Very few LASTS and many more FIRSTS!

Tomorrow night is Marian High School Junior/Senior Prom.  This is the last pre-prom picture taking.  The excitement of meeting all the young men and women to take pictures.  The girls have their hair done up so beautifully.  The dresses are amazing.  You can tell their personalities from the dresses they have chosen.  The young men wearing their tuxedos with the matching vest and bow tie.  What are they matching?  The vest and bow tie match the young woman's dress.  Max wore pink last year.  This year Max told his date he will not wear pink.

What is Prom?  This is usually the last big dance for the high school seniors.  Marian High School is small so Juniors and Seniors attend this dance.  The only way for Freshmen and Sophomore to attend is to be asked by an upper class man.  Prom comes from Promenade.  The couples parading in their outfits.  It starts off with pictures with the group of friends.  Max and his friends have rented a limousine to drive the group to the Prom and back to the designated home.  When they get to the facility where Prom is held, there will be dinner.  The dance is after the dinner.  There will the crowning of the Prom King and Queen and the court.  Max was chosen as one of the court princes last year.  At Marian it is the faculty choosing the Prom Royalty.  This alleviates popularity contests.

The only Prom I attend was 1980.  I was a Junior and went with a Senior.  He was my brother's (who was a Senior) friend.  My brother went with my friend (who was a Sophomore).  I had a long white dress with baby blue roses.  My date rented a baby blue tuxedo, baby blue bow tie and vest.  The shirt had ruffles.  My date went to a different school then my brother, so we started off with dinner at his school.  In Racine, Wisconsin the city had all schools meet the Memorial Hall on Lake Michigan.  All the students would have the greatest time.  The parents would line the streets in front of Memorial Hall and watch all of the prom dates parade into the hall.  No one was allowed to leave the hall without signing out and a call to the parents.  There was dancing and food.  There was a balcony with chairs.  I remember watching the sunrise over Lake Michigan.  I had a wonderful time.  Everyone was dressed in the best clothes.

I know tomorrow I will have some tears.  This is the LAST prom as a parent.  The last time I will rush from work to go to the designate place to take pictures.  I cannot believe that my baby is heading to Iowa State University in August.  Watching Max in his first on stage appearance in the play was the LAST play I will see with him being a part of it.  This coming Monday is the Marian Senior Mother's Tea.  All of the Senior Moms come together.  There is food and drink and a lot of talking.  Sister Cathy read a beautiful poem when I attend Erika's Senior Mothers Tea.  Most of the Mom's had tears in their eyes.  I will bring Kleenex this time.

I have to stop looking at everything with my children as LAST.  I need to begin seeing their FIRSTS has adults.  As a parent it is hard to realize your children no longer need me as a young child needs his/her mom. I understand how my parents felt as I pulled away from them when they wanted to know everything when I was my children's age.  Parents want to continue protecting the adult children as if they were still small children.  Letting go is hard to do.

I just finished watching the movie "Son-in-Law" with the Pauley Shore.  This movie is so funny.  What if my daughter brought home a young man like Crawl?  What would I do?  My goodness this movie makes me laugh so hard.  It is a very funny movie.

I will have more LASTS and many more FIRSTS with my children and husband.  

A day to celebrate!

Today is the day of my birth 51 years ago.  I was born on my Grandparent's 25 wedding anniversary.  I am a Friday's child.  I am the second child of four in my family.  I am the second grandchild and first granddaughter on my father's side.  I am the 22nd grandchild on my mother's side (if I counted correctly).  I was born in Omaha, Nebraska after the 10pm News.  It was Mother's Day weekend.

I was 6 months old

My day began with a wonderful massage.  Being able to relax and allow the world to stop for 1 hour is a great way to begin a day.  It was peaceful and quiet.  Manny and I went to Rocco's Clothing and to the Mall to buy my shoes at The Walking Company.  I am getting ready for our trip to Switzerland on a river cruise in July.  Back to my day...It was perfect.

I was able to relax for a couple of hours before Manny Max and I drove into Boston for a wonderful dinner at Smith and Wollensky's Steak Restaurant.  It was amazing food.  I had a glass of Riesling wine.  I ordered a 22oz rib eye bone-in.  We had sides of onion rings, mashed potatoes and cream corn with Manchego cheese.  The steak was perfectly grilled and the taste was amazing.

