School's Out

Emily graduated mid May.  A few days later she had to move out of her apartment for good.  Until she begins work on her master's degree in the fall, she needed a place to live.  She has temporarily moved back home.

We rented a Uhaul truck and a storage unit for Emily's stuff.

I'm glad she remembered to take all the important stuff.  

One of her first jobs when she made it to our house was to continue the Illinois tradition of picking spring strawberries with her mother.  We drove all the way to Eckerts in Belleville to do this.  As a reward we also stopped at the mall in Fairview Heights to do some clothes shopping.  She even helped me find a dress for the wedding.  

Of course we got carried away picking strawberries.  That seems to be another Peterson tradition.  We had 15 pounds of strawberries.  Emily made 8 jars of jam and strawberry shortcake (twice).  I made whole wheat strawberry bars (delicious but they also use 2 pounds of strawberries) and 5 batches of strawberry cream cheese bread.  We still have some left to make smoothies.  

While Emily is staying with us we tried to interest her in joining us for our walks.  She only came once since she has been here.  That day we walked through the timber with the dogs and it was very wet.  She and I both wore our sneakers which was a mistake.  Mike actually had to carry us across the creek.  After that she just stuck to jogging on the country roads.  

That is when she is around.  She has also spent time at Laura's place in St. Louis- exercising and shopping.  She went to visit friends at Carbondale and went cliff diving for the last time.  Next week she has a friend visiting.  Things just seem to happen when Emily is around.