College Send Off #2

I've now sent off two sons to college. I'm officially an empty nester. That is still sinking in. 

The boys left home by car on Tuesday August 22nd. The Jeep added to its 300,000 mile count. The boys took turns driving. They stayed in Redding, California for the first night. We checked ahead of time that it was OK for them to check in. Sometimes hotels won't rent rooms to those who are under 21. 

I shared this photo of the packed car and some fellow parents commented that my boys didn't bring that much stuff. One of C's friends from high school drove down to college and his car was full with just his own stuff. More about that later. 

I flew down on Wednesday August 23rd. I flew out of Payne field which is so much better than SeaTac. There was literally no one in front of me in line at TSA. They have about 4 gates in total. 

I stayed at an Extended Stay hotel. That was a mistake. It is too bare bones and not really meant for someone on vacation. There wasn't a pool which I failed to realize before booking. No nice lobby to hang out in and the "free breakfast" was only granola bars and coffee/tea. 

When I arrived and saw that the floor of my hotel room had hardwood floors, I was concerned since both boys needed to stay with me the first night. I hoped to get a room with 2 beds but that wasn't possible. I thought one of the boys could sleep on the floor, but on carpet. Thankfully, A met up with friends on Wednesday night and was able to stay in an empty bed in a dorm room for the 2 nights before he could move into his apartment. C stayed with me the first night.

Thursday was the move in day for C. The process went very quickly since student athletes met us at the curb of his building and took his belongings up to his room. I just wish that female athletes weren't moving things. As we drove (on campus) towards his dorm, we were guided by smiling students which included two of A's friends. 

The process of moving in took 90 minutes. 

note: my quilt on his bed

We didn't know what was allowed for hanging up C's posters. We were told that command strips are allowed. We didn't bring any so I went to Home Depot to get those.

Other college moms have described hours of moving in (including boys). The girls that C knows at Biola were still moving in on Saturday with trips to Target for additional things. The two guys that C knows at Biola put a small couch, a large TV, an air fryer, and a full size fridge in their dorm room. A bit much!

I met C's roommate quite early on. He is from a city about 2 hours away. He is quieter than C.

Their room is on the 2nd floor. It has a view of the front door. We could watch other students moving in.

A funny thing happened on Thursday afternoon. A works for the marketing department. He and his coworkers were asking freshmen and their parents to answer the question, "why Biola?" They weren't getting many people to agree to appear on camera and those that did, weren't very good talkers. First C did an interview and then he talked me into doing it. I don't know where it will be used. 

Biola has a poster up with all the incoming freshman names. C was happy to pose with his name. A was not so inclined two years ago. 

Thursday evening we had a faculty dinner. C is majoring in business. Crowell School of Business. The dean talked for a while and then we ate and then we did a mixer to meet other families. 

After the dinner was Biola Welcome on Metzer lawn. A was working as a camera man so I enjoyed seeing that. We sat close to him. 

When a red light appeared at the top of his camera, I knew that was his shot was being used.

Friday morning there was a breakfast ??? for families from the Pacific Northwest. I arrived a bit late and discovered the breakfast was only pastries and coffee and the coffee had run out. I was annoyed since if I had known, I would've eaten a proper breakfast first. I stayed for a little while but skipped out to get something to eat. 

I went into Heritage cafe. It has lots of memorabilia from old Biola. I love that sort of thing.

C did mandatory orientation sessions on Friday. I ended up having lunch with both my boys in the cafeteria. It was super busy, probably their busiest day of the year. On Friday afternoon there was a faculty open house.

The professors introduced themselves and the dean answered parent questions. C got a tour of the business building. He was able to connect with the two professors who specialize in data analytics, which is his interest area.

Friday was move in day for A. He is living in an apartment but it is still student housing. It is on a main street near the college, about 3 blocks away. He was the first (of the four guys) to move in. He shares a bedroom with his roommate and two other young men share the other room. They have a living room, bathroom, a small dining room, and a kitchen. There is a pool in the center of the apartment suites. It was quite busy on Sunday afternoon when I stopped by to say goodbye to A.

I didn't do anything to help with A's move in. I bought him some thumb tacks so he could put things up on his wall. Friday evening was an all campus BBQ (outside, of course) with the president. I ate with C and his roommate. Following that was the Communion service. We got there early to get a good spot.

I grabbed this photo of the communion service from the president's Instagram account.

Parents are supposed to say goodbye to their students at the end. I'm a rebel and stayed longer. I wanted to visit a church with C on Sunday. Again at the communion service, A was on camera.

Saturday morning, C had get to know you event with his dorm building. I picked him up at 12:30 pm and I drove to the Griffith Observatory. Due to LA traffic, the drive was an hour. C, unfortunately, felt car sick. Parking is a challenge at the Observatory. We had to park a ways away and hike up a bit to get to the building. Parking is also expensive but I knew that from our previous visit back in April 2021. I think it is one of the most popular spots to visit in the LA area. 

You can see the famous Hollywood sign from here.

There is a statue of famous astronomers in front of the Observatory. Hipparchus, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Isaac Newton, and William Herschel. 

I didn't know in advance but we were able to go in the building for free. There are lots of interesting things inside. The building is made of marble so that makes it nice and cool on a hot day. Here is the ceiling of the lobby.

We headed back to Biola at about 4 pm. C had a dinner with his dorm and a social event that night. I was kinda bored and had no one to hang out with on Saturday night. I went to Barnes and Noble bookstore to kill some time. The other parents of C's friends were there as couples. 

