Bittersweet Sixteen

16 years ago today I got my first glimpse of the face that was going to change my life for the better forever…

I’m quite sure at that moment I had absolutely no preconceived notions about what that little tyke would be like at the ripe old age of sixteen, but even if I had…he has far exceeded them all.

So today was the day to celebrate Uber, and celebrate we did – – mostly by eating our way through the better part of two counties!!  Andy’s “formal” celebration was on Saturday, when we got together with 15 of our good friends and family for an outing to the local minor league baseball diamond.  Our home team lost in a big way, but we made up for it in loud enthusiastic support!

But today was all about the food!!

Homemade waffles in bed for starters…

A stop by our favorite coffee cafe, where Uber is so much of a regular that they had a candle-topped muffin already waiting for him!

Then it was time for Andy to cash in on his birthday present from one of our dearest friends – – lunch out at a local vegan eatery.  Right up Uber’s meat-free alley!! What we didn’t know was that our friend’s restaurant suggestion even provided free birthday favors in the unisex bathroom!!!  Those vegans know how to party!!!

After a little more rambling around in Uber’s favorite sections of counter-cultural society, it was time to eat AGAIN…this time at Timeworn-Techie’s house for burritos, and of course some ice cream and cake. 

I swear the poor kid just told me, “Don’t worry about fixing me anything for breakfast tomorrow mom.  I won’t be hungry.”

Thank goodness we couldn’t afford a car for the kid on his big day.  He’s going to need to walk till he’s 17 just to burn off today’s calories!!

Happy 16th Birthday Uber!!!

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

So I haven’t blogged about the hubby in a while, and after this week, I think it just may be high time. 

That’s because this week, Resistant-Techie has come front and center of the Topsy drama.  To explain why, though, I’ll need to backtrack just a bit and give you a little history.

Not only is R-T not the techiest tool in the shed, but he is actually quite proud of it, you see.  He makes it known far and wide that he don’t need no stinkin’ flashing lights and beeping sounds in his life.  No sir!  He is a man of the great outdoors!!

So, in keeping with his character, he has made it his life’s goal to see every known (and unknown) waterfall within a 100+ mile radius of where we live.  And let me tell you – – that is no small feat.

R-T hikes in good weather and bad weather.  Alone or in company.  He doesn’t care.  He just wants to explore falling water and take photos of his finds.  Right now I could basically keep every calendar company from here to Nantucket in business with all the incredible waterfall pics that are sitting on our hard drive. 

If R-T doesn’t get to hike at least once a week he gets antsy.  No, no, I mean really antsy.  Trust me…I love the man and he has definitely still got it and all, but I’m all for the hiking, capisce??

Anyhoo – – the hubster often has to hike alone.  That’s because if he always waited for the geek squad to join him, he would be twiddling his thumbs until he had a nasty case of carpal tunnel. So he heads out on his own.  The only requests I make of him are that he please let me know the general direction where he is going and that he please stay on the trail.  That way, if he does run into the inevitable bear, and ends up as Resistant-Techie pellets, I will have the DNA to produce for the life insurance peeps. 

But last week he got cockier than usual when his spidey-senses told him that there was an as-of-yet undiscovered waterfall just over the ridge from the trail he was on.  He WAS in the general direction where he told me, so I suppose he figured one out of two wasn’t bad. 

But it was.  Bad. And now I feel guilty because I should have been there.

Had I been with him, he would have never gone off trail.  And had I been with him, he would have never convinced himself he could walk across a log to get to the other side of a creek.  And had I been with him, he wouldn’t have slipped off that log and landed with his side slammed against it.  And had I been with him, he wouldn’t have a broken rib and three detached ones.

And now, poor hubby has been forbidden by his doc to go out traipsing through the woods for at least 2-4 weeks.  I’m figuring that is going to make him one ANTSY camper.

And me?  Well, let’s just say I SHOULD have been there.

Teenager plus one

I swear it seems like just a couple months ago that I was bemoaning my youngest sons entrance into official teenage-dom. And yet, yesterday was H-T’s 14th birthday!!  How does that HAPPEN??!!

