Graduation

Finally, a crafty item again.
It's been fun to sit down and make something again.
Hard to believe this is the week - another milestone moment and I get closer to having an empty nest.

I love Memorial Day. We have so much to be grateful for. For the sacrifices of so many, Thanks to them and to the Lord for this country that I love! Tomorrow we are playing softball with some other families in the morning and having the traditional cookout later. It's going to be a hot day, but should be a good one too.

Tuesday is high school graduation. Next Sunday is seminary graduation. As I put up pictures of Steven's life yesterday on a poster for the seminary graduation I purposely made it completely non-scrapbooky. I didn't want this poster to be anything about my creativity. I wanted it to be ALL about my boy. Starting at 3 months and including 35 pictures up to April of this year, the pictures show how much he has grown up. Sorting through the ones I have taken through the years was a bittersweet opportunity. How grateful I am for all the pictures I took. Deep down, I don't think its possible for there to be too many photos. It made me so grateful for all the scrapbooking I have done because it was easy for me to put things in order and to have choices of photos to draw from. It also made me cry more than once.

Why does it have to be almost over already? It seems like just yesterday he was so excited to go to his grandma's house as a toe-headed three year old. How excited we were when he picked up a book and started reading his first words. How fun has it been to just sit and talk with him or watch a great game and share in the enthusiasm for the team we're rooting for? Now, here he is, driving and dating and graduating from high school. I will miss so many of the new excitements in his life. As excited as I am for those opportunities that await him, and wouldn't want him to miss any of them, I will miss him.

He wasn't always an easy child. His personality has changed twice, dramatically. When he was seventeen months and again when he was thirteen. In both times he physically changed almost overnight. The first time, it was like his body and his brain became disjointed, and fortunately, they hooked up again when he became a teenager. In the middle, it wasn't always fun. He was like a rebel without a cause yet with a smile and an easiness to his spirit that gave me hope. What he never lost was a love and commitment for family that has contintued to grow and that blesses our family in a hundred ways today. I will miss his good influence. He is an example to us all.

So, tonight, I had him put on his robes, and pose for some pictures on this beautiful late spring day. He received the Duty To God award today also. It is also my Dad's birthday, so it just seems fitting that it be a tribute to the legacy he will carry on as a righteous priesthood holder, doing his duty to God for the rest of his life. It's a day to remember. He set a lot of goals and has reached many of them this year. Spiritually, scholastically, Scouting, its been a big year and now he's on his way to the next phase of life. I guess one is never ready, but here we go. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be his mother!