From October (my last entry) to April, this school year is almost over. Although we're expecting a blizzard tomorrow, so I'm having a hard time believing Braylen's graduation party is really one month from today. But the calendar doesn't lie, even if the weather is confused.
First things first--Aaron is 14! My goodness, it's hard to believe. We let him open his main gifts last night, since today we knew Braylen would be in Omaha at a track meet, and Derek would be there watching him. Our Wii died a while back, and we've been using my parents' Wii. It finally died too. So with lots of changes up ahead, Derek and I figured it was time for another change. Aaron opened his PS4 last night, and all 3 of our boys are thrilled!
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| Braylen and Kaleb bought Aaron a blue remote |
The rest of today it's just Kaleb and me here with Aaron, so he opened the rest of his presents. I took him to drum lessons, out for cookies at Eileen's, and for supper he picked Raising Cane's. Then it was off to flag football practice. Thursdays for Aaron are busy days, and his birthday happened to fall on a Thursday!
Tonight he's playing Battlefront II with Kaleb, and they're doing lots of laughing and having fun. Braylen ran a great meet, and I'm thankful Derek could be there with him.
Let's see...what's new since October? We have a hot tub! It's amazing!! Derek really went above and beyond to fulfill one of my dreams of owning my own spa. Ahhhh. My job is going really well. I still love working at the surgery center. The mornings are early, but it allows me to work just a couple of days per week.
Kaleb's grown taller this year, passing Braylen up. He and Derek wear the same shoe size, and they share a pair of black dress shoes. Someday we'll have to buy Kaleb his own pair. Kaleb turned 16 and he's been driving the Honda to school and back. Those early morning swim practices sure were nice to have him drive himself to! He had an amazing swim season, and watching him swim is my favorite way to spend the months of January and February.
Braylen has grown very strong, and his brothers like to talk about how buff he's become. He's been accepted to Cedarville University, and he'll be majoring in Criminal Justice. His senior year of high school has been filled with tough classes and some fun ones, study groups, cross country, intramural basketball games, outings with friends, a camping trip in February, and prom with Ivy and his friends. He's working hard at track, calculus, AP Stats this spring.
For Christmas my parents came here, and we had snow on Christmas Day. My favorite memory from that time together was when Mom, Aaron, and I went in the hot tub on Christmas Eve and big, fat snowflakes fell gently onto our heads.
It's impossible to recount everything we did and experienced these last 6 months. But I can share what I'm trying to do right now. There's one month left before Braylen's done with school here at home. From preschool through high school, it's ending. I've been looking at August, and all the changes we'll be going through. Yes, we need to prepare for it. We need to figure out finances, teach Braylen how to manage finances, and get him ready for dorm life--college life--900+miles away from home. But in this next month--I need to set that aside. I need to live in the moment so that I don't miss a memory. These days are FUN! These days are EXCITING! These days are filled with reasons to CELEBRATE! I mean, he's worked all of his life to get to this point. I'm not going to miss it by worrying about all of the changes in August.
And so, that's our life right now. I don't want to miss a thing.
