Home for the Summer (?)

If our first real day (non-vacation) of summer break is any indication of what our summer break holds, I will be expecting......

 To wake up between 5 and 5:30 a.m. every day.
Not cuz I have to.  But because this kid does for work.
And I love him.
(Plus also, he is loud when he eats....not bad manners....just close proximity to my room.)

 He will be constantly waving 'bye' to me
right after we have a chance to bond
and chat
for about 90 seconds between work and baseball
And I send him on his way with his supper-to-go. 
Or "lupper" 

I can also expect to spend several of my waking/functioning hours at the ball field.

Cheering for some JV and Fresh/Soph teams.....

 Trying to learn what all the signs mean.....

 And keeping this girl entertained during double headers.....

And....
Well...
Now I'm getting ready for a road trip to watch another kid play some ball.
After I feed some of the others.
And the day is only about half over. 

Fortunately, I believe the ADD-side of my personality is gonna love this summer.
But the type-A/OCD-side of me might struggle a bit. 

We'll see!

Brady

This kid graduates from high school today.

And I get to go watch him.

Just so we are all clear, I am not his mama.
I don't pretend to be.
He doesn't need me to be that.

He is not my son.
He doesn't pretend to be.
I don't need him to be that.

Now that that is out of the way,
it needs to be said
That I couldn't love him more
Or be more proud
If he was my own.

I've been around long enough to realize that 

that

is special

and rare.

So even if I don't fit in

to a clearly defined "role"

with this kid

....that's okay.

Cuz I'm still
one of his biggest fans.

And he
still holds a special place

 in my heart.

Congrats on your Graduation, Brady!

 

Last Day of School, 2012

This picture was the first day of school.

And this one....the last. 


Some pretty major differences between the two photos. 

The most obvious being the vehicle. 
I became the proud mama of a motor vehicle driver. 
It hardly seems possible that I could be that old.
That the Wildcat could be that old. 
But the truth is right there, staring back at me through the lens of the camera. 
This kid is taking a big step into the adult world starting tomorrow......
It's called:  employment.
Proud of my son, who applied for and got his first job.
The first step into the "real world"
Is really
A HUGE step
For the kid
And his mama
(who wants  to still believe that the Wildcat wants to be tucked in at night with a bedtime song and prayer)
(don't think i won't wake up early and take another photo of his first day of work)
(insert evil mama chuckle that grates on the ears of teenagers everywhere)

Then that gorgeous girl on the left.

 
She left the house today as a junior high student.
She will return home as a high school student.
And athlete.
Here she is catching at in a high school softball game:

 And leading off to steal third.....

For this girl, I am looking forward to high school.
I'm looking forward to watching her branch out
In her abilities
In her social circles
And her academics.
I believe the high school years will confirm what I have always believed about my Marz.....
.....that the idea she has that she doesn't  fit in where she is is more about the fact that she needs the opportunity to spread her wings than the thought she has that something is wrong.  New friends, new opportunities, new classes might just be the remedy that is needed.


And as far as that girl in the middle goes: 

 She's got my heart.

She isn't like any of her siblings.
And God didn't make her to be like any of them.
I learn so much from this girl and her personality every single day of my life.
She tries hard to be who she is wired to be.
Which is hard when the cool thing is to look like everybody else.

She has a summer babysitting job....only part time.
Which is good for me.
Because I'm not sure I want to share her any more than I already do.

And Tookie.....

This girl left as an elementary student this morning.
And will return home as a middle school student.
With everyone else doing their own little summer things, it might just be me and this one left here at home. 
Which I know she will hate.
Because she has spent her whole life watching everyone else get to do their own things
Way before she does. 

I'm thinking about spoiling her
(something i have tried hard not to do)
(but her older siblings already think i do anyway)

So why not? 

I don't know what else to say.
Except bring on the BBQ and Ball season.
Bring on the smores
The long days
The summer camps
And everything in between.

Cuz I got my camera.
And so much will change in the next 2 to 3 months. 
I don't want to miss a minute of it.

Weekend in Review

It was a long weekend.
Full of amazing things!

Some things are better said with pictures:

 So this kid here....well I got to watch him at the Iowa State Track Meet.

He won 2nd place in the shot put.

 And 6th in the discuss.  

So fun to watch him in his element.

 Here he is with his dad....who apparently never smiles when a camera is pointed in his direction. 

More on this as the weekend plays on....

Brothers.....watching you-tube of a cat trying to climb a slide.  

Doesn't seem funny when you try to say it with words....but the picture tells the real story.

 

Grandpa....well, this photo was really a set-up.  He didn't order this food.  But we thought it would be funny to get a picture of him "trying" Brady's leftovers...while laying in bed at the hotel.  

 

I include this photo...not because it was a great shot at all.

But.

That guy in the red shirt....well, I think you can see that he spotted me here.  

I sort of ran out to where all the people with press passes were standing

to get a good shot.  I got about two throws of shots in before the people in red shirts started checking press passes.  Thanks to me.

Thank you very much.

I am proud of that.

 Here's another one of the brothers havin' fun.

 Then there is this girl.  

She was supposed to read an essay she wrote at an American Legion event.

The event....didn't happen. 

 But we got all dressed up and had to acknowledge the night with a photo anyway.

