Freshman Year Finished

Since Mr.C's school didn't get out until the 23rd of May, it meant that we had a long weekend to keep quiet and out of his hair while he studied for finals. Poor guy, he had three really tough finals all on the same day; Biology, Spanish and Algebra II.  Let's just say that by Monday night, he was ready for summer!

I kid you not; this seems to be the faster year ever. I swear it was just yesterday that we were attending the Family Picnic and meeting other families and kids.  Not only has it been a growing year academically for Mr C, it's been a "growing year" for him personally.  He's grown almost six inches this year and outgrown more clothes than you can imagine.  I'll let the pictures tell the story.  Pictures under the arch on the last day of school May 2012 vs Sunday before school starts August 2011.  Same kid! Amazing!

                                   First and Last Day of Freshman Year: First Day of Kindergarten too!

When he told me on Sunday at church that his size 11 shoes are getting a little tight I told him "tough bounce, go shoeless until fall."  Well, maybe I'll buy him some Old Navy Flip Flops!  Good thing he's willing to wear the same clothes day after day and is not the fashion plate his sisters try to be. We'd be broke.

Freshman year has been a great experience for Mr C and our family. Now I'm just praying that this is the slowest summer in history.  We've got to savor the moments.  We've only got a few years left with him in our house!  Not even gonna go there in my mind.

Summer here we come!

The End of HIs Musical Career



Mr C is hanging up the trombone.  For good.  Yesterday was his final performance and I just might have gotten a few tears thinking my days of spring band concerts are over. He's ending his musical career after this school year and I must admit I'm a little sad.  Don't let the pictures fool you, until a few months ago, Mr C played the trombone, but this spring he switched to the Tuba. 

The joy of a small school is that the band really needed a tuba player for their spring performance and Mr C was drafted to put down the trombone and pick up the Tuba.  Guess if you know one brass instrument its easy to switch to another.  At least that's the story I'm sticking with.

Mr C started his musical career at age three when we signed him up for Kinder Music.  Our pediatrician had suggested that he might enjoy music lessons since he was so mathematical.  Guess math and music use the same part of your brain.  No wonder I quit piano in 5th grade (I broke my arm and the teacher told me not to return) and I hate math!  Now to be honest, the Dr suggested Violin lessons Suzuki style and that did not sell well at home.
In kindergarten, he took up piano thanks to a family friend who offered to teach him to play (she's still teaching the girls).  In fifth grade, he took up the Trombone.  Which in turn led to a few months of pain for our ears while he practiced and a few concerts that it looked like he might pass out from holding  his breath and pushing out his cheeks!  Only a parent can love a 5th grade Band Concert. 

This year, Mr C decided he'd try out band in high school and since they only have a pep band at basketball games and no marching band, it wasn't a huge commitment.  The main drawback is that the class meets at 7:00 in the morning twice a week.  It's hard to get up that early on a Monday morning.

While I'm hoping that maybe Mr C will go back to piano lessons or at least practicing a few of his favorite songs, I understand that for him his season of music lessons is over.  I guess you could say that the pediatrician was right that math and music use the same portion of the brain since Mr C is a math whiz.  At least his mother, the girl who thought geometry was the best class ever since there was very little "math" involved, thinks he's pretty smart!

Now what do we do with this lovely little trombone that we own?  Let's just say its a $900 dust bunny collector right now!

Prayers Answered: Golf Team Member

I'll admit that some things come very easily for Mr C.  He gets a lot of recognition for things that he barely tries to do such as great grades, academic success, high test scores, and other honors.  He's worthy of the praise he gets for those things, but the effort involved does not require much from him. Of course, we are very proud of him for these things, but we've come to expect them from him.

When it's come to athletics, things don't come as easily for Mr C.  He's a kid who is very coachable and loves the rules of the game, understands the nuances, but physically he does not dominate the sport or the team. Give him an opportunity to play and he's a great team player.  He's just not the star.  That's why we were so proud of him for playing Freshman Football this fall.  He trained all summer in the weight room, he learned to hit and block and run, and he gave it his all in scrimmage and games. 

For the spring, Mr C has had it as his dream to be on the Golf Team.  Because you are required as a freshman to play a spring sport at his school, most teams are non-cut sports.  You can play baseball or soccer or run track and be guaranteed a spot on the team.  Not so with golf. There are only 13 spots on the team for Freshmen thru Senior for both the JV and Varsity teams.

We discovered that this means you have to be pretty good. Not great, but good enough to contribute to the squad in tournaments and show potential to get better at golf.  Mr C has been playing golf since he was about six.  He spent about six years playing in a summer golf league and he and his grandfather have spent many days on the course.  He loves the game and knows the rules and the etiquette required to play on the best courses.

The only thing going against him this spring was that he's grown nearly six inches since last summer meaning his clubs he's played with for the past three years are now to small and it's still winter in the Midwest meaning he's barely touched his clubs for about six months.  To overcome the first obstacle without spending a fortune, we've "borrowed" clubs from both dads and great grandpa's bag (maybe Moms' favorite 7 wood too).  The second issue of little practice time has been overcome in the last three weeks because the weather has been stellar so Mr C has gone to the driving range almost daily and played about six rounds of golf. Answered Prayers.

