BlondGirl Turns 16!!

Today reality catches up with Blond Girl, her entire life she has thought she was 16 so finally it has happened. I was instructed last night to please wake her up at 7:22 so she could wake up 16, only she would think of that.

I firmly believe we each have what I call a soul age, it is why some people are old at 10 and others never really grow up. Mine is 25 I have felt 25 since I was 15, even now when I see myself (in my minds eye not in the mirror) I see a 25 year old me. Anyway Blond Girl was born 16.

As a small child, when her brothers and sisters were on a swim team and she was too young, I could always find her hanging out with the teenagers. One specific memory was of her running to me to tell me that she and her friends were all going to the movies and could she go? I tried to let her down gently that they hadn't meant her but before I could get my point across along came a group of them asking if she could go with them. I wondered if I was the only one who realized she was only 4!

At her 5th Birthday she invited several teens and some of them actually attended! Even stayed late and took her for ice cream after the party. Honestly! I can just see her at 80 running around in hot pants with blue hair.. You all know what type I am talking about, those crazy ladies who think they are sexpots.. and in a way they are!!

Today she is off wearing her tiara and celebrating the only Birthday I think she will ever truly recognize and yes I am recognizing the fact that it is the 16th of July. Since we tried to induce her on the 5th, then planned a c-section on the 18th and she still managed to be born on the 16th I have to wonder if someone was trying to tell me something!!

Happy Birthday Blond Girl, Mom loves you

Orientation

Word Girl and I were off to orientation at Western this week. What an exhausting experience!!

We traveled down on Amtrak.. let me tell you if you live in the Chicagoland area and need to get to Western this is the most cost effective way to go.. even two people were less than the two tanks of gas it would have cost us to get there. Once there we walked to campus (next time I take the bus!) the walk to campus wasn't bad the walk ACROSS campus was a killer.. Isn't Illinois supposed to be flat?

Many, Many, Many sessions on basic life at Western, School ideals and goals, academics, athletics and everything else they could try and give us some information on. So much info crammed into my brain but they were lovely people and the experience was a lot less painful than it could be.

Thursday evening was a nice social where the kids just had a chance to hang out and have fun.. they sang, they played beanbag toss, they played cards and finally a lot of them headed off to the 2nd floor to play cards throughout the night.. They had a lot of fun. Some of the kids were lucky enough to meet their room mate at orientation.. Word Girl wasnt so lucky but she still had fun.

Friday more sessions, Word Girl met with her adviser, she took a placement test for spanish and found out if she took (and passed) one class she would have enough requirements for her Spanish Minor.. She only has to take 1 math class for her degree and it is an easy one for her.. well she thinks it is. Since we were at the first Orientation she was able to get into all of the classes she requested Most of them are in the same three buildings within extremely easy walking distance of each other (like right next door) so that will be very nice for her too.

She is thinking about swimming there but one class kept getting in the way of practice.. if she managed to move that class another would pop up.. so she is going to have to work with the coach to see if she can do this. Otherwise she is not gonna swim (listen to mom crying from here). She has decided not to do band.. another sad moment for me but since this is about her I will survive. I made sure to get as much information about any and everything so she would have it when she asked (because she will).

I know she is going to have fun at Western and if she tries she will do well.. From what I can tell this school was designed so that a student pretty much had to work at not succeeding.

When Did He Grow to be so Tall?

As I have mentioned many times I have two sons.. Hair Boy and Pita Boy.. they are both great!! Really I promise.. Hair Boy has always been this tall thin young man.. seeing him grow to his height I say 6'8 he says 6'5.. He won't measure to find out... anyway.. Pita Boy while only 20 months younger has always been, well young.

Hair Boy had presence his entire life, he was mature at 3. When at home he has always been the man of the house. I know both of his sisters look at him as more than just a big brother.. but Pita Boy has always been the little brother, while he is fully capable of being more he has relaxed into his place in the family hierarchy.. His only complaint ever was his height..

