This is getting a little too real.

I suppose that, upon having a little brother, and being a Mormon, the possibility of that little brother going on a two year mission when he turned 19 was very real.  Not real enough that I actually ever thought about it, but real nonetheless.  Now, spending the last eighteen and a half years cheering that little brother on through all his accomplishments, being considered his mom a time or two, and spending hundreds upon hundreds of dollars feeding him the last few years has gone by a little bit too quickly.

Okay, a lot too quickly.

That "little brother" of mine isn't so little anymore.  His mission papers are nearly complete.  All he has left are his interviews with the bishop and stake president.  He told us the other night that he thinks he wants to leave before Christmas!  Did you hear that gasp and sucking of wind on Wednesday night?  It was me and my sister having the wind knocked out of us a little bit when that baby brother of our said he wanted to leave before Christmas!  Egads!  Who does that to all his mothers, anyway?

Well, it makes sense if that's what he really wants to do - that way he'll be home before Christmas two years from now and be able to get right back into school and all that jazz.

Anyway, as much as I am proud of him for all the great things he has done and is doing, I will miss him terribly while he's gone.  It's funny that the little kid you feel like you helped raise is all of a sudden a grown-up with a job and is a soon to be college freshman.  Someone who you don't have to pick up from school anymore, but have grown-up conversations with.  Someone who drives and who may have gotten granola bar on his suit pants this afternoon and because he didn't want to get dirty he jumped out of his car to eat his granola bar and forgot to put said car into park and left his sister rolling down the driveway.

But that's a story for another day.

As part of the submission process, he needs a picture.  He asked if I would take his picture.  I told him he could just do a selfie with his phone, but he wanted "glamour shots by deb Annie" so I had to oblige.

In about 15 minutes I took 42 pictures and we ended up with about 10 or 12 that he really liked, that we thought might make our  mom cry because her baby boy is so handsome and so grown up.

It's just that "grown up" part that I'm having a hard time with.