Recording, Facilitating and Underwriting

The Kyd and The Professor

The Kyd keeps getting older and older. As this happens, and as she sets out on more adventures "on her own" it turns out the Mom and the Dad become less and less participants but more the cheerleaders, recorders and, most importantly, the facilitators and underwriters.

This summer's "Big Adventure" meant we drove her 300 miles to spend three weeks at "Smart Camp" aka "Nerd Camp" aka Joseph Baldwin Academy for Eminent Young Scholars in Kirksville, MO at Truman State University.

Because I am "that mom", even before having a child I always thought that if I did have one, someday, this would be a worthwhile experience. When I was an editor on the Northeast Missouri State University Yearbook, one of the first articles I wrote was on the newly-created Academy. One of the girls I interviewed, over 25 years ago, said how much she enjoyed being around "kids more like herself" and she promptly asked me not to quote her on that anywhere her "Regular" school friends would see it.

As my then home-schooled child got older, (I kind of hate that that happened) I remembered this "camp" and started to figure out what it would take for my "baby girl" to have this opportunity. Well, it worked out. An application procedure that included taking the ACT in 8th grade and completing an application form more intense than most college apps resulted in a three week course of "The Writer's Craft". It also included three weeks in a college dorm, living on her "own" and living through power outages, a small fire and a tornado. *I* almost did not make it.

Luckily for everyone, the Kyd did. A wonderful evaluation from her professor sealed the experience. We had a bit of a giggle when he wrote that she spoke with "Disarming authority". I think she gets THAT from her dad!

The Writing on the Wall

It would be nice to say this was an original idea, but I stole it. I'm not sure from whom though. While stalking through the Kyd's Facebook profile and therefore her friends' profiles and of course those friends of friends profiles I wandered across a few senior portraits taken with graffiti-in-the-wild as the back drop. Because I have a lot of free time on my hands with very little ambition, I do a lot of driving around. Turns out I recognized the graffiti and knew where it was. YAY. The problem was with getting the time with the Kyd in a dress, good hair and make up. Again, another things we (I) talked about a lot but didn't quite do. Until Eighth Grade Graduation: The Day After.

For some reason a few of the girls decided to put their dresses back on and roam around the back yard (another post here soon) and let me take pictures. Then it dawned on me: UNDERPASS. GRAFFITI -- LET'S GO. Since the Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, we had their van and were able to get the girls to one place at one time. Thanks to a Kyd-Life-Long collection of dress-up clothes, there was even a dress for the 7th Grader (now 8th) who crashed the party.

What a fun time. The new graduates +1 had fun first reading the graffiti (learned the need to spell things correctly in order to get the point across. Misspelled graffitied words lose some of their angst impact and instead result in giggles), then posing for pictures and finally playing a game of "Ninja" in between the two underpasses -- throw in the occasional wave to the cars on the highway and you couldn't ask for a much better way to have mini adventure with friends.

And Let It Begin With ME! (US)

The redecoration of "The Room" continues - 6 months after it was stripped bare and repainted. Of course I'm talking about the Kyd's room. As ususal, intentions are honorable, but the execution is lacking. However, some months ago, Kyd was inspired and thought it would be cool to have a giant peace sign made out of hand prints on her wall. After some discussion and the desire to not EVER have to paint over handprints on the newly painted wall, I thought that we could possibly improvise. I quickly purchased two sets of canvas from Big Lots and even more quickly shoved it into the scrapbook/junk closet where it lived a not-so-lonely life with a million dollars worth of unused scrapbook supplies, forgotten about decorations from our old house and an assortment of other good-intentions and almost 22-year-old wedding memorabilia for several months. FINALLY, after several parties that had many friends and many hands and therefore many missed opportunities, we set out to try this little project on a spur of the moment gathering of three.

NEEDED: Four pieces of canvas, a variety of acrylic paints, pencil, string several different hand sizes. We used a pencil and a string to rough in the circle on the canvas. Of course we couldn't find the paint brushes so improvised by pouring the paint onto paper plates and squishing hands around in it. Then, the fun began and art ensued.

It's Come to THIS

The beautiful baby daughter has graduated from Eighth Grade. There was a ceremony and as Student Council President, the Kyd got to give the speech. She was AWESOME of course.

How is it that we got to Eight Grade Graduation when yesterday we were throwing Play Dog around the kitchen in the high chair.

My Toes Are Curling

On this adventure Dad got to come along. We needed him to drive since we were geocaching and Me and the Kyd alone (well, without the Dad) geocaching can either be harrowing, expensive or worse.

Most of the caches we've found in the area are not typical of what we were spoiled with in St. Louis We are appreciative of the opportunity to add to our numbers, and we are very appreciative of the time and effort cachers have in putting out caches in this area (since we've done nothing to reciprocate) but, there's not always a lot to see once we get to the cache site.

This cache could have been one of those, but, it was not. True, the cache itself fell into the the Typical guardrail cache category, but we took advantage of the location and turned it into a bit more: a perfect late afternoon.

We walked along the roadway and looked over the guardrail to watch the turtles on their afternoon outing to the underwater logs.

Always with a camera, I managed to get a few pictures of the Kyd. I liked the shots where she is safe and sound, feet firmly planted on solid ground. SHE liked the idea of sitting on the guard rail, thousands of feet above momma and baby turtles, making my toes curl.

And That Wraps THAT Up

Well, it wasn't exactly the summer of my blog-hopes. The twice-a-week outings to the beach on the lake never quite materialized. Days at the Farm with Mawaw and Papaw never came along. The shopping day at the Outlet Mall -- thwarted by a stomach thing and then later by a friend thing. Yet, there were very few Do Nothing Days. How is that?

Pizza: It's All in the Family

DadintheFam spent his time in Alabama being wined and dined to tune of his first ever bout of gout. While he was living the rich life, we were looking for cheap and easy. Turns out that friend that Kyd brought along is not the most experimental eater. Pizza. Chicken Strips. And, eventually, I found out she'll eat the occasional lasagna. Naturally, I discovered this on our third pizza joint that had, ironically, the most expensive lasagna and the best pizza. This was a little place in Mobile, AL (next to the scrapbook store!) called "Brother's Pizza". Our two places prior to this were "Mama's" and "Father's" . I guess to find the "Sistas" we just had to look at ourselves.