The Daughter Graduates

Yesterday dawned summer-cool but with the promise of another day of summer-heat later on. After two solid days of cooking big dinners for the whole group and another busy day before that, I was ready for a quieter day and was rewarded for the most part, since the commencement ceremony would not be until 8 pm. I worked in the garden a bit before the full brutality of the rising temperature and humidity really set in, then slowly chipped away at the laundry and kitchen catch-up that are inevitably necessary when one has company. I even got a nap. My sister and her family came up from Tennessee and my parents and nephew came from Arizona to fill the house. The little children have turned the family room into legoland and I consider it theirs and largely beyond reclamation until after they leave, but I will not complain because once again hearing the sound of small boys plotting their fantastic voyages and marvelous adventures among the cushions of my couches is a precious thing.

Eric and I are camped in what we lovingly call the dungeon, which is our partially finished basement outfitted as a sort of dorm/bachelor pad/pretend guest room. It's a cool, dark, quiet space with plenty of room, and it is interesting to look at what we have stored down here. I'm very motivated, after looking at all these boxes up close for a week, to purge like the wind in the coming weeks. My folks have our room and Josh is installed comfortably in Evan's top bunk.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, all this happy chaos is centered around Sara's graduation from high school, and friends, last night was the night! What a night. The theme really was happy chaos as we faced a fairly powerful thunderstorm during and after the ceremony. In the end, the cool breezes of a storm were highly preferable to 2 hours in the everloving heat and humidity, so it really wasn't that bad. My sister's wheelchair dictated that we sit at the back, just barely under the pavilion at Merriweather, and it was necessary to set up our umbrellas as the rain blew in. The temperature dropped so nicely that my sis got cold and the knitting I brought became an emergency blanket. Yep, that kinda night.

Our traditional photo-op on the hill by the trees and the Running Man sculpture was obliterated by the effort to just get everyone to the car without getting soaked because it was POURING afterward. We decided to convene at Wendy's for Frostys and photos only to find it closed. So Plan C became a whirlwind trip to Weis for many, many ice cream treats, then back home for the final celebration. As Monday was a grand dinner with Sara's favorite desserts and all of that, this lesser celebration worked out just great and a fun time was had by all, not that the selection of ice cream wonders that we brought home could really be called lesser, for heaven's sakes!

Sara was resplendent in her gown with hair that is currently so long as to require adjectives such as luxuriant, amazing, striking and glorious. She looked happy and excited as she walked past the gauntlet of principals and local dignitaries. The symbolism of the moment was real and the ceremony mattered once again. She's on her way to making a life for herself that will be unique, exciting and completely self-wrought. She has always needed me only for the barest of scaffolding around her giant personality and independent spirit. Now her eyes have opened a bit and she is considering going away to school, which of course brings extremely mixed feelings, better for another post sometime.

Now is the time to just celebrate, to just look at the smiles and look forward to the future. Here's to Sara!

 

 

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The Gang's All Here

Tomorrow is Sara's graduation, so my house is FULL! 7 family members have come to celebrate and it's thrilling to be surrounded by my sister and her family, my mom and dad and my other sister's son. I'll have photos later on, but today will be a laid-back day of cooking, eating, swimming and playing, all with people to whom I'm actually related! I do not take these times for granted.

I'm really grateful my family took the time and money to come share this moment with us.  I'll take every moment of crazy, loud, silly and even slightly stressful, because I want them to feel welcome here and KNOW how much I love having them around.

It's so fun to watch Sara celebrating with her friends and feeling such stress off her small frame as school ends and she looks forward to what's next. Stay tuned for more family-based revelry!

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More Catching UP!

Have you ever wondered what a Mormon Youth Dance is like? It's a heck of a lot of fun and one of the things I was involved in over the course of Friday and Saturday was helping the amazing kids in my church who planned, decorated and put on a really fun party for about 300 kids from all over the central Maryland area. I really believe in letting kids take the lead and do their thing, and they just never disappoint. My job was to buy and supervise the food, which was great because everyone loves the provider of refreshments!

One thing we Mormons excel at is refreshments, and we can do miraculous things like I did and provide enough knoshing for 300 kids for 3 hours and only spend $75 bucks. Yeah baby!

Anyway, here is a glimpse into the very normal, fun-loving lives of a bunch of quite stellar young people, at least in my opinion:

It was a Medieval theme, so here are two of the organizers
taking a break as king and queen. 