H-T is into keeping things really simple these days, so all he wanted to do to celebrate the 14th anniversary of his birth was have a family dinner at IHOP, followed by a silly string duel in the backyard. 

Uh. Yeah.  I think we can manage that.

I take back everything I’ve said about teenagers. 

Teenagers are a piece of cake.  (or in H-T’s case, a piece of store-bought giant chocolate chip cookie.  see?  easy!!)

This is “The Big One”

I don’t think I’ve mentioned on T-T that I recently got myself a new-to-me vehicle!  Those of you who stalk me on Facebook can go ahead and yawn now.  But for the rest of you, please allow me a brag post, won’t ya??

Just before Christmas, I was out delivering presents like a good little elf, and fulfilled my mom’s favorite prophecy: “NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED.”

I was rear-ended by a lady looking down at her cell phone. 

Not only did I have an accident, but it was such a CLICHE accident!!  I mean, couldn’t she have been painting her toenails or something like that?  It would make for a much more interesting blog post, anyway.

But hopefully some of you were looking for a cautionary tale to share with your teenagers about cell phones and driving, and I provided the fuel for your tirade.  You can thank me later.

Anyway, cell phone it was, and it took the back hatch of my 2000 Ford Taurus wagon and smushed it in a bit.  No biggie, right?  That’s what I thought too, until a few days later I stepped on my brake and the dome light started blinking, the seatbelt warning started dinging, and the doors started unlocking and locking.  And this continued to occur each and every time I stepped on my brake.  It would have been hugely annoying if it hadn’t been so damn funny.

It was like traveling in the Starship Enterprise after it had been attacked with its shields DOWN. 

So although it didn’t LOOK that bad from the outside, the damage had done a number on the electrical system and the insurance company totaled it.  My poor, well-loved, completely-paid-for, still-had-at-least-one-good-year-in-it vehicle was suddenly no more.

Well, during the period while I was car-less the insurance company supplied me with a rental – – a cute little white Prius.  As some of you who’ve been following me for a while know, I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of owning an electric vehicle someday, so trying out a hybrid was at least a partial fantasy fulfillment.  And I DID love that little thing.  But with a hubby of 6’2” and two boys of around 6’ each and counting it didn’t seem entirely PLAUSIBLE to make one my next family vehicle.

So…I began investigating other hybrids, and searched the internet and all local used car lots and finally settled on a spiffy candy-apple-red Saturn Vue Hybrid that my hubby says I look “hot” in. 

I began calling my new ride “Red Fox.”  Its sleek. And sexy.  And sly with the way it saves me money on gas.

AND when I drive home, I might as well be pulling into Sanford and Son, so it is really quite a PERFECT name!  (if that little joke went over your head, not to worry.  It just means you are young enough not to NEED a candy-apple-red mid-life crisis vehicle, which is all good!)

 

The Good News and the Bad News

So wow!  I can’t thank you folks enough for all the well wishes on my behalf after I shared my basically nauseating tale of having a mole on my upper back removed. 

The good news, though?  The little creep was innocent of all charges, and had been taken to the slammer unjustly.  However, as a result of the experience, he has decided to travel from school to school as a cautionary tale of what can happen when you forget to use sunscreen.  Be looking for him at an assembly near you…

On a totally unrelated note, however, I’m sad to report that my eldest son also has a growth that I have no idea how to get rid of.  It would seem that he and his netbook have become a single entity. 

Where my son goes, the netbook goes.  Coffee shop, grocery store, church, mall, homeschool gatherings. 

In fact, I’m pretty sure I saw him take it with him to the bathroom yesterday.

It’s becoming a little worrisome.  I’d like to separate him from his new gadget, but I fear it may take more than a visit to the dermatologist to get rid of this foreign body.  I’m not even sure a surgeon has got the skills needed for an excision like this one. 

Nope… this one is going to need some heavy-duty psychoanalysis, I think.  If I could only remember how I got H-T to finally give up that pacifier…

Would you look who the cat dragged in???

