It's all about Nick

My baby graduated from 8th grade on Thursday. He was surprised to receive the "Social Responsibility Award" for all the school service he has performed over the past three years while he's hanging out there before and after school - putting up the readerboard, computer help, running things here and there - but they didn't mention one thing he unwillingly did, forced into labor by his mother - weeding the courtyard. I had him trained to do half my job, including entering lunch money and attendance into the computer! When we have after school meetings, he answers phones in the office for us. He truly has been a great help and I appreciate it. Anyway, he's onto high school now but hopefully we'll still see quite a bit of him since it's just next door and he prefers to ride home with me rather than on the bus..

Last night was the big haircut! The past two weeks since the dye job, he has heard many inquiries as to whether or not his hair was real or a wig, as well as experiencing a lot of tugging to see if the "wig" would come off. At dinner one night as his father was scowling at the top of his head, Nick asked why he kept staring up there. After ascertaining that he really did want to know, his father replied, "Because your hair looks like hell and your face looks freakish underneath it!" Sad but true. His father is much happier now!


Before and
after!




At 7:20 this morning, we left our house to take him to the Linn County Sheriff's Office to meet up with the other recruits for nine days at the Search and Rescue Academy. Will and Nick got most of the packing done last weekend and finalized it last night. It was a "guy thing" and I stayed out of it. So as we were heading in this morning, Will asked if Nick had packed any underwear. For some reason it had not been specifically listed on the equipment list. Nick had only brought what he was wearing. So we turned around and sped home to pick up those essential items. Fortunately we had left early because they warn the kids that they will leave without them if they aren't ready to go at 8:00! The kids had to pull each item out of their bag as someone read through the equipment list and then repack their bags. When they came to "belt" they said, "You may not need one now but you will at the end of the week because you will lose weight!" Then they lined up and listed to a little pep talk from the sheriff about how this would be the hardest week of their life but the best week because at the end of it they will know they have accomplished something. Then they were told to run to the SAR vehicle and get in. We look forward to graduation next Sunday and hope and pray he makes it through!

Good-bye! I don't know what I'll do for a whole week without any opportunities to nag you about cleaning up after yourself!