Someday This Will Be Funny

This past week...

Sunday afternoon

• Braylen leaves for Boy Scout camp, and he seems excited.
• Kaleb and Aaron play in their first piano recital. It's sure fun to share it with so many of our friends, who share our amazing piano teacher. :)
• Derek leaves for a week of training. I look forward to some special times with Kaleb and Aaron.

Monday

• Kaleb wakes up and can't walk. Neither one of us can figure out why his ankle hurts so much. It isn't even swollen.
• We run errands while Kaleb hops and limps. At least one of our stops is to a furniture store. Kaleb has plenty of couches to sit on!
• By the middle of the afternoon, we remember Kaleb fell off a log at the park Sunday night. I wonder if his ankle is fractured.
• A sore ankle doesn't stop Kaleb from swimming lessons this evening. He can even walk on it a bit better. Things are looking up. We enjoy a movie night and watch Cars all snuggled up on the couch.

Monday night

• Braylen calls me from camp. He knew I was planning a visit to his camp on Tuesday, and he requests I bring a few things. No problem! But then he tells me he misses me, and to preserve his young manhood, that's all I'll say here.
• I go to bed missing my husband, and worry about my boy.
• The phone rings at 1:50am. I answer it, and nobody says anything. Then it rings again, 4 more times. A man starts talking to me, and I don't know who he is. I can't even understand this person. I am terrified.
• I call Derek. He calls the police for me. An officer comes to my house at 2:00am. He takes care of this caller, with the help of a Spanish-speaking officer. I go to bed with all my outside lights on and fall into a restless sleep around 3:30am.

Tuesday

• Things are always better in the morning. Our first event of the day was Aaron's t-ball game. 90 degrees and climbing, but we have a fun time at the field. Kaleb's walking better than yesterday.
• We run into some friends at lunch, and Aaron gets to spend the day with his buddy out at their farm. He drives a go-cart as fast as it will go and according to Aaron, "I scared the wits out of my friend in the passenger seat!"
• Kaleb and I drive to camp, but my phone rings on the way there. Braylen's troop leader tells me Braylen is fighting a stomach virus and has been sick twice today. Would I like to talk to him? Ooookay. Let's just say I was glad I was already on my way.
• Braylen's in no shape to stay at camp. Kaleb sees this and declares he's "never, ever going to camp!" We pack Braylen up and drive back home. He stays home to shower and rest while I take his brothers to swimming lessons. My lap swim never felt so good.
• Grandma and Grandpa treat us to supper at their house. I bring Braylen along because his healing came the moment we left camp.

Tuesday night

• After a heart-to-heart with Braylen, he agrees to return to camp Thursday morning. I unplug my phone and go to bed with my cell phone close by. I don't want any more scary phone calls.

Wednesday

• We don't leave the house all day, except to walk the dog. Braylen and Kaleb mow the yard. (Kaleb's ankle only hurts when he runs, so I tell him not to run with the mower!) We all do our chores, and the boys spend lots of time listening to CD books. Will Braylen think it's boring at home and be glad to return to camp tomorrow?
• 3 kids at home again is a recipe for conflicts. Aaron finds me on the phone and tells me his brothers are making a mockery out of his sentences. Where did that phrase come from?
• My sister-in-law brings her girls over for supper. They eat pizza while we eat pancakes. My kids are tired of pizza. I don't ever remember being tired of pizza when I was a kid! Still, it's fun to be together with our family.
• Since the boys get ready for bed on time, we watch an episode of Dukes of Hazzard.

Wednesday night

• Derek calls to talk to Braylen, planning on affirming his decision to return to camp. Braylen simply decides he misses his dad a whole bunch. Emotions are at an all-time high around here.
• Ginger acts like there's an intruder in our yard. Being a bit skittish since those phone calls, I let her in the house and she zonks out in the living room. I go to bed wondering how I'll get Braylen to camp tomorrow, happy and whole.

Thursday

• Woke up and took Braylen back to camp, although he was not happy to return. It would've been so much easier to let him stay home. But nobody ever said being a mom was easy. This is my attempt to teach him about commitment and responsibility.  *sigh*
• Watched Aaron play baseball--not t-ball--and couldn't believe it was only 59 degrees.
• Aaron takes his own temperature before swim lessons because he doesn't feel well. 100.3, so no swimming for him today. Instead of berating myself for not taking his temp, I pat myself on the back for raising a resourceful boy. :)  hee hee.

Thursday night

• DEREK GETS HOME AT 9:10!!!!!
• The boys enjoy their souvenirs, and love their daddy's tickling! It's so wonderful to have him home with us again.

Friday

• The most normal-feeling day of the week for me. We buy our groceries and make it home in time for lunch with Derek. In the afternoon I take Kaleb and Aaron with me to a 10 years-on-the-job-anniversary party for a friend of ours. She teaches them the German word for exit. I don't know how to spell it, but it's pronounced "os-fart." As you can imagine, there's much laughter and silliness. :)
• At 4:00 we drive back to Boy Scout camp for family night--this time with Derek! We find Braylen happy and having fun. What a relief.
• After bathing ourselves in bug spray, we eat supper with Braylen in the mess hall. That evening he participates in a relay around the camp. His assignment is to run (of course) and earn at least 30 points at the shooting range. Aaron and Kaleb were real troopers as we hiked all over camp. Braylen did a great job!

Saturday

• This is our last trip to Boy Scout camp...this time we're picking Braylen up for good. When we arrive, he's loaded up and ready to go.
• Braylen has a track meet, thankfully only 20 minutes from camp, so we go there and check him in. Our friends live next door to this school, so we use their house as our home base for the day. Ginger loves playing with their puppy, and we walk to the track meet when Braylen's showered and dressed.
• Derek and his dad act as Braylen's coaches, walking him through his stretches and warm-ups. I love watching the 3 of them do that together. :)
• Braylen races in the 100 and the 200. After the week he's had, I'm hoping he's able to run well. There are 3 or 4 heats for every race, so I'm not expecting him to place in the top 8 and earn a ribbon. I'm just hoping he'll improve his times!
• He places 6th overall in the 100, and 8th overall in the 200. His times even improved. :)

Here we are on Sunday, back to "normal" and doing fine. I look back at our week and realize these things we lived through will be funny someday. Things don't always go according to my plan, but that's okay. God's got it all under control.

One little funny to wrap up this post. At lunch today I asked Aaron some questions from Sunday School. Going through the list his teacher sent home, I asked him this question: David was a great songwriter and many of his songs are recorded in which book of the Bible? Aaron's answer: iTunes! I guess iTunes is a good synonym for Psalms. :)

See? I'm laughing already. :)