The high school packet came today...

It's getting real, folks.

Today this green packet of stapled papers landed in our mailbox, loaded with information on lockers and orientation and open campus lunch permission forms and PE uniforms and student parking passes and counselors and extracurricular activities and yearbook sales and graduation requirements and minimum day schedules and a map.

Rhiannon is ready for high school.  Her mom is a little overwhelmed.

I just don't feel old enough to have a high school-er, who will be 18 before we know it, graduating, moving on, getting married, and having a family of her own.  At least that's how my brain works, always fast-forwarding ahead and forgetting to enjoy the HERE and NOW.

Like today.  Rhiannon has been going to band camp all week from 7am to noon and has a second week of it still to go.  She came home from camp, tired but so happy about new friends she was making and the fun she was having.  She was talkative and bubbly, her hair was curly and wispy around her face, and she looked so put together and pretty, with this beautiful bright blue shirt on that makes her glow.

Like today.  When Wade went outside in the hot, hot Ridgecrest heat and mowed the lawn with his dad like a champ.

Like today.  When Jason took us to see Guardians of the Galaxy, in this packed theater, surrounded by people who were enjoying the movie just as much as we were.

Taking advantage of moments like these is what I need to focus on, and that famous quote:  "the days are long but the years are short."  Oh my goodness, I have never felt the truth of that statement more so than I have this summer, thinking about this high school thing and Wade's last year of elementary school.

Life is short, but life is also very good.  Jason and I are so blessed to have these kids and to be their parents!  We love them!