she said 'i do'....60 years ago

location, location, location.

For the wedding and anniversary caboose we will remain in North Alabama and settle in at my Grandparents’ carport.  My Grandparents’ celebrated their 60th anniversary on May 26 and that, my friend, deserves a celebration!!!  So celebrate we did.

And what better place to have a party than your own backyard?!  Since they have lived in their country house for more than 50 of their 60 years together it seemed right that we set up there, in and around the house and land that has itself housed countless memories, family, and passers-by.  In less than 24 hours we turned their carport and yard into an informal banquet hall ready for its guests.

the way it happened.

My Grandmother was 16 when she married my Granddaddy [he who was the ripe old age of 22 himself!].  Because she was underage, she had to have a ‘permission slip’ before the judge would officiate.  Since her parents had just moved to Illinois, her Granddaddy had to sign a note permitting her to get married:

The note reads:
'Hildred has my permission to marry.  
There will be no objections by anyone.'
-Joe M. Gray

 Notice that it doesn’t even say to whom she could marry!?  Can you imagine your Grandfather handing you a note and saying: ‘Here you are, little granddaughter; this note is good for marrying the guy of your 16-year-old heart’s choosing.’  I wonder if these come with expiration dates?!  Or if they sell them in coupon books?!  Lol.  They did not have possession of this note until about 7-8 years ago when the courthouse was cleaning out.  I guess they figured that no permission slip was needed after 50 years!

the preparations.

Considering that we all rolled in on Sunday afternoon/evening there was much to be done for the party on Monday evening.  Everyone had jobs to do:

Mom & Dad went to Florence-a 45 minute drive-to pick up a Honey Baked Ham, a Chick-Fil-A fruit tray, miscellaneous items at Wal-Mart, and last minute-needed items at Hobby Lobby.

Aunt Carolyn & Tom headed to town to pick up coleslaw, potato salad, and a few other miscellaneous items available there.

I think the following lyrics by Brooks and Dunn were written with my Mom & Aunt in mind in particular:

You can take the girl out of the honky tonk

But you can’t take the honky tonk, take the honky tonk

Out of the girl.

Or not, lol.  If you know either one of them you know that yes, they did grow up fully immersed in the country but as soon as they both met the city, there was no putting the honky-tonk back in.

Granddaddy, Tom, & Andrew were in charge of collecting tables and chairs and outdoor cleanup:

Grandmother kept things running smoothly in the kitchen:

I glued, wrapped, arranged, and assembled

[and made it through with only a few hot glue gun burns!]:

And I guess Emily thought that since she was the evening's Master Camera Woman she didn't have to do anything to help in the prep:

I'm only kidding; she did help after she was done reading the comics.  And I could not have done it without her!

the colors/decorations.

Emily and I hunkered down in the trailer, ahem, guest house, for the majority of the day to work on the set-up and decorations for the night.  The majority of our time was spent ‘fluffing’ our pre-folded tissue paper flowers for the yard-sized ‘60’.

I cut out the large '6' & '0' and tissue paper flowers before leaving home.  After 'fluffing' about 120 flowers we realized that we were short about 20 flowers!  Thankfully I had packed any and all supplies that we could possibly need in our handy-dandy Rubbermaid bins and were able to make a few more.  I found these DIY flowers online at The Art of Doing Stuff; they were extremely easy to make and turned out super cute!!!

Adhering the final roses to the '6':

                                            They turned out great!

Daddy and Tom took over from here and added campaign-sign stakes to them to stand them up in the yard for a photo backdrop:

 

We also finished up the visual timeline that represented my Grandparents’ life together.  I was very pleased with how it turned out!  Starting with their wedding date in 1951, every 10 years after was represented with a picture taken on or around their anniversary.

 

This picture was taken at my parent’s wedding.  G & G's 30th anniversary was 2 days after their wedding.

