For the first time I got a little choked up this morning when I watched my “almost” (22 days to go) 15 year old walk to the bus stop in the pitch dark to catch the bus. Clayton is starting his First year of High School.  I sat up by the curb near our house and he didn’t see me (it was 6:10 for pete’s sake!).  I waited until the bus came and it was more emotional than when he started Kindergarten!  I guess I’m slowly realizing that in so many small ways I’m losing control of my baby.  Four years and he’s off to college.  It was just yesterday he was kicking his feet in the tub water, giggling and smiling with a toothless grin and big blue eyes gazing adoringly at me.  Now I get “Nick Nolte” type mug shots:

And because I didn’t dare go down to the bus stop, this is the best shot I could get of him waiting for the bus in the dark (totally unimpressive photo):

But I did get a photo of him tossing his backpack once he got home (again not too flattering but there are no retakes when you have teen boys):

So then there was Shelby and Jackson’s to get to the bus.  Much easier to handle.  They don’t even get out of bed until 7:40!  Bright and sunny outside.  And, they actually allow me to take photos of them….even though Shelby was a tad bit “teen-agy” with me.

Jackson was the easiest:

Love the top right pic, every year Jack-man has to give me his goofy first day of school photo.  A kiss on the cheek and off he goes to the FIRST day of Middle School (6th grade).

Shelby begins her LAST year in Middle School (8th grade). Shelby for some reason wanted to wear an old Ralph Lauren shirt of mine instead of something new…Whatevah……

 

She does look cute with her new hair cut.  Then we must pose for her fun moment photo:

Then I got the obligatory sibling shot:

Just like Clayton, Shelby is asserting her own opinions and style.  Jackson, well he’s still my little guy, my get along guy and I’m going to enjoy our 3 years at Middle School.  I love you guys!

Well, I had to let go of some of my control over my baby girl today.  Mom has made all the decisions on her hair up until now.  Shelby wanted to do Locks of Love AGAIN. I didn’t want her to cut her beautiful long hair.  She really wanted to shorten her hair so I HAD to give in.

Here’s my darling  girl getting her hair combed out for the big cut!

The big SNIP!  Bye bye long hair.  10 inches gone!

Shelby no longer has long hair, but she does look really cute with the shorter cut and she is proud to have donated her hair TWICE to Locks of Love.  Someone will have a beautiful “Ginger” wig thanks to  Shelby’s  generosity. 

I think she looks older with short hair.  She likes looking older, I’m not too happy about it!   My baby girl is growing up!

Big event for me!  I got my new car….finally.  H decided to buy out the Acadia lease and drive it himself.  Good move on his part, he needed a nice car.  His POS Saturn just keeps having stuff happen to it (not to mention the deer hitting it in June).  The original plan was for me to keep driving the Acadia, then in the fall he would buy me a new car.  The Acadia is in excellent condition (if you ignore the repainted scratches Jackson and Shelby made on the side with their bikes and the tiny dent on the hatch where H put the garage door down while it was up….notice NONE of these things were done by ME)!

So we moved up getting my car and here it is, A brand spanking new Buick Enclave….
H says every Senior Citizen will be envious of my BUICK… He’s so funny……but I looked at this car when we leased the Acadia 3 years ago and wanted one….they were so new in 2007 that I couldn’t even get one to test drive at that time…they literally flew off the lots.  It is the nicest car we’ve had since the Lexus (which I personally hated).  It’s a happy white color (as opposed to the sad brown color so many drive around here).  It’s a dream ride, quiet, smooth and luxurious… and yesssss, it has that new car smell.  The layout of the seats is exactly like the Acadia which has worked so well with 3 kids.  It has that nifty remote start Onstar and XM Radio, IPod ready. 

As you can see Jackson fell in love with the car too!

Got the car on Sat. and it was love at first sight for both of us!  It’s kind of hard to hug a car as you can see below, but I gave it the old college try.   I’d better love it as H says I’m driving it for the next 10 years…yeah right…….that remains to be seen.  I’m loving it for now!