The One That Was Supposed To Be The End

May 22 - 24, 2019

This was supposed to be the last "2020 Project" entry.  They turned 18 last week.  Emma was supposed to graduate last week; Lara this week.  But, instead, we are still in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, and we are on like week 1200 (ok, just 11) of a stay-at-home order we affectionately, called quarantine.  Oklahoma (and Stillwater) is in Phase 2 of the reopening, so more places are open for business, but not everything.  And we still stay home most of the time.  And still wear protective masks when we got out.  Hand washing and hand sanitizing are top priorities!  But, things are starting to come back to life.

It was also supposed to be the Stillwater High School Class of 2020 graduation ceremony this weekend.  But, it has been rescheduled for late July.  In honor of that missed occasion, here is Lara's graduation announcement and social media post about her college choice:

Since some students won't be able to be at graduation this summer, the high school celebrated the Senior Class all week on social media and with small things happening around town.  Lara missed out on it, because, well, she was on "make-up" Spring Break."  More on that later.  In the meantime, her family decided she needed to be represented at the drive-through, plus we wanted to make sure she got the gifts, gift cards, t-shirts, and other goodies being handed out.  We drove through her elementary drive through and the high school.

In the meantime, while Lara was out of town, I did get to see Emma for one night!  She had some work to do in Stillwater, so she spent one quick night with us to cut down on her driving!

And Lara, the beach bum, spent a week on the Gulf Coast of Texas with 3 of her favorite friends.  Her friend Kendall's family has a condo on the beach at Port Aransas, and they were going down for a week to get a break from and coronavirus craziness and to get away from the quarantine.  So, they told Kendall to bring friends.  Lara was among the chosen!  While I was a little nervous to let her go, her BFF Erika was going, plus I knew she was in great hands!  Their buddy Karsten rounded out the group, and the had the time of their lives!  Days on the beach, cruising around in a golf cart, fun activities, and mentoring from 2 older friends.  So glad Lara got a vacation with friends before going to college.  She came home on Sunday, and we were all so glad to have her back in the house!

On the beach at Port A!

Karsten, Kendall, Erika, Lara

At the pottery painting place

BFF's in the Golden Hour Light - singing I would assume!

So, like I said this should be the last entry.  Based on the goal I set out when I first started this in the middle of summer 2017.  But, life throws curve balls.  And I know I have at least 2 more entries with this project, as I have 2 high school graduations to attend in the next 9 weeks.  Emma moves to Campus in 8 weeks.  Lara in 11 weeks.  So, we will enjoy our summer.  The last summer of being a care-free teenager.  College starts soon.  The real work begins.  Childhood is indeed, fleeting.

CLICK HERE to see all the 2020 Project posts

The One Where They Packed It All In

June 28 - 30, 2019

Remember the old (nor so old?) board game, Chutes and Ladders?  The ladders take you up and the chutes bring you down?  That's exactly what this summer feels like.  And I don't really see an end in sight for a while.  I keep hearing the term SENIOR SUMMER and I guess this is it.  The last summer they have with their classmates.  Next summer is unpredictable.  Next summer, there is no project 2020 blog. Next summer...

And this weekend was a big one.  Friday was a day we have had planned for a long time.  To help Emma decide what she is going to do after high school, we scheduled a campus tour and visit at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah - home of the RiverHawks.  And, in true Weaver fashion, it was a family affair.  Lara had to work in Stillwater at her Nanny job, and luckily she can occasionally take Finn with her.  So, Nana, Grandpa, Me, Dad, Jake, and Emma loaded up and drove 2 hours to Green Country in Oklahoma.  With all the rain and intense sun we have had this past few months, everything was so green and so lush!  The drive was long is you ask Emma, but the results were well worth it.  We got to see a presentation of all the things NSU has to offer, go on a campus tour and of course, the tour ended at the bookstore so souvenirs were purchased.  We had a fun lunch downtown, stopped in to see some relatives (and some real estate that's for sale), and headed back to Stillwater full of hope and plans for the future.

She thinks she might like it here

Bought a T-shirt (and a sweatshirt)

Parents Approve

Lunch at Sam and Ella's

The moment we all arrived back at "home base" in Stillwater (our house), Nana and Grandpa were exhausted so they were off to Perkins, and Emma and Lara loaded up and headed to Orlando - because they were off for another adventure early the next morning!  The girls spent Saturday through Monday with the Horinek family winding their way through Texas.  The main attraction was the Schlitterbahn Water Park in San Marcos, but they stopped in Waco, Dallas, Buc-cee's and other places along the way.  Here are a few pictures they shared with me as well.

The aforementioned sweatshirt

Magnolia in Waco

Waco

Waco

Next weekend - our favorite - the Fourth of July! Summer is basically half way over...

What’s in a Name?

