sit down... this one's a long one

School has started. The pools have closed. The temperatures have dropped. The kids are looking at Halloween costumes. And yet my swimsuit still hangs hopefully in the shower stall, in denial, I guess that another season has passed it by. Here are the major highlights I've missed:

1) I flew to Boise for a weekend to surprise my mom. My other sisters were already there for vacation, so we made it a girls weekend and got our nails done, had a nice lunch, and celebrated Mom and Angie's birthday. It was a quick trip for me, but always fun to see family.

2) Tritan's 14th birthday. His voice is so low now, and he's covered in fuzzy, dark man hair. I wouldn't be surprised if he's shaving by 16. He eats more than some small nations, and has dilligently mowed the lawn every week this summer. He had a camping trip on his actual birthday, so we waited a week to celebrate as a family. We went to Dave and Busters, an arcade and restaurant, so that was perfect for Tritan--gaming and eating. It was inside a mall, where Tritan also found a kiosk that will print out designs and put them on t-shirts, so he used one of his original designs to create a birthday shirt. We went to the Lego store--apparently you are never too old for Legos (and I speak for myself). And we went to an outdoor shop that had a climbing wall inside--Tritan discovered that he was naturally good at rock climbing on his camp out. He joined a climbing gym and climbs with a teen group on Friday nights now.

3) School started. Paris moved up to middle school, so now I have an 8th, 7th, and 6th grader--we've taken over the middle school! So far, everyone is doing well...Tritan had some trouble with some kids making fun of him, but he's been sticking up for himself and getting help. Paris went from being the class clown/little bit of a troublemaker in the 5th grade to trying hard to be a good leader. He was voted homeroom rep for student council and has been taking his responsibility very seriously. I have to say that despite the horror stories, middle school has mostly been a positive change for my kids. Hopefully, high school will only get better.

Have you seen the new Harry Potter movie? Yeah, old news I know. But there is a scene that I love that epitomizes what it feels like to be a parent. Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) and Mrs. Weasley (Julie Walters) are outside Hogwarts. They know Voldemort and the Death Eaters are on their way. Professor McGonagall animates the stone soldiers around Hogwarts--she titters a little and says, "I've always wanted to do that". She glances at Mrs. Weasley, to share a little in the humor to ease the tension, but Mrs. Weasley just looks back all serious, all business--not even a sympathtic nod. There is no joy for her in the upcoming battle, even if she would like to kill a few death eaters--she knows her children are at Hogwarts, she knows that they will have to fight tonight, that they will get bruised and broken, that they will have to endure pain and inflict pain, and she knows that they could very well die that night. She raises her hand and sets a spell that will shield the castle. She does it slowly, mournfully--she knows that this is all she can do, and that it probably won't last long. The other professors raise their wands with the same solemn determination to complete the shield.

Sure enough, the dark magic bounces off the shield for awhile. Hermonie looks in awe at the firecracker sparks it creates and says, "Isn't it beautiful?" just before Voldemort destroys it and the forces of evil come tearing through the school. Before the end of the night, Voldemort will be destroyed and right will triumph, but not before one of the Weasley twins is killed.

I feel like Mrs. Weasley sometimes. Like the most I can do is raise my wand and create a shield the best that I can, and am grateful that there are wonderful teachers, friends, leaders, grandparents, aunts and uncles that raise their wand with mine, but that eventually the kids will be out there, in the world, and hopefully they know the spells that will save them. I wish I could take the kids who bother Tritan and teach them a thing or two. I wish I could teach Apollo the difference between a "d" and a "b" so he could get a good grade on his spelling. I wish I could take all their hurts and pains and make them disappear. But they are on their own path, and I am so proud of their courage and strength and I can only hope that in the end their personal demons will be destroyed and right will triumph.

We have a pet

We went to a Japanese festival in uptown Charlotte on Saturday. Since Brian's company works with a Japanese company in a joint venture, we are getting to know a lot about the Japanese culture and eating a lot of sushi. We watched drummers and made oragami and ate more sushi and noodles and met Brian's collegues. Apollo kept seeing kids with bags of goldfish and started begging for us to get one. We learned that there was a game in the courtyard, where for $2, you could try to scoop a goldfish into a bowl with a rice paper net. Once your rice paper net dissolved, your turn was up. I thought the chances of capturing a goldfish were pretty slim, and since the proceeds of the game went to Tsunami Relief, we let him play. Sure enough, his net dissolved before he could corner and capture a goldfish. Little did I know, each kid got a goldfish in a bag regardless. So, elated, Apollo walked off with a baggie of water and Goldie the goldfish.

