Picture of the Week - 8/30/2018

Happy football season kick off!  O-H-I-O

Have a great week - I'm over in Scotland just now - heading back on Sunday - already can't wait!!

Picture of the Week - 8/23/2018

Hi all!

Very short email today because I'm sitting in the middle of a customer visit that has now run 90 minutes past the stated "end time".  And this is at the end of a ridiculously long week.  

I'm tired.  And I'm frustrated that I am not at home watching football and hanging with my people.  

Blah...

Here's a cute picture my mom took of Zane while she was handling taxi-duty on Monday when the skies opened up.  

Back home tomorrow - to regroup and head back out next Tuesday.  :(

Picture of the Week - 8/16/2018

It's football time in Georgia!

The boys have been practicing for weeks (months for Spencer), but this weekend starts the official season!  

Spencer is traveling to Camden County with the West Varsity team to play the season opener tomorrow night.  He likely won't get a ton of playing time - he may not see the field - but he will be dressed for his first official Varsity football game.  Pretty exciting!  BTW - for anyone curious, he's playing inside linebacker this year.  

Zane and Beck have the season opening Jamboree on Saturday morning.  It'll be the first time they get to wear their new uniforms and show off all the plays they have been working on in practice.  Their first official games start next weekend.  Both boys are having fun this season - Zane especially.  He's playing Center this year and may get some time at Defensive Tackle too.  He loves the practices and his team and his coaches SO much that it's kind of infectious!  Since Bob is coaching Beckett's team, I get to spend lots of time watching Zane.  And the entire experience is pretty much all the good parts of being a mom!  I love to watch him having fun and learning and building his self-confidence.  It's everything right about youth sports...

(Don't worry about Quinn!  He's working out with the wrestling team twice a week getting ready for the season.  He's started voluntarily lifting weights - and is going to be ripped for the season!  His lacrosse practices for fall season start in about a month.)

Funny aside - Bob gets to wear a coaches shirt for his games with "Wolverine's football" right on the chest.  It's actually a great reminder of God's sense of humor - and also a pretty blatant example that parents will do just about anything for their kids.  (He still refuses to say "Go Blue")

Picture of the Week - 8/9/2018

Warning – wordy, likely rambly, message to follow…

So, this is maybe a question that can only be answered by people who have flown.  Possibly a subset of people who have been on a plane who can say they have traveled…  I don’t know – far distances?  Extensively?  While leaving people you love behind? 

A friend, and colleague, of mine and I used to talk about this, but honestly never really got to the bottom of it.  We agreed it was “a thing” – at least for us – but never really could figure out the why.  Maybe there’s someone out there (I’m hoping maybe lots of someones) who can help me understand. 

The thing is this…  there is something about being on a plane that makes me far (like FAR FAR FAR FAR) more emotional than I am in “normal” life.  Case in point:  I just finished watching a movie while on a flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta.  I’m 2 hours into a flight that will take 8 hours and 45 minutes.  I just cried big fat tears over a movie.  I wiped tears – at first with a fingertip and then later with the sleeve of my favorite LL Bean black fleece zip-up.  The movie that made me cry big ugly tears was about the life of a high school senior and his decision to “come out” as gay.  This is not a topic that necessarily hits home or drudges up personal feelings.  (Side note – my boys aren’t all of the age where I know this won’t happen to them and want to make sure everyone understands I was not crying because I was envisioning them in this position.  Whatever happens with my boys, they will always be my heart.  And there go the tears again…)

OK – so the thing is, that this is not the first time I have cried and cried over some movie on a plane.  Sometimes I don’t even need a movie or a cue of some kind to get really emotional.  I am not, as really anyone who knows me would likely attest, an overly emotional person.  Sure, I may be quick to get pissed about something, but if you know me in real life, when was the last time you saw me cry.  I could tell you, but I’m not going to in order to protect the innocent.  Let’s just say it hardly ever happens.

And yet, on a plane, I’m a weepy mess.  Why?

Is it because of some kind of weird elevation issue?  Is it possible that thin air makes me emotional?  Day drinking?  (Yep…  I do it because travel sucks and 9 hours is a freaking long time to be surrounded by people you don’t know who are mostly just annoying.)  Is it being homesick?  Goodness knows that accurately describes me nearly EVERY time I’m on a plane – coming or going.  Is it lack of sleep?  Poor nutrition?  Both of these are real.  Both I attempt to control, but come on…  it’s nearly impossible to have a routine when you are away from home. 

