Love or sleep in the garage

These are my 3 sisters.  Hope is the blonde, Hannah's the brunette and Lisa's the redhead.  They all have their little quirks and I can't imagine life without them.  One of my favorite things when I'm home, though, is to watch the younger ones interact.  They're always good for a chuckle or two.

Hope is the source of this particular laugh.  You see, my family moved into a new house this month, so when I got home after graduation, I was walking into a place I'd never seen before.  I ventured upstairs as I was exploring.  The first door on the left at the top of the staircase is the girls' room.  Apparently, Hope thought it quite necessary to lay down the law and post it for the family to beware.  This is what it says:

"here's some

rools carson not

aulud in here.  Hannah

stay off my

bed.  no Stealing

dolls.  no Jumping on the

bed.  no Stealing 

candy.  Keep

the room clean.

be kind argue in the

bathroom and londry

room.  no eating

food.  Love or sleep 

in the garage.

Get kind.  I Love you."

Yes, ma'am.  I think I can live with that.

Grace and peace to you.

In between

I'm back in Eureka.  I spent 11 hours on the road on Sunday bridging the gap between Southern California and home. 

This is hard.  I'm mentally and physically exhausted from the last 3 weeks but even more emotionally exhausted from the last 10 days of saying goodbye.  I have a friend who loves to hear lists of favorite things...goodbyes would not be on mine.  It's just a strange feeling to say goodbye to so many people and not have at least a rough idea of when our next hug will take place.

But hey, I'm a graduated woman!  It will be really easy over these 3 weeks at home to sleep all day and mope around during my waking hours...but I think instead I'll try to remember the amazing 4 years preceding this picture:

And appreciating the wonderful people here and across the country who came all the way to Azusa to celebrate me:

Dad

Sister Lisa

My siblings minus 1...Tristan came from Illinois for me!

The dads...and Grandpa came from Texas

And Uncle Jim surprised us all by flying in from Washington



I felt so loved over graduation weekend.  My party of 15 family members in their roped off section at graduation certainly blessed me.  Aunt Mary and cousin Elizabeth came all the way from Boston, my former step-dad and brother came, all 3 immediate families, Grandpa, great uncle...I couldn't believe it.

I have a lot to be thankful for.  My prayer for myself and for all of the grads who may be struggling with this transition is that we remember our blessings and that we will be confident in and patient for the blessings to come.

So here's to 3 weeks of rest, gratefulness and loving family!

Grace and peace to you,
Hil