Team Wilmore had a great weekend of milestones.  It began Friday night when Tristan came home from school having decided to attend his 1st school dance.  I have to admit, I was hesitant.  Middle school is brutal.  High school is brutal.  I was concerned that he would encounter some mean kids … he has during school days both last and this year.  If the mean kids can reach him during school days when the kids are pretty closely monitored, what’s to say they wouldn’t during a less-monitored activity?  Thankfully, he had a good time, no mean kids approached him and he texted me asking to pick him up early!  Score!  Report: the dance was fun to begin with, but too loud and grew boring quickly.  Quote, “I think I’ve had a taste of partying, and just let me say, I don’t like it.”  Double score!!!  Major score!!!

Ready for the dance

Saturday started early with Matt running a half marathon.  He runs daily but hadn’t trained and said he was treating it as a “fun run.” After more than a decade of loving this man, I know my husband better than he knows himself.  I knew it wouldn’t be a fun run.  He ran the first mile hamming it up for my camera.  After I cheered at the start, I headed to the finish to watch for him running in.  I absolutely love watching Matt run and cheering for him.  I may be biased, but I think he’s pretty amazing and I still tear up with pride as I watch him run … every time.  I wasn’t surprised when he was the 2nd runner to cross the finish line.  He’s won his age group before and always finishes high in the overall rankings, but finishing 2nd is a record. Wow!

Soler’s Race team … you can just tell they’re good people!

Hamming it up in the 1st mile

No ham here – serious at the finish

Back to kidding around again at the awards ceremony

On Sunday, Matt paced one of the guys that he coaches in a fitness competition.  I had fun cheering again. Did I mention that I love being the cheering section?

The weekend ended with me feeling so grateful for the positive new acquaintances and the far-away angels in our life.  To sum it up:
       “We meet people for a reason.  Either they’re a blessing or a lesson.”
                                                             -Author Unknown

I need to catch up.  I have a Labor Day weekend post and a 9/11 post, so I’ll start with Labor Day.  Stress.  It seems to be a constant for me and Matt.  I thought it would alleviate when I left my old job, but was sadly mistaken and disappointed.  My stress level though is minuscule compared to Matt’s.  We’ve had an emergency room visit with chest tightness and pain, he’s had what I believe to be anxiety attacks, and just today he returned to our doctor after 5 days of chest tightness and pain. Heart conditions run in his family.  BIG time.  He had a heart murmur as a child, his sister was born with a hole in her heart, his uncle died in his 30’s of a heart attack, and his dad has had a triple bypass in his 40’s.  We don’t tight heart conditions lightly.  Oh, did I mention Matt’s blood pressure has been averaging 140/80???  This is a man who exercises religiously and eats healthy 99% of the time.  His body fat is around 5%.  He shouldn’t be having heart issues. Therefore I (un-degreed physician that I believe I am) diagnosed stress as the culprit.  The physician that holds a real degree agree with me.  A 2nd EKG came back normal today and although Matt’s being sent for a full cardiac workup, he left the doctor’s office with an anti-anxiety prescription.

We were in desperate need of some time away to detox and de-stress.  Thanks to a hard-earned performance bonus by Matt, we (Matt, Tristan and I) took a road trip to South Padre Island over the long Labor Day weekend.

The most stressful part of each day was deciding whether to head to the beach or the water park.  We savored every minute of the time together.  We laughed with abandon, relaxed, napped and returned refreshed.  Here are some photographic highlights.

First view of the ocean

Remember me mentioning in a past post that for every lovely photo, there is a silly one to follow?!?!  These are my boys in all their crazy, silly glory Indubitably.  Tristan’s favorite word of the moment and it seems very appropriate for this photo.  I adore this kiddo!!!! My handsome angel.  Did I mention I adore him?!?! One of my all time favorite photos of my handsome guys My boy during a sunset walk on the beach I love this picture.  Just love it My little photographer

I need to stop doing that.  Every time I blink the boys grow way too fast.  I love their ages now (except when the teenager acts teenagery), but I miss my babies.  I miss cradling them in my arms and being able to solve every problem.  I don’t like the problems they bring home now: hurt hearts, “adult problems,” and such.  For that matter, I don’t like the fact that they have to bring home their problems … I want them home all the time. Some parents are rejoicing in the fact their children are returning to school, and that’s ok for them. I’m mourning the empty house and not having their voices and love surrounding me at all hours.

So here is the event prompting this post ….
Brennen passed his driving test and purchased a car with money he worked hard to save.   That boy (excuse me [cough, cough]), young adult, is fiscally on point.  Furthermore, he has his life mapped and is on track to attend college with a child psychiatry major.  He works so hard toward achieving his goals.