We had a video made for their 50th anniversary, commemorating each decade with a song from that era.  Emily spliced the original video with the past 10 years, adding about 60 more pictures that flipped through while David Phelps sang ‘Unchained Melody’.  [The video played throughout the evening on her computer seen here.]   It was perfect!

G & G can and preserve all types of fruits and vegetables in mason jars.  I put a large, pink hydrangea and a smaller, white hydrangea in some of their Mason Jars for the centerpieces:

I couldn’t believe how beautiful the cake came out.  The cake lady matched the paper ware perfectly!

the guest list.

There were about 40 people in all.  Here we are, circled up for introductions and blessing:

GDaddy, GMother, & Aunt C

Jona, David, Aunt Shirley, Olivia, Jill, Brett, Kevin, & Madison

Pam, Uncle Fay, Randy, & Rebecca

Greg, Lottie, Norman, Jennifer & Jeremy

Big Brothers & Baby Sisters

Grandmother T was the oldest of 3 sisters; Aunt Shirley lives about 40 minutes away from G & G T.  We usually get to see her when we are in Alabama; she has the largest collection of McCoy pottery I have ever seen!  Granddaddy T was the youngest of 3 brothers; Uncle Fay lives about 5 minutes from their house, down the road and just past the church!

Immediate family:

EVERYONE!   I LOVE Grandmother's expression in this picture!!!

the venue.

G & G T have worked hard to make their back ‘yard’ beautiful over the last 15 years or so.  Every year there seems to be a new stone structure added to their garden.  All of the stone came from his land.

We gave them this statue a while back because it's 2 little girls and 1 little boy.  Just like us!

 

Dinner in the woods:

The food was DELICIOUS!!!
 

It was a long but very fun day.  We ate a lot, talked a lot, laughed a lot, and enjoyed a lot.  Some of us made it to the end; Granddaddy went straight to bed.  [Seriously, that is his bed when we are there!  Bless his heart.]

I suppose it was too much of this:

Unfortunately the week was cut short for some of us as work and school called us back home.  Aunt C and Tom dropped Emily and I off at the Birmingham airport on their journey home the next day.  I LOVE to fly and was super excited about this part of the trip.  Ha!  We got out of there in the nick of time, too: Mom ended up being sick the rest of the week. :(

 
So long, Alabama The Beautiful.  See 'ya next time!

Congratulations, Hildred & Luther Ray! I love you and hope to make it to my own '60' some day!  [Although, seeing that I didn't start at the age of 16 or 22, I'm not sure I'll make it!  But I'm gonna try!]

they said 'i do'....30 years ago

location, location, location.

Next stop:  North Alabama.  Leaving my own, Queen-sized bed at the hotel, we headed for the Grandparents' homestead for several anniversary parties and photo shoots.

This past Tuesday was my parents' 30th wedding anniversary!!!  They have never been back to the church that they got married in since their wedding day.  For their anniversary my mom wanted us to all go to the church and have a photo shoot with my brother, sister & I standing in as attendants.  It turned out really well!

the colors/flowers.

For the first time in history, Mom, Emily & I all already own dresses that we felt like would go together well for the occasion.  The guys were the only ones who had to go out and buy something!  [Another history making moment!]  Then we moved to flowers...

Color palette in action

Mom wanted a wildflower-like bouquet to hold for the pictures and something small for us to hold.  You would think we would have learned after our first trip to Hobby Lobby at 7:51 p.m. that we needed to go earlier in the day if we wanted to hammer and haw over all of the choices.  [Those of you who frequent Hobby Lobby know what I'm talking about-that place SHUTS DOWN precisely at 8:02 p.m. and they will take prisoners.  On our third trip at this time of night we actually got called out on the intercom.  Ha!]  After 3 trips like that, we had every size and shape of any and all yellow, white, purple and blue flowers the store had to offer.  To this day there is a huge bucket sitting in our kitchen of unused stems to be returned.

Emily, Dad, & I spent hours rolling our hair; can't you tell?!

