Blog posts

Next weekend is my 30 year high school reunion.    I missed the 10 year reunion because I was stationed in Korea.  I missed the 20 year reunion because my husband at the time was returning from Afghanistan the same weekend.  I missed the 25 year reunion because I was TDY to Korea.   The Army made sure I was unavailable for all three events.  But my best excuse yet—I’ll miss the 30 year reunion because my daughter’s soccer team is playing in the 3v3 National Championships at Disney World.

30 years ago this summer I would never have imagined I would be where I am today.   5 kids.   2 divorces.  1 Bachelor’s degree.  2 Master’s degrees.  25+ years in the military and still going.  2 house mortgages.  1 car payment.  Big ol’ John Deer lawnmower in my garage.  Living with my dad….no wait, he lives with me.

I could go on and on about all the ups and downs in my personal life, but where did the last 30 years go?   Since we left high school in 1988, we’ve had 6 U.S. Presidents.  We’ve had 5 Jurassic Park movies.  There’s been over 55 different flavors of Oreos.   We witnessed 9/11 and have experienced many changes in our way of life since then.  And can you imagine how different high school (or even college) would have been if we had the internet and Google?

The last 30 years have been a blur.  Birth of my children, college graduations, multiple career changes.   The growth of computers and cell phones.  The loss of typewriters and pay phones.   In 1988, the price of gas was 95 cents per gallon.  Now you are lucky if you can find gas for less than 3 dollars on a good day.   In 1988, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan.  Guess who’s there now?   The Soviets were there for 10 years….we beat them on that statistic.  Who would have thought in 1988 that we would have U.S. troops in Afghanistan for almost 17 years?! Things sure have changed the last 30 years, even when we didn’t notice the time flying by.

Yes, I’ll miss the 30 year high school reunion next weekend.   But its 2018!  We have Facebook and Instagram to keep us all up-to-date.   Thank God, we didn’t have social media in 1988!

 

 

My oldest daughter is getting married next year.  And the wedding has weaved its way into all aspects of our lives.   Our calendar revolves around wedding events!

What did you do for vacation?  We went to Charleston.   Did you see the fort?  Did you visit the market?   We tried on dresses.   We visited venues.   We made address labels.   Oh, but wait…

We did walk on the beach and eat a good meal. We did spend 2 days cramming in a lifetime of memories with my oldest daughter. We did enjoy our visit. It just wasn’t all touristy.

This weekend is the big reveal! The actual wedding dress that will eternally be just hers has arrived and this weekend she tries it on for the first time. Sorry, can’t post pictures until after the wedding. But there will be more fittings and adaptions made to make it just right.

But there’s so many more decisions to make in less than a year! Flower girl dresses that make the bride and her two youngest sisters happy. That may be harder than picking the wedding dress. At least the bridesmaids are in agreement, so that’s one less thing to worry about. Then there’s my mother of the bride dress. I’ve at least narrowed the color down to some shade of grey. (Just one please, not 50)

In the end, this will be a big celebration that will actually have been 8 years in the making. It’s a big deal for all of us! Our blended and dysfunctional family with branches and sequels will meld with the more traditional family of the groom. My oldest daughter, my first born child, my original mini-me, my grown-up baby will marry her “John Smith.” She’s always had a thing for blonde hair and blue eyes ever since she saw Pocahontas. My brown hair and brown eye beauty will set the standard, as always, for her many younger sisters to follow! Did I mention she has 3 sisters, 2 step-sisters, and is about to gain a sister-in-law?

This won’t be my last wedding post. It’s just an introduction. So prepare yourself for more wedding talk. And help us all to remember to enjoy this stressful but worthy event!

Soccer, futbol, or whatever you want to call it continues to grow in popularity with American kids. Most Saturdays in the Fall and Spring you can find kids as young as 3 chasing the ball up and down the field trying to score a goal. My oldest is 25, so I’ve been a proud Soccer Mom for over 20 years!

But my first wasn’t meant to be a soccer star. She played because we made her, and it was a great way to make friends. My son was a natural athlete at all sports and ultimately focused on soccer through his senior year of high school. My next daughter was a pretty good player and stuck it out half way through high school.

And now daughter number 3 is a soccer beast! With nicknames like “the wall” and awards titled “most likely to take the ball away from you”, she is a star player and a hard worker! One of her coaches referred to her as the “quarterback” of the team. She loves soccer. This past spring she was on 3 different teams at one point: Middle School Team which was 11 on 11, Soccer Academy Team which was 9 on 9, and her new favorite is 3v3.

If you aren’t familiar with 3v3, it’s totally different than other types of soccer. It has its own rules. No goalies. The goal is really small. And the game is fast and intense. Two 12-minute periods of constant running and constant shooting. It is a blast to watch, too. Not a second of boredom.

However, none of this is free. Even playing for her middle school had some costs associated with it. In the last week I have spent over $1,000 for next year’s soccer experience. This weekend will cost $200-300 for a tournament. Don’t forget soccer camp this week which was $75. But the look on her face when she plays is priceless! She loves the game, the competition, the camaraderie, the physical exhaustion. It’s her “thing” and her way of life. Ultimately, it’s costing me a fortune and there are small sacrifices along the way. And it is worth every extra effort I have to make to cover the costs.

Note: my youngest daughter tried soccer for a few years. She liked it, but she didn’t like it enough for all the hard work. However, she has started doing cheer competitions and loves it! Talk about expensive….but that’s a whole other story!

My first post.   After days of contemplating the website name and learning to navigate the develop of my site, here we go!

Its summer and I finally have a day to work from home.   Stranger Things is playing in two different rooms, on different episodes.  Kids are still wearing their pajamas, and I’m begging them to eat more than snacks and frozen waffles.  And reminding them to drink more water.   Its a typical hot, humid, stay-inside-in-the a/c kind of summer.  Throw in the occasional afternoon/evening thunder storms and you have a perfect set-up for movie marathons and tons of hours on social media.  The life of a pre-teen in 2018!

I like to travel.   I travel a lot for work.  That isn’t always fun.  But those trips are required in order to pay for the travel for fun!   I’m not always the luckiest traveler.   Lost luggage happens.  Delayed flights.  Missed flights.  Flat tires.  Wrong turns.  Confusing GPS directions.  But there are so many lucky things along the way…beautiful sunsets, amazing sunrises, priceless views of nature and architecture….just to name a few.

So this is my first post.   And definitely not “the end.”