Magnets

I found something to do with those marbles left over from flower arrangements.  I cut pictures out of magazines and used a hot glue gun to glue the pictures to the flat side of the marbles, then hot glued magnets to the back.  I would like to print pictures but I'm out of ink for my printer right now.  These would make great gifts!  :)

USC move-in day!

Well, we moved Erik into his dorm yesterday!  It was a sad & happy day. (A SAPPY day?!)  Anyway, we started the caravan with 4 cars (us, plus Jordan & her family) to Columbia at 6:30 in the morning.  Thank goodness we started early because it was overcast with a little breeze so it wasn't hot!  There were so many volunteers there that were so nice!  It moved along pretty quickly.

This was on Erik's desk when we got there.  A gift from his room mate's Dad.  :)

They had a pretty cool system, you drive up and drop your things off at the door and then have rolling carts that you put everything in to roll to the elevator and up to the room!  Easy!

For a while Erik disappeared.  He had to go get his key and check out his room to make sure everything was in working order.  I finally went to find him and there he was, just hanging out in the room checking out the view.  He's so excited!  At least until the reality of Biochemistry sets in.  :)

So they have this cool "loft" thing that you can get to put the bed up higher so that you can put your desk underneath it and have more space in your room.  We went to pick it up and poor Lauren didn't have much room on the ride back.

I had to run across the street to the financial aid office to take care of something and left the kids to put the loft together.  I figured I would be gone for hours but USC ROCKS because I was in and out of there in less than 15 minutes!!!  YAY.  Seriously, I thought I'd be in there all day.  Anyway, when I got back, Lauren & Erik just about had the loft all put together.  I discovered something about my daughter yesterday.  She works a mean allen wrench!!! 

We told Erik he's going to have to be very careful sitting up in bed!  Not too much space up there!  Can't wait to hear how his first night sleeping in that thing went!

His new space...

I promised myself I wouldn't cry, and I didn't, at least not until it was time to say good bye.  Luckily he's only an hour away, so there will be lots of trips to Columbia in the near future.  So proud of you Rik! 

The time draws near...

I got a cool sticker for my car in the mail from the parent's association at USC.  Strange how such a little sticker makes my heart stop.  Anyone who knows anything about the past 6 years knows that the teenage years with Erik were somewhat of a challenge.  A little less than a year ago, we had such a big knock-down drag out over a cell phone that he went to live with his friend Kenny for a week.  If you had asked me back then if I would be sad to see Erik go off to college, you'd have gotten a vehement "NO!"  Since then, things have changed for the good.  He's changed, or maybe I've changed.  Or maybe we both have.  The past eighteen years are playing like a movie in my mind.  The day my sweet boy was born.  The look he gave me when I had to get on a plane to leave for 8 weeks of military training when he was 18 months old.  The way he didn't come to me at first when I came back.  All the times we played basketball in the driveway.  Countless soccer and football games.  Christmases, birthdays, times he was sick, all the times he made me laugh, and cry.  And angry.  The times I cried myself to sleep worrying about if he was going to turn out OK.  I was, after all, a second time mother when I had him at 21.  He witnessed his parents divorce when he was only seven.  He had to move around several different places while I was in the military.  Got a step dad, and that wasn't easy for Erik or for Lee.   At any rate, we prayed, we cried, we got counseling, but most of all we LOVED.  We never gave up on each other.  I think all of the trials have made Erik and I so much closer.  He's not only my son, he's my friend.  I'm going to miss him so much.  The last couple of years he's grown so much.  He got really serious about school.  I think that had a lot to do with his girlfriend of nearly two years, (Jordan).  I'm so proud of him that there are no words to explain how thankful and blessed I feel.   Erik, if you ever read this I want you to know that I'm so proud of the man you are becoming.  I KNOW your heart is good and I know you will be successful in whatever you do.  Stay on the right path, and don't forget that beach house you promised me you would buy for me when you get rich.  I LOVE YOU!