Run With The Fishes

Nathan is too quickly growing up followed closely by his sisters. Sometimes I know that I am way, way to hard on all of them, but I feel like I am even more tough on Nathan. I’m not really sure why this is. I guess it comes down to the fact that he’s the oldest so has to suffer while we try to figure out just what we are doing as parents.

He’s such a good kid. I don’t want him to look back on his childhood and teenage years feeling like we were constantly picking at him. I want him to be able to smile and remember the good times we all have together. I do want him to become a responsible and considerate person. It’s a hard juggling act and sometimes I’m not sure what are the balls that can be dropped and which ones need to stay in the air.

In other news, when we were watching a show on the television the other day the word “sex” was said and Nathan responded with, “gross”. I asked him if he even knew what that meant.

“Yes. Disgusting”, was his comeback. I guess it’s time to have a talk and make sure he has his facts straight. Blah. We’re probably lucky we made it 10 years without having this discussion. Anyone have any helpful advice?

Yesterday was the last day of school and with it came the award ceremonies. We’ll start with Nathan and finish up with Zoey.

It sounds a little weird, but I feel kind of like Nathan floated through school this year. He made decent grades, but didn’t really go out of his way to do anything else. It’s like he was just along for the ride. He finished out the year with all A’s (for AWESOME!). Here he is getting his certificate for AB Honor Roll.

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned or not before, but Zoey loves school. Okay, it’s actually a pretty common theme around here when her name is mentioned between the months of August and May. Zoey cleaned up at the third grade ceremony. She came home with medals for commended performance on TAKS tests and A Honor Roll along with a certificate for doing well on the science pre-TAKS test.

A few days before the awards ceremony her school sent home a note with checkmarks next to the subject she would be getting an award. On the form there was a box marked “Other” and it had 2 written next to it. I kept wondering why the “Other” was written on the paper. If you list everything else out, why not list those also? It’s so the parents and teachers can be surprised when they announce who receives the Citizenship Award. Each teacher nominates a boy and a girl from their class who they think deserves the top honor of the school. Each of the nominees gets a certificate and they all get to stand in front of the assembly together.

Here’s where I was surprised. They read each of the nominees and didn’t even call out Zoey’s name. I know I am biased and all, but what total freakishness to not even be nominated. That’s when the principal started reading statements about the boy and girl that won from their teachers.

“If each class was full of Zoey’s, all of the teachers would have smiling faces every day”

That’s the only line I can remember from what Zoey’s teacher wrote. As Zoey walked up to get her award, I looked over at her teacher and she was wiping tears from her eyes. It’s well known what an impact your child has on your own life, but it’s pretty amazing to realize the affect they can have on others.

All in all a pretty good ending for a school year that had such a awkward beginning.

At the very beginning of the season, Zoey picked Blake Lewis to win. Right from the start she wanted to call in and vote for him. We told her that she would have to wait to vote until the show reached the top 5. This is where she was thwarted by sports and technology. Because we are seldom home on Tuesday nights, we watch the Tivod* show on Wednesdays then fast forward through the recaps and get straight to the results.

On the night of Blake’s Bon Jovi performance, since she didn’t get to call in her vote, she drew a picture to support him instead. Then she quickly hung it by the television and there it has stayed.

Last week, was a typical Tuesday night, filled with baseball and softball, then dinner, baths and into bed. When we started watching the results show, Zoey was worried. This only increased when the it was narrowed down to Melinda and Blake on who would be sent home. Zoey sat on the sofa chanting to herself, “Please don’t let it be Blake, Please don’t let it be Blake.”, over and over again. She also threw in a few, “You should have let me vote! Why didn’t you let me vote? The agony!”.

Immediately after he was announced “safe”, Zoey grabbed a pencil and ran to her drawing on the wall and added, “Final Two!” to her drawing. Complete with check mark.

Last night, we didn’t watch the show live. Since it was the final chance to vote, at 8pm, Zoey turned on the TV so that she could find out which numbers to dial to vote for Blake. Then she spent the next 20 minutes, sitting on her bed hitting redial and listening to Blake say, “Thank you”.

This morning she told me she had so much fun voting. Since I stayed up and watched the show last night, my money is totally on Jordan. She’s young, pretty, and when she ended “This Is My Now” she used the waterworks that made all of the moms and dads say, “Oh how precious, she’s such a sweet young girl”.

I’ll report back with Zoey’s reaction to the final results.

*Is tivod a word?

Don’t give up on me. Work has been busy (always good) and without my laptop, it’s just too much effort to blog from home. I have become spoiled to sitting in the living room or on my bed with the laptop just right there. It is so nice to carry it into the kitchen and have the recipes on the screen instead of actually having to find a pen and a piece of paper to write everything down. Before having the laptop this would not have felt like actual work.

Zoey’s class play was yesterday morning and I elected not to go to it. There were actually quite a few reasons, mostly work related:

• Someone at work needed to man the fort. One person’s kid was graduating from kindergarten and another person had a doctor appointment.
• The third grade performed the same play last year, I knew I wouldn’t be missing out on too much if I weren’t there in person. That’s what the video recorder is for. Maybe I’ll put some footage up here.
• I wanted to trade favors since I’ve already asked for extra vacation days for our upcoming trip to San Diego. Then I turned around and asked for another day off for Zoey’s state softball tournament. It just seems like I will be needing many days off in the next few weeks.

