Summer vacation starts today.

One summer goal (of many I suppose) is to document all of our adventures - and there are going to be many. I am so very excited to have gotten a fellowship so that I can hang with Turner all summer without having to navigate our fun around teaching and grading schedules. Thank you Tilly Warnock for being generous with your retirement money, and thank you Theresa Enos for being a huge advocate for this academic mom (she was one too).

Summer preparations began over a week ago when we registered for soccer. Practices every Tuesday and games on Saturdays. There are five kids on his team, all boys. At sign up, we had no coach, no team mom and no one really eager to take on these roles. It seemed as though we did not really have a team, just a small group of mothers who wanted their kids to kick a ball around a bit and socialize in a team environment. We all got out our phones and started making calls trying to find a coach. One woman convinces her husband to coach (and we all listened to her make huge promises about home cooked meals four nights a week, foot rubs on Fridays, and something else that I won't repeat). Already I know this woman more than I'd like, but oh well. We have a coach. I offered up Andy's services to help with practices on Tuesdays (b/c he works on game days). So, we secured an assistant coach. One of the moms agreed to be Team Parent. We established our meeting spot for practice on Tuesday and we are set.

On Tuesday I picked Turner up from school. We came home and changed into our soccer gear. We put the socks on and then the shin guards on. Took them off and put the shin guards on first and socks on second. Then Turner told me there is a special way the shin guards go, as in a left one and a right one. We take all this off again and replace it in the appropriate fashion. Twenty minutes later, shew, we were at the table so Turner could eat a PB&J. We talk about all the What Ifs about practice. He is so excited! I say, "I'll take the camera so we can take pictures of your team in action. OK?" Turner goes chew chew chew. Long Pause. "Mom, I sure do hope that you'll be able to see me because I might be too fast for the camera." :)
We are the last to arrive at soccer, which really shouldn't surprise anyone. All the kids do a wonderful job listening and moving the ball around. The coach has been training his little boy since birth, according to the mom obligated to weekly foot rubs and home cooked meals until August. Turner is the tall kid. Two of the others are three, and the rest are five. On practice day, we secured a new player who is pretty good. The best on the team is of course the coach's kid. But, once Andy starts practicing more with Turner I'm certain he will improve. He's excited enough about it that he would probably practice everyday. I tend to teach him how to do things incorrectly and then Andy 'fixes' my lessons later.



The Team Parent's little boy hated soccer and doesn't really participate in the practice though she does all she can to engage him in it. At the end of practice she came over to me as I'm wanting to jet away to writing group. She handed me a stack of paperwork and said, Guess you are Team Parent now. Leverette is not interested in soccer. I say, "Me? No. Not me. I don't want to be responsible for anything but watching." She said, "Oh it really isn't that much to do. Really." She was totally lying to me.

So, Today.

So today, Turner and I have breakfast at the Hungry Fox. When we arrive the hostess remembers us and makes mention that we haven't been around in awhile. Turner says, "Yeah. We've been in school." While we wait for hashbrowns with cheese and a cinnamon roll, Turner and I draw out the cast of Mario Kart. I get to draw Mario and the girl (she has a name but in total anti-feminist fashion I don't remember the secondary characters' names, yep all those female ones). Turner draws all the rest of them and critiques my Princess figure's car. I didn't like that she drives a sports car so I created something akin to Luigi's car and the donkey's car. Our breakfast arrives. "Mom, this cinnamon roll tastes better than yours." "I know. But mine are healthier." "Yeah. I know." We scarf it down since the food comes to the table at the exact moment we are suppose to be at the dentist.

We go to the dentist; no cavities. All his grown up teeth are pushing out all the baby teeth. We compared Xrays with those a year ago and there, right on that little white screen was another reminder of how quickly he is growing. Huge inhale and exhale and mom pulls it together. We leave and go to the bullet proof room (bank lock box). Turner gets a real tour. He locks and unlocks doors, and he makes echoing noises. We go pick up Kilan (his mom is leaving for MN today for RSA, a conference). Kilan turns 7 in June! He tells Turner all about his birthday party plans. Then he says, "You know I'll be your friend forever if you'll buy me a car." Then he goes on to explain the kind of car it is--sounded like a battery-powered car. When he's done Turner says, "I'm going to be your friend no matter what. And I don't have lots of money. I'm saving for Indiana Jones game. But you know what my mom gave my $5 to charity once. Charity is people who have nothing. Like really Kilan NOTHING. It felt unfair that she gave my money away, but my dad explained it and it sounded okay." So a little back story here is that Turner wanted to cash in this bag of change he collected while home for Christmas. We never got around to cashing it in. When Andy moved the living room around I re-discovered this bag of change, mostly pennies. I took it to Fry's when I was grocery shopping, two birds one stone. Turner had almost $5.00 in change. A really big bag of pennies, two quarters, and very little other silver. The options were to pay $5.00 to get cash back or donate the money to charity. I chose the Food Bank. Thank goodness this was before he was saving for the Indiana Jones game. That is all he talks about.

The boys and I run my first Team Parent errand: turn in uniform requests at the office which is 40 minutes one way from our house. But, I'm totally over it. Turner and I love driving around in a car without air conditioning when it is 100 degrees in the desert.


One last pre-summer preparation happened last night. Turner and I went to the downtown library, which T described to Marissa as "the building called children's downtown." They have a huge space for kids to play on computers and tons of books. His favorite, of course, is Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary. It is bringing up some talk about politics here, and that is fun.