Introducing....

... the kids.

My oldest daughter, The Scholar, is 18 and attends college about 2 hours away. She's planning to be a high school language teacher. Her concentration is Spanish with French classes thrown in for good measure. She loves to travel. I often say she was born with her suitcase packed. She doesn't care where we're going..... just THAT we're going. We recognized that love early on so have taught her how to navigate airports & train stations. She can read a map and use the Garmin to get wherever she wants to go. We've been to Spain twice and she's going to Mexico this summer. Over Christmas she went to Boston and Philadelphia. She flew back and forth plus took the train between cities without a grown up. (You'll notice, as we go along, that the kids growing up and away is a tough thing for me.) I'll be lucky if she settles down only a days drive away. Be still my heart.....

My son, The Boy Wonder, is a 17 year old high school junior. He runs cross country and both indoor and outdoor track. Unlike his sister, he hates to travel. Says he's going to settle down within a 30 mile radius of us. Phew. Gives me hope. Anyhow, we've called him The Boy Wonder for a few years. We had to actively quit calling him 'Bud', the nickname that somehow attached itself to him when he was little. We're currently shopping colleges for him and trying to turn back time as he jumps into the car and drives off into the future without us.

My youngest daughter, Buttercup, is a 13 year old 8th grader. Buttercup isn't a made up nickname either. As a baby she had a full head of fluffy blond hair that stuck straight up like a baby chick. She's forever reading a book. Over the summer she decided to read the Harry Potter books as many times as she could. Her reasoning was that during the school year the teachers discouraged students from reading books that they'd already read. Her favorite Christmas present was a brand new set of the HP books, hardcover, in their own box. She is on the school's swim team and plays several instruments in the school band and the jazz band.

So, there they are. The reason I have so much laundry and need to heap my grocery cart full every week. The reason for living.

I'm off because.....




(Picture from ABC Stitch's website. A Nashville release by CherryWood Designs.)

The Queen Bee