Mama On The Move

Kerry started the day off as he left for work by sending Emily a text which read: "Hello Emily!  Get up and have a wonderful wonderful day.  Pet the puppies.  Jump on the couch like a Mexican jumping bean.  Make strange noises.  But please know that I love you and I think you are wonderful!" Emily sent him four videos in response.

Apparently there is no greater perfume for a puppy than that of a dead creature.  In the past few weeks, the puppies have discovered a dead bird, a dead frog, and (as seen in this video) a dead worm.

I can't believe......  He's twenty-one. It doesn't seem possible that time can have gone by so quickly.  He used to play dress-up, love dinosaurs, and want to be a marine biologist. Now he's a legal adult, planning to get married, and making plans for big future!

One of my favorite traditions that we discovered in Hawaii, is having a poster with a picture of the graduate on it and having all your friends sign it. Because we've moved all over the place through the years, Emily has friends spread out all over the country.  I wanted to get as many of them as I could to sign her poster so I had to start early in the school year.   I have a friend in Hawaii who started the poster for me.  She got all of Emily's friends in Hawaii to sign it.  Some friends of our who had moved to Florida visited Hawaii while the poster was still there and they were able to sign it while they were on vacation. Then the poster was mailed to Idaho where another of Emily's best friends from Hawaii now lives.  Then it was mailed to me.  I took it with us on a trip to Kansas and had friends who now live there sign it while we were at Comic Con. And voila!  The poster was signed by most of her high school friends! I se...

We've had broken bones (twice - both Emily) that sent us to the emergency room. We've had cuts and bumps that sent us to the emergency room (Ben and Katie). We've had to call the poison control center (Ben). Now we've had our first major burn. Katie was making macaroni and cheese which she's done many, many, many times.  The kid loves mac and cheese, always has, plus she's almost fifteen and doesn't really need supervision in the kitchen unless I'm teaching her to make something new. However. On this occasion as the noodles came to a boil, she realized there was too much water in the pot and it was going to boil over.  She got a measuring cup to dip some of the water out and pour it in the sink.  Again, something that she's done many times before.  This time though some of the boiling water - just a drop - splashed on to her hand as she dipped it out.  In reflexively snatching her hand away from the hot water, she accidentally poured the ...

It's done.  Emily is officially a high school graduate!  The ceremony was nice.  Because all the students are homeschoolers, the diplomas were presented by the parents.  Each set of parents had to walk up on stage, give a two minute speech, and confer the diploma. It was really sweet watching the dads choke up as they tried to talk to their kids.  Kerry made it through his speech with no problem! Before the ceremony, Emily strapped her phone to her arm with a rubber band as she didn't have pockets on her dress, and trying to get to it through the robe would have been difficult.  When we walked on to the stage to present her diploma, she said, "Hold on a second!"  Then she whipped out her camera and took a selfie of us on the stage. That got a good laugh from the audience.  We always go for the laugh.  We don't usually like things to be too serious!   There was a reception afterwards in the gym.  Each g...

In a matter of hours,  this little baby will be a high school graduate. How could this have happened?!?! When did this... ...become this? How did we get from here... ...to here? How could my sweet little girl.... ...be stepping out into the world already? She only just learned to sit... ....but she's ready to run. My beautiful little girl... ...is a beautiful young woman. I'm not ready for her to graduate... ...but she seems pretty excited about it. Get me some tissues, I'm going to need them.