The Boys of Fall

 

 

I'm Back, Taylor Promoted

I have been so behind in blogging, like way behind.  I didn't blog all of Colby's freshman year, his football or basketball season, and don't even get me started on what I haven't blogged about Taylor.  It's overwhelming, so instead of doing something about it, I've avoided it.  I have missed it.  Blogging is good therapy for me, even if no one is reading it, my posterity will someday.  That's good enough for me.

Taylor had his promotion from 8th grade Monday night.  A very sad event for me.  Last year when Colby promoted, I knew we would still have one more year at the Middle School with Taylor.  Now it's done.  Over.  No looking back.  Taylor loved his two years there and I think the highlight of Middle School for him was Mrs. Lewis, his P.E. teacher.  They have been the very best of friends the last two years.  Taylor teased her so bad at times I think she wanted to ring his neck, but she has survived.  Taylor is such a great student!  I hope he keeps in up in all the hectic-ness of high school.  He wants to be very involved and that can be a help and a hinderance.  He has decided to help coach the Pop Warner football team he has played on the last four years, so that will keep him very busy.  He's great with younger kids so I know it will be a good experience for him.

It's hard for me to see that we now officially have a Freshman and a Sophomore.  Only three more years with Colby and he will fly the nest.  I want to clip his wings and keep him home.  Both of them.  Not forever but just for a little while longer.  I want to rewind the clock and have them at the ages of 3 and 4 all over again.  They have been a joy in my life and I like the busy-ness (for the most part, except for when the laundry piles up) that having kids at home brings. 

Here are a few pictures of Taylor's big event.  Yes, the bowtie was his idea, he has his own style.  I just roll with it.

 

Mrs. Lews (Riina) and Taylor.

 

CP, Taylor, and Friend.

  

 

Taylor, Michael, and Grayson.  Two of Taylor's BFF's.

 

 

Taylor and Friends.

Hurley Likes Fruitcake. A Lot.

My Mom has always made fruitcake at Christmas.  It's one of those family traditions you grow up with and it's not Christmas without it sort of thing.  Mom sent me two this year and I set the box gently on our bench by the front door.  This is what we came home to a few hours later.

 

He managed to get the box off of the bench, tear through the box, and eat half of one of the fruitcakes.  He is going to end up dying from his human food addiction.  Dang dog!

First Injury Of The Season

I have come to realize that with two boys playing football, one/both of them are bound to end up with an injury.  Taylor had his first one a couple of weeks ago playing the Tracy Cougars.  They thought he had a broken collar bone due to him taking a helmet to it during the game.  Thankfully it was just a sprain and he only had to sit out a week (he only sat out for two days and was back playing).  He and I spent an afternoon at Urgent Care to get an x-ray and a sling.

 

I didn't want him to play in the game that following Saturday.  I thought he needed to let his collar bone rest and heal, so he kept having Colby punch him in the collar bone to show me that it was healed.  Colby was only too happy to help Taylor out.

I have lots of football updating to do!  I hope I don't jinx myself by saying this because Colby has a BIG game tonight against our biggest rivals, St. Mary's.  Taylor' team i s 5-0 and Colby's team is 3-0.  They are both off to a great start!!  I never thought I would like football.  I've changed my mind.

High School

In a couple of week, my three-year-old baby will be starting high school.  Okay, he's not actually three, he's almost fifteen, but in my mind and heart, he's still three.  Colby is calm, cool, and collected about this next step in his young life.  I, on the otherhand, am pretty sure I need some sort of tranquilizer to get me through this Freshman year.  Colby has spent quite a bit of time on the high school campus already between sports and high school classes, so he has an idea of what's coming.  He's made a lot of friends, he's become familiar with the campus, and he knows how a high school classroom works.

As a mother, I have a tradition that I started when Colby started kindergarten.  Every year right before school starts, I bear my testimony.  Why I do this I really don't know.  I like to think that if I say it over the pulpit, then the boys will pay extra close attention to what I have to say and the things I've been saying, or some might say lecturing, about will have extra emphasis.  So, without fail, I bore my testimony this last week.  I must admit, I get very emotional when I do this but this time it was extra hard.  I am having a hard time coping with our boys getting older.  I don't want these next four years with Colby to fly by because then it will all be over and our family dynamics will never be the same.  I love having our boys at home.  I love being busy and involved with sports, school activities, church activities, and whatever else they are involved in.  I have loved the people and friends we have made in the community with our boys being so involved.

