After 18 years, I was still horribly unprepared for this.

My baby is off at college now. I can't believe it! Here's a few pictures I took over the past few days:


Packing up the van on Friday.


Being a nut.


Hannah and Kali playing in their room. :)

In the dorm room! Her roommate wasn't there yesterday; she should be there now.


More of the room. Her bed is fairly high off the ground, so there was plenty of room to store stuff underneath it. Kali said she was going to sleep under there.







Hanging out in the bathroom. :)


Don't we all look like a lovely bunch? Oh lord.


Yes, you read it right - there's housekeeping. I want that!


View out of her window; please excuse the screen.




Going back to the van.


The campus is so pretty. Hopefully I'll be back over there soon visiting Mary. That is, if she'll let me in!


The girls HAD to sleep in her room last night. Well, Hannah fell asleep in there, but Kali didn't. She couldn't fall asleep and ended up sleeping in our bed. She said "mom, where do you think Mary's sleeping tonight? Do you think she's in her dorm room now in bed?" Oh my. Just about broke my heart.

I will tell you that leaving Mary at UCF was ugly for me. I was totally unprepared for how awful I felt. Really, I felt like I up and left her there. She thought that was kinda funny. The energy in the house has totally changed and I'm trying to get used to it. The girls have been playing in her room most of the day after we gave it a good cleaning. :) Hannah has already taken over the closet, too.

She ended up having to work today at Penny's. According to her, it was hell. I bet she'll sleep well tonight! Classes start tomorrow for her. She is going to be one busy girl. Hopefully she'll find a few moments to squeeze the rest of us in. :)

I still can't believe she's there, though. It's so odd. I had 18 years to prepare myself for this, and I was not. I know she's going to be just fine out there, but it doesn't make her leaving here any easier. I miss you, Mary, and I love you.

Our week with Grandma and Grandpa

We had a blast while Grandma and Grandpa were here.  Why does that week always fly by in warp speed?!  I keep trying to convince them to take 2 weeks, but so far, no luck!  Hmmmm........should I take that personally?!  ;)  Just kidding.  I have a TON of pictures, and while I won't put them all up here, here are some of the best ones.

Ahhh....before I get to those pictures, let me just say one thing.....It's freakin' hot!  It was 82 this morning at 5:30 when I went out for a run.  The humidity was through the roof.  It really is awful outside and my run was just as horrid.  It should 'cool off' by the end of the week.  This means that it should be 77 in the morning and not 82.  Hopefully that will help.

Okay, on to the pictures......


See what Grandma does when she comes to visit us?  We must be boring people.  ;)


The girls wanted to play a game of Old Maid with them.  Alex lost. 


Grandpa is hoping that changing the color of the bird house will finally get some birds in there.  I'm not sure they really wanted to live in a hot pink house.  The house is now black and beige; it's as close to UCF's black and gold as we'd get.


I just want to eat her!


Trying to spray the house. 


Hey, look!  A new flower basket.  Don't worry, mom, they are getting enough water.


Playing a game of Yahtzee with Grandma.  I think Hannah lost this one.


But she won the bowling game.  A few times.  :) 


Grandma's running away with my basket.  Come back!!!!  Actually, there were some yummy shrimp grilled in there that night.  I looooooove shrimp.




On Tuesday they took Mary out shopping for a fridge for her dorm room, so I decided to roll out some pasta.  I made some turkey italian sausage, too, and then made some sauce.  I made some herb garlic bread, but we had a slight technical difficulty!  As I was preheating the oven to put the bread in, I saw a flash, heard a pop, and then I ran and turned off the oven.  Turns out that my element bit the dust for the 2nd time (does this mean I cook too much?!).  We have since found out that you can bake some yummy bread on the grill!  Disaster averted.  :)  The element has been replaced and hopefully it won't go out again.


Seriously, have you seen a cuter child?!?!?  She's so darn funny, too.


Painting with Grandpa!  Hannah did a great job on the roof.  The bird house is now hanging in the back yard; hopefully we'll have some residents soon.

Speaking of the back yard, Alex finally was able to get rid of the bees.  We had a huge bee hive in the wall in our yard.  There was about a 1/4" space in between two parts of the wall (we have a subdivision behind us and their wall is in our yard) and the bees decided it would be a great place to live.  NOT.  They are not there anymore.  Yeah!


Sitting outside of Cracker Barrel.  We stopped there for breakfast on our way to UCF. 


After we got done at UCF, we went over to Downtown Disney and had dinner at T-Rex.  The little ones love it there.  Kali is a dinosaur FREAK!


Mary and Hannah playing Tic-Tac-Toe


Watch out for Tyrannosaurus Grandma!!!!!  She'll eat you alive.


We went to the beach for lunch one day (well, two days, but here's one of them).  Although it was hotter than hell, the breeze and shade were perfect for sitting outside for lunch.  I need to go back there soon.


Hi Grandpa!!!


Cooling off at lunch.


I bet you wish you were here, too!


I could have sat on this swing for hours.






We went to Wiregrass Mall and the girls got some puppets.  They were having a blast with them when they got home. 




Back at the beach for lunch!  I had the girls do this for Alex.  Now he has a cute picture of them to hang in his office. 


Hey Mary!!  FISH HEAD!!!!


It finally cooled off enough for the girls to ride their bikes.  Seriously, people, it was Africa-flippin-hot out all week.  Today it's worse.


Watch out for speeding Peetie!


And he THOUGHT he was on vacation! 


I think he wanted to ride it all the way home.


Planting flowers with Grandma.


Did I mention that I want to eat her up?


Hannah's turn!


She's not exactly fond of the dirt.  ;)


Happy Father's Day!!!


We fed the men well that morning.  I only make my cinnamon rolls for birthdays or holidays.  I figured this one had to count!


Playing one last game before we had to leave for the airport.  :(

As always, the week went by way too fast.  Dang it.  And at the end of this week, Mary's leaving for Orlando and UCF.  This is not right!  Sure, Hannah and Kali are still here keeping me busy.  Then there's that whole "I'm responsible for their education" thing; that keeps me hoppin'.  But my Mary is leaving.  She makes me crazy, drives me insane, irritates the heck out of me, and I'm going to miss her beyond words.  Do you think it would be okay to pitch a tent outside her dorm room?  Someone pass the Kleenex - or a sweatband.