2016 Blue Jeans Week 34

 Crazy week last week.  We entered a new phase of life and parenthood as we drove 1200 miles to take Miss A to college and back in just a few days.  We got home and the other kids started school.  Busy week.  It was wonderful and awful, fun and sad, horrible and exciting.  Lots of tears were shed.  Thanksgiving is a long time to wait to see this girl of ours, but we are so grateful she has this opportunity!  What a great age to be, what a great place to be and study and learn and grow!!!  We are so excited for her, just sad for us because we are going to miss her like crazy!  I am just very glad we live in an age with instant communication---talk, text, skype, video chat, whatever.  We can keep in constant contact :)  Take a look at our week. . .

This is Miss A' dorm on campus, and it is so nice and new!  Got her moved in.  Thank heavens there were big carts to load up all her stuff and elevators!  

This is her bedroom

Her kitchen

And her living room with huge windows that look out on the mountains.  She was excited!

And this was our last picture with her right before we left her.  Ugh.  That was hard to drive away and wave good-bye, and then Ben and I had 1200 miles to alternate between driving and crying on the way home.

Got home Wednesday night and school started for our kids Thursday morning.  No rest for the weary!  Miss O is ready to hit school as a junior!

Miss E is starting high school this year as a freshman.

Mr J in his second year at the middle school as a 6th grader with his saxophone and ready to start band!!!

And while we were doing that, Miss A was having freshman orientation.  Isn't this cool?  She said she was somewhere in the middle :)

And she sent us this from her first college volleyball game surrounded by friends.  Makes me happy!

So we made it through that tough week. Coming home was hard.  I went to set the table and got out 6 plates and about cried.  I didn't need 6 plates anymore, I only needed 5.  Little things like that jolt me.  I still expect her to come home from school with the other kids.  Life marches on.  As a young mother it used to annoy me how often people would say, "Enjoy this time, it goes so fast."  Yeah, yeah I would say.  Now I understand better--it does go by way too fast and you think those kids are going to be around forever, but they aren't, and you don't want them to be  :)  You want them to grow and progress.  It is a good thing she is healthy and strong and able to attend college.  So many in the world do not have that privilege.  I am excited for her and this new phase of life.  Not quite so excited about the phase of life it puts me in, but that is ok.  I have 3 more kids at home to enjoy the short time I have left with them!  Life does go by really fast, so enjoy!!!  Have a great week!