years...and it brought several tears to my eyes today to see the beautiful woman she is growing to be...so gorgeously glamorous...yet still my baby girl...breaks my heart everyday to see her grow up before my eyes!

Time flies by way too quickly........