Of course, now we had the problem of keeping the fish alive. We had to go to Walmart and get food and water purifier. We already had a tank at home. Athena was dying to go clothes shopping, so Brian dropped us off at the mall, while the boys took care of the fish. On the ride to Walmart, Brian hears Apollo screaming in the back seat, holding Goldie flopping in his hands, water all over his shirt, and the baggie nearly empty. We're still not sure what happened--did the baggie open? Did Apollo want to pet the fish? They put the fish in what water was left, and Brian bought a .38 cent goldfish to replace Goldie in case he was dead when they got back to the car. But happily, Goldie and Goldie 2 have both made it to day 2. Which is good since the only tank we could find was the 30 gallon tank we bought for the turtle we had 2 years ago.

We don't do well with pets in general, and I'm thinking that if the fish last a week, we will be lucky. If they do, we'll have to invest in a smaller tank or a table to put this one on and some more fish to fill it up.

Summer Slips By

Ok, Blogger told me I was out of picture limits, whatever that is--so I do not have near enough pictures posted to try to show our summer so far...I will try to figure out what is going on and post some more later.
But summer is turning out to be far more less lazy than I hoped it would be...We hit the ground running with soccer camp and YW camp--Athena's first year. She had a blast shooting, swimming, hiking, and sliding down a natural waterslide. Mom and Dad and Alyssa, Jeff, and Abbey came the next week and we spent the week exploring things to do in NC. Some of them were really fun--the Schiele Natural Museum, hiking off of the Blue Ridge Parkway to some waterfalls, and going to Old Salem were some of the highlights. Save your money on Mystery Hill (near Blowing Rock) and the tour of furniture at Old Salem....But it was so much fun to have so much family at the same time!
Then there was 3 vs. 3 soccer tournament that Paris played in and Brian coached. They lost all their games but it was fun to camp out for 2 days and play and watch soccer. Tritan went to Scout camp and earned 4 merit badges--the hardest earned was in shooting--he got his bullseye on the last day! The Fourth of July was a bust since it rained all evening long (we salvaged it by having family movie night--the first Harry Potter...).
Brian took Tritan and Athena to NJ the next week...Athena stayed with her BFF from Jersey and they went to the shore, picked blueberries, and stayed up everynight talking til midnight. Tritan and Brian stayed in Princeton, where Brian worked and Tritan went to computer camp where he learned how to write in changes in videogames, including maps and avatars--(I don't know what anything means, I just know he loves doing it and he's good at it...). They got to hang out with a few friends from Jersey and watch Harry Potter. The bad news: Our favorite restaurant there just had a fire, and was closed. The good news: Our favorite grocery store was still there and Brian brought me home two cases of spaghetti sauce. Me and the rest of the boys hung out here and found the dollar theater, played Legos, ate at fun places, and played laser tag. I wondered if splitting the family up was a good idea, but I think Brian and Tritan got to bond a bit, and Tritan felt very grown up. And Paris and Apollo went from fighting every single day (several times a day) to being "best friends" and the fights completely dissappeard by the end of the week. (They came back the next week, but considerably less...).
Meanwhile, Athena is at the dance studio every chance she can get and we try to go swimming a few times each week (so grateful I don't have a pool to take care of this year...). The kids mow our gargantuan lawn for money each week, and Apollo and I are trying to keep up on his reading.
Yesterday I went to Staples for computer ink and there was a line of mothers buying back to school supplies and my stomach sunk....Summer is almost over already!! I don't care how old you are, or how busy you get during the summer--it is never long enough!

These are all pictures of the Schiele Museum --I'll try to post more pics later.

Punching bag

Sometimes you are the puncher and sometimes you feel like the punching bag.

Apollo has been obsessed with karate ever since we watched Karate Kid for New Year's Eve. I waited almost a whole month to enroll him, just to make sure it wasn't after-movie euphoria. (Besides, we had 3 or 4 years worth of hand-me-down soccer cleats carefully packed and labeled, waiting to be used). But karate was calling, so we signed him up, and have patiently watched him kick, block, and strike his way through his first belt. He loves learning all the moves and the self-defense excercises; I love how they encourage goal-setting and discipline. He had his first test a week or so ago, and although everyone passed (they make sure everyone is prepared before they test them), he was really nervous.

