Something is missing...

CHILDREN!!!
I have no more children...
The only thing remaining in her room now
is a lonely wrinkled used blue graduation gown
hung sideways on the hanger dangling from the open deserted closet door.
The room is empty now and echos with cold silence...

Life changes regardless if you are ready or not.
Remember that saying "Ready or not, Here I come!"
Well it is true.

Day 5
after the mass exit of all kids and grand parents.
The dust has settled here in the villa...
Graduation is over.
A vase of smelly water and six once beautiful wilted red roses
from Josh the boyfriend,
that I am trying not to throw out,
lingers in the kitchen...
and life for Ashlynn has only just begun...

Life for me, well, I am really not sure.
Is it the beginning, the end, or the beginning of the end?

Breakfast is lonely now.
Bella has a worried look on her face.
Chris and I can actually talk about something besides what time curfew is...
and disagree..
(He always let them stay out later)

Today is bittersweet.
Bitter because I don't think you are
ever really finished raising kids or being a mother.
But you wake up one day and they do not need you anymore.
To be honest, everything else that matters, it is really time for them to teach themselves.

Sweet because I have been worried and fretting and consumed with
grades, friendships, curfews, appropriate clothing, teenage issues, drama, boyfriends, girlfriends, what is right, what is not, driving, drinking,
where the role of parenting stops and where it doesn't...
and now I do not have to think about all that 24/7.
I'm FREE!
They are free too.
It's time...and I like that.
It feels good because I know we did the best we knew how.
I know they will always remember where home is,
who God is
and the love of family is instilled in their hearts.
I feel like a 3 ton heavy chain has been weighting down my shoulders
these past 13 years of raising four teenagers.
Hallelujah
Praise the Lord - we made it!!!
The Patrizi kids are all now young adults,
fending for themselves and living together
in a very small house in Austin Texas this summer.

A perfect reality sitcom...

One overgrown boy in black flannel robot shorts and no shirt, wearing cowboy boots,
sitting next to his 3 foot pile of laundry and three half grown sisters
waiting on him, rubbing his back and working part time at his sandwich rig
all wearing each others clothes, wondering who is paying for groceries,
who ate all the Owens sausage biscuits,
fighting over who's turn it is to clean the kitchen
and I am not there to referee!!!

It is a beautiful life.

It is time to celebrate
what we have accomplished
in all the hard work and endless time and energy
you put into making sure they wear clean underwear and study.

It is time to be proud of the people they have become.
It is time to realize
if they do not wear clean underwear
it is not your problem.

I am jealous when I hear them all laughing
and seeing the girls together on Skype lying in the same bed
cracking up and hugging and just generally loving each other.
What an awesome feeling in my bones.

There is a part of me that can't wait to get there and be a part of it,
and then knowing it is only for a short time.

One day in the next few months, I will drive away from that laughter
get on a plane and travel back to the other side of the universe alone
and only see and hear them through cyberspace.

I am not the only one in the world doing this.
But it doesn't make it any easier.

They will always be my children,
I will always be their Mother...

Our lives will be lived apart, on other sides of the world
only to reunite on occasion.
But,
It will be like Christmas every single time we are together.
I am excited about that.

It is the season for freedom...

Now that all the kids are gone,
I have to make sure
Chris is not serious about having a
naked room.

Smiles,
Sherry

Once upon a time.....

Once upon a time there was a very happy young couple....

having pretty little girls...


and then another...

Little sister
listens and anticipates
the arrival of the new sibling in her life...

Oh what a day to cherish...

I can't express the
"wonderfulness"
to be the person that is able to

stop the time,

savor the moment,
and
create the memory...

As Daddys play with little girls

and mammas kisses toes
Carpe diem....

Seize the day!!!

Tomorrow is different....

This is what being a photographer is all about.
My camera is like a time machine...
In it, I preserve today!
How cool is that!

I got everything I wanted for Mother's Day... my kids....

I feel very proud and privileged to have such a fine group of young people to have been blessed with the honor of being their Mother.

Living through the eyes of other people's children...

As my life comes to another decade and chapter...

Empty nesting and turning 50,
I don't know which is worse...

Or should I say which is better!!! :0

My children are growing up which is a good thing,
it's like the
Lion King ~ the Circle of Life,
it is supposed to be this way,
kids leave the nest, and Moms turn 50!

But there is always something good that comes out of turning the page of life.
I could be 50 and in a bad mood, or
I could be 50 and act it!

I could be an empty nester with nothing to do
because I had devoted all my life to kids
instead of making one for myself along the way...

Looking back...
25+ years of being a Mom
Then one day there is no PBJ lunches to make,
no one to stay awake and pray to see the headlights turn down the driveway.
No report cards, teacher conferences, no bleachers to sit on.
Even though there is Vonage, Skype, Email, Texting, IM and phone calls,
there is still no bleachers.

I have sat on bleachers watching little league baseball, soccer, football, cheerleading, dance recitals, swim team, middle school volleyball, basketball
(which was terrible score 2 - 0),
high school dance competitions, walked golf courses, football season tickets, Rugby games,
tennis matches, volleyball, you name it we have sat and watched it and photographed it!!!.

So now what?

Now I sit at a computer and stare into the eyes of children,
Children that are not mine, but for a split moment in time ~ I can pretend.
I spend one hour taking the shots, and 3 hours looking at them afterwards.

Seeing the wonder and enchantment in their eyes,
and the pure raw love in the eyes of the Moms and Dads.

Knowing that this moment in time
is brief
and every minute
should be cherished.

Every bleacher you sit on, enjoyed......
because one day your seat is filled with another younger Mom.

So today I will not sit here and feel sorry for myself
because I am going to be 50 and not have any kids left to tend to,
I am going to celebrate others that have a lifetime of bleachers to sit on...

Rose and Mike,
Finley might not have started walking yet,
but sooner than you think he will be running on a field somewhere...
buy a cushion, and linger.
How lucky you are to just be beginning the
Circle of Life...


Best of luck in Singapore, Doha will miss you.

Cupcake Art

Yes, It is a Bella cupcake...

I bought this at the Friendship Festival this weekend at ASD. It has to be the most adorable cupcake I have ever seen. It has been sitting on the counter in the kitchen for 2 days while Mr. Patrizi has salivated over eating it. But he wouldn't dare!!! He has asked several times, "What are you going to do with that?"

About 9 months ago I had a one year Birthday shoot and I had iced a pretty pink cupcake with sprinkles and a candle and put it on a pretty pedestal, left it in the kitchen went to the shoot in the Souqs and when I returned with the baby, guess what....

NO CUPCAKE!!!
Chris was sitting on the stool with icing on his face!!!

I had a fit, and he ran to the store and came back with a muffin and he iced it and made it into a Birthday muffin.
Now would you eat a cupcake sitting on a pedestal with a candle in it if it weren't your Birthday?
He is getting the Bella cupcake tonight in his plate,
she only licked it a little bit...