Monday it was dreary again, which kind of fit my mood, sadly. Stuart was up at 4:30 am to get a lift back to Gallup. His intention was to drive my car home on Friday. The guy who was repairing it had it finished the Saturday before, but wanted Stuart to drive it around Gallup for the week just to make sure he had repaired it sufficiently.
This was when they had it apart. Eek! Kind of bent?
Tuesday Jack had a volleyball game and they beat the number 2 team pretty easily. He is currently playing quite a bit, but doesn't feel as if he is at his best. The growing pains of a freshman on the varsity team have not been fun. Millie had gymnastics. She has two more meets and then she will be done for the season. She will still have practice, but will not have any competitions until next January. We are really hoping she decides to do school sports instead of gymnastics next year.
Wednesday I snuck off while Millie was at football practice and had sushi, all by myself. My brother Russ and his wife Julie got into town. When I picked Millie up from practice, we met them at Oregano's but I didn't eat. Don't anyone sell me out and tell them I had sushi just about an hour before I met them. Jack had his first driving lesson with an instructor that evening, so we had to rush home for him to be picked up.
Thursday Jack played so well that he got the Warhorse again. After his match he wanted to join the team at Campo Verde to watch their game. So I took him to Campo and met up with my friend Kristi. I picked him up after the game and we went to get Millie. We picked up McDonalds on the way home. We also witnessed a bad car crash. Jack was driving and stopped at a light about 4 feet from the white line. Had he stopped at the white line the car that got hit would have hit us. We were very fortunate. The girl who caused the accident was very shaken up. Her car was demolished, but she seems okay. I helped her call her dad and we waited for the police to come. She cried and cried and I just put my arm around her and told her it would be okay.
Friday I took the day off. I went to visit New Vista Learning Center in the morning. This is a private school my friend Kristi owns. I think I may work there next school year. After my visit, I went to Brophy for the varsity volleyball tournament.
Stuart got home around 6 pm and met me at Fat Willy's. We were supposed to pick Millie up but my brother and sister-in-law decided to do so. I forgot she was finished with gymnastics at 7 o'clock instead of 8 o'clock. They were going to go watch her, but in the end just brought her home. Stuart picked Jack up and I went to my mom and dad's to get Millie.
Saturday morning we were up early to take Jack to school to catch the van to Brophy. We drove separate cars because we felt like he was going to be at the tournament all day and Millie's state meet was at 3 pm. In the end they lost early so we went to lunch in Chandler. When we got home, it was time for me to do Millie's hair for the meet. Grammie went with us to the meet. Millie fell off the bars and the beam. She still got fourth all around, but she was disappointed. I'm not sure how much longer she's going to be in gymnastics. But she swears she wants to do it again.
Sunday I got the ingredients for the meal at Casteel that my mom was going to make for the volleyball teams. Stuart ended up leaving for Gallup earlier than expected. He had 'advice' for my mom about the food and he needed to share that with me. Because I didn't care to hear it as I wasn't the one making the meal, he was irritated. He's tired of this job for sure and dreads going every Sunday, but this particular Sunday was a bit easier for him because he was mad at me. Jack spent the day with Tatum and Millie had Brinley over for the day. It was a pretty relaxed day for the kids and myself.
Monday we had state testing again. I have never worked at a school that drags out testing so long. Monday after school I took Millie to gymnastics and picked Jack up from practice. He spent about 20 minutes in our pool. He has been complaining about his body hurting. He finally took our advice and dipped in our freezing pool.
Tuesday I went to my mom's at lunchtime to discover her prepping for the pasta and meatballs she would feed the kids.
Pasta cooking and meatballs in the oven.
Half of the pasta sauce was already in the crock pots warming up.
Serving dishes waiting for the food!
She delivered it at 3 pm. She had put plastic totes outside to warm up and the food arrived warm! I was so pleased and so was she. I love that she is involved in Jack's volleyball team. I had asked her to do this for the team, but I think she enjoyed it. She told me she learned some things and would do some things differently the next time. So that means there will be a 'next time'. Thank goodness! The boys loved it!
Wednesday it was decided I would help Stuart over the weekend with fixing the Jeep. He had ordered all of the parts and was going to be able to save us about $4000 in repairs. At school, we had a useless professional development class. I picked Jack up from practice and then took Millie to football practice. Jack needed to talk to me. The jabbing from his teammates crossed the line. He grew up a little more on this day. It wasn't easy, but he made it through.
