Sunday, June 17, 2007

News Flash - 49 Year Old Survives 10-Miler

My friend Karen lost her son Justin a year ago last Easter to a prescription drug overdose. Justin was Whitney's age and they were in first grade together. It has been a very hard time for Karen and her family. So in order to put some closure on his death and to bring attention to the problem in our community of young people and prescription drug usage, the 1st Annual Justin C. Haeger 10 Miler was born.

When the idea was first mentioned at one of our Bunco gatherings, I was very gung-ho. I wanted to do something to show Karen and Ron that Justin was not being forgotten and that I would take part somehow in support. I was thinking of volunteering to help or maybe walking part of the course. I trained a little and even as the day of the race arrived, my thought was to go part way and turn around and come back. However, I was walking with my friend Gail and we are just enough competative that as we left the starting line, we became more and more determined to finish the course -all ten miles. At mile two I was still feeling great - how hard can it be? At mile four, I knew I was almost halfway so it seemed silly to turn around then. At mile 5.5 we came to a huge hill. I sucked in a lot of air and got the start of a blister on my heel, but I made it and knew at this point there was no way to cut the race short. I stopped briefly to apply bandaids - I had thought to stick a couple in my shoe - and made it to the water station at mile 6.5. My hips and thighs were starting to get sore at mile 7, but I was sure I could make it. Mile 8 included another big hill and it was soon after that that I realized my backside was numb! There was a long stretch of downhill which felt great, but there was the looming realization that what goes down must come back up. There were two hills in the last 1.5 miles. The last .5 miles nearly killed me. I was hot, had no feeling in the lower half of my body except for the blister, and I just wanted to sit down and wait for a bus. BUT I DID IT! I briskly walked 10 miles. We finished in 2 hours and 50 minutes. I even have the t-shirt to prove it!

Surprisingly though I am a little sore today, I am still moving pretty well and feeling pretty smug that at 49 years of age, I still have enough spunk to do a 10 mile road race. I have even had fleeting thoughts of trying it again next year to shave off a few minutes. Hmmmm......I will be 50 by then - what am I thinking?!


Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Graduation and Gatherings and Guests....Oh My!

Whitney made this great collage for Alex's party.









Sarah helps Alex with the gift opening!
It's beginning to sink in that we've come to the end of an era. Our kids are now adults and while we still have great relationships with our children and will have a role in their lives, our job as parents for the most part is done. That's just weird! Hopefully we've done an adequate job of teaching them right and wrong, the importance of faith, and to be good, productive people, but basically now they, as adults, have to test out everything we have taught them and figure it out on their own. Yikes! Did we do everything to prepare them? Did we give them enough but not too much? Did we remind them of what is important and what is not? Good thing they are in God's hands because I am quite sure we didn't do everything perfectly.


The bros check out Alex's new laptop.

We had a grand time at Alex's grad gathering on Sunday. We saw people we hadn't seen in forever and so many came to wish him well (or make sure he really did make it through 13 years of school!) It's good to have weddings and graduations to catch up with old friends. Life should slow down for me now. I can see being satisfied with a couple evenings a week to myself. I can appreciate not having to clean up after the boys as often or come home to countless dishes in the sink. I get almost giddy when I think of actually getting to use the t.v. remote all by myself sometimes. I look forward to some date nights with my husband without having to check in. But the rest of it I will miss terribly. It will never quite be the same in our house. It's a rite of passage that is satisfying and sad all at the same time. I'm trying not to be overly melodramatic about the whole process; it's just weird.

That's my baby!

I helped Alex with selecting his housing situation at Eastern last night and we have begun to make lists of what he will need for his dorm room. At least he is just down the road in Cheney and can actually come home to do his laundry and get a free meal once in awhile. He is excited and apprehensive; me too! But I'm looking forward to this next chapter. Maybe before he leaves for good, there will be the promise of grandbabies. I know, I know - sorry Whit and Travis......but I can still hope, can't I?

