Ancient Ovens

We had dinner with our friends at Ancient Ovens at the beginning of June.  It is a beautiful place in the hill country west of Gainesville (who knew?) in Saint Jo.  We met at Kari's so we could carpool, which was fun because it's not often you get to spend that much time in a car just talking and catching up.  It poured that day and made the evening harder and longer, but still fun.  We rode with Haddocks, Piazzas, and Helms which made for a fun night.  Halfway there, the guys had to pee which was ridiculous because we had only been in the car less than an hour.  But we stopped anyways and grabbed more beer and the other car got kolaches so it was good.  We got to the Arche winery and sat there for an hour.  Then we headed to Ancient Ovens, a wood fired pizza place.  We had to sit inside due to the rain but it was still fun.  We ate spinach dip on sourdough, a pizza buffet, and a chocolate pizza dessert.  We had bought wine from the winery and it was a great, relaxing night.  Jason got sick from all the paint fumes that he inhaled from his cabinets that day.  I ate more pizza than Cody.  Morgan took a shot of Whiskey.  Brian tried to sell us on Michigan.  And we had a great time.  We were the last group to leave and eventually one of the workers had to come out and ask us to leave.  We headed home which turned out to take almost 2 hours.  Someone might have had too much to drink and we had to stop a few times.  One time ended up at McDonalds and Jason bought 10 breakfast sandwiches.  It was a long, hilarious, and crazy ride.

I saw a guy and he looked familiar and suddenly Cody recognized that he had an Argyle shirt on.  It ended up being Trey, Carleigh's prom date.  I snuck my head out the door and yelled his name to be sure.  Then I introduced myself and met his family.  They had been sitting behind us at graduation and were Aggies.  He goes there in the fall.  His dad was hilarious and came in to meet our group and show them pictures of Carleigh and Trey.  He even made Trey and I take a picture together for Carleigh.  Funny encounter. 

Carleigh. The myth. The woman. The valedictorian.

I can't believe it, but Carleigh graduated and now all 7 of us are out of high school.  And even though she is the youngest of 7, she is the best!  I love this girl so very, very much.  I used to think she was my mini-me but she has surpassed me in every way!  She is beautiful on the outside and inside.   She is her own person, she stands up for what she believes in, she doesn't cave to peer pressure.  She is super smart and works harder than than most kids her age so she makes killer grades, straight A's, and knows everything!  But she is humble and kind and always willing to help her friends.  She doesn't speak badly of others, she is kind to her teachers, and she is responsible.  She is the best person I know!  I am so proud of the fact that she kept working and got valedictorian.  Amazing.  She got lots of scholarships and is going to the University of Michigan for an honors program to be pre-med.  She is going to change the world someday.  I honestly believe she can. 

Her graduation was on Tuesday, May 31.  Cody and I left after he got out of school, dropped the girls at his parents, and headed down.  It rained horribly that day but we got there in time.  The whole family was there except Dane who was out of town.  We all yelled every time she walked anywhere and they announced her name.  We are all so very proud.  Her speech was so well written and did awesome.  The speech before hers was one to remember but in a different way!  Afterwards, we got to hug her a million times and take a ton of pictures and she was off to project graduation.

During graduation, Cody had to fix the fuel filter that had gotten rain in it.  He got fuel dumped on him and he stunk so bad and was soaking wet from the rain!  He ended up driving home naked that night with the heat on, poor guy!  All of us except Michaela have graduated from UNT now, except that Dane didn't walk at his.  I think that's crazy since they have lived so far away from us most of their lives.  She had 12 items of bling - cords and collars from honors and NHS and UIL and such.  That girl is hard core!  The salutatorian's speech was quickly written and not proof read and mentioned imagining a boy naked and looking homeless and such.  It was funny but not in a good way.  We ate Dairy Queen for dinner that took an hour and our cashier made our food without washing his hands and it was hot and gross.  It was pouring and Kristen took her umbrella to get inside while Brian parked the car.  Thus by the time he got in, he was completely soaked from head to toe.  Carleigh threw her hat in the air, but only like 3 feet so she could catch hers.  No one wants someone else's gross hat.  Gary finally got all 7 kids graduated and out of the house.  Two left in college and then he's really done.