Mom used yellow and white daisies in their wedding so it was important to her that she have some of those in our bouquets.  Hers ended up being white daisy, yellow gerber daisy, a yellow spiky flower, white hibiscus, and an electric blue-ish flower.  It took very little time to make after we decided what it should look like.  With ribbon the ribbon that was used on Mom's bouquet, I made Emily & I pomanders, or 'kissing balls' to hold.  I personally think they came out cute!  Although for a minute there I didn't think they were going to actually get made as they were the last on the weekend's long list of the things to create, design, and assemble.

A Maid's duties: airing out & cooling off the bride.  It gets HOT in that dress!!!

how they met.

Mom and Dad met on a blind date!  My mom worked at the same place as one of my dad's first cousins.  [Note that I said they worked at the same place and not that they worked together;  I don't know that they even knew each others' name.  Ha!]  While eating lunch one day, Joyce approached Mom, laid a piece of paper on the table and said 'I have a cousin I want you to meet.  Here is his name and number.  He will be calling you soon.'  I can imagine the look on my mom's face!

Dad called her and asked her out on a date.

They went to Pizza Hut and a movie.

She thought they had a good time.

But she waited for his call...

...and waited.......

...and wait-ted................ 

....my Grandmother told her to stop waiting and move on; he was NOT going to call....

....but 5 WEEKS later....

....he called!!!  Haha!

I'm not sure what the moral of that story is; don't listen to everything your mom says?!  Ha!  Wait, be patient; one day he is bound to set his thinking straight?!  Or perhaps, listen to your heart?!  Like I said, I don't know but I do know these things: thankfully he did call her; blind dates can work; they have made it through 30 years of marriage, 3 awesomely, ahem, challenging kids, several moves, and more rough times than you could count and still love each other.  Praise the Lord!

these are my favorite two pictures of the entire event:

the kiss.

that was then and this is now.

Mom may not be too happy with me when she sees these last 2 pictures but I had to share.  I have always loved a certain picture of my mom on her wedding day.  It was obviously taken just hours before the wedding as there is much wedding prep and hair rollers going on.  I just learned recently that my dad is the one who actually took the picture.  [Yes, that is correct, they saw each other the morning of the wedding.  No superstitions here!  Maybe that's the secret!]  Anyways...on Tuesday morning [the morning of our photo shoot and their actual anniversary] I found her in the kitchen complete with her hair in rollers and complaining of an upset stomach [pre-wedding jitters I presume].  I couldn't resist this opportunity!

May 24, 1981

May 24, 2011

they said 'i do'....5 days ago

location, location, location.

Allen with an 'A'....all growed up!!!  Tear :(

This past weekend was a doozy for all members of my immediate, extended, and second families. The next couple of posts will blaze through the past 4 days of our lives [Saturday thru Tuesday] just as quickly and vigorously as our trails of this weekend past: down center aisles; across waters rising; through unrecognizable, tornado stricken towns; escapades and wardrobe changes in park restrooms; speeding down tarmacs; and many, many more paths of excitement.

We will begin our tour in and near Longview, TX where Allen & Kara met at an altar in a 42”+ inseam tuxedo and a handmade, beautiful white wedding dress respectively. In front of 200 of their closest families and friends, they vowed to commit their lives and love to one another for the rest of their lives here on this earth.

the colors/flowers.

The bridesmaids wore a deep teal color, a beautiful compliment to the sunflowers and yellow Gerber daisies.

Bouquets, centerpieces, and aisle garnish

Sunflowers are one of my favorites!  They scream HAPPY!!!

the bride.

