It is done...or is it?

Now I can say "I graduated."  I walked.  I was hooded. (....and I wasn't wearing my orange "I've worn you for days" shirt!).

The Momma, the Momma's Mama, and the daughter- all color coordinated without

It was wonderful being with family.  It was wonderful to accomplish something and actually receive recognition for it.  I think it is far more amazing that I can say "my children were fed, clothed, flourished and laundry and floors got done!"  Where's my certificate for that???!!!!  HA!


And now...

I'm back home doing exactly what I was doing before I graduated. :)  But I am getting soooo much done this summer.  Normally I'd be working, writing papers, finishing up finals, and thinking about what I would take the next semester.  My friends are in Richmond, meeting, talking, studying, and ministering to each other this week.  I am not!  I am home spending time helping Rev. Hubby.  Washing College Man's clothes and working on some semblance of order and organization for him.  Poor kid.  This is all new to me and to him.  I did not pass along the organization gene (I didn't have it to begin with so there was no "passing it along!").

I am getting better, though.  In Spanish, we say "poco a poco"- little by little- and that is exactly how I am doing it.  Little cleaning; a little painting; a little sitting watching my show.

Kitchen cleaned and painted.  I love the color. It looks like primary yellow in this photo but it is really a mustard yellow.  (Sherwin Williams Bee's Wax) 

Years ago I bought painted plates from a friend.  I've been waiting to showcase them (they are one of a kind and irreplaceable).  I painted along the top here in Sherwin Williams Chrysanthemum and love it!

Please pay no attention to the crap on the countertops!  It's life, after all, not a professional photo shoot!

Here is the contrast:

My next project is finding a deep blue fabric for the curtains.  If the fates are on my side, it will already be made and I can just purchase them; otherwise I'll dust off the ole sewing machine and make my own curtains!

We are hosting Father's Day lunch at the house.  I've been working on a tablescape for it.  What do you think?

The centerpiece is a vase with duct tape, tools, and bandaids!  HA

I have to say, Grainiacs, I'm really enjoying this sort of retirement....no library gig, no youth group for the summer, no schooling....just me and my creativity.

Have a great weekend; I'm leading a workshop this weekend and I doubt I'll be blogging till after Father's Day.

Graduation Part 3

Well, let's wrap this puppy up and call it a day.....I graduated!  

Ha; you just think you are getting off that easy.

We ended Thursday with shopping and eating (two of my favorite things!).

Friday morning I was able to pick up my regalia...it seemed that others living closer to the seminary than I had already made arrangements to pick up their cap and gown on Friday so I was good to go.  I also walked over and got a "cut" key for my girls so they could lock up their room.  

Before graduation rehearsal, we.....ate!

Breakfast buffet at Shoney's, baby!!!

Smile, Boy!  Stop it, Momma. (notice shirts? luggage still had not arrived!!)

 Graduation was held at the Presbyterian Church down the street from the seminary.  It is so beautiful.  These pictures cannot capture the beauty.

And then the eating commenced again!  Honestly all we did was eat and shop before my Saturday graduation.

The seminary provided a "picnic lunch" which we ate indoors because it was h.o.t. in Virginia!  The parents came and ate with us and then had to get back to the motor home to let out the dogs (sing with me...who let the dogs out? who...who...who?).

picnicking indoors...my kind of picnic!

Told Grad Girl she looked like Rosie the Riveter and....

She's got it down, wouldn't you say?

Showing off the campus to my family.  Don't you love the wall gnome?

We might be related.

This is the outside of the chapel.  The kids decided to take a "cool" picture.

Yeah, we're cool

Yet, there is always one who doesn't get the memo.

"Wait! You mean we were supposed to look 'cool'????"

Do over!!!!! (notice the boys never break the pose...such naturals) Hello, Gap?  I've got two natural models for you.

such a fun family. I love them to death!!

One of my all time favorite places to go and say.....Wawa!!!

Had to take the family there.

Fountain drink time!!!!

We spent more time shopping.  Luggage hadn't arrived yet. I refused to wear that orange shirt for another day, let alone my graduation so Macy's here I come!

Not only did I get to change shirts, but I received a "selfie stick" for my graduation gift!  Selfies!!!!  Of course, no one had even heard of selfie sticks until they were banned in certain places.  Obviously they are not banned in VA....or we just weren't caught!  Living life on the edge.

And this is what a selfie stick can do.  Pretty neat, eh??

Finally caught up with my brother and sister-in-law and of course we ate!

