Day #60 - Home from 3 days in PA!

I have to be honest, all, I spent the last 3 days on the road to and from Pennsylvania, watching my beautiful, wonderful daughter graduate from college.  We made that 8 hour drive out there one more time.  It was bittersweet in some ways. 

5 years ago we made a trip out there in April and I hoped to no end that she wouldn't choose that school.  It rained most of the trip, she won a T-Shirt for having traveled the farthest, and on the way home we broke down!  I mean DEAD in the road, just outside of Harrisburg!  We had to be towed to Wilkes-Barre, stay the night there and then do our best to get back to NH for a game Monday night!!  We joked for 5 years that was a $500 T-Shirt, between the hotel, extra meals and car parts! 

Despite it all, Shippensburg University was her #1 choice and beat out Ithaca and Quinnipeac when it came right down to it.  That July we went out again for her to attend field hockey camp.  We hung out in Hershey and Lancaster, visiting the sites and shopping in Amish country.  August we drove her out again for pre-season.  Leaving her 500 miles away from us made ALL of us cry!

I will NEVER forget the phone call that first week.  We had just finished morning session practice and my phone rang.  It was her.  She was sobbing.  "Are you okay?"  "Are you hurt?"  "What is the matter?"  After a few minutes we determined she had accidentally dropped her phone in the toilet and the screen was going green.  Before the call could finish the phone went dead.  That phone was her link to everyone and everything she knew.

I zipped home that morning, Googled the problem, found the Wiki answer and emailed her the solution!  It worked, for a bit, but she did have to go buy herself a new phone.  Survived crisis #1.

A few weeks later, I think it was, I got an email sent in the wee hours of the morning telling us how much she loved us and how glad she was we raised her how we did.  She had to deal with an alcohol issue and it was pretty scary for her.

There were many other phone calls both good and bad.  Tears and laughter!

There was that trip we made and surprised her by showing up (to deliver her cell phone!) at a tournament in West Virginia!  Yes, we drove ALL THE WAY and she had no idea we were coming!

That chapter of our lives (and I do say "our" because it's her life, but we are along for the ride!!) is now closed.  I teared up during graduation and her dad did as we tanked up at Rutter's one last time... Thanks for taking us along on the journey, Kelly!  Luv yah!  Muah! ~ Momsie doodle