Out at midnight.... ON A SCHOOL NIGHT!!!!!!

When she was preschool age, I was not a very structured mother. I had a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old and a husband who worked lots of hours. We had naptimes but they were not rigid. We had bedtimes but they were not rigid either.

It worked for us. We were happy.

It was not uncommon to find Carly and I up at 10pm making cookies if we felt like it.

I've always been a night owl.

We'd tuck Mark in since he had to get up early for work....

We'd tuck baby Rachel in since she had to grow and then we'd stay up late and do whatever we wanted. Not every night but plenty of nights.

Well a couple of weeks ago we were at it again.....

It's Homecoming time

Senior year. Last one.

Homecoming was less than 2 weeks away. She was worried she wouldn't be asked. Most of her friends had been asked. As far as she knew all of her guy friends either had to work or had already asked someone. She had bought a beautiful dress for $25 from her former babysitter several months ago.

She said "of course the dance I already have a dress for will be the one I don't get asked to..."

She had kind of given up hope the day it happened. She was sitting on the couch studying for a test when we heard a knock at the door.

Mark: "Who's knocking at our door at 10 o'clock at night?????"

It was a plate of berry swirled cheesecake bars with a note that said "I know it's cheesy but will you go to homecoming with me?" Inside each of the 6 bars was a piece of paper with a letter written on it laminated with tape.

It spelled out his name.

Hope was restored. He's a fun friend who shares her medical interests. She was happy to be asked by him and knew she'd have a great time.

She said "How am I going to answer him???" To which Mark popped off with "Cheez... I think I will" which got the synapses firing. It was late and she had a test to study for and we waffled about doing it that night or whether to wait... It was already 11pm and answering would involve a trip to the store. She finally decided it would be too good to pass up to answer the same night she was asked. He wouldn't expect it and so off we went to Macey's.

We bought 2 boxes of these:

3 little individually wrapped Tillamook cheddar squares:

3 little Ritz cheese and cracker packs:

3 Mozarella string cheese packages:

and a can of squeeze cheese:

We arrived in his very quiet neighborhood at 11:30pm and it started to sprinkle but we went ahead anyway. He drives a big suburban and it was parked outside. Perfect!

On the side of the suburban facing the house we did the following:

Front passenger window:

Stuck cheezit crackers all over with a squirt of squeeze cheese glue

Middle seat passenger Window:

Taped string cheese, cheese squares and cheese and cracker packets all over with a few cheezit's glued around for good measure.

Large back seat passenger window;

Wrote in squeeze Cheese "Cheez..... I think I will!" with hearts and more cheezit's glued to the window. It looked so great. I was so mad to not have thought to bring my camera. She stuck a cheezit to the center of every hubcap for good measure and tied a bow around the unopened box of cheezit crackers and hung them in a bag from the side mirror. She also tied a bow of ribbon around the half used can of squeeze cheez and set it on his front porch.

Then, giggling, we got into our minivan and drove away.

Maybe

I really should have encouraged her to study for her test and told her that running around town at midnight, in the rain, on a school night was not a good idea.......

But next year at this time when, if all goes according to plan, she'll be living on her own away from me-

I'm pretty sure

I'll be really glad

that I didn't.