MIA...but I have a good excuse

I've been trying really hard to post all week.  Really, I have.  But it's just been so overwhelmingly busy and my mind is mush from trying to remember everything on my plate over the next week.  So my fingers are flying fast to do this post and it won't get edited, so what you see is what you get today.  See not only is it Mother's Day on Sunday and my Dad's birthday on Monday, but it is also my Younger Girl's grad this weekend.  Yes, her school does grad on the Mother's Day weekend.  Only some guy could have planned grad to be on the day before Mother's Day.  There is nothing like sitting in a cold parking lot at 5 a.m. with a bunch of other parents, mostly mother's, waiting for your kid to get off the bus that brings them back from the safe grad on Mother's Day morning.  And then having your child sleep through Mother's Day.  Strange decision on behalf of the school.  But it is what it is.  And I'll rejoice because I've only actually had one child who attended safe grad and she strongly talked the other two out of going.  So Younger Girl is just gonna hang out with her friends but I still have to pick her up at her friend's on the other side of the city in the middle of the night sometime.

It sounds like our Graduations are done a bit differently here than in the States.  We don't have open houses or home parties with every relative and friend and aquaintance invited, or with tables of stuff showing off the school career of the grad.  We have the convocation on Saturday morning and then a dinner and dance on the Saturday night.  In between is mayhem as we run to the hairdresser to have her hair done, get her dressed and try to get some pictures taken with her all dressed to the nines.  We don't do proms around here so this is where the grads go all out in their dress for the evening and for them it is formal.  After dinner is a "Grand March" where they all walk around in a big parade, presumably to show themselves off.  That is actually my favorite part.  It's fun to look at all the girls in all their finery trying not to fall off their shoes and the boys looking uncomfortable as all get out in their suits, walking round and round the facility (which is a hockey arena with a floor laid down over the ice) first in pairs, then fours, then eights and then joining all together in the center for the big balloon drop. (If you're counting that's about 4 times around the floored over ice surface) By this time the girls are groaning and trying not to limp as their little toes are being pinched off by their fancy shoes and the boys are choking from not being used to wearing ties.  All while they are smiling and trying to look excited as they control they're breathing so they don't pass out as  maniacal parents vy for the best spots to take pictures as their precious grad walks by them.  I'm sure what is going through their minds as they march on is the composition of the letter they are going to write to the person who invented grand marches to begin with.  It probably seemed like such a great idea when they planned it, all the while sitting in jeans and running shoes.  LOL.

Speaking of the dress, (remember the dress?)

 in trying it on last week, we discovered that whereas it had been a perfect fit when we bought it, it is now falling off the Girl.  Darn those Pilates exercises.  So we were making a desperate run to my favorite seamstress to see if she could do such a last minute alteration.  I was prepared to go on bended knee.  But she is a can-do kind of lady and took it upon herself to get it done.  We pick it up the day before grad.  Then we still had to find shoes.  We finally found a pair last night.  We don't leave things to the last minute at all do we?   So here are the shoes...

I might just steal borrow them after grad is done and they are thrown into the bottom of the closet.

So I guess all that is to say I'll be back sometime next week.  I have much to put into a FFF, but won't be able to get one done this week.  Have no fear though, I'll still put up the post and you guys can go ahead and  be grateful and thankful and share your favorites.  I'll try to read them at the beginning of next week.  I'll see you when I can come up for air.