I am the Slacker Mom. . . But, I do Love my Kids. . .

I am a slacker mom, I have one good picture of Sprat in his cap and gown and not one good one of he and I together.  I must say, I am a little jealous when I see these moms with these great pictures of their boys and their tux at prom and their cap and gown at graduation.  I am just never able to capture those moments, I have other moments but never these perfect moments.
I have this one halfway decent picture of Sprat:

As you can tell, this was a quick snap as he was coming off the stage after receiving his diploma.  He hates having his picture made and that does not help when trying to capture these precious moments. When he was little I could hold him hostage and snap away but, now that he is grown up he is harder to hold on to to grab those special moments.

This is one of my favorites, I love those chubby little cheeks and that smile is contagious.  He has always had such a great smile and was always such a happy little fella. Not many things upset him.

I challenge you to look at these pictures without smiling.  He is just so darn cute!!

So many adventures ahead for this guy, I cannot wait to see what happens.  Stay tuned as Boston is getting closer and closer.  Who knew there was so much paperwork involved in going to College?  I do not remember this much.

Look Out Boston... Here Comes Sprat. . .

Road trip!!!!  We got the package and it is a full academic scholarship and we met with the lacrosse coach this week.
We always talk about how we want our kids to grow and go out in the world and do great things, I just never thought my sweet baby would go 13 hours away to start.
We met the coach on Friday for a tour and to see if this was going to be a good fit for Sprat. The school is small but it is only a short distance from Fenway Park.  I like the coach and his philosophy on things.  This coach is very smart. He took us on a tour of the school then showed us how easy it is to get into the city from school.  We took the subway into the city, three short stops, to the Bleacher Bar in the outfield of Fenway Park. We ate lunch and talked at length about how the coach saw Sprat impacting his program.  After lunch we took the subway by some of the local college hangouts for this college as well as Boston College.  The dorm rooms are pretty big for a dorm room and this college has a culinary school, so many times the culinary students are cooking in the school cafeteria.  No cars on campus, the blackberry stays at home.  All of his Lax gear is provided except for his stick and cleats. Since this is their inaugural Lax program these boys get to help design their uniforms. 
Sprat ' s only concern was the fact that we are 13+ hours away.  On a positive note they do live stream the games, so I will not miss them.  The coach also pointed out Sprat would have 19 new brothers, some coming much farther away than Sprat.
I have been praying about all of this and praying that God's hand will be in this decision that he makes.  It is a very exciting time to see your kid be excited about his future.

I am not sure I am ready for all of this.  A whole lot of changes working in our family right now.

Lax practice fields 

Campus

St Lucia, West Indies Winners Trip

We got delayed in Miami, we will catch a ride home tomorrow morning.  We slept in the airport, not the brightest idea for someone with a bad back. We got home this morning around 1000.
My hubby, after being laid off two years ago and re hired, came in top 14 in sales and won this amazing trip.  We were off to St Lucia, just me and the hubbs. We stayed at the Sugar Beach resort that rests between two volcanos called the Pitons.  We had the most amazing time and I was pampered in ways I could not have begun to imagine.  We resided in a true paradise for a few days and experienced breathtaking views at every turn. We were immersed in the West Indies culture.  This is an experience I will treasure forever.
The hubbs company truly went all out for their top sales people. We received gifts daily, whether it was new Ray Bans or new flip flops or gift cards, there was always something.  We enjoyed excursions:  deep sea fishing, snorkeling,  or the spa.  We had lavish dinner receptions and all day cocktails provided beach and pool side.
On one of our boat tours around the island we got a little history lesson from two local fisherman. They shared the history of the island and some salacious tells of some Hollywood stories. Mat Damon reserved the entire resort for his family one time and even bought out the local fisherman for a week to keep the beach private.  They showed us the resort where several episodes of The Bachelor were filmed.  They also showed us a bat cave where thousands of fruit bats lived. According to our guides they use bat guano (poo) to make mascara. Our guides said, "you have to get shitty to get pretty."  Mick Jagger, Oprah Winfrey,  and George Forman also have homes in St Lucia.  That is all for the Hollywood news.
It is going to be very hard to go back to my regular life.  The hustle and bustle of taking care of two growing boys and holding down the house hold.  I will hold this last week in my mind forever.