Saturday, June 9, 2007

He did it.....and it's a REAL diploma!

What a joy to watch Alex graduate with his classmates last night at the Spokane Arena. It was a huge sense of satisfaction and melancholy at the same time. No more bugging him about homework, paying for this and that, reminding him to show up for practices and extra credit events, talking to the attendance lady to get him out AGAIN. But sadly, no more drumline, concerts, dances, field trips, piles of friends at our house, funny lunchroom stories, updates on all the gossip (Whit was much better at that anyway) and on and on....


I refuse to even talk about him moving out of the house in the fall. I can only deal with so much at once!! On the adoption front, however, I almost have Alex's friend Sarah talked into moving in. She will be a senior at Mt. Spokane this year and is a darling little cheerleader. I think she might be just what the doctor ordered - ha! She's considering it. Well, not really, but I am working on her.

We are getting ready for his grad gathering tomorrow - it's supposed to rain (figures - it POURED at Whit's) so we're banking on being inside. Needless to say, I have lots that I should be doing so I will keep this short and do an update after tomorrow!
The Three Musketeers - Alex, Cal and Brian

Monday, June 4, 2007

Our LAST Lilac Parade

Alex is third one in - center snare.


Just a few catch up pics of the Lilac Parade on May 19. This is an 10-year tradition for us as Whitney marched on drill team and as a cheerleader. Alex has been on the drumline since junior high. SNIFF! Just so you know, I am offering to adopt a high schooler so this all doesn't come to such an abrupt end. So far no one is taking me up on it, but I'll keep looking - ha!



Again, Alex is in the middle. The closest drummer is Alex's bud, Taylor. He spends a lot of time at our house.




This is Alex's other best bud, Cal (tenor sax). He spends even more time at our house.


There is Alex WAY in the background - the tall one with the snare drum. There are disadvantages to being center snare - makes for bad pics!



Hmmm......where is Alex in this pic? Oh, there's the drumline WAAAAY back there!



Oh, and here is the drumline going away - guess I never did get a decent pic of Alex. OH WELL....we have 9 years of Lilac Parade photos!








Saturday, June 2, 2007

Such is Life

Well, as you can tell if you are reading this, I am behind on my blogging. I get this thing about having pictures to add and it takes awhile to download them from my camera and I keep thinking I'll do that one of these times when I have an hour to catch up. And as you can also tell, I haven't had an hour to do that, so decided to just catch up with the writing part and do the pics later (maybe after graduation!)

Since my last ramblings, Alex had his last band concert. It was definitely bittersweet as it's always fun to watch him play the drums and this could be one of the last times to see him do the drumline thing. He is such a good drummer and leader that it will be sad not to watch him do that anymore. But....life goes on and we will have sweet memories of all his band experiences.

We finally made it to Montana to see the fam and especially spend time with my parents. It was some quality time and they seemed happy to have us visit. I plan to make one more trip their way this summer as Alex would like to see them. We will have a mother-son road trip which I am greatly looking forward to. Don't have extended captive audience time with Alex anymore, so I am looking forward to digging around a little into what he is thinking about love, life and the pursuit of .......

We have graduation next weekend - another milestone. Then Alex starts work on the following Monday. He'll be on the maintenance crew of the Mead School District working full time for the summer. That will keep him occupied!!! The income will be helpful for fall, too when he has to buy books, etc. And it begins.....!

Whit and Travis are busy working on their house and car shopping. The other driver's insurance has accepted full responsibility for the accident and have totaled her car, so they will have to find another mode of transportation. It's too bad it wasn't Trav's car as it is on it's last legs! He plans to ride his bike a lot this summer. We'll also be shopping for new wheels for Alex as he will need something a little more reliable than his Honda. Somehow I don't picture him riding his bike.....

Such is life. We'll be busy as usual and the summer will slip away as it always does. It's just NEVER long enough! Can I just add that I LOVE hot weather?! (News to all, I'm sure!)