Note to self...

...when one has graduation photos on one's phone, one should deal with them BEFORE adding bazillions of vacation photos to phone. 

*face palm, scrolling, scrolling, backtracking, scrolling*

Anyway, away we go!

Of course I have fifty bajillion photos on my phone (roughly a bajillion of graduation related ones) but I'm trying to be sensitive to things like location reveals, the privacy of other people's kids, and so forth. It'd be easier to just dump it all and attempt to sort it out, but I don't have a good program with which to do that anymore, so I'm being intentional in the picking and choosing. There were lots of friends who came to support Thing Two, but I don't know how they all feel about being splashed all over the internet. I'm trying to restrain myself.

So here he is as a part of the choir. They said he added an entire octave, haha!

While subbing, I had a conversation with one of the teachers earlier in the year and he asked if I had any kids at the school. He apologized for being not great with names. I told him who my kid was, he pondered a moment, then lit up and said, "OH! With the HAIR! And the VOICE!" That pretty much sums up this guy right now. A second teacher mentioned the same attributes when speaking about Thing Two. Roughly paraphrased it sounded like :"The kid is kinda intimidating when you first meet him. He's so tall, he has all this hair, and then he opens his mouth and his voice is DOWN HERE. He's always polite, always respectful, but geez."

He fit in perfectly with his group of guys this year. This is one of my favorites. This photo cracks me up every single time.

Some of our excellent tribe:

Thank you for the cards, the well wishes, your attendance, but mostly for showing up in his life and in ours. None of us would be who we are without you pouring into us!

Thus endeth the high school career of Thing Two. Way to go, Hair In His Face! We're proud of you. Now get off the couch and go find a job. 😆

 

Somebody did a thing

I'm sorry that it's taking awhile, but I'm working on it. Liam is officially a high school graduate, woohoo!

 

"Off on an adventure!"

 Thing Three (and his old hoodie) had the privilege of joining the marching band with the rest of his fellow 8th grade bandmates for the home game last week. We lost, but it was a fantastic experience for him to test out the uncharted territory of Friday night high school football and corresponding nuttiness.

                                                      

The poor kid had missed three days of school last week so he was completely exhausted by the end of the evening. He had a great time, but he kept insisting his legs were "SO SORE." I reminded him he'd been unwell and was still recovering. He said he had fun but "it's soooo late at night! I can't do that!" So I reminded him that as he ages into his teenage years his daily rhythms will start to shift and he will prefer to sleep in and stay up later. I told him that even a year from now he will have noticed the difference and it won't be as huge of a deal. Dada and I sure had a blast watching. We walked back to the school beside the percussionists so I could feel all the booming in my sternum. LOVE IT. I'm still bummed none of our kids are percussionsits. Guess I'll have to borrow someone else's kid. Neither of us have been to a high school football game, we don't think, since...

high school?!

Blather

Eggs.

Eggs, eggs, eggs. 

Maybe I've mentioned this before, but I took a creative writing class in college, which I loved. We were told to write every day. If we didn't have anything to say, we were to write about what we had for breakfast. Diana Hume George said that, "sooner or later, something will break through the eggs."

I haven't blogged lately, one, because life has been fairly status quo and, two, I have to fight with my own children to get any screen time on my own device. We've been shoveling snow. We've driven to church, karate, stores, all without incident. We've been in the Pit of Despair (AKA homework), we've been cleaning up fewer kitchen raids performed by Honey Houdini, we've been craving sunshine.

The big kids' scheduling papers for next year have come home and need returned by week's end. I can't believe we will have two Thingz in high school next year. Wow.

I had my annual well check with my general doctor and all was well. Got my flu shot and my tetanus shot and glowered at the scale. The things one does.

This week I'm set to get a haircut, haha, because I have enough hair to need trimmed. I've missed my hair this winter because the back of my neck gets so cold without it. The things one takes for granted. Yes, I have scarves. I could fix the problem, I'm just reporting. 

I'm starting to get seed/garden fever, which is right about on time for me. So many gray Ohio days leave me craving color. I'll have to assess what's left of my seeds since Honey also decided those would be fun to decorate the sunroom with. Sometimes when I walk her past the Garden of the Dead (no, that's not a cemetery, it's just that it got frigid early this year and I didn't get quite everything out of the garden in time) I can still smell the petrified basil. I'm bummed I didn't get every single tiny tomato and red currant out there. I really enjoyed them this year. Soon, soon, according to the groundhog. He clearly is unaware that the safe, frost-free day around here is like Memorial Day weekend. Early spring, indeed. My poor birdies are swarming the feeder that I keep chasing plump squirrels off. There's a gang of them and I swear they're using lookouts. I keep expecting to see them in denim vests. Darn it, he's back AGAIN!

Release the Hound!

