"Can I Bring My Cat"

If you haven't been in on the "Can I Bring My Cat" jokes or "His Name is Vandy and He's Oh so Dandy" you can get a glimpse here

And this boy who has been denied the right to be published in the yearbook with his cat  http://lovemeow.com/2014/09/student-wants-senior-picture-cat-yearbook/

Designing a Shirt

Oh those memories from high school.......

This year's homecoming theme is children's story books.  Mollie's class is the Little Engine That Could.  Parker's class is Winnie the Pooh.  He very accurately described most Pooh quotes as "making you cry.'  And yes, but, it's senior year and you do start to think about saying goodbye.

My Last Football Pic

I can't believe I have a senior football player!!!

Inside my head

This made me laugh today.  I totally do the same thing every day.  I usually wake up before the alarm clock (last night I was fortunate enough to awaken at 17 past each hour of the night).  Love 2:17, 3:17 was great--3 more hours! 4:17 seemed a little close to wake up time and at 5:17 you have to ask yourself, should I get some stuff done and wake up now?  Mollie woke me at some point because the battery in her smoke alarm was chirping.  When I wake up, I usually try to pray.  It serves several purposes, 1) I try to give a prayer of Thanksgiving every day, because, at the end of the day, I'm pretty damn fortunate 2) because I try to pray at least once a day and finally 3) it's really like meditating--it centers me and half the time I fall asleep before I can "bless mommy and daddy..."  So I either fall back asleep or end up having some sort of stream of consciousness thoughts like above

what's on my list to do today?  I need to make a hair appointment, my roots look terrible, oh and Mollie wants her hair done for homecoming.  Ugh!  homecoming, I so hope Mollie gets asked.  I worry about her not getting asked.  I'm sure she will, she has to, right?  And the dress, I'm pretty sure the dress isn't going to work out.  Is that my fault?  We looked at it in July and I didn't think it was dressy enough.  Now 4 girls are wearing the same dress in different colors.  Am I a bad mother because I didn't think we needed to buy a homecoming dress in July?  Oh I'm off track, ok what else? I need to call the eye doctor for Parker, I can't believe I spaced his appointment on Saturday!  Do I like this new bed?  I can't decide.  I mean it's really comfortable, but it's not cozy really.  OK eye doctor, I should tick these things off on my fingers.  Shit I've got so much to do today.  Well I can't go to Nikki's because of my back and I'm going to walk with JM at 7:45, then I've got to empty the dishwasher, shoot I've got so much laundry.  The house is a pit, I should just stay home all day today and clean.  That's what I'll do.  That's good exercise.  Oh crap we have no food, I've got to go grocery shopping.  I want to get to La Soupe and get Mary that healing broth.  Oh wait, I don't have time I have to tally spirit wear.  But there aren't that many orders.......

I could go on, but I'm starting to scare myself.

And of course, am I doing any of those things?  No, I'm the computer.

Crap, it's 9:23.  One hour till tally time.  Better get moving. Maybe I'll finish listening to Little Princes while I do the dishes and laundry.  Does my back hurt or not?  Am I being lazy, careful or smart not working out today?  Crap I've got 65 emails too, I'm never going to get off the computer.

The firsts and the lasts

Reading this poem is bittersweet.  A friend posted it on FB in a post that was right after the cutest pic of my sleeping baby niece wearing a crocheted outfit.  I thought about all those times when sleep was a central character in the cast of my life.  Oh if only the baby would sleep.  Oh we must keep the baby on a schedule or he will be ruined forever.  Oh we can't have him sleeping in our bed, he'll be in high school before we can get him out.  As my baby had his last first day of high school and his last first football game and my other baby had her first day of high school and is (hopefully, fingers crossed and prayers said) going to be asked to her first dance, my life came flashing by.  Flashes of babies sleeping on my chest, sleeping in my bed, waking me in the night, waking me in the morning, driving the car trying to get one to nap.  And I'm reminded of all those last firsts and moments.  Moments in time.  Moments that may or may not have been captured (most likely in my case not since I'm a terrible journeler--one of those perfectionistic traits I've talked about before).  They are there though, still clear, the feeling of the baby relaxing on your chest.  The even breathing.  The sweaty little head against your sweatier chest.  The feeling of wanting to relax but knowing the dishwasher needs emptying.  I find myself these days, on the eve of my 50th birthday, more and more letting things go and taking a walk or writing in this "journal."  Of course my house is going to Hell but hey, I'm not going to miss these lasts and firsts, so if my knick knacks are dusty and there's a dandelion the size of a tree by my front steps, please forgive me because I've written today's entry.

Time Flies

Time flies.  It really does.  I mean just yesterday this little guy was born.

And today he started his senior year in high school.

I started this new blog as a place to jot down what happens when you have a freshman and a senior and because I want to capture those moments.  The moments that seem significant at the time and then we forget and the moments that seem insignificant at the time and we remember forever and the moments that we don't want to forget.

So here is moment number 1.  The first day of Freshman Year and Senior Year--the first time ever that they happily put their arms around each other and smiled for the first day of school picture.  This is the more usual one (first day freshman year).

Moment number 2 happened when I was walking around the corner in the kitchen and happened upon Parker's football bag.  Yes that's right, the first day of school and he forgot his football stuff.  

I also realized that I rarely write in my other blog because I tend to want to write a lot.  Hopefully by giving myself permission to jot down a couple of thoughts, I'll keep this more up to date.  My friend Laura has taught me that.