Cedar Chest Memories

There is an antique cedar chest, passed down to me from my Mother, that sits at the foot of our bed.

It holds all my sentimental items from my children's baby photos, all the little pictures and gifts my kids have made me to every single card my husband has given me.

Every time I lift it's squeaky lid, I am flooded with the smell of cedar and an almost overflowing collection of memories.

Mark and I recently celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary so I was putting the anniversary cards away in it.

Feeling a little melancholy today and missing my kids... I know I shouldn't have "lingered" there...

But I did...

And although I teared up a little at some of the children's precious projects and words to me, I also smiled a lot when I came across my high school yearbook, scrapbook, wedding album, as well as an old photo of my sister and I.

Here is my graduation picture.



Here is Mark's (husband) graduation picture. We both graduated in the same class at the same school in 1982.



Here is a yearbook picture of Mark and I in the halls of our high school.



These are my best friends from high school. From left to right: Bob (Bobby to me, lol), Irene, Mark (my husband), Me, Darrin (my highschool sweetheart of three years) & Dave. This picture was taken on Senior Skip Day. My boyfriend Darrin was good friends with my husband Mark. Bob & Mark are still best friends to this day. Bob dated my best friend Irene so we were a pretty tight group back then.



This picture was taken on Graduation night when all of us seniors had a bon fire at the lake to burn all of our homework and term papers. Left to right Bobby, Darrin, & Mark.



Here's Mark and Darrin at an "after prom party" that we went to. Mark and his date, Bob & Irene and Darrin and I all went to prom together.



Here is Mark and I on our wedding day, July 25th, 1999.



Now I'm so nostalgic over these photo's and memories. I'm listening to 80's music and reminiscing.



Here's the picture of me and my sister. We are 9 months apart.

Hail to the Graduate!

Yesterday, my husband and I attended a graduation party of one of our dear friends son.

The party started at 2:00pm. Our group of friends planned on all getting there around 4:00pm.

Earlier in the day, my husband and I were working on installing a fountain for our pool. My oldest daughter walked over to our house with her daughter to go swimming with us. I commented on what a beautiful day it was for the graduation party and how grateful I was for the hosts.

It was warm and sunny. I got a little sunburned.

I went in the house around 2:30pm to shower and get ready for the graduation party.

Dark clouds moved in quickly. There was lots of lightning and thunder. It was super windy.

Then it started to hail.

Hail like I've never witnessed in my life!
It rained so hard, the streets were flooding. The temperature dropped 20 degrees.

The graduation party was only 20 minutes from our house. I prayed that our friends had the where with all to rent tents, but even then, the rain was blowing sideways.

We made it to the party. Thank Goodness, there were tents, which we were all huddled under for most of the evening.

We had a great time visiting with all of our friends. This was the first "kick-start" party of our summer. We made plans and promises of getting together this summer. There is a girls get away day in the works. Our group of friends and our kids are meeting at the Dream Cruise in August. And we're all dying to try out Bill and Gayle's margarita machine so we've set aside a night for that.