“Can you come for Parents’ Weekend?” we heard Bec ask on
a recent phone call.
“I thought that you didn’t want us to come up this year,”
I responded.
“Of course I do!”
While one of the rare times I
was flicking through the television channels, I stopped and saw someone comment
to his child (as best as I can remember it), “My life up to this point has been
to keep you safe. I have to remember
that now that you are grown up, that particular job has ended.” That sentiment captured how I felt about Bec’s
Parents’ Weekend, and the same approach with Gab. I no longer assume that they wanted us to
visit, even though we always have GREAT times together. So, of course, we were going…changing the
plans we had to spend valuable time together as a family is a priority for us.
Debbie and I seem to be at a
point in life where we are constantly busy.
I feel that, at times, I am trying to maximize the things that I am
involved with, have little down time and work on planning ahead (i.e., fill our
calendars in advance). I remember a time
in life where we could think of something we wanted to do, then go and do it. Now, it is not unusual to have weekends
scheduled 4 to 6 weeks in advance – it is crazy! Nevertheless, when the girls want to get
together, it is amazing how quickly that calendar frees up!
This Parents’ Weekend we did
something for the first time – Debbie and I slept at Bec’s place. It was exciting; Debbie got anew queen-sized
blow up mattress for the event. I got
home from work (love those days when the commute is greater than 2 hours! That is a topic for a different day), packed
up, loaded the dogs into the car (yes, they got to go too) and off we
went. This was truly a family
weekend. Being the fall season, Bec
scouted out a single activity for us – a local corn maze. We love going to corn mazes, getting lost, and
then finding our way out. More times
than not, we have been “ushered out” somewhere near closing time. This year, the maze chosen was eight square
acres, with high, thick corn growth. We
knew we were going to have a hard time.
As we set out, we realized that we had a secret weapon – two corn
maze-sniffing dogs! Who’d a thought?!? Lucy Lou led the first leg and Sadie the
second. We whooped it up and did much
celebrating once the dogs got us through safe and sound. And the celebration continued as Bec pointed
out that this was Lucy Lou’s birthday weekend (and 7 years as a Zeiler).
Come late Sunday, it was time
to leave. Yes, we left later than we
should have; yes, we had a longer than needed goodbye; yes, it was almost
midnight when I got to bed. Would I do
it all over again? YES! Yeah for Parents’
Weekend, even if we did not participate in any school event. We have been fortunate to spend time as a family
– yet, now is the long stretch until we are all together again…the end of
November, when I we can be thankful for our family coming back together.
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