Here are my thoughts about high school and some things I want both of the boys to know when they are older and read this again some day.  High school is hard!  There will probably never be a more trying time in your life with friends and peer pressure.  The decisions you make now will affect you for the rest of your life, so choose your friends wisely.  I love the quote that says, "You become like the five people you spend the most time with, so choose wisely".  Oh, how that is so true!!  Don't get too involved with girls.  Have fun but don't date steadily.  Have fun with a group instead of pairing off.  You have the rest of your life to date and be in a relationship, enjoy being young.  Be involved in school and be the best student you can be.  Your grades will carry you farther than anything else you do.  Most of all, remember who you are and always stand up for what you know is right and true, even if it isn't the popular way of thinking.

As I bore my testimony Sunday, I mentioned that Colby and I had been on the high school campus a few times for orientations, etc.  I said that as we walk around the campus, my finger starts pointing and the lecture begins.  I love what Colby says to me when this happens, he says, "Mom, you have nothing to worry about.  I know who I am".  I hope he always remembers that!  As I sat back down on Sunday, Colby was crying because he inherited by tear ducts and he said, "Mom, you've been cut from the NBA fund".  We both laughed!

I love these boys of ours so much!  More than they could ever know.  Until they are a parent someday.....and by someday, I mean when they are 35.

A Trip Home

I haven't been home in three years.  Yes, you read that right, three years.  I was determined to make it home this summer for a visit.  I always wait for the boys to be able to go and I realized that I can no longer do that.  I have to go when I can and leave them home.

Colby was supposed to go with me but he stood me up to go to Las Vegas with his traveling basketball team for a tournament.  After he decided not to go with me I bought a plane ticket.  It was wonderful!!  I was in Seattle in less than two hours, rather than the fourteen hour drive it takes me.  That will definitely be my way to travel there from now on.

Barbie, Dad, and Mom at the dam.

It was wonderful to be home.  Barbie came home, too, so four of us sisters were together.  We had some good laughs and fun times.  Barbie suggested that we go to Grand Coulee Dam one day because I swear, up there, that is the answer to everything.  Go to Grand Coulee Dam!  I have not been there in years and neither had Barbie, so it was fun to go for a re-visit.  It hasn't changed much, thankfully.  I doubt the town of Coulee City would be unhappy if the dam had changed.  I had forgot what a magnificent structure that is.  It was beautiful when we were there because they were letting water go over.  Most of the other times I have been there, it's just dry concrete with no activity.

I love my family so much!  Words cannot begin to express my feelings for them.  I am so thankful that Mom and Dad are still in good health and are so active.  We are so blessed, as their children, that they are still with us.  I love my sisters and brother so much!!  We have been through a lot together and I love that the hard times have brought us together and that I have a special relationship with each one of them.  I will definitely not go three years again before I go home.  Now that I've done it by myself, I think it will be my own summer vacation every year.

We even planned Mom and Dad's 60th wedding anniversary that's next year.  60 years!  That's a long time!  We haven't told them what we are doing yet but it's going to be fun!!  I'm so looking forward to it and to be with my family again.

Colby's Promotion

I don't know about other schools, but Stockton has a tradition where the 8th graders have a mini graduation or as they call it, a promotion to high school.  Colby had his the end of May, right before school ended.  I didn't think it would be a big deal, but as I watched him walk down the aisle with his classmates to the song of "Celebration", I found myself teary-eyed and nostalgic.  Where have all the years gone?  Didn't he just potty train a week ago?  Didn't he just start kindergarten yesterday?

He looks so big and grown up now.  He has the body of a teenage boy, not a little boy.  It makes me a little sad, but I know when I was that age all I wanted to do was grow up, and kids nowdays are the same way.  Colby just wants to be older and I still want to be rocking him every day while he watches Toy Story.

They had a school dance after and Colby would rather have his toenails plucked than attend a school dance, so we went to dinner with Geniel at Colby's favorite restaurant and he opened presents.  It was Colby's kind of night, low key.

Walking down the aisle.

Colby and Mr. Asplund, the principal.  He is awesome!!

 

Not a little boy anymore!

 

Colby and Geniel!

The family.

I have never seen anyone as ready for high school as Colby is.  He is so excited to finally play high school sports and to hang out with the older boys he's become friends with through basketball and football.  I about pee'd my pants the first day of high school.  I was SO nervous!  Colby has spent quite a bit of time at the high school already and I'm sure that it helps that the middle school he has been at sits on the high school campus.  Seminary might be another thing!  Right now Colby is excited to start seminary because we have an awesome seminary teacher but I think starting the day at 5:15 is going to wear off quickly.  One of the girls at church who will be a senior offered to drive Colby to school every morning from seminary.  I guess that's better than having your Mom drop you off.

Good luck in high school, Colby!!!  (You're going to need it).