In a Whirlwind

It's been an absolutely whirlwind of activity here Amongst The Oaks for the last week. It started with Teen1's graduation last Thursday. The football stadium was magically transformed with 544 white chairs, a stage and backdrop, flowers and a giant "2009". It was a very nice ceremony with speeches and cheers and tears. Afterwards nine of us went to dinner. Teen1 ate dinner with us then left early for the "Grad Night" party. She got home the next morning at 5:30am. I'd say they did it just right.

Friday we went food shopping and decorated for Sunday's party. Oh, and work; I still gotta do that. Saturday I spend literally all day in the kitchen preparing food and doing laundry. Then Sunday we had an open house/bon voyage party for the graduate. We had rolls and rye bread and all the condiments for sandwiches. There was a meat platter, a cheese platter, and a veg platter. I made blue cheese coated grapes, deviled eggs, and radishes with chervil butter. There was a Greek salad, a layered salad, and a fruit salad. There were brownies, cupcakes, strawberries, cookies and banana nut bread. Oh, and ruffles and onion dip, chips and salsa, and huntsman cheese and crackers. We put it on the table at noon and guests helped themselves all afternoon. What a great way to entertain; I actually got to socialize with the guests. It was a lot of fun with some teens playing DDR and video games, others playing volleyball, oldsters eating and talking, and generally everyone enjoying the day.

Then Monday we unpacked and repacked, and then weighed the suitcase. Then we did it all again and finally got it down to just over 50 pounds. Whew. So Tuesday we all got up a 4am, left a 5, arrived at SFO by 7am, checked in, had breakfast, hung around at the gate and DRAT! the flight was delayed. Some sort of mechanical trouble with the plane. So after talking about it a while, rather than scramble to find another connection to the Chicago/Manchester flight, we decided to rebook on the next day's flight.

So on Tuesday we got up at 4am, left at 5, arrived at SFO by 7am, had breakfast {deja vu}, hung around at the gate, and finally got Teen1 on her flight to Chicago. And it actually took off this time.

And she called me from Chicago saying everything was fine, but then when she arrived in Manchester she hit a little snag. Immigration pulled her aside, took her passport, and questioned her about why she was arriving in their country unescorted, who was meeting her, what was their relationship, etc, etc. She told me later she was really scared and had no idea what to do. Her cell phone wouldn't work there, she had no British money, and didn't know why she was being questioned. Somehow they found her host family (who were waiting in the arrivals hall), questioned them, decided their stories matched and let her go with them. Actually, it's nice to know they don't allow minors to wander into their country unescorted, possibly to meet a stranger with evil intentions.

So with Teen1 safely in Manchester, I got caught up at work, took down the decorations, did a million other things including taking my computer to the doctor, and now ten days later, I finally got a chance to sit down and blog. I feel like I've missed so much! I'll get back in gear and catch up with you all real soon. But for now, I'm just thankful it's calmed down a little here Amongst The Oaks.