We had a nice weekend. Nothing really special happened, other than my taking hubby to Subway for surprise Father's Day lunch yesterday. That's really the way we like it - no excitement!!!
Today is Miss Cayley's 8th birthday - I hope she had a really special day. It just doesn't seem possible she's eight already........it seems like such a short time since we were gathered at the hospital in Warrensburg waiting for her arrival. She made us wait all evening before her arrival just before 10 pm. She was a Daddy's girl from her first breath. It's been fun watching her grow up - she's pretty shy, but she's starting to come out of her shell.....especially now that she's started competitive dancing. Her recital is next Monday night.
It's hard for my brain to accept the fact that the two grandsons will be 15 at the end of summer and can get their driving permits........where did those two ornery little boys go!! It seems like just last year we would go pick them up and bring them home with us for a weekend of fishing and shooting the BB gun. We have such great photos of those adventures!! Six summers ago, when I'd just had my knee replacement surgery, the two of them ran behind me at the pond carrying my chair so I didn't have to stand up to fish!
I was so fortunate to be allowed in the delivery room for Cayley's, Thomas', and Jocelyn's births (Collin wasn't part of our family until he was four, but it seems like we've always had him). Such special moments, to see them enter this world and let out that first cry.
Of course, it doesn't seem like my own kids should be in their 30's........it wasn't that long ago I was sitting in the rocking chair with all three of them in my lap! We've gone through more moves together than any of us want to count. We've done softball, baseball, soccer, swim lessons, gymnastics, basketball, track, volleyball, tennis, band, vocal music, musical plays, Key Club (the high school branch of the Kiwanis Club), National Honor Society, and college.......and that just covers the highlights!!
We've survived car accidents (one memorable one when son and older daughter sideswiped each other on a narrow gravel road!), broken hearts, one broken arm, too many stitches to count, two different bouts of mono, the oldest one bringing chickenpox home to the other two, and one unfortunate incident at Hardee's that left a scar that's still visible today.
Let me state this for anyone who doesn't know: I'm an only child. I did not have this kind of chaos in my life when I was growing up. Occasionally when the kids were young, I felt like Linda Blair in "The Exorcist" - my head was spinning 'round and 'round!! Many's the time I got onto them for fighting, telling them it wasn't normal for families to fight like that - they would come right back informing me that it WAS normal.....I could only answer that it hadn't been "normal" at my house!! I feel very fortunate that I held onto my sanity until they were all grown and settled into their own lives.
Now I sit back and chuckle as the parents of those two 14-year-olds share parenting frustrations with me. It does my heart good when I hear them say, "Mom, I don't know how you did it". I guess I should let them in on the secret.......I don't know how I did it either!!
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