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I knew he would but it’s still a relief to have the tryouts over with.
He was a rockstar! He gave it 110% and I think his love for the position and sport was pretty obvious to the coach. We have some equipment issues to deal with ($$$$$$) but I expected that. This was his Tryout gear, I’ll post a picture of his game gear once we get it all together.
I’m so proud of my Baby Ben.
I will admit… I’ve been everywhere but here lately. I don’t have a good excuse. I wish I was super mom and could keep up with work and everything that’s going on at home as well as blog but …… no such luck.
The boys are trying out for Lacrosse teams
Kenny has been away working.
I have been trying to make sure the kids are fed, even if it is just soup and sandwiches.
The dog has pooped in the hallway.
The cat has puked in the basement.
The boys learned that leaving globs of toothpaste for each other in the sink ticks the other off… this results in bickering.
My Niece received her first communion.
The list is really endless but that’s not what you came here to see. Tonight Benjamin finds out if he made the team. I can’t wait to share his good news with you.
Ken has been gone since Monday and will be spending the next 5-6 work weeks away. He will be home only on weekends. While I expected it would get easier as the week went on it’s actually getting more difficult. The first day he was away there were little things that reminded me he was gone….
I reached for my toothbrush and instead of having to figure out which one was mine, it stood alone.
When I was folding the laundry I had to fold the fitted sheets… Ken always folds the fitted sheets for me. They are now in a big ball of a mess in the closet hiding under the nicely folded flat sheets.
His laundry pile is not growing… It’s the same pair of PJ’s he left Monday morning.
While these may seem like little insignificant daily events; to me it’s just that little extra reminder that he’s gone for the week. Now instead of little moments of missing him, they seem to bleed into each other. I miss him all the time.
I’m thrilled that there is only 1 more full day until he’s home for the weekend but I’m also already dreading the weeks following where we will do this over and over again.
I LOVE doing collages. Imagine how happy I was this morning when I visited I heart Faces and found out this weeks topic is Collages. If a picture alone is worth a thousand words, a Collage can tell a whole story.
I did this collage for a friend of mine who is getting married next month. Like me Leslie loves Birch trees, when the one in her front yard died, she wanted to capture it as part of her engagement pictures. I like the way this collage portrays fun old school love….. I can almost hear The Bangles singing Eternal Flame in the background.
When our kids are growing up we teach them not to hit. We teach them to speak respectfully and to do unto others as we would want done unto ourselves.
Now that my boys play lacrosse I find other messages are being shared …. We have handed them big sticks and from the stands you can hear parents yelling “Hit him!, Get him!, Use your sticks!, Good Hit!,”
When I see the boys talking to the opposing team at face off or while waiting for offense to attack defense I imagine the trash talk that’s going on. What kind of foul words are they saying to each other, who’s MOMMA was WHERE last night? What are they saying to each other? Are they going to start fighting? My mind goes to these places because of their age and what I’m hearing in the stands. It’s a very competitive, aggressive, testosterone filled atmosphere.
After the game when I ask Cody if they were trash talking or being rude…. he just laughs…Turns out they were having a conversations about where they got their sticks, where they go to school, how long they have played lacrosse. Very VERY rarely are the boys actually trash talking.
Turns out our initial message stuck.
There are times that it hits me so hard I feel like an addict. It’s a desperate need to be there… Rain or shine – I just need to be there.
It usually starts around Mid January and gradually builds and builds until the trip is booked and we’re on the road.
Believe it or not, it’s the one tradition that I treasure more then Christmas morning.
We have been camping at Killbear Provincial park since the boys were babies. We started off in little tents on air mattresses, moved up to bigger tents on cot’s and now to a we have a Tent trailer with almost all the amenities of home. In all honesty, regardless of where we sleep, the experience is always the same.
Anticipation turns to excitement when the camping bins are opened up and stock is taken, lists are compiled and the shopping begins.
The night before the trailer and truck are packed and it’s almost impossible to sleep.
Driving up the highway Shopping centers and Gas stations turn to Rocks and trees the further north we go.
When we finally get there It feels like we are home… Everything from the Green Killbear sign that welcomes us in to the bumps in the road are familiar.
It’s a week of relaxation. There is no other place I’m able to completely let go and forget any worries or stress. I can stare at the campfire and not have a single thought pop into my mind.
I just can’t wait to be there. Are we almost there yet???
This week’s You Capture is to document “Fresh”.