Kara has the most Horrific Dress Catastrophe story that I have ever heard of, hands down.  When the dress finally arrived--6 weeks late, 3 ½ weeks before W-Day, and one night before her last final--she anxiously tried it on only to find that it was 7 inches too short!  Instead of the X-Long that she had ordered, the dress maker/manufacturer [who shall remain anonymous for their sake] ordered an X-Short!?!?  This might be an optimal high-water length for a beach or swamp wedding but not at all acceptable when walking down the aisle of a dry-grounds church to meet your man who is 6’-4”.  With 12 days to spare, the dress was shipped to the company’s national seamstress who would take Kara’s X-Short and the only other dress they could locate--a Regular--rip them apart and piece them together to account for the 7 missing inches.  They said they would try to have it to her by Saturday, the morning of her wedding.  Well, Super! 

All-[most] of the girls!

Ashley, Amanda, Kara, Emily, Ellen, Faith

I wish I was as laid-back as Kara.  She handled the fiasco with amazing stride and non-Bridezilla-ness.  At the end of the day she would be married to Allen and that’s all that mattered to her.  I hope to find that kind of love and relationship: longing and willing to stand by my man no matter the circumstance, appearance, or surroundings.

BTW-her dress DID arrive with 3 days to spare and an extra 8 inches!!!

Some Studly Studs

Andrew K, III, Kirby, Tim

the reception.

The reception was held in the perfect sized hall; not too big that people felt lost and not too small that you couldn’t walk between people seated at tables [ultra annoying].

More Girls!

Emily, Mom, Ellen

They had a live band that was so much fun!  It confirmed my thoughts of having a live band at my wedding reception.  I also picked out my ‘Father/Daughter’ song to dance to.  I don’t want to spoil the surprise but I can give you a sneak preview/snip-it of my conversation that transpired with Dad:

Daddy's Girls

Emily, Dad, Ellen

Me: Hey, Daddy!?  You could wear your coconut bra for our dance!!!

Dad: No, I think I’ll pass; it gives me a rash in funny places.

Me:  Oh well, that’s OK; you’re grass skirt should suffice.

Dad:  I think I lost mine, actually.

Sigh.  Don’t worry, Daddy, as luck would have it we have plenty of time to find you an even better one.  Ha!

The Fam!!!

Practice for the days to come....you'll see!

The crew is growing!!!

Everybody minus 2

hunting for eggs, ages 14+

I know that Easter weekend was several weeks ago.  I also know that most people with blogs tend to blog about their life or current events that occurred that day; two days past at most.  But I can never seem to get it together to keep up with the 'now'.  It's like I'm in a constant state of living in the now, planning for the future, and recording the [distant] past.

Sigh.  Maybe one day I'll become a big girl and get my act together.  Not likely, though, as here I type at age 27 and nothing has changed in many, many moons.

Moving on...

Last year my second family had an Easter egg hunt/Ashley's 18th Birthday party.  This egg hunt trumped any Easter egg hunt that you or I have ever been a part of; this I know!  I would tell you about THAT party but then you would really think I live in the past!

We each had to design an egg before the games commenced.  Isn't my green bunny just precious?!

So this year, when the weather started to get warmer and the 'Dollar Spot' at Target began to be filled with Easter colored plates, grass, and memo pads [yes, 'Easter' is a color!] it was clear that Easter was just around the corner.  One night, as Ashley and I were discussing how the past year had flown by and that her 18th birthday party was her favorite party of all time, we both stopped and said 'Hey!  When is the party this year?!'  Apparently we exclaimed this in the earshot of the right people because the 'When', 'Where', and menu were in the making before you could even say 'Easter egg'.

One of the best things about the party?  All I had to do was show up.  Ha!  This is one that our mom's put together.  On the Friday before the party, we all received a text message reminding us to wear tennis shoes and our Easter basket/pail/mop bucket.

Waiting for the air-horn.  As you can see, we ALWAYS play fair :)

The hardest part of the hunt was listening and paying attention to the rules as they had changed from the year before.  You would have thought we were all in our 'Terrible Two's' instead of our mid-twenties!  Who knows what the outcome would have been had we all listened to the directions as there was much confusion on the playing field.  I think that at the sound of the horn, we were supposed to go and find 8 eggs, bring them back to the house, and work through a Easter-weekend appropriate crossword puzzle before heading back out to hunt.

