Sandi's Visit

Sandi and Nicholas came to town to visit. It's been a while since we've seen each other. She's now relocated to North Carolina and due to the constraints of the kids in school, it makes it hard for us to see each other. She came up, May came up with the kids and we had a great dinner at a fabulous restaurant in Downtown Stamford. We celebrated Matthew's graduation and it was great to see the kids chatting with one another...OK- maybe not chatting so much but more like texting. It seems to be the norm these days for Jocelyn and Matthew to be seated next to one another and to be texting. Whatever happened to the art of conversation? Thank goodness for unlimited texting.

We had a great dinner and wandered over to a crepe place after dinner for dessert. The kids each had crepes and were nicely sugared up before we headed home. Sandi and Nicholas will be here for the week and it will be great to spend some time with them. Matthew has started to work his volunteer "job" for the summer. He's volunteering 25 hours a week at Piper's Hill. That's the childcare center that he started with when he was an infant and I was a member of the Board of Directors. I figured it was better to have him there than frying his brains out playing mindless video games. At least he's giving back to the community. This will continue through the whole summer and maybe he'll work some hours once he start high school. Matthew will be taking Nicholas to work with him on Friday and Sandi and I already have plans for the few hours that we will be without kids. That is a luxury that we don't get too often.

Reunion with Amy

Amy (far left in the photo) is a former colleague of Tony's from ATC in Shanghai. They worked together while in Shanghai and we've kept in touch. She has arrived in the United States for business and it was nice to see Amy again. Amy stated that the whole gang at ATC misses the baked goods that I used to send in. I'm now starting to think that I should have started my baking school in Shanghai. Hmmmm.

We had the precursory dim sum and Amy was quite happy to have Chinese food versus Western food. One solid week of Western food and I figured she was ready to scream. Earlier this week, I did send two containers of homemade congee to hold her over and she was thrilled when Tony showed up at the office with them. She's heading up to Boston for some more meetings before she returns to Shanghai at the end of the week. We hope to have another opportunity to see Amy and the rest of our ATC friends sometime in the future. Who knows, maybe I'll head back and start a cooking school to teach the Chinese how to bake.

Graduation

It has been quite a while since I've written anything. Life seems to be going full speed ahead and it never ceases to amaze me when a period of time has passed that I wonder where it has gone. Case in point. Matthew graduated last night from middle school. It was just three years ago this summer that we returned from living in Shanghai. We returned to adjust to life back in the United States and he had to adjust going to a Catholic school without his friends that he made in Shanghai. It was a rough transition year for him, for all of us to tell you the truth. Now, three years has flown by and he is now out of middle school. He will miss his friends since they'll be attending different schools. Matthew will be attending the district school by the house and he's moving along with this passage of his life.

It dawned on me that college is definitely around the corner and not something that I am ready for. I doubt that I will ever really be ready for that since it forces me to face the fact that he is no longer a baby. He is well on his way to adulthood and there is nothing that I can do to stop it. The braces may be coming off before he starts high school, he'll be getting his drivers permit to learn to drive in a few short years. The voice has definitely changed, he's getting taller slowly. Sometimes when I call home and he answers the phone, it jolts me to hear his voice so deep. He sounds like his father over the phone and it can be a bit confusing. Matthew is on a journey to adulthood that he's anxious to get to quickly, but I am not ready to let him grow up yet. I keep telling him to enjoy this time since you have a lifetime to be an adult. A lifetime of responsibility. Then again, I wanted to grow up quickly and now wished that I can be his age, carefree. Sigh.