Our Memorial Day weekend was a solid mix of stuff. I had a whole to-do list for myself that necessitated taking a four-day weekend. I knew I would need it to get through it all, and thankfully my workload cooperated to take the day. The outside yard work alone was a lot to accomplish, let alone the inside stuff--changing over the house decor to patriotic/summer, finally changing out the rest of my closet to summer attire, and changing over our bedding because I was starting to sweat under our quilt at night and needed the lighter blanket I put on in the summer. I also needed to pick a dish to pass for a Saturday picnic, go to Wegmans and get those items plus some other ones, and take care of a couple other nagging things. And I wanted to get back on the workout wagon because that had fallen off a bit between our trip and a busy set of evenings that included Carter's soccer and final chorus concert of the year. It all felt like a lot, and it was. Before I get to that, speaking of soccer and chorus...
Carter had his first soccer game the previous Wednesday. Of course it was one absolutely chilly day in the midst of otherwise pleasant weather, but a few layers later, we made it through.
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| It was a beautiful, sunny day...if it was not a high of 50. Hoodie dress, fleece leggings, a winter coat, and a blanket to the rescue. |
He did well and got a couple of assists, but was sad that they lost despite a really strong effort. I think the team has a lot of potential, though, so I'm hopeful this will be a more enjoyable season than last year.
Carter SO wanted
to score a goal, and even threatened to quit soccer if he didn't score this season. Thankfully, this week in game two, not only did they pull out a win, but Carter scored! His team had taken a 2-0 lead but the other team came back and tied it. We scored two more only to have them cut the deficit to one. We knew the game should almost be over and worried every time the other team came down to our end, but Carter iced it a minute or two before the final whistle finally blew! We were happy to see him rewarded since he's definitely been playing more in between games
and practices with the net he got for his birthday. The net is a bit of a
bear to put up and take down, but I'm getting quicker at it and he loves it. He still needs to work on his footwork and speed, but he'll get there.
Thursday
was his chorus concert. The program also included the continuing
orchestra and band performances (5th graders--more advanced than Carter's concert pieces, but not much less painful, honestly!), but chorus did a bunch of songs and
they did well. Carter took a while to spot me in the crowd (Jacob had
basketball practice so it was just me) and he definitely seemed to relax
more after that. Here's a snippet from one of the songs, where they added a cool effect:
He still has a national anthem performance at the Red Wings baseball game this weekend to wrap up the year. I'm so proud of all his hard work and early mornings this year to make all of these music pursuits possible. I'm eager to get him set up with some viola lessons over the summer because I can't wait to see how good he can get!
Getting back to last weekend, the outside stuff was a huge thing to check off the list. I had already done my garden before we left for St. Louis, but only managed to temporarily throw most of my annual plants in pots before we left to keep them alive while we were gone. I needed to get those out and planted, so on Friday I repotted my new dahlia, did two hanging baskets, one pot, one long planter, and one giant, three-tiered planter I bought on clearance at Aldi last year that took an entire giant bag of potting soil. I did a mix of established flowers and seeds in all but one of them. The big planter looks pretty great already with a mix of impatiens, portulaca, and marigolds, and I'm just getting my first sprouts in the all-seed planter that's usually full of my zinnias (but will hopefully have a bit more this year). My garden is coming along rather slowly, as is my hydrangea. I think the garden fell victim to a lot of dry weather the last couple weeks--we haven't gotten any rain since a day or two while we were gone, and I was probably a little too busy last week to keep up proper watering. A couple things popped through this week, but I replanted some lettuce, beans, and peas last night in case they never show up. My hydrangea seems to have fallen victim to a spring cold snap. It had a ton of buds early in the spring but those all crapped out and there's only a limited amount of foliage along the base and not much on the "sticks" from last year. I've seen a couple other people's look similar so I guess we all got duped into thinking our plants could handle the late freeze. I also did some fertilizing of my fungus-prone plants, did a bunch of weeding, transplanted an out-of-place plant, and tried out the vinegar-borax-soap method of weed killing on our patio weeds. I discovered a really bad aphid infestation on one burning bush (and mild ones on the other ones) so I did a bunch of spraying that led to a full bush trimming on Monday to take off the remains of the infested parts. That was exhausting and led to the discovery of another infestation on our boxwoods. I also ended up cleaning up some of the dead patio weeds and helping Craig with the massive trim of our out-of-control-but-too-giant-to-fix evergreen bushes. I came out of Monday sunburned and tired, but happy with the progress. But just like housework, just when you get it to the point where you think you can maintain it, somehow it still gets out of control before you know it.
