Monthly Archives: July 2010

They grow up fast

I remember way back when I was pregnant for the first time, lots of people would look at my growing belly and tell me to cherish every moment because she won’t stay little forever. Then when I laid my eyes on her, and held her in my arms, I knew she was going to do big things. The responsibility rushes at you with all the love and fears. I remember looking at that sweet little pink face, and thinking I had forever.

As it turns out, they DO grow up way too fast. Today I drove my daughter to the high school and dropped her off for freshman orientation. My baby girl! Where did the time go? Where are the carefree days of butterfly kisses and sun dresses, the Little Mermaid, and Barbies? I don’t think I took the time to cherish them then, in the midst of it all, but I remember them now. When she is 14 and starting high school. When she walked away from the car to meet up with her friends, and the little girl that she used to be flashed before my eyes.

Now she’s growing up and maturing daily. DAILY! The woman that she is becoming is amazing to me. She finds strength in God, happiness in dance, and joy in her friends. I’m enjoying this time of her life too. It just makes me emotional, and she told me I couldn’t be emotional. So I waited until she walked away from the car, and then I cried. For the child that she once was, the young woman that she is, and the woman that she will be.

So now I give the same advice to new moms, knowing that internally they are rolling their eyes! Cherish them, for they grow up way too fast.

What a week!

Last week was a star studded, crazy, off the map, busy one! Monday morning we made the drive over to Kings Island, knowing that rain was in the forecast and extreme heat. That must have worked in our favor because we were able to pretty much walk onto all the rides, with very little waiting in lines. This was the first year for Matthew to ride the big coasters, and we kind of thought he would take some coaxing to get on one and then hate them. Boy were we WRONG!! The boy is a roller coaster fanatic and wore us out! I felt like the Beast was going to beat us to death, and he loved it. It seemed like Vortex was going to throw us off of the rails, and he screamed with delight.  By 2 0’clock I was done. DONE. But daddy said we could stay until the fireworks…

So we rode and rode, and I sat a few out, and we rode some more. We were on our way to do our last rides of Vortex and the Beast for the night and we saw lightening. Then we heard they were closing the rides due to the lightening. The sky started to get black, but it was 8:30, so we couldn’t tell if it was rain or not. The kids were all disappointed, but we explained to them what an awesome day we had had, ridden everything multiple times, and had not had to wait to do all of it. They were ok after that discussion, and we rode one more carnival type ride, then headed for the car. I had blisters on the balls of both feet, and it started raining on us. It was a good day!

Tuesday night we went to the fair and basically ate our way through it. I won’t go into details because it makes me green around the gills, but I will tell you that the watermelon whip was delightful! We also came home with 6 goldfish, and they are all still kicking.

Wednesday was a work day, and I had to leave early because Brooke and her friend were home with the dogs and one of them is pregnant. Apparently they gave her a treat and she started choking, so they called me in a panic that the dog was throwing up and would not come out from under the bed. I rushed home and discovered the dog was freaking out because the girls were freaking out. Once we figured out she was not choking, nor in labor, we had a girls night out to dinner at a little Mexican place I had never been to. It was so good that Brooke and I went there again for lunch on Saturday :)

Thursday Brooke was one of the Start girls for the USAC race at O’reilly Raceway Park. She left on the bus with dance team at 2:00pm and we went out there a little while later. It was still hot, and the girls had to wear green wigs, so I felt really sorry for them. They did a wonderful job starting the race, and then we watched some great racing. I don’t want to mention that my mother in law passed out on me because she will kill me, but I will tell you that she is fine.

Friday was our wedding anniversary. 16 years! That makes me feel old. Brian never updates his status on facebook, so when he posted a message to me about our anniversary, it saved him from the beating he was going to get for not getting me a card. It was sweet, and I love him. We of course spent the evening at the race track. I would like to say that we had a great night, but we had some crazy things, bad calls, and were sent to the tail in the heat and feature. I must be PMSing because an alter ego came over me and I stood on the bleachers and screamed my opinion of that. Yeah, not proud of that, but still pretty angry about the calls. Zach did great though, he raced his way back up to third.

Saturday Brian took the boys to ORP for the Nationwide race. It was still hotttt! Apparently Matthew got overheated and asked to go home right before the race started, then threw up in his mouth. He held it there until they walked down from the bleachers and got to a trash can. That happened a few times, then he felt better. Better enough that when they came home, he was carrying a quarter pounder to eat. They had fun and it didn’t rain on them, but they were all really tired.

All this leads me to Sunday, and Zach’s 12th birthday. He’s such a funny kid, or young man now. When I asked what he wanted for his birthday, he showed me a list he had made on his phone. I looked at it and asked if I could just get him a Gander Mountain gift card.  He really wanted a pair of boots, so we went and he picked out a pair of boots. We have a tradition that they can pick what restaraunt they want to eat at for their birthday, and he chose Stone Creek. We almost had the place to ourselves, which is good because Matthew was wild. The food was good, and they gave Zach a free brownie sundae that he shared with Brooke and Matthew. Then we went home and had his DQ ice cream cake.

It was crazy busy, but it was filled with family, and my family is wonderful. I am so blessed and thankful.