Graduation Week Continues...

I don't know whether this is an ELCA thing, but graduation activities have been going strong for the last two weeks. Senior awards, senior luncheon, senior skip day, senior activity day. And tomorrow, finally, is the big day. Graduation. My baby boy. A graduate. Done with kid stuff like high school and school uniforms, and ready to start the new chapter in his life. And I know this is the way that it is supposed to be. And that this was my job as his mother. That millions of mothers around the world are going through the very same thing about this time of year. But that doesn't mean it is easy. Or that I have to like it.

In a way, I've seen it coming. He's prepared me for it. And little by little, he's pulled away and spent more and more time away from home.

First with the friends...in the beginning, a night or two a month. Then as he started to drive and had his own car, he would come home later after school, after the game, after work. He'd drive himself to church and then leave from there to go and meet this friend or that...

Then it was the girl. And that meant every weekend night, and usually a week day night thrown in there too. When he turned 18 and spring sprung, he spent more and more time with her and

time with the friends, and we saw him less and less. And even though we didn't see him much, there was still comfort in the fact that he came home to sleep upstairs every night, and he stopped by my room at school every day.

But now there is this graduation thing. Which leads to college. And going away to college. And then moving out on his own. And then in with the girl. Which leads to a family and a life of his own. And I know that seems like I'm stretching it a bit--after all, he'll still come home tomorrow night after graduation, and the night after that, and the moving in with the girl part won't happen for a loooonng time. But I figure the first 18 years passed in a blink of the eye; how fast then will the next five?

I'd prefer to have him right here.

I'm not at all sure I'm ready for tomorrow night. But ready or not, here it comes!

Mother's Day 2010

I know I complain a lot about the hardships and woes of being a mother. I know that my family doesn't always make it easy to keep a clean house. I know my darling husband leaves the ketchup bottle on the TV tray next to his recliner. But today, on Mother's Day, I take this opportunity to publicly apologize to them for ever bashing them on "the blog." Because today...they made up for it...in spades!

This is what I woke up to this morning. (Actually, I woke up to Hannah's bottom in my face at around 4:00 am, but I digress) My sweet sweet husband got the kids together to make this bouquet of the prettiest flowers I have ever seen.

This handsome fellow had worked until midnight last night...a 14 hour shift...and still stayed up and painted a picture frame for me. AND made sure I didn't lift a finger today. Love him, love him, love him.

Sarah watched the little girls while I had my time in the sun and my time in the bed this afternoon. So so so thankful for both...and for her! Truth be told, she often does sweet things like this for me. She is truly precious!

And Maddy, be still my heart. Maddy surprised me with a special song she sang, "dedicated to her mom", at church. Made me and most of the old ladies cry. I am so thankful for her sweet sweet heart.

And this little one?

She made me(actually for herself) this apron in children's church...so she could help me in the kitchen. Isn't she adorable?

And then gave me this picture in a frame, taken in Sunday school. This will forever be remembered as the "time she looked like we abused her." Note the lovely bruise across her cheek--from running to me at AWANA's and falling into the chair. The bruise along with the bangs in need of a good, professional trim (or at least by someone who can cut straight) make her look like a little orphan child...but she's still mighty cute!

And Charlotte...besides letting us sleep til 8:00 (after being up at 4:00 when Hannah's cries woke her up), just brightened my day with all of her sweetness.

I am a woman truly blessed. I have a wonderful husband that takes the time and initiative each year to make sure this day is special for me and I have kids who love me much more than I deserve. Despite the mess and the noise, the driving back and forth all the time, the endless supply of dishes and laundry, ...I realized that I am blessed beyond measure and I am so very very thankful for each of them.

*****

I am also thankful that after nearly two months, I have finally broken my plateau. By doing the Daryl diet. The stay strictly on plan during the week and eat what I want on the weekend plan. Finally, the scale moved. I'm no down a total of 24 pounds since I started and a grand total of 63 pounds since Charlotte was born. I know that once school is out that I will have to stop the Daryl diet and go back to strictly Weight Watchers, as I will lose my routine. But I also hope to start exercising once I have time to breathe!

