The Beastly Rhineheimers ~ Feel Good Friday

One of the prompts for Feel Good Friday at The Girl Next Door Grows Up is writing about something someone did for you this week that made you feel good. Earlier this week my eldest graduated from high school, which is a wonderfully happy occasion, but a stress-filled one if you add in a messy house, family drama, conflicting schedules, non-functioning air conditioning, and myriad other issues. My best friend since college, Kim, hopped in the car with her two kids and drove 8 hours to be here for Aaron's graduation. She came early to help, and thank God she did, AND that she brought Krista and Nathan.

I had been focusing on the food for the party (I always focus on the food) and hadn't even picked out anything to wear to the graduation when Kim called and said she was coming. I stuck my head in my closet and pulled out a dress older than my middle-schooler, hung it somewhere handy and called it a plan. Kim arrived and she and Krista took me in hand. The dress I picked out was the exact color of Aaron's graduation gown - that would NOT look good in the pictures. With Kim's help I found a simple black dress in the back of my closet that I honestly don't recall ever wearing, but it fit. Then we had to discuss shoes and accessories. Kim selected my necklace because it's sentimental and I'll always remember wearing it to my son's graduation, and Krista selected my earrings. Then, in a very "Project Runway" moment, we decided that the navy and white shoes I had would be perfect if they were black, and Krista took a black Sharpie and worked some magic right there in my kitchen. Really, don't these shoes look beastly? (Beastly is now my new word - thank you, Nathan!).

No time for a pedicure? Here's Krista, cool as a cucumber, painting my toes the perfect shade of red.
She even painted Sam's toenails.
Sam now thinks she's a miniature poodle. She keeps trying to climb into my purse . . . all 100 pounds of her. Then, while Krista scrapbooked all Aaron's Senior pictures, a task I'd been putting off since the Fall, Kim pulled out a bag. "Do you have decorations?", she asked. "Decorations?!" They hadn't even entered my mind, and there was no time for shopping. Kim dumped out the contents of the bag - all the decorations anyone could want for a graduation party, including centerpieces. Then I ran off to John's Fifth Grade Graduation ceremony. While I was trying to pay attention to all nine of the student speakers addressing the topic "How Fifth Grade Changed My Life" I kept thinking about little things that needed to be done as soon as I got home. Just tidying-up things, but the list was getting long. When I got home, they had all been done. All I had to do was put the barbecued beans in the oven and start getting ready. Here we are just before we left for the graduation ceremony:

Without The Beastly Rhineheimers, this picture would also include a nice white jacket for me, the kind with extra-long sleeves that tie in the back, and a friendly gentleman with a syringe full of Thorazine. Thanks, y'all!