There are currently not one but two pairs of skivvies on the floor in the Old Lady Room. I promise they will not be there for Friday Night Games, even if I have to threaten the owner with beatings. I wonder if more people would come if we changed the name to Friday Night Beatings. I bet a lot of moms I know would be in line with their offspring, haha!

Made some broccoli cheese soup the other day. Thinking Taco Tuesday tonight, never mind that the boys will want the meat, the shells, and the cheese and that's it. And ketchup. 

Just doing the things. Adulting. Putting on pants. All is well. Perhaps that's where the blessings lie, just in the every day. Is it lie or lay anyway? Whatever. Enjoy your moments. Savor the hot drinks and the cold ones. Give lots of praise for the hot running water for your shower. Brighten others' days as you can. Salt and light, and cups of coffee and conversation and real love, messes and all. 

Final stops on the way home

Sunday brought visits with friends. In the morning we met up with friends I've had since seventh grade. We used to sing together in choir all through high school. Mar was in our wedding, and she now has a spunky daughter who is as close to exactly like her as possible, haha! Even though I haven't seen Mike since graduation, we picked right up where we left off and it was just like we hadn't missed any time in between. I have THE best tribe.

Much closer to home, we had ice cream (of course) with our camp friends, Tom and Stacy, and their lovely daughters. They'd stopped through last summer when I was doing chemo and had no hair. These sweet girls have been praying for me for a long time, and it was so nice to be able to hug them and thank them and their terrific parents! They've had six weeks of adventures out West and were also headed home but managed to squeeze us into their schedule. 

Yes, we are missing a child. Damon is spending the week with Pap- you didn't miscount. 

And continuing with the lovely sunsets, even in Ohio:

                                     

Postcard to the Undecided

Dear Unmet-Yet-Friend,

I sense you'll be there, hovering just outside the entrance, debating with your Self about joining those already inside. I can hear the argument a little:

In this age of social media, why do we even need reunions? I already know more than I want to about what everyone's kids are doing, where they've been on vacation, what they take pictures of before they eat...

Why did I send in money to see people I haven't seen since the last reunion, or since high school itself?

Why did I wait months to begin working out? Why didn't I get my hair cut? Why did I get my hair cut? Why am I still not any taller?!

What if I have to remind people who I am? What if I am just an unnoticeable now as I was then? Worse perhaps, what if everyone has seen that video or that post and thinks... Whatever it is they think?

Is it too late to leave? Have I been spotted? Can I just sneak out again?

Relax, my yet-unmet-friend. Whatever your issues are, we all have our own. Some of us are really just better at hiding them. Some of us are better at deflection or humor-as-a-shield or sarcasm or are rich enough to pay for what we'd like to fix. Rest assured, we are all dealing with something(s).

For example, peek in that door again. See that bald lady you don't recognize? Sure, she didn't graduate with your class- she married in- but she keeps discreetly (she hopes) slipping out a handkerchief from her great-grandmother Frances to wipe her eyes which keep streaming as a side effect of the meds she's on. She brought a head scarf for in case the air conditioning is cranked up but she's hoping she won't need it. She's looking forward to some time with the handful of folks she's met throughout the years, some who have come unbelievable distances to reconnect. She's got her fingers crossed in her pocket that she won't need to use the facilities for an extraordinary length of time and that, if she does, that she won't stink it up too badly thanks to other side effects of those same meds. She's hoping she won't start yawning at 7 as the shindig only started at 6, not because she's bored or rude, but because she's almost done with chemo and tires easily. 

Her name is Val, and she'd love to meet you. Go ahead in. I promise she won't bite, and she might even surprise you into laughter. She knows that most of us have grown up a fair bit since the original tour of nuttiness that is high school, and she'd love to hear where you fit into it all. 

Take that deep breath, get that chin up, slap your name tag on, and walk in. You can do this. Enjoy tonight!

Warm regards,

The Not-Quite-Crying Baldie :)

Care Bear and the art show

Heavens, these are from the second of April during the art show at the high school. Care Bear had a few submissions and we got to see some of her friends' works as well. The displays were very well arranged and we had rather a challenging time keeping some younger brothers from investigating too closely.

Carrie's piece is the container morphing into the squid.

The giraffes below are not hers, but are for Muggin. The boys were quick to find them and insist on pictures for her.

There are some very talented kiddos putting forth some great stuff! I liked how there was so much variety to inspect from the jewelry to the pencil drawings to paintings and sculpture. I wish they could do expos once a month; I never get tired of kid art!

The night before...

Believe it or not, these costume pieces were actually in one of Carrie's new classrooms at the high school. Of course the boys were magnetized straight to them, to the glee and delight of her teacher and to the consternation of their parents. Now the boys can't wait to get to high school. 

And of course we had to "be bad" one final time, so a trip to Lola's was arranged. Here they are, never going to be able to sleep due to excitement for the first day OR the sugar rush...