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!