Judy rides the bull

Bull rider

        My brother Don rented a mechanical bull for the party to celebrate his four children's high school graduation.  "We are  in Texas," he reminded us.

Eileen, Dan, Natalie, Pat

Four college tuitions?

Natalie with Mary and sister Michelle

     Natalie, Dan and Eileen  and Patrick each graduated summa cum laude.  Here's a link to a story in the local paper about them:  .http://fatcatwebproductions.com/the_paper/content/graduate-spotlight-woodlands-college-park-high-school Dan will study chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.  Nat will go into the Liberal Arts Honors  program there, and Eileen starts with the elite Dean  Scholars group in the natural sciences.   On Friday all three returned enthused from a week's freshman orientation on the campus at Austin.  Pat will have to wait until August for his orientation week at Georgetown.  Their friends are nice kids who greeted each other with hugs  and mixed happily with the large number of cousins and adult relatives gathered in Don and Mary's back yard.  

Maxine at slide show

Simone 

     The Maryland contingent was strong. Mary's parents were there, and her three sisters and their families, and my sisters Florrie and Vonnie and their husbands.  A couple flew in from Syracuse, where Don and Mary lived when the quads were in  preschool.  David, Courtney and the girls drove in from College Station.  Maxine watched the slide show of photos from the graduates' lives, and Simone enjoyed the pool.

    Judy was using oxygen most of the time in the  humid climate of Houston. She kept the prongs of the cannula in her nostrils and rolled the concentrator behind her.  We have named it "the beast."

Mary to Judy: How are you really doing?

     My brother's back yard is terraced. The bull was placed  on a small level piece of  lawn down a steep grassy path from the patio and pool.  Judy congratulated the quads, mingled with the crowd for a while, and then started down the hill toward the bull.  Mary's  brother-in-law carried the oxygen concentrator behind her, judging the distance carefully because Judy was still attached to the cannula.  Judy slipped off her shoes, removed the oxygen from her nose, and climbed onto the bull.  It didn't throw her.   Then she climbed off and reattached herself to oxygen.  Brother-in-law Dan carefully helped Judy and the beast back up the hill.  Judy  beat the bull!