Saturday was my every-five-year Geneseo InterVarsity Reunion picnic. I wasn't as excited as normal because I wasn't confident many people I knew would be there, but I felt it was important to go if only to see Pastor Dave, who was like my "college dad" and means the world to me. Sure enough, not many people from my era were there. There were a few that were a couple years ahead of me, so it was great to see them, but not many had little kids so Carter was very complain-y at first. Luckily, someone that I barely remembered at first but slowly recalled, brought two boys right around his age. That saved the day, even if Carter did still come in to complain about how tired he was a couple times! He did play outside a LOT! I was able to have some wonderful conversations with people I hadn't seen in a while, including one friend who was younger than me and has struggled with her faith and church life for the past few years because of how the church has handled certain areas that impact her life. And yes, seeing Pastor Dave and his sweet wife Babs was truly wonderful. She also LOVED the salad I brought and she sent me the sweetest message when I sent her the recipe. It was so wonderful to be with them again, especially as they get older and reality sets in they won't be around forever. But being in that setting again, despite the way my own faith has meandered through the 20+ years since I graduated, was just a reminder of how lucky I was to have that kind of a group to get me through those four years that changed my life in incredible ways. Those bonds and friendships are really unique, and that time was a very clear reminder of that.
Monday night we went to the Amerks playoff game. They were in the conference finals for the first time since I worked there, and it was fun to see a fully sold-out arena. See all those seats at the end? I've almost never seen them full like that. Even back in the days when we'd have big nights around holidays or Knighthawk playoff games, it almost never looked like that. This was a legit sellout.
From our seats we had a prime view of the team's banners, and those last six represent my time there (and Craig's, too), starting with the Calder Cup final loss when I was an intern, to a solid regular season and very disappointing playoff my first year. The last banners were from my last full year, the year the NHL canceled the season and we had an amazing team with all the guys who stuck around for an extra year. We won the regular season but proceeded to have a bunch of injuries from the end of the season into the playoffs, which led to an early exit in round two. That was such a disappointment because we looked unstoppable all season. But the season prior to that, we didn't have any banners to show for it, but we had such an exciting playoff run. We came back from 3-1 down in our first round series to win game 7 in overtime. Then we swept the second round. We moved on to the third round but the circus came to town and we were stuck playing games in Buffalo. That didn't seem to do us any favors, and we had a crushing loss in five games that felt closer than the final win count indicated. That had been the season I hosted our TV show, so I knew all the players to some degree and I never wanted to see them succeed so badly. A bunch of the guys from those two years went on to Buffalo and were a part of teams that suffered similar fates--an overachieving playoff team that went to the conference finals and should have won it all if not for some bad luck, and then an amazing season the next year that ended far too early in the second round. It was crushing then as well, and I'm still sad that group never won it all in one spot or another.
The next day was Jacob's last day at his old school, and Wednesday was the first at the new school (for the next three weeks, anyway--he'll be in a different building in the fall). It didn't start out particularly well--there was a lack of communication about the first day. For one, somehow we never clarified the start time and ended up late, and then we were never told it was a field trip day and he could have dressed down. It was to a Red Wings game on an 80 degree day and he was wearing uniform pants and had no sunscreen. So, not the best start. But the girls already think he's cute and the gym teacher (former basketball coach) was all excited about him being there, so I guess that's something. But then his old school wanted him to take finals and we had to work through scenarios to make sure we were OK not having him do that. Because he technically has 8th grade credit (with better grades) from last year, and this year can't really transfer over to the new school because the classes don't match up (he'll retake 9th grade classes next year, but on a Regents track), it doesn't really make sense. He's also missing work this week that would drive down his grade, and he turned in most of his stuff anyway, so we're not sure how he'd study. According to everyone Craig has asked, it doesn't make sense, but we also don't want to piss anyone off, so...it's been a little weird..
