Less Than One Year Left

Fremont Studentbody Officers 2010/2011

From left to right:

Brady Craft, Nicole Fisher, Aubree Scott, Des my darling daughter,

Sadie Meyer, Parker Burrows and last but not least,

The tall man in the rear, Tate Lewis

This is it! Come May of 2011 I'll be sitting in the stands at Weber State University. I'll have picked out my seat the second some WSU employee shows up to unlock the door. I'll be sitting somewhere close where I can snap a million pictures. (I'd sit on the floor in front of the procession if they'd let me.) The second I see her file under the archway into the double line procession dressed in her pretty blue cap and gown, I'll jump over the wall like a gold medalist poll vaulter, camera in hand and I'll snap enough pictures to fill up another hard drive. And when they stop to read her name . . . I'll start sobbing like a sad sap. My whole frame will heave up and down and my shoulders will shake like a man with Parkinson's, and the tears will flow steady and so hard the janitors will have to bring every mop in the building. I'll have to put my camera on automatic because I won't be able to see a darn thing for the wall of water that will be cascading down my face.

In a less than a year my little baby girl is going to graduate and I'll be all washed up as a school mom. Pasturized in a split second the minute she grabs her tassel hanging from that square blue scholarly hat of hers and flips it to the other side of her head. That's it ---that's the monumental moment I'll be finished ---done for good so to speak! There are no more to come. No more kids in the house jumping on school busses or dashing to their cars to speed through Plain City. She's it! That's all she wrote! And when the whole event is over, I'm thinking of picking out a pine box and renting a long black hurst to carry myself home in.

Call me crazy if you like, but I'd rather eat rust laden nails than see this era of my life come to an end. I just got the hang of it. I'm polished and perfected now. I know what to scream about and what to let roll off my back like a fat duck in a monsoon downpour! I feel bad, I really practiced on the first ones to come along, but then I got better, and better, and better! Now (for reals) I'm a sheer genius in the field. Someone should hand me my Doctorate in Child Rearing! I'm really, really smart now. I should go on tour and speak to millions of parents everywhere sharing my profound wisdom! I'm seasoned, wise, and extraordinarily perfected in the art. I'm surprised people aren't lining up at my door saying, "Here, take my kid." I'm not joking and I've got some serious hours under my belt. I just know people would pay me top dollar if they could buy my wisdom! Some day I'm going to write a book. I am! I swear!

Today Des came bounding out of the house all dressed in her brand new white student body officer sweater. I was just coming back from running so I didn't even have my camera to capture the moment. I had to make her come back later that day and pose for the picture featured above. She looked so cute!!! She'd put her makeup on, a thing she rarely does and she'd fixed her hair all pretty. No pony tails today! Her face was glowing with that effervescent spirit that radiates from her whole soul. She's shines the brightest light every where she goes. She was late and hurrying as usual. Senior pictures today!

I watched her climb in that clunky blue car of hers. I thought of Goose and Gavin and the days they use to drive it to school. I thought about how fast time slips by and how the best parts of life happen in a fraction of a second and take you totally by surprise. The best parts of life are rarely anything you planned on!

I stood there savoring the moment and then I watched her brown curls fade into the distance as she drove away. I turned and sat down on the bottom step. Yup, I immediately had to sit myself right down. And then I started to cry. I was so sad even the cat took pity on me. She looked up at my tear stained face and came and sat right in my lap. Then I made my bold proclamation. I said, "Sassy," and I grabbed her furry striped face and pulled it close to mine. "I wish I could go back and do it all over again." I meant it too.  I meant every single solitary word! I'd raise my kids again in a split second.  All of them ---every single one of them, are the best kids you'll ever meet! And raising them, oh my, all those years of growing them up and out, well now, I don't care what anyone says, that's the best part of life you could ever experience!

I'm so glad I'm a mother!!! And I'm even happier I chose to have 8 fantastic kids.  I got the best kids on the planet! And if I could have one wish today, I would take this year and slow it right down, freeze it if I could. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it, hold on tight to every second. Savor it with all my senses, like one of those giant jaw breakers. I'm going to take a long time licking the sweetness out of this ---My last year with a high school kid! (Sigh)