Didn't realize it had been so long

I didn't realize I had been away from the blog all week!  We had a busy week, but it was a nice and rather relaxing week.  I spent the early part of the last week finishing spring cleaning the living room.  Andrew's parents arrived Tuesday afternoon and we drove to Cincinnati for a belated Father's Day dinner as our gift to his father.  It was FABULOUS!  His father was very pleased and everyone had a great time...including our server, I'm sure, because the bill was unbelievable and she earned half a day's sub pay just with our tip!  Anyway, Andrew and his parents took the kids to the Air Force Museum on Wednesday while I was attending a business meeting (I'm doing a little "free lance accounting" to help out a life long friend who is attempting to set up his own business).  The entire purpose of the my in-laws being here was to see Robert's ball game Wednesday evening, but a MASSIVE storm came through it and killed those plans.  Thursday we had breakfast with Andrew's parents before they left town, and then I began the painting project in our upstairs bathroom.  Per usual for us, day three of this project has arrived and we are about 1/2 way through the chaos.  Then when we are done, we can start the much larger chaos of Andrew painting the entire bathroom while I paint the dining room.  Craziness!  Robert's game was cancelled again last night and we decided instead to hang out with some friends.  While it's been crazy, it's still been a very nice week and I'm so grateful for the summer beginning to slow down from a scheduling standpoint!

Unplanned time

Today there is absolutely nothing on our calendar.  This does not mean that we have nothing to do, it simply means that no one has to be anywhere at any specific time...and I love it!  I spent the end of last week spring cleaning the living room, and I've got other rooms picked up as well.  I've even been working on getting things stored back into the attic and Andrew is doing a lot of work outside.  He managed to run a few errands this morning, and even though I slept until 10:00 this morning (AWESOME!) I feel as though we are having an incredibly productive day.  His parents arrive tomorrow and we have tons of ball games this week, but it will be so nice to have today without a schedule...it's what I love most about summer!

Disappointed

I'll be honest, I'm disappointed in the way this baseball season has gone.  Robert is not playing much, but that I expected.  While he is not a bad player, he is far from the best player on the team, and of course as a teenager who does not have a passion for the game, he chooses not to work at it.  Don't get me wrong, he ENJOYS the game and has fun, but he does not have a passion for the game.  That's fine.  I get that.  The part I am most disappointed in is how my husband has been treated by the head coach, a man that considered Andrew his best friend.  This man has shown no respect for my husband of his opinion, and it's gotten worse as the season has gone along.  I know it stems in part from a difference in coaching philosophy.  My husband feels that even though this is a select team, it should still be about developing the boys as players and that they should not be called out individually in front of the rest of the team for their errors.  He feels they should be motivated and built up while being given constructive criticism.  I've seen my husband pull players aside and talk to them individually between innings when a mistake was made as an effort to teach without embarrassing.  I suspect that because of my husband's enthusiasm for the positive (which is truly part of his nature) this man sees my husband as "soft" and not committed to winning.  This man's body language towards my husband offends me, especially since this is a man I considered a friend.  Sadly, at this point my husband just wants this season to end, and frankly so do I.  We would never quit because that is not the right thing to do (although I'm fairly certain this man wouldn't care if we did since Robert isn't playing much and he doesn't seem to respect anything Andrew says), but we are both looking forward to the end in two weeks.  Next year if Robert wants to continue playing we are back to rec ball...it's a better fit for our family, and Andrew can be the head coach again if he wants.

Sleeping in? Laid back relaxing summer?

While we've been out of school almost two weeks (and for Andrew and Robert, three), there has been no sleeping in during the week (we've been able to a little on the weekend) and not really so much laid back or carefree time, even on the weekends.  Sleeping in?  Nope.  Yesterday and today were the first week days where I've actually been able to sleep in until our "normal" school wake up time...the other week days I've had to be up even earlier than a school day!  I feel like we've done very little, if anything at all, fun and relaxing with the kids.  Most of that is the fact that last week Andrew and Thomas were at scout camp and this week Catherine is at basketball camp and Andrew is taking a grad class that requires driving over an hour each way every day this week.  In the meantime on the home front, our printer quit working and our house has been attacked by aunts...not at all how I pictured spending my summer days!  Next week should be more laid back though, and Andrew's parents are coming to visit...it will be very nice to see them!