Amazingly, the only glitch in the past few weeks was the fact that Mr C broke his Driver four days before tryouts.  In half. Destroyed.  Thankfully, when we went to the golf shop to see what could be done with our broken Driver (nothing), the lady who was helping  us look at clubs showed us a used driver and offered that we could borrow it for the next week so we wouldn't have to stress over tryouts.  Answered Prayers.

Last Monday was tryouts and Mr C came home a little defeated.  He didn't have his best round of golf. The driver was causing him problems and he was nervous and striking the ball too hard. At this point, he was a little discouraged figuring he was cut.  We told Mr C that we were so proud of the effort he'd put into making the team and to not count himself out.  We were sure that the coach would take the whole situation into consideration including the two weeks of practice, the practice round, and the tryout round.  Mr C had given his best. 

It was the longest evening of Mr C's life spent waiting for the email from the coach with the team roster.  He tried to distract himself with homework, television, anything that would get him off the computer and the email that never seemed to come.

Finally at 10:00 p.m,. we convinced him to look one more time to just get it over with before bed and then not think about it again until morning. Thankfully, there was an email from the coach and Mr C's name was on the list.  He made the JV Squad.  He was only one of only three freshman to make the team. When he saw his name on the roster, he jumped up and yelled "thank you Jesus."  You know what:  he really meant it and so did my husband and I as we uttered silent prayers of thanksgiving for giving C this opportunity.

Loving Uniform Life

Mr C is really enjoying wearing a uniform to school. No, really!  Seriously!  In fact, he might be enjoying it so much that he's thinking we should petition the elementary and Jr high schools his sisters attend and convince them to implement uniforms.  He told Miss M that she and her friends would really benefit from uniforms.  It would allow them to sleep in more, no stress over what to wear, and they would do better in school because they wouldn't be looking at each others clothes and shoes!  Gotta love how quickly he's jumped on this bandwagon and how "willing" he is to pass on his knowledge with Miss M.

Last week was Spirit Week at Mr. C's school meaning the "uniform" rules were waved a little bit to allow for some celebration.  Monday was Crazy Sweater day and I'm sad to say that mine was closet he raided for that event.  Mr C said he got a lot of complements on my Norwegian Sweater. I told him to hold his tongue as it's still in my rotation of wearing ( I love it still B& B- almost 12 years later) and at least I don't have any Christmas sweaters anymore.

Tuesday was Flashback day and he asked his father if he had any "old fashioned" ties that he could wear.  My husbands response got a big laugh from me and a confused reaction from the rest of the family.  He stated, "All my clothing is old fashioned, you are the only people who get new stuff!"  Guess this makes Christmas shopping easy, he wants new ties.  ( I could go into how my husband is now jealous of C's fresh new dressy wardrobe including new shoes, ties, and dress socks but I'm not stupid, P reads this blog)

Mr C's flashback day outfit however was the best ever.  He wore his father's University of Texas fraternity shirt.  P wore this shirt to carry in the big Texas flag at UT games!  It fit like a glove and I think my husband might have been the one having flashbacks to his old college days.  He might have even threatened C not to spill any lunch on it and might have suggesting stripping at lunch to protect the shirt.  Thankfully, it's a single sex school! 

Mr C said that he got quite a few cheers and jeers wearing the UT shirt and he came home without a spill on it.  Thank goodness.

Wednesday was mismatch Day which meant that Mr C, who normally prides himself on wearing smashing outfits, went to school with a tie, shirt, and pant combination that clashed.  Let's just say I think he looked like your average young man. 

Thursday was the last football game of the season, so the boys were allowed to wear Spirit Gear and they could even wear jeans to school.  A sweatshirt and jeans !  Mr C was excited, but admitted that while it was fun to "dress down" he really did notice a difference in how the day went and how it almost didn't seem like school.

I'll admit I'm loving uniforms too, however it has made sock put away a little more difficult.  My husband says I should just put the "nice" socks in C's drawers and the "holey" ones in his.

His "Signature Look" for Fall 2011

This is not normally a fashion blog nor am I a fashionista, but for today I'm going cutting edge and debuting Mr C's fall fashion "must have."  After an exhaustive search or at least an afternoon of shopping for fall clothing, Mr C has decided on his favorite style for fall or as he calls it his "Signature Style."

His go to look this fall is the sweater vest with a bow tie. Perfect.  Not only will it fit the dress code which is a tie with a collared long sleeve shirt, it will allow him to show a little personality. Plus, as a child of the 80's myself, I must admit I swoon for the idea of having a preppy looking son.  Looks like all those hours of reading the plaid Preppy Handbook paid off!

Mr C and I had a fun afternoon of shopping on Friday as it appears that since the last time he wore long pants (it's shorts and golf shirts until October 1st), he's grown another few inches. Either that or the "laundry fairy" has been shrinking all his pants.  Good thing the mom waited until it was almost pant season before buying all the clothes for school.  Thankfully, he now has some dress pants and khakis along with two fabulous Bow Ties to wear.  We even scored a purple stripped dress shirt which according to Mr C, makes the black vest and black bow tie rockin.

Mr C's sisters would like to point out that not only does he really look swell in his "signature look," he's less likely to spill his lunch on a bow tie than a regular tie. I'm not sure I agree.  The bow tie is very close to his mouth!