Life Goes On



Peyton and Zach

 We lost Mom on a Wednesday, and on Friday I found myself at Zach's football banquet.  I was rather distracted that night, still reeling from the pain of seeing my mother leave and from the frustration of not feeling God's presence in the whole ordeal.   Most families would have been at a visitation in that time frame, but I was glad that ours would be later. The banquet held a momentous occasion for Zach - the receipt of his varsity letter.  I was so impressed that the school supplied the letter, the bar for his sleeve, the pin for this year, and the numbers for his graduation year.  They did not supply the jacket - ouch!  However, I know from this past year that the football team orders the jackets together to get a discount,  I will be saving my pennies - actually more, in hopes that we can afford to buy the jacket in the fall.  Some of the boys wore their jackets as part of a chorus concert piece this past fall, and they look like they stepped out of the fifties...very American, and nostalgic.



Is he going to the dance, or will he be a bouncer?  How 'bout that tie?  Zach chose the shirt, and I chose the tie which I thought had a bit of rock 'n' roll flair.



One day later we found ourselves sneaking into Zach's first winter ball. I love the way his school handles dances.  They don't encourage dates, in fact, they discourage them.  Parents are always invited, though often discouraged by their kids. Zach went out to dinner with a friend and then went to the dance.  Andy and I did not visit the dance with the intention of sneaking around behind Zach's back.  However, I am convinced that he never saw us and still doesn't realize we were there even though I have mentioned some things specific to the dance such as the fact that Justin Bieber (Zach is not a fan) was played at the dance.

One week later Julia participated in a gymnastics meet.  Considering that she missed a week and a half (she practices twice a week) of practice prior to the meet, she did quite well.  She made it to the last practice before the meet and learned a new beam routine which she did very well.  At level two, the meets are more about giving the girls experience with being judged. They all receive the same trophy and a t-shirt.  All the ribbons are red or blue depending on the scores. I will never figure out the scoring.  Julia had a solid score and a solid routine on the floor.  One of Julia's teammates did what appeared to be a fairly solid floor routine and scored really low. 

God-willing, Julia will continue to pursue gymnastics as it seems to be something that has moved beyond just fun.  She wants the challenge of learning new things.  Julia told Andy after this competition that the girls on one of the other teams did a flip on the beam, and she wants to do that too.  Julia was recently embarrassed by her coaches when they made over her for being the first to manage a handstand on the beam.

Unfortunately, we took the camera without the memory card, so we have no pictures. 

Julia's scores:
vault 9.0
bars 8.4  (usually Julia's best event, but she botched her dismount)
beam 8.9
floor 9.15

We followed Julia's meet with a girl's night out for Tessa who turns 30 tomorrow.  We really wanted to rally around her as her birthday comes so close on the heels of losing Mom and as it is a big one.  After our girl's night out, we met at my parents' house where I held on to my record of being unable to beat anyone at Tetris on the Wii.  The kids and Tiffany stayed the night there. 

Andy and I slipped away to sleep in our own bed and to make it back to church as it had been a few weeks for me.  During our church service I was struck by the fact that the last time I had communion was with my mom, and it was the last time she had it.  Someone from church came to the hospital to deliver it to her, and she almost turned them away.  Tiffany and I shared that moment with her.

It is Monday now, and I think that I will not work a full week in January.  I am still off work from my second job and should return next week, but today I am home from school as well.  Savannah has fought a fever off and on since Thursday.  I do not think she will be able to attend school tomorrow either as her temperature is rising as the day continues.  Normally, Andy would work from home so that I can be at work, especially after I missed a whole week this month already, but he has missed quite a bit too and is working through some transition stuff.  My other back up would have been Mom.  If she were here and well, Savannah would be there today.  I am sure of it.  Dad is not exactly nurturing, so Savannah stays with me now. This is especially hard on Savannah as she is already overwhelmed with make-up work and projects.

I do not want to leave Wyatt out of this post as he has just been too cute lately.  He comes to me throughout the day at random times and gives me hugs and kisses.  He also counts them saying things like, "this is the fourth kiss and hug today."