Sunday morning I picked up C and we visited Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church in La Mirada. Very close to Biola. The OPC is a denomination similar to our own church but a bit more conservative. I didn't find the music very inspiring. Unfortunately, the main pastor was away so we didn't get a sense of the preaching. The people were very friendly. The church is a bit smaller than our own church. Very ethnically diverse, like the La Mirada area. After church I took C back to campus and said goodbye. I said good bye to A as well in the afternoon. 

I had dinner at the airport and my flight left at 7:15 pm.

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Eagle Scout Court of Honor

It happened! It was in serious doubt. When I sent out the first invitations, the Scoutmaster replied that we wouldn't get our regalia in time. We pushed on and decided we could borrow some items if we had to. Regalia is the neckerchief, the slide, and the pin awarded to eagle scouts.

Christopher passed his board of review on Monday July 17. 

We managed to get a ceremony planned in just under 3 weeks. That is a much shorter timeline than most ceremonies have.

We were under a lot of restraints for picking a date. C's best friend left for California and college on August 5th. His other close friends leave for Texas on August 12th. We really wanted his best friends to be able to be at the event.

First we tried to get the church where we meet for boy scouts. It wasn't available. It would have been a great venue and they don't charge a fee for scout events. We were able to secure the church building where our church meets for a minimal fee of 100 dollars. We considered holding it outside in the field behind the church, under a tent, but the rental fee for tents is very high. Slowly things came together. J worked on the ceremony and getting the roles filled. I worked on display boards, decorations, food, and drinks. A and I worked together on the slide show. 

There were a lot of roles to fill. Usually at an eagle court of honor, there is a scout representing each rank who lights a candle, seven in total. There was a troop white-water rafting trip that departed on the day of our ceremony. We managed to get 6 scouts and one lit two candles. 

My hubby likes to shake things up so he bought a mini blow torch to use to light the candles. 

I made six display boards. One for graduation (mainly photos from high school), one for cub scouts, one for boy scouts, for the eagle scout project, one for future plans, and one for Christopher's favourite photos. 

We had our programs printed at Fed Ex Office. We invited 125 people. Our final count was about 70. I did have a guest list I asked people to sign. I'm not sure if we missed some. It was a mix of Christopher's friends, our Scout troop, and friends of ours from church and other places.

I borrowed things from friends. A drink dispenser, two large coolers to store and serve cans of sparkling water. I had friends bring trays of cheese and crackers, fruit trays, and brownies. I also borrowed an additional crockpot. The fabric table cloths for the round tables belong to our church but are stored at my friend's house. 

There are several boxes of supplies for eagle ceremonies that is passed around our troop. It included a book that was very helpful for putting the ceremony together. 

I made the table centers. I bought wood slices several months ago that were used for a church lunch. I had some moss and trees. I made the tents using small popsicle sticks and leftover fabric. I also made the campfires using little rocks and sticks. 

I used a vintage suitcase case to collect cards. 

We asked our old friends Colette and Matt to be the greeters and let people know where the restrooms are.

I ordered cupcakes from Safeway. I found an idea online of forming an American flag with cupcakes. The first bakery I asked wanted over 200 dollars for 70 cupcakes. Safeway only charged a dollar a cupcake.

We had leftover cupcakes, by the way. I did meatballs in 2 crockpots. They were frozen, from Costco, and were put into the crockpots in the morning and warmed up during church and then were ready after the ceremony. The sauce is grape jelly and BBQ sauce. Those were gobbled up with no leftovers.

Here is the current Scoutmaster giving his talk.

Our special guest was Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney. We went to a fundraiser for him a while back (he's running for re-election in November) and really liked him. J got in touch with his staff and asked if he would come to our ceremony. He happily accepted. He had to leave early to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game. I thanked him and his wife for coming (before the ceremony) and they said they really enjoy coming to these types of events and they are encouraging to him. 

Christopher's good friend Eli was the master of ceremonies. His dad was our photographer. We had two men from our church do sound and video. 

Eli is in the middle.

Nick and Mr Bachmeier did the scout law in Scripture.

Our troop has a tradition that after a mother's pin is awarded (when a scout advances), the scout hugs their mom.

The mentor pin was a surprise to me. I didn't know who Christopher would give it to. I thought perhaps it would be J. He chose to give it to his former Scoutmaster Mr. Keen.

One of the elders at our church is an Eagle Scout. We chose him to do the opening and closing prayers. 

We didn't want to have an open mike but we wanted people to speak about Christopher. His peer spoke first. He is also named Adam. Then it was Mr. Said who was on the Philmont trip.

The man who was scheduled to speak about the eagle project wasn't able to be there due to a death of a staff member in the ministry. 

Here is C doing his speech. 

This was the photo that Jonathan really wanted. Sheriff Adam presenting Christopher with his gift. Note: the box is empty due to BSA rules.

We were very happy with our successful ceremony. We got lots of nice compliments from people.

One thing that was unique about this court of honor was the number of friends from outside of scouting that were present. It was a much larger group than is typical. Here are just a few of them.

This is a really close friend of C's who will be going to college in Texas.

The funny thing that we realized after the ceremony was over was that Christopher wasn't presented with his regalia! It was somehow forgotten by the Scoutmaster and/or J. We gave him those items and the later photos include them.

Another eagle scout mom told me that planning an eagle ceremony is like planning a wedding. I wasn't sure about that when she told me that months ago but I agree with her now. 

Note: the majority of these photos were taken by Mr. Nakanishi, dad of Eli, who was our Master of Ceremonies.

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