Mother's Day Weekend

Graduation at Berry was on the lawn south of Evans Hall. This was due to the storms that ravaged the campus a week earlier. There were over 500 trees that came down on campus. The fact graduation was held outside was remarkable. Typically graduation is sad for me, as I watch my "kids" leave Berry & Rome. This year we have several that have taken jobs in Rome!!

Rachel Stewart has been at Calvary since her first week at Berry. She has led DNow, helped Wednesday youth activities, accountability groups on Friday mornings at Chick-fil-A & played the piano for the choir. She is wonderful and we are glad she has a job teaching math at Model High School for next year. Her sister Rebecca is also at Berry, so we get two Stewart girls!!

The Nobles family with Rachel.

Mother's Day is another typical Sunday for us. Church, then I cook lunch. The thought of going to a restaurant and WAITING forever to be seated does not appeal. Randy's mom came for lunch and brought her wonderful deviled eggs (Randy hates them!), and a coconut cake. The Stewart girls also came for lunch since they are both in Rome for the summer.

Kate suggested we go to the strawberry farm that afternoon, which she told me we did last Mother's Day! The berries are plentiful, red and sweet. We picked for 10 minutes and had 3 buckets full!

Carrie sampling in the field!

Kate with her bucket of berries! It was a beautiful day.

My friend Loretta and her mom, who we call Mama came along to pick too. Loretta used to babysit Aaron & Alyssa when they were babies. She even kept them overnight when they were little so that Randy & I could go whitewater rafting with friends. Loretta moved to Kentucky the year Kate was born, but her mom lives in Rome. She was here for Mother's Day, and they weren't berry pickin' with us. The kids call Loretta their fairy godmother. She stills spoils them rotten!

Loretta & her mom, Faye.

The highlight of the strawberry farm is the ice cream they serve. I think its the only reason the kids will go & pick berries!

Resting after our ice cream treat!

Big surprise this Mother's Day. The kids got together (Aaron's idea!), and had pictures made. Dixi Burnett took the pictures at Winshape Retreat. You can see the pictures here. They are wonderful, and I was very surprised.

The card was a by product of the pictures. The grandparents & Ms. Loretta all got cards too.