Year of the Wallet

A cute photo from our trip to Rochester NY

Well, here we are, senior picture day. We have talked and shopped and cried and worried and now…it will be what it will be. There is not an outfit or hair style that can make my daughter any prettier than she already is. She cannot change her personal style or her smile and she certainly cannot try to be like the girls in the magazines. She is perfect the way she is.

 There is no way to stop the senior year train it is already on the track and rolling full steam ahead. I have paid for the year book and paid the fee for graduation (not sure when they started that) and I am paying for pictures today. There will be college application fees and one more college tour and much, much more. This is what I have always called the year of the wallet. I know that these things must be done and I know nothing is free, but a Mom can dream can't she?

 Why does setting your children free have to cost so much and hurt so badly? I have to say I am excited for where Aly's path will go from here and I am also excited to stop flinging money at people that step into the Year of the Wallet with their hands out and some "new, innovative idea that every graduating senior needs". This is a mixed bag of emotion. One minute you are writing a check or handing over cash to someone because your child is a senior in high school and the next minute you are trying to explain to that child that is a senior that they do not have a weird body shape or large "tosh".

 I am in the "Year of the Wallet" and there is no way out but through it, so here I go. I am ready for my daughter's pictures and looking forward to a year of milestones. The cash pump is primed and my precious senior is preparing to primp and me? I am trying to not fuss to much or stress my senior out. I will do everything I can to help her through the pictures and everything else that is coming our way in the months to come. The one thing that is certain is that Aly is perfect just the way she is!