Kara

Our soon-to-be newest member of the family!

Me & Adam: friends since birth

The average height of us all is about 5' 10"; maybe one day we will
remember to keep that in mind when taking pictures.

Amanda & Me

Amanda planned part of the activities for us this year!!!

After the huffing, puffing, and dry heaving died down from racing each other back to the house you could hear exclamations such as, 'SAVIOR!', 'TOMB!', or 'I can't find the DISCIPLES!!!'.  Some extra words were found as well: 'SATAN!  Hey, what's he got to do with Easter?!'  Unfortunately there no extra credit was granted for words found that were not meant to be found.

Kirby, Mom, Amanda, Andrew, & Ashley

Mom enjoys her roll every year: collecting our papers and recording our times.

Kara, Me, & Trey

It is intense! 
You even have to hide your answers as some people [Trey] have been know to cheat!

Back on the playing field...our goal was to find as many eggs before the sound of the air horn.  When the air horn sounded you had 30 seconds to get back to the house; you earned penalty points for every 10 seconds you were late.

Me & Emily

We thought 'bunny ears' were an appropriate pose.

Adam & Mr. Danny

NOTE: How to win an Easter Egg Hunt:
I might have paid Mr. Danny to distract Adam on the playing field.  Maybe.

This is what a 2nd Place basket looks like!

We were competing for several different categories:  'Most Eggs' collected, 'Best Time' in Crossword Puzzle Completion, and 'Best Overall', a combination of both scores.  Kara won 1st place in the 'Best Overall'.  I told that she could breath now because next year she will officially be 'in' the family and won't have to try so hard.  Ha!  Congratulations, Kara!

Allen, Me, Adam, Kara, Andrew, & Emily

The Winner's Circle

2nd Place prize: a 'Texter' Bunny

This was my 'trophy'; everyone laughed as it is most appropriate for it's recipient.

The next portion of the afternoon was dedicated to 'Egg' activities.  Believe it or not, there is a surprising amount of 'Egg' activities that test your strengths and abilities.  Our first challenge was to break an egg bare-handed.  Holding an egg in the palm of your upward-facing hand, the goal was to squeeze, crack and collect as much egg juice in your bowl. [I made sure that these were the kind of eggs that didn't have baby chicks in them before breaking mine.  Ha!]  Sound too easy?  For most of us it was simple.  But two unfortunate individuals got eggs that WOULD NOT CRACK!  At first we thought they were being 'Punk'ed' and had been given boiled eggs but upon further inspection [smashing them into the stone wall] we learned that some eggs just have a tougher shell.  Who knew!?


Perfect action shot!
WARNING:  Do not try this at home without the protection of a Garbage Bag Bib.

'Little' Brother, Baby 'Odrue

It was so icky!  Our parents then proceeded to leave us standing there for a while with
yoke oozing out between our fingers while they laughed at us and took pictures.

Egg-Toss

Most people did pretty well!

Adam & Andrew K. won with Dad and Mr. Randy at a close 2nd.

Amanda's bib design was both thoughtful and creative; I am pretty certain that she could be a contender on Heidi Klum's 'Project Runway'.  Look for her on Season 8!

Me, Allen, Kara, & Emily

Fashionista's?!

Or Super-Ista's?!?!

Confetti Eggs

Circle of Love [and blood relations] 

Prize ledge

You do not go home empy handed from these events.
Miss Sarah always has the cutest little goodie-bags for us!

This year's goodie-bag/Easter baskets took the identity of a Chinese take-out box.  Contents of the cartons were-but not limited to-candy, Pez despsensers, more candy, toys, and even more candy.  You know how you always wanted to shoot the $1 air dart gun in the house when you were little but were never allowed to?  It always amuses me how at the ages of 20, 24, & 27 you still have that itch to shoot things in the house but now, all of the sudden, it is okay to do so?!  And not only is it now acceptable to play inside, it is also okay to go crazy ninja-like?! 

