Birthday Check-in

Hey HM!  It's the Birthday Check-in Time!  Actually, check in time makes me sad.  I shouldn't be checking in because you should be here.  So let's begin!

The Boy: He's having a better year this year.  He's not taking as many Pre-AP and AP courses, and that has boosted his confidence up tremendously.  He had an awesome football season, and had a great time in Ramblers.  The death of one of the Ramblers hit him hard.  He knew the young lady, but he also knew about the grieving process after going through it when we lost you.  I worry about him in regards to his dating life.  He's in a not great relationship now.  I think our opinion of her was formed early when she wasn't treating him the way he needed to be treated, so his continuance of the relationship has been difficult to accept.  She doesn't want much to do with our family and never comes over any more.  The rule about staying in the living room where we can see everything hasn't sat well with her, so she doesn't come over.  He keeps busy with Ramblers, work, and school so they don't see much of each other outside of school.  And he is okay with that.  In my opinion, and I think you'd agree, that speaks volumes.  He's also a Junior Usher.  Apparently it's been around for 30 years, so maybe they started it when you were a senior?  I don't remember having them at RHS, but then again, I didn't pay attention.  Since he's an usher, he gets to go to prom.  It took A LOT of pushing and prompting, but he accepted an invitation from another Rambler who is also an usher, to go to the prom with her and a big group of other people.  He's going.  Woohoo!!!  He and your mom went suit shopping for it.  He had a suit for homecoming, but he's bulked up since the end of the season.  He went to Regional for Power lifting!  Squatted over 500 lbs!  He broke 290 lbs last week, and feels that's an accomplishment.  He's gotten a little taller, he's now 6'3" without shoes.  Y'all would probably be seeing eye to eye now.  He's been throwing around his Rambler partner, poor girl, because he's so strong.  He's come out of his shell this year, and I'm so thankful for that.  He has a good head on his shoulders.  Says the right things, even if he doesn't do them.  But for the most part, I believe him.  He had a rough patch last year, and has lost some credibility.  But that's normal teenage stuff.  I think we did those things as well, we just didn't have all of the social media.

 I can't believe he only has one more school year at home.  We've been looking around, and I think he's made a couple of choices.  I focused on the schools that he'd go to if he didn't get an offer from anyone to play football.  That'll be a hard lesson for him, but a valuable one if he doesn't get offered.  That'll be an extremely rough day for me when he leaves.  He's a Mamma's Boy if there ever was one. 

He's working.  His last day at Spring Creek BBQ is this weekend.  He starts a new job at a place called Sweet Daze.  It'll be interesting to see how that goes. 

Aunt Kirsten got him a car to replace the truck.  He really likes it and takes REALLY good care of it.  He learned his lesson with the truck.  He still calls when he's out and goes somewhere other than where he said he was going.  I am thankful that he does that.  Most kids wouldn't think about doing that, but he does.  I think the accident that the Ramblers were in has helped him with that. 

I'm sure that next year at this time, I'll be an emotional wreck.  Graduation will loom right around the corner, and then he'll go off to college.  So be prepared.  Warning you right now.

The Girl:  She has been having a great year.  She's struggled the last few months because she's ready to be done with junior high.  She sounds a lot like me.  It's kinda scary.  There were a lot of changes at her junior high this year with new teachers who were asked to coach, but didn't really know much about it.  She is not really patient and doesn't suffer fools very well (sounds like two of her aunts actually).  I've encouraged her to advocate for herself, but this year, I found myself communicating with her teachers/coaches regularly.  Not because she didn't try to communicate, but because they didn't listen to her.  That chapped my hide.  I know that junior high kids are an animal species all their own, but when you have a student who has a history of being responsible and cares about their grades, you don't blow them off and lump them into the junior high subspecies.  She also doesn't deal with junior high drama at all.  She'll often voice her honest opinion, which others don't like, and so doesn't have very many true friends.  She intimidates the heck out of the junior high boys, which is good.  None of them mess with her.  There have been a couple who have tried to belittle her, but she stands her ground.  At the district track meet, she placed third in shot put.  She hates shot put, but did it anyway.  When she was on the stands, a young man from her school yelled out something about her getting third place.  She yelled back, "That's okay!  I still throw farther than you!".  I loved her for that.  She ended up winning first place in the discus which she enjoys better than shot-put.  While she doesn't let others see how upset she is, she holds it in and cries in private.  She didn't cry that day, but has a couple of times when she's been hurt.  Some girls are jealous of her and have launched attacks in ways that are conniving and underhanded.  They know they aren't able to go straight at her, so they spread rumors or try to turn friends against her.  That hurts her, so it hurts me. 

Club volleyball didn't go as she'd planned.  We stayed with our current club because we believed in them and knew they were trying to become more competitive.  She made the difficult decision at the end of the season to go somewhere else, so we will be doing some camps this summer to find a club that better fits her.  She has started working with a personal trainer on strength and conditioning.  She has made vast improvements in her stamina and skill.  I am so excited for her.

 She's ready for high school and high school volleyball.  She will be going to RHS instead of BHS with her brother.  She was accepted into the photography and science magnet.  She's decided she wants to be a zoologist and work in zoos.  For Christmas, I got a family membership to the Dallas Zoo and she was over the moon.  While she's a lot like me, (and that's scary), she's so much better than me.  She's an extrovert and she'll be just fine in life.  She's come out of her shell.  She's way more stylish and put together than I was at her age.  I'd prefer jeans and t-shirts, while she prefers to get dressed up for school.  She also knows more about make-up than I do (or did at that age), and she puts it on very well.  She doesn't slather it on or look like a clown.  She amazes me every day.

Kevin continues to be an awesome example for the kids.  He takes an interest in both of them and gets so very excited and proud of their accomplishments.  He defends them like you would've, and guides them in their interests.  He listens to them, helps them, and doesn't put up with much crap from them either. 

That's our check in for the year.  It's our 8th check in.  There will be many more with time.  Don't forget about us, we are still here.