My Last Day without a Teen

Yes, tomorrow M will become a teen.  I'm not ready for this but he seems to be.  And I suppose that that is how it is supposed to be.  Turning 13 just makes all those other big years seem so much closer - like driving, especially.

13 years ago tonight I was in labor - had been all day.  I was waiting, not very patiently, for the arrival of this baby.  He was overdue and labor was long - he wouldn't be born for hours still.  Now it seems like he is trying to make up time by speeding through life.  He wants a laptop, he wants a car, he wants to make his own decisions.  I want him to slow down a bit, especially when he is still being the caring boy he can be - who is willing to sit in my lap (not for long or my lap complains), wants a cat to cuddle in bed with, and likes to share silly stories.

Other times, though, well, the teen/toddler is not so charming.  I've heard that teens are just toddlers in a big body.  Several months ago I didn't quite understand.  Now I do, unfortunately.  Teens can be just as stubborn and temper-tantrumy as a toddler, but you can't just pick them up and plop them in a crib anymore.  The whys are back as well.  Why, why, why, why, why????

I think we're in for an interesting ride.  Too bad there isn't a pause or rewind button sometimes.

Wanting to Garden

I know it is still too early to plant many things in the garden, but it seems so nice.  I'll admit it's still getting a little cool at night (around 40), but the days are near 70.  The garden centers are full of tomatoes and peppers and other such plants.  But it is still 3 weeks til our last frost date AND I know that plants put in later often catch up or pass early plants in producing.  We had some beautiful tomato plants when we lived in Baton Rouge once - they had these wonderful big tomatoes on them in early May.  And there they stayed, still green, until it got hot enough in June for them to ripen!

I did plant some red onion sets this weekend, though.  Evidently it's a bit late to be planting onions and they looked kind of sad (sad enough that the guy at the feed & seed gave them to me for free), but we're trying.  I'd gone looking for seed potatoes, only to be told they were out and it was a month too late to be planting them.  Funny since everything I'd been seeing online said to wait to plant potatoes until after last frost.  Hmmmph.  I put a note on the calendar to check on onions and potatoes in February next year.

I'm also impatiently waiting to see if my parsley will germinate.  I know I shouldn't be concerned yet as its only just been 2 weeks since I planted and the packet says 14-21 days, but I really want to know if I'm going to have any luck with this batch or should I be starting some more.  I guess another week will tell...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy Birthday Mimi!  She's actually my aunt, but the kids know her as Mimi and she's celebrating a big birthday today.  She had a big surprise party last weekend that my mom flew to Dallas for.  It was evidently a wonderful (and very surprising) party.

It's time for the annual wearing o' the green again - and time to hunt for whether the kids have any green that both fits and is appropriate for the weather.  A was fine this morning, but M had a bit of trouble.  M finally found a short sleeve shirt that was green, and was fine for this afternoon when it hit 70, but not so comfy for this morning's 40-something temps.

Speaking of hunting for clothes, its the time of year again where the kids sprout up with the plants.  I swear it seems like as the plants put on new growth, so do my kids.  Several times recently I'll look down and see ankle where I should be seeing pants.  Sigh.  It's not too hard with A - I just have to remember which pants to put away and pull out the pile of next size up pants.  But for M this year - OH MY!  He is on the verge of outgrowing boys size pants, but really not into men's sizes yet.  And sizes in boys are all over the place - while some 16's fit fine, others are way too small.  Even in the same brand sometimes - he has some 16 pants from Target that would be huge in the waist (thank goodness for their adjustable waists), but the 16 jeans (also Target, both pants and jeans are Cherokee brand) he says are too small.  ARRRGGGH!  I'm sure he'll be into men's size pants by next fall, but what size that will be I have NO CLUE.  In the meantime I hope he doesn't grow too fast in the next 2 months til we get to shorts weather (and I'll be making sure I keep his pants washed more frequently so he doesn't run out in the meantime).

Spring

We've been having a brief week of Spring, very pleasant but a little odd after our recent snow. The various daffodils around the yard have been blooming for several weeks now and looking lovely.

I've got some more daffodils that I planted last fall that haven't bloomed yet, so I still have more to enjoy.

We also took advantage of the beautiful warm weather to do some planting in the garden on Sunday. It will be at least this weekend, if not the middle of next week (or later, especially for the parsley) before we know how much actually germinated.

Of course, now that we've been enjoying warm spring weather with highs near 80 for several days, we're headed back into colder temps tomorrow. It's supposed to be a high in the 50's tomorrow and back down near 40 the next few nights. The ups and downs of Spring!

Pack Meeting with pie?

A had his monthly pack meeting recently. The Webelos were responsible for opening and closing with the flag ceremony.  Here A is trying to hide in the flag:

At the end of the meeting, it was pie time!  All the kids who sold at least $600 in popcorn in the fall got to pie a leader of their choice.  I think there were 8 kids who earned the priviledge (out of 50+ in the pack).  A's leader thought he was going to be out of town, but luckily (or maybe not for him), he wasn't.  A chose to do the 'top of the head' pie.  I love the shaving cream goatee!  

It was a very messy meeting! A few extra people got "pied" and lots of people got collateral damage in the form of shaving cream here and there.  It was tons of fun to watch and A was certainly glad he got to participate in the pie-ing!

Necromancy?

This morning M came out into the living room and the first thing he said was not "good morning" or even "what's for breakfast?", but "they're using necromancy?"

Me:  ...uh, what?

M: necromancy - they said they were going to resurrect the economy.  Wouldn't that be necromancy.

SNOW!

We'd been hearing that "S" word on the radio recently - you know, the word that gets the kids all excited. But we'd heard it several times already this year and nothing had come of it before. I refuse to get too concerned until it is definitely less than 24 hours and they are still predicting it.

This morning, though, they were still predicting snow/rain mid-afternoon. Hmmm, might actually happen. Big topic of conversation at breakfast at church - who had heard what and would it really amount to anything.

Well, when church was over, we came out of the sanctuary and could see outside through the big windows - big, fat, wet snow. It was hilarious to see the kids all go rushing outside - all ages, from 3 or so (as young as the parents would let them out there alone) all the up to older teens - dancing around, catching snowflakes on their tongues. I wish I'd had my camera with me then!

On the drive home, it fluctuated between wet snow and rain, looking like we were going to have driven out of the snow. But it had started snowing again just as we entered our subdivision. Here is a photo M took after we'd been home about 30 minutes - the snow is just starting to stick on the deck:

Here's M maybe an hour later - the snow is starting to stick on the ground, but not really on the driveway. You can see the big fat flakes.

M's snow sculpture - specifically built to be taller than M!

M and I had gone out mid-afternoon to check out the snow and found that the snow on the grass was good for packing. So we made D come out to join us. The 3 of us made a big tall snowman - who was fatally unstable. We were working on adding eyes, buttons, etc when he toppled. M and I tried to put him back together, but no luck. So, M built this snow sculpture.

Here is a tree in front of our house - note the large amount of snow accumulated on some of the branches - and how some of it already looks icy. I think its going to be very interesting tomorrow morning...

Edited: we received an automated call telling us that school is cancelled for tomorrow, so we can stop checking the websites and turn off D's mental alarm. Hooray!

It finally stopped snowing sometime after 8 pm tonight - I think that's the most time I've ever seen it snow before (at least down here). Usually if it snows, it does most of it overnight, not during the day.