Guess what arrived hours before my graduation????  We were reunited with our luggage at about midnight on Friday night or Saturday morning.  Murphy's Law dictated that if I had NOT bought new clothes, luggage would not have come in and I'd still be wearing that ding dong orange shirt!!!  Guaranteed.

Break

We break from our regularly scheduled program to bring you....

Some of you know we live in a manse (parsonage) and when we moved in the walls were painted a nice stark white.  Hey, it goes with everything!  But I already feel like I live in an asylum so I don't need the walls to reflect it.  So what's a Strawberry to do once she has completed one phase of her life?  Paint and redecorate, of course.  The house already looks like a pig sty, why not add confusion and mess to it but have pretty colorful walls as a result?  Right???

I wanted to start small...after all we would be hosting family in three days so why not buy paint and start a project?  I know...you are thinking "Wow, Strawberry, you sure live on the edge!"  Yes, I am super woman in that regard...don't hate me.

Here's the secret... start small and spruce up the one place no one in your family walks through! Yes, I started with the entryway.  NO ONE in my family uses the front door.  I'll definitely have to herd them to the front door to Oooo and Ahhhh over it.

Before--

Jealous?  Do you have Boba Fett guarding YOUR front door?

I can't tell you how many times my heart has skipped a beat when I passed by the front door.  Boba Fett is life-size. College Man brought him home and yes indeedie I posted him by the front door.  Boy has been ready to take 'em down (smack talk here, not dissemble talk) since Day 1.  Sidebar: Boy has been working out so he feels pretty confident about taking out the cardboard guy.  I, on the other hand, feel pretty confident I'll need a heart transplant if I do not move Boba Fett.

Painting, painting, painting

 And......

Ta Da

Picture in candle glow

Pictures the next morning...hoping you can see the difference.

I changed out my colorful rooster (in the before picture) and put the all black rooster.  I think it goes with the decor; what do you think?  It is amazing what a little color and change can do for the soul.  Color my world.

Graduation Part 2: Let's Try This Again!

Buzzzzzz.  How do you feel about your alarm clock when it goes off at 2 a.m.?  Do you love it? Or do you feel such intense hate you could tear metal with your teeth?  I DO NOT like waking up at 2 a.m. to the sound of BUZZZZZZZZ.  Neither does the rest of the family.  So the grumpy Strawberry gang gets their stuff together and heads out the door to try to get to VA once again.

We arrive at our little airport and Hubby drops us off at the terminal and goes to find a parking space “close” to the airport.  We see and smile at familiar faces from last night and stand in line once again to check luggage.  We still have the tags from last night; we still have the receipt that said luggage has been paid for.  We are good to go.  And now we wait.  For although the ticket counter is open, TSA security is not AND the snack bar isn’t open either.  No coffee….no water…no nothing except CNN broadcasting the latest middle east report. So depressing at 3 a.m.

Skip to: we are on the plane. Happy faces just praying

a) the plane takes off and we make our connection,

b) we aren’t rerouted to O-Hare!

Happy to be on the plane!

Praise God! We've landed! The first leg of the journey is a success.   

Hello, DFW!!!

Added bonus: our daughters flight leaves from this airport so we take the tram and go to their concourse and catch up with them.

escalators....great inventions for tired travelers

I was so busy "catching up" that I forgot to take pictures of the girls visiting with us!!!  Here they are on their flight to Richmond with a stop in O'Hare!  Poor babies.  :)--- We have not had luck with connecting flights in O'Hare.  As a matter of fact, two of the four have had to sleep at O'Hare waiting for an available flight.

Wave to Career and Grad Girl! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Safe travels, my precious..es!

 Um, why had I not noticed these little beauties beforehand?  Several chairs let you kick your feet up?  I love America (not american airlines....just so we're clear about that!!!).

Happy Feet

 Time to plane.  A little light reading to pass the time away...and possibly some money!

Come to Momma!

This is going to be a good day!

Can you see the green mountains?

LANDED IN VIRGINIA!  HALLELUJAH!!!!

The family is together.

sorry to Hubby and college man for cropping their faces out! HA  #workingmachineryonlittlesleep!

Unfortunately.....

And this is how I roll.....(or don't roll since my rolling luggage didn't make it).

Remember Day 1 when I said we could only make it to Dallas and we would be spending the night there?  Remember Day 2 when I said I gave the "pre-checked luggage" (tags and all) to the ticket booth and said "we're good to go?"  Well, yes.  Guess where our luggage stayed?  Dallas.  Oh poop!!!!  Never put me in charge of anything at 3 o'clock in the MORNING!!!!!!! poop, poop, poop!

