Life Lately

Just meandering through the last bit of the school year now.  Jacob has been fully in summer mode for a while, mind you, and Carter will follow starting Wednesday afternoon...lucky ducks.  Man, what I wouldn't give for an old school summer vacation!  At least Juneteenth gives me one day!

Baseball is in full swing now.  It's not going exactly as we'd hoped, as the team has too many players due to absorbing a team without enough players, so it's sort of like modified because Carter's only getting a couple at-bats per game.  He is starting, at least, but he usually only plays half the game in the field before the lineup switch.  He's making good contact with the ball, but just got a new bat to hopefully get a little more pop.  He did get one that rolled to the fence during practice last week, so the power is there.  His first game after was rained out (an inning and a half in, ugh), but he did get two nice hits (and player of the game honors) the next game.  I caught this picture last week and I can't get over how big he looks.  He's so tall and so much more solid.  

It's shocking when you compare to this picture from last year at this time, at the same field.  That's him next to Jacob, and while the distance may enhance the difference a bit, it's pretty clear that the height has changed and you can tell he just looks bigger and broader.  Some of that is puberty, but so much is getting his health under control.

We're coming up on the one-year anniversary of his ulcerative colitis diagnosis, and he's had a tremendously great 9+ months since we got it under control.  From what I can tell, that can change at any moment, so I'm grateful for how far he's come and how uneventful this time has been.  I have vowed to myself to reach out to the school nurse start the process for a 504 plan, just in case we're not as lucky next year.  Truth be told, he does miss a lot of school because he catches every darn cold virus that comes through, so it's probably not a bad idea to see if we can get accommodations for him being immune-compromised, on top of any GI-related symptoms or treatments we need to cover.

Speaking of baseball, last week we went to the Red Wings game because Craig was being honored pregame as the winner of a sports media excellence award from the Rochester Press Radio Club.  It's a pretty cool honor, and once upon a time would have been awarded at a fancy dinner with hundreds of other people and some sports celebrity guest speaker.  But I think COVID changed that, so apparently it's a night at the ballgame instead!  I probably should have run around to the other side, for the presentation, but Craig's parents were with us and I didn't want to leave them or run them ragged!

Getting the award

Picture time with the mascots, owner, and others

They also gave awards to two local Olympians (one who was there, one whose family accepted the award) as well as the woman that has run our town's Little League organization for decades.  We got a buffet picnic dinner and free tickets.  It was nice to have his parents there, and my cousin and her husband were coincidentally there, and I also got to see our friend and former co-worker who got me connected at my current job, who is apparently now part of the Press Radio Club herself!  

It was a nice night--the clouds were definitely rolling in, but you can see from the building reflection that the sunset was nice somewhere behind us!

Actually got the boys to smile for me!

That cloud rolling in was holding a heck of a thunderstorm.  We headed out just in time, getting to the cars as the raindrops started.  The drive home was rather un-fun, but at least we were dry!

Craig's parents stayed until the rain passed, so we got a few pictures.

This is from the program they handed out.

On Wednesday, we sent Carter off to school and the rest of us hopped in the car to drive to Elmira to get the lay of the land a bit at Jacob's new school.  We visited a gym in town where he could train and found a gluten-free breakfast place.  We went to the school and met with the guidance counselor to talk through a few class and curriculum things, then met the varsity basketball coach (who is not his coach) and the athletic director.  We got another brief tour of the dorms, and Jacob put up some shots in the gym.

It was set up for exams.  There's a second tier of seating above the bleachers.

One of his first shots got stuck, and of course that would happen when he only had one ball!  He jumped up a bunch of times to try to dislodge it, but when it wedged higher, he eventually used his shoe.

This is his dorm from outside.  We were standing in front of the school, so he'll have a quick commute.

Last week ended up so busy that I was barely able to take my daily walks.  Thursday was Carter's last chorus concert.  He's decided to not participate in chorus next year, though viola survives for another year, at least.  It's a little bittersweet, especially because these concerts are typically pretty good, courtesy of including the jazz band and show choir performances, which are both audition-based groups.  