When he was 10 or so a Doctor said he should be about 5'10.. believe me for years that was his personal mantra.. 5'10, 5'10, 5'10, 5'10,.. he was ofter heard muttering. When Hair Boy graduated middle school he was 5'7 when Pita Boy did so he was 5'3.. over the next two years he inched his way to 5'6 then from January to May his Junior Year he made a nice 5'9.. I figured ok he has had his major growth spurt now an inch or two and he is done..

He did grow that additional inch in HS.. then after he graduated he just kept going.. This last year from 19-20 he has rocketed right up there and is now 6'2 or 6'3.. I knew he had grown, I knew he was taller but it never sank in until Word Girl's graduation when I took these pics..


the gang.. Hair Boy on the left and Pita Boy on the right

and then this one.. where they are together.. they are so close in height it just about blew my mind..















As I said in the beginning when did he grow to be so tall.. my boys they do make me proud

Graduation Day

So she did it!! Word Girl Crossed the stage. no take backs.. 3 down 1 to go.. whew..

I love their High School, graduations are great.. in and out in an hour.. oh pictures with the buds take a little time but the actual ceremony an hour.. and they have contests every year to see who can make it shorter. It was actually a cute ceremony the young lady who gave one of the student speeches was hysterical, she wrote a light hearted speech that kept everyone giggling. It was an incredibly hot day and I must admit I was worried about being miserable in the field house fortunately for all of us they got brand new air conditioner..


After we suffered through the gym pictures (now that was hot) and believe me I had to make her meander around take some pics with her friends she wanted to leave.. I kept saying you will want them later, she got a few so she was happy. Then we went to a nice park and took some family pics.. As the most recent pic I had of the four of them was like 4 years ago it was nice to have this. They grumbled and moaned but it seems that all of them now have these pics as their facebook pics.. I love it when I am right.

The best part of the day was our graduation lunch.. my girl is a goof, she could have gone anywhere but she wanted Wendy's they have frostys.. We all had a good laugh at that but you know what? There was no crowds, no hassle and plenty of stretch out room.. oh yeah and the Frostys were great!!

One Last Day

While Sunday is Graduation with all the pomp and circumstance.. tomorrow is Word Girl's last day of High School. How did that happen?

My Word Girl has been such a joy to me, her sense of self is a light shining through. Her sense of justice shines through a beacon to those whoneed a safe haven. She isn't perfect but she is a defender of those who can not defend herself. She will stand by those who need a friend.. she will fight for those who can not fight for themselves...

Sometimes she forgets that she is special. I don't think she will ever know what a true Gift from God she has been to me. My girl can see through so much of the malarkey.. she sees what is not what we want it to be. Sometimes the mirror she holds up is a hard one to look into because we have to accept that we are failing ourselves.. but to know that my child has this gift the knowledge that there is good and there is bad, there is left and there is right, there is right and there is wrong, there is black and there is white.. There are enough people in this world who live in the gray areas.. we need those who demand that fair exists.. that all receive the respect and care of those around them..

My Word Girl is off to study biology, she dreams of working with whales, or on the Great Barrier Reef (not sure how she is gonna incorporate the two). I know with her sense of compassion her sense of right and wrong she will be an advocate for these creatures that can not stand for themselves..

As she gets ready for college already I am missing parts of her.. of course once she leaves I will occasionally have the last word.. I wonder what that is like?

Revenge is Sweet if not a bit annoying

Yesterday my mom sent Word Girl her "jar money". This was a fun thing my mom started when Hair Boy was younger. She would save all of her change from her estate sales and then give him half and my sister half whenever he came to visit. He could spend it all, take home whatever was left or give the extra to her and she would match it in a savings account. Over the years the parameters had changed. It stopped being for just the grandchild visiting but became divided up between all the grandkids every summer, then finally it was she just deposited that money in their accounts and they would receive it upon graduation from HS.

