The house was unusually quiet this weekend.  Max and Olivia left on Friday morning for their annual trek to Elev8 (youth conference) in San Diego with our church’s youth group.  Rudy has asked about them several times a day and will be excited to have them home later today.

Rolf took advantage of the near-empty house to begin the bathroom remodel.  With guests arriving soon for Max’s graduation, this project will need to be done in stages to insure we’ll have a functional  bathroom when the house is full but he got a big chunk of the work done.  Yay!

Rudy and I didn’t have time to lounge by the pool for very long this weekend as there was lots to celebrate in the lives of our friends…

I’m so grateful for this long weekend filled with things we love to do and people with whom we love to do life…I am blessed to live in my comfortable home, in a beautiful town that is part of a larger, wonderfully diverse, complex country that I love dearly.  I am grateful we set aside a day every year to remember those who gave their lives in service to our country and it’s citizens but after experiencing all that we got to experience this weekend, I’m feeling strongly that the impact of the collective sacrifice should be felt EVERY day…everyday we exercise the freedom to remodel a bathroom, start a new business, worship God on a public beach, go to school, make friends, travel, write blogs, have a family, enjoy life, etc, etc, etc…you get the idea.   So, to my fellow Americans who gave their lives while in active military duty, thank you for your part in firmly establishing our safety, freedom, and democracy!  We won’t stop being grateful.

This past week was a week full of field trips for Rudy so we were glad his day at home to rest up seemed to help him recuperate from the episode he had last weekend.  His school nurse called me on Monday to come pick him up early from school because he was ill, he stayed home from school on Tuesday and hit the ground running Wednesday on a field with his typical 2nd grade classmates to the Sea Center on Stearns Wharf.

We’re down to the last 13 days of school…why does it feel like EVERYBODY else is done with the school year but us?  Summer can’t come soon enough!!!

Our week with Wilson whizzed by much too fast and now he is off on his ROTC adventure to Madagascar.  He flew to Ft. Knox early this morning and will head to Madagascar from there.  I admit I’m a bit jealous.  I turned down an opportunity to teach English on the Comoro Islands just a hop, skip and a jump away from Madagascar when I graduated from college…never did make it to that part of the world and now my son is headed there…a full circle kinda event, I guess.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Rudy came down with a little bug over the weekend so we’ve stayed close to home the last few days.  He’s home from school today to rest up and, hopefully, kick it once and for all.  We’re down to the last three weeks of school and we all hope to finish the school year healthy and strong!

Speaking of taking pictures, I took some of Max at the beach last week for graduation…Wilson and Rudy joined us.  🙂

The countdown to graduation is ON!  🙂

 

Last week was unusually busy with all kinds of prom prep as I was on the After Prom Party committee…a party hosted by the parents after the dance at our local bowling alley from midnight to 4am.  From the looks of it, the kids (72% of the senior class and their friends!!!! woo hoo!) had a great time and the parents survived pulling an all-nighter!  Ha Ha

And, of course, there was lots to fill our week that didn’t relate to prom…making the week go that much faster!!!

Oh yeah, Wilson made it home too!  He got home late Friday just in time to jump into all the weekend activity.  He’s going to lay low this week (and by “lay low” I mean “play Mario Kart with Rudy”) and get ready for his departure for Madagascar next Monday…Wow,  kinda wish I could stow-a-way!