The First of The Last Of The Firsts - 12, 10, 7

My big boy had his last first day of school.😪

Over the weekend both Eli and Daisy came to me separately and were teary at the thought of this being Zeke's last year living with us. 

On the contrary, I was holding my s*!t together pretty well.

Back to school pics went as usual.

FYI, Eli adores his brother, and Zeke slays as a big brother.

But then Zeke and I dropped Daisy off at Zeke's first elementary. Daisy and the other cheerleaders were welcoming the students. As Zeke and I were walking up to Waverly Park, just as we did 13 years ago, I was taking in all of those precious little faces in their cute little school uni's as they were holding their mommas' loving hands. And an invisible cloud of allergens suddenly filled the air and brought tears to my eyes.

Lucky for me we had a little (unfortunate) comic relief. When Zeke and I walked up we couldn't find Daisy. One of the girls told us she got stung by a bee. We found her in the nurse's office, with the stinger still in her leg. All of Daisy's back to school emotions and anxieties tumbled out and slid down her cheek when she saw us. Zeke and I just laughed. Luckily she was able to laugh through the tears.

Then we drove to high school and Zekers got out of my car for his last first day of school. Then it was time for all of my back to school emotions to tumble out and slide down my cheek.

There he goes. Just like that. 😭 

[August 14]

EDIT:

7th day of 7th grade:

7th day of 7th grade:

10th day of 10th grade:

12th day of 12th grade:

20 Has A Nice Ring To It

Happy 20 years to us! Daisy made us a sweet card for our anniversary.

Abe and I have discussed getting a ring tattoo for quite some time. A few months ago Abe suggested we go on our 20th anni to get one. So we did it!

Abe's looks like his ring with the wave in the center.

Mine is two lines like my two bands.

I wouldn't want to do life without him by my side. It's been a great ride so far! Stay tuned for more to come.

[July 28]

The Dotted Eagle Has Landed

Zekers has earned his Life Rank in scouts, which means that he is ready to begin the highest achievement attainable of Eagle Scout. Since the beginning of scouts in 1911, only 4% have earned this prestigious rank. It's not an easy task, as it requires a lot of merit badges, camping, cooking, leadership, swimming, citizenship skills, etc. The hardest and most involved task is the Eagle Project. The purpose of this time-consuming project is to give the scout an opportunity to plan, develop, and give leadership to others while performing a project for the benefit of others in the community.

Zeke chose to repaint the practice field for his band. The practice field is actually a parking lot at school. It's uncovered asphalt that gets very hot in the sun. The band members experience this intense heat during band camp which takes place 2 weeks before school starts.

Zeke wanted to complete the project before band camp, but he had to get a few requirements completed before he could start the work. That landed our work time in mid-July, which happened to coincide with triple-digit temperatures. We soon discovered that same intense heat that the band members feel during camp.

We quickly learned that the asphalt was not the easiest substance to paint numbers; it really sucked up the paint. But we didn't let that stop us!

Look at the difference in the 10 yard line.

We worked until noon and then fed these hot boys.

...And then we repeated the process the next morning. With the yard lines out of the way and the first coat on the numbers, the boys focused on the marching dots while I did a second coat on the numbers.

The marching dots were not originally there, but Zeke wanted to add them. Extremely helpful to the marchers and extremely time-consuming to paint. We measured and painted around 10,000 dots!

We started with white dots.

The next Saturday Zeke and his faithful scout counterparts (and his very generous, patient and hard-working parents) completed the white dots and started the green dots.

On Sunday morning Abe, Zeke and I went out, expecting to be the only ones. Those scout boys had been out in the 100+ degree heat for three mornings helping with the project. 

We were pleasantly surprised when a few boys came back for the 4th work day.

Their dads even stepped up to help.

After over 140 hours of planning, prepping and painting, it was finished!

Those little dots don't look like much work, but so much bending and squatting and measuring went into them!

One happy Life Scout who is one huge step closer to his Eagle!

[July 15-16, 22-23]

7-11

 As per annual tradition, we hit up 7-11 on 7-11 for free slurpees. The store we went to planned ahead and had an employee back there serving up our drinks for us. She even mixed the flavors if you wanted.

We missed our Zekers, who was away at Sea Base.

Cheers to 7-11 and free slurpees!

[July 11]