4 posts tagged “kids”

I dropped my kids off for the first day of school a couple of hours ago, without a tear shed, by the way. Oh I had a burning sensation in the sinus region, but I handled it.

 

Okay, so I had a hard time letting go, but I did it! And that's all that matters! We aren't still playing tug-of-war in the hall, so that counts for something.

 

Look at poor Zoe, she was a nervous wreck. Naomi was beyond excited!

 

Speaking of nervous-

 

Rae is a Freshman and checked her list all the way to school.

Clothes on? Check.

Schedule? Check.

Make up? Check.

repeat.

 

Then she'd calm herself for a moment-

 

And Nolan.... my Nolan.

For one, he didn't want to be blogged about, if you can't tell-

 

 

Then suddenly it seemed as though he DID want to be blogged about.

 

 

Which, again, no sound. But believe it or not, there was no sound. It was totally silent in the truck minus the rumble of the duel exhaust. He was just faking it.

 

So I dropped off the older kids and headed back to an empty home.

I knew I needed to think of something positive to keep it together.

So I turned on the radio and What's Love Got To Do With It by Tina Turner came on and I cranked it, and sang to it (no faking it) and I thought, there's my postive. Had the kids been in the car, Nolan would have been trying to turn the station, Rae would have been whining about embarassment and stuff.

 

So there you go. My heart is broken because my house is empty, but at least I got to sing some Tina Turner without complaining.

 

(did anyone notice the roof of Gary's truck and think werewolf? Just wondering...)

I haven't blogged for a whoppin' 3 days because I am in mourning.

 

I am mourning the end of summer break.

 

I am in mourning because Wednesday I have to send my kids off to school.

We've been living up this last week as best we can with movies and the water park and the like.  

 

It's not that I never send my children to another room to play or enjoy a trip to the grocery store alone. But that's different. I am in control of that time and I have zero control when they are in school. I have no say when they go and when they return and how often and then when they are home they are hardly mine as they have so much school work that takes away the few awake hours we get.

 

I'll never forget the first day I sent Zoe to school when she entered kindergarten. Gary knew I would struggle so he made plans to take me out while the kids were in school and keep me busy at the stores I love to visit but couldn't take small children to and enjoy. We weren't there 15 minutes when I got physically ill from my stress/apprehension/hole-in-my-heart and had to go home.

 

(coincidently, the next day we went to the beach and he was goofing off and got his foot all cut up and we had to leave early again) 

 

I found this short story a couple of years ago and the author sums up how I felt when I had to send my last child, Zoe, to school. I was relieved to find someone else who got what I was feeling, even if over 100 years ago.

The last chapter of the story My Little Boy (after many wonderful chapters of the dad loving the beauty of a curious preschooler at home) hit the nail on the head.

 Zoe is "my little boy" and I am the father.

 My Little Boy was written in 1899 by Carl Ewald, born in Germany of Denmark parents. This story was translated to English in 1906.

Chapter XVII

Here ends this book about my little boy.

What more can there be to tell?

He is no longer mine. I have handed him over to society. Hr. Peterson, candidate in letters, Hr. Nielson, student of theology, and Froken Hansen, certified teacher, will now set their distinguished example before him for five hours daily. He will form himself to their likeness. Their spirit hovers over him at school: he brings it home with him. It overshadows him when he is learning the lessons which they zealously mete out of him.
I don't know these people. But I pay them.

I, who have had a hard fight to keep my thoughts free and my limbs unrestrained and who have not retired from the fight without deep wounds of which I am reminded when the weather changes, I have, of my own free will, brought him to the institution for maiming human beings. I, who at times have soared to peaks that were my own, because the other birds dared not follow me, have myself brought him to the place where wings are clipped for flying respectably, with the flock.

"There was nothing else to be done," says the mother of my little boy.

"Really?" I reply bitterly. "Was there nothing else to be done? But suppose that I had put by some money, so I could have saved (his teachers) their trouble and employed my day in myself opening out lands for that little traveller whom I myself have brought into the land? Suppose that I had looked round the world for people with small boys who think as I do and that we had taken upon us to bring up these young animals so that they kept right of horns and tails and fairy-tales?"

