20 Years

This weekend was spent reminiscing the good old days of 20 years ago.

Twenty years.  Seriously?

I always thought people who attended twenty year class reunions were stinkin' old.

Now I am one of them.

Back then we all lived within 10 miles of each other.

Now we are in Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, spread across the state of Kansas...and who knows where else.


Back then we were athletes, debaters, brainiacs, cheerleaders, FHA/FFAers, singers, and actors/actresses.

Now we are teachers, coaches, finance guys, stay-at-home moms, EMT's, business professionals, graduate students, skilled laborers, and nurses.

We've come a long way, baby.

But some things never change.

The guy who entertained us in high school by continually running outside to get his books that were thrown out the window during College Prep English still entertained us with stories of breaking his leg while roller skating in full protective gear.

The girl who had us laughing with her amazing acting abilities in high school still had us cracking up with her quick wit and stories of her life experiences.

One of our super-star athletes who was continually given grief about being our one and only hope for a claim to fame was still harassed about his outstanding athletic talent.

And I am sure that I heard the phrase, "You haven't changed one bit..." thrown around to one person or another at least 10 different times.  When it comes to sense of humor, we are one eclectic group of people.

Some of  the group hadn't aged at all and looked nearly identical to the pictures in our high school yearbooks. 

Others of us....not so much.

Which is a divine blessing considering all the big hair and big glasses we were sporting in 1993. 

Yesterday morning we toured the elementary, middle, and high schools where many of us spent 13 entire years together.

Oh, the memories that came flooding back...first kisses in the kindergarten bathroom, hiding in the basement for tornado drills, the 5th grade play, our 6th grade teacher making students hold his hand down the hall when they were misbehaving, JH English, Singers practice in the girls locker room, and, of course, the famous red dress....

We still wonder if that teacher ever knew that her red dress brought the entire shop class full of guys to a complete standstill for at least 10 minutes every day that she showed up in that thing.

Good times.

Good memories.

But now, several years later, several degrees later, several hours of work later, several kids later...we are making our way in the world. We have gone our separate ways, yet still remain connected to our past.

Although I will venture to guess that when we wrote in each others yearbooks that "we will stay friends forever no matter where life takes us".....we had no idea that we were predicting the future of social media!

Death from a Child's Perspective

On the way home from the tennis courts tonight, the air bag light for the passenger seat was flashing off and on for no apparent reason.

We were discussing whether we thought the air bag was really off, or if the sensor was malfunctioning.

This brought on the following conversation.

7 yo: Well, if someone died, I bet it should be mommy or daddy.

10 yo: Why?

7 yo: Because they wouldn't want one of us to die!

10 yo: But it would be really, really bad if dad died.

(Mom is feeling the love.)

Mom: Why is that?

10 yo:  Because we need his paycheck to pay for things.

(Dad is feeling the love, too.)

Dad:  Well, that is why we have life insurance.

10 yo: I know, but that money wouldn't last for very long, would it?

Mom:  It would pay off the house, help with college funds, and last for quite a few years if we were very careful with how we spent the money.

10 yo: Oh, that's good.

Dad: Yeah, it all depends on how you would use it.  You definitely couldn't go buy something really expensive and use a bunch at one time.

7 yo: Like a Lego set.  We couldn't get a Lego set.

Me: Ummm.....yes, son.....like a Lego set.

And So It Begins

My son is in 5th grade.

This comes with all of the typical new territory...new teacher, new classroom, oldest class on the elementary side of the school, switching rooms for a few subjects, and....

BAND.

I wasn't quite sure how this would all play out for my oldest child.

For the past year, he has been talking about the possibility of picking an instrument for 5th grade band.  Sometimes he was excited; sometimes he wasn't sure.  I encouraged him to experiment with some instruments and give band a try.  I wanted him to see for himself whether or not this would be something that is "his thing".

Last year in May, the band teacher had the 4th graders try out some instruments they thought they would like.

First on his list -- trumpet.

He could not make a sound.  Not even one little peep.

Second up -- saxophone.

Not even a squeak.

Third up -- trombone.

After much huffing and puffing, he managed to play a note make a little noise.

When it was over, he was discouraged.  He said, "Mom, it just felt like I didn't have any air."

That's when it hit me.

Every year since he was 2 or 3, the pediatrician has asked him to try to blow hard enough to make a pinwheel spin around really fast.  He could never do it.  At the allergy doctor, he would always struggle to get the spirometer to go up as high as they wanted it to.

Apparently, the child has an issue with air capacity.

So, where does that leave us?

Yep, the drums.

He is not sad at all. 

The incessant noise has started. The drumsticks travel around the house with him.  Everything under our roof has developed the potential to be turned into a drum.

I had to draw the line when he started drumming with his sticks on the dining room table.  It is quite possibly the only piece of furniture we have purchased from an actual furniture store in our entire married life.

So far, it hasn't driven me crazy.  I'm happy that he likes to practice.  It's great that he wants to play all the time.

Only one thing makes me nervous.

Band doesn't even start until Wednesday.

What will it be like after that??