Whew!

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but we made it!

We had a beautiful day for Christina's party. The day before was warm and humid, so we turned on the air conditioning, which takes at least three days of straight running before it really begins to cool the house done. We've tried everything, but for some reason our house likes to be warm.

Anyway, Friday evening we opened all the windows and have kept them open ever since. It was warm again yesterday, but only in the 70s with a nice breeze.

To back up a bit, Luke has been busy working on the yard and house to help get ready for the party. Christina has been working hard too, pulling weeds, cleaning the kitchen, and dusting. We've all been getting stuff out of the house and into storage to diminish clutter. (Our goal is to deal with the clutter and cancel our storage lease!)

In the midst of all this, Tim has been looking to buy an older home or two to refurbish and rent. There are so many homes that banks are practically giving away. His bid on a north Minneapolis home was accepted this past week, and the closing date is July 7 (Luke's birthday). Mark plans to move in and help Tim fix it up. Tim's looking to get into the rehab business and answer more to himself than to demanding homeowners who don't pay him what he's worth (in my humble opinion) as a taping contractor.

Anyway, back to the party. I took Thursday afternoon and all day Friday off. Thursday I took Raven to Petsmart to get groomed. It might sound like a ridiculous thing to do during such a busy time, but my thought was that he needed it and if he were groomed the clumps of fur that kept appearing around the house would disappear. I was right, and he is now one handsome dog!
Friday was spent running around with my friend Beckie. In the morning (before it got too hot) I baked brownies and banana bread. In the afternoon Beckie and I went to buy paper goods. In the evening we went to Sam's Club and bought all the food.

Meanwhile, Tim had received a call from a friend wondering if he had any work for a young Mexican man who had recently moved up from Atlanta and was looking for construction work. Well, we set him to painting our back porch as well as our railings and other trim around the house. Jose did a really great job.

Saturday, day of the party. We set up a tent, tables and chairs in the back yard and back porch, after the kids and Tim hosed and finished cleaning up the back porch (and swept away ant hills and pulled more weeds). Christina was sent to pick up the cake. I did last minute vacuuming and dusting, and make a last minute trip to Cub for ice and a couple of things we didn't find at Sam's. Dale and Beckie arrived and went straight to work on getting the food ready. Christina and her boyfriend Travis and I got the main display table set up with pictures, the cake, an autograph book and graduation confetti. Tim somehow managed to find time to put together a slide show of pictures of Christina through the years and displayed them on his laptop next to the display table. Mark put balloons and yard signs outside. Raven took up residence on our upper deck, were he had a bird's eye view of the party doings (and occasionally let us know). Christina ran off to her friend Emily's grad party for a bit, and Tim's dad's cousin Warren arrived early (while she was gone, unfortunately). We tried to convince Warren to stay, but he politely declined and dropped off a card for Christina.

Then Christina got home, people started arriving and it was really fun. People from work came, Christina's friends from school, family and old church friends. We were surprised when our former youth pastor and his wife came--they were in Indiana we thought, but recently moved back to Minnesota and got wind of the party. There were several people from our former church, and we got a "Trinity reunion" picture. Lots of fun.

Dale and Beckie were wonderful, and I was able to relax and enjoy the party.

Oh, also, the day before the party my dad called to tell me my sister was in the hospital. She had severe chest pains and went by ambulance. She later called me from her hospital bed to say her heart was fine, and she was diagnosed with esophageal spasms, which can mimic a heart attack. My blood sugar that morning (Friday) was 340 (pretty high), but after working hard all day and after Cheri's reassuring phone call, it dropped to 97. Stress can elevate blood sugar. For some reason with my dad it seems the opposite. Cheri's husband called my parents (a block away) right after he called the paramedics. Dad's blood sugar dropped and my mom (who has athritic knees) ran home and got the car while my brother-in-law gave him juice to bring him around. You can read more about my sister's adventures at her blog.

Well, the party went really well, we saw lots of old friends, and we had plenty of food. I'm planning to bring some to work tomorrow. This afternoon I laid down to take a little nap and woke up almost THREE hours later! I've been averaging about 6-7 hours of sleep the last week or so, which isn't much for me. It feels good to be rested!

Thanks to those of you who have prayed for Christina over the last many years--especially this last one. She finished strong and we are proud, and glad to be officially done with high school stuff! However, it seems that parenting adult children can have its own challenges as well...but it's fun to see the parent-child relationship turn into an adult relationship (although I guess we'll never really consider our children peers...)

We are grateful to God for our children and for his many blessings. Happy summer to you all!

Till next time,


Suzi