Fourth of July

Here are a few pictures of the girls from the Fourth of July. I'll write a little more about it later...suffice it to say Ava had a grand time in the pool, but she was terrified of the fireworks. She had to "hide" from them.

It Doesn't Feel Like School Has Been Out a Month

I know you all are thinking that I’ve had a gracious plenty time to post something to the blog since school has been out for a month now. I mean, c’mon, that’s the point of going into education, right? To get those three months off during the summer. My summer vacation is actually just beginning this week. Last week I was at a conference and the two weeks before that I had class. I’ve only had one week off thus far, and I spent it going to probate court and taking care of some of the “business” things. Coming soon to this blog (and soon is a relative term): How to make your spouse’s life easier in the event of your untimely death. Boy, getting all of that stuff straight is no fun.

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend Richland Northeast’s graduation. Since Mike was the athletic director, he normally sat on the stage. In his chair this year they had a football, whistle, and RNE baseball cap. The principal began his address to the graduating class with, “Ice Cold Water!” In unison, the class responded, “Chick-fil-A.” You would have thought it was rehearsed, but none of them knew he was going to do that. I’m sure the folks in the crowd were wondering what in the world was going on! The principal went on and talked about Mike a bit and the importance of relationships in life, one of the things Mike valued so much.

Some of y’all know that with my job I’m part of the South Carolina Reading Initiative. And those of you who didn’t know, well, you know now! We’re a group of literacy coaches from across the state that meet monthly for state study, and we’re also divided into three regions that meet monthly as well. The two weeks I had class this month were for SCRI. A week after Mike passed away in April, my region had their regularly scheduled meeting, but I did not attend because I had not yet returned to work. At that time they took up a collection of money and purchased a large selection of young adult sports-themed novels that are going to be donated to Richland Northeast High School. Inside the front cover of each novel is a label noting that it was given in memory of Mike. They presented the books to me when we were divided by region in class. There are some really awesome titles in the collection including Friday Night Lights and Walter Dean Myers’ latest, Game. It’s tempting to keep a few for my own library, but I will make sure they all make their way to the mighty Cavaliers.

Ava and Savannah are doing well. I’m sure it won’t be much longer and Ava will be wearing her hair in a ponytail. Five years isn’t long, is it? Savannah is able to stand by herself now and will be walking before long. I personally prefer the walking stage over crawling. We’ve had a few thunderstorms over the last few weeks as is typical this time of year. When it started thundering, Ava asked, “What’s that?” To keep her from getting scared, I thought about what we used to say as kids in regards to thunder and told her that it was Daddy bowling. Now, being a literacy coach, I should have known better than to tell her something that she has never seen or heard of. If a child (or any person, for that matter) doesn’t have something to connect new information to, he or she isn’t going to understand it. It’s not as if we watch bowling championships on ESPN around here. Anyway, Ava’s response to me telling her that the thunder was Mike bowling was, “Daddy doesn’t have bowls.” She still doesn’t have a clue what it means to go bowling, but whenever Ava hears thunder now and you ask her what that is, she’ll say, “That’s Daddy’s bowls.” I guess one of my projects over the summer will have to introduce to her to the game of bowling. I’ve played once on a Wii, but I don’t think showing her that way will be quite the same.

Decker Boulevard Chick-fil-A Rocks!

No, I have not fallen into a great abyss and disappeared from the face of the earth. The whole working full-time and being an instant single mother is a little time consuming (Who knew? Clearly these celebs who are choosing to be single mothers multiple times over have full-time nannies to do everything for them.), and I haven’t gotten into a complete routine yet. But don’t you worry your pretty little heads…I’ll get it down before long and will be back to my Johnny-on-the-spot ways. I’m very fortunate to have parents who help me out with the girls quite a bit, or else I really would be over the edge by now.

I must give yet another shout-out to the Chick-fil-A on Decker Boulevard. They did an awesome job with the Mike Starnes Night—I wasn’t expecting them to go all out like they did. Wow! Angela, the marketing director, read the blog where I posted about me and Mike going to Hawaii, so she went with a Hawaiian theme for the event. There was a tropical backdrop and leis for folks as they arrived. Blue and orange balloons (RNE colors) were abound, and stuffed cows and games were available for the kiddies…checkers and a cup stacking game—apparently we all missed the market on this one; it is an official game with cups that you stack, unstack, and time yourself doing so. There was a karaoke machine, but I didn’t see anyone brave enough to take it on. They even had a chanting contest of Mike’s signature “Chick-fil-A…Ice Cold Water.” Three girls from Northeast won as a trio—sorry, I didn’t get your names, girls! The Chick-fil-A cow even made an appearance. Ava was a little skeptical of the cow, but she had a BIG time climbing around in the indoor playground. “One more time” were her famous last words. Many thanks to all of you who came out to the event and/or purchased a t-shirt. Between the profits of the food sales and t-shirts (160 were sold!), $1093 was raised for the memorial. Not bad. Not bad at all!

At the end of the evening Ava and I did our new tradition—she gave one of the helium balloons a kiss and let go of it to send to Daddy. Savannah will partake once she’s a little older…she doesn’t have the kiss puckering thing down pat just yet, and I’m thinking letting her slobber all over latex isn’t a real good idea. And before you start thinking I’m that smart (though according to the Internet, I do have a Mensa-level IQ…and everything on the Internet is true and accurate, right?), I didn’t think of the whole balloon thing myself—someone at work told me about it. And don’t go giving me credit for thinking of the beach metaphor for eternity mentioned in my last post either. I heard about that many, many, many years ago, though I have know idea where.

Until I can get my act together and post again, here are a few pictures from Mike Starnes Night at Chick-fil-A…