Here's one song from Wicked.  He's in the middle, second row from the top, next to a taller black kid in a gray shirt:

And another song that's pretty instantly recognizable (sorry for the seasick camerawork--this was on my real camera, and I didn't really set myself up to have supported arms or good thumb placement for the buttons, so I was adjusting a lot and zooming in always makes movement more obvious):

Proud of him for getting through four years of chorus when it would have been easy enough for it to be uncool.  Luckily he had a couple friends that stayed in over the years, which probably helped.  But I think it will be a good opportunity for him to be able to take other electives down the road, hopefully something he will enjoy more.  And if there was a bargaining chip to keep him playing viola, it was probably letting him discontinue this!

Craig and Jacob left on last Friday for his first opportunity to play with (part of) his school basketball team.  They were in Allentown, PA for the weekend.  Unfortunately, Jacob accidentally got glass embedded in his foot the day before they left.  He broke a glass door panel in our hand-me-down coffee table in the basement a couple weeks ago.  We cleaned it up that night, but when he went to move the table Thursday to dribble his basketball (same thing that caused the break), there was glass hiding underneath.  He initially got checked and had a piece taken out, but still felt like there was more, so he went to another place, which didn't find anything else.  That made for a late night before the trip, and then he had to figure out how to play with it.  He didn't score a lot, but I think it was a good experience as a whole.  We're just hoping he can get a bit more consistent.  It was still bothering him this week, so he went to one of his usual ortho doctors, who found another piece stuck in there that he'll have to have surgically removed.  It will be minor and the recovery should be quick, but we'll see how that will impact the trips we have coming up (Allentown again and Atlanta).  

They stopped at a baseball game in Reading, PA on their way back, which meant another late night Sunday--especially because there were CRAZY storms coming through--but they did get me a cool shirt perfect for Oktoberfest time, or just embracing my German heritage.  

Handsome guys!

We also battled the same storm a bit.  Carter and I were at his baseball game Sunday morning, which was a little cooler than I'd like for June and had a couple drizzles, but the weather improved a bit by the end.  Then we headed to Pittsford to get his phone fixed again--the screen was replaced the previous week but some connection was loose after that because his speaker was funky.  While we were waiting, we got some lunch across the parking lot--his first time at The Cheesecake Factory!  We stopped at Trader Joe's after and rushed through in about five minutes because the approaching storm cloud clearly meant business!  We got hit with the first few big raindrops before spending 20 minutes in the car simply waiting for it to let up enough to drive.  At least we had good snacks to keep us occupied!  But there was some notable flooding before we got on the highway.  I hated to think of Craig having to drive through that after a very long day.

Otherwise, the yard is getting up and running for the year.  Here's a quick rundown of some of the fun so far.  After a crazy rain a couple weeks ago, I noticed some little objects in our way back in piles of mown grass which I thought might be animal poop...but no, tiny snails!  Zoom in to see the antennae!

I was a little bummed I didn't get any showstopping columbines this year, but these were still super pretty!

I am mildly obsessed with the gazanias I bought for some of my planters.

There's still another orange/red one I haven't gotten a picture of.  They're so stunning!

Speaking of stunning, our unchecked rhododendrons continue to dazzle.  I laugh at some of my first pictures after we moved here.  They've probably tripled in size.  Oops...happy accident!

For reference....a picture I took in 2010, our first spring here.  The window you see in this picture is completely covered now, probably not even halfway up the purple one in the pic above.  It's crazy, right?

Fungus season is officially starting, as I noticed a lot of dead tree leaves after a windy day the other day, and the first sections of my bloody cranesbill are about at the point where I need to start pulling them so they can start over, rather than looking leggy and brown.  My sad, almost dead azalea has come back nicely with some growth, but I'm keeping an eye on some white spots.  And finally, the pool got warm enough to swim in last weekend before a cool stretch, but it's been stuck on green for a bit.  But my swim (with the purpose of cleaning it) was shockingly nice.  

So, another big weekend (and milestone!) is coming up and then we're fully on to summer...