Well Word Girl needed a few things for graduation and she argued, since she had already turned 18 could grandma send it now. They discussed it and grandma agreed. Yesterday the money came and off Word Girl and I went to Best Buy.. to purchase a laptop and a new camera.

Since we do not have a car and her friends were working we took a cab.. at her expense of course. I basically took myself and my id.. We arrived and everything was fine. She purchased a beautiful computer just a bit more expensive than her original idea but that was ok. Then we were off to the cameras.. she leans towards Canons and since I have never used a Canon I didn't love I tend to agree. Well Canon had this wonderful orange camera (orange is her favorite color) right at the edge of her price range. Of course she wanted to purchase it... Now here comes the problem. Because this was an unusual purchase the fraud dept at her bank froze her account and she could not buy the camera.. We called the bank (did I mention we also both left our cell phones at home?) from the store phone. They were gracious enough to allow us to use it. I was told the problem and put on hold for the fraud dept, initially I was told it would be 5-7 minutes.

At about 15 minutes she started begging me to hang up... she gets embarrassed easily and she was sure everyone was starting to stare. I managed to drag it out for another 10 but finally I gave in to her pleas and hung up. BAD CHOICE.. I called the cab and we waited for our pick up... OOOPS.. did I mention they froze her account and I had run out without my wallet? So now we are stranded at Best Buy and the girl was too embarrassed to go back in and use their phone so we walked to WalMart.. well they let us use the phone but only local area code land lines.. that meant we could not get a hold of anyone. I mean who remembers phone numbers anymore? Especially home ones... Finally we got through to a friend and he came and picked us up.

While she was all disgruntled about what the bank did and kept calling it stupid even though I explained why they did it as soon as we got in the car and I told the entire story our friend said.. oh exactly what thieves would go for.. so she shut up about that. I am proud to say I have only mentioned half a dozen times that had she let me stay on the phone, she would have had her camera and we would have had a ride home. I love being right.. even if it is an inconvenience

Wind Down to Graduation

Time is growing short and Word Girl is gearing up for graduation. It is hard to believe that this child of mine will be graduating from High School in three weeks. Yes three weeks. May 23, 2010. Sometimes I just feel old.

But all the exciting things are starting to happen, awards banquets, prom, senior breakfast and of course the all important graduation party. Word Girl will be having an afternoon party over labor day weekend. Since we don't have a lot of room we will be having the party at a local park. I am just hoping for a cool weekend. Here in the Chicago land area Memorial Day can be cool, muggy, hot, rainy... we never know.

Word Girl is the original I can do it all by myself girl. Coming as she did after two older brothers and yet being very close in age, the three of them are barely 3 years apart.. 20 months each, she tended to tomboyish behaviour. While we did have the request tea parties and such it was just as likely that she could be found climbing on the top of the RV (at 2) with her older brothers.

My favorite story about Word Girl is when she was learning to ride a bike. She was just three and she wanted those training wheels off. Both of her brothers could ride without so she should be able to as well. I agreed to let her try and took of the training wheels. All prepared to hold the bike and run behind her as I did for her brothers but no.. she looked up at me all earnest blue eyes (she claims they are green) and said "no mommy I can do it all by myself". Sure enough she learned. That was on Friday, on Saturday we all rode our bikes into town, I had her sister sitting in the baby seat (so believe me I was glad she was riding on her own since before that I had Blond Girl in the baby snugly and Word Girl in the child seat.. it was work), and the three of them rode along side me. It was a couple of miles. We went to a pool party and had a blast I was soooo proud. The problem came on the way home..This poor baby was so exhausted there was no way she was going to be able to ride her bike home. We had to have a friend throw our bikes in the back of the truck and drive us home. Where I carried this poor exhausted child up the stairs and put her to bed.

It was a long day but she definitely did it all by herself. I am going to miss that determined little girl, I already do.


PS.. just in case there was any doubt she's the crazy one on the left Hair Boy is the crazy one on the right.. Since he was her first influence I decided to include him in this blog.