*****

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful mother, my fabulous mother-in-laws, and all my mommy friends and relatives!

Senior Awards Night

Ah, yes, another senior event. The senior awards banquet. Everyone was encouraged to wear their finest and come and celebrate the seniors and their accomplishments.

Josh and Maranda before the ceremony. Don't they make a great looking couple?

Josh and his "senior mom," Gloria Davis. Each staff member at school "adopts" a senior for the year and encourages them, prays for them, gets them little stuff for their birthday, etc. Josh was good friends with her son, who graduated last year, and she and Daryl were friends when they were both younger. Such a neat coincidence, I think!

Josh and his favorite teacher, his AP teacher, Mr. Teague.

Getting his gold cord for being an honor student. This was given to all who maintained a 90% average or above for high school. So proud!

After receiving his ELCA senior plaque and his "alumni" gift! The principal got up and spoke about each and every one of the 80 graduates, listing their accomplishments, their college acceptances, and their future plans. A great benefit of going to a smaller school! It was very impressive to me to see that all but two were going on to college!

It was a bittersweet night for us. Sweet to see our first born, who we think is an amazing young man, being recognized by others. Bitter, in that they are recognizing because his time at ELCA is over. At the end, they called all the seniors up to the front of the auditorium to kneel at the base of the stage, and then all the parents to come up and stand behind them, and we all prayed together. Such a touching, fitting moment. And I would be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear or two.

This lovely night was billed as a night for the whole family. Evidently, they weren't aware of our family dynamic--HA! Charlotte and Hannah were cute as a button...dressed in matching ladybug dresses from sweet Aunt Tricia. However, sitting and being quiet for long period of time is not their idea of fun. Charlotte was happy, but loud, babbling constantly. Hannah was happy, but wanting to run up and down the aisles. Not to mention that I was the ONLY one there with a stroller, or a four year old...or both! Such a weird place to be, honestly. The parents of our big kids' friends are our age, but only have big kids. The parents of kids the little girls' ages are so young.

But I wouldn't trade it for anything....even through all the frustration, the walking the babbling baby for hours during ceremonies and services, the big ol' giant hassle it is taking them anywhere.

Especially when I come into the room and am greeted by this!

AWANA Awards Cook-Out

Since she was an itty bitty baby...actually, since I found out I was pregnant with her...I have been looking forward to her first "program." I imagined her up on the stage, singing away like she does at home, smile on her face, cuteness exuding from her pores.

So today was the big day. The end of the year (yay!) AWANA awards cook-out. And the cubbies were going to put on a little program. AND...I brought my camera! I couldn't wait. So....without further ado...

Here they are lining up, getting ready. Yeah...that tall handsome newly skinny guy? My wonderful husband and devoted daddy. She wouldn't line up by herself.

Then it was time to recite the verses that they had been working on all year. We had practiced it at home. In the car. She knew it. And all of the other cubbies (4 out of 5 of them who do not even speak English as their first language and knew hardly anyone there) said theirs perfectly. Hannah? See the picture below.
But she did stand next to Daryl and slightly move her lips to their song (which we have sung ad nauseum at home).

And again, when she got her certificate...sigh.

But hey...at least someone was smiling!!!

Can you spot the real graduate????

She's cute, dirty face and all,....but nope...not her!

She looks mighty cute too, but not her either...
And this one...her time will be here soon enough :(

Must be this handsome fella. I can't believe it's only 11 days away!

Because I'm a slacker...

Here are the only pictures I have of my sweet "dramatic" girls in their latest production, "The Wizard of Oz."

Here's Maddy as the Mayor of Munchkin City with Glenda, the good witch (after the play)

And during her musical number...

Sarah, as Tibia the wicked witch's evil assistant, and Glenda again...

And during the play, doing her best mental patient impression...

Hopefully more coming soon!

