"Dog Bones and Dorms"

So I sent Chris off to camp bright and early at 7:00 a.m. this morning. All of his sets of clothes in the suitcase are in big ziplock bags marked with the day he is supposed to wear it. HaHa! Just kidding! (Although that is a great tip I picked up from fellow children's camp parents.) I could never be that organized. That is the week my boys can wear the same outfit for 3 days if they want and I don't have to pretend I don't notice - while secretly inside clapping for joy that I have way less laundry when they pull these stunts.

I'm alone with the kids right now - Sarah and Jonathan take off for camp on Tuesday, once the Jr. High get back, and me and Jacob will be doing our best to manage Elisabeth by ourselves for the next 8 days. (This child literally takes all 5 of us to raise!) First thing this morning Elisabeth decided she liked Matty's (our dog) snack much better than she liked her snack -which was a cracker. She gives Matty her cracker. Matty willingly takes its off to a corner and munches away happily. Then she spots Matty's nasty, slobbery, chewed up bone - picks it up and just as she gets ready to put it in her mouth, I clap real loud and say "NO!" She just took off crawling faster with her little chubby fist clenched tightly around that bone. She would NOT give it up! I finally catch her and I take the bone, she throws a fit, and I'm ready to send her to camp with her dad. After that little episode Sarah asked me to go dorm shopping with her. I am just so thrilled that I get to spend the day with my "original" baby girl. We leave the boys at home in front of their XBOX (all is well there). It was so much fun looking at all the cool dorm stuff with her. She patiently listened to all my college stories that she has probably already heard 50 times. I even went into detail about "when I went shopping for my dorm stuff at Walmart...." and THEN when we got home I pulled out the college photo album and had a picture my old dorm room in Leslie Hall!!! The memories!!!  (Two things, Sarah's stuff did not even remotely -  not even from the same planet - come close to how I decorated.  And for the record, I do not decorate like this anymore! I would be living all alone in my blue and mauve country knick knack house if I even THOUGHT about it!)

Sarah recently got her dorm assignment for SBU and she will soon be a resident of Beasley Hall.  What cracks me up is that during one of her visits she heard that Beasley was "the fun girls dorm where everyone acts crazy."   That is the exact reputation it had 20 years ago!!! Once Chris heard that was going to be her dorm he would walk around the house talking in his best sounding cool 80's voice saying, "Sarah's gonna be a Beasley Babe....."  I'm like, "honey, if you are going to walk around talking like that, then grow your mullet back out."

This is my husband back in the day trying to impress those "Beasley Babes."

Now I lived in Leslie Hall but I still managed to have about as much fun in a dorm as your R.A. will allow.  My R.A. was also one of my best friends.  Tonight tucked away in my photo album I found write up slips from her given to me for being to loud!! And another one for pounding on the floor!! (What was I thinking? I totally grouch at my kids now for acting that way!)

Kaari was always so sweet when handing me these even though I can pretty much guarantee I drove her crazy and she still would probably love to come to my house and be obnoxiously loud while I'm trying to sleep and pound on my floor for no reason at all.

Kaari figured if she couldn't settle me down, she might as well join me!

I was telling the kids tonight that my SBU days were four of the best years of my life.  Which then they looked at me and said, "But what about when you had us?!?!?!"  (oops! some thoughts are better left unsaid.  - joking again kids!)  Rut really, that is when THEIR story started!!! I met their oh-so-cool-lookin-mullet-wearing-dad.  We got married.  We had Sarah - in BOLIVAR! She spent her first year crawling around a tiny apartment, in BOLIVAR! And now she is returning to where it all started.  Wow. I am so thankful SBU was in the Lord's plan for me -  the life long friendships - which led to my husband - which led to my kids - "For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)
I'm so glad my original baby girl is willing to follow God's plan for her life.  And of course I'm tickled pink that God's plan includes SBU for her right now.  And if she thinks that just shopping for dorm stuff brings out all these stories and pictures - just wait till' the day when we move her in!!  I can't wait to get back on campus!! I guarantee we will embarrass her.