THE KID WHO TURNED 11

June 26…the day God brought a sweet little boy in my life! Oh how I love him! He's so loving…and sweet….and funny…and smart….and helpful…and a heck of a baseball player!

My work is soooo flexible but there are a few things that I don't have any control over as far as scheduling and unfortunately one of the events I couldn't control NOR get out of was scheduled on Colson's birthday. I suffered from a lot of mom guilt from the moment I knew of the conflict until the morning of his birthday. I had talked it up to him about a week prior telling him that we would celebrate with 2 of his friends the day before. They could spend the night on Tuesday night, they could play Wednesday, we could go out for lunch, they could sing to him, etc. And then Thursday, on his birthday he could spend the day at his grandma's. He was cool with that.

He had Blake and Hagen spend the night on Tuesday, they played their hearts out and chose Mama Juanita's for lunch where they put the whipped cream on your face and sing to you…every 11 year olds dream.

 We even got sno cones before meeting their moms at the ball park to end our fun time.

The next day, his birthday, I woke him up…sang to him…gave him lots of kisses and dropped him off at Wes' mom where he was absolutely fine! After I finished the first major event of the day, I called him about 3 PM. Halfway through the call something changed and I knew I should get off the phone or it was going to get worse. He got really sad and quiet. I continued on to the next part of my event which was picking people up at the airport and going to dinner. I texted Wes around 6 PM and reminded him to go see Colson for his birthday. (Colson was scheduled to spend the night there because my event ended late that night and started early the next day). On my way home Wes texted me and said he ended up having to go get Colson because he was sobbing uncontrollably because he missed me. My heart broke in 9,000 pieces. I came in the back door and jumped up from the couch ran to me and jumped in my arms squeezing me as tight as he could. I was so sad! I layer with him for about 30 minutes on the couch just talking about his day. He was all better. He just needed his momma. Wow!

NOT EXACTLY HOW WE PLANNED THE WEEK WITHOUT KIDS

This summer the week that Calli was at camp was the same week that my sister was taking Colson with her for most of the week. I had all kinds of high hopes to do some fun things by myself, with friends and with Wes but that all changed before I even dropped Calli off at camp. It was Father's Day. I had to take Calli to camp. I left Wes at home because someone was going to bring Colson home later that day from camp. I told him this would be the best Father's Day ever because he could take a nap all by himself and not be disturbed. NOTE: He loves to take naps on Sundays. Instead he decided he would fix something on the four wheeler which should have taken about 5 minutes. 

He called me somewhat panicked saying he had hurt his finger really bad but wouldn't look at it to know how bad. He needed to know where to go for someone to look at it….mainly questioning for insurance purposes. He went to the urgent care by our house and told the Dr, "I may take this towel off and my finger may fall to the floor or I may take it off, you put a band aid on it and I walk out. I have no idea". Well the Doc unwrapped it, had to sew it up and recommended he go to a surgeon the next day. 

So on Monday we had an appointment with the surgeon who couldn't really tell from the outside what exactly needed to be fixed but said he had to get in there if nothing else to clean it. Once he was in there cleaning it, if anything needed repaired he would do that. 

So Tuesday, he headed in for surgery. 2 hours later the Dr came out and explained that it was much worse than he anticipated, he wish he had known the day it happened because he would have done surgery immediately and that he basically amputated the tip of his finger. He put it all back together but he now has pin stuck in it to hold it all together and he can't bend it. The pin comes out in 8 weeks (4 more weeks from when I'm writing this) and then he'll start finger therapy….you can't help but laugh when you think of that concept, finger therapy. 

The sweet lady from our church made this delicious and oh so cute cake! 

Needless to say, my really fun week turned into me playing nurse to my husband who I know thought he was just going to rot in his bead. He was so miserable! His biggest concern and point of depression was that he couldn't play bass guitar at church. I made him go to church that next Sunday…literally told him he had to go. The Worship Team prayed over him and God lifted his spirits. And not only that, he was back playing bass within 2 weeks! He's a trooper.

Here it was a week after surgery. Don't you love the Lee Press On Nail?

KICKIN OFF SUMMER

So one of the first activities of summer each year is camp. This year Colson went to camp. Oh wait….HE SPENT THE NIGHT AT CAMP! I was so proud! Of course he had his buddy Harrison with him but in the past that hasn't worked. He acted like it was no big deal but I know inside it was! 

Calli and Carson went to Camp Cho Yeh this year instead of Pine Cove. And while they liked it better than Pine Cove, they have decided to not do it again next year. I'm telling you it's the stupid phones. They said the first 2 days was the hardest at camp. I'm not stupid…it's because they were having withdrawals from their phones.

Summertime at our house means Colson doesn't sleep in his bed for 3 months and Calli becomes a vampire staying up most of the night and sleeping until Noon. I remember when I used to do that and my mom would get so mad that I would sleep the day away…..NOW I KNOW HOW SHE FELT! One more thing I need to tell my mom sorry for :)

HIGH SCHOOL CHEER…IT HAS BEGUN

School ended on Friday and on Monday the girls were in High School cheer camp at Calli's second home, Woodlands Elite. At the show off on Wednesday they performed the cheers and dance that they had learned that week and their Freshman squad is going to be really good. I was really surprised at how good their jumps were as a team. 

Calli's stunt group (Kyndall, Carson, Brooke and her got best stunt group of the whole clinic)

And Kyndall and Calli got All American-the only 2 from their squad. 

Brooke Franklin and Calli

Carson and Calli

The team got a couple of good awards too but I took so long to blog about this that Calli and I have forgotten what they were. Oh well.

We sure do miss our old Jr. High cheer coach! I think she misses these girls too! We love you Coach Luke!

END OF SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

What a great year Colson had in 4th grade. I could have done without the Math and Science teacher and I hope he learned enough so I'm not cursing her name next year if Colson is behind. But the good news is that they'll all be behind if he's behind because Math is his strength so I know he's ahead of some of the others in this area. Colson actually liked her as a teacher which is good (I guess). She was a first year teacher and I think just tried to do too much and didn't have her organization rhythm down. And she really liked Science, which is why I'm worried math may have been neglected. Oh how we missed Calli's all time favorite teacher that she had in 4th grade for Math, Mrs. Novak….she got transferred (against her will). 

They had a fun school wide water day the last week of school where they had games and water slides and all kinds of cool stuff. Wes happened to be Watch Dog that day so he got put to work AND threatened to ground Colson all summer if he got wet with the water balloons or water guns. I don't think Colson really believed him because  he and his friends tried really hard but Wes managed to stay dry. 

The principle sat on the roof of the school under her umbrella and threw confetti eggs at people walking by. She cracks me up. Mrs. Musick was new this year and drastically lifted the morale of the teachers around there and made it a really fun campus. We had a nut job for a principle last year who replaced Mrs. Anderson who had retired the year before after way too many years to remember. 

Colson ended with all A's for the year! When they announced that at the awards ceremony I thought "oh no, that's a mistake". But they only count your final year averages. And he had semester A's in all subjects both semesters which gave him all A's…I'll take it! Hudson and Cam got to come with Grammy and of course she took them out to Chiller Bee after awards. 

Hagan and Colson

The last day of school is pretty useless but I always send my kids because it helps me have some time to get things wrapped up and get ready for summer. It gives the kids a chance to give teachers their presents and it's fun for them to do mindless things with their friends like watch movies and play on their devices.

Ms. Gray gave Colson the nickname Shu Shu which he now uses as his nickname if people ask him if he has one. We love Ms. Gray!