So Cal Cinema: We're baaaaaaaaack!

Um...

Well...

Er...

Okay. I know I've said it over and over again. I need to post more often. Let me try something different this time. I am posting now. That is all I can promise.

The Summer season at the So Cal Cinema is almost at an end. A week from tomorrow Colin will be a junior in high school and Marley a third grader. How did this happen? 16 years old and 8 years old. I have a friend who has a three year old boy. Sometimes when I see him, it reminds me of Colin at three with his spiky, blond (BLOND) hair. I can picture him in his t-shirts and shorts and velcro sandals. Yikes! We've added one kid to the mix and they are both so big. The book on 8 year olds I am reading says this is the year when their bodies really start changing and they are no longer little kids. I am definitely in agreement with that one. She is a big girl now.

I've been thinking about what this year holds for us. Junior year is supposed to be the most difficult one academically in high school. I imagine Colin will be feeling some pressure there. The PSAT should be taken which I imagine Colin will resist. He has his driver's license. He isn't doing sports this year at all. He's going to get TALLER some more. Colin hasn't been one of those kids who was shorter than me one day and yards taller the next. He has slowly but surely been growing and growing and I didn't really notice when he managed to get taller than I am.

Marley will be a "senior" in her class of kindergarteners through third graders. I asked her the other day what the responsibilities of a third grader are in her class: be a good model for the kindergarteners. The privlege is getting to go to Knott's Berry Farm at the end of the year. Just three years ago she was one of the new kindergarteners. She had a third grade big buddy. The big kids set examples for her. She'll do more writing, more math, more everything this year. She's back in gymnastics and I think it is really good for her.

I'll be finishing up my last year in school (fingers crossed!). There is a change in plan and I won't be graduating in May, though. There was a scheduling problem and I will be graduating in July. I think this means that I won't be able to go through commencement exercises until the next May. I think this means that I am just not going to go through commencement exercises. Why walk 10 months later? They only reason I might is if some of my classmates are walking, too. I am taking fewer units than I did in the Spring and hopefully that will make life better for all of us. I realize that I really withdrew "from society" much more than necessary. I think it is better for me to make space for people and activities.

Paul should be up to the same ole, same ole. Work, travel, music, fetching me mochas from Starbucks and, in an addition to our repertoire, gelato from Frati Gelato (mmmmmmmmmmm).

We spent some time this summer seeing family. A couple of days in Phoenix with Paul on business allowed for me to spend time with my brother Roger. It is a long story but the relationship is new. We moved on to Allen, Texas (just north of Dallas) to see Aunt Becky and company. We finished up in Okemah, Oklahoma to see Grandma Didi, Cousin Darnise, etc. The kids are both ready to go back to both Texas and Oklahoma. I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a few: