Yippee Ki Yay's Journal, 22 May 24

Graduate! Our fifth of six children graduated! A weekend fishing, followed by a week volunteering, and then attendance at a Men's Christian Camp. After that he starts his Apprentice Program where he will be alternating school semesters with working for construction companies. Launch success, life goal reached! Now, my next major life goal is to see our youngest son graduate next year. 

Well done. Congratulations! 

Congratulations to you and your son! 🎉🎉🎉 

Awesome buddy 😄 congrats 👏🎉.  

Congratulations YKY! That’s pretty impressive. And you have done this 4 times already with one to go? That’s a lot of responsibility and love. Remember when the first one was born and you are so determined to give them everything and never let them feel pain and only want them to experience love and happiness? And now they are grown? It seems like yesterday for me and it was nearly 35 years ago in actuality. Time flies. Truly congratulation brother. 

Thank you Concarnelavida, Diana 1234, Leah_guffey and Supporters. Yes Yearofhealth2023, four before and one to go. My oldest will be 35 this fall. She is married with three children today. I am ridiculously proud of her. When they do good, they are my wife's children. I am told that at all other times they are mine because I spoiled them. But get real, just because I sent my oldest off to college in a convertible Corvette does not mean I spoiled her, does sit? It really just means I am a gear head, right? 

YKY you made me laugh out loud with that last part. It means you are a gear head who spoiled your daughter and probably her male friends who wanted to drive her car😂. I am also guilty of over indulging my child. Enormously. I was a single parent without an involved father for my child so when my child is good she’s mine when she is not she’s mine😂 and she’s definitely been both.  

Oh, I would never give my kid an expensive first car. If they don’t pay for that car, they will never take it seriously and take care of it. I BOUGHT my first car from my dad, AND he taught me how to take good care of it. 

Agreed Kenna Morton, I have never given any of my children a free car of any price, let alone expensive. The Corvette is what's called a barn find, only it was found in a garage. I purchased it from a widow who had not operated it in over ten years since her husband (the original owner) had passed away. The car was 18 years old when I purchased it. She was overjoyed to see my daughter drive it and so let me have it for only $11,500. The deal with my daughter was that she got to drive it at school as long as her grades were good. Only when she graduated would I sign the pink slip over to her. So, it was intended to serve as transportation and two graduation presents. In addition, her mother had asked her to be a stay-at-home helper for her five younger siblings rather than work outside the house. When they made that deal, I promised her that since she would not have an income to buy her own car, I would make sure she had a better car than she could afford with a high school job to go to college with. 

lol Yearofhealth2023. Yea, everyone knows the jokes about girls being attracted to a boy's car as much or more than the boy himself. Well multiply that by about a million for boys being attracted to girls with a cool car. In carspeak, my plan sorta backfired. There were more clandestine fixes of that car because boys were driving at the time than I expect I will ever learn about. It seems my admonition that she be the only one who drove it because I knew she was a safe driver fell on deaf ears. 

Congratulations YKY! 

YKY i owned (and still own same car) a Porsche convertible that i had told my girl when she was 14 if she kept straight A’s i would give to her for graduation. Her response at the time was that she didnt want it and didnt like it. She did get straight A’s tho but by the time she graduated i had more time to think about all the boys who were attracted to that car when i would pick her up from school and so i was glad she didnt like the car. Instead i sent her to school with our 9 year old 200,000 mile maxima. Not a boy magnet. But yep, you learned that lesson the $$$ way my friend. 

Thank you Smccacpal 👨🏻‍🎓 

Sounds familiar Yearofhealth2023. Mine didn't get it either. She was confused by, and hated all, the attention she got in that car. What would have motivated me into a half craze at her age had absolutely zero motivating effect on her. At least she only let boys drive that would help her fix any damage, so I never knew it happened until long after. Eventually I found someone did not know how to put the spare tire back in properly after a flat and started asking questions... Then the guilt floods started until she suddenly realized it was time to build an impenetrable dam. In secret or not, she always took responsibility for fixing it. Good enough for me. No further questions needed.