This weekend was jam-packed with activities. It was a lot of fun, but it was also sad, scary, and every emotion in between. Oh, and did I say exhausting? It was that, too. Might as well start at the beginning...
Friday night after work we met up with friends to have some of Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken. This place is definitely a hole-in-the-wall, nothing too fancy about it at all.
Matt and Mary were excited about fried chicken.
As were Chris and Allison.
Jenny joined us too, even though her other half, Darrin, was still in China for work.
Doc was there too, of course.
If you're a beer drinker and you find yourself at Gus's on a hot Friday night, might as well order up a 40.
Allison and Mary Elizabeth were excited about the beverages.
Jenny was too.
Sometimes a drink that big requires two hands.
It didn't take too long before our food arrived. I gotta admit, I wasn't super excited about eating there since I'm not the biggest fried chicken fan, but this stuff was goooood.
This isn't your ordinary fried chicken; it's got a spicy kick to it. The crispy skin is dee-lish and the fries and baked beans complete the plate. I guess it's World Famous for a reason.
We all hung out downtown for a while longer before finally calling it a night. Most of us had to get up early the next morning...
...which brings us to Saturday. Saturday was a day that I had been really excited about and dreading all at the same time. I haven't written about on here yet - mostly because I refuse to believe it's true - but my alma mater, Lambuth University, will be closing it's doors for good at the end of this month. Yesterday, June 18, was Lambuth Heritage Day - a day of celebrating Lambuth and its history, and also the last time I would see all of my friends, classmates, teachers on campus. It was a bittersweet day.
We arrived on campus around 10:30. Doc had been to Lambuth with me once before, but I was glad to have him there with me for this last reunion. I was going to make this a whole post of its own and include a photo tour of the campus, but apparently you can't steal pictures from Facebook anymore. Did y'all know that? I didn't do a great job of taking pictures around campus but a lot of my friends did. I was hoping I could post some of them, but I guess not. We'll just have to work with the few pictures I took.
This is the steeple on the chapel. The chapel sits in the middle of campus so, since we parked on the outskirts of the quadrangle, we walked towards the steeple to find the crowd.
This is in no way the best shot of the chapel (it's not even close), but I think it's almost impossible to take a bad picture of it.
Fun Fact: You can't tell from this picture, but from this view, the chapel goes straight back but then has a small wing on both the left and right sides. From a bird's eye view, it looks like there's a cross situated in the middle of campus. Or at least that's what I was told, and it's what I told every prospective student I took on a tour during my time as a Student Ambassador.
With the chapel such a prominent feature of Lambuth's campus, it only made sense that the heritage day started with a service in it. In all my years as a Lambuth student and then graduate, I have never seen the chapel as full as it was yesterday. Every pew was full and late arrivals had to stand in the back or around the sides. I sat on a pew with some of my best friends from college just like the many chapel services we attended as students, only this time our husbands were sitting with us.
The speakers at the service were all good, focusing on the idea that Lambuth doesn't need a campus to stay alive, because it will live on in all of us. There were some short stories shared, and lots of praise and thanks to the faculty and staff that stuck with the school during its last days. But for me, the best part was the music. I loved hearing some of my favorite hymns - O God Our Help In Ages Past, Come Thou Font, My Hope Is Built - sung by a packed house. I recorded a couple of songs on my iPhone but since it picked up my voice the most and we all know how off-key I can be, those will have to be for just me to enjoy. The last hymn, It Is Well, was tough to make it through. By that point, I was well past the emotional point. The service closed with us all singing the Lambuth Alma Mater, followed by the Irish Blessing. That moment is one that I wish I could bottle up and put on a shelf so that I could get it out and relive it any time I wanted. But since that's obviously not possible, it will just have to be a sweet, sweet memory.
Immediately following chapel was supposed to be a big picnic out in the quad, but as we sang the Alma Mater, the rain came. Luckily, several buildings on campus were open and we were able to duck inside for lunch, but it did mean that the crowd got split up into different areas. My friends all made their way to the cafeteria, so we had our picnic lunch there. I am thankful that we were all together for one last lunch in the caf, but I hate that I probably missed seeing so many others.
Some of us in the cafeteria.
It was really good to hang out with my best friends on campus again, but also to see some great friends that I don't get to see often enough. And I loved meeting all the new spouses and even several babies.
The rain eventually stopped and we were able to head back outside. This is just a handful of sorority sisters that were at Lambuth the same time I was.