Lacrosse season officially kicked into high gear this week in our house. We went from the lazy days of winter where my house was clean and the laundry washed, rinsed, dried, folded (repeatedly) to the frantic Spring Lacrosse season where the dishwasher is full of clean dishes and the dishes from last nights dinner are still piled in the sink the morning after. The transformation from lazy days to mass chaos happened in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, this transformation did not:
I’m embarrassed to show you the rest of the house right now…. This is one of the very few fresh spaces in my house today.
Head over to Beth’s Blog and see some other views on Fresh. From cute little baby toes to a pile of clean laundry… Spring is in the air!
By now I think you have all realized I’m not a blog per day blogger. I do however aim to provide you with at least one or two in-my-head ramblings per week. This week I have started and not finished about 3 entries. I have never claimed to be a great good writer and usually when I get “blog block” I move on to another task, in this latest instance I started to look through some of my favorite blogs and noticed there was a party going on and I had almost missed it!
So, let me introduce myself
I’m Tanya.
That’s me on the left. I HATE pictures of myself and the only ones that survive the delete button are ones of me with friends or family. The hottie on the right is my sister Pam. My goal is to take a picture of myself this week to include in this blog. Stay tuned.
I have 3 handsome gentlemen in my life, one of which is my husband Ken. We have been married for almost 15 years now and were married when we were quite young. I feel very fortunate that we grew together instead of apart like statistics dictated we would. He’s my best friend, He’s funny, He’s a Gentleman.
Cody and Ben are my Sons. Cody is 14 and has changed from a boy to a gentleman overnight. His favorite sport is Lacrosse and he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. He’s very animated, we often compare him to Jim Carey and always wonder what he’s going to do or say next.
This is Ben. He just turned 12. He likes to bike ride, play lacrosse and play with his iPod. He’s a lot more focused and serious then his brother. While he hasn’t quite figured out what he wants to do when he grows up, he’s doing what he should be doing, playing with his friends and just being a Kid. Ben is very attentive and responsive to emotions around him. No one hugs like Benjamin, he gives you his heart every time.
I created this blog to document memories for them. When I was about 11 we went on a family trip to Florida. During the trip my mom kept a diary and when we got home she posted the pictures from the trip along with her diary entries into an album. That’s the same thing I’d like to create for my boys, a day-to-day “Florida album” so they can not only look at the pictures and recall their memories but also read the blogs and see the events through my eyes. It’s my way of showing them how much I cherish them and our time together… they are growing up way too quickly.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m not a writer. As a kid I remember looking through books at the library to see the pictures, it was the pictures that were the deciding factor as to whether I was going to check the book out or not. I take the same approach with my blog. I absolutely love photography and In the process of creating my blog, I have found incredible inspiration in so many others; so inspired in fact that I can’t wait to finish this blog entry so I can go check out all the other blogs at this P-A-R-T-Y!!!!
So, with that said, Welcome to Raising Gentlemen! Thanks for stopping by.
I can’t believe the weekend is over and next weekend is almost here. I look back and not only do I regret that I didn’t do more prep work before the weekend but I am also looking through my pictures and can’t believe how few I took! I had both my niece and nephew over and if you couldn’t tell by looking through my blog already, they are excellent models 🙂 I did sneak a few in though.
The weather was great, the company was great and the food was great…. what more could I ask for?
This is Miss Vicky in the outfit I got her… I LOVE the legging trend and how flipping cute girls clothes are! I had fun shopping for her.
Easter desert (which was supposed to be the lemon cake) was an amazing 7 layered Coconut cake with macaroon nests. This sucker is going to cost me a few miles on the treadmill
After an afternoon of candy and a dinner of Turkey, ham, veggies, potatoes & cake, everyone pretty well melted into the couches and on the living room floor.
Of course, the kids got up and moved a lot quicker than us adults did…. They even complained of being hungry before the night was over. Poor Michelle couldn’t even look in the fridge for fear she’d restock the shelves for us (was that too gross?…. Did that cross the line?)
Miss Vicky colored with Benjamin while Cody threw around his lacrosse ball and before we knew it, everyone was gone. It’s such an odd time after everyone leaves, it’s like there is this blanket of silence and Ken and I just look at each other and wonder what to do with ourselves. We love having everyone over and it takes us a while to re adjust to being just the 4 of us again.
Even the dogs get a little depressed
Happy Easter!
Today is my Sister in-law’s birthday.
Michelle is the best sister in law I could ever asked for.
I see her as a friend as well as a sister.
I don’t have any other friends that I confide in as trustingly as I do with her.
She is an amazing mother to my Niece and Nephew and a fun aunt for my boys.
She’s a devoted wife and friend to my Brother.
I’m so happy she’s a part of our family and can’t wait to celebrate her Birthday with her this weekend.
Happy Birthday Michelle… I love you!
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