HOCO 2021

Sarah's school celebrated Homecoming this weekend!  The football team won - yay!  And the school had a dance.  

Sarah looked gorgeous in her dress and had a great time at dinner with her friends before the dance and then hanging out with everyone afterwards at the "after party".  

You've got to have the official corsage and boutonniere photos!

And the obligatory group shot of all the friends and their dates. 

And the mom and daughter shot. 💜

And this is probably my favorite shot of the evening.  There's nothing like the love between a daddy and his little girl - even though she may not be so little any more! 💙

Such a beautiful young lady!  And those shoes were awesome but I think she spent most of the night without them on her feet! 

Apparently Sarah's date is quite the ladies man! 😆

Four wisdom teeth, two college tours and alllllll the college applications DONE!

This past Friday, after all of the Harry Styles excitement, Sarah had all four wisdom teeth removed. She was originally scheduled to have them removed the Friday before the concert but she was very worried that she wasn't going to feel her best for the concert so I rescheduled.

It's a good thing I did because she is just finally starting to feel like her old self last night.  Her face was so puffy after the surgery (I don't think Peter's was that puffy) and she looked so pathetic.  I should post the pictures that she was sending to her friends after the surgery (which she doesn't remember doing). I warned her not to be texting and Snap Chatting while "under the influence" but she did it any way.  The picture that she sent Peter made me laugh out loud. 

On Saturday we took care of things around the house - laundry, cleaning, yard work, etc. and then went to Mass. We got caught up on Survivor that evening.  Are you guys watching season 41? 

I've got to be honest - I'm not loving it.  We were so excited for another season after the long break thanks to Covid but they are doing this season and I think next season differently.  They have made the time shorter - 26 days versus 39. And to make it more exciting (I guess) they've added more idols and advantages with risks and rewards and they all have lots of requirements about when you can use them and how attached to them.  Honestly, for this old lady, it's very confusing.  I can't seem to keep up with any of it.  

On Sunday, we had lunch at Mom's and then that afternoon, two cousins how I haven't seen in years, came for a visit.  My uncle and another cousin also came for the visit. It was very nice to catch up with everyone.  And it wasn't until after they left that my mom and I lamented the fact that we didn't get any pictures! :(

Sarah didn't have school Monday due to a teacher work day so we did two college tours.  Dan took the day off work so he could join us.  We headed out bright and early for the first stop of the day - NC State University!  Peter found us on Life360 and walked part of the tour with us until we got to his dorm.

After the tour we all four went to lunch at The Pit. We did manage to take this selfie:

After lunch, we dropped Peter off at his dorm and then we headed down the road to visit UNC Chapel Hill.  It was a nice tour. We did a lot of walking. The UNC campus is beautiful and bigger than I realized. If I was a step-counter (which I am not) I would have definitely gotten my steps in for the day between the two campus tours.

Sarah completed all of her college applications last week so those are done!  Can I get a "hallelujah"? The beginning of senior year is a VERY stressful time for kids and by default for parents.  But the applications are done and now we wait...and pray that she gets into her top choice. And also pray that if she doesn't, she's okay with it. Like I said - senior year is stressful! And I'm patting myself on the back as well because I got Peter's FAFSA updated and Sarah's completed.

Homecoming is this week so Sarah's  participating in all the different themed dress up days.  Sadly, though, when your kid is a senior they don't want to pose for pictures when they are wearing pajamas to school or when they are dressed up as a character.  Sigh.... so no cute pictures.  However, hopefully next week I will have a picture of her looking cute in her homecoming dress!

Harry Styles FINALLY!!!!

Way back in the fall of 2019, Harry Styles announced he was going on tour in 2020.  Sarah was beside herself with excitement.  I planned to purchase tickets for her and give them to her for Christmas that year. 

The tickets for the Raleigh show, which was going to be in August of 2020,  went on sale on November 22, 2019 at 10:00 AM. I just happened to be meeting with my care group that morning at our normal Chick-Fil-A spot. I set an alarm on my phone so I would not be late for logging onto TicketMaster to get in line for tickets. 