Speaking of Zoey and her softball team, they placed third at their tournament on Saturday. This one was supposed to be a warm up to get the girls used to playing together before district and state. They lost to the first and second place teams by one point each time. The team that placed first plays tournament softball all year long and have all played together for 2 years*, so even though they didn’t win, they felt pretty good.

They all had a really good time. They ended up playing six games on Saturday, so she was exhausted by the end. Zoey is playing second base and does such a good job. Most of the hits go either down the third base line or her way. She has been doing great at making the stop and throwing the batter out at first.

* I can not imagine dedicating every weekend all year long to softball tournaments. Wouldn’t your kiddo get sick of playing?

The girls have been begging me to make something for them to wear. Do you remember when it was so not cool at all to have homemade clothes? Now kids think it is neat to have something made just for them. At least, mine do.

I knew I found just the thing for the girls when I saw the “Twirly Skirt” tutorial over at House on Hill Road. I ordered some fabric I thought they would like and when it arrived they got to pick out just the one they wanted to use for their skirts.

Here’s where I get to brag a little about how well I know Zoey. At least for now, I’m sure this will change in a few years when she doesn’t want anyone to know I am her mother. She has been really digging her Origami books that she got for Christmas. For a while we had paper cranes, pigs, frogs, pencils, flowers, balloons, and more all over the house. When I saw this fabric, I knew it would be perfect for her. Sure enough, that’s the one she picked.

The skirt was so easy to make. I started on Sunday afternoon and finished it up at about 2am Monday morning. I would do a little then go back to it, or it would not have taken me nearly as long. For comparison, I made Allison’s last night in a little under three hours (while watching TV). I wouldn’t have stayed up so late on Sunday night, but I had promised Zoey that she could wear it to school Monday morning.

She must really like it, because she wore it again today when we went to the Orthodontist*. When I asked her if she thought it was ok to wear the same thing she just wore, she said, “Sure Mom, no one from school is going to see me today.”

There were two different fabrics that I picked out with Allie in mind, but she chose neither. Instead, she decided that she had to have the awesome fabric I won during the “FFF” giveaway a few weeks ago at Sew, Mama, Sew!. She also wore her skirt today.

*No braces for a few more years for Zoey, but it looks like Nathan will be getting them around this time, next summer.

Nathan’s move from catcher to center field has proven to be only temporary. On both Monday and Tuesday nights he caught for the whole game. Monday was tough. It was hot (low 90′s) and they played the team that they just can’t stop. There were so many errors. Some were Nathan’s, some were others on his team. Many were due to inexperience.

Tuesday was so much better. With a chance of rain there was a breeze and the temperature was perfect for someone wearing catching gear. All of the guys worked together, giving each other props and communicating on the field. They ended up winning 9-2.

Zoey’s official softball season wrapped up last Friday night. Her team placed first in the division. While this may sound like an awesome achievement, there were only two teams. After her game they announced the members of the All Star Team and Zoey’s name was called. Looks like our weekends will be booked for the next month with tournaments. If the girls do well enough in the district tournaments, we will be heading to the state tournament in Bay Town (Bay City? something like that) the first weekend in June.

Since I am a November baby, my birthday was before many of my classmates. This meant that I was one of the first to get my license. This was the big thrill for all 16 year olds. Everyone got to skip school on their birthday to become a legal driver. Here I am big bangs and a brace face. If you look close enough, you can see that the braces are alternating blue and green. If you have to have braces, you may as well have fun with it.

There are even better pictures of the bangs, they actually don’t look like they could touch the sky in this picture.

The older two kids think this picture is great, in a now we have something to giggle about sort of way. Allison likes to carry it around and pretend it is her license. Now she can drive too!

I know, it’s been days, and even more days and I haven’t written anything. It’s not that there aren’t things going on, because there are. There are always things happening around us, with 5 people it would be really weird if there wasn’t something going on. They are just normal everyday happenings. In between baseball and softball we have time for laundry and training the dog. Then there are all of the little funny things the kids do that crack us up and we can laugh out loud right then or are just inappropriate and Greg and I just look at each other thinking, “did you just hear/see that or was it only funny to me”.

I know that there have been so many of these in the past weeks, but can’t tell you exactly what things they were. Just that it was life happening.

I have this feeling that it’s not going to slow down much.

This week we have a couple of pictures of my dad. Ok, so in one you mostly see my little brother when he was almost a year old, but it’s my dad holding him.

The next picture is of my dad and one of his brothers. I’m not positive, but I think my mom had one of these coats forever. It looks like something I totally would have worn in college.

As I was searching through the old pictures, I realized that the pickings are getting slim. Almost all of the rest are of me and my brother when we were little. In another week or so, I may have to retire Old Picture day. It’s either that, or I start posting some from high school and college. I don’t know about you, but the prospect of having my high school photos out there sort of frightens me. I may just have to go back to writing actual thoughts and chronicles of events instead of relying on old photos.