Thursday took Millie to gym. Stopped to eat fried Brussels sprouts at Fat Willy's then picked up Tatum to go to the Perry game. She and I talked about the situation. They got killed. After the game those boys didn't utter a word to Tatum. I dropped Tatum, went to the high school but then had to leave to get Millie. Came back to get Jack after getting McDonalds for both kids. There was a team meeting. It made Jack feel better.
Friday after school Millie and I ran home to let the dogs pee. We picked Grammie up for Jack's volleyball game at Mountain Pointe in Ahwatukee. Grammie and I dropped Millie at gymnastics. Stuart decided to drive to the game on his way home from Gallup. We met at Zipps for a drink before the game. They won quite easily. They had very few fans there. That part of the valley isn't what it used to be.
On my way home I stopped and got Millie a bit early as to not have to get home only to go back to the gym to get her. I dropped my mom off and headed home myself. Stuart picked Jack up and we got home about the same time. We sat out front and had the neighbors over for a chat.
Saturday Millie had a football game. Stuart and I dropped her early and headed to Los Favoritos to get bean and cheese burritos. We bought one for my dad as he loves bean and cheese burritos but has never had one from Los Favs. He loved it.
When the mechanic tells you to get your son's car up to snuff it will cost you $4500, you thank the Lord your husband is able to fix cars and you spend $610 for parts and call it a day (or maybe 3 or 4 days). I kept him company while he did the dirty work.
Our neighbor helped and it was fixed in two days. Super!
Sunday Stuart made pizza for the neighbors. The car got fixed and all was well in our world.
Monday Jack had a game in the middle of the school day. Stuart stayed so he could watch the game and left from the game to drive to Gallup. Jack's check engine light came on in the Jeep. Dang! I went by Auto Zone and the did a quick diagnosis. Millie and I ran home to switch cars and then I took her to gymnastics. I picked Jack up from school once he was back from Higley High, where they had played their day game. As you would guess, some plugs came loose in the repair process and just needed to be reattached.
Tuesday was senior night for the volleyball team. There were more fans there than normal. They won the game pretty easily and there was a ceremony after the game. It was nice. The senior boys got their jerseys framed which was paid by the booster club. I can't believe that will be my kid in three years time.
Tuesday was senior night for the volleyball team. There were more fans there than normal. They won the game pretty easily and there was a ceremony after the game. It was nice. The senior boys got their jerseys framed which was paid by the booster club. I can't believe that will be my kid in three years time.
Wednesday my two kids had nothing going on in the evening. This is such a rare thing, especially now that we are in volleyball season and Millie has started to play flag football. We did a whole lot of nothing. It was very nice.
Thursday after school I took Millie to gymnastics and headed to the volleyball game at Williams Field High School. My teammate, Jen, came to the game as well. Her kids go to school at Williams Field, but she was rooting for Casteel. The game didn't go as we wanted it to. They just weren't playing their best. The lost in 4 sets. They will likely meet Williams Field in the championship game. That loss put Casteel in 2nd place in 5A. But, as long as they win their last two games they will have home court advantage for the playoffs until the championship game, which is always played at Skyline High School in Mesa.
Friday Jack had the day off practice. Millie had two football games at 7 pm and 9 pm. I didn't make her go to gymnastics. We came home after school and relaxed for a bit. They won both of their games. She is playing for the social aspect of it, for sure. She doesn't play offense much, which doesn't seem to bother her. She's just glad she gets to hang out with her friends.
Saturday we started destructing our flooring. My mom and dad helped as well. Our house will be a wreck for a while, which kind of stresses me out. I have to just try to ignore it all.
We got about half of the tile up on Saturday.
Sunday the neighbors came over to help with the floor. We got all the tile up as well as the carpet. We had rented bags to dump it all in and they would be collected on Monday from Home Depot. Stuart rented a scrapper to get the stubborn glue off the concrete. Needless to say, our house was dust ridden. We had originally thought we would paint the concrete or stain it. But after looking at it, we have about decided we are going to have to do either vinyl that looks like wood or tile that looks like wood. This project may go on forever.
Monday, in the evening, Millie had gymnastics and Jack was home from practice at about 4 o'clock.