Finn and family update first!  Finn did AWESOME after his ear tubes!  We can really tell a difference in what he can hear, and he is trying SO HARD to walk!  He has gotten 2 new teeth this week - brings us up to 8.  But there is no rhyme or reason to the ones coming in now.  They are not symmetric nor in order, so I bet he gets more in the next few weeks.  He had his first evaluation at Hearts for Hearing in Oklahoma City yesterday, and scored in the range for normal for the tests they performed.  We go back in six weeks to do it again once the tubes are “settled” in more.  After a pretty calm weekend of typical activities, we had a bit of a crazy Monday and Tuesday!  OSU campus closed at 12:30 Monday and all day Tuesday due to a “blizzard” – that turned out to be nothing more than a cold rain and about 2 inches of wet snow!  Free time off!  The kids got Tuesday out of school, too, but we had the appointment in OKC, so it was basically a wash.  They went to Nana’s and played in the snow water and mud at her house while we went with Finn.  Tuesday afternoon I put them to work tagging clothes and items for the Adorable Affordables consignment sale!

Earlier today, I was chatting online with a new friend (who made this AMAZING shirt for me!) and I asked her about how she chose her son’s name.  She, in turn, asked me about Finn’s name.  I’m not sure I have ever really told the “long” (I’ll try to keep it short) version of how we came to decide on his AWESOME name, so I thought I should write about it.  And if I am doing his, I can’t leave the BIG Dream Weaver kids out!  It’s kind of heady to think that I am (at least partially) responsible for saddling 4 humans with the monikers they will use for the rest of their lives.  I hope I served them well in this task…

Finn Ricker Weaver: (en utero name: Shocker.  Because we were SHOCKED!) Fourth child.  LAST child.  The story of how we came to decide on his name is not really all that glamorous or exciting.  We had decided along the way early in the pregnancy that we were pretty sure we wanted a 4 letter name for this (genderless at this point) baby.  Emma and Lara were 4 letters, we called Jacob by his 4 letter nickname of Jake, so it stood to reason – 4^th kid, 4 letters.  So, we printed lists off the internet.  Off name databases. Grabbed baby name books off store shelves.  Pulled names from our own minds.  And at MANY lunch dates, we read our lists to each other and marked off HUNDREDS of names as no-go’s.  The girl names that finally remained were Holley (with the “ey” like my name; courtesy of the 4 year old who has just seen Cars 2 and loved Holley Shiftwell), Stella (ending in “a” like Emma and Lara), and Kate (family name on my husband’s side – 4 letters).  Needless to say, we didn’t even need these!  The boy names were Nathan (Nate), Barrett (Rett) and Finn.  All from name books or websites.  The afore mentioned 4 year old was particularly attached to the name Finn.  Again, Cars 2 – Finn McMissle.  Plus, Britt and I are fans of the FOX TV show Glee, and Finn Hudson was a main character, so the name was “known” a bit and not completely off the wall.  (You can see the names in a game from our Gender Reveal Party post!)  The other kids’ names were so traditional; we didn’t want to veer too far off that path.  As for his middle name, we wanted to honor my older brother Brian who had passed in April of 2011.  We didn’t feel comfortable using the name Brian, so we chose to use our last name, Ricker, as Finn’s middle name.  I am so glad we decided to do this.  Makes his name truly unique, and it completely suits him!  Finn Ricker Weaver – Smiley and serious, tough and tenacious!

Here’s a video of 4 year old Jake the night before the gender reveal party – praying for a boy named Finn McMissle, or if it had to be a girl, at least name it Holley Shiftwell!

Jacob Alan Weaver:  (en utero name: Bullet.  Because we are die hard OSU Cowboy fans and that’s our football game day mascot’s name! And a fetus is small. Like a bullet…) I dug deep into the archives to find a post about Jake’s name.  I’ve been in the blogging/journaling business a long time…  Sadly, the post I found wasn’t very exciting!  But, I do know how we chose his name!  We knew from very early on – before we had time to really discuss names, even – that our baby was a boy.  This was Britt’s first child, and as such I gladly left the major part of the naming decision up to him.  He wanted to leave his legacy with a good, strong name.  We talked and decided we wanted to name him Jacob after Britt’s dad.  Since he wasn’t a “junior” we decided to go with a different middle name from his grandfather.  So, we chose Alan, which is Britt’s middle name.  I remember we bought a frame for the ultrasound picture that definitely showed our baby’s gender to give to Britt’s parents, and we wrote “Jacob Alan” on the frame.  His parents – especially his Dad – were elated!  Such a neat memory we get to share with our Jake some day! Jacob Alan Weaver: mischievous and silly, class clown and big tease!

