It was 1:45 and time to head to the home school group for presentations and awards. I arrived and walked in and sat down next to Morgan as she was finishing up labeling all systems of the body. All I know is I looked over at her as she gradually drew the parts and labeled them and I thought " Boy am I glad to be out of school." Her teacher came in and informed us that our children requested no videos or photography,well needless to say, none of us parents respected their wishes. Within minutes, all of us parents had our phones out and all you could hear was the " DING" sound as our IPhone's started to record. "Really, mom?" I kinda just laughed as I tried not to disturb Chase as he presented his Apologetics paper. As I was sitting patiently, I was still pondering with madness on the fact that this was "THE PAPER" that my husband raced around this morning trying to proof read and print for him, yet at the same time, I was feeling a bit of joy inside because I was SO very proud of his accomplishments. As he finished up his paper, being the only boy in his group of seven girls, he said "OK, Morgan it's your turn, NOW, let's go!"
Morgan said " No Chase, you are not my boss." Of course I had to laugh along with all the other parents in the room, as I said " Go ahead Morgan, you are next."She graciously walked up as she tried to refrain from looking at the class. She explained that her paper was on "How The World Just Couldn't Happen" and she proceeded to read it out loud. I have to say that, at the beginning of the year, she could not even speak in front of people. As I sat there and recorded her, I began to think in my mind, WOW, she is reading her last paper of the 8th grade. I began to swallow and felt the big knot that we have all felt at some point in our lives, as though we have something stuck in our throat that we can't seem to swallow." Was my fourteen year old daughter, really about to be graduating from the eighth grade and entering high school in three months?" No way! I hear her say "The End" and I thought again, "NO! NO! NO!" Please keep reading, but as I thought that, she came back to her seat with a look on her face that resembled a sense of relief and at that time, I realized it was really over. I continued to listen to the other kids present their papers as Mrs. E gathered up their awards to present.
Mrs. E started out by calling out the children's names one by one and calling them to the front of the room, to take a moment to recognize their individual accomplishments. As she called Chase up to the front, I watched him as he grinned ear to ear. She said "Chase, I want to first tell you, what a joy it has been teaching you all year and I want to present you with an award that honors you academically and for your character.You have shown Academic Excellence in Exposition and Composition and Character Excellence in the area of Boldness." Chase didn't ask any questions, he took his awards gracefully and Morgan was called next. She presented Morgan with Excellence in Rhetoric and Character Excellence in Steadfastness. Needless to say, they were both truly amazed at their awards and I have to say, right at that time, I was one very proud mother, who nearly forgot all about the last minute assignments.
We loaded up the car and headed home from what you would call a very long day. As we got home, Braden my four year old reminded me that he has preschool tomorrow and I needed to make sure I packed him some marshmallows. I asked him " Marshmallows, why?" he said " Because, Mrs. W tells us that when we talk when she is talking, that we must put a marshmallow in our mouth, so can you please pack me a few? I sat their in disbelief and I had to take 2 to process what he just spoke of. I looked at him and said "You are asking me for marshmallows so you can have permission to talk out of turn when your teacher is talking?" he said "Yea, I just need a few" so at that moment, I had to think to myself, here is another moment of what you would call me sitting in complete AWE and all I could do was laugh.
Jon got home from work at 5:00 and Morgan, Jon and I loaded up and headed to the beach to do some of what we call " Gold Digging" which is also known as metal detecting. He sat on the lifeguard stand and rummaged through the Internet trying to learn up on some home gardening, as Morgan and I hit the sand. We didn't have much luck until I came across a beep and I was like "Finally" as Morgan dug and dug to end with $1.25 in quarters and I thought to myself " This won't even pay for our gas back home" but of course that wasn't the reason we were out there in the first place. As I felt the cold sand on my feet, and watched the waves crash ashore, the beeps became fewer and fewer until we decided it was probably time to go.
As we headed back to the lifeguard stand, Morgan looked out to the water and noticed a fairly large black fin in the water, and then again and again. She said " Mom, there is a large shark in that wave, and there is a surfer right out there by it "So of course the compassionate child that she is, yells "Hey you" and she waved him in. He approached us, as he walked out of the water and Morgan proceeded to tell him what she noticed in the waves and he was very concerned. He did ask her "Are you sure it wasn't a dolphin" she said, "Well I cannot be 100% sure of that, but what I am sure of is, you are crazy if you hang around to find out." He kinda laughed at her, smiled and said "Thank you, young lady" and we continued on our gold search. Well, we didn't leave with any gold, just a few pop tops, $1.35 in change and a very tired arm.
Goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment