I’m happy to report that after this exchange in the car with J yesterday, it has been confirmed that there are no self esteem issues in this house. None. Nada. Zilch. Me: “Oh, the leaves are changing. We need to see what Julesie’s availability is in the next couple of weeks so she can take your senior pictures. Do you have a nice sweater you can wear?” J: “Boy, DO I. I have a sweater so ugly it’s going to be great.” Me: “Wait, I don’t want you to wear an ugly sweater in your senior pictures.” J: “It’s ugly, but in a good way.” Me: “What does it look…
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The Knowing Is One Thing; The Realization Is Another.
I had the extreme good fortune of being able to spend some quality time alone with Jim this weekend. Much of Saturday was spent just taking care of things around the house, and in the evening we went out for dinner and a movie. I think it was over steaks at Texas Roadhouse when Jim said, “You realize, don’t you, that in a year it will be like this almost all the time…just us?” And while I knew that already–we’ve talked about it for years, how we’d be in our mid-forties when the kids stopped living at home full time–at that moment the realization truly hit me like a ton…
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The Ask
Homecoming weekend is coming up, and that means there’s a dance on the horizon. J and his girlfriend will be going, but only after he executes “The Ask”. Asking a date to attend a dance these days isn’t a matter of just, well, asking. It’s a big production which is only limited by the creativity and the resources of the person who is doing the asking. D once presented a friend with a huge, ten-pound chocolate bar which was covered with a homemade (and adorable) wrapper that said, “HOMECOMING?” He asked his prom date to the dance by arranging to be a guest on the high school morning news brief…
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It’s The Most Wonderful Night Of The Year…
Maybe it’s not the MOST wonderful, really, but it’s pretty high on my list. Tonight is Curriculum Night at J’s high school. I adore Curriculum Night. In our school district, Curriculum Night in the high schools means that you follow your kid’s schedule (with each period shortened so the whole schedule fits into a two-hour time block) for the evening, taking in presentations from each teacher about what’s in store for the year. Because I loved high school so much, Curriculum Night is like a trip back in time. It’s probably mostly in my mind because a trip back in time to my high school days would be a really,…
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And Then There Was Graffiti Art.
Something I have learned throughout my life and over and over again is that creativity begets creativity and that it runs in the family. My mom, my sister, and I are all very, very creative, in very different ways. Mom is an artist, a painter, and a quilter. Julesie is a photographer, a graphic designer, and a hobby chef. I am a paper crafter, a cake-baker, and of course, a writer. So it shouldn’t have surprised me when J, who plays guitar and has become quite good at mixing music with DJ equipment, showed talent in an entirely different category over the summer. “Mom,” he said, “I want to show…