Day 140: The Graduate

Thank you for the well wishes, and sorry for the cryptic posts the last couple of days. I intended to post a clue (an obvious clue) about the location of the cool trip we have planned, but life intercepted. . . .

First, here are a few photos of Brian graduating at U of Missouri from the School of Journalism with a minor in Strategic Communication. Proud parents and the happy guy:



Over the next couple of days, I'll have more photos of the happy part of this trip to Missouri . . .

The very rough part of this weekend was that my sister in law, Barb, and her husband, shared a room with us at the hotel. They drove up from Texas, and within hours of our getting together, it was clear that Barb's cough was much more serious than just "congestion." She went to the hospital ER, was hospitalized with heart failure, and after several days of tests, it was determined that she needed an aortic valve replacement. They weren't sure whether they could stabilize her condition enough that she could return to Texas for the procedure. Happily, she was able to leave on Saturday, slept well that night, and was able to drive back to Texas. She needs to continue with treatment with medications to be strong enough for the surgery. I'll post some pictures in a day or two of our "re-enactment" of Brian's graduation for her.

An even more difficult, and tragic, part of the trip occurred about 2 hours before we left to drive to Missouri. My daughter is a college sophomore in Minnesota and called, distraught, because her best friend at the school had just be found dead in her room, apparently from natural causes. None of us know how to wrap our minds around the idea that such a thing can happen to such an apparently healthy, young person. Please pray for Veronica's family and friends.

I had intended to leave the clue that we are going to Mexico now for a week! My son and daughter and I are going. My oldest son cannot come with us (the Navy's possessive that way), and my husband just could not get his schedule coordinated with us, so three of us planned this adventure. My daughter has had to reschedule her 4 final exams, and whether she can quite enjoy this trip now is uncertain.

And we also have to drastically shift more of our plans for the trip because my son managed to burn his foot with 3rd degree burns from water from the steam table at his place of work. Somehow, putting flippers on his foot, or getting sand in it, or walking in water, may not be the best plan of action just now. He'll see a doctor again tomorrow, and I doubt that my son will like what he hears about this. . .

So, tomorrow I'm going to post photos, and schedule the posts to appear during the week that I'm gone. I won't be able to say "I'm up!", but maybe one of you can say this for me during the week if you happen to check out my blog posts while I'm gone! I'm hoping I'll have more cool photos of exotic things when I get back! . . . and if you've read this far today, thanks for listening/reading!