Party of Five

On any given week day, Mr. D. will shake me awake between 7:20-7:30am, so that I might see the teenager before he heads off to school.  I think it's actually more so that I have half a shot of becoming ever so slightly coherent prior to having to get the younger two children up and ready for school.  This particular morning, I opened my eyes and noticed that the clock on the headboard read 7:45, and I went into instant panic mode: "7:45! I overslept!" "7:45! Hope D-man got off to school on time!" "7:45! Why hasn't Mr. D awakened the little kids?" "7:45! I need to shower, get kids to school, and be on time for an appointment in 1 hour's time!" All of the above thoughts raced through my head in about a 15 second timespan.  Admittedly, there may have been one or two other thoughts that weren't quite as...eloquent. I jumped out of bed, and stormed to the princess' room, "You need to wake up!"  I r...

To the boy who has my heart The past three years have gone by entirely too quickly.  I fear that I have missed a very important part of your "growing up" stage as you made your way through your middle school years, and yet as an emerging teenager, I could only sit back and let you take this time to grow and mature as you became a young man.  I tried to give you the space you needed so as to not embarrass you by always being around.  Your boundaries were enlarged with friends we did not know, most we never even met (except for this past Halloween when they all showed up on our front porch), and some that we may never even encounter.   I hope that you continue to influence one another positively, holding each other up as you make your way into high school in just a few months. All of this time you've remained the caring and polite boy that we raised as you grew into a young man.  And that's all I can ask.  Sure school has been academically challenging for...