I used to be so creative; I used to write all the time. Certainly everyone has a stretch of writers' block now & then. I kept a journal from the time I was 13 until I got married. Even then, I updated it periodically. Most of my teenage years were filled with the usual angst and yearnings and love (absolutely, this is HIM, he's the one!) and love lost, and tears and joy and depths of depression, for page upon page. As an adult, all the words that came out are factual. The baby did this ... we did that ... we went to Disney World ... the kids are driving me effing NUTS ... we're taking him to college ... WAIT. What? College? In three weeks?
He got the dorm he wanted, and he & his roommate (from Durham ... I was hoping for a roommate from Charlotte, with a car, as Colin's not taking his car -- that 3 hour drive is a BEAR) have been chatting about what to take, etc. Sounds like they were picked from the same pea pod ... both like video games, the same movies, etc. I just hope the video games don't result in academic failure. I told Colin if he flunked out he would be going to the Air Force. Maybe that will be impetus enough to keep him busy. I'm so mean. There's also the chance to study abroad, if his GPA stays at an acceptable level. Oh, and getting his car for sophomore year.
Summer has been crazy ... the graduations, the wedding, the orientation, the surgery. Melanie is doing great. She was pretty swollen at first, and looked quite miserable, but is back to her bouncing-off-the-walls self. Nothing slows that kid down, honestly. This week I'm taking the three youngers to Atlanta to visit the Coca-Cola World Museum, and then to Grandmama's house in Mississippi. Then Melanie and I are sashaying down to Baton Rouge to visit my dad, who is actually doing better -- despite compression fractures in his spine.
The olders are going to New Orleans with our youth group to work at a mission there. They serve an at-risk neighborhood south of the Superdome, with Bible Schools and games. I'm hoping that my very spoiled children will see how close to the brink these people live. Kids who get breakfast & lunch at the mission, and very little else. The neighborhood wasn't flooded during Katrina, but there was considerable wind damage. Three years after the storm, there are still houses needing repairs, covered with tarps. Not exactly on anyone's priority list, fer shure. <sigh>
After that, David and the boys are driving up to Cedar Point, in Ohio. The World's Greatest Amusement Park Ever. With the Biggest, Baddest, Craziest roller coasters on the planet. Roller Coasters that go up at a 90 degree angle. I. Don't. Think. So. Not even if you gave me a huge trailer filled with money (and shoes). Not Even. I went on the Rockin' Roller Coaster at Disney last year (accelerates from 0 to 1,000 mph in 3 seconds!) and felt like I was having a heart attack ... or that my heart had been ripped from my chest ... for nearly an hour. Guess that takes me out of the astronaut program, eh? Darn.
School starts back for Lisa & Christian on Aug. 11. Quentin decided this year to bail out of the small, Christian school, and jump into the public high school (from which Colin just graduated). He is interested in journalism, and has signed up for Newspaper and Yearbook at Hopewell. (Sometimes called HopeLESS High School). He doesn't go back to school until Aug. 25, lucky duck. One less tuition to pay ... we'll just transfer it directly from Southlake to Western Carolina University! In one pocket out the other.
