Exhale

Its done and I feel like I can breath again. We had a lovely turn out this afternoon with weather beyond what I could have hoped for. We had delicious Chinese food, yummy goodies, a 16 gallon keg of root beer and dear friends and family surrounding us. It was perfect. How blessed we are to have people in our lives who will take an afternoon/day to drive to our home to honor our son. I am humbled. I feel like I can get back to real life and can finally resume a sense of normality.
As I watched my son interact with our guests, I was so proud of him. He is a nice young man whose goal is to serve God with his very life and to translate the Bible into languages where there currently is none. I love him! I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to parent him and I feel like he turned out so well in spite of us. I can take no credit but thank God that I am a part of his life.
Now, off to bed with a lighter heart and enough Chinese food in the freezer to last until winter.
Good night!!

One more day

It will all be over tomorrow. I tell you what, if you've not had a child graduate yet, this whole thing is ALOT of work. I'm wondering why no one has told me that.
I would say all of my free time in the past 2 months has been filled with getting ready for this open house. Maybe I should have been doing a lot of this during the past 18 years, organizing pictures etc. I was NOT able to find a series of his school photos I had been looking for for the past few weeks. I have been praying all week that I would stumble across them. Late last night I asked my daughter if she thought these other things I was looking for were in her closet. She pulled out a box and lo and behold those photos were in there! God cares even about the little, insignificant things.
The addition is not coming along as planned but I have to make due with how it is.
Tonight is the ballet recital and tomorrow morning, the parade. I'm excited to visit with family and friends tomorrow but Saturday night I will sleep well I'm sure.

Countdown Day 5

Only 5 short days until my son's Graduation Open House. We started this remodel/addition with the understanding it would be nearly done in time for the open house. I didn't realize we would be cutting it so close. I've posted a picture I took yesterday. Looks pretty hopeless, I know. Today we have oodles of teenagers running around on our roof putting down shingles. They hope to finish today since rain is coming tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm losing my mind. This is not what I had expected but it is what I have feared. We have a great contractor, no real complaints there. I just can't take it when things are down to the wire and I have no control over them.
We had a lovely time at Lucas' commencement ceremony last week. We got front row seats and he was seated very close to us. We were told the event would take 3 hours, what with over 420 graduates. It only took 25 minutes to distribute the diplomas and the whole thing was over in 1 1/2 hours. Sweet! The bad news is that we believe we left our video camera there. Not sweet! My hubby feels horrible but I have this sense we will get it back. The facility hasn't been open since we realized it was missing so it may have been turned in and we just don't know it yet. We hope and pray it will be returned to us.
I can't wait until Sunday when this is all over. I have been planning this for months and have really been impressed with my organizational skills. I believe it will all come together by 2 pm on Saturday but did I mention my 7 year old has her dance recital on Friday evening and we have a parade Saturday morning that my 3 youngest kids are in? Sunday can't come soon enough.

Whew! He Made It!

This morning we attended an awards ceremony at the gymnasium of our son's high school.
We really had no idea what would take place but it was kind of interesting. At the ceremony there were about 15-20 scholarships that were announced. Many of them that were announced were a surprise to the recipient. Some had to be applied for but others were awarded based on votes by the faculty etc. I felt like I was at some type of game show. I sat on the edge of my seat waiting in anticipation, hoping my son's name would be called. Each time it wasn't, my hopes faded. Some kids must have walked away with several thousand dollars of scholarship $. Not my kid. Zero. Zilch. Boo! Bah Humbug! I kind of wanted to wring his neck because he has DRUG his feet on applying for most of scholarships. I dare say his essays were probably pretty pathetic and half-hearted so what does he get? NOTHING. Afterwards he came up to me and I looked him in the eye and said our state's lottery slogan, "You can't win if you don't play." He smirked and said, "I thought I would give you and Dad the honor of paying for my college education." I smirked back, thinking to myself, "You do, do you?"

I have to toot his horn though and say he was/is one of 9 valedictorians in his class of 421. This momma is SOOOO proud. There were a few times this past year where that 4.0 was in jeopardy but he came through and achieved something he really wanted. Way to go Lucas!!

I'm a little sad today

My son heard back from Moody today. He was accepted to the Moody program but not at the Chicago campus. Due to capacity constraints he has been accepted to attend classes either through their distance education program or he can attend at their campus in Spokane, WA. We are a little disappointed but recognize that at least he has his foot in the door. We have a ton of questions and will call an admissions counselor tomorrow and see if he can be put on a waiting list for the Chicago campus. At this point, I think he will do the online courses, continue working, and involve himself deeply with the local campus ministry that our church sponsors.
While this isn't exactly what we would have hoped for, we realize that " in all things God works for the good of those who love Him" (Romans 8:28). What more do we need to know?

Back Home

My lemon ricotta pancakes were out of this world!! Bob had blueberry something pancakes which were fabulous as well. We enjoyed a long, lingering breakfast and some great coffee and stood out on the deck at the restaurant, trying to embed the view into our minds. We had a brief workout in the exercise room at the hotel and then sat out by the pool reading. We headed back to Phoenix and did a little shopping. We met my brother Dean, who drove up from Tucson, at the Cheesecake Factory. Bob and I split the Chicken Maidera (FABULOUS!!). You simply can't go to this restaurant and not get a slice of cheesecake. I'm drooling as I'm writing. Bob had vanilla bean, Dean had lemon/raspberry, and I had peanut butter/chocolate fudge. We had such a great time just visiting and drinking coffee. This is one of my favorite memories of the trip.
We arrived back to Iowa around 12:30 pm, welcomed by snow flurries. We arrived back home around 2:15 and it all started up again. We had to pick Emmy up from school at 3:30, go to Logan's conference at 4, drop him off at Junior Players at 4:30, take Emmy to dance class at 5:30, pick Logan up at 6:00, and pick Emmy up at 6:45. We did manage to fit in a trip to Target as well. Back to the old grindstone that inspired this trip in the first place. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
Until later...

Day 4

We started our morning with a hike around Slide Rock Park. For those of you familiar with Decorah, its kind of a like a God-made Cut; gorgeous, gigantic rocks that have fallen from the cliffs onto a running creek. Had the weather been warmer, it would have been fabulous to walk around in the water but not yesterday. We have been surprised by the weather. The mornings start out in the upper 30s and peak around the upper 60s in the afternoon.
We spent about an hour at Slide Rock and then went to Huckaby Trail. If you look at the photos I posted yesterday you will see a huge expansion bridge. It is so high up I can't even describe it. I was so nervous and off balance up there I was certain I would fall to my death. Anyway, we started at the top of the trail just under the bridge and hiked down to the bottom of the canyon. There is a picture of the bridge from underneath so you can get an idea of how high it is.
We ate lunch at a great Mexican restaurant called Oxaca. I had a delicious portabello and spinach wrap and Bob had a hamburger and fries. I teased him that you can't order that at a Mexican restaurant but he said my wrap wasn't very "south of the border" either. Good point.
We spent the afternoon poolside at the hotel, enjoying some sun on our final full day in Sedona.
If you haven't been here you MUST see this place. As I blog, I find it difficult to not use the same words over and over again. The beauty here is inexplainable (sp?) and I never will tire of it. We talked about wintering here when our kids are grown but that will probably be a good 15 years from now.
This morning we are bypassing the free hotel breakfast and headed out to Wildflower Bread Company again to enjoy some lemon and ricotta cheese pancakes cuz I heard my brother loves them (Hi Mikey!!)
Until tomorrow...