Then I cried at Zaxby's the next day while ordering my chicken strip meal combo and the waiter asked me if we had just dropped off a college kid and where we were from. Yep, busted out in tears in the middle of the restaurant.
The next week was a whirlwind of emotions-even though she hadn't started classes yet, Rush took up the majority of her day, every day, and she couldn't have her phone on her. We got to briefly chat each night. My excitement for her grew as she talked about each house she visited and their philanthropies and missions. I was fortunate enough to be able to drive back down to Fayetteville on bid day and experience all of her hard, grueling, mentally and physically exhausting week come to fruition when she received a bid to the Alpha Delta Pi Sorority House. In the ADPi House my girl has found all the sisters she never had. She's found her niche, her place in the world and she's thriving.
We miss her in our house and the bald kid sure had a hard time adjusting to her being gone. The first time she came home he ignored her for the first few hours-I think he was giving her the silent treatment for leaving him.
She's been partying it up, but she's kept her grades up. It helped she took several college credit hours with her, so she doesn't have such a heavy load this first semester. We've assured her it's ok to say no every once in a while to an invitation-and stay at the house or in her room and just hang out. When she has been home she's spent more time sleeping in my bed, watching Grey's episodes than anything else. Moments I wouldn't trade. She's about to be home for a month and I'm sure she'll get lots of rest and be bored with us in a matter of days! Hailey's houses philanthropy is The Ronald McDonald House Charities-so save all your pop tabs for her-she gets diamond points towards qualifying to live in the house next year. If you have some-just let us know-she'll come get them during break!
Parker is a junior in high school and has expressed an interest in joining the military upon graduation. He's stepped up and helped us out around the house and with the bald kid a lot in Hailey's absence. But we are really struggling with him and his grades. It makes me crazy and stresses me out that he's doing poorly because he's so smart, just has a lack of motivation. Brian and I are struggling find something to motivate him. He still doesn't have his drivers license so we are going to put him in a driver's class this month in the hopes he can get his license in January. I'm hearing from other teenage boy moms that this is pretty normal behavior. I hope so, because I'm really beginning to feel like a failure at this boy mom thing. If I'm not a screaming banshee about his grades, or not turning in his homework I know he's done, it's not a normal day in our house. At least the bald kid won't be going to therapy because of me someday!
And the bald kid, he has been doing great! His cardiology appointment in October showed the Melody valve placed in Boston 2 years ago is working as well at the day it was placed! Such a relief and a blessing. We are now only seeing the great Dr Kaine yearly! Yep yearly visits! Woo-hoo! But, life is simply not that easy in the bald kid's world-and we found him to have maldescent of his tested. Meaning: his poor little balls didn't fully drop. Off to see Dr Murphy in Urology to have those brought down and a little 2mm hernia in his left inguinal area repaired. Unfortunately a few days after surgery, and we think, as a result of being intubated, his asthma flared up and he spent 4 days at the big house; Children's Mercy. He just needed a little oxygen and steroids and he was home by Thanksgiving. Our next big procedure with Ethan is taking him to my friends in the Interventional Radiology Department at Mercy and have his salivary glands injected with Botox. We are going to try this to see if it helps with his constant drooling. His drooling has become so bad he has a constant rash on his face and he gets choked up on his own secretions. We can't risk a winter of aspiration pneumonias with him. I've heard mixed results of Botox helping this-so if any of my special club members have any experience with this-I'd love to hear from you!
Brian and I are same old, same old. Working and not taking care of ourselves. That's going to change this month. I was just started on blood pressure medicine because I've had terrible headaches for over a month and my pressure has climbed high enough I'm a walking stroke candidate. Since my husband and son can't manage to get the dishes done after dinner, I'm not going to trust them to keep me looking presentable should I have a debilitating stroke. God forbid they realize when my eyebrows need plucked and face needs waxed and dress me in mismatched sweat outfits with drool and food spills on my shirt. So, I'm safer to take my meds, get healthy and prevent that from happening. We purchased the Hitch Fit couple's weight loss online program last year and we know what to do-they spell it all out for us. We are committing to starting and sticking it to it. So if you see me with a Coke-feel free to call me out on it-and take it from me please.
Our Thanksgiving was wonderful, spent with family at a time a friend just lost her Mother, I know how lucky I am to still have both my parents and don't want to take for granted that will always be the case, as I know it won't.
We haven't spent much time with our friends lately, and haven't been very good friends. We are bringing back the Rawley White Elephant Christmas Party this month and hope you all can make it! It's always been a blast in the past-this year promises not to disappoint!
We've talked a lot about buying experiences rather than things lately. And agreed not to go all out for Christmas, but rather be more present with each other. We are collecting items for our local elementary school kids through a program at my job to help provide them with Christmas gifts. Toys, socks, hats and gloves and gift cards are welcome, along with cleaning and personal supplies. Parker has also taken several names off the Ornament Tree at his school we will buy gifts for. So far it's been toothbrushes and toothpaste-and this breaks my heart as I know too many kids out there are getting necessities for Christmas gifts rather than something fun. We take for granted that the things we need everyday like toothbrushes and toothpaste and personal hygiene items are bought without a second thought. That I can load up my shopping cart at a store and check out not worrying what the total will be, because I know I have the money in my account. Yet watching a woman next to us have to put items back because they cost more than she had, and my wonderful husband then paying for them for her and her kids. We're not rich by any means, but we can sure afford to help others out and that is our goal for this season; random acts of kindness whenever we can. Paying it forward as people have helped us in so many ways.
This has been a long post, and as always I will promise to post more often. In the meantime, I hope the Holiday Season finds all of you well and happy and healthy and I hope you too can help bring a smile to someone's face with a small act of caring. The reward is a feeling like no other.
