May Days

Its June already. Geesh.  May completely ran away from me. And here's why.....

My last post was about Cole and soccer. May brought the end of his season, another trophy for the case, and quite possibly the end of Cole's soccer career. I love my son. But love can't make him coordinated. Kidding. Kind of. Maybe he'll grow into his athletic prowess. I remember many, many a busted chin on my part from countless hours of my dad throwing the ultimate pop fly in our front yard and the ball always sliding by my glove by about an inch only to connect with my face.  I have the scars on my knees from when I was about 11 and we moved into our new house. The new house had one step up (and down, of course) to the front porch. Every single morning for the first week or so that we lived there, I fell off that first step. Skinning my poor knees in the same place every morning. The same place on my knees that suffered the hatred of my roller blades and that really steep hill, or my roller blades and that pesky old bike path, or well, any time I put my roller blades on at all. I remember standing in the outfield during a softball game and while I felt secure in being strategically placed in right field so that I was sure to never get a ball, my security was very short lived when that grounder bounced its way out to me. I fielded the ball, took it from my glove, threw my hand behind my head and followed through my shoulder with all my might - and quickly realized that the ball had rolled out of my hand and was sitting on the ground behind me.  So I started looking for it frantically....but my hat was pulled down so low that I was having a hard time seeing. By the time I picked it up, it was a home run. Those of you that have known me for a while will remember that in my high school days I wasn't the worst at sports. I was maybe even a little bit good. And so there's hope for my  Cole Harrison. There's hope that by the time he gets to high school his crazy, super competitive mama won't have sucked the joy and love of sports out of him.  There's hope that he'll find that perfect sport for him and he'll excel and enjoy sports. But for now, for this season, we had fun. And maybe, if I can talk his papa into it, maybe Cole can give soccer another try in the Fall.  Maybe.

May brought Jake's college graduation AND his surprise party. When Jake first started talking about graduation I immediately suggested we throw a party and Jake kind of danced around it and I pretended to let it go. But I started planning early April, wove this huge elaborate web of lies that exhausted me, and in the end - he was surprised! I was in complete shock that he hadn't figured it out. He's quite perceptive and well, I'm a really terrible secret keeper when I'm excited.  When he walked up to the party and saw the giant banner that said "Congratulations!" he thought it was party to tell him that I was pregnant. WHAT?!  Who throws a party to tell their spouse they're pregnant?  He was terrified at first, LOL!  And then he saw the little graduation hats on the cupcakes and figured it out and that smile, oh boy, melts me every time. I would weave that web of lies over and over again just to see that smile.  Just over a week later he graduated, Summa Cum Laude, with his BS in Professional Aeronautics. I was the beaming wife that day. He worked so hard for more hours than I could ever calculate to accomplish this goal. Watching him walk across that stage reminded me of one of the things that I love so much about this man.....failure is not an option. Never once did he contemplate quitting. Never once did he say "I can't" even when he had nothing left.  He divided his time so meticulously between work, school, soccer practice, training for a bodybuilding show, the gym, Cole, Zella, myself and sleep that there was no room for anything in between but he made sure to make time for everything. He's inspiring. I swoon.

May brought Jake's mom to us!! Cheryl came to visit us for 12 days. She was here for Jakes party and his graduation. She saw Tybee Island, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County by boat, a backroads trip to the Midlands to see my Aunt Jen, dinner at the Boathouse, breakfast at Squat & Gobble, church at Praise Assembly and so many things in between. Her visit brought some very much needed Grandma time for Cole and Zella and I can't lie, it was AMAZING to come home from work with dinner on the table! We laughed A LOT and when it was time to say goodbye, we boohoo'ed like babies. Wisconsin is way too far away. We were so blessed to have her with us for such an awesome time in Jake's life.

Right after Jake's graduation, we had Cole's Kindergarten graduation. When Jake left that morning to take Cole to school I had my mommy meltdown. I looked at Cole and realized that he is far from my baby boy. He's growing up, figuratively and literally. He's getting smarter - and learning to use it against us. He's reading and writing and adding and subtracting and he beams with pride in his success. And the Mommy in me, wants him to be my little chunk with the crazy curly hair again. I watched him walk across that stage with his little paper hat on and his hands in his pockets like Joe Cool Guy and all I could think was "there goes Jake".  Every day, he's more and more like Jacob. And I'm okay with that. But so the end of Kindergarten came at a perfect time. I cheered and cried that day. It's been a rough year. Okay, real rough. But all we can do is look forward and try to make next years transition smoother. And pray. Gonna take a lot of prayer. We have 8 weeks of reflecting time before we are head first into another school year with Beaufort County and its lack of spell check.  8 weeks. Savoring them.

As for me, I'm kind of in awe. Have you ever looked at your life and realized that so many of the things you're enjoying right now, are the very things that you once hoped and prayed for?  I look at each of my kids and remember the several months of trying to conceive with both of them and literally begging God for a positive test. And here they are, 6 and 2 years old. Poster children for the miracle of Gods creation. Tonight I was in the shower and Jake poked his head in the bathroom door and said "lets pray together when you're done". There was a time when I would have wondered whose house I was in......but not now. I am in love with a man that is in love with God! I can't help but think back to the time that Jake looked at me and said "we're rich!".  I am. I am rich. And May, May brought days that allowed me to bask in that richness. May brought days that reminded me to give thanks for these blessings. May brought days that reminded me that Gods timing is always perfect. May brought days of encouragement.

May brought great anticipation for June!