The One With Five More Minutes

March 2-5, 2018
For the first time in a long time – and for another long time to come, this past weekend was calm.  Not a ton of stuff going on – just a few things to keep us entertained.  And the sun was out, cool, early spring temperatures, and lots of time to just “be.”  It was very relaxing, and very welcomed!

Emma came to Stillwater Friday evening to spend the weekend with us.  She got to town after we had gone out to grab some Chick-fil-A before taking Jake on an adventure with his friends.  She spent the evening playing with Finn – her biggest fan – and signing in to her family’s Netflix account so we could ALL binge our favorite shows on our favorite devices.  She got to surprise Jake by going with dad to pick him up from “Open Gym” at Youth Fitness Zone later in the evening.

Saturday was an easy morning.  Lara drove herself (well, chauffeured me, technically – but I went right back home) to Couch Park for the Pioneer Baseball team’s home opener about 11:00am, and the rest of us joined her for the first pitch at noon.  It was kind of windy, and that kept us pretty cool.  Emma enjoyed talking to friends she saw around the ballpark, and Lara worked from the dugout for the 7 inning game.  Our Pioneers came up ONE RUN short, but it was a beautiful day of sunshine and home opener baseball.

Sunshine and Baseball (Jake was at a friend's birthday party)

The rest of the afternoon was more just resting and relaxing.  Lara left for a couple hours to go walk the 3 mile trail around Boomer Lake with Colby, while the rest of just took advantage of a last day.

Sunday, was much the same.  Catching up, watching TV, playing games.  We went to church at Life.Church at 4:00pm - where I forced them to take a picture!  If they are all 4 in one place, I try to capture it!  I know the days of them being together are getting fewer and farther between!  After church, we took Emma back to Orlando so she could start her week.  And, in the spirit of tradition – and keeping the big family going forward – we had our usual Sunday Night Family Meeting in the car on the way home.  Went over the calendar for next week, checked everyone’s grades, and talked about out highlights of the week gone by.  Prepared for the week to come – even though SOMETHING always changes last minute!

It was Windy.  And Finn is 6.

This laid back, put your feet up weekend reminded me, it’s still going so very fast – even if we have time to enjoy it more.  We weren’t rushing from here to there and eating in the car and hoping everyone got homework and laundry done!  But, we were wishing the weekend away in other ways.  Just waiting for the next thing.  When the next thing is still coming WAY TOO SOON!  And as if the turning of the calendar pages isn’t enough, the song “Five More Minutes” by Scotty McCreedy is on REPEAT on the country radio stations around here.  It has a line that says:

Time rolls by the clock don't stop

I wish I had a few more drops

Of the good stuff, the good times 

Oh but they just keep on flying

Even on slow, lazy weekends like this past one, I still wish I had 5 more minutes.  To hug them.  To soak it all in.  To really LISTEN to that rambling story about friends I don’t really know and inside jokes form class that I’ll never get.  A few more drops of watching them with their brothers.  With each other (I hear you talking in that room after you “go to bed”).  With us.  It is still going WAY too fast!  And this blog is still my feeble attempt to write it all down.  To try and hold on for Five More Minutes…

The Last One Before School Started

August 11 - 14, 2017
They start back to school this Thursday.  This was their last weekend before it all gets very, VERY real!  Sophomore year.  So much to think about, plan for, and DO!  These busy girls are back at it so soon!  This last weekend was pretty precious.

IT was their Dad's "weekend", so Friday after football practice Lara headed out to the ranch in Orlando to spend the weekend with her sister out there.  Other than a few moments of an Instagram LIVE session where they were making chocolate chip cookies, I didn't  see them much Friday night or Saturday.  I know they made memories, though.  They always do.

I had asked them earlier in the week to set aside some time for me on Sunday.  Last year, we started a tradition of taking some fun, impromptu "Back to School" pictures of just the two of them.  For year and years - well, since Jake joined us and subsequently, Finn - we had taken  some pictures before school on the day of school, including a family photo.  But with the school start times being so far apart, and the girls never getting pictures of just them, we tried something new last year.  Plus, with Emma being 25 miles away, we had to find a new tradition.  Luckily, they wanted to do it again this year!  So Sunday afternoon, we loaded up between rain showers and header downtown to find some fun backdrops for cute, girly pictures.  We also made sure to incorporate their Dream Weaver Prints Back to School signs.  We had a BLAST, and the results were stunning - as always.  With subjects like these, how can they not?

Here are a few of my favorites (click on each image for a larger view):

But just as quickly as we finished the photo shoot and got back home, phones were buzzing and new plans were being made.  Emma had decided to stay at Nana's house Sunday night so that she could get a ride back to Mulhall early the next morning for work.  And Lara was invited to to Kayaking at Boomer Lake with some friends.  So, we were back in the car and all over town delivering teenagers to their next destination.  I see this happening a lot over the next several months until they can drive themselves!

Here are a couple of pictures of Lara from her Sunday evening adventure:

School starts on Thursday.  Emma is going back to Mulhall-Orlando High School a familiar place for her.  Lara will be starting her first year at Stillwater High School.  The Senior Class of 2018 at Stillwater hosted a Freshman Orientation night this past week to help the Class of 2020 meet new people and get familiar with their surroundings.  But, there is no orientation like trial by fire!  Here's to a NEW year, NEW friendships, and of course NEW ADVENTURES!