It was an amazing four days. I had nine of my ten children with me, along with my mother and Bill's sister and brother in law. We had so much fun, even if we did have to drive the whole way there and back. The kids were amazingly good, in my wildest dreams I couldn't have wished for them to be better in the car. We did learn not to take driving advice from Tommy ("GO, Beau! The light is red!"). The children realized once again that mommy has no sense of direction whatsoever, and they better stay awake and pay attention, because otherwise, if we turned off the road and mommy is allowed to get back on by herself, they might find themselves back home instead of in Virginia...
But we made it. We went to a reception the first night and the next day was the big graduation. We got there early so we would have enough good seats for thirteen people. We sat eagerly, cow bell in hand, ready to yell and holler and make much noise when Gage walked across the stage. We met the Jewish lady behind us, who was there to see her nephew graduate. Her family said they wouldn't stand and yell, so she borrowed us, and when her nephew received his diploma, we yelled with her, and Angel-Leah shook the cow bell - for practice, the lady behind us told her. The people in front of us decided to make friends with us too after that, and we loaned them the cow bell for their relative who was graduating.
Afterwards, we all trooped back to Gage's house, where he and Rachael cooked dinner. Rachael made spaghetti and Gage made pizza. I took the three little ones to the pool for a few minutes, because they had looked so forward to swimming while we were on this trip, but the hotel we were staying in didn't have a pool. So they swam, but I wanted to be back in the apartment with everyone else. I let them swim as long as I could stand it, then we went back.
Gage and Rachael seemed a little frantic, nothing was going right for them, they thought, although the food was amazingly good. But cheese and butter dripped on the bottom of the oven, and before long there was a fire. The apartment filled with smoke and we had to open doors and windows. For me, that was a matter of course - I remembered a grandchild, I think it was Julia, who thought the smoke alarm ALWAYS went off when grandma cooks. I'm not teasing. She really believed that, and got scared when I cooked!
In a bit, I got a few minutes in private with Gage. He was feeling upset about his dinner. He wanted it to go so nicely, to be the perfect end to the perfect day. For a fleeting moment, his life flashed before my eyes: the son I wanted so much after growing up in a house of girls; my tears when I found out I was going to have him; the boy who was such a perfectionist I never had to clean his room after the age of five because he never let it get messy; opening his desk drawer once and finding even his pencils and erasers were laid out just so; the ghostbuster phase; his pet duck, Jackabet; the HUGE nest he built once out of sticks; growing up to build decks and finishing out our guest house just like he wanted it; building a bedroom into the loft of our barn...oh, my...
So I assured him it was okay. Someday, he would remember this fondly, the day he graduated from law school, then came home and caught the oven on fire in front of his guests. It will be funny soon, I told him. And believe me, I knew that from MUCH experience. He has a little bit of his mother in him after all...
So the camera cord will be here soon, and I'll have lots more to write. It was a great four days, and the culmination of the big dreams of my oldest homeschooled son. Law school was all his work, but at the same time, I felt like I could take a little bit of the glory - my children DID learn something with my homeschooling. It's going to be fun seeing what they all end up doing. I have two stay at home mommies in my bunch, and I am so very pleased that they decided to do that, even though one daughter has a college degree and is a paralegal. Gage just graduated law school (oh, yeah, I said that, didn't I?) Another son works at an organic butcher shop, and they gave him a raise to entice him to keep working there after he moved forty minutes away to live with my parents when Dad got sick. They think he's invaluable there. Son number three is working hard at figuring out his life right now, and I'm not worried a bit about him, I know whatever he decides will be what "HE" personally needs to do. Son number four is working and going to school, and it makes me sad knowing our days with him living at home are going by fast. Mary Susannah is growing up beautifully, and she and my three little ones let me know I am still very needed here on this earth. I'm not ready to be put out to pasture quite yet...
So, I'm home now, but the camera cord is in Washington. As soon as it gets here, there will be LOTS more to write and show - pictures from the reception and the graduation, the party afterwards (I don't think we got a picture of the oven flaming...too bad, that would have been a great one!). The shopping trip at the outdoor mall, and another visit to the frontier museum. Mary Susannah was so sad knowing there would be no more birthday trips to Virginia, staying in Gage's beautiful apartment. But hey, on her next birthday, he'll be in Japan...naw....
God bless you Gage. Your mom is so proud!
Yes i agree with that Carla!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had good fun! :)
God Bless