Allen, Andrew, & Adam

Don't remember what their intent was...

...but it took all 3 of them to execute their mission...

...and they were pleased with the results!

Mom & Daddy

After a satisfying meal of delicious hamburgers, hotdogs, and shark steak!

You can be sure I'll be practicing my crossword completion and egg hunting skills for the year to come.  I will also polish up on my jump-roping skills as I am sure they will throw a change at us again next year!

'normal' after all

For more homeschool testimonies, curriculum ideas and support, check out Kelly's Korner where Kelly hosts a 'Show Us Your Life' every Friday!!!

I write to you on this topic not as a current home-schooler or one who is considering home-schooling [no kiddos=home-schooling not even on my mental radar] but as a past home-schoolee.  In case you do not plan on reading on into the next paragraph I am going to go ahead and tell you the one thing that I want you to know:  I was home-schooled for 3 years [middle school] and I survived [with minimal side-effects] to tell you about it.

It never fails, when people find out that I was home-schooled for a period of time I get the same questions asked of me:  Did you like it?  Hate it?  Did you have any friends?  Did you ever get to see your friends?  So you got to, like, play all the time?   And my favorite response of them all:  Wait, you were home-schooled?  And, you’re like, Normal?!  Like every person that comes out of any other education system is indeed, Normal.  What is Normal, anyway?!  Another frequently asked question is this: How did your mom know what to do?  I guess you could call these valid points since home-schooling is not, in fact, ‘the norm’ and I will do my best to address them all.

I don’t know where the idea came from; I don't recall being very involved in the decision making process either.  I only remember that one day I went to school and then the next day I didn’t.  I was in the 5^th grade when my parents decided to give a try at homeschooling.  Very much the planners and analyzers, they chose to pull us [my 2^nd grade sister and me] out of public school for the 4^th nine weeks of the current school year for a trial run.  I guess the test run went well as I found myself at the same desk with the same teacher year after year for the following 3 years.

Home-schooling is not something you can do on your own.  Nor do you want to do it on your own.  Fortunately we lived in an area where there were A LOT of home-school families.  And I mean it: A LOT.  [That we lived in an area where the schools were not all that great goes without saying I think!]  Our area had a city-wide organization, or fellowship, that we were a part of.  I don’t remember the numbers exactly but I think the first year we started there was something like 100 families in the group; in three years time I believe it had grown to 300+ families.

Through the organization we got our sense of ‘real school’.  Some organized events/opportunities included, but were by no means limited to, a science club, math club, bowling team, basketball team [I played!], softball team, and various other co-ops within the group.  We had P.E. 3 days a week at the city park.  A local, retired Marine would come out M/W/F during his lunch break to work with us and train us for the ‘Presidential Fitness Challenge’ just like I remember doing in the 1-5 grades in public school.  I was a part of a weekly, creative writing workshop to enhance my oh-so-lacking writing skills.  At the end of the year there was opportunity to take the CAT [standardized testing] together; we were placed in rooms with people our age, desks, and ‘teachers’!  There were so many more opportunities that I either A) was not a part of, B) can’t remember, or C) never knew they existed in the first place.

I know there are many wonderful groups of home-school families all over the country.  I know several families in a local group where I live now.  They have a school day with 'real' classes every Wednesday at the church that I worked at last year.  My office was in the hallway that they use and it was really neat to see how the group did things.  The classes are primarily for older kids [Jr. High and High School] who need more advanced school subjects such as biology, calculus, and physics.  For these classes they usually have a retired teacher or someone with great training/knowledge of the subject matter to come in and hold class.  Their biology class is taught by one of the home-school moms who has her bachelor's in biology; a retired military officer leads a survival and safety class.  You get the idea.  Beyond all of this there are also awesome opportunities for exposure to other walks of life and sharing the Gospel.  These groups are a place where most families are Christian but from different denominations.  If you are considering home-schooling, do yourself a favor and search out these groups.

