Mr. Thing 2 Goes to Washington - Day One

Thing 2 is off with a group of his classmates on a whirlwind trip to Washington D.C. I thought about volunteering to go along as a chaperone until I saw their itinerary. They will stop at every single sight in the greater D.C. area for about seven nanoseconds. I'm pretty sure their schedule would kill me by the second day.

Sea-Tac airport is about an hour away from our house. To catch their 6am flight, the kids had to be at their school at Two. Thirty. A. M.

I got up to say goodbye but Husband drove him. Gag.

When Husband returned from his middle of the night expedition he declared that his son is a super genius.

There are five boys and fifty girls going on this trip. From the moment Thing 2 stepped out of the car at the school he was surrounded with girls. As were the other four boys. Geniuses, all five.

So here are the text messages I've received from him since he left on his adventure...

4:30am Smooth sailing. Just got my boarding pass. Waiting.

I didn't get this until 8am. Since I had gone back to bed and all.

11:53am Arrived at layover city. Busy going from one gate to another. Getting pizza. Forward to Richmond! Will take one Dramamine tablet now. Text if I need to know something.

Wonder if he will eat anything other than pizza for the next five days? Notice how he doesn't know that his layover is in St. Louis.

2:03pm Arrived at Richmond. Slept through most of flight. All okay.

I knew the Dramamine would knock him out. Probably should have given the chaperones enough for all of the kids to have one.

4:43pm Mmmm...pizza and ice cream.

He's gonna come home leaking pizza sauce out of his pores.

7:02pm Bus stopped at hotel. Awaiting my turn. Low battery. Text you again in a few minutes. Took lots of pics today.

7:41pm Dear god, how will I survive the night? My roommates are flatulent, cuss-crazy buffoons.

I miss you too sweetie.

Thanks Dad

Thanks for teaching me how to ride a bike.

Thanks for giving me your sarcastic, smart-ass sense of humor.

Thanks for tough love.

Thanks for taking me camping and not making me bathe the whole time.

Thanks for scaring the shit out of me on your little sailboat.

Thanks for showing me how to weld and use the torch for my middle school project.

Thanks for taking me to baseball games and letting me throw the peanut shells on the ground.

Thanks for making me play sports even in the rain because you never let your team down.

Thanks for encouraging me.

Thanks for always loving me and making me feel special.

Thanks for being the first man in my life.

I love you.

Fourteen

Fourteen years ago my babies were in incubators. They were super tiny and stayed in the ICU for two weeks. When they came home, outfits in "preemie" size were too big.

Now they are taller than I am, super handsome, and FOURTEEN YEARS OLD!

And I have a lot more gray hair.

Happy birthday Thing 1 and Thing 2, I love you both to the moon and back!

Seven Years in the Making

In 2003 I started taking a class here and a class there at the local community college.

Seven years later, here I am.

It's funny - I didn't cry during the ceremony but now, looking at the pictures, I'm bawling my eyes out. After all the blood, sweat, and tears I finally finished!

Many, many, many times I've wanted to quit. When I had to miss field trips with the kids classes because I had school, when I did homework in the emergency room waiting for Grandmother to be seen by a doctor, when we had to come up with another quarter's tuition and book money, when the kids had to get their own dinner because Husband was working late and I was studying, when, when, when...

But my family got me thru it. Mom and Stepdan were only a short drive away anytime I needed any help at all.

This diploma is for them too.

Dad and Stepmonster Shelly hopped on a plane more than once to help care for Grandmother when I was buried in schoolwork. They let me rant on the phone and always encouraged me to keep going and not give up.

This diploma is for them too.

Super Scientist Genius Brother inspires me to aim higher and take chances.

Grandmother did Thing 1 and Thing 2's laundry and made sure they did their homework when I wasn't home.

The kids were quiet when I had to study, waited patiently for me when I was late picking them up, brought me Diet Coke when I was writing, and gave me love and support when I really needed it.

But it is Husband who has been my rock. Night after night he would come home from working 10 hours and make dinner because I was still studying. He attended band concerts alone during finals week, cleaned the house and did laundry, wrangled the kids into doing their chores and homework on weekends I spent at the library, and never EVER complained. He listened when I needed to talk, hugged me when I got a bad grade, and encouraged me every single step of the way.

This diploma is for him too.

I tell my younger, more 'traditional' classmates, that going to college is a million times easier when you are young and don't have family, home, and business responsibilities - and it's true. But my experience in college, while more difficult logistically, has shown me in a million different ways how amazingly lucky I am.

The diploma may have my name on it but it belongs to my whole family, they have earned it just as much as I have.

Walking on Sunshine

Today THIS is how I'm feeling! (I can't embed the video *pout* but it has been one of my favorite songs forever and is on high rotation in my iPod.)

The letter I received in the mail today starts:

Dear Ms. Whaever,

Congratulations! I have approved your acceptance to the University of Washington Graduate School for Autumn Quarter 2010 as recommended by the graduate admissions committee...

I'm pretty sure that wherever you were when I read that, you heard me scream.

Accepted. To. Grad. School.

Husband - sweet, sweet man that he is - told me that he never doubted I'd get in. I've heard the same thing from other people, including my senior advisor. But I doubted it. I had nagging doubts that maybe I was too old, too out of touch, not quite smart or witty enough - do you know those doubts? Do they sometimes keep you up at night too? I am my own worst critic. No matter how hard I work I think I could do more, do better, go beyond. But not today - today I am silencing my inner critic.

And I'll sleep like a log tonight.

Brutal Honesty

My senior thesis is a play. Yup. When the opportunity presented itself I took the plunge and wrote a play instead of yet another research paper. This from a student who has taken ZERO creative writing courses. I took English 101 and 102 and then lost myself in the awesomeness of history and political science classes.

Naturally my play is historical. It's about the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831. With Malcolm X. Take my word for it, it works. I'll put it out here eventually - my vision is for it to be part of an entire curriculum for high school students about slavery and racism in the United States. For now you just have to take my word for it that it's come together quite nicely.

And that is entirely due to all the amazing feedback I've gotten from real live high school students.

One of the benefits to being a serial volunteer is all the contacts I've made at my kids schools. The drama teacher at the high school is amazing. According to all the performing arts parents he walks on water, and judging from the exceptional quality of his students performances I'm inclined to believe them. He was kind enough to allow me to borrow one of his classes to be guinea pigs for my play. After my first draft was complete I took it in, they did a table reading, and then gave me their feedback.

I was amazed at how articulate, thoughtful, and helpful their comments and notes were. It was exactly what I needed to make my project something that might actually be useful rather than just mental masturbation for a grade.

My re-write was substantial - all based on their feedback. I changed the format, scrapped the ending and wrote a new one, and added dialogue. Today I went back to amazing drama teacher's fifth period class and they did a second reading of my play. (I brought cookies and brownies this time, don't want them to feel unloved and taken advantage of!)

Again they blew me away with their maturity and I now have a kick-ass play. Well - as kick-ass as it can be coming from a non-playwright.

But - my favorite comment of ALL TIME was from one kid who came up to me as they were packing up their stuff in preparation for the bell to ring.

"That was SO much better Ms. Whatever - I actually ENJOYED it this time!"

Brutal honesty. I love it!

University of Washington Rockin' Librarians

Just had to take a minute to share this awesome video made by University of Washington Librarians. THIS my friends is why UW is so freaking awesome!

Thanks for sharing it Seattlejo!