Perfect Attendance

We are so proud of Catherine.  She had perfect attendance for this school year!  Unfortunately, because she received a flu shot one morning and arrived to school less than ten minutes after it began and with a doctor's note she was not recognized by the school as having perfect attendance.  Apparently they would have preferred that I sign her out 15 minutes prior to her appointment, drive to the appointment, get the shot, and drive her back to school...all of which would have taken at least 30 minutes.  Yep, if I had done that, she would not have been counted as missing any school, but missing the part of the day when they are choosing their lunch for the day counts against her.  SO frustrating!

Anyway, she also had a fabulous report card, and was the only one of our three to do so for the fourth quarter.  Combined with her perfect attendance, Andrew and I have decided to do something special for her.  I'm having some difficulty coming up with what exactly that will be, but since she's at basketball camp this week I have some time to come up with something.

She really and truly is doing absolutely great in so many areas right now.  For her basketball camp, she is getting her clothes out the night before so she is ready quicker in the morning, she is packing her lunch, and she is putting herself to bed at a reasonable time, all without being told do so!  She is just amazing us right now with her maturity, and I am just so very proud of her every day!

It was harder than I thought it would be

This morning, bright and early, we were all up and at 'em to drive Catherine to basketball camp.  It's only about a 25 minute drive and it's only a day camp, but I almost cried when I left her.  There she was, a little girl in a big gym.  She is SO shy and quiet around strangers...almost painfully so.  It was so hard to leave her there.  I'm concerned that no one will reach out to her, and I'm afraid she is too shy to reach out to anyone else.  I suddenly began to wonder if this was all such a good idea.  She's very excited though, and I kept asking her if it was okay if I left (I wasn't allowed to hug her in front of everyone).  I just want her to have fun and be okay!  I think the fact that I was on a college campus (and it's the one my husband and three cousins attended) added to my emotions.  Suddenly, a vision of dropping her off at college FOR REAL was in my head, and it was way too vivid...and way too soon!

An almost magical evening

Saturday Robert had another baseball game.  The nice thing about this one was that it was fairly close to my hometown, so my mother, grandmother, and sister attended the game.  My mother had mentioned that perhaps the kids could stay over with her and Dad after the game.  To be honest, I was pretty convinced that Dad wasn't going to be up for it, so I had never mentioned anything to the kids.  On Friday when Mom called she mentioned that Dad wasn't up for it (surprise!) but that my grandmother had volunteered to keep them over night (not the same one she brought to the game.  This grandmother is my amazing 82-year-old grandmother.  My mother was hesitant, but I thought it was a fabulous idea!  My kids love being at her house, and I know that she loves having them.  She is the most able-bodied and competent 82-year-old I've ever known, and it's not exactly like my kids are so little that they require constant supervision.  We dropped the kids off after Robert's game, and it was already nearly 7:00 by the time we arrived.  She had planned a dinner of their favorites, hot dogs, baked beans, macaroni & cheese, chips, and of course BOTH cookies and ice cream for dessert!

In the meantime, we went back home and decided to venture to our favorite steak place for dinner.  It was such an incredible evening.  We weren't constantly watching the time because either we'd promised a sitter we'd be home by a certain time or we had left the three together and know that after two hours Thomas can begin to unravel.  We had the entire evening to do whatever!  As we were driving home, we drove through a neighboring town on the river.  They were having some sort of festival, and as we came into town, their were fireworks being set off.  We parked and walked about a block and were able to watch the entire show.  We then purchased a bottle of wine, and we even got to sleep in Sunday morning!

We were so grateful to my grandmother for helping us out.  She had a blast and so did the kids!  She even mentioned since it had gone so well that we could do it again sometime.  I have such great memories of spending the night with her and Grandpa from when I was a kid and I'm just so grateful that my kids were able to spend that time with her.  She is absolutely amazing!