That’s right. I’m back. Back from my longest bloggy break ever. 

So let’s catch up for a minute.  Our holidays were lovely. Quiet.  Peaceful.  And even SNOWY…woot!!

Christmas came and went with only a few hitches.  The biggest of which was that Uber’s desktop went “kaput” about a week before Christmas. Which meant that it was necessary to give Uber his Christmas gift – – a new netbook – – a week early.  Which was all fine and good until said netbook fell.  And broke. A few days before Christmas.  This accident, was, of course, not covered by warranty, so we had to order yet ANOTHER netbook. 

And yes, Uber will be working off his Christmas misfortune until Halloween or so.

We volunteered at the Rescue Mission where my hubby is the director on Christmas Eve, as usual.  No surprise to anyone, thanks to the current economy, it was the biggest turnout I think they’ve ever had.  But the meal was delicious and it was lovely to get to be Santa’s helpers for one night handing out presents to those who might go present-less otherwise.

One of my personal holiday highlights was getting to visit the Biltmore House (the largest private residence in the US) with one of my dear friends.  It was decked from hall to hall in lights and trees, and even more beautiful outside.  Scrumptious!!

Like I said, it was an overall wonderful holiday.  Even the dogs thought so!

Now it is onto my New Years resolution….stay tuned….

Peace…Love…Joy

I’m pretty sure this is the longest I’ve ever gone without posting on my blog…but that just means I’ll have THAT much more to say when I finally get around to catching up, right???? And hopefully all this “catching up” will take place right after the holidays…so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here is our family’s wish for you in the new year…

Make a Smilebox greeting

You Know You Are Raising Geeklings When…

You head to the microwave to warm a cup of tea, and discover that the clay version of the angel of death (complete with sword) beat you to it…

 

(warning: this could become an occasional regular feature.  You have no idea the crazy things that randomly show up around my house!!!)

Halloween was like…a Scream, man…

In typical Uber and H-T fashion, Halloween was yet another demonstration of the polar opposites that are my children.  Born only 22 months apart, these two young men might as well have been born 30 light years and 747 planets apart.

Here is the pictorial evidence of the differences in their personalities.  H-T, of course, is my rifle-bearing, horror-flick aficionado, and nothing would do him but to pay top-dollar for the official “Scream” movie bad-guy costume.

My vegetarian, pacifist, minimalist kiddo, on the other hand, has never been big on dressing up.  But knowing that his youth group was expecting him to take part of the Halloween festivities, Uber found something he could live with.  Everyone said they had never seen a costume that fit a person’s personality so well!

We had a ball going trick-or-treating with our youth group to a local senior center, taking a quick stop at a free local haunted house, then back to the church for a terrific supper prepared by a gracious mom and dad, then finally finishing off the night in the youth room with the “Sixth Sense”, which none of them had ever seen before, so it was like sitting there with this Cheshire Cat grin on my face the whole last half of the movie waiting for them to gasp at the “big twist.”  And boy did they ever!

It was one of the most fun Halloween nights I can remember in a while, and I’m already looking forward to a repeat next year! 

Hope your All Hallow’s Eve was great too!!  Look forward to reading everyone’s blogs and hearing about their frightfully fun night!!

FreeForm Scholar

That’s the name Uber has given himself.  We came to the conclusion that we really dislike the term “unschooling”, and interest-led learning is kind of long and drawn out.  So Uber came up with “FreeForm Scholar,” which I personally adore.

The coolest part?  To commemorate, he has also begun a new blog by the same name where he will be relaying his freeform experiences with learning!!  You can check it out here. (And I’ve added it to my blogroll, as well.)  He has already added several posts, and he is going to be taking my Blogging 101 course as well, starting Monday!

I think it is beautiful that he isn’t afraid to call himself a “scholar.” 

One who learns.

Isn’t that awesome?  This is a kid, by the way, who is ALWAYS learning.  ALWAYS thinking.  ALWAYS processing. 

He is always teaching his mom a thing or two, as well.  So stop by his blog if you get a chance and encourage him onward and upward. 

 

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