After three and half years of late nights, too many hours spent in the library (and Starbucks!), and lots and lots of papers (on terrorism, and Pol Pot, and lots written in French on eighteenth century literature…and, sadly, even on existentialism)…
Paige graduated (early!) from Florida State University! Hip Hip Hooray!
(Tim and I are now the proud parents of TWO COLLEGE GRADUATES!) 🎉🎊
CONGRATULATIONS PAIGE!
I’ve been remiss in my blogging, once again. Here’s all the stuff I wasn’t blogging about…
Before Paige’s college suspended all greek life, her sorority held their philanthropy event- a Red Dress Gala for women’s heart health, and had a couple of social events.
She also spent a lot of time studying…
We loved having the whole family together for Thanksgiving….
Tim and I decided to be tourists one day, and took a trolley tour in St. Augustine (We’ve never done that before! 😳😂) We walked all along St. George Street And did some Christmas shopping, had lunch, and had a fabulous day.
The family went for a nice hike in Guana over Thanksgiving weekend before the kids had to get back to classes. It was a great way to end the weekend (after eating all that turkey 🦃)!
Clay got to spend a day out on the water doing some research before exams, which he appreciated!
I spent a weekend tackling a couple of projects- repainting our patio set, and chalk painting this table. I love how it turned out!
Level Dance Company performed in the homecoming parade, and Paige had a reunion with her Paris friends (from study abroad.)
The past few weeks have been incredibly busy- and a little bit stressful as well! Hurricane Irma was all over the place – tracking to the east, then tracking to the west, then back to the east…as a result, the entire state of Florida was evacuating…including us! At one point Irma looked like it was going right over Tallahassee, so Paige drove home to evacuate to the hotel inland with us. We packed up the house, rolled up rugs, put furniture on top of beds, packed books in plastic bins, tried to prepare (as much as possible) for the possibility that there might not be a house to return to. It’s a strange feeling. We froze gallon containers of water and put them in the refrigerator and freezer. We packed our cars with coolers of food for the hotel, and with flashlights and important papers and medications, and irreplaceable items and photos. And then we drove away. We waited as long as possible to leave…because…we were freezing water bottles and still trying to prep the house and because, honestly- I didn’t want to leave. It’s weird to leave your house and all your stuff and wonder if it’ll be there when you get back.
The drive inland was crazy. The outer bands were already hitting us and the winds were starting to get really crazy and it was hard to keep the car on the road. Sand was whipping everywhere. Crazy!
Once at the hotel, things were fine. We never even lost power! (Very unusual!) When we were finally allowed to come home, we found that our little beach town was just devasted. Homes were washed into the beach. Tornadoes ripped homes apart. The destruction was terrible. Thankfully, once again, our neighborhood fared pretty well. And our house only had minor soffit and screen damage and some minor roof damage. There was some flooding in the streets but nothing ever reached the homes.
The good news is that we did not lose much food. Freezing the gallon jugs of water worked. While we did lose power for almost 5 days, our outside freezer had two frozen things of water, and everything in there stayed frozen! The inside fridge was still cold when we got home – we transferred most everything into the freezer – although we did throw out the milk and mayonnais, just to be safe. But everything else stayed cold and or frozen, so our frozen water jugs worked!
We eventually got electricity and internet back, and in the meantime our battery operated fans were a lifesaver! Unfortunately, it took our neighborhood a month to get our beach access fixed (it was only restored yesterday), so that has been kind of a bummer.
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In other news, Clay has started a new job, which he’s really enjoying. Paige has been having a lot of fun with her sorority. She met her “big,” went on a new member retreat, and she’s also been busy with Level Dance Club and teaching ESL to a local elementary student through FSU’s volunteer outreach. She also turned 21!
The summer flew by. The kids were busy working and saving money for school. They both worked a LOT. We enjoyed having the whole family together under one roof again for a few months (me especially) and tried to savor the days we got to spend together.
Sadly, the summer passed much too quickly and before we knew it we were loading Paige up to head back to school…
A few days later, while she was busy going through recruitment, Clay and I (because we’re the most awesome mom/brother EVER) drove to Tallahassee and moved all her stuff from her storage unit to her new apartment. And got everything set up. We made her bed, hung her clothes, set up her printer, put groceries away! It was eighty gazillion degrees in Tallahassee And probably at least a trazillion degrees humidity. No, of course I’m not exaggerating! 🙄 Trust me, it was super hot and humid.
But Paige got a short break and was able to run to the apartment so we were able to see her and have lunch with her before we drove back. It was wonderful to see her again (and amazing how much I missed her already after only a week!)
Both kids seem to be settling in nicely to their classes. Recruitment went well for Paige and she got a bid from Alpha Phi, which made her very happy. She’s also quite busy with Level Dance Company this year, as well as doing some volunteer work.
Tchin Tchin! 