half-tied ribbons

sentimental ol’ me

• Posted by Kristy on May 24th, 2007 filed in random thoughts

i can’t believe how sentimental i am. well, actually, i guess i can. i have been that way for quite some time, after all. i think i began to notice it in maybe jr. high, when my grandmother died.

my lifelong closest friend visited last weekend  and it was so refreshing. she is one of the only people, save my family, who has known me my whole life. that’s so unusual in today’s society i think. it’s just special, darn it. to have a friend who understands where you’ve come from and can see where you’re going, almost better than yourself.

now that we have bought our one-way tickets to the north country, final frontier, land of the midnight sun,  aka alaska…i’m more sentimental than ever. friends have been over helping me pack because i can’t do anything on my own it seems. they are witnessing first hand my thought process. it goes something like this. “well, i’ve not used that in about 20 years, but i need it to go with me, not in storage, it belonged to my granny.” or the fact that becca was cracking up yesterday when i asked her to pack all my photo albums and scrapbooks. i told her, “hey, that old one has some of our pics from jr. high in it.” she just died laughing and was saying, “oh, yeah, you really need that one with you. not in storage. who could pass up looking at us in jr. high?” or my first scrapbook that has our camping trip together from 9 years ago. seems like yesterday. we had a good laugh.

then there’s today. the last day of preschool for abby. i cried as we were backing out of the driveway. this chapter is just done. it’s that simple. like a good book that you don’t want to end, it is done. abby has loved school and mrs. linda is a dream. i will miss it so much. the cute little alphabet papers, the mom’s talking about post-baby bellies in the parking lot after drop-off time, the flowers (weeds) from the playground in the backpack, everything.

after drop off, brandi and i went to dad’s place for a little carmel latte to celebrate the last day of school, or last day of our freedom i suppose :) it was just plain sentimental to me. we’ve been about once a week all year long for coffee. we so need time with friends, just talking about nothing, playing with lilly, catching up on the latest coffee shop talk about what’s going on around town. our friend and pastor, jeff, has been there many of the mornings that we have. lilly went up this morning and was loving on him and wanted him to pick her up. it is so sweet watching her love on everyone. she will snuggle with brandi more than anyone else we know. so sentimental to see her wrapped up in his arms. i won’t have that in AK for while so i’m just soaking it all up. not wanting these last weeks to end too quickly. i’m hearing the “cheers” song in my head now!

then lilly and i took my old clarinet from yesteryear to the band hall to see our friend TJ who’s a band director. i was thinking about trying to sell it since it’s covered in dust and would do someone else more good than my closet. oh, the memories. although i didn’t attend monticello high, it brought back such good memories of band days in high school and college. i was such a band geek. i got it out and played a little and have almost changed my mind. i think i’m gonna see if there’s an Alaska Symphony Orchestra that will get my chops back in shape.

i wish everyone were as blessed as i have been over my lifetime. such an incredible life. ordinarily incredible. such good memories. i’m thankful for every season. it’s made me who i am. it’s amazing to see how God weaves together the details of everyday life to make us who we are.

enough sniffing. off to wash strawberries for the end of the year picnic at preschool! have a great day… and try to remember the good stuff and be grateful for it! it’s so worth it, albeit emotional sometimes!