Sunday, June 27, 2010

Long Week

When ZBoy started his new elementary school three years ago, he had one friend going in. This kid was son of a co-worker of Z's aunt and they'd met one Easter at Aunt Ro's house. They enjoyed each other's company but I thought it might be a one-time thing. When ZBoy walked into his third grade classroom, there was Jesse! He was so relieved to know someone! They became fast friends before the day was out.

The next year (4th grade), they were in different classes, but still saw each other every day and spent the night at each other's houses, though Jesse's mom was working in Georgia at this point. She liked the school Jesse was in, so made that horrible commute, allowing Jesse to stay in his school.

The summer after 4th grade, Jesse's mom was looking for teaching work again. Unless you've been somewhere a long, long time, you're always looking for work as a teacher. Well, she found work... in Nevada. Last summer, ZBoy's heart was broken when his best friend moved away.

They kept up on email and online games and phone calls. Then Jesse's mom called me and asked if Jesse could come stay with us for a week during the summer. He'd be down this way anyway because he's be spending about half the summer in central Florida with his grandparents.

I said yes. And last Monday, Jesse turned up on our doorstep. It's been a crazy, busy week.


We ate out a lot. I hate doing that because you just can't eat a balanced diet that way. But Jesse's one of those kids who doesn't do vegetables or fruit or grain. It's meat and cheese and bread - and fried potatoes. He doesn't even eat lettuce or tomato on a hamburger. Very frustrating to feed this kid - especially when mine LOVES vegetables and fruit! I am totally sick of hamburgers, I can tell you that!
He came out blueberry picking with us twice. The boys whooped it up riding the golf cart around the farm. The second time we went, my friend Jennifer and her son and husband came along too. The boys took her son (4 years old) with them on their golf cart joy rides. They had a blast (and we got tons of blueberries!).

I shot this over my shoulder (without looking) of Z in the back seat on the way home from the farm... Love the outfit!
Tonight, the guys have gone fishing. They're meeting up with a family friend of Jesse's and Jesse will go home and spend the night there before heading back to his grandparents' place. I think there was a certain level of relief on his part and on ZBoy's. Both are kids who spend a lot of time alone and they just aren't used to having someone there with them 24/7. And it's a huge relief to me. No more stressing over food. No more noise from boys in the middle of the night. I get a few hours of peace and quiet before Darling Man and ZBoy return, sans Jesse. I'm almost giddy with the possibilities. Read? Watch TV? Swim? Take a shower and go to bed? It'll be wonderful to just be alone for a bit.
Before this well-earned quiet though, I had one more trial by fire. As this was Jesse's last day and he did have other friends besides Z, we invited Jeremy and Nick to come for the afternoon to swim and play and visit with Jesse. They had a blast. A noisy one. A messy one. But a blast nonetheless. Just before they left, we got the boys together and they posed for pictures. This was the best one:

Nice looking bunch, huh?
and now it's back to business as usual. Work. Healthy diet. Exercise. Not just me - ZBoy gets in on it too. I'm looking forward to a nice long bike ride on Tuesday.

A workout buddy helps the time go by!

9 comments:

Pamela said...

what is it with kids and eating junk food.

Can't we just put our foot down like my parents did. "Eat what is on your plate or go hungry!"

Jan n Jer said...

I think you may be right about FM, it is sort of like losing a good friend. It was through FM that I met so many good blogging friends, including yourself. Hopefully one day it will make a come back. Looks like Zboy is having a blast with his BFF.

Faye said...

Good mom for agreeing to let Jesse visit! I'm sure both boys will remember this week for a long time. It sounds like ZBoy is getting the most out of summer break instead of just letting it slug along. No boredom in your house, it seems.

I'll always be grateful for Fun Monday because that's how I found a first blogging community, but it just had outlived its purpose, I guess. Have noticed that people aren't posting as much in the summer. Or, they have other interests-like photography--that they want to feature on their blogs. For myself, I intend to check in with FM buddies and just write whatever I fancy. Hopefully, someone will want to read--or it can be just good writing practice.

Jill said...

sad about fun Monday. Everyone is welcome to come and visit me on Mondays. Maybe I can come up with something that I post every monday anyway. updating my blog to go along with the name change and so on. Feel free to say hi and let us know what you do or don't like (hubs is tweaking what I couldn't figure out right now!)

TechnologyMonitor said...

nice pic for nice post

gayle said...

It's nice to have company but it is also nice when they leave! Love the cute video!!

~sWaMpY~ said...

Nothing like making memories with friends during the summer...or anytime, for that matter.
Now, please hand over the blueberries.

Kila said...

How fun!

Bummer about Jesse's diet. That may change when he's with his grandparents.

Hmm, do you know where in Central Florida? I live in Central Florida, in a retirement area where many grandkids come to stay with their grandparents for much of the summer. It would be funny if he was here.

Sayre said...

Kila - It's somewhere around Ocala. I'm guessing they're in their 50's. They have a large piece of land and several family members live on it.

Although my son is only a year younger than Jesse, I'm old enough to be his grandmother. I was surprised to know how old his mom was - She's not even 30 yet!