"Yes," she says.

"Small boys have a bad time of it, you know."

"They had a worse time of it in the old days."

"That is a poor comfort. And it can become worse again. The world is full of parents and teachers who shake their foolish heads and turn up their old eyes and cross their flat chests with horror at the depravity of youth: children are so disobedient, so naughty, so self-willed and talk so disrespectfully to their elders!... And what do we do, we who know better?"

"We do what we can."

 

 

Brother Ewald- I say we discuss in the next life, because I understand!

Do you want the good news or bad news first?

 

Although it's not exactly good news and bad news....

 

More like something silly and something dark.

 

Okay, dark thing first.... then I'll uplift before you move on.

 

Here goes. We recently took in a kitten named Jeffrey.

We took in a kitten, Buddy, about a year ago and it didn't turn out so well. If you want to read the story, click here. But the fact of the matter is, the story came to a tragic end, but I never came back to tell it. I didn't want to blog about it because I truly want my blog to be happy and the end to that story is anything but.

 

I insist, go read the story, I'll give you a minute. Then come back and let me tell you the truth about how it ends.....

.

.

.

Okay... 

What I never came back and told you all is that Buddy ended up ..... well, let's just say, he's no longer with us. And let's just say... it's something we don't like talking about much in the home.

Here is the thing.... we are pretty sure that Boo had Buddy 'taken care of'. Off-ed, if ya know what I'm sayin.

As read in The Tale (tail?) of Two Kitties, Boo didn't like Buddy, then she tolderated him, even taught him a few skills, then she hated him.

What I never said is, suddenly Boo went missing for days at a time.

I knew something was up.

Then Buddy went missing.

Is it just me, or is that fishy?

We are convinced that while Boo was missing... she was contacting some ...... hitman. Or 'hitcat', as they probably say in their world.

Oh I hate saying it, but we all know it's true!

And before we knew it, Buddy was never to be seen again, gone forever.

We didn't feel right about it, we were just sick, but really, what could we do?

It was not easy knowing this about Boo.

So flash forward a year... We got another kitten. (see here) 

 

So far it's been an instant repeat- Boo hates new kitten, Boo began to tolerate new kitten, Boo began to play with new kitten......

 

We were very hopeful but...

Suddenly, Boo seems to despise little Jeffrey.

And now I am scared. I am worried about Jeffrey!

If you see Boo hanging around some stray cats in your area, please let me know... I don't know what I can do about it, but...... the heads up might help.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And on a lighter note.

Last night something funny happened at the dinner table. I had Naomi recreate it today, somewhat.

And again, never mind my camera with no sound.

 

Naomi had just put a pile of rice on her plate.

And said, 

"Hey... where is my fork?!?"

 

And then she did this..

And just kinda dumped all the rice on the floor.   

Maybe you had to be there.

 

Tomorrow I shall tell you of some famous people I am related to.

Stay tuned!

 

And look out for Boo.

My husband, when he was a young (and hot) fella, served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (but he wasn't hot then, not as a missionary, that wouldn't be right, heh-heh).

He served in Utah, which is where The Church headquarters are, and where lots of members live, so people think it's funny that he served there, but it's really not, because there is a lot of work to do there too, ya know.

(like that run on sentence?)

While my husband was in Utah he was teaching a man that worked with the animals at the Hogle Zoo and got a back stage pass (I don't think it's called that....) and a close up look at the zoo animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But one of my favorite pictures is this one, at the Lion (not to be confused with the Liger) water fountain-

 

I bet there are many a picture taken just like this one.

It's just the greatest photo-op.

 

As a matter of fact, I used it as a photo op years later when my oldest son was in kindergarten and took a field trip there.

 

Two years later Nolan took the same field trip to the same place.  

(he's the one waiting...) 

Isn't it the sweetest? To re-enact a picture taken of their dad before they were even a twinkle in his eye?

Rae recently informed me that she hates when I say, "Before you were a twinkle in my eye". So I have to keep saying it, of course.

 

I have a thing for re-enacting poses. As I posted before. See here.