Family Times

Memorial Day Weekend

Dear S2,

The above photo is to set you in the mood for work. Ha!

According to the itinerary that is on our fridge you start hiking up Mt. K tomorrow. Mrs. B says that we read about a man and his father who hiked up Mt. K in the book Three Cups of Tea for bookclub. I guess that means that if an old man can do it you can. Ha!! I knew that you would appreciate the analogy.

Tomorrow your grandparents from R, your uncle, girl cousin, oldest boy cousin and your grandma's sister (the loud, fun one) are coming for lunch. I've heard that steak is on the menu. Along with chicken and some other meat. Your grandma is making deviled eggs. Aunt J is making a blueberry pie?. I'm making chocolate pie. Was going to make Lemon Meringue but as it is your favorite that pie will wait until you are back home. I'm making potato salad also. Mine is never good so I cringe at the thought of making and eating it.

I went berry picking today. Took 45 minutes to pick a quart at the first place. Sigh. The owners finally admitted that they didn't have many berries when I checked out. Irritating as parents with whiny children were there slogging through standing water (rained heavy last night) to pick. So I went and bought plants and then went to the other strawberry place in C, near where you used to play baseball. Better strawberry fields but still only got 1/2 flat and they were same price as the grocery store - just prettier and sweeter.

Your brother sold the big sewing table that was in the back room. Yipee. I feel like a new person in there with more room.

The school year has ended for me though not without drama. One of the teachers, who felt the need to leave this year ran from the school in tears, at the end of the last day. Many of the rest of us in tears also. Just two weeks of summer camp left.

Well, one hour until naptime. Must be productive :-).

Love, Mom

This Greeted Me After Work This Afternoon

Last night

I was at a big box store watching the guy in front of me check out. For some reason the scene struck me as kind of sweet. He had long dreadlocks and was buying marigolds along with a cd of love songs. The checkout guy put the cd in a bag and asked the gentleman if he wanted insurance on the cd.

What???

It seems that insurance is now sold on cd's for $1.00 in case the cd doesn't work.

I was appalled. This is a place where people go to watch their pennies not have it slyly taken away from them.

I turned away, not knowing if the insurance was bought or not. The mood was broken.

A Bright Spot on a Rainy Day

 

is my new bag. I made it out of 2 quilting fat quarters and finished it off with an antique button. It is lined also.

The best part - S1 thought that I had bought it. Got to love the child!

This morning,

before work, I decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies from the book, The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook - Old-Fashioned Recipes from New York's Sweetest Bakery by Jennier Appel and Allysa Torey.

My days need a positive start and between doing laundry, feeding the dogs and cats and fixing a breakfast for husband and I (ok bagels and coffee) I found that I had more than enough time in my two hours before work to make a batch of their Chocolate Chip Cookies. Not a lot of sugar in the recipe which I enjoy - but great taste and texture. Even without putting vanilla in (as my pantry was out)! Also, I love mini chips in cookies. I find that for some reason the cookies seem to bake better with them.
Next time I will try adding walnuts.

the speech (and photos)

The four roommates and their adviser.

giving his speech




The Speech

The first sentence of a graduation speech is meant to elicit feelings of nostalgia and hope for the future as well as set the tone for this celebration. But now that I have wasted it, perhaps that will lower everyone's expectations and make it go much more smoothly, but I'll tr to make it quick and painless.

We have spent the past 4 years spending time with small groups of the whole of us, well 3 years for J. We have been working or not working on homework sets, drowning our sorrows after finals or GREs or graduate school or job applications with our own drink of choice, working for the weekends and day-dreaming about the next break to come.

But now that its over, the last has been graded (Thanks Professor H. for not keeping us here another semester!) Such power you held over us.

Some of us are leaving, some are staying. We will meet other people, enjoy the new experiences, reminisce about the old and most likely again convene to say goodbye as we are today in life's next big turn. We form relationships with those around us and build ever expanding circles, always introducing ourselves, waving goodbye or finding a brief time to pause and notice where we are.

It took me a bit longer than I wished, but on a few of the drives back from visiting the parents back home I felt nostalgic to come back here. I won't get to see the seasons change here, or enjoy that god awful wind tunnel of an entrance to the physics building (you would think that an engineering school would have better architecture or layout to prevent such things!) I won't get to see fall come early and leave too soon, enjoy the practically daily dusting of snow in the winter, the sudden and welcome arrival of spring, and the deep green of summer. I won't see frantic people in the physics lounge working on homework hours before its due, have absolutely ridiculous conversations that give way more thought on topics than necessary, like higher or versions of rock paper scissors lizard Spock games. But I think I will miss the closeness that I felt to the lot of you. We might not have spent our spare time with each and every one of the other, but we all related as a tight-nit community, had laughs together, helped each other out with homework or mild frustrations, or just listened and consoled in one another.

