Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

For much of the summer, Funny Delightful Son's girlfriend, a petite, pretty, quiet though funny when she does speak young lady, came to hang out at our house without her mother's permission. I'm pretty sure her mother had no idea Petite Pretty Girlfriend was sneaking around to visit FDS. They would watch TV or sit at the dining room table and play cards or go for bike rides. It is so completely obvious the two simply enjoy being together and truly like one another. Last week, after another two weeks of being down due to the mono, Funny Delightful Son began feeling better, and to perk him up a bit, Petite Pretty Girlfriend arrived one afternoon to deliver a care package of fun foods. She wasn't to stay long, but she ended up staying several hours. When she returned home, she was informed she wasn't to see Funny Delightful Son for the rest of the week. Both were crushed. In the meantime, in an attempt to keep busy, Funny Delightful Son received the components he...

So I thought about the cookout Other Mom wanted to have to, per her words, "further evaluate" Hubby. I kept this to myself, not cluing Hubby in on the issue as I knew what his response would be. I really didn't want to go to him and say, "Oh, by the way, Other Mom thinks you're childish to the point of perhaps putting her daughter in harm's way if she were to come over to our house." Honestly, when Funny Delightful Son told me Other Mom thinks Hubby is childish, I did laugh. He is. That's a given. All of us at one time or another over the years have looked at Hubby and said, "How old are you? 12?" But he's never, ever done anything to put any of us in harm's way. He's just a big goof. Our big goof. Two weeks after prom, we traveled to Tennessee to visit family and attend my nephew's high school graduation. Late Saturday morning, because we had some time before having to be at the party, we cruised my old grad school haunts...

Back in May, Funny Delightful Son attended his first high school prom. Leading up to this day, Funny Delightful Son prepared carefully: making sure his tux fit perfectly, scrutinizing the flowers selected for his date's corsage, and cleaning the car so his date could ride in style. The young lady he was attending prom with had caught his eye from the beginning of the school year, and he wanted prom to be perfect. To start the evening, Funny Delightful Son and his date met up with friends at the grandparents' home of one of the young ladies of the group. There, they were going to have dinner before leaving for prom. Prior to dinner, we parents took pictures of our kids all decked out for the special occasion. It was just minutes until the picture taking was to commence that the Saga began. While the young people were gathered on the back deck, admiring the glitzy dresses and the colorful corsages, the parents were inside, chatting about what a lovely May afternoon we were ha...