Matt, Miles, and Marty McFly

As Matt stood up in front of 329 South Warren seniors, he gave them two assignments this summer:

Their first assignment was to watch Back to the Future.  

He made reference to Marty McFly and how he traveled back in time from 1985 to 1955 - 30 years in the past.  This year is the 30 year mark for our high school graduation, and for Matt, that graduation took place at Diddle Arena where the SWHS ceremony was happening in 2025.  He said I would travel back in time 30 years and introduce Matthew Colvin Deaton to his son Miles, stating how weird that would be both.  He said I would then give him two pieces of advice.

    Be more present to the present moment AND the people in your life matter the most.

Their second assignment was to read the book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.  He took a quote from the book, "The eternal present is the space within which your whole life unfold, the one factor that remains constant.  Life is now.  There was never a time when your life was not now, or will there ever be."

Miles is definitely the kind of young man who lives in the NOW.  He’s never been one to overthink the future or get caught up in long-term plans.  At 18, he's grounded, appreciative and genuinely grateful.  He loves his family, his friends, working at a job he enjoys, staying fit and active, eating (a lot), playing guitar, going to the movies, and occasionally some golf!  His easygoing nature make him such a special person to be around.

Last Saturday began with our usual brunch at home to celebrate Miles. I’ve hosted the same kind of gathering for our other two Spartan graduates—it’s simple to organize and always a hit. Plus, everyone has to  start out the day with a good breakfast, right?  

We are so thankful for all those who have loved and supported our son through the years!

 

Brunch complete with chicken minis, fruit, breakfast cassroles, sausage square bites, cheese and crackers, chocolate chip cookies and donut holes.

 

  

Pops. Meme, Pap and Nana

 

Shannon, Paul, Mamaw and Pappy

 

Weston, Larie and Debbie

 

Evan, Jennie, and Laila

 

Mike, Kathy and Seth

 

Jackie, Clark and Ms. Windy

 

Tammy, Brady, and Beckham

 

Carson, Robin, Scott and Stacie

Our two sons!

  

Trapper, Amanda, and Liz

 

Ken, Megan, Jeff, Cash, and Emmaline

The party wrapped up around noon.  Karson wasn't able to come to the brunch because of work but made it to town shortly after.  Miles had to be at Diddle by 5:30 which meant leaving our house no later than 5:00.  We all sort of got a late jump on getting ready but did manage to get on the road by 5:07. 

The boys wanted to make an album cover.

 

Since Matt is a VIP (ha!), he got special parking really close to the arena. I wasn’t about to sit inside for two hours, so while we waited, I people-watched as the Warren Central crowd filed out. Matt was busy rehearsing his speech.   It’s hard not to feel happy for all the graduates and their families—you can see pride they feel and know all the hard work they put in to get to this moment.

Our graduation was to begin at 7PM, and we decided to go in and grab some seats at 6PM - AN HOUR EARLY.  I thought we'd be safe, and I was wrong, as usual.  I only needed eight seats, and there were three of us which would make saving those seats easy.  Little did I know entire rows and sections would already be occupied by people saving massive amounts.  It was nuts.  We finally found an open row which wasn't too close but still a nice view of the stage.  Graduations are long, and I have been to many of them at this point.  I wasn't about to get into an argument with someone over closer seats.  Plus, I knew plenty of folks would be sending us pictures, as they have done with our other two graduates (and they did).  

If you want to watch the full event, you can stream it here.

 

And so the youngest Deaton graduates!

 

 

Miles Deaton fan club!

 

It was a special night that ended with a trip to McDonald's and El Mazatlan. 

Congratulations Class of 2025!

First and Last

After 17 years with a child in Warren County Public Schools, the chapter closed completely Monday.  Miles went to SWHS for the last time and had graduation practice with his classmates.  I'm so fortunate having Matt there at South to capture these moments for me as a mom.  

After practice, the students leave for the middle school for a graduation walk.  

 

From there, they go to their respective elementary schools which is always a highlight!

 

 

No Plano visit is complete without a game of dodgeball!

Love all my fellow Panther parents who sent me pictures!

 

We've been enjoying multiple graduation parties with friends.  

 

Sad we can't make them all, but all of these storms have wreaked havoc on our property.  

Friday's storm brought down one of our giant trees in the front yard along with NO power.

I was an absolute mess mainly because Miles was at work Friday night and hadn't made it home yet.  Our power went off around 10:20PM and he didn't make it back until closer to 11PM.  We had flashlights, LED candles and real candles burning.

The morning brought this disaster!

 

Super thankful this limb didn't land on our neighbors home or any of their vehicles.  It did trap them in their driveway.  Matt whipped out his Poulan saw and got to work.  We have the best neighbors - the owners of this house came out and worked to remove all the limbs and our neighbor up the street assisted too.  It made the job a little less dangerous as three minds were assessing the best way and angles to cut safely.

It was also the day of multiple community yard sales so there was traffic everywhere along with tree limbs down.  The scene was pure chaos!  I woke up super early - probably getting about 3-4 hours of sleep.  Since the power had been off overnight, I immediately thought about how I needed to try and save our groceries if possible.  I called IGA to see if they had power and ice (they did).  I headed there to get two big bags and got our cold stuff in coolers to salvage what I could.  On the way to IGA, I saw what I believe to be our subdivision's pole, and it looked bad.  Fortunately, power came back on later that afternoon at 4:20.  It could've been worse, and we are super grateful to all the crews out there working hard.

Sadly, the decision was made to remove our tree.  Our tree guy came and took it out yesterday along with trimming the adjacent tree that hangs over onto our neighbors property as well.  While we were at it, we took out a dead tree on the opposing side and also had some overhanging branches trimmed in our backyard.  

 

I have a feeling with all these storms, there is a good chance we might lose our other large tree.  It looks so lonely in the front yard now.

The bonus is we will have A LOT less raking to do this fall, and once the tree stump has been grinded down, our yard will look much nicer.