So luggage not in VA?  I will not let it get me down. Retail Therapy!!!!

My housing for the past 7 years has bounced from one house to another.  I decided to stay at the old house I would trek three (or four- depending on what door you came through) floors. The Strawberry Gang occupied all three rooms on the third floor of Thompson House.  What great family time.

 

Here's a story about a lovely lady....

 Since we didn't have luggage, the trip up the stairs was fairly easy. HA, she laughs. Those 4 flights of stairs still wind me, but it's good exercise.

We ate at a local restaurant, shopped for toothbrushes and deodorant and then turned in for the night.  Day 2 done and I had high hopes for our luggage reuniting with us by the next day.

Favorite Union Seminary restaurant

Grad Girl getting creative with The Momma's camera

An ending to a "perfect" day.... the girls' room would not lock. How could it? Their key was uncut!! They would probably want me to include that not only could I NOT get the door to lock from the outside BUT I was trying to get it to lock with the uncut key upside down (no, I did not notice the key was uncut at the time and no I wasn't listening to career girl tell me it was uncut! Yes, I was focused on the task at hand....mainly the key in my hand!).  Now in all fairness, it was past my bedtime Central Time so I was WAY over my bedtime Eastern Time .....   AND........ I had been up since 2 a.m.!!!  just saying. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

you just THINK you are gonna lock that door, missy!

Graduation Part 1 “Now why am I doing this?”

My whole graduate career I kept asking myself “Now just why am I doing this?”  I won’t find a job in my educational path.  In a time when churches are barely able to support full-time pastors, I am spending bookoo dollars in a field that cannot support me.  Then I straighten up and push my heavily-endowed chest out and proclaim “it was on my bucket list; that’s why!”

This past weekend was my graduation and once again kept asking myself “Now why am I doing this?”  I decided long ago I would walk.  I missed my undergrad graduation because I graduated during the summer and graduation was held on the sister campus (a campus I never set foot on).  So I wanted to walk for this one.  My school email box was full of graduation announcements inviting me to parties with the President and flyers with graduation weekend events and notes about when to pick up certain things.  Our plan was to start driving on Monday or Tuesday heading toward Virginia. 

I started this program the Spring semester of 2008.  If you look at my transcripts, you’ll notice a slight (okay, rather large) absence of time.  I call this “Life Happens.”  Several of my babies were either in college or going away to college and I sort of had a meltdown.  In 2010 I wrote to my advisor and asked if I had been kicked out of the program.  The Registrar told her to tell me to get my butt (maybe not his exact words, butt but, that was probably what he was thinking!!) registered for the upcoming semester or I would definitely have to reapply.

So how fitting that a “life happens” event effected our travel plans.  A beautiful soul of the church passed away and the children wanted her service to be on Wednesday (of my graduation week).  Hubby made reservations and we were set to leave our little airport and head to Richmond, VA in plenty of time for me to pick up my regalia before the Thursday 4 p.m. deadline.  While waiting to go to the airport I receive a text from the airline saying our flight was delayed and we would miss the connecting flight so they had moved us to the next flight but no flights would be leaving after we arrived.  That meant we would have to spend the night in Dallas.  Hello, hotels.com; please book 2 rooms for the Strawberry gang.

So off we go on Wednesday evening to our little airport.  Once we checked our baggage and were cleared by TSA, we sat at the little café and ate dinner and waited for boarding time.   

We live in the land of mañana but even I thought “Wow, not too many people here and it’s almost boarding time.”  Did I mention it takes me a while to get jokes or plane reservations being cancelled?

Well here’s the deal, if you make reservations on places such as hotels.com, there is a money-back guarantee until about 4 p.m. the day you make the reservations.  They don’t give you your money back if the damn airline cancels your flight at 6 p.m!  Picture Strawberry taking 2 $100.00 bills and flushing them down the toilet because folks, I lost my money at the American Airlines slot machine.  I complained. It didn’t help. Hotels.com had the nicest customer service rep helping me. She made us feel so good even though she didn’t do a damn thing for us. 

Where, O where is our luggage, American Air? Oh, where, oh where could they be?

We found our suitcases at the baggage area and headed home and set our alarms for 2 a.m. because we needed to be at the airport at 3 to check luggage and go through the security check and (hopefully this time) board at 4:30 a.m. for our 5 a.m. flight.

Now why am I doing this again?