She looks like a flower, but got stung by a bee

Yesterday July 31 was Sunday. I woke up at my dad's house and went to church wearing my new dress and sandals. The gospel reading was the miracle with the five loaves of bread and two fish. Maybe it's because that is one of the first stories we were taught in ccd, or because it's an easy one to remember. Whatever the reason, I have always been fond of that story. Fr. Dennis connected it to the image of young kids placing their parents money in the collection baskets. How they are so happy to be passing it on and they don't have an idea of there being an end or limit to receiving it. He suggested as we get older, we think like we did when we were the young ones hoping to get to place the money and the basket, and know that God's love is unconditional-there is no end or limit. And like the kids, He is happy and joyful and smiles about giving it to us.

I kept the outfit on, touched up my hair and drove to the Lane Place where I met my mom and Julie Abston. My mom's van was loaded with outfits and shoes and jewelery and Julie's camera was full of memory space ready to take my senior pictures. We started out at the Lane Place where I wore the navy dress and tan sandals and my mom's pearls. Julie thanked me for wearing my hair curly. She said that she's always excited to see curly hair and for some reason it just shoots better. At once, I took a quick liking to her. She was sweet and quiet, but still told me what she wanted. I changed in my mom's van and we drove to a downtown alley. Here I wore jeans, my letter jacket, and CHS colored Nikes. I changed again into a white skirt, black shirt, and my TOMs that read "Raise IQs, lower sea levels." She took some of these pictures by the Wabash fine arts building and some on the grass that's in the middle of the circle at Wabash. I changed again. This time into my favorite outfit. I put on black heels, the strapless dress I wore in my mom's wedding, and the necklace I wore to prom. I also put my hair up and held a pink flower from our house. These pictures she took at Wabash sitting on a black iron chair, bench, and a tree. I just felt elegant in the outfit, and even more so when she would say "beautiful or pretty" after clicking her camera. We got back in the car where I changed into my next and final outfit. I wore a dark gray shirt and dark jeans. We had to walk a ways on the trail, but it was worth it when we got to the fallen tree. I walked across it barefoot where I posed many ways. Before heading back to our cars, I took my hair down & put on a hat and she took a few more by some white flowers. She was so excited and thanked me for wearing a hat. She's right, they just add something. Having the outfits organized as well as the exact spots at the location helped to make it go smoothly. I didn't even mind that I had to carry a paper towel to dab the sweat when we took the trail pictures. I loved everything about getting my senior pictures and am so excited to see them. I felt really pretty, and I know that Julie is very creative and artsy.

I went back to my dad's for a bit. Then over to Sarah's. It was hot outside and we went for a swim. The water felt good. But the wasp stinging me as I laid there did not. It got me twice in the leg. Then moved to my hand. I felt it and tried to shoo it away, but it got me twice again. It really hurt. Especially the one on my finger, which was also the one that swelled up the most. I did not enjoy the rest of the time at the pool.

She just got back from Florida and I was so very happy to be with her again. We sat and talked for a while and I told her probably more than she'd ever want to know about the kids I went to OLAB with. Then we were in search of fruit. We stopped in at the cookout at my grandparents, but didn't see anything that was appealing to our fruit crave so we left.

We got money from my dad and went to the grocery store where we purchased strawberries, blueberries, angel food cake, pudding, cool whip, and a frozen pasta dinner. We prepared each ingredient then layered it to make a dessert.

We let it cool in the fridge while eating dinner. I was so happy to be all eating a meal together at my dad's. It seems like a long time since that's happened.

Sarah and I were quite pleased with our dessert. We scooped some out and took it outside to eat.

Then we played cards with Maria. We played BS and Maria lost three rounds in a row. Her friend, also named Sarah, came and joined in the game. This time Maria won. Soon Michael came over and taught us all how to play rummy. We laughed and played for a while, until I started getting a runny nose and yawning. I took Sarah home and went to bed at 12:30.