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August 13, 2006

What we did on summer vacation...part d00

Since we were able to open the windows yesterday and the kids have new jeans and shoes, it must be time to wrap up our summer vacation. All I can say is. THANK GOD. I'm exhausted.

In July Jake went to Fredcamp. This was his second year going so, being a veteran, he seemed to have an even better time than last year. I thought we'd have some trouble with him not wanting to leave his girlfriend, but that wasn't the case at all...really. Fred Camp is a camp where teens from rising highschool freshmen on up get together in fellowship and spend the week doing repairs to homes for poor, elderly or sick families in the area. I went out to the camp 3 times this summer. There's just something about teens doing GOOD things that chokes a girl up, much in the same way as watching your 6 year old sing a solo at the school play...you know that chokey-uppy feeling, right? I know that Jake's been a real pain in the butt and the last year has been such an insane growing experience for the entire family. But I'm still so proud of him and his desire to do well. You stick 80 teenagers in a room and watch em singing inspirational hippy songs and just try to keep a hard heart...I dare ya.

Two weeks after Jake got home from camp it was time to take Trevor and Kendall down to beautiful Goochland Va. (That's really the name of the town...I'm not even kidding) They spent the week at Westview on the James. Their camp is more fun, bible study stuff and crafts and singing and blahblahblah. They've been before too so there was no homesickness and as expected, we only got a letter from Kendall. Trev made some lame excuse about not being able to find a pen. They had a great time though and Jake got to be the semi-only child since Tess doesn't seem to demand much in the way of "a ride to the mall" etc.

Tess is standing and scooting along and says words that we interpret as "duuuuuude" and "crap". I'm sure that's not what she's really saying, but parents need to have fun somehow, right? She's ten months old now and until this past week had never had a doctor-worthy illness. She's got croup now and it's been heartbreaking for us because we hate to watch her coughing and fighting for breath. She handles it way better than we do. The steroids the docs gave her seem to work one day and then not the next. I'm sure she'll be fine, but I don't like that she sounds like darth baby. Dan's been so good this whole time. I think we'd started to take for granted just how easy our baby is, but this week he got the crash course in Sick Kid 101. He's still here...he gets an A++

Less than 5 days after coming back from camp, Kendall took off to Puerto Rico to visit Stacy and her family. We'd talked about visiting since they moved and this year we sent our proxy. As I said before, Kendall cried at the airport when she had to leave. It's a big deal, sending your 10 year old to another land all alone. But she got there and they called all excited. Stacy was just as happy as the kids were and my baby girl just seemed to grow up so much. They picked avacados and bananas and she went to like 4 different beautiful beaches searching for sea glass and shells. Kendall called everyday and only once did she get homesick. I was a mess without her. I just kept telling her that once her little butt got home, she'd never be allowed to leave me again. Stacy developed her film before she left and sent Kendall home with tons of pictures of the kids hugging and just loving each other. It was like they were never apart. I wasn't surprised to hear that they all had a huge cry-fest at the airport when it hit the kids that they wouldn't likely see each other for a long time. As parents we try to do so much to make our kids happy, but losing a friend to distance is just inevitable and a really hard pill to swallow. I was reminded of how painful it was to see them move away. The day after Kendall got back, as I looked through her pictures, I cried all over again, the same throat-aching cry that I cried when they moved away.

I've had more interviews and more jobs-not-gained than I care to mention. Maybe the interviewers could look into my soul and see that I just don't want to leave my family? I don't know what my problem is, but I have finally come to the conclusion that it's time to just suck it up, babysit kids from home and try really hard to stay sane. I love the idea of staying home, but the budget thing is hard to get used to. I used to be able to just buy things as I want them. Now we don't eat out, we don't buy things that we don't need and we pay attention to lights left on, long showers and other things that might make us even more strapped than we already are. For now these are small sacrifices, but things are really tight. I'm a little concerned about how Christmas is going to turn out and stuff like that...but eh, it's minor...we'll figure it out. We always do.

So Autumn is coming and there are some bumpy times ahead for a lot of our friends...I know that we'll all just stick close and take care of each other and because of that, we'll have happiness and good stuff to hang on to.

/generalfoodsinternationalcoffeesappycommercial

Posted by krystal at August 13, 2006 9:43 AM

Comments

great! now you've got me crying. :)

i hadn't even thought of how i'm going to pay for christmas! fuckidy fuck. how bouts we do that crafty thing you talked about. and it'll keep the kids you babysit entertaineded.

im just excited supper club and book club are free (well, cheap at least). we should have a "poor mommies club". we'll clip coupons and make gifts outta old tin cans and empty toilet paper rolls.

Posted by: manda at August 13, 2006 6:08 PM

It will all get better, I promise.

If not, dont come yellin' at me, I was just bein supportive ;)

(ha, im just kidding, come yell at me all you want. I can take it *flex*)

Posted by: Tricia at August 14, 2006 1:52 PM