I told my friends what I was doing and not to mind me. But being the supportive friends that they are, several of them hopped on their phones as well and when the line opened, we got in line for tickets.  My sweet friend, Kendra, had the best spot of all of us so the rest of us got out of line. Kendra got the best tickets possible in my price range with her spot in line. I was so excited and knew Sarah was going to be thrilled on Christmas morning.

She came home from school that day and was telling me that she and her friend Gabi were wanting to get tickets to the show and they were scheming different ways.  I can't remember what they were talking about because it was almost TWO YEARS ago, but I informed her that they were already sold out but NEVER FEAR! because I with the help of my friends was able to purchase two tickets. There goes the perfect Christmas morning surprise but she was thrilled!  

I had assumed she and I would go together but I could tell it would be better if she and Gabi went as I am not that enamored with Harry Styles and probably would not appreciate it enough.  :) I started looking at hotels in the area as I knew I didn't want to make the hour and forty-five minute drive back that late at night. (I hate driving at night!) 

Anyway, you  know what happened.  The show was cancelled in June of 2020 thanks to some virus going around and it was rescheduled to October 12, 2021. Sarah spent a lot of time anxiously stalking Harry Styles social media to make sure the tour was going to actually start.

And thankfully it did! I am not sure she could have waited any longer. It was almost a two year wait from the time I bought the tickets until the time she was able to attend.  I even told her at one point that if she didn't want to go because she didn't like him any longer to let me know so I could sell the tickets.  She looked at me like I had lost my mind.

Once it was clear that the tour had started, she began her quest for the perfect outfit.  She bought pink pants with red hearts on them, a red cropped tee shirt, Nikes with a pink stripe, pink and red heart earrings, and pink heart shaped sunglasses.  She also bought a pink, clear purse (all bags into the arena had to be clear).

Since Sarah is now 17 and Gabi is 18, they were more than capable of driving themselves to Raleigh. And bonus, Gabi's older sister lives in Raleigh so the girls were able to get ready at her apartment and spend the night there after the show.

Sarah left school early on Tuesday. She and Gabi drove to Raleigh, dumped their stuff off at Gabi's sister's apartment and went to get their nails done.  I mean come on! A two year wait for a concert means you must have a fresh mani!

Then they ordered Panera and ate it while getting ready for the show.  They both donned their cute outfits and made sure to get to the arena in plenty of time to take some pictures before the show.

Sarah had such a great time at this show. In her own word from a text I received from her, "BEST DAY OF MY LIFE".  

I think it lived up to her expectations especially after such a long wait.

Fall break!

Peter had Monday and Tuesday off from school for fall break so I headed to Raleigh on Friday and scooped him up and gleefully brought him home!

He was excited to be home for several days where he could relax and unwind.  Adjusting to college is hard and being home for a long weekend was just what he needed.  And I will admit, it was good for my soul too. I really prefer when everyone is home under one roof. 

We didn't really have any plans this weekend. We had dinner at home on Friday evening. He really wanted to go to a Bishop football game but they had a bye this week.  Peter watched a lot of college football on TV on Saturday in addition to lunch from Bojangles which is his preferred football watching food. Sarah and a friend went to Greensboro to cheer on the Bishop Cross Country Team at a meet.

We all attended Mass together on Saturday evening and then enjoyed a delicious dinner at the 4th St. Filling Station. Later that evening we had a fire in the fire pit.

On Sunday we had lunch at mom's and watched more football. On Monday, Sarah had to go to school but Dan had taken the day off to spend some time with Peter.  The three of us had lunch at Nick's Hamburgers (so good!) and then drove to an apple orchard in Ramseur.  We were hoping to get some apple cider but they were sold out.  It was Monday and they were apparently very busy over the weekend as it is apple orchard time and only had a few gallons left.  But apparently a  mom's group visited  that morning for story time and bought all the apple cider.  Those darn story time moms!

And then on Tuesday, Dan was back to work and Peter and I finished laundry, got him packed back up, etc. and we had him back to NC State by 5:00 PM.  It was such a nice visit but it went by way too fast.

We are already looking forward to Thanksgiving break!