Our teenage daughter Vika graduated eighth grade this month from Junior High after being at the St. Barnabas school for over eight years. It’s a milestone for her and a giant step toward becoming a young lady.   I was choking back tears seeing her walking down the aisle wearing the classy dress, white gloves, make up and nice conservative pumps!   There’s something about seeing your daughter grow up and all of the sudden you wonder, “what happened to my little girl?”  Remember the song “Butterfly kisses”?  It kills me every time I hear it.  She really progressed this last year academically, emotionally, spiritually even though she still has her teenage drama, hormonal over-reactions and a few conniving moments.   

Marcus will be a senior at DeLand High this fall and he leaves soon for a week-long Engineering Introductory program at the University of Florida.  As a die-hard Georgia Bulldog, it kills me to be sending him and any money to Gator land and having been brainwashed at an early age, I doubt he’ll drink the Gator (Cool) Ade but it was closer and less expensive than Georgia’s similar program.   These programs are designed to help students with interests in Engineering learn more about the various career opportunities in that field.  He will be entering his last year in the IB program with a 4.3 GPA and hopefully the captain of the tennis team.   He’s also trying to finalize the requirements for Eagle Scout this summer and into the fall…  If we can only find a way to manage both of their times on the smart phone and social media – problems our generation never had to deal with!
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Our older daughter Sarah and my 2 ½ year old grandson Calvin were able to come down and join us at the beach for a few days for a well needed mind flushing time of R&R.  Calvin was not so hip on the ocean and wanted nothing to do with the scary waves.    He was particularly attracted to the beach crabs and loved covering himself with the sticky sand and then getting it all over your nice clean towel,  drink and chair.  We stayed at a house right on the (New Smyrna) beach and even though we had some rain showers, some of the sunrises were spectacular.   Our favorite times were the evening walks on the beach after dinner.  Sarah’s real estate career is taking off while her husband Sonny is enjoying his role as a construction project manager and they’re in the process of buying their first home in North Georgia.