Girl Crush

Keagan is never short of a school story. His funny stories usually involve a teacher (more like poking fun at a teacher), but this time the main character is Shirley. Shirley likes Keagan. They are not on the same team, but their paths cross. When he walks in the halls in between classes, she yells, “Keagan is so hot!” She texts him several times a day to tell him random parts of her day or to ask what he’s doing. She does not know soft spoken and she is unfamiliar playing hard-to-get. They do have exploratory arts together and on the second day of school, Keagan was the last to arrive to class. All of the seats were taken, the room was crowded, and Keagan stopped in the doorway scanning the room looking for a seat. Shirley exclaims in front of all, “Move aside! Make room for the king. Keagan has finally arrived.” The aisles cleared and Keagan made his way to the far corner of the room while shaking his head.

Kaylee also has a crush on Keagan and has since they were in third grade together five years ago. She is a special needs girl and goes to church with us. She writes notes to him, passes them to him in the hallway, and just recently got a Snapchat account so she sends messages, too. She was so excited last week to tell him she was going to Atlanta to watch a Braves game. She told Keagan it was a long drive - a very long drive - and she wanted to know if she could text him while she was in the car so to make the time go by faster. Keagan, the boy with unrivaled compassion for others, agreed. 

The girl he really likes, the girl he dated most of last year, has moved on to highschool. She won’t dare date a middle schooler (and shouldn’t), but as soon as May rolls around, you better believe Keagan will make his move. 

Meanwhile I told him to keep the Shirley stories coming; it will make the time go by faster. 

Hero in Waiting

In between soccer, church camp, and vacations, Evan and Madalyn spent hours this summer in her nana’s  pool. Two weeks ago the two were in the pool when Evan spotted a reptile head peaking out of Madalyn’s hair. A head! Evan knew he had to do something before she was bitten! He thought it was a snake and calmly told Madalyn to not move. He then got out of the pool (so long with the hero grabbing the snake with his bare hands) and went to grab a net. Just as he got across the pool a lizard jumped off her head and ran into the mulch. Evan was so relieved he wasn’t tasked with saving her from a snake. 

Ironically, later that same day Nana found a snake in her yard and killed it with a shovel. She reached down to pick the dead snake up and Evan yelled, “No, Nana!” She jumped back a bit startled and asked why. Evan told her the snake could still bite even though it was dead. He grabbed a stick and put it near the mouth to show her. Nana looked up at Evan and said, “Well, Evan, I’m sure glad you are here. I might be in the hospital otherwise.” Nana took him to lunch a couple of days later as a thank you. 

Friday Family Fun

We survived the first week of school. It’s Friday night and we barely have the energy to get off the couch.  Evan is already stressed about his workload. Keagan is already tired and says he misses his day naps. I’m already over cooking dinner. I came home to cheese sticks, cilantro, and one tortilla. So Wes ordered Chinese take out and then we drove to Nashville for a NSC game.

Evan talked constantly during the game about everything and anything. Did you know eating one piece of pizza is equivalent to drinking two cups of grease? Did you know the saying “using 10% of your brain” is a myth? Using 90% even means certain death. How about the myth that children don’t have a preferred learning style, or that psychology is an unscientific science but still believable? One more. Earth may really be two parallel plains instead of a sphere. I can’t forget this one. The Bible never claims that marrying a cousin is a sin but it should since you are playing Russian roulette with your offspring.

After three hours of this, Keagan completely exasperated asked, “Just how many facts do you know? And when do you find the time to learn them?” 

Then just as we were pulling off the interstate and back to the Farm, Keagan made the comment that he’s been thinking about the cause for the Hiroshima shadows ever since he learned about them last year in history class. Crickets. Evan was stumped; he could not contribute an opinion because he was not familiar with the WW2 event. Finally! Keagan couldn’t wait to pull out his phone (who am I kidding? They had to pull out Evan’s phone because Keagan’s screen is so badly cracked - again) and teach Evan something new! Evan was duly impressed. 

Who needs to watch soccer when you have these two to entertain you?

Never Say Never

Never say never. We’ve learned old friends are truer friends.

Keagan has accepted a roster spot and is returning to Clarksville. He will be playing up on an 03 team with some of Evan’s closest friends from highschool. He’s fighting for a starting CDM position or playing as a winger. These boys may not be technical, but they are very physical. I hope this opportunity will fill the gap until he can get back on a D1 team in June. Either way, this fall will be great for him because the alternative was playing soccer on the PS4. 

Third Day of Third Grade

It’s my third day of third grade. And I’m going to school smiling! And the boys are dressed a little better today!

Vegan Yeese

Today Keagan had an appointment to renew his military ID. He’s been nervous about this rather meaningless errand, and today we learned it was because he didn’t know how to sign his name in cursive. While awaiting his number to be called, he practiced. 

It looks like he has renamed himself Vegan Yeese. 🤣

First Day of School

Last night Evan asked me to take him to the mall so he could look for a yellow shirt. He said sophomores had to wear yellow on the first day of school for color wars. The mall was closed. I pulled out his bright yellow soccer jersey, but Evan said that was too yellow. I pulled out a Gap shirt with yellow stripes, but that was not bright enough. Evan pulled out a basketball T-shirt that was thrown into the stands during halftime. I reminded him he doesn’t play basketball, but that didn’t matter because it was just the right amount of yellow. 

I guess it could have been worse. Evan could have decided to wear this to school instead of the aisles at WalMart. 

Keagan had to wear an outfit that matched his new black shoes. I picked out black shorts and a gray polo. Keagan told me he doesn’t wear polos. So why did I buy you two new polos last week just for school? He picked out a soccer camp T-shirt that he got for free two summers ago. That was a no-go for sure! Then he changed into this Thrasher shirt (only mildly better, in my opinion.)

What he might lack in fashion sense, he totally makes up for with his sense of humor. On our way outside for the traditional first day photo, he stopped off at the telescope and said, “Lookin’ into my bright future, right here.”