I didn't come here initially wanting to stay, but after my first year I couldn't leave. I had met too many people that I didn't care to leave behind, students and professors. As many of you already know I'm heading overseas so to speak to do graduate work in H. But I hope to come back and find an open spot on a couch. There will be one open for anyone on mine.

I just want to add a congratulations to all the seniors of 2010, and a deep thanks to all of the professors. Thank you.

Dear S2 (Day 7),

 

 

 

 

Your brother graduated yesterday. As you knew, we skipped the first graduation which was Friday night. As it turned out, that was a very good choice. There were huge thunderheads forming in the late afternoon when we arrived and by graduation time there was some rain and lightening. Graduation was delayed by an hour. At 9:30, when we were sitting on some steps outside campus eating ice cream, there was still lightening.

We went out to eat for dinner at a place that served ridiculously large portions for your dad and brother. The gyro that I ordered came in a more manageable size. Then we went to Rita's for ice cream. An interesting place. Mine came with soft serve vanilla on the bottom, raspberry ice in the middle, and soft serve on the top. Interesting (and good) textures together.

Then we went back to the apartment where we ate red velvet cake (that your brother and Baking Girl - center in the photo) made as a surprise for us. So good!!! Not very sweet and the best texture. We looked at photos and I turned in early. Not a lot of noise and your brother's floor futon provided one of the best nights sleep that I have had lately. I seriously think that it was the size (king) in addition to the comfy mattress. And yes, I've started whispering about the king size bed that I would like. Ha!!

Graduation went fine. Photos of the graduates when they were little were shown. I would not have recognized Getting Married Friend if his mother had not been sitting next to me. But the other 2 roommates were easy to spot. I have that on video for you.

There was concern that the usual professor that takes photos would not be able to make it due to his flight being delayed by ash. But he was there so there should be many photos online soon.

Your brother was the valedictorian. He had an average of 4.0 in Physics and a 3.94 overall. The other valedictorian had a 4.0 in Physics and a 3.93 overall. Your brother gave the last speech and it was a fitting end to the ceremony. I will try to write that up on tomorrow's post. (I made your brother give me the speech. Ha!)

We brought back some of your brother's things and I will go back later this week after work one day and get more stuff. He will be home Friday.

We missed you yesterday. Roommate that is moving to Arizona got back together with his girlfriend by the looks of things. You would have enjoyed hanging out with them.

We read your itinerary every day and are pleased that it sounds like you are going to learn so much in Africa that will help you in your studies and job next school year. And it sounds like fun!

Love,

Mom

Day 1

Dear S2,

I think that tonight will be a better night for sleeping than last night was. I knew that you were safe but I wanted to know where you were. The airline schedule was of no help. They showed you still on the ground when you were already up in the air! grrrr. Your dad did sleep well last night or seemed to by the sound of his snoring. I ended up on the couch watching terrible tv. Sport tried to tell me that he was still hungry. Heinz sat in your dad's chair and kept watch over me.

After your email today the song by rick james that has the line "the kind you don't take home to Mama" keeps going through my head (regarding all of the prostitutes that you have been seeing in Amsterdam). You will have good stories to tell for years!

Your dad and I are in a happy/normal/dull state this evening which really is the best place to be sometimes. As I get older I find that I'm not ashamed to say that I like dull.

S1 thinks that he wants to miss the first graduation and only go to the second. (As he is one of the speakers at the second that is a good thing :-). He says that he has the first 2 lines written of the speech. It should be interesting.

I am a little upset about the graduation thing but then I heard who the major speaker will be for the first graduation and . . . Maybe your brother is right. Don't tell him I said that though.

So, I wish you luck on your next leg of the journey tomorrow. Hope that you have fun.

Love always,

Mom

Va Tech Horticulture Club Plant Sale

 

 

I have enjoyed the 4 years of plant sales that I have attended. Horticulture class was one of my favorites. The sale brings back good memories.

THE POLLEN FORECAST FOR YOUR AREA IS VERY HIGH... [MORE DETAILS]

More sneezing. Coughing. Hacking.

But the world keeps turning.

So today I picked up some of S2's dorm stuff. The rest he will bring home tomorrow. Then Sunday he leaves for 4? weeks in Africa. Tanzania to be exact. It is a medical mission trip. As he wants to be a PA it is a perfect thing for him to do.

I will probably be a wreck this month.

Luckily I have things like the class Mother's Day program tomorrow to send my mind in other directions. 15 4 and 5 year olds singing sweetly for their moms under the lovely smile (evil eye :-) of their teachers. They have drawn beautiful pictures (for the most part) of their moms and have answered questions about her. Such as Favorite Drink. My favorite - "gin drink."

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I saw Turkish Delight in a store window in Bath, England and realized that the treat mentioned in the book was real.