Picture of the Week - 5/25/2017

I'm feeling particularly blessed today!

Lots of good stuff happening lately - and MORE about to happen!

I'm blessed to have 4 good kids who have had a really great year.  Ups and Downs - of course.  Stresses - Yes!  Challenges and drama and more yelling and punishing than I would prefer, but taken on the whole, WAY WAY WAY more good stuff than bad this school year.  It's time to say hello to high school and good bye to day care.  Moving on and growing up and making their mom proud along the way!

I'm blessed to have my parents HERE and ABLE and WILLING to jump in on this crazy ride.  They are keeping the boys for us this weekend so Bob and I can go on an anniversary trip.  I know it's not easy to step in the the Bovenizer-variety chaos, but they do it with a smile on their faces (at least that the beginning) and reassurances to go and not worry.  So we will do JUST THAT!  We're gonna GO and have a great time celebrating 20 wonderful years as Mr. and Mrs.  

And I'm especially blessed to be going through this whole life journey with Bob.  It's hard for me to imagine a more perfect partner.  I can't fathom anyone else better suited to deal with ME.  (I may not always be the easiest person to live with!)  I thank God for putting Bob into my life!  Some things are just meant to be!

Here's a fun picture from our wedding day (May 24, 1997) and today (May 25, 2017) waiting for our plane to take us up to Portland, Maine for a big adventure.  

Have a very safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.  Kick off summer with a BANG!

Picture of the Week - 5/18/2017

Middle of May - nearly the end of the school year - almost summertime - and we're gearing up for all kinds of fun!

Let's start with a countdown that Bob and I have had for a year...  next week we get to go on a grown-up trip to a place we've never been to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.  I'm so ridiculously excited!  We're heading to a resort in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  We have very few plans outside of our pre-purchased tickets on the "brew bus" to visit local craft breweries.  This trip marks a pretty cool milestone - and also survival of another school year.  So excited...  more on Maine next week!

And then there's Spencer, who's got just 6 (officially) days of middle school left.  In reality, it's more like 4...  one day is the 8th grade picnic and I am not going to even TRY to make him go to school on the last day.  Hard to believe he's done with Vickery Creek Middle School.  It treated him (and us) very very well.  He's ready for high school.  He's MORE ready for the summer and has big plans to get himself back into "football shape".  He wants to work out, lift weights, train, condition and eat.  He's got a goal to spend just about every day in the HS weight room - and between the football, wrestling and lacrosse teams, there are plenty of opportunities.  He also wants to put on 20 lbs of muscle weight.  So we are stocking up on eggs and protein powder and chicken and muscle milk.  I'm guessing my food budget will be getting bigger at about the same rate as he does...

Quinn is wrapping up 7th grade in fine style.  He's not flashy and not making any big leaps, but he's the epitome of slow and steady wins the race.  He's become known around our neighborhood as the "responsible Bovenizer" - which is accurate - and has several little jobs lined up for the summer.  He'll be dog sitting and garden watering and stuff like that.  He's got a few summer camps lined up, but for the most part I think he's looking forward to some downtime - and probably too much video gaming.

Zane killed first grade.  He had a really awesome year.  He's reading chapter books and does math in his head and generally blows me away.  His sweet teacher is moving from 1st grade down to kindergarten next year and has told us she's going to try to get Beckett.  We've ALL warned her that Beck is not Zane...  really, really not Zane!  

Beckett is also changing schools and next week marks our LAST WEEK of daycare.  READ THAT AGAIN!!!  After more than 15 STRAIGHT years, we will be day care free.  I. Just. Don't. Know....  Beck and Zane are going to a couple of different places over the summer.  They are doing a couple of weeks at the Y camp - where they will get exhausted and filthy doing real summer camp stuff - and they are doing the rest of the summer at a camp hosted by our elementary school.  I'm guessing there won't be too many kindergartners in the Whitlow summer camp.  I imagine it's mostly for kids who are already at the school.  I am not the LEAST bit worried about sending Beckett.  He's so so so ready to move on and up.  He is a 15 year old dude in a 5 year old body.  Attitude for days.  Last weekend at his last lacrosse practice, he became the enforcer and TOOK OUT this annoying little kid who was bugging everyone else.  He also won every face off he attempted.  He's a special dude.  Here are a couple fun pictures of Beck.  One is him before school one day looking way older than 5 (and yes, that IS a fidget spinner) and the other is him sporting his cool "I just joined the pack" t-shirt from kindergarten orientation.  

Good stuff!

Have a great week everyone - I know we will!  (Even if I will be in NC doing a sales demo on our anniversary...  boo!)

Picture of the Week - 5/11/2017

Greetings from New York City!

I think it's probably been somewhere around 25 years since I've been in NYC.  Maybe more like 27...  I think the last time I was here I was in high school.  Goodness...  time flies!

I don't remember NYC being so crowded.  I actually don't remember it being so big either.  And, now given the gift of perspective, I can say that it's a really cool city.  The limited amount of time I've spent here between yesterday afternoon and this evening has confirmed for me that 1) I could never live here and 2) that's a cool place to visit.

This Sunday is Mother's Day.  I think it's also the first "free" day we've had in weeks.  I'm SO looking forward to hanging out with my boys and just enjoying a day together.  I asked them on Tuesday to take a picture with me as my gift for Mother's Day.  They all happily agreed and we marched outside between everyone getting home from school and heading back out for evening activities.  Here's my "gift" of my Gifts.  Love.  My Heart is FULL!

Have a great week everyone!  

Picture of the Week - 5/4/2017

The photographer for this week's pictures was Beckett.  Not even kidding...  

One night at Zane's practice he was flipping himself back and forth, up and over the chain link fence.  For a while, I tried to stop him from climbing the fence, perching on top, and leaping back off.  I was certain he would fall, he would bleed, or he would rip his clothes.  He's done none of those things.  He HAS ignored all my requests for him to stop.  SO now I just let him go.  And he's a VERY VERY VERY skilled fence climber.  I'm so proud...

Anyway, so he was climbing the fence, like a monkey, and I was standing there beside him and he started asking for my phone - which I never give him.  He wanted to take pictures.  I resisted for a while, but that child can be very persistent.  And I'm very old and tired.  HA!  So I caved and handed him my phone.  I asked him to be careful and figured I'd just delete all the pictures he took.  Don't you know that he got some great ones!  At one point he was laying on his belly in the middle of the field while the team was doing their post-practice huddle.  He took the picture here of that huddle and while he was doing it I actually looked at the parents beside me and said "that's gonna be a cool picture".

He also took the picture with the cool sunbeam in it.  No idea how he managed that one, but you can see me in the background on the "parent side" of the fence.  LOL

My lesson - sometimes it's a good idea to just say "yes" and see what happens.  

This weekend is the end of our spring 2017 lacrosse season.  It's been a bit of a mixed bag.  Beck and Zane have had a great season.  Spencer's has sucked because he's been sidelined through the whole thing.  Quinn's has been OK, but not great.  He's gotten a lot better and worked on his skills, but his team hasn't had a great season.  By this time in the season, every year, I'm just ready for it all to be over.  This year is no exception.  I'll be glad when we can throw all the nasty pads in the wash and call it done for a bit.  It's time for us to just stop and breathe for a bit.

Have a great week everyone!  I'm off to NYC for a couple of days next week and Spencer officially starts freshman football - although he can't participate in anything yet...  dumb shoulder.