College decision finalized, and our deposit is in!!! We will be Blue Hens, and their motto is "Fear the Hen".... No fear here, though, just excitement.
As of two hours ago, the prom issue was resolved also, and my daughter asked a friend who graduated last year.
Monday was a really fun day as my kids' high school marching band was invited to lead the Phillies into the ballpark for our season home opener. The skies were beautiful and brilliant, the breeze just perfect, and all was right for a great day of baseball.
This new lens allowed me to take some great photos of the day's events.
The kids had about two hours to kill outside Citizens Bank Ballpark before the festivities began. There was lots of socializing....
A picture of the band director taking a picture of me....
Then there was some warming up....
Then there was the parade for about 100 yards - it was a very short parade lead by some absolutely gorgeous Clydesdale horses......
Jamie Moyer had a lot to say to Roy Halladay the full length of the parade - I'd love to know what he was chatting about.
Then a great game that began with some wonderful festivities.
The game was great, with Cole Hamels pitching, and the Phils winning over the Capitols 7-4
Yes, my new zoom lens allows me to capture great moments.....................
and also allows me to stalk my friends who are seated clear across the ballpark!
College, college, college - I will be soooooooooooo glad to have the decision made and the deposit in. I will also be so glad when a date for the senior prom is sewn up. So many things up in the air, so much drama, I really can't take it much more. Where's the reference book for me to read up on how to deal with issues of an 18 year old daughter. Most nights I lay my head down on my pillow and it feels like it will just explode. My gut tells me everything will be just fine, the heart sometimes feels like it will just break.
The official college count is seven out of seven - however we've narrowed it down to two choices, and we will be revisiting one of them this weekend. A decision will be made by day's end on Saturday.... at least that is what this mom is counting on.
The prom........ why do they make it mandatory to have a date? That's fine for the girls who are "popular" by today's standards but what about those whose self-confidence has taken many hits over the the course of grade school and high school?
It will all work out, I know, but the process of getting there is exhausting. I don't have all of the words of wisdom to give - I didn't date in high school - I had bad skin, braces, and very wavy hair that had a mind of its own. I can't offer advice other than to say it will all work out in the end.... this coming from a girl who wore a dress her mom made to the senior prom!
None of my photos have anything to do with this post but they are colorful and fun glimpses of our Easter Sunday.
It will all work out....... I just may not survive it....
A fellow band parent found the segment of my kids' high school band in our Philadelphia parade on You Tube. So, I figured I'd share it here. Fortunately, both my kids are shown in it so it's kind of neat for me to see.
I am terming myself a slacking blogger anymore, basically because I haven't blogged a whole lot and that's because I haven't done too good a job with time management. Every now and then, I push myself to make time to work on my photos and also to post.
Today is one of those times! I am entering a photo in the I Heart Faces weekly theme. This week's theme is angles, and I haven't done a lot of experimenting with faces and angles, although I had taken this photo at an odd angle. So, here it is....
Be sure to go on over to I Heart Faces and take a look at some other angular works!
This week's photo is supposed to feature jumping. I know my entry definitely fits the bill. I had taken several picture the same night last summer because my son challenged my daughter to see who could jump the highest off the top of the sand dune. She agreed to his challenge, but unfortunately someone mysteriously must have tied lead weights to her feet.
I laughed so hard while snapping these shots. My son had no problem lifting his skinny frame high into the air, while my daughter was laughing too hard to really propel herself more than an 1/8 of an inch off the sand.
Be sure to visit I Heart Faces and check out all of the other "off the ground" shots!
Music is such an important part of my life - I have a wide variety in taste (rap excluded). I just stumbled upon this group this week as a result of an email from a family member and I am so hooked to this angelic sound.
If you have time, take a listen, and if you have even more time listen to more of their selections on YouTube.
The group is called Libera, and they have the most heavenly voices I have ever heard.
Back on Thanksgiving, the adults were seated in the kitchen and the younger "kids" were in the other room eating. My sister-in-law quietly summoned me to the downstairs bathroom as my son's nose had begun to bleed. For the next half hour or so, he and I worked to get it to stop and simultaneously keep my sister-in-law's recently redone powder room from looking like a scene from Friday the 13th.
It turns out that Thanksgiving was the beginning of a five-day siege of nosebleeds that got progressively worse and finally sent us to the emergency room on Sunday of that weekend. My son works at our parish rectory and I got a call from him in the late morning saying he had a bad bleed. I drove up to the rectory took one look and called our doc, who was not on call and the on-call doc told us to go to the emergency room. So, I ran over to our church and caught our pastor just before he processed down the main aisle at the start of mass and told him that his worker had to go the hospital.
The bleeding was unbelievable. We just kept adding tissues and by the time we arrived in the ER, he had a wad of kleenex the size of a softball up at his nose and the blood was still pouring over top.
My poor baby....
The ER doctor couldn't find a cause for the bleeding but referred us to an ears, nose, and throat doctor, whom we saw the following week. He found a vessel that was getting ready to rupture again and cauterized it and told us to return in two months.
Fast forward to last week, and we saw the ENT doctor again, who suddenly informed me that my son probably should have surgery to remove his enlarged adenoids and repair his deviated septum, and that both of those issues are contributing to his nosebleeds. I questioned why he didn't tell me this at our initial visit and he responded that he made a note to this effect to himself in the chart. Needless to say, second opinion were the first two words that popped into my head. I contacted DuPont Hospital for Children to set up an appointment. It turns out the doc we met with is chairman of the ENT department at DuPont. He examined my son and told me his septum was "relatively straight" and that his adenoids were negligible at this age and that surgery is definitely, definitely not needed and that both of the issues the first doctor described would NOT contribute to his horrendous nosebleeds.
I am so glad we saw the second guy. He said the only surgery he would consider would be repair of a vessel in his nose if the cauterization no longer works. So, we are taking steps to help prevent the nosebleeds and so far, so good. My boy was a very happy camper after that second opinion....
Me, well I am busy aging and having lots of joint and bone pain, that hopefully I'll get to the bottom of on May 19 - the earliest appointment I could get with a rheumatologist. That may seem like a long time away from now, however I've had a lot of pain for many, many years so a couple of months isn't so bad.
In the meantime, I am taking photos here and there of just stuff....
My new camera strap from MyFunkyCamera! Beautiful isn't it?
Gerber Daisies we gave to my daughter for making fourth chair clarinet in an area concert.
A simple dripping icicle....
Life is rolling along, we are busy with the kids and their activities, and I am hoping to feel better soon. I am taking a zumba class. It's painful but fun, and I am doing my best to keep my joints moving. I just load up on Advil before I head out to class.
Oh, last week, when leaving Zumba class, I was approached by a man who told me his car broke down and he was trying to get to Wilmington, DE to visit his sick mom in the hospital. He was even carrying a long stem rose and a bottle of hand sanitizer to make it look legit. When I offered to him that the trolley stop was only several hundred yards behind him, he said he had no money. Luckily, a friend was right there with her car so she told me to get in the car, which I did, and then we drove to the police station and told them about the incident.... sort of scary and maybe it really was nothing but still we felt an obligation to report it.
I am looking forward to spring very much - getting outside and walking and not dealing with snow and ice. As of this moment, we are awaiting a big rain storm coming today and through tomorrow. On the bright side, Phillies spring training has begun so that means spring is definitely on its way. Thank goodness for having hobbies or I don't think I'd survive the winter. Well, except this winter is a bit better because we have the Olympics to enjoy every day, and I so enjoy them. Helps me to relive my days as a champion figure skater.....