Emma Marie and Lara Elizabeth Horinek:  (en utero names: Jenna and Barbara.  Because I was in Texas, the Senior George Bush was president, and those were the “First” twins!) I had to dig WAAAAAAAAAAAAY back to find any documentation on these names!  I typed my journal on a computer, but it was not online anywhere.  I had printed the entries as I went along, and they are in a binder.  And yes, I knew where the binder was!  Once we knew the babies were both girls, the girls’ father and I decided we would each name one baby.  Seems fair, right?  But, we each had veto power if we thought the chosen name was hideous.  Luckily, that was never an issue.  We had also decided we didn’t want to do the matchy-matchy thing (like Haylee  and Kaylee) or even the same first sound thing (like Madison and Mackenzie).  We did decide to do 4 letters, and end in the same sound.  They were twins after all!  We couldn’t disappoint the people who wanted  ”twin-y” names!  He chose the name Emma Marie.  Emma after a distant grandmother, and Marie was the middle name of his paternal grandmother (who actually died in a tragic car crash on Thanksgiving Day the November I was pregnant!).  I chose Lara Elizabeth.  That was the name my mother had originally chosen for me.  But my brother insisted upon calling me Betsey.  But I always knew I wanted to name my daughter that!  Lara is after my Dad (Larry) and his favorite song from Dr. Zhivago “Lara’s Theme”  and then I stuck with Elizabeth since Betsey is a derivative of Elizabeth. Plus, that way they both girls ended up with "traditional" names.  I also liked the fact that there were no “obvious” nicknames for either name.  I wanted them to be called what we named them.  Their “Twister” nickname came about when they were about 6 months old and a sorority sister of mine told me a story about her brother being in Kindergarten and coming home and telling the family about the “Twisters” in his class.  They later deciphered that he mean “twin sisters!”  And we still call my girls the Twisters 10 years later! Emma Marie: strong and determined, creative and passionate.  Lara Elizabeth: goofy and fun, smart and loving.

So, what’s in a name?  How did you choose the names for your children, or how did your parents choose your name?  Good feelings or bad feelings about it? I think these stories can be fascinating!

Neun, Nueve, Neuf, Nove, Nio, Dokuz, NINE!

Nine years ago today (May 13), I was wandering waddling through my cluttered house in Lewisville, TX thinking about my last few days as a childless woman.  I knew I had 3 more days until my twin babies would be born at Baylor Hospital – Grapevine, TX, and I knew I had a Dr’s appointment and paperwork at the hospital the next morning.  I knew I had family coming to stay with us for a few days, and I needed to straighten up the house, finish packing my hospital bag(s), and make a Target run (which was between my house and the hospital, so there was a stop planned there after the aforementioned appointment).  I had plenty of time.  Or so I thought!  Little did I know that in just a few short hours, I would be holding 2 precious, orange-headed baby girls who would rock my world and change everything about my life as I knew it up to that point.

Their arrival was a little hectic, and life has been hectic ever since! And I love it that way!  When they were tiny babies I liked to pick out their physical differences like Emma had no hair, Lara had TONS; Emma’s 2^nd toe is longer than her big toe, Lara’s is shorter; Lara has detached earlobes, Emma’s are attached, etc etc etc.  But now that they are growing into young ladies, the differences are SO much greater!  The way the approach life, their interests, the books they read, the friends they make, the areas they succeed in, the areas they have to work hardest in – are all different.  And it’s still fun to look at them and identify those differences.  To embrace them.  I love them both so much – and so differently!  Even the way I discipline them has to be different.  They are truly 2 unique individuals, who just happened to come into the world on the same day.

We are gearing up for another busy weekend!  Last night we bought all the birthday party supplies!  The girls each got to invite 3 friends to go to Swick’s Pizza  for a birthday party where they will make their own pizzas and play a round of glow-in-the-dark mini golf.  The party theme is “Way to Glow” and Britt is making each child a personalized glow-in-the-dark T-shirt to wear, and I got a ton of those glow necklaces and a few glow-in-the-dark bracelets for each kid to wear over in the dark room.  Should be fun!  Tonight, Twin A is staying home with me to make cake balls for her party (after Jake’s T-ball game!) and Twin B is going to Yukon with her “Other Dad” to make homemade pizza.  Emma opted to stay home so she wouldn’t have to get up too super early for her 10:00 baseball game.  See – it’s a busy weekend!  After the baseball game, they are having lunch with their Other Dad, then that afternoon/ evening they will open presents with us (the Five Dream Weavers) and my parents.  Then, the party is on Sunday!

They are growing up.  And I can’t slow it down!  I recently read a book called “Moms' Ultimate Guide to the Tween Girl World” by Nancy Rue and while I think we have not gotten to some of the issues presented, it feels good to be a little more prepared.  I would recommend this book to all my friends who are moms of tween girls!

I am looking forward to this weekend and celebrating the birth of my first babies 9 years ago.  They are beautiful, energetic, smart, fun, and wonderful young woman.  This journey of motherhood they are leading me on is inspirational, educational, rewarding, and the hardest thing I have ever done.  And I wouldn’t change it for the world!  Yesterday’s Tweet: