The Baby of the Family Graduated

I apologize for being a month behind on updating this. It has been an absolutely crazed four weeks. In the last 12 hours I have written 24 pages on a 35 page paper. I'm papered out for the night and decided I'd hop online her and start to catch up (this will be in two parts - I: Trip to MN II: Exploring England & Scotland with the little brothers)




I flew out for Minnesota on May 19 and enjoyed two of the fastest weeks of my life back on the farm, enjoying small town life with my mom, dad and brother. It was so special being home to see Josh graduate and being able to help get ready for the festivities that accompany graduation parties in the midwest (it's a cultural thing. . . most people don't do parties like we do parties for graduation). We do graduation parties in the midwest like we do weddings: big. 250+ people. (in most regions of the US a wedding of 150 is very large - by MN standards, that's only part of the town showing up)


Highlights of my trip to Minnesota included:

* A very special Baccacalaureate Service where I got to hear Josh sing the solo he performed for
contest this year

* Spending time with my mom on her final days working at school

* Riding in the tractor with my daddy as he finished planting corn (as a little girl I lived in the tractor during planting and harvest - my dad and I still joke about when I would eat all of the chips and Little Debbies out of his lunch and leave him the apple and sandwhich. . . and sometimes I was nice enough to give him the chips that fell on the floor:)

* Waking up at 4 am one morning waiting for the sun to come out and going down to the barn to

let Josh's 4-H pigs out of the pen so that I could play with them on the lawn. Josh just loooved when I tapped on his window and woke him up to show him my activity at 5:45 am

* Taking Josh on a swing dancing date to Minneapolis

* Watching my baby brother, Joshua Paul, the class valedictorian graduating with a 4.5something GPA collect his diploma (he received one A- one quarter as a mistake in his entire elementary, junior high and senior high career)

* Hearing Josh speak at graduation

* Getting to visit my parents' wonderful new church family

* Hanging out at Pankratz's - they're my second family.

* Seeing so many friends and family at Josh's graduation party on May 31 (28 years to the day after my parents got married)

* Having a quick trip to St. Paul see my friend Hannah & her husband James before they left for the Ukraine

* Getting to converse with my ADORABLE little cousins Annika and Nico (I had been talking about it for months, just ask Philip)

* Throwing a bridal tea for my best friend from high school, Tabitha Wetzel (I will be in her wedding at the end of August) - I got to see some classmates and spend some time with her that was really special

* Watching the Cosby Show with mom, dad and Josh like the "good old days"

and OF COURSE - being back in the only state in the one country in the world that sells Diet Sunkist Lemonade. Ahhhhh bliss.

A few Not-so-great happenings on the way to/while I was in MN:

* I had a miserable flight over. I was not a happy Continental Airlines customer. At all. They didn't let me board my plane at Heathrow. After waiting all afternoon for another flight they had us drag our non-checked baggage up and down a few flights of stairs, walked us out onto the tarmack, had us stand in the cold 30 minutes, put us on a bus and had us walk up a bunch of stairs to the airplane door. When I entered the country in Houston, I was reclaiming my baggage after customs to reroute them to my final destination of Minneapolis and the drug dog smelled the apple and peanutbutter in my carry on and started barking. Of course I had checked "no" to the answer on my customs form about bringing any fruit into the country, so they scribbled my customs violation in red marker on my form, had me put my form in a large, bright green folder and directed me to a room to be questioned and have all of my luggage rifled through before they let me proceed to my gate. Because if someone lies about smuggling an apple into the US, who KNOWS what else they're not telling you. . . Oh the travel tales I am accumulating. . .

* Taking my dad to the clinic get his smashed finger stitched up one afternoon while working on some machienery

* The stupid red Tempo (the second car I drove in high school - it was the "new" car after the brown '79 Chevette FINALLY was deemed not suitable to be driving) waited until I was back to drive it before finally dying. Of course it chose to do this while I was leaving the Cities the evening before Tabitha's shower. Instead of getting home at 8 pm, we got home at midnight. Mom and dad, needless to say, were not overly enthused about having to come get the car. Seriously, all vehicles registered in my father's name HATE ME.

But all things considered, the not-so-great stuff is starting to become fuzzy and is definately overshadowed by the amazing time I had. It was an incredible trip. I was so fortunate to be able to be back to share in such an important and memorable hallmark in our family.

My mom thought I was quite foolish when just before this picture I went into the pig pen in my dress and flipflops to chase the pigs out of the barn. . . I'm still the strongwilled child.

Soon to come - the European Adventures of Philip, Joy, Joshua & David. . .