On this trip today I will surpass 91,000 Delta medallion miles.  I honestly have no idea what that equates to in real miles, but for anyone chasing Delta status, you will know it’s a lot.  I have a routine.  I have figured out what I need to be comfortable.  I know where I like to sit.  I understand the process.  But I still can’t figure out why I am emotionally vulnerable as soon as the fasten seat belt sign comes on. 

Does this happen to you?  Does it matter where you are going?  Who you are with? 

I can tell you that when I am traveling for fun with my family, I haven’t noticed this.  I didn’t cry heading on a plane to our anniversary trip last year with Bob.  I’ve never once bawled on the way to a Buckeye Cruise.  Spencer and Quinn did not have to deal with a sobbing mom on our spring break Europe trip.  Maybe I’m lonely?

But then on this trip I made friends (shocking, I know…) with the guy behind me AND the flight attendant working our section.  Not like we are going to have dinner together friends, but certainly to the point that I don’t feel like they wouldn’t help me if there were an emergency.  (Side note – there is a weird thing that happens with passengers – unless they are absolute shitheads – on a flight…  it becomes a little informal community where we are all in it together with a goal of making things as comfortable – well maybe tolerable – as possible.  I let the guy beside me use my table for a minute.  The guy in front of the older woman lifts her bag for her.  My neighbor doesn’t mind holding my TRASH while the flight attendant works.  When was the last time you saw someone outside of an airplane offer to hold someone’s trash?  It’s a weird little community, but it does make things more…  well more humane. 

I know I’m rambling.  I’m just curious if this happens to other people.  Have you ever found yourself inexplicitly emotional while traveling?  Lack of oxygen?  Or sleep?  Or abundance of stimuli?  Or alcohol? 

Or is it just me?

(written on 7/28/18 while somewhere southeast of Greenland on the way home after a really hard week in Scotland)

 

Picture of the Week - 8/2/2018

Hi all!

Short email again today.  I'm drowning in work right now!  My To Do list grows every day (backwards) and includes a wide variety of topics from my "real" job and all the other stuff I have going on.  I know I'm risking sounding totally whiny... so I will stop there.  Know that I'm busy - really busy even for me - and if I miss an event, fail to respond to a message, or appear to be completely scattered, please know it's not intentional!

Today is the first day of school for the boys.  They were such good sports about the obligatory first day of school picture.  :)  

It's hit me kind of hard that I have 2 kids in high school.  Like it seems stranger to me that I have TWO kids in high school than it did when Spencer went last year.  I don't understand the psychology behind that...  at all... but it's true.

Spencer hasn't said much about his schedule or going back to school.  He just goes about life and takes care of his business.  

Quinn was far less nervous (or hid it better than I thought he could) about going to high school.  He has friends in all his classes.  He said he didn't have any issues and no problems today.  Well then...  guess he's growing up too!  

Zane is going into 3rd grade.  3rd grade was my least favorite grade of all of my school years.  I have NOT told him that.  His teacher seems adorable.  She's been teaching for 7 years - so she's got experience, but is still young and just starting her family.  Her mom also works at the school, so it's a family affair.  Zane has a few friends from his Horizons (gifted) class in his regular class, so they will all get to leave together, which he's super excited about.  I definitely don't know all the kids in his class, but the ones I do know make me think 3rd grade will not be Zane's least favorite grade!

Beckett's 1st grade class could be interesting.  He's got a BRAND new teacher.  She's so young and sweet and innocent - and probably naive.  She's getting married in November to another BRAND new teacher at the school.  They look like they are 12, but that's probably more an indication that I am getting old than anything else.  I'm super glad Beck has a teacher who is energetic and ready to tackle the world.  I just hope she figures him out before he, literally, tackles her!

In non-school related news...  it's been raining for days here and one of the BIG OLD GIANT trees in our backyard came down this evening.  It took out the corner of our fence, but didn't come near the house.  The majority of it is behind the fence, but it's going to be $$$ to get that thing cleaned up.  Do you think that's why they call it a "rainy day fund"?

Spencer's football team has a scrimmage this weekend.  It'll be the first chance to see the team play since the spring - and he didn't get to play in the spring game because he was out hurt.  I'm excited to see what happens - fingers crossed that he gets some playing time!

Next week I'm in another leadership training - mostly locked in a conference room with my fellow leaders for the week.  I am looking forward to the class, but do NOT have time to "disappear" for a week.  Could mean some late nights...  good times.

Hope everyone has a great week - send some sunshine down here if you have some to spare!