DRY Ink

I know you have been on pins and needles waiting for photographic evidence of Salt Week ’10. Wait no more:

You can find more here. I just couldn’t choose!

You’re welcome.

Welcome to official middle child status. Your birthday letter is a week late. When you are ready to have your own children, should definitely consider the end of the school year, (you), the height of hurricane season, (your sister) or the beginning of the school year, (again your sister). Really, when I get around to writing that ‘How Not to Space Your Children’ book, it’s gonna be a winner.

Continuing in family tradition, your birthday stretched the week. On Monday, (your actual birthday) I checked you out of school early. We then had family over for cake and ice cream in the evening. You requested cookie cake instead of my usual cup cakes for the family party. (We’ll talk about that later.) The rest of the week consisted of half schools days and parties as the year wrapped up.

On Thursday, we had the ‘friend’ party, which consisted of friends from school at laser tag. I gotta tell you, that was the easiest birthday I’ve ever done. They even provided pizza and the cake. You all seemed to have a really great time. Even your father who managed to make a little kid cry. We are all so proud.

Friday morning a I had a few clients to see, so I loaded you guys up and after work, we headed over to the red neck riviera of Biloxi MS. Despite a rocky start, of a closed interstate doubling our travel time, we had a blast, swimming at the hotel pool, touring Beauvoir, (or what’s left of it after Katrina) and hanging out at the beach. We really did have a great time and only your father is sun burnt.

This school year you continue to hang out on honor roll and have several good friends. Alex and you continue to be tight, but I can’t help wondering how that is going to work out now that he is headed to middle school. New friends consist of Sebastian from your class and the Sant boys from church. Really now more than ever you seem to have surrounded yourself with a really good group of kids. I hope you always continue to make good choices in the people you hang out with. Trust me on this one, it IS important.

Since our last birthday letter you’ve continued to play every sport known to man. This year you’ve add football to the rotation, but currently you are obsessed with baseball. We are waiting for your season to start. I had thought at one point you might be ready to settle down and specialize in, well, something, but obviously that is not the case. It is not just playing sports that your are passionate about. You and your father often commandeer the TV for hours on Saturdays to watch what ever sporting event is paramount to the hour. I look forward to seeing what will shake out of this passion.

Jack, here’s where I get all mushy on you. (Hey we all knew it was coming.) You are smart, athletic, pig headed and really sensitive. All qualities that will serve you well in life. You hold within you all the ingredients to be a great man. I mean a really great person in this world. Continue to make good decisions to learn and be kind to people. Be willing to stand up for what you believe and learn when a fight is just not worth it. Learning that difference will be one of the challenges in your life, but I promise it will be worth.

I love you so very much. I am more proud of you and the person you are becoming that I could ever say. I know you will do great things and I’m so lucky to be along to watch them. I guess you could say that is the theme of this year. I can’t wait to watch all the things you are gonna do and become. I couldn’t be more excited to coach and cheer you from the side lines. This is a great game.

I love you Jackson,

Mom

We spent Easter with family and I got to shoot my sister in law

and her family.

And the cousins got to play

And Easter egg hunt

and be girls

Then we birthday-ed!

(Cause Nick turned 4)

and ’cause he’s cute

Then the pretty people kissed good bye

Tifani made me do stuff over spring break so you have to look at the pictures.

First we loaded up and went to the New Orleans Zoo.

Some animals were more modest than other.

Some were just chilling.

Some of the animals bite.

There were snow balls,

and tree climbing.

In which we found out that the youngest cherubs are not genetically related to me as they were scared to climb a tree. It’s a tough way to find out Jeff cheated on me. Sigh.

There were more animals.

And some stuff I don’t even know what to call.

And then we all went home very tired.

(Some of us need more help than others.)

The end.

(Until she made me go back to New Orleans the next day. Stay tuned.)

Over the holiday break I managed to wrestle Joe from Tifani’s grasp, and let me just tell you, I’ve had easier times wrestling bears in the wild.

With my hard earned time, I managed to teach him how to shave,

and convince him that he wanted to “stay the night for a year.”

In my defense it wasn’t my idea for him to stay for a year, he came up with that all on his own. (But in the interest of full disclosure, I did suggest he ask his parents about every 15 minutes on New Year’s Eve. They really appreciated that.)

It is not my fault he likes it here. It only proves what we’ve suspected all long: I was meant to be a mother to a pack of boys. Which is really weird, because we are on the adoption list for a girl and I’m only moving through the Sants to get to Sari. (Shhh, don’t tell.) Anyway, I’m sure I pretty much rawk at this whole parenting thing. Maybe I should go ahead and shoot for Bruno too. Only what Bruno and I do together can’t really be classified as parenting, more like hanging out, telling fart jokes and swapping apps. It really shows me what a good time Jacob and I could have had together if it wasn’t for that whole damn parenting thing. Man that got in the way. But I have no time for reflection, I have Sants to collect. Clearly, this is no time to analyze ‘why’.