But boy did he feel proud when he got his new belt!

It doesn't always work out so well, though. Last week Paris tried out for a travel soccer team. He is always one of the better players on his rec team, but then, there are a lot of kids on rec who just started to play. So we thought we'd expand his learning with some paid coaches and more competitive play. He has such a passion for soccer, and he never gets tired of playing it, we thought he'd be a shoo-in for sure. But I couldn't help trying to prepare him for rejection, just in case. "You know, if you don't get in, it's okay-- you can play rec, we'll look into other leagues..."So many of my try-outs and auditions ended in dissappointment when I was young, I couldn't help feeling that sense of doubt creep in with the nerves and excitement. "What's the matter, Mom?" Paris finally cut me off. "Don't you think I'll make it?" And with that I suddenly felt ashamed for even putting out the possibility of not making it. I tried to explain that it was my self-doubt, not to worry, he would surely make it.

But after two days of grueling try-outs in a balmy spring that suddenly turned into a punishing summer of 90* days, and then waiting and waiting and waiting for the call...it seemed that my doubts were warrented after all. At last the team was posted, and in a trembling voice, Paris told me, "Mom, I didn't make the team"...and my heart sank, as I tried to help my personal soccer hero grapple with the lows of dissappointment. I must admit throughout the weekend, waiting more anxiously for that call than I have for any other (and I have had my share of waiting for calls...from waiting for boys to waiting for jobs), I had had my share of tears and prayers, carefully hidden away from my hopeful boy. We had refrained from putting Paris in travel soccer in NJ because all of the games were played on Sunday. When I was struggling with this in NJ, I felt a promise from the Lord that my kids would not suffer from choosing to keep the Sabbath day holy, and yet now he wasn't good enough? It was a tough weekend.

The list was posted last Sunday, after the sacrament speaker had talked on this talk from General Confrence, and as I tried to comfort Paris, I can only have faith that this dissappointment will reveal new opportunities and growth. Maybe for me as much as for him.

Spring Break 2011

This year Spring Break seemed like it took forever to get here. All the snow days we accumulated in January resulted in no breaks until Easter week when finally we could get a chance to get away, visit my sister who just had a baby, and visit some sites in southern VA that we never made it to when we lived there.

We did Williamsburg in a day and made it to all of the buildings, played games the settlers played, and a few even got locked up!

So then we went to Busch Gardens--tons of cool, scary roller coasters! We went upside down, dropped straight down, had the track above us, went 90 mph--basically did everything but fly! Apollo is just not quite tall enough to ride the biggest rides, so he got one on one time with Mom or Dad, while the rest of the family stood for hours in line...and so he got the most pics taken of him, too.

Here is three of the kids before they went on Escape from Pompeii (one of my favorites):

Here is after they got off:

Mom and the kids on the pirate ship:

The next day we went to Virginia Beach. We rented a family bike and rode up and down the boardwalk. We all took turns driving, and it was good to see who we should let wait to get their drivers license! This was way more fun than I thought it would be!

Then we spent a windy day at the beach and looking at light houses:

The next day we spent wrapping up loose ends at Busch Gardens, riding our favorite rides again, buying souveniors, seeing the birds and wolves:

Then onto Richmond to vist Alyssa, Jeff, and Abigail. The kids LOVED seeing a baby cousin, Apollo especially--he hardly let her out of his sight, and read to her, and even changed her diaper.

We had a great time as usual--we decorated eggs and had a great Easter dinner before they sent us on our way home with a gorgeous Easter basket.

Groupon Made Us Do It

When we were in the midst of the worst of moving, I came upon a groupon for a zipline in Boone, NC--about 2 1/2 hours north of Charlotte. I thought why not? What a great family day trip! And so I bought 6 half-price tickets for Scream Time Zipline. And then I have fretted about it ever since...Apollo is so scared of heights he hugged the walls at the lighthouses we visited and won't get on Brian's shoulders. But we made reservations and drove up there this Saturday. So beautiful! And what do you know, Apollo was the 3rd across! (Paris, of course, was first) We had a great day, and we'll be looking for more groupons in the future!!