Our morning view from our Villa

The Hubbs and I with a little smooch and the two Pitons in the background after our boat tour 

This is the Great House where we had breakfast 

Our dinner view from the beach bar. 

It Just Got Real!!!!

Things just got real!  We just celebrated Senior night for lacrosse, and I just realized I have a a senior.  Really???   Are we sure, because I really believe he is only a freshman, sophomore or maybe a junior.  He cannot really be a senior, can he?  I see a lot of ugly crying in my future, you know the kind I am talking about.  I am talking UGLY crying. 
We got the cap and gown, I sent the announcements and we are preparing for Summer orientation at my dear Sprats College of choice.  Now here comes the monkey wrench.  My son loves the game of lacrosse and I wish he had found it sooner.   He has spent last year and this year falling in love with this sport.  He eats, breathes, and lives for this sport and being the Mom that I am I tried to help him find a way to be able to play lacrosse in college.  His college of choice does not have a men's lacrosse team so, I created a profile  for my son on "berecruited " to see if any colleges would be interested.  To my surprise he has had a lot of interest and a couple that sent email and one that called.  The unfortunate part of this all is that the one that is most interested is located in Boston, we are in NC.  This school is small and does offer his program of choice which is unusual because not many schools do offer it. 
Sprat has applied to this school, he has talked with the coach and we will probably go for a visit sometime in the near future.  This school does not offer athletic scholarships but it does offer academic scholarships and we are waiting to hear about all of that.  When all of this came out about me setting up the "berecruited" profile for Sprat, Big T said, "Mom you have to set one up for me, I want to go to Maryland and play lacrosse."  And there ya go. . . Big T has been playing lacrosse for three years now and he also loves the sport as much as his big brother.  Whole lot of changes coming down the road for our house.  Stay tuned, oh and do not forget the UGLY crying too. . .

Weighing In. . .

I am fed up today with this liberal nonsense.  Everyone has an agenda, EVERYONE!!!  I really wish for once that "people" would actually take on a cause for the sake of the cause and not to push an agenda.  Our schools do have a real problem but it is not one that can be solved over night and it will not be solved by making more laws.
Let us look at what is a law these days, last time I checked it was illegal to take another persons life and yet this happens multiple times every day every where.  It is also illegal to drink alcohol and drive a car, yet  we hear more and more death by motor vehicle due to a drunk driver.  Drugs are also illegal and yet people are dying everyday due to overdose from illegal narcotics.  It is illegal for someone under the age of 16 to operate a motor vehicle and yet you hear about kids dying in car wrecks at the hand of a 15 and under driver.  It is illegal to drive in excessive speeds and yet there are multiple people doing it and wrecks caused by it and people dying because of it.  Oh, and let us not forget the  that schools are gun free zones!!!!  Laws are only as good as the people that follow them.
I believe our problem is not a gun problem but it is a heart problem and a respect problem.  The youth of today have 0 respect for their elders and no I am not 100 years old or even 80 years old.  I was raised to respect my elders (anyone that is older than yourself) regardless of who they are and I was most certainly brought up to respect the law and law enforcement officers.  I have also tried to raise my children to have this same respect.  Some days I feel like I have dropped the ball somewhere and then other days,  fewer days I see I have done a good job.  I get to see that my boys are truly growing into fine young men.
I have talked numerous times about everything that has been going on in the media with my boys, I use these as teaching moments and if all parents would use these as teaching moments what a much better place our world would be.  Let us no teach them if they do not get their way to stomp their feet and demand it be their way or else.  Let us teach our kids to put on their big boy or girl pants and suck it up and move on.  There are going to days even years that will not go your way, you must  rise above it all and do something about it, make a change but do not stomp your feet and protest/pitch a temper tantrum and demand to have "your way."!!
I talked with Big T about the "walk out" after school the other day and he said he did not do it.  He said that he and two of his friends sat in class alone with the teacher and did their work and talked about what was going on.  They talked about how there are better ways to make a change in this world.  He did not try and stop anyone from protesting but he did not see the point in it all.  This was his choice and I think it was a pretty good one.  Sprat does not go to the high school until later in the day so he was not on campus when all of this took place.  He would not have participated in this either.
Our schools say they have a 0 tolerance for bullies and I am sorry but this is laughable.  When Sprat was in middle school he was bullied and so was Big T and nothing was done to any of the kids that were taking part in this.  In fact Sprat was the one that was punished not the bully in his case.  In high school both of my kids have been bullied by teachers, coaches, and other so called adults that work at the high school.   Big T was at the high school waiting for Lacrosse practice just this week and had some woman demand he give her his lap top (school issued from his school not the school he plays Lacrosse for) and she argued with him for a good 10 minutes before she left him alone.  If our schools would take as much time and actually doing what they say they are going to do and follow through our schools would be much better off and so would our kids.  One of my friends daughters was bullied every day on the bus in middle school.  This little girl hit her and stole her lunch and any money she had, every day.  The schools answer was for the child being bullied was to have their parent bring her to school rather than ride the bus.  Nothing was done to the bully!!! This parent transferred her daughter to another school district.
Oh and you can see the respect aspect of all of this play out daily on the news with the so called news reporters that are so disrespectful to the President and his family.  I do not care if you like him or not that is irrelevant, he is the President for that fact alone he deserves respect. The position of President deserves respect, no matter who is at the helm.