Catching my breath

Whew. What a week. We didn't stop from Sunday morning to right now, 7:42 on Saturday night. One of those weeks that makes you count your blessings...but also makes you wish it were over. The kind of week where I was gone from the house for 14 hours at a time, coming home only to put the kids and myself in bed. Lots of good memories. Lots of blessings counted. Lots of lost moments where I missed my little girls, or my big kids, or both. Where I wished for a quiet day at home, and then realized that the mess would make it impossible to relax. But finally, it's over. And it ended on a high....sorta. The highlights...

We learned to crawl! Just a few "steps" at a time, but still. Big news!

(The girls say that Charlotte looks like Dopey in this picture, and I have to admit that they're right. Dopey always was the cutest, and my favorite!)

Monday night, Maddy had a chorus concert. What a great show. Here she is before the concert in her "uniform." I love how photogenic my girl is!
And here she is singing her solo--by far the best one!

Wednesday, we celebrated...the last regular meeting of AWANA and Hannah's 4th birthday!

Here she is blowing out the candles in her chocolate donuts.

Hannah and one of the twelve Barbies she got for her birthday.

Hannah's new toy...her new leapster from Grandma. She is slowly but surely learning to do it herself. She won't let us turn it on for her anymore!

(And yes, by this time, I was as tired as I look in this picture!)

Thursday and Friday found us staying at school from 7:15 am until after 9:00 pm. The big girls were in the school's production of "The Wizard of Oz." Maddy was the mayor of Muchkin City, and Sarah was Tibia, the wicked witch's assistant and Tree #1. Of course, in true Lisa fashion, I did NOT bring the camera. (But many people who are much more put together than I am did and have posted pictures on Facebook, so I am trying to figure out how to get those here!)

Which brings us to today...Saturday. Our day of rest. HAHAHAHA! Today, as it is yearly, was Hannah's birthday party. The house was a wreck. A total and complete wreck. No one had clothes to wear or dishes to eat or drink out of. Piles of things everywhere. Birthday party trash everywhere. Piles of laundry everywhere. And 25 people coming over to the house at 5:00.

But that was OK, because my wonderful husband didn't have to work. We would divide and conquer. He'd take the outside, I'd take the inside. He'd ice the cake, I'd decorate. He'd go get Hannah's presents and I'd go get the food for the cookout. I'd begin to clean the living room, and he'd vomit uncontrollably and writhe in pain in the bed.

Ok, so that last part...NOT part of the plan. But as with all things "us," it's pretty much par for the course. Poor thing suffered with gall stones all day, all through the party, and pretty much, still. So my wonderful children helped with the cleaning, the picking up of balloons, the grilling, the baby watching, the pacifying of Hannah, the icing of the cake. And it all got done with about 20 minutes to spare.

The breakfast room, in all it's Disney princess glory.

The Barbie cake--made by Daryl last night and iced by Josh this afternoon while I made a mad dash to Toys R Us!

Blowing out the candles...

Ready for presents...with her two best buds--Wilberta and Reilly (otherwise known as Prince Reilly in our bedtime stories)

Opening her presents...

I had "the talk" with her before the party--open each one slowly, look at it, thank the person who gave it to you, and no matter what you think, if you like it or not, pretend that you do. To which she replied, "It's a present mom, of course I will like it!" But all memory of that talk was forgotten as she tore through the presents.

Daryl did manage to join us for presents...bless his heart.

And then he went back downstairs, pain pills in hand, with only a short stop to check to see if the pilot light was lit on the water heater. (Did I mention we had no hot water today?) Turns out, we have a leak, and probably a hot water heater that needs replacing, but in his words, "I really don't care right now." And I can't say that I blame him.

Off to relax in my clean living room, and try to forget the fact that my mother in law, without my knowledge, went downstairs to check on her baby. In my bedroom. Which means she had to walk through the hallways filled with laundry baskets and trash bags, and into our bedroom which really is just a big room in which everyone undresses in and drops their clothes in that just happens to have a bed in it. Romantic and peaceful, eh?