Tuesday Jack had an afternoon game so I took a half-day off and Millie was checked out at school to go watch his game. They played Higley again and they won. After Jack's game I took Millie to gymnastics and came back and got Jack after all the games were over. When we got home, I made baked potatoes for dinner. It is one of the things Millie will eat. She's a potato fan for sure.
Wednesday, I met Kristi for dinner after I had picked Jack up from practice and taken Millie to Flag Football practice and then picked her up. We closed Skippy's down. Jack was going to Tatum's dance show and so I dropped him there before I went to dinner and her family brought him home. Millie was on her own, but she kind of likes that.
Thursday, my students were working on their college and career day display boards. It was very chaotic, but it is something this school does in grades 5 and 6 every year. Millie and I left right after school and I took her to gymnastics. Then I headed to the gym to watch Jack's final regular season game against Campo Verde. I thought he played well, but he was disappointed in his play. He played all three sets and made some vital plays. Who knows? Now for playoffs.
Friday was Stuart's birthday. Millie left gym at 7 as she had her regional competition the following morning. Jack had gone to Tatum's dance show with one of his buddies. Once Millie was home, Stuart and I headed to Skippy's for a beer before picking up Jack and Asher.
Saturday was the event of the season. Millie lost her temper in the morning while I was doing her hair. I feared that would throw her off, but it didn't.
She did so well! She placed 3rd all around out of 29 athletes in her age group from Northern and Southern California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
After the gymnastics meet, we went and had lunch for Stuart's birthday. Jack then decided he wanted to move his room back upstairs. The unfortunate part about that was he had already forfeited his original room and gave it to Millie. So he had to move into Millie's old room, which is pink. We did tell him we would paint it at some stage, but not immediately.
Millie had a birthday party to go to at 3 o'clock so I took her there. When I got home, Jack had almost finished moving things back up to his room and the things in the spare room downstairs to the original spare room. Jack had three buddies come over in the afternoon for a sleepover.
Around 5:30 pm, I took the boys to In-N-Out to eat dinner. I dropped them off and went to pick up Millie from her birthday party. On the way back to get the boys, I asked Millie if she wanted to go to Elevate with the boys. They had said it was fine if she wanted to go with them. She was excited. We got the boys at Target and headed to Elevate. When I came back home, Stuart and I did some moving around of furniture to try to get the guest room back in a presentable state. Mitch and Elise came over for a chat and to give Stuart his birthday present. I left the house around 8:45 to pick the kids up. Jack and his buddies were pretty calm for the evening. They took snacks upstairs, but didn't make a mess, and they were all asleep by about midnight.
Sunday morning we got up and the boys were all gone by 10 am. We took Jack to Tatum's dance competition at Higley Center for the Arts. Then Millie, Stuart and myself went with our neighbors to TopGolf. We had a bite of lunch there and then Millie rode with the neighbors back to our house while Stuart and I went and checked out kitchen options and flooring options at Home Depot. We spent the rest of the evening over at the neighbors. They had drained and torn down their above ground pool. They were debating whether to get another one or not. Their old one had rusted and was falling apart. Mitch fried fish and Stuart had cut up potatoes for the fryer as well. The food was great and the company was as well.
Monday morning when Stuart got up to go to work, he left the house around 4 o'clock and his check engine light came on in his car. So he had to get Jack's car aligned in order to drive it to Gallup. He left his car at the repair shop. It turned out that some things were loose and the repair was actually not a repair after all. They weren't convinced the loose things had caused the check engine light to come on. So it could happen again. He carried on to Gallup, but didn't work on Monday. Monday at school was relatively mild. I took Millie to gymnastics after school and picked Jack up from practice. The volleyball season is now in postseason play. Casteel is ranked second so they did not have to play the initial first game, which was to be played on Tuesday. I picked Millie up from gymnastics and we had an go around about her black shorts and how she wouldn't be wearing them again because they were way too tight for her. I win in the end and she was mad for a while.
Tuesday was more of the same. Millie went to gymnastics and I picked Jack up from volleyball. When I came home, I tried to sort out some more things for the garage sale. I also tried to kind of clear up and clean up some of our mess from the weekend of moving rooms. My parents came down and brought a table for the garage sale. And then my mom made some comments about how my house used to be quite clean and cute, and it would be that way again. So that was a bit discouraging. But we are in a stage of our life where everything is a bit of a shit show. The kitchen has really rocked us. It also hasn't helped that we've had three cars that have needed some pretty major repairs recently. This too shall pass. I picked Millie up from gymnastics and brought her a quesadilla. Her meals are almost the same every week.
