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!
Paige came home at the end of the summer for about 10 days of relaxation, interspersed with doctors appointments and dental checkups and haircuts. The time flew by, and before we knew it it was time once again for her to head back for all her sorority recruitment stuff…
Before the very last first day of school picture! (Selfie)
As she begins her final semester of college!
Tim and I drove over for parents weekend, and to attend her sorority’s “Red Dress Gala,” which benefits women’s heart health. Our drive over didn’t begin very auspiciously, but we did arrive eventually, and loved spending time with Paige and meeting her friends!
Summer was a bit of a whirlwind this year. Paige stayed in Tallahassee, working as a nanny for a local family and taking a class…coming home for beach weekends whenever possible. She also babysat for her cousins and a few other local families and managed to save quite a bit of money for the next semester.
Clay was working two part time jobs, sending out resumés and applying for jobs on handshake and LinkedIn daily, contacting recruiters…and hoping something would turn up. Let’s just say that the environmental field is not what it was a couple of years ago.
Tim and I traveled to North Carolina to visit my mom at the beginning of the summer and to Washington D.C. at the end of the summer.
Over spring break Paige and I decided at the last minute to try to take a trip. We wanted to go to Edinburgh, but the flights were all full so by process of elimination (we could get on a flight!), we decided to go to London for a couple of days.
We love the Victoria and Albert Museum- it was full of fun stuff, and we wandered and meandered our jet lagged selves around until it was time for a spot of tea.
Of course we had to make the trek out to King’s Cross and visit Platform 9 3/4. It was très touristy, but it had to be done!
Girl’s night out!
We also went to Oxford and Oxford was AMAZING! I loved Oxford. It was charming. It was full of history, and gargoyles, ghost stories and interesting stuff, and statues, and even more gargoyles and I wanted to stay FOREVER! We only had time to visit one of the colleges at Oxford- Christ Church; and that was only a fleeting visit at best. But we made time for a visit to the Great Hall in Bodley Tower which was the inspiration for the great hall in the Harry Potter movies (they’re almost an exact replica!) The Hall was built in the 1500’s and has been in almost constant use since the sixteenth century. Even today, it’s used as a dining hall for the students at Christ Church.
We stopped to browse in Alice’s Sweet Shop, where Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice In Wonderland used to shop for sweets when her father (and author of book), Henry George Liddell, was the Dean of Christ Church.
We, naturally, visited the Tower. Yes, it’s also touristy. I know. I don’t care. We go every time we’re in London. I love it. I love the Yeoman Warders. I love the ravens.
And OF COURSE we visited my favorite place, The British Museum! If you’ve never been, and you ever get to London you should definitely make the time to go. The British Museum has an amazing collection of items, collected over centuries. They rotate their collections rather often as well (and the museum is so large and collections so extensive), that I find that even though we visit every time we are in London I always find new treasures to be enthralled by. And of course, they have The Rosetta Stone , they have the largest collection of Egyptian objects outside of Egypt, and a portion of the Parthenon (or Elgin Marbles), and the Sutton Hoo Collection, and the Vindolanda Tablets.
We were only there 3 days, but we crammed a lot into those 3 days (including a day trip to Oxford 😍), and we had a fabulous time!
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.
It’s officially summer vacation in the VK household!
After slogging through finals week, the kids have finished their semesters. Clay is happily leading paddleboard tours nearly every day and Paige will start her summer job in a couple of weeks.
Since she has a bit of time before she starts her job, we thought we’d take off for a mom/daughter trip in a couple of days. But in the meantime, we’re all enjoying the slower pace of summer 😊.
The spring weather here in Florida has been delightful and Tim and I have been enjoying our evening beach walks immensely. It’s that perfect time of year – not too warm, not too cool – just perfectly wonderful.
Paige was able to come home for Easter weekend and we had a nice, relaxing family weekend. We had home cooked meals, family movie nights, slept late every morning, (well, the kids did…) and enjoyed lazy beach days. It was wonderful. I think the kids really appreciated the weekend of laziness as they are in the final stretch of spring semester. Clay has final exams this week and Paige has hers next week.
Paige has been filling out applications, looking for a summer job. Clay will start his summer semester in a couple of weeks and will also be working. I’m looking forward to having the whole family together under one roof again for a few months. 😊
Spring break was a bit of a disappointment this year, especially for the kids. We all had plans; to lounge blissfully on the beach, to go hiking at http://www.gtmnerr.org/, go kayaking, etc. Mother Nature wasn’t feeling very cooperative, however, and a nasty cold front came through and spring break felt more like winter break.
So…instead of lounging blissfully on the beach, we curled up under blankets and read and watched movies. When the sun finally came out and the temperature warmed up a little bit, the kids went hiking anyway (it was brisk, but fun).
The final day of spring break it finally warmed up enough for Paige and I to wake up early and crawl out of our warm beds, grab our cameras and some coffee and head to the beach to catch the sunrise. Tim scoffed at us the night before. He actually guffawed when we told him we were going to wake up early and go watch the sunrise.
Oh yeah!
That’s right, Mister. We were up at the butt crack of dawn, and we’ve got photographic proof!
Hmph. Guffawing at us. So rude.
Anyway, it was really nice. Bonding experience, peaceful, spiritual, blah blah.
We came home and had some more coffee, ran some errands, Paige got a couple hours in at the pool and cuddled with Jack, Clay went fishing, and then….
Spring break was over.
Monday, when the kids started back at school, temperatures were in the 80’s.
Mother Nature hates my kids.
Tchin Tchin! 