Friday Favorites - prom, DC, and tearing down a deck

I usually don't participate in this fun group's Friday Favorites (although I spend a good amount of time on the weekends reading the links) but there is a lot to report this week and it's doubtful each will get its own blog post - ha!  Here is the link-up if you are interested in participating too:

Please take the time to visit each of the hosts' blogs - they are a great group of moms and I learn lots from them all!

PROM!!!  Oh wow.  I just realized that this is the only picture I have of Thomas by himself but his date's parents had a photographer so I will have some good ones :)

He looks soooooooooo good, doesn't he?!?  He must have said 100 times "this isn't my 'thing'" (and I totally get that) but I'm so, so, so glad that he went.  He's never done a formal HS dance and finished up his diploma criteria in December so the "end" of high school has been very anti-climatic.  Luckily his good friend from camp (where these pictures were taken) that he has known for over 10 years asked him and he said "yes".  She looked absolutely stunning -- he is/was a lucky guy!!

We traveled back to our kids' hometown for the dance and I think he liked seeing all of the people he would have graduated with had we not moved two years ago.  

Marie came with me -- we had a work day at Cedar Lake Camp beforehand -- and had lots of fun encouraging him as he put all the parts together on this suit :)

I got one picture with him too but had been working in the kitchen with Marie all day so was not as picture-ready as the prom-goers.

The sad part about it all was that it was raining.  And it wouldn't stop.  So pictures were on the porch and eventually they ventured out while it was "drizzling" to get a few formal ones on the bridge (I did not venture out so my picture is from afar).

They went to a friend's house for dinner, then the dance (the school held an open house a few hours before the dance so parents could see the decorations -- absolutely incredible!!!), they went bowling with another group of friends and then IHOP (which was, I think, what Thomas was most looking forward to - that makes sense if you know him!) and got in 1:30-ish.  M's parents and I went to dinner ourselves and then we stayed with them overnight before getting up at 5 a.m. to drive home just in time for my second Friday Favorite:

Frederick's trip to DC!

I literally pulled in the driveway at 7:40 and we were back in the car driving to school at 7:45 so he could check in for the trip at 8 a.m.

Yep, still rainy. . .

The trip didn't start out so well. . .the bus had a flat tire before reaching Monticello and so they missed that and didn't get into their beds until after 1 a.m.!!!  It made for a tired start to it all but every day he called and was full of news, information, and "Mom, you would really like this place!".  The biggest complaint from him was the food -- too many sandwiches and fast food.  Boo.  I wouldn't have liked that either.  

This is the first time one of the kids has been gone and we have communicated mainly with Facetime.  I loved it!  Especially since he's such a distracted kid -- we could see him walking in circles in his room, checking other things out around him, etc. and not be annoyed because his attention isn't 100% focused on our conversation.  Plus, he loved showing us all what he was buying for us as he was doing it.  He's a "gifty" kid so a top priority was making sure everyone got something from him when he got home.  

He got back after another early-morning delay due to bus issues -- he called at 12:30 last night and said I could pick him up in 40 minutes.  I was there with an egg mcmuffin (I figured he was probably hungry and probably not happy with more fast food) on time and we got an e-mail from the principal saying that the 8th graders didn't have to come to school today.  Good thing since it's after 10 a.m. and he's still sleeping!  (And has lots of lawns to mow after all this rain we have gotten this week. . .)  I can't wait to see all of his pictures and hear more stories this weekend. . .

And. . .the deck is GONE!!!

I'm not exactly sure how it passed inspection 1.5 years ago but the stair-less rotting deck is no more :)

And, of course, now that it's been torn down (that was Tuesday) and the footers dug (they finished Wednesday) it has done nothing but rain so the county inspection that was supposed to happen Thursday morning didn't happen.  Sigh.  'Tis spring weather.  It took us months to make a decision and now we're at the mercy of county inspectors and contractors who are behind on all of their jobs because of the weather.  C'est la vie.  The new deck will extend almost to the basement door so I'm very excited about a larger, more usable deck with stairs to our beautiful backyard.  

And there you go!!  My Friday Favorites -- it's been an eventful week around here.  In addition to all of the above, my garage shelves got purged and then I tackled Frederick's room yesterday while he was heading back from DC.

It was my Picture of the Day yesterday -- if I ever want to see it again like this I will have to find those bottom two pictures. . .sigh. . .good news though -- I'm sure at least 100 items of clothing left that room. . .either packed up (Thomas has out-grown and Frederick not ready), thrown out, or on its way out of the house!!  Yahoo!!

And then there was this morning:

The sunrise, mountains in the distance driving east at 6:45 a.m.  I love my 7 a.m. tennis on Friday mornings!

Have a super weekend -- we have a rare empty day Saturday and then Sunday we'll head back to Cookeville for church, a noon soccer state game for Marie, then back home for a 6 p.m. state game for Margaret.  This is a wonderful season of life for us!!

Love,

Jenni