Homecoming And Gang Stuff And A Couple Other Things

It's not that I haven't been thankful lately, because I surely have. And it's not that I haven't had any stories to tell, because I've had some of those, too. But I've been so tired that I can hardly keep my eyes open when I finally get home at night, and I haven't even turned ON my laptop, let alone read or wrote anything. My brain is simply exhausted, that overwhelming tiredness that puts you on the verge of bringing out your inner two year old and lying down on the floor and crying into the carpet, arms and legs pounding the floor as you do. Ordinarily, I don't consider my day to be complete until I have watched Seth Meyers deliver his monologue, but since preschool started, I consider it a victory when I make it until the 9:00 news.

1. You may already know that I help a local photographer part time with shoots. but right after school started, I began working in the studio office a few afternoons a week. I haven't worked in an office situation since the College Boy turned two, and let me just tell you, my office skills are rusty at best. It makes me feel feel really stupid most of the time, but I am hopeful that I'm not too old of a dog to learn a few new tricks.

2. We are nearing the end of Emma's very last volleyball season. While I do enjoy watching her play, I won't miss sitting on bleachers for hours and hours and HOURS. Yesterday, we spent about 11 hours on wooden bleachers. Eleven. Hours.

3. Backtracking two weeks (I KNOW! I KNOW! I HAVE TOTALLY DROPPED THE BALL ON THIS 10 THINGS OF THANKFUL LATELY!), one of my mom's dear friends from my childhood decided while at my mom's memorial service to host a get together for the old "113th Street Gang." We spent a delightful afternoon at Betty's house, three of my "other mothers" and their daughters, all more like family than friends, and I never wanted the day to end. My mom would have loved being there, and she would have loved knowing we were all together, remembering her, reliving old days, and talking about the future. In fact, I believe my mom was watching us from Heaven, smiling and happy while she drank a cup of coffee and ate a couple ginger snaps.

The 113th Street Gang

4. Emma was nominated for Homecoming queen a few weeks ago. She has been nominated to be an attendant every year of high school but never got it, but she was cool with that, because all she wanted was to be nominated for queen her senior year, so she could wear a pretty dress out onto the football field. She got her wish!

5. We finally, FINALLY found a dress for Homecoming. We only had two weeks' notice that she was a candidate, and I told her flat out that I wasn't spending $500 for a dress she was going to wear for only an hour or two. She had a pretty specific vision of a sparkly dress that would look good under the lights, but it was impossible to find one. We looked at stores, she haunted a local Facebook page where girls buy and sell their prom dresses and other formals, and she also spent hours going through every Instagram account of every girl she even REMOTELY knew who might have a dress she could buy or borrow. Her perseverance finally paid off, and she purchased a dress from a girl who wore it two years ago to prom. 

6. Small problem with the dress Emma bought; it was a wee little bit too big and there was no time for alterations. It was kind of stretchy, so it wasn't as noticeable that it was loose in the fanny department, but the cups stood out away from her chest about 2 inches and you could look straight down and see her, well, boobs. We got very, very creative, and with suggestions from my sewing friend Janet, we stuffed, sewed, taped, pinned, elasticized, spackled, hot glue gunned, and stapled that dress onto her. I gave her escort instructions to take hold of the back of it and yank it up if he saw it sliding down in the back, and I was delighted and touched to see that he did, indeed, keep it in place for her. Thanks, Noah. You literally had her back on this one! (And by default, her front!)

Emma and her escort

7. No, she didn't win, but there was no sadness over that. Every girl on the court was a friend of hers, and she didn't care if she won or not. She had a wonderful time in her sparkly dress and that's all that mattered to her. 

Emma - Homecoming 2016

8. I'm also thankful for Kaitlyn, one of my preschool moms who is also a hair stylist and who made time in her very busy Friday to put Emma's hair up for the event. Emma had never had an up-do before, and she looked so much like a princess that it almost made me cry.

Isn't her hair PRETTY?

9. My in-laws live here in town, and they are very good about coming to Emma's volleyball games and concerts, and they came to the homecoming game as well (and our stadium is old, old, old, NOT handicapped accessible, and miserable for people to climb into whether you are up in years or not). To make the night even better, my dad came down and attended as well, and also stayed the night and went to the first part of the volleyball tournament Saturday morning. I know my mom was smiling about that one!

10. I've been holding out on this one, but I finally got myself that birthday present:

Meet Nora Pearl

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