Things are Changing. . .

We sold Big T's bunk beds and  went bed shopping for him yesterday.  The hubbs and I delivered the bunk beds on Saturday morning and Big T will be riding the sofa in the mean time.  We found a really nice bed with a dresser and mirror.  Sprat got a new bed when he moved into what use to be the playroom from this same place.  We also got our double recliner a couple years ago from them.  They have a wide variety of furniture for every room at reasonable prices. 
Now I have to clean Big T's room so that the new furniture can go in his room.  I hate cleaning!!   I have watched those remodel/un-clutter shows where they take everything out of the room on to the lawn and you have to justify everything that goes back in the house.  I wish I had the nerve to do that.  I think I could get better organized if I did. Right now, I just go through things a little bit at a time and find things the kids do not want or need or cannot wear and donate them or take them to someone that I know that has kids that fit that size or age.  I have two bags of clothes and two pairs of shoes to take to work for one of my co workers.  We are also getting rid of some toys the boys have out grown, that is hard.  They are ready to throw everything out and dear old mom over here has a sentimental attachment to everything.
Sprat and Big T were both into Thomas the tank engine and so we had all of the Thomas the tank stuff and I wanted to keep some of it for possible grand kids, much much later down the road.  They are great wooden trains and the tracks and the books. All of that takes up space and the hubbs and the kids would like to throw it all out and I just cannot bring myself to do that. 

Exciting News. . .

I received a text from my very sweet hubby yesterday telling me to pack my bags, we were going on a trip. He won this trip for his sales last year, after being laid off in 2016. This could not have come at a better time.  We will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary this year and what better way to celebrate than a free trip to an exotic locale.  We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary in Vegas on "the company" and took the boys to Disney four years later again on "the company."  They did away with that particular award and now they only send the top 14 sales representatives on this trip and with spouses or significant others only.  It is unfortunate that the boys will not be able to go with us but it will be nice to get away with my hubbs by ourselves.  I am so excited and a little nervous.  The company is already talking another re alignment (in code means lay offs).  We are much more prepared for possible lay offs this time than we were in 2016. 
On the lacrosse front, the boys are in a wining season after three games they are 2 and 1.  It is very exciting to watch the boys on the same field working together.   They're game last night was really intense and very exciting.  I was on the edge of my seat, covered in blankets watching last night.  It was a big win and a close game. 
Stay tuned for LAX news, Prom news, exotic trip news, and last but not least college news. . .