Ribeye steak

2 pound piece of chocolate cake

3 side dishes

Since my birthday lands near or on Mother's Day as a child my family would be at my Grandparent's farm.  It was a great time.  All my cousins would be at the farm.  We would have the best time playing.  The days were warm since it was spring in Columbus, Nebraska.  My cousin, Debbie, and I would be together all the time.  I am one month older than her.  We would lay on the living room floor at our grandparent's home and share a coloring book.  I remember we would always autograph and date the pages we colored.  Our Grandma had a box of buttons.  There were 100s of buttons in the box.  The older cousins would sort and play games with the buttons.  It was a simpler life. 

Before supper it was time to help with the farm chores.  We were city children, so we watched most of the time.  We would go with our grandparents or aunts to guide the cows into the barn for milking.  While my grandparents and aunts would be milking the cows, we would be playing in the hay loft.  There were times we would find chicken eggs and kittens in the hay loft.  We would watch the cows being milked from above. It was so much fun.  We would be jumping from one bail of hay to another.  It was great.

 

The one chore I loved was gathering chicken eggs.  My Grandma would tell us to wear a hat in the chicken coop.  We would always bring a stick with us.  The roosters were mean.  They would try to attack at times.  My Grandma or aunts would let me reach into the nests to gather the eggs.  The eggs had to be gently placed into the pail.  There was straw at the bottom of the pail.  If I was not careful, the eggs would break.  There are different types of chickens with specific jobs.  The laying hens of course laid the eggs.  There were clucks which sat on the eggs to hatch them.  The clucks had to be removed from the nest before reaching into the nest.  I loved gathering the eggs.

After supper I would help my Grandpa wipe each egg.  They had to be placed in the egg cartons with the points down.  The eggs were sold to an egg dealer.  It drives me crazy today when I buy a carton of eggs when the eggs are not placed in the carton properly.  

There were times my parents, brothers and sister would go to the drive-in to watch a Disney movie.  This was so exciting.  My mom would make popcorn and buy potato chips to eat while watching the movie in the back of the station wagon.  The 4 of us would be in our pajamas.  The drive-in theater was so much fun.  Before the movie began my Dad would take us to the playground near the screen and let us play until became dark.  Between the 2 movies as Tim (my older brother) and I were allowed to go to the Snack stand as we got older.  I rarely stayed up for both movies.  There were at least 2 movies if not 3.

Manny and Erika went to their first drive-in movie with me.  It was a Disney movie.  I believe it was Hercules.  Once Max came, we went to a few other drive-in theaters.  There are so few drive-ins left now.  It was a great way to watch 2 movies

Everyone should take a moment and realize the day you entered into this world was the most important day.  You are special.  God has given you a purpose on this Earth.  

Celebrate your day!

Crickets and purple bushes

I am sitting at my kitchen table watching and listening to Jeopardy on TV.  I am staring out the kitchen window watching the sky turn from beautiful blue with puffy white clouds to light gray soon to be black.  This is the time of dusk.  The birds are singing their last songs before nightfall comes.  The flowers are closing for the night.  They are ready to open tomorrow morning - rain or shine.  The night is coming closer and less birds are singing, but they are singing.

The crickets are out now chirping loudly.  Did you know you can determine the temperature based on the number of cricket chirps.  I learned this when I was teaching.  Now when you are lying quietly with your window open you can calculate the temperature outside.  Amazing!

Did you know that you can tell the temperature by counting the chirps of a cricket? It's true! Here's the formula:

To convert cricket chirps to degrees Fahrenheit, count number of chirps in 14 seconds then add 40 to get temperature.

Example: 30 chirps + 40 = 70° F

To convert cricket chirps to degrees Celsius, count number of chirps in 25 seconds, divide by 3, then add 4 to get temperature.

Example: 48 chirps /(divided by) 3 + 4 = 20° C

I know it is colder in my home than it is outside.

I love Spring.  There is a beautiful purple flowering bush in my front yard.  It will bloom for up to 7 days.  Then the purple petals fall to the ground and it stays green throughout the Summer.  The anticipation of this flowering bush reminds me that Spring is an amazing season.  All of the bushes and trees sleeping throughout the Winter months begin to awaken.  The beauty of the bush last no more than 7 days.  The brilliant color of purple and green brings a smile to me.  We have live in this house for 19 years.  I never noticed the bush for the first 3 years living here.  The year Max was 3 years old and in the hospital for 27 days (mostly in ICU).  We were so happy we were coming home from the hospital.  The car turned the corner and the purple bush was stunning.  It stood out among all the other bushes and trees.  It was a sign of new beginnings.  

This bush will always be special.  Each year I wait for this bush to bloom.