Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Life is all about choices

Today I chose:














Which means tomorrow morning I choose 5 miles:















So worth it.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Friday Night Lights

I am not from Texas, but I have lived here longer than any other place in my life. My son is born and raised here; my boyfriend and his son are as well. Maybe it is in the Texas blood, to be born knowing intrinsically what Friday Night Lights are...

I went to high school in Virginia and Ohio. I don't think I ever paid for a football game, and I know we didn't have reserved seats or turf fields (and yes, I acknowledge that it might be different now). I remember them being a place to hang out with your friends. To get away from your parents for a little while in a safe place. I am a big school spirit person so I was there to cheer on our teams too. And while the latter is still true here in Texas, there are things that are different.

We have season tickets with parking passes to the games. They are awesome seats - 50 yard line, no one in front of us, season tickets. At this school, as previous posts mentioned, the history is so ingrained that I think there were as many adults without kids at the school anymore as there were with kids still there.

I remember the old bleachers and grassy fields, but these stadiums are new and big and shiny (the public schools are even more so) with real seats. And yes, they are turf - no grass here.

Everyone is at this game, everyone knows that during football season, this is where you are on Friday nights. To me, who didn't grow up with it, it is amazing to watch the community be all about this one normal Friday night game...and to be that way every week.

What's my point? Well, simply that it is a new world that my son will be going into - be it at this particular high school or one of the other catholic schools, it's a new world that he seems to slide right into without fail. I have been to a few games before, but now? It seems so much more real...and I think I finally understand what people mean by Friday Night Lights.

PS: The Rangers won by 1 point (not 1 touchdown, 1 point) and yes, I was screaming as much as the next person in the 100+ degree heat.





Monday, August 22, 2011

Please let them make their bed...

This past week my kiddo started 8th grade without much fanfare, and with only 2 pictures permitted neither of which where anywhere near the school. He went in as if he owned the place, a place he has been since preschool so maybe, in a way, he does. The week continued with seeing the other kiddo play his first scrimmage for his high school football game.

FIRST HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME.

FINAL YEAR AT GRADE SCHOOL.

Oh dear, these hit me like a ton of bricks. Now, our kiddos go to private school and this high school is a prestigious all boys Catholic school so it is steeped in tradition and history. The young kiddo was on the sidelines of the Homecoming game one year as the ball boy and my brother graduated from there. The older kiddo has family going back even further than that so when I say history I mean that both figuratively and literally.

It was at this moment that I realized yet again that our kids grow up without us allowing it. They might be the little boys who need a hug at the end of the day, or whine because we make them go to the grocery store or make their bed but they are still young men. One - heading into his last year at the only school he's ever known; the other - heading into a school where he is the lowest on the totem pole and yet fits in as he is a Jesuit Man now.

I can only hope that we have done the best we can to prepare them for the adventures that await them. It's the parents prayer my friends. That and 'Please let them make their bed just this once without being asked.'

Sigh and Smile all at once.

Socks

This is one of those random thoughts...

I have small feet, the only small thing on me is my little feet. So small that when the boys were folding socks (yes, we somehow got two teenage boys to fold laundry one time - there may have also been pigs flying), one of them held up my sock and said 'Who's sock is this? There is no way it fits anyone.'. Yes it was mine and fits just fine, thanks big foot.

Anyway - I was just in a tiled area of our office and realized my foot fits in one of those small tile squares with room to grow. This made me laugh for some reason.

Maybe it's Monday.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Meerkat Moment


I was at lunch today (a great salad place called Salata if you have never tried it - do so) with some fabulous women from work and one was telling a story and put her head up like Timon and said
"That is when I had my Meerkat Moment"
and I lost it in laughter. In a very crowded restaurant (yes, I am sure I scared the guy next to us).

Now, we know I have a thing about animals and how the little things are what really make my day no matter the situation. Today - she was my meerkat. And seeing as The Lion King was one of the boy's favorite movies growing up, it meant that much more.

Have a Meerkat Moment people - it will turn you upside down, or is that upside right...?