Lover of books

Last night I finished my last enjoyment reading of the summer.  I love when you are into your book and you know you're close to finishing, so you want to put it down to maybe make it last a little longer.  But you can't make yourself do it!  So instead you read it a little longer than you intended (sometimes staying up way later than you meant to) to finish it.  Almost always I close the book with a smile and a sigh, flipping the book in my hands one last time to make sure I didn't miss anything from the cover.  Wishing there was maybe one more picture or detail.  I love reading.  I'll miss it.  I'll get to do it again over Christmas break when things are a little less hectic.

Some I read were just so so, but these ones, they were super good......

Okay, so I had already read The Help, but I loved it.  And the movie......LOVED it!!!  Not as much as the book (but when is that not the case), but still......LOVE it!

Da Beach

The beach today was everything I was hoping it'd be.  It was a beautiful day.  A really, really beautiful day.  Kids had fun.  Mama's had fun.  Even took a little dip.  Hoping for a re-do next week!

Well, Snap!

Well, no photos to document the momentous occasion, but I started school this week.  Cue the big fat *sigh*.  Hmmm, can you put the picture in your mind?  Backpack on, in front of the house with lunch in hand, smiling.  That was me....Monday.  Well I carry a bag not a backpack, and I wasn't smiling, I was running to the bathroom with a nervous tummy, but anyway.....

This semester the plan was to take Microbiology and a General Intro to Nursing course.  So Micro is surprisingly super interesting.  I know it's going to be tons of work and memorization, but sounds really intriguing.  I'll be working with E. Coli and some of those other scary sounding stuff.  I'll be all official in a white lab coat and everything.

And then the other class, well the other class I was suppose to start today.  And I think I was kinda guilted into dropping it.  Actually I was WAY guilted into dropping it.  I want to use the 'bully' word even, but I'm kinda sensitive to that word, so I'll stick to guilt.  Anyway, the professor went on and on about how if I'm not just about ready to enter the nursing program, I should let someone who is about to enter take my seat. I guess I should point out that she wasn't speaking directly to ME, but to the whole class, but it was someone in my situation she was speaking of.  You see, the wait list was about at 20 and many of those were people just about ready to get in to the program...they have or will be shortly applying.  (Did I mention that taking this course gives you extra points on your application??)  And then you have someone like me who has 2 more courses to take before I can even apply (taking one of them this semester).  Anyway, after she pleaded her case, even saying that nursing is about giving and shouldn't I give, she then let those students say why THEY should get it.  I left.  They even applauded for me.  But as I walked out I got tears in my eyes.  And then on the car ride home, I was so mad at myself!

You see if I hadn't been so emotional and if I quickly put my thoughts together I would have said:  Well,  ....I'VE been going to this school for TWO years so far, and it looks like another one and a half before I can even hope to get into the program.  Because I am a wife and mom of two awesome and athletic children, and because their homework beckons and I can't imagine not being at their games AND I am extremely focused on getting great grades,  I only take one or two courses at a time.  I feel like it has taken me a long time already, but I have a plan.  And I have had to rewrite this plan many times because this program keeps changing and adding more prerequisites to get in, but I keep rewriting.  And in my rewrites I try to see how I can get as many points as possible to assure, to the best I can, I get in the first time I apply to the program.  Anyway, I want and need these points too.  I REALLY wanted to take two courses this semester.  And honestly this is a needed course and it FIT into me and MY FAMILY'S schedule.  There were NO prerequisites for this course.  I registered and I got in.  So please just be a teacher and teach me.  That is why I am here.

But I didn't say a word of it.  I know in the whole scheme of things this is so not important.  I want to go to school to learn and I am learning.  But there's some character stuff in here.  And to me that's pretty important.  So I'll ponder this for a bit and see what it means for me.

Meanwhile, I've emailed another professor pleading to get into a speech course that's already started.  I keep checking email to see if she's responded.  So far, nothing.

So tomorrow I'm off to the beach with my kiddos and some friends.  I'm hoping to take ALL that it has to offer and then in the evening hit the books.

What's that they say???  God grant me the serenity to accept the thing I cannot change.  The ability to change the things that I can.  And the wisdom to know the difference.  Now and forever, amen.

I love/hate Football

As the sports start ramping up, there's this huge love Mike and I have of watching our babies run and sweat and play their hearts out.  Marin won't start her soccer season until September.  And in the past, Shane has started flag football in September as well. But this year my boy started tackle.  There's been some amazing mature transformations that I've seen in him.  I'm so proud of how hard he's been working and the coolest thing is to see his own pride in himself.  He made some goals for himself and he's reaching them.  And he knows it's because of his own choices and hard work.  And it's been really hard!

It's a bittersweet thing to watch tackle with boys.  They make that same cracking sound you hear on t.v. as you watch professionals tackle each other.  Crunching helmet to helmet or pads.  So crazy when it's your boy or boys you know.  As a mom I see my little boy walk out there wearing these huge pads and little tight pants.  Aww...so cute!  And then in another moment, the coaches are riling the boys up.... yelling at them (just like the movies!) and encouraging hard hits.  And then one of the boys gets knocked down....wind knocked out of him....trying to catch his breath.  Ugh!  Hard to watch.

He's working SO hard.  Practice every day of the week (excluding weekends) for the whole month of August.  (Practices will slow down a little when school starts.)  His little body is so black and blue with new bruises popping up daily.  All the boys are learning specific plays.  Trying to be very methodical in each move.

  

And my guy.....he's ALL in.  Working the hardest I've seen him work for anything and loving it.  And so... there I am on the bleachers.  Where I so want to be.  Cheering my boy on.  "Go Shane!"  "Get him!"

I may have to cringe at times, but I do love watching those boys play.   Love watching MY boy play.

Wringing out the last drops

Summer has been some kind of amazing.  

It's been full of family and friends.  

 

  

Special trips that are relaxing and FUN.  

A lot of it, I feel like we are going, going, going.  And other days when we're home, we take time to enjoy lazy mornings.  

Love the lazy mornings.  For me it's waking at around 8:30, grabbing a cup of coffee and sitting in bed reading or checking things out online.  For the kids, it's staying longer in their pj's, watching some t.v.  

It's been a really great season. And as the approaching school year pokes in a little here.... and football commitments start poking a little there, we just keep squeezing. Getting as much out as we can of summer.  

Tomorrow we go to the beach (no football practice) and we'll leave as late as we want.  Yippee! 

Then on Monday I start school.  But the kiddos don't start for a few more weeks.  And so we're going to keep on squeezing 

until there's just about nothing left.