Remains of the Day

I think that we started with over 200 photos. And we were charged with the task of narrowing it down to 25. That was my budgeted amount – 25. It’s hard to pick the best of the best of the best when they are all absolutely wonderful.

We sat on an ottoman in a den and stared at a 60-inch screen, eyes glued to it. We took in the delight of all the variations. We had our breath taken away by a few. We chuckled over the silly in-between shot expressions that even the photographer had loved enough to snap candidly. And I, of course, teared up over some of the absolute best ones. Over the whole process. Over having to narrow down what we took away from the day. It seemed not enough.

Some shots were absolutely “YES – we must have that!” As we got closer to 25, the debate loomed longer. Hubby and I wanted the ones “we wanted” – the ones that spoke to us. And he was adamant about the 25. Narrowing it down – 200 to 25 – was like torture. And not only to us. I think in final desperation to have us out of her house, our photographer caved and tossed in 7 extra. 32 shots. 13 years in the making. 5 outfits. 3 venues. 8 backdrops. I’m praying it's enough. That the remains of the day are enough for this mama’s heart.

When I sat down to scrap the photos, I wanted to scrap them all. And I hope to. But, I needed to get some of them down and so I chose predominantly the ones used on the graduation invitation, and threw in a couple more that I liked. I thought about the title I would use. “Oh the Places You Will Go” is common, or “Adventure is Out There”, or “Way to Go, Grad”….and it seemed as though I wanted to say more to him than that. I happened upon the WRMK sentiment and thought it expressed perfectly this mama’s sentiment for her boy out there now in the big ‘ole world. And I thought, too, the little Hello World sticker perfectly embodied my boy’s heart longing. He was ready to go long before I was ready to let him go.

I am thankful for my remains of the day. And every once in a while if I want to just punish my heart a little, I will troll through the 32 images and just remember. Togetherness. Joy. Laughter. Big boy hugs. Little boy tears. Scraped knees. Bruised hearts. Life. Our life together. My remains of the day.

Be Forever True to Your Heart ~ Senior Photo Shoot ~ April 2013

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation http://scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com

Paper: Echo Park, Simple Stories, We R Memory Keepers
Font: Collegiate Inside
Photo Credit: Kim West Photography

Trick-or-Treating

I looked across the table at my husband one day and I could see in his eyes the weight of the nest emptying. Back-to-back boys has been a ride – joy, terror, bliss, chaos. I have known for a few years that my honey would take hard the hit of the college drop-off. And I was right. And he did. We decided that we would take a little trip. You know – embrace the change? Start a new ritual? Being the mouse fans that we are, we thought we would head to Orlando. But, as fate would have it, the places we wanted to stay were booked, so we looked toward Anaheim.

We had gone there together for the very first time ever together. Back in 1986. We were both visiting friends in Fresno and they took us. That was so long ago. I don’t even think there are any photographs of it. If there are, they are on film somewhere with Miss Ginny in Fresno. But, I have faint memories of the park. We then took the boys there for the first time in 1999. Our little family of four headed west. To see the mouse. Toon Town times and little blonde boys falling asleep in their mouse-eared nuggets were the order of the day. And I have a few photos of that trip. And negatives somewhere. It seemed like a circle to book-end the trip with the boys with a second trip for the two of us.

We stayed at The Disneyland Hotel in 1999 and opted this time for The Grand Californian Hotel. As the trip got closer, we became more and more excited. I would text hubby little images of the parks and we would do countdowns. During all of our anticipation, a friend asked if we were going to the Halloween party. I told her we weren’t planning on it. She talked about how much fun she had at it. So, on a whim, we decided we would buy hard tickets to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. And we ended up trick or treating! And it was so much fun.

Biggest moment – being blown away by all of the reworking in the Haunted Mansion to convert it to embody The Nightmare Before Christmas. Biggest let down – the main PM parade didn’t showcase the villains like I thought it should. Silliest moment - us standing in long lines to actually trick-or-treat with hundreds of other adults. But, it was a little bit of magically ghoulish fun. And just the thing we needed to help ease our hurting hearts.

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party ~ Disneyland ~ October 2013

Sketch Credit: Scrapbook Generation http://scrapbookgeneration.blogspot.com
Paper: Echo Park, Girls Paperie, Pink Paislee
Fonts: Minnie, Noteworthy, Blackmoor LET