Oh how I love this girl of mine!

 Today i got to spend some time with this crew...at their church.

(see the guy on the left?  have you seen him smile yet?)

 oh...wait!  Here is one!  Brinn got confirmed today.  

She did a good job at the service. 

I took several dozen pictures of everyone else before leaving when I realized that I didn't have a single shot of me and my date.  Which I really need to have because there has only been one other time where one or the other of us have not worn flip flops and have both gotten dressed up. 

 Here is that photo. 

Both dressed up.

No smile by the guy on the left.

But I am wearing flip flops.  

 And here is where I spent a few hours after the church service....watching this girl do her thing at the 5th and 6th grade track meet.

 She did great. 

And in this race, she got second place in her heat.  

(2nd out of 2nd in the heat is still good....especially if you are like me, who can't run out to the mailbox without my knee hurting for a week.)

Obviously there is a ton more stuff that went on this weekend.  And a ton more stuff that I need to accomplish before 8 am tomorrow.  One of which is pack a cooler of food for my high school baseball player, my high school softball player and me and my 4th grader for a field trip tomorrow.  

I only point out those things so you can be sure to expect more pictures.  

If you come back here!

Happy END of TRACK, CONFIRMATION, START Of BASEBALL and SOFTBALL everyone!

Dear Identity Thief,

Today, you un-nerved me.

Like, seriously.

 I admit, when my bouncer called me today and informed me for the first time that I needed to check the "situation" out....I was clearly caught off-gaurd.

Actually...I sort of thought it would be something equivilent to the "icing on the cake" of a really bad day....gone worse. 

Forget that I had to run ONE errand 3.5 times this morning.
To accomplish ONE thing.

Forget that I am a tad bit bitter that this ONE errand was something that I am supposed to be pretending that I really am not doing....so as to not make the issue any more awkward than it is. 


(if you read my blog and and don't know what i am talking about with the above comment, i apologize. i can clear that up for you in a matter of 2 sentences. but if you have to ask, then you probably don't know me well enough.)


And forget that I was for sure that a traffic ticket would have been the ending of a bad day gone worse. 


So.

Next: I am off to buy an outfit that makes me look way more hotter than I feel. 

Or....makes me think I feel way more hotter than I look. 

But it isn't for you to judge. 

Becuase:  I call it therapy.  Call it what you want.  But I don't have health insurance and so this is actually budgeted in to the account that I call: therapy.

About 3 seconds after the transaction is complete, I get a phone call from a number I don't recognize saying that my debit card has questionable activity on it and that  I need to contact my bank immdediately.

Fortunately for me, I have a friend on the bank's payroll that I like to call a friend.  Don't know if (this person) likes it, but it is his/her own problem for giving me their cell number.

Not that that call helped me.

But it did warn the others at the bank that I am coming in. 

And those others:

WELL 

Apparently they got my back.

Which makes them......on my Christmas card list. 

ALL of them.

Because here is what I learned: 

They can go through my account.
And, with permission, look at my transaction.
Which....makes them probably more knoweledge-able about me than my
mom
or my pharmacist.

So!
SO!

DEar identify Thieves.....

....don't mess with me!

I can find you.
And my bank...they've got my back.

Sincerely,
Me.

May is the New December

I used to think that December was the busiest month.  Ever.  But now that I'm catching on to the whole school/sports/graduation party calendar thing....I have reconsidered.  

Case in point:

In the first half of the month, we will have:

Gone to a ba-jillion track meets.  For this kid,

....this kid.

 ...and this one too.

Tis the season for sports that overlap on the calendar.  Hence:

 

Then there is field trip season:

 

 

And fundraiser season.

 

The only thing missing from May is the Christmas concert, the hot chocolate and parties with gifts.

But the month is only half over.

And there are two spring concerts on the calendar.

Lots and lots of graduation parties.

....and hot chocolate?  Hopefully not. 

But it is Iowa, so you never really know where the line is between needing bug spray and sunscreen and hot chocolate and blankets at the ball games.

The Roadtrip to Districts

I hate that districts were like an hour and 15 minutes away.

But after picking a couple of kids up early from school: 

A teeny, tiny, little traffic violation:

A little bit of anger.....could be due to all the kids in the vehicle, or the speeding ticket, or the fact that after "we" got the speeding ticket, we were hit with one-lane-traffic.....

We made it just in time to see this kid do some work and make it to the state track meet in 2 events:

Can I get an "amen!"?

Cause the roadtrip back home wasn't much better.....
...well, there wasn't any road rage or speeding tickets.

But we were all hungry.

And it really could have gone either way with the rage and/or tickets. 

Next week:  It's on to Des. Moines. 

I promise to leave plenty early.

And pack a lunch. 



Photo Test

I've been trying to upload photos here, and figuring out why it won't work. 

I'm sure you are not surprised that the first photo that I do try out with a different program is one of food. 

Pictures

Why won't this stinkin' blog let me post pictures?! 
I have tons to say in the last week.
But all of my words are really better captured in photos that I took.

BUT

The BLOGsite isn't letting me import photos for some reason.

Darnit.

If I can't get the photos up soon then you'll have to put up with word pictures. 
And I apologize for that.

You know how wordy I can be.