And here they all are, dancing away. I do love working with teens. They are crazy and brave and funny and smart and so strong in today's sometimes confusing world. I hope I get to work with them for a long time yet because they keep me young. When I'm at a dance like this, it's all I can do to not run out there and join them like I used to do when I was their age. I like that connection.

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Catching Up: Sara's Senior Shoot

You know how the cobbler's children always go barefoot? It's pretty much true. My wonderful daughter graduates in a week and we finally made a plan to take some senior photos. I guess if nothing else they really capture the moment, as in almost the exact moment of her graduation, uh-huh. Is this where that old chestnut "Better late than never" will make me feel better? Why yes, it does, actually. And frankly, I was beyond thrilled and honored that she would even want me, her own mother, to do something so important and personal. I hadn't assumed she would and I thought about hiring one of my many talented pals, but then she asked me!

So, last Friday, because there was nothing else going on (just kidding-that was the day EVERYTHING was going on) Sara and I decided to run away to the coast of Delaware to take said senior photos. It was an original location, she loves the beach as much as I do, and it just felt like a good idea. The drive was an easy and fun 2 hours and we ended up in Lewes, DE in hopes that we would be able to get some west-ish facing coastline on that beautiful peninsula surrounded by both ocean and bay and thereby catch the sunset behind us. We were rewarded on that score. We were also rewarded with a fantastically perfect sky and the sight of kite-boarders all along the little cove where we ended up (that should have been a clue). We got there around 5pm, just as anyone who was enjoying a day at the beach was leaving, so we had the place mostly to ourselves.

We took a few shots with the sun still high in the sky and discovered that the kite-boarders had ideal conditions for what they wanted to do, but for us, one thing was not so spot-on: the HUGE winds that were whipping along the beach. Oh my goodness. I would estimate it was a constant 20 mile an hour situation.  Maybe more. (I'm right-I just checked. Sustained winds of 22 mph were recorded that day.) The ONLY saving grace is that the winds were blowing toward the west so when Sara stood with the sun at her back, the wind was nice enough to blow her hair back off her face. So, we did figure out how to get some nice shots.

Once we got our bearings, we decided to go get some DQ and a couple of sweatshirts while we waited for the sun to get a little lower and so had some lovely fast-food and shopping time together. We laughed at the great sundries available in beachy shops and enjoyed our Blizzards to the fullest. We ended up with snazzy new matching Lewes Delaware sweatshirts to remember the day by and keep us from freezing to death as the sun sank toward the sea and the winds continued strong.

About an hour before sunset, we headed back to the beach and went into full photo-shoot mode, complete with outfit changes, a curling iron plugged into the power converter in the car and trying to look warm and relaxed when you're actually freezing. It was fabulous. Then, because I had another photo shoot scheduled at 8 the next morning, we turned around and DROVE HOME. Yes. It really was that kind of day.

But really, even if we hadn't gotten a single decent shot, or we'd had to drive 8 hours to and from, I will always remember this day with my girl. We had FUN together, complete with laughter, easy conversations and even some comfortable silences. This has not always been so for she and I, so it matters that this was a sweet memory from start to finish. She handled the issue of the wind with good humor, a sense of adventure and patience. We were in perfect harmony about poses and hair and how to work the shots. At the end, as the sun was going down, I stopped and took a whole sequence of shots and then turned around to see her capturing the same beauty on her camera. That made me so happy.  We spent 8 hours together and every minute of it was pleasant and companionable. I'm not sure you can really imagine what a beautiful thing it is for me to write those words.

I'm so glad she's not leaving just yet for a far-away university. It feels just right to have her home with me for a little while longer.

by the dunes we had some relief from the wind. 

Sunset over the Delaware Bay

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40 Hours

Finally, I've come to a stop. Friday morning (was that only yesterday?) I got going around 8:30 am. I did stop for about 6 hours of sleep somewhere in the middle, but mostly it feels like I've been moving nearly every other minute between that moment and this

I will not complain, because just about every waking hour was something that blessed my life or will be a sweet memory for a long time to come.

So it's all good. And I'll catch up writing about it. Not 40 posts, I promise. But probably 2 or 3.

Now, I'm even going to let my fingers be still and go. to. sleep.

Here are a few peeks at what I was doing.

 

 

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