The schedule for the day included a Greek Rally Around The Flagpole. I'm not sure who named it for the schedule, because every Lambuth student knows it's just called Flagpole. As far as I know, this is pretty unique to Lambuth. I'm sure fraternities and sororities on every campus have their own chants that they do, but at Lambuth, we had Flagpoles. The flagpole is located right outside the chapel, so its also in the center of campus. During a Flagpole, the greek organizations take turns rushing the flagpole and then circling around it, chanting and singing songs. For the girls, there was usually a lot of choreography. For the guys, it mostly consisted of hurrahs and woos. We had Flagpoles all the time and for every reason: first day of school, first day of recruitment, bid day, initiation, drops and engagements. Pretty much anything worth celebrating got its own Flagpole.
We were the last sorority to go on Saturday, and we had the biggest crowd!
Lots of hand-holding and singing...
...and even some awkward motions.
During our last slow song, half of the circle held hands and the other half put their arms around their neighbors' shoulders. Somehow I was the point where those two different motions collided.
As much as we sometimes dreaded Flagpoles during the school year (remember, we had them ALL the time), I'm glad that we had a chance to have just one more. This one was definitely awkward since there were so many generations there and things have certainly changed over time, but I think we pulled it off and it was ok. I'm glad Doc got to see it since it was such a foreign concept to him, especially since he attended a school that didn't have a greek system.
After the Flagpole we took a group Phi Mu shot. This is most of us that were there.
I won't even try to tell you where I am in that picture because you can't really see me.
The rest of the afternoon was just spent visiting and walking around campus. There were a couple of auctions going on, plus lots of memorabilia being sold in the bookstore. I didn't really expect to buy anything, but I also didn't expect them to be selling old desks. You know I had to have one!
(This picture was taken after I'd already put the desk in the attic for the time being. Ignore all the junk around it.)
I snagged my wooden desk for just $25. Completely worth it. The majority of my classes were in the business rooms that had table seating, but I did spend my fair share of classes in these desks too. I'm probably even guilty of writing on a few of them. I quickly glanced over the ones for sell but I couldn't find my autograph on any of them. I've read over the scribbles on the one I bought and all I've learned is that Amanda Loves Chuck and Christy Sucks.
There may also be a few wads of gum on the bottom of the desk. Kinda gross, but hopefully they can be scraped off. I have no idea what I'll end up doing with it (keep it as is or paint it?) or where it will find a home, but I'm sure I'll blog about it when I decide!
We left Lambuth around 3:00. I'm sure Doc was exhausted from meeting people and I was exhausted from the range of emotions (so happy! so sad!). But I said this weekend was also a little bit scary...
...and that brings us to the ride home Saturday afternoon. About halfway home, Doc received a text that said Wyatt was headed to the emergency room for an ultrasound. Obviously, a trip to the hospital for any reason is the last thing that any parent wants to hear, but not knowing many details was especially scary. I'm sure Doc felt helpless as there was really nothing we could do at that time except keep driving.
When we finally pulled into town, we went straight to the emergency room. I dropped Doc off and then drove my friend Jenny home (she had ridden with us to Lambuth). Everything ended up being completely fine, but it was a long afternoon and evening. Doc stayed by Wyatt's side as he had some tests done and I sat at home with phone in hand, waiting for instructions. The word "surgery" was thrown out very early, before anyone really knew what was going on, so I think we were all thinking the worst in our heads. After a few tests, it was determined that he was fine. Hallelujah! The doctors just said he needed lots of rest and maybe a little pain medication.
We are very thankful that he was able to go home that night (around 8 or so) and that it ended up being nothing too bad. He does have to stay home from camp this week, but that's a-ok with us if it means he's a healthy boy.
Doc and I didn't get around to eating dinner until after 9 that night and then we crashed hard. What a long day!
I forgot to mention that Friday, before dinner, Doc got to open his Father's Day gift from Lolli.
I know, I know, kinda silly, but remember - I thought we were going to be having a picnic on Saturday and we didn't have any outdoor chairs. I picked up a couple and thought they might as well be a gift, right? They had to be from Lolli since he was already getting something different from the kids.
Lolli helped pull off the bow for him. And her handwriting is better than her spelling.
So I guess this finally brings us to Sunday, Father's Day. Doc was supposed to drive the kids to camp today, but since that didn't happen, we ended up getting to spend the day together. We went to church and then had lunch with my parents. We worked in the shop most of the afternoon and then came home to get ready for the week. Just a typical Sunday.
Hap, hap, happy father's day to three of my favorite fathers: my dad, my father-in-law, and my husband. I am so thankful to have each of you in my life, and hope that you had the best day today!
"Happie fodder's day" to all of you other dads out there, too!