I had a moment while driving to work that first morning where I realized that the spot where I usually go straight to take Jacob to school will almost never be a straight drive anymore. That route that we'd become so accustomed to (and thankful for, being so short) is suddenly not a thing anymore. For now he essentially goes into the city with us as we drive to work, and next year, it will be an out-of-the-way but tolerable drive north. It's fine, of course--we've done worse--but all of this happened so weird and so suddenly and I'm finding myself having an odd mourning period for what once was. Today the old school posted a video of the seniors doing a "walk" through the school hallways in their caps and senior shirts. They were high-fiving the kids and hugging their non-senior friends and teachers. Jacob probably would have been in that video, or at least been happy to high-five his two senior teammates, so I felt yet another weird sting from that. We're going to drop off his uniform shirts with some other things he didn't get to turn in, and even that is a bit of a sting because we bought those a little big so he could wear them again next year, and now that investment and pre-planning was pointless. There was a lot of hope and promise when we bought those last summer, and now...who knows. I know he wasn't happy there, so this represents a fresh start, but I guess now I'm worried that this promising start will find a way to crash and burn, too.
Last year when he had his moving up ceremony, it felt weird because we knew he was leaving the school and repeating 8th grade, unlike his friends who were all staying and moving up to high school. This year, I don't even know if the school was doing any sort of ceremony, but now we won't be there for it anyway, and the one his new school will do won't exactly mean the same since he will have only been there for a couple weeks. It's strange. Although, knowing him, maybe he will make friends and insist he knows and likes them better than anyone he was with at his old school for the last nine months. Wouldn't surprise me...and I hope that's the case, but based on a couple days in, I'm not sure. He says that these kids are weird in a different way than the kids at his old school were weird--better weird, he insists--but that doesn't exactly instill me with a lot of hope that he's making connections yet. I wanted a good start so we had a good summer. It makes me think of my college orientation, which happened the week after my high school graduation. It went terribly--my roommate never showed up at the dorm, so I was either alone or an awkward third wheel, and trying to figure out registration or placement exams was confusing. I came out of it feeling intimidated and lonely, and I was dreading going back. As a result, I dreaded anything that had to do with college for the rest of the summer. I was a brat when we went dorm room shopping. I was grouchy the morning we left. That one two-day span ruined so much of what should have been an exciting time. I don't want that for him. I think he's cool with the basketball guys, which should help since he's already doing things with them, but it still makes me nervous. He's already falling back into a couple bad habits--bad mornings and resisting assignments--so it's not quite the resurgence I was hoping for.
Even still...I guess I just didn't expect all of this now, before the end of the year, so it's hitting a little differently. I didn't take any last day/first day pictures from this transition because I'm just not sure how I feel about it all--it doesn't feel celebratory like it usually would. It's not ideal to be switching again, but if this is a good spot for him, it could be a great thing. But for now it just feels awkward. I haven't yet mentioned it on social media, so I'm not sure I needed photo documentation. I hate limbo and gray areas and incompleteness, but oh, parenthood gives you a hefty dose of all of the above sometimes.
So, now it's June and we're into the home stretch. I can barely believe it. It's been almost an entire school year since our Disney trip, Carter has run the gamut this year between struggling and excelling, and Jacob isn't even at the same school. Jacob is (finally) almost done with middle school and Carter has only one more year before going there himself. Oh, and Jacob turns 15 in less than three weeks. What?! It's all so hard to fathom. We have one relatively relaxing weekend before a few (possibly) busy ones, so I'm going to do what I can to enjoy it and use it to my advantage. It never really does slow down, does it?
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