Like any school system, home-schooling has its pros and cons.  You just have to figure out what works best for you and your family.  For mine, none of us went the same route.

My schooling path:

• public  K-5
• home-schooled  6-8
• public  high school

My sister, E [3 years younger]:

• public  K-2
• home-schooled  3-7
• private  8
• public  high school

My brother, A [7 years younger]:

• home-schooled  K-5
• private  6
• public  J-High & high school

There were many variables that played into each of our different paths and I know that my parents did what they felt was best for each of us given the present circumstances.  I am thankful that they evaluated us each separately and didn’t keep one at home/public/private just because that’s what they had done with the other two.  I guess what I am trying to say is that if you are considering home-schooling one [or two] of your children but for whatever reason don’t think that it would be best for the other child, don’t worry about it; don’t leave them all in or take them all out because that what seems like you ‘have’ to do.

Did I like/dislike it?  Again, as with anything, there are pros and cons to both.  There were days that I loved it as well as days where I just wanted to leave the house and go walk the hallways of a school.  I do not in any way regret any of it.  It was truly a great experience.  I will say, though, that had my parents not willingly allowed me to go back into the public school system for high school [not sure if mom was tired of me or what.  Ha!]I might not have this same attitude.  One of the neat things about our time at home was my parents also had a house built one year.  This allowed us to go over to the property almost every day and see what all they were doing.  Even though I was young, I can still remember the overall process and steps to building a house.  We also got to go on vacation during the ‘off’ season!  Not that I really and truly appreciated this at the time; but as I have entered into the ‘real’ world I do see the benefits of this!

As for friends, well, I was rarely ever without.  On top of the home-school organization we were [and always have been] extremely involved in church.  And you can bet that I was at EVERYTHING when I was home-schooled.  I might have even used it against my parents a time or two:  How will I know how to behave around other people my own age if I don’t even get to see them tonight?!!  Ha!  Obviously I think that church, or the people you meet at a church, is the answer to most of my problems anyways. 

And as for my mom knowing what to do, well, what can I say?  She’s one smart cookie!  There were also a lot of hoops to jump through and forms to submit with the state/government; they won’t just let you take your kids out of school on your word that you will ‘do your best’ to educate them.  Ha!  We were registered with the state as an Academy!  How pristine does that sound?!

*I wanted to add to this post that I wrote yesterday.   It occurred to me that I didn't mention anything about my transition into high-school and post-life home-schooling:

As for me, the hardest part of going back to public school was getting up at 6:00 a.m. to be ready and out the door by 6:45!  Seriously; that is not even a slight stretch of the truth.  To say it was easy for me would be a stretch but I can say that I handled it with ease [two very different things :)].  The first few weeks were difficult in the social aspect as everyone had formed their cliques during the previous two years in Jr. high.  Since I was only out of the system for 3 years I still knew and/or recognized a lot of people from before; some remembered me, some didn't; some chose not to acknowledge they remembered me and some willingly and excitedly welcomed me back.  I even got asked to the homecoming dance by a sophomore!

Once again, church came into play; I had a lot of friends-in all grades-from my youth group who guided me in learning the ropes.  In fact, several of my closest friends were those very people-it did not matter that we were not the same age.  I was involved in several clubs and organizations: marching band [I was Drum Major for 2 years of the 180+ member band], FCA, National Honor Society, and several other extra-curricular activities.  Post graduation I went on to complete a 4-year undergraduate degree followed by a 3-year Master's degree.  [My intentions in telling you this is not me bragging by any means; I just want to show you it can be done!]

To anyone who is considering it my suggestion/advice is this: pray about it and you will know.  Try it for a year and if it doesn’t work out, the kids can go back to school and you can enjoy a grocery shopping alone again!