Birthday Boy

Yesterday was Andy's birthday.  Charlie's mom called to wish him happy birthday and while I was talking to her she said, "Can you believe you are the mother of an 11-year-old?"  Nope, not really.  It's a strange sensation.  It seems like he's been with us forever, since the start, yet the last 11 years have flown by.  There are so many things that I swore I would never forget that are long from my memory and can only occasionally be brought to the forefront by someone asking me if I remember that one specific detail.  My memory stinks anyway, so even that doesn't work all the time.

I really wish I had known about blogging back then and had done it from the very start.  I would have been so vigilant with my first born and written down everything.  Stuff that now I say I'm going to write down but the day gets past me and I've been in the car so long that I can't even remember what was so funny.  I took a million pictures of him and everything was a new and amazing experience.  Kind of how it is for my friend, April from New Jersey, who is always so poetic about how much she loves her little boy.  I'm pretty sure I was like that once upon a time.

But now Andy is so big and we have less time left with him than we've had him.  He's really coming into his own and even though he still picks his nose and never ties his shoes I don't really get to tote him around and make all the decisions for him.  In fact most of the decisions I do make for him he fights.  But I love him anyway and am so proud of the amazing kid he has become.

I expect great things from him, and even if he doesn't deliver I know whatever he end up doing he's going to do it well.

Picture of the Day

Yesterday was Sarah's chance to go to the Daddy/Daughter Dance with Charlie.

Kid Quote of the Day

Sarah:  Amanda, why do you always sing about your vitamins?

Andy:  Because she loves them.

Sarah:  Kind of like how I feel about you, except the complete opposite.

Proud Mama

Last night we went to Andy's Arrow of Light ceremony.  Basically, it's like a graduation ceremony when Cub Scouts move up to Boy Scouts.  You are finishing your adventure with the Cub Scout pack and they are sending you off on a new journey with a Boy Scout troop.  Sorry if I butchered that, Dad, I'm sure you could explain it much better.

The Scouts are known for their grand ceremonies, at least that's what I remember from being dragged to countless events (including some delicious pancake dinners) when I was a kid and my brothers were in Scouts.  Last night was no exception.  This older, Grizzly Adams-type guy came in, named "Bear", and told them stories about what they had done and what they would do moving forward.  It was dark and dramatic and the boys were all into it.  Then he picked one boy out of the 15 or so that were up on stage to take a collective "quiz" for the rest of the boys.  He picked Andy, and Andy did great.  A lot of people thought that it was planned or he had coached Andy ahead of time, but it was all spur of the moment and we didn't know anything about it.

Most of Andy's den mates are going to a different troop than he is, but he and Charlie researched the possibilities and visited a couple of the troops (would you expect anything less from Charlie?) and we think he made the best decision for him, even if it means we have to meet all new people.  It's all going to work out fine.

After the ceremony I talked to Bear and he told me that he picked Andy because he was the kid up there who seemed the most focused and attentive and confident.  That doesn't surprise me, but I'm glad that other people can see it besides me.  He also was amazingly polite and made us look pretty good on stage like we were doing all the right things with him.  I guess we have everybody snowed.  Regardless we're so proud of our  little boy who is quickly turning into a man.

Then this morning Charlie and I went to school to see Sarah give a presentation on a famous American.  Hers was on Amelia Earhart.  The presentation was only about 30 second long, but she had a little iPad presentation that went along with it and it really is amazing what they are teaching these kids.  In a few years she will know so much more than I do about technology.  It already makes me feel old.  We stayed for a bit and saw some of the other presentations and then Charlie went to help out Andy with a project he is working on in math.

All in all, a good 24 hours.  My kids are growing up.  I know that, but sometimes you need things like this to remind you just how quickly it's happening.


Andy with his arrow.

Sarah as Amelia Earhart.

Picture of the Day

Charlie took Amanda to a Daddy/Daughter dance on Saturday night and here are some of the pictures we took before they left.  Don't worry, Sarah and Charlie have one in two weeks.

The One Where I Sold Girl Scout Cookies

I have officially become the parent that sells in our family.  I do all the popcorn sales with Andy and now I am doing all the cookie sales with Sarah.  Even our neighbors have figured it out.  We went out selling yesterday and one guy (who lives a couple blocks away) said, "So now your selling cookies!".  I am becoming a fixture in the neighborhood.

I took Sarah out yesterday because she was dying to sell cookies and since other girls in her troop were already going back for seconds she was behind.  She does not like to be behind.  She kept reminding me that I had promised to take her out and had not done that and wanted to know when we were going.  Pushy I tell you.

Well, we sold a lot of cookies.  One guy even rode by on his bike, saw that we were selling, went home to get his check book and came back and bought a case of cookies (that's 12 boxes) from us.  He rode off with this huge box of cookies in hand.  He said he needed all the cookies because he had a lot of kids, but then to find out he only has four and one isn't even living at home.  So three kids, but they are teenagers.  Something to look forward too, being eaten out of house and home.

There is a big difference between selling popcorn and cookies.  People don't really want popcorn.  They don't wait around for months for you to sell popcorn to them and nobody craves Boy Scout popcorn.  It's a tough sell because it isn't cheap and the main reason you buy it is to support the scouts.  However, people want Girl Scout cookies.  They break their New Year's resolutions for them.  They eat them by the boxful.  People are so happy to see you when you come to the door to sell cookies, especially if you have them right then and they don't have to wait for them.  Almost everybody buys at least one box when you go to their door.  The things sell themselves.

But you still have to go door to door to sell them.  Those kids that sell hundreds of boxes, they don't really sell them by themselves.  Their parents sell a lot of them.  When I was a kid I don't remember my parents selling cookies for me.  My mom may correct me, but I seem to remember asking the people at church by myself and going door to door.  My dad refused to take my order form to the office, as Charlie does, and I don't think my mom asked her friends to buy from me.  I went to the neighbor's houses by myself or with a friend.

Now people sell them on Facebook and eBay and at work and all over the place and their kids have nothing to do with it.  Even I sold about 15 boxes just by asking people in my class at the gym and Amanda's teachers if they needed cookies.  All I said was, "If you need them, I have them", and that's pretty much all you need to say.  I am the cookie queen.

Unfortunately Sarah doesn't see that part, so she wants to go out and sell them herself.  That's fine, it's good for her, and she did a pretty good job.  We went out for less than two hours and sold almost all the boxes she had.  It was a pretty nice day so we enjoyed being out.  And who could say no to this face anyway?

Kid Quote of the Day

"Daddy, when I grow up can I give your iPad to my husband?"

-Amanda

Kid Quote of the Day

Amanda:  Mommy, I want to go to the big city.

Me:  To Denver?

Amanda:  No, the BIG city.  You know, the place where the big guy is in the water.

Me:  The Statue of Liberty?

Amanda:  Yes, I want to go the the big city and see the Statue of Liberty.


April Davis, we may need to go see the Statue of Liberty this summer, hahaha.

Welcome to the Tundra

We had a fabulous time in Jamaica.  Drinks, sun, a tiny bit of rain, and good friends.  What more could you ask for?  When we left the house for the airport it was snowing.  Made it that more exciting to get out of here.  Then when we came home it was 18 degrees.  A far cry from the 80s we had had the day before as we lay on the awesome bed by the pool.  That really seems like ages ago right now.  Everyone survived our little vacation, and before they left my parents even asked if we wanted to do it again next year.  Um, hell yeah!  It was nice to know the kids were in good hands and my parents didn't go berserk.  The kids are getting older and just slightly easier.

We got home on Tuesday night, I spend Wednesday with my Mom and Dad and then Thursday drove them to the airport.  That's when the weather took a turn.  Friday was so cold they called a 90-minute delay to the start of the school day.  That meant several unfortunate things for me.  First, I had to figure out what 8:40a plus 90 minutes was.  I don't need to use that kind of brain power in the morning.  It came out to 10:10a, which was my second problem because my class at the gym started at 10a.  Not this Friday, no class for me.  Third, when there is a delay at the public schools, Amanda's pre-school gets cancelled.  So no gym and no school for Amanda.  So much for getting back into my rhythm and schedule.

The positive thing was that Andy had Colonial Day at school and because Amanda and I had nowhere else to be we got to go to his class and hear all the presentations and even eat some of the Colonial food.  I can tell you why they didn't live that long.  All they ate was corn or something derived from corn.  And a lot of molasses.  Way too many carbs in their lives.  Oh, also illness and unsanitary living conditions, but let's stick with the corn.  Andy was so glad we were there and it broke up our day so it turned out okay.  Plus I learned some pretty interesting things about the colonies.  I always learn interesting things when I go hear the kids' presentations.  It's like I never learned it before.

I would have been cool with one delayed start, but this week the weather hovered around zero degrees for most of the week so we also had delayed start on Wednesday and Thursday, again ruining my plans for the gym and whatever else I schedule while the kids are in school.  By the end of the week Amanda was begging to go to school because hers had gotten cancelled so many times.  I understand why they do it.  They don't want kids waiting for the bus in crazy negative temperatures, but does 90 minutes make that much of a difference?

Yesterday I took Sarah out to sell Girl Scout cookies because I have been a crappy mom and haven't taken her out yet while other girls in her troop have already gone back for more cases of cookies.  Except it was 7 degrees outside.  We were only out for about 30 minutes, we just did our cul-de-sac, but I actually thought I was going to get frost bite my toes were so cold.  Of course she will not even realize what a sacrifice I made by taking her out into that weather until she has a daughter of her own and is out selling cookies with her and thinks back and says, "Why the HELL did my mom take me out in that crazy cold weather???".  Why?  Because I was otherwise the "worst mom ever" for promising to take her to sell cookies and not following up on it, regardless of how cold it was.

Today it finally made it up to around 40 degrees and sunny which was like a tropical vacation (okay, not really so since I just went on one and am pretty sure I wasn't wearing a down coat while I was there, but you get my drift) compared to the last several days.  If only we had sold cookies today.

So we're back, we're getting into the swing of things, and if you need them, we have cookies.