Wednesday Jack went to 7th/8th grade volleyball games and then to play sand volleyball at Gilbert Regional. He then had a snafoo when he got home. He was to plug in his phone downstairs but instead he snuck it back in his room. This prompted me to read his texts, which is my right because I pay for his phone. I read some pretty disturbing things between him and his girlfriend. We had words and he went to bed crying. Being 15 is so tough....on all of us. His deceit in taking his phone back to his room was really my major concern. The conversation with Tatum was just disappointing as I have always told him that things in print never go away. Basically, they have been more physically involved than we like. And, he knows the rule of 'you are not to be in her bedroom nor she in yours'. It seems that rule isn't followed at her house. So guess who won't be going to her house again until I can trust him? And that's likely to be a long time. I'm not naive to the fact that he is going to be curious and do things I may not be totally happy with. But I do caution him to know that a physical relationship has a way of altering your decisions and sometimes your life, forever. We have talked to him so much about the fact that he will be 18 most of his senior year and he will likely not be dating someone who is 18, which spells trouble, sometimes. It's just a lot!
Thursday morning was a bit tense in our house. I had a conversation with Jack about the incident the previous evening. I tried not to shame him, but simply talked to him about my concerns. Once he got to school and thought about things, he apologized to me and said he knew I was just trying to protect him. He acknowledged the fact that he was too young to take in some of the physical side of a relationship. He also told me that he told Tatum what happened and she told her mom. Then I got a very mature text from Tatum, apologizing and asking for my forgiveness for going too far. It was seriously heart warming and genuine. She didn't have to do that, nor did I expect her to. They really are well suited for each other. But how often do high school sweethearts last? She's the type of girl I want him to marry, just not anytime soon. Jack told me that evening that he sent a text to her mom as well. I actually saw the text when I went to pick Millie up from gymnastics. Her mom had a similar exchange with Jack as I had with Tatum. It was reassuring to know we both reacted the same way.
Friday was the first match of the playoffs for Casteel. They played a school from Glendale and beat them fairly easily. Stuart made it home in time for the game. Jack played well and was pleased for the win. Friday morning I got a text from Tatum asking me if it was okay if she came to the game to watch Jack. Poor girl! I told her I expected her to be there and that one little hiccup shouldn't be a reason for her to be forever punished. I do really love this girl! When I saw her at the game, I went up and hugged her. She messaged me after the game and told me that made her feel so much better. I told her we were all 15 years old at one time.
After the game we were going to go to get something to eat, but instead, we went back to the Holmes' house and ordered pizza. Millie had gone to her football game with her friends Ava and Bella and had been returned home around 8:30 pm. I told her I would come and pick her up but she didn't want me to do so. Jack ended up staying the night at Carter's. Yep, that's the kind of consequences we have at our house. Get rewarded for doing something stupid. Of course I didn't think of not letting him stay the night until we got home. Parent fail, again!
Saturday morning Stuart and I got up and started putting stuff out for our garage sale. We had a pretty decent flow of traffic and got rid of a bunch of things. What was left, we packed up and took to Goodwill around 10:30 am. I was going to go until noon and then got bored, so decided to close shop up early. Millie helped out so I gave her some of the money we made. My parents came down for a while during the garage sale, but my mom went out back and FaceTimed my brother and my dad left when we started to clean up. My mom was so mad and said my dad was being rude. Ha!
We met the Holmes family, and the boys who had spent the night, at Skippy's around 11 o'clock. We had a beer and then took Jack home. Once we were home Stuart and I headed out for our weekly lunch. We went to Creekside Taco and sat at the bar. When we got home we just chilled for the rest of the afternoon. I took Jack and Asher to Owen's around 5 pm because they were going to a birthday party from 6-10 pm. Knowing full well Jack would likely stay the night at Owen's, I told him he needed to do his chores before he left. Again, the consequences we have for bad behavior?
The neighbors got their new pool up and filled, so Saturday evening we had fried food again and the kids swam in the pool. They admitted it was a bit chilly, but they had fun. Elise was away for her 40th birthday, with her bestie Jenny. So it was just Mitch and the boys and the three Telfords. It was a nice evening.
