Monday, April 21, 2008

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!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I have a list of things I didn't teach my daughter either.
I did not sew, I glue gunned, (artist) so her father had to sew all her girl scout patches and her ballerina slipper straps on.
I didn't do hair "dos" well at all and when I would go to cut her bangs, I had her stand in the bathtub to collect all the hair there and then she would raise her eyebrows up and down so that I couldn't cut a straight line and then I would say things like "whoops" while I was cutting them.
(Not a good thing to hear during a haircut.) And I couldn't do make-up at all.
But I DID have a real flare with a glue gun! I trimmed all the bushes like Dr. Seuss and I made very original tall, lopsided birthday cakes.

Susan Sandmore said...

Oh, dear. My prom story is too depressing to tell. I am just not the school dance type. But I am the Simon and Garfunkel type!

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Susan, I'm not the school dance type either. I just went to that dance to get to wear the dress! My date and I people-watched and ate cake. That was it.

Anonymous, interesting. I love the idea of Dr. Seuss bushes and lopsided cakes. I want to live in that world. But I did once watch my husband give my Sam a reverse mohawk. Sam knocked the comb out of the trimmer and Todd shaved a big section in the middle of his head. He was two at the time and looked prepped for brain surgery! That was a big whoops.

Anonymous said...

Rebecca,
That's too funny!
Maybe you'll get to see my Dr. Suess bushes. We may buy a house in South Carolina.In which case, may have to continue the practice.
-Bobbi
(tried to sign my name, but I am confounded by the technical requirements)

Anonymous said...

What is amazing to me is the stuff my kids did learn from me! It goes to show that "do as I say and not as I do" will get you in trouble, so behave the way you want them to behave. My 15 year old was having issues with her step-mom and asked me to help her find a psycho-therapist to work with. My 19 year old daughter makes everyone buckle up in her car. My 21 year old rock-and-roll son takes vitamins every day! Now you have me worried, though, about what I forgot, or what I was a bad example of.....
It was fun looking at your photos. I don't even want to go there, however. My mom and I made my dresses - ACH!!!!!!!!
Kerry

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Bobbi,
You may be moving to South Carolina? You'll have to tell me where! I want to see those Dr. Seuss bushes!

And Kerry,I know what you mean. It is scary to hear your own words coming out of your child's mouth. I love the rock and roller taking vitamins. That's perfect!

Anonymous said...

Rebecca,
We are looking at houses on line in Laurens. Do you know anything about the area. Your town looks interesting too. Hoping for a creative -possibly historical areas. I am an artist/writer. My husband is a historical top end mason.Would love more info!
If we move there, I will have you over for tea and to see my hedges too!
-Bobbi

(How do you sign in with a name if you don't have an URL?)

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Hey Bobbi,
Send me an email and I'll write you right back. (rebecca.ramsey1@gmail.com)
And I think you're doing it the only way that works without an account--signing in as anonymous and including your name.

paris parfait said...

My "baby" is about to graduate from college - sob, sob! But I'm so proud of her - just as you must be of your beautiful and clever daughter! xoxox

Anonymous said...

Funny, too, just ...(sigh, again, I hear this last night reading a novel called Pull of the Moon, how a woman, a mother, realizes her daughter will graduate from high school in four years and pulls the car over and weeps so inconsolably that the car shakes...
When my daughter left home at eighteen, I thought I would break in half...
There is just nothing that prepares you for that.
So all the photographs, the memories, the FUN, they are priceless!
-Bobbi

(I will send you an e-mail!)