Time keeps on tickin', tickin'

Here's today's Wonder of the World.



This weekend was quite a whirlwind at my house. You'll excuse me today if I get a little Sunrise, Sunset on you. It won't last long, I promise. And there are embarrassing photos at the end.

I would like for someone to please tell me how a child that looks like this last week--or maybe it was last Halloween...



Could look like this on Saturday?



It was Sarah's senior prom. Soon she'll be abandoning me, heading off on her own, leaving me stranded in a house full of boys. How will I cope? Even my dog likes to burp.

Maybe it's because graduation is quickly approaching, but in the last few weeks I've realized all the things I never taught her. Or maybe it's because a few days ago she walked into the kitchen and handed me a piece of paper, and said, "Mom, here's a list of all the things you never taught me."

I read them. She was right.

So we're working on crossing them off the list. So far I've taught her how to clean a bathroom properly--not just good enough for her, but good enough for company. We've made chicken noodle bake, learned how to change a tire and how to replace a set of windshield wipers. (Okay, so her father helped on the last two.) We still have to work on balancing the checkbook, and she wants to know about taxes and social security.

I may have missed big blocks of things, but hopefully not the really important ones. She knows we love her more than anything, that we believe in her, that God loves her, and that even though it doesn't always look like it, the universe is full of goodness. (But she should still lock her doors and never go anywhere alone at night.) And I hope I've also taught her to find her passion and follow it. (The work kind of passion, not the boy kind. She should not follow that at all. At least for eight or ten years.)

Okay, I promised you embarrassing photos.

In the spirit of prom-love, here's my handsome husband at his senior prom, 1979. Note the brown silk accents on his white tux.
Nice.
I like the clouds and stars too. The prom committee worked hard on those.


I'm not sure what that big blue thing is, (I would say that it looks like an enormous breast intruding into the picture, but between the peach/hiney picture from last week you might think I was a little body part obsessed and I'm not) but doesn't Todd look good? No wonder I fell for him!

I didn't go to my senior prom, but don't cry for me Argentina. I can't remember why I didn't go, but I wasn't broken up about it. I went out with my spinster girlfriends and then went home and wrote poetry and listened to Simon and Garfunkel. (It was an old album even then. I'm not that ancient.)

But just to prove that I wasn't a hermit-child, here's a picture of me and my date at the Queen of Hearts Dance (senior year, 1982.)


Kind of a gloomy background. I think I prefer the clouds and stars.
Wait a second. I just noticed something.



Hey! Our dresses--they're remarkably alike! Sarah picked out the pattern for hers, and I sewed it up and never noticed!
Like mother, like daughter!

Since Sarah and I appear to be similarly hypnotized by yards of tulle and shoulder frills, perhaps you should help add things to our list of how-to necessities. Are there other things to teach her before it's too late? Or tell me your prom stories. I know you have them!