Proud young man with his new Car

With his license and car

And here is my sweet younger child.  How is it possible that he is in his middle year of middle school.  7th grade?  Inconceivable!  He is such a loving, generous, thoughtful child. I can see the adult he will be.  He’s always concerned with the feelings of other people, while never being selfish or self-absorbed.  This is also a worry.  He is so hard on himself, always a perfectionist, and always concerned with letting others down.  Hmmm, sounds familiar.  It breaks my heart that I’ve passed on those painful traits that cause him self-doubt and stress.

As the eve of our Little Bear’s birthday approaches, I am thankful to put an end to this day.  We intermingled more bad news and uncertainty about Dad with our baby’s excitement and shielding him from his Grandpa’s condition. We neither want to burden him with worry when we still don’t have concrete answers, nor do we want to darken this time of joy and celebration of his beautiful, miraculous life. 

96 degrees, but this momma needs to get busy training for the half marathon I’ve committed to in November. So out we went at 6:00 this evening to Stone Oak Park to run 2 miles. I get easily distracted by interesting and beautiful scenery and often pause to take a picture. I’ll never be a fast runner anyway, so why not stop to enjoy God’s artwork. So here are some views I enjoyed tonight ….

I love this part of the trail where you run under the road.  And how cool are those clouds?!?!

Matt is jumping rope … Tristan is … being Tristan. 

I think I may have mentioned that I’m a scosh OCD.  I stepped outside my comfort zone last night and tried something new … painting.  Not painting the house (which desperately needs to be done as all our rooms are builders beige because we still … after all this time … can’t decide on a color for any single room).  Help, Kim and Sherri!  I need your decorating expertise – come visit (ok, I really do, but I’m still secretly trying to get you both to come visit!).  Rather, Painting with a Twist is a 2 hour class where they teach even the most inept  (read ME) participants to recreate famous paintings.  The “twist” is that it’s BYOB.  I brought a bottle of wine and promptly proceeded to down approximately 1/4 glass (that was my entire consumption for the entire 2 hours.  I’m a cheap date).  Apparently, this wasn’t enough as the teacher kept coming by my canvas and, noticing my hesitance and grimaces over every perceived and real mistake, kept telling me that, “You need to drink more, honey!”

Anywho … despite how I may be portraying this, it was an absolute blast!  I would love to go back!  I went with some former co-workers and really enjoyed seeing them.  I can’t say it enough, my friends and family are my saving grace and I never for one second take you for granted.

Recess over, back to the painting class … here are the photos of the painting in stages (notice my itty bitty wine glass in photo – isn’t it cute?).  I still agonize over the imperfections, but the process was so enjoyable that I can overlook them.

Stage 1 – The easy part … still stressful

Stage 2

Tada – the finished product

From the moment we found out we were expecting Tristan, Matt started talking to my belly. He told his son how much he loved him, how much he couldn’t wait to meet him, how he couldn’t wait to hold his hand and show him the world. And when Tristan was born, he knew Matt’s voice. Matt has always been the very best dad, and he has been head over heals in love with his son from day one. 

So we really wanted to show our love on Father’s Day. Matt’s father, Bill, was in town visiting and we had a great weekend reminiscing and just enjoying being together. We swam and talked and went for custard, and talked and laughed some more. The highlight though was a surprise golf outing on Sunday. Tristan kept score and learned to drive the cart, Matt and Bill thoroughly enjoyed the course, I was in my glory acting as the paparazzi, and we spent 6 hours in absolute Daddy’s Day bliss. 

My boss, Kim

This is how we talk every day

My personal assistant (major job functions include comic relief and hug breaks)

See that portion of our fence that fell down?  

That’s how our larger visitors are gaining entry.  Tristan and I are lobbying to leave the section down because we love all our daytime visitors.  Before the fence fell, we could only see them from the 2nd floor windows.  They would be grazing behind the fence in the green belt.  Now they come right up to the windows and doors.  Matt is out of town again this week, so I like to think these cute critters are stopping by to keep me company.  Me and my pajamas (that’s the dress code at my new office).   

We spent the long weekend on a drive up to Moore to visit Meg and family before they’re deployed back east.  I really loved the road trip with Matt and Tristan.  The drive was 8 hours each way and we had a blast playing music, laughing and just loving spending time together.  

This visit was the first time we got to meet baby Lena…

 … and the first time in a long time we got to see Abby. 

Tristan and Abby found they have a lot in common at their current ages (Tristan is 11 and Abby is 5).  They spent a lot of time together companionably playing video games, soccer and swimming.

Being in Moore surrounded by the devastation of the recent tornado we were so grateful to have each other and to have the time to share with this precious part of our family. We hate that they are moving farther away instead of closer.