I cannot believe it is Back to School time already!  Where did the summer go?

And even though my boys are grown, I still get that funny feeling in the pit of my stomach this time of year…

When my boys were young, I was always a little sad to see summer end and have them go back to school.  Summer was so much fun!  I recall rushing to get our “chores” done in the morning, getting some semblance of a dinner started, even setting the table, and then spending lazy afternoons EVERY SINGLE sunny day at my friend, Barb’s pool.   Oh those were the days!   I was so fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom until Jake started 9th grade and Nick 7th grade.  There was no job I would have rather done when they were young.  (And I think that is why I can love my job so much now – because I have no regrets of time not spent with my guys when they were young – and since they don’t need me anymore – <SIGH!> – at least in the way they did when they were young – I needed more “purpose” to my days.)

I wonder if I’ll ever not get that feeling at this time of year?  When I hear my Dad tell me about the kids on the bus (and today is the first day of Kindergarten for the area where he is a bus driver – – – in his retirement after being bored staying home – – – hmmm – see any correlation there?! 🙂  ), my heart remembers those days of walking the boys to the top of the lane to meet the bus (and then take a walk with Tracy – who is still my walking buddy! 🙂 ) and passing the hours until they would come bounding home in the afternoon!

I sure did love those days and I sure do still love those guys – BUNCHES and BUNCHES!  And they both have terrific ladies they share their lives with now that I have grown to love also.   Marty and I are truly blessed.

Here is one of my favorite “First Day of School” photos taken at the bus stop, which is close to 20 years old!:

Gosh!  How did I blink, and that turn into this?!?!?

Well – enough of that reminiscing!  Thanks for indulging me if you’ve read this far!  🙂

I hope you all are enjoying (or at least getting through) this back to school time of year!

The card I am sharing today is one I created for a new challenge to me – Freshly Made Sketches #151.  Here is the sketch we were presented with to create a card design from:

Since I have lots of guys in my life, I need to come up with some more “masculine” cards.  For this design, I used SU By the Tide stamp set for the fish and seaweed, did a little watercoloring and sea salt technique to create my “ocean” background square, used some fun Neat ‘n Tangled “Punchinella” for an embellishment (cool stuff to repurpose the sheet that sequins are punched!!), a little fish scale look with my #WinkofStella brush pen (do you think I just love this brush pen because it is named after MY Grandma!? 🙂 ), and a couple of pearls for bubbles.

Enjoy – and Happy Back to School time!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi