Empty Promises

Well.

Remember when I said I was going to blog more frequently and get back in the swing of things, and I did it for approximately 8 seconds before life got in the way? Clearly, I'm full of empty promises. Let's take a moment to be impressed by those 8 seconds, shall we?

Moving on...I'll go into a brief recap of March-September, and we'll pick up where we left off.

March: School. Rain.
April: Rain. Rain. Rain.
May: Rain. More Rain.  Hey, look...still rain.
June: Less rain. Summer camp. Disaster haircut.
July: Happy Birthday, America!  TIIIIIIIIMBERRRRRR!  Happy Birthday, Aubrey!  Disastrous vacation. Smiles. Smashed car.
August: I have a teenager.  Why hasn't school started yet?  Why isn't there more than a 24 hour gap between when the boys start school and when I start school.  So. Many. Marker. Colors. On. The. Calendar.
September: What?  They have a day off ALREADY?!

Now that we're all on the same page, I'll add some more details.  N started taking hitting lessons from a really great coach at the beginning of May, and it dramatically improved his swing within the first lesson...not that anyone on his team would have known that because it rained for approximately 18,000 days in a row, and the baseball season was actually "the baseball season that wasn't."

At the end of May, my dad had a stroke.  It was mild, and he has fully recovered, much to the amazement of his doctors (he was back at work within a couple of weeks), but he has made some much-needed changes to his lifestyle and has dropped 30 pounds in the process.  I am so proud of him!  While I was taking care of him, the man who had been giving N hitting lessons text me to see if N could join his team for practice.  The next thing I know, N has walked onto this team, and now we're gearing up for a year that is going to be crammed full of baseball.  It's glorious!

B has been trying to figure out something he wants to do, a sport of some kind, and he decided on one: allergy shots.  Okay, I'm kidding, but in order for him to do any kind of outdoor activity, allergy shots had to become part of the equation.  We decided the cluster method would work best for him, so in the last 4 weeks, he's had 3 months and 1 week of allergy shots...and then a sinus infection.  I'm hoping not only his quality of life will improve, but that he'll be able to be outdoors for extended periods of time without looking like someone used him as a punching bag.  And it needs to happen soon because he signed up for Flag Football this fall!  One practice in, and he's pretty sure he's out to take Tony Romo's job.  His team is the Dallas Cowboys, and he found himself playing quarterback during the first practice.  He's going places!  He also started at a new school this year (same district), and he is LOVING it!  It makes all of his parents so glad because last year went from okay to awful to a little better to great when he moved classrooms AND I decided we'd move to a different attendance zone.  It was an awesome decision on my part.  Yay, Aubs!

As for me, I'm finishing my Senior year at UNT and looking forward to getting into my own classroom within the next year (fingers crossed) at my alma mater.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd become a teacher or want to teach at the school from which I graduated, but life is bizarre like that!  I'm taking a bizarre mix of classes this year, which isn't really that bizarre, but I like the word.  I'm taking two online classes: Sociology of Disaster (Any class where two of the major assignments are playing "Disaster Monopoly" and watching any movie about a disaster and writing a response about it is pretty much a keeper in my book!), and Sociology of Marriage & Family.  I've taken some variation of this class before (twice), and I'm hoping the third time's a charm and something sticks because...let me tell you...the boys have decided Mom doesn't need to be single any longer. (Insert massive eye roll here.)  I'm taking an early American Lit class, which has mostly consisted of "Hey, Christopher Columbus...thanks for bringing syphilis to America!"  I'm also taking a Local History class, subtitled "Murder, Money, & Mystery in the United States" which is focusing specifically on the mass hanging in Gainesville, TX in 1862.  Please note people are hanged, not hung.  I mean, they can also be hung, but that tends to refer to a certain part of male anatomy, and that is NOT the subject matter of the class.  The professor made that extremely clear during the first class.  I still laugh because I have the maturity level of a teenager.

Speaking of teenagers...N turned 13 at the beginning of August.  This happened about a week after he went on a trip with his paternal grandmother and came back a full head taller than me.  I've had to purchase new clothes for him in varying sizes of "man child" multiple times this summer, and don't even get me started on shoes.  He outgrew me in 5th grade, and B's hovering on passing me by at the beginning of 4th grade!  With B the perfect height for a chin rest at the age of 9, I've come to the conclusion that I obviously have very tall children.


Because. I. Am. Not. Short.

At the end of July, I had a "Best Day/Worst Day" that was for the record books.  To set it up for you, N had gone to San Diego with his paternal grandmother...only they were flying standby and couldn't get to San Diego, so they flew to Los Angeles and then to San Francisco...and it all went downhill from there.  The week I had been promised (one week alllllllll to myself) ended up being 4 days.  That exact same day, I reconnected with one of my favorite people on the planet, someone I hadn't had any communication with in almost 10 years, and thinking about how that transpired STILL puts a smile on my face!  I had been looking for this person on Facebook for. EVER. (the whole reason I signed up for the damn thing in the first place was because this person sent me approximately 1.5 million invitations to "just try it out!"), and hadn't had any luck finding them.  Until that day.  When a mutual friend posted something and tagged them in it. My jaw dropped to...I don't know...Mexico, and I clicked "Friend Request." Within about 13 seconds, I had an "OMG, how're you doing?" and the rest is history!  Years, y'all.  Years.

So, I'm grinning from ear to ear, as one tends to do when memory lane opens a brand new exit, and go to pick up my hungry, tired, irritated, weary traveler from the airport.  We're literally around the corner from our house, and I'm explaining my recent reconnection (he's interested in the story, by the way...I wasn't just rambling), when a red Cadillac pulls out in front of me.

(Now, pretend I'm making car sounds) Swerve. Brake. Swerve. CRASH. EEEEEEEE.

Very realistic.  I'm not sure what he was thinking, but the front left side of my car was missing and the back left wheel on his car was at an odd angle.  Super fun.  Everyone was fine, but he insisted on an ambulance, and long story short...it cost me $135 to have the car towed less than 2 blocks.  It was awesome.  My insurance company jumped right on repairs (although his insurance company ultimately accepted fault), and I fell in love with my rental.  I wanted to keep my rental.  I miss my rental.  So do the boys.  It had fantastic rear air.  It still has to go into the shop again from where the tree in my backyard fell into the side of it (yes, really), so I'm kind of hoping that my rental and I can be reunited.

It'll feel so good.

Yeah, I went there.

Aubs