Football starts next week.

I'm concerned he'll break a bone, knock out some teeth, blow out a knee or something equally horrid and expensive to fix.

He's concerned he won't be good enough to land a skill position.

TOTALLY FORETELLING: Equipment handout was last night at 8pm, on the knife-edge of a brewing storm. For real.

Behold Little E and his quadruple-decker, peanut butter toast sandwich. Breakfast of champions!

TOTALLY UNRELATED: Can't wait for "Colton Mommy Day" this afternoon - gotta love a 12.5-y/o who still wants to hang with his mom - or at least is willing to lie about it.

So last night I was back from my bike ride, and working on a sizable ass-print on the basement couch while watching Alien vs Predator on cable.

(I do love me a little AVP - but not AVP Requiem, which in my unprofessional opinion sucks major ass.)

The boys were outside playing war with a couple of other kids - nerf guns, nerf battle axes, lightsabers, plastic swords, regular ol' sticks, empty water guns, jumprope whips - and suddenly Little E hollers in from the garage: "HEY MOMMMMMMM! COME OUT HERE I WANNA SHOW YOU SOMETHING!"

I figured, crap - I'm gonna miss watching this teenager get disemboweled by an alien to see another martial arts move - but got up anyway, because I mainly only THINK the asshole thoughts, not act upon them.

Went outside - and there's Little E with two other gun-toting gradeschoolers - and he runs up, hands me a red daylily head (just the top, no stem) - lays a huge bearhug on me and says, "You're the coolest! I love you Mom!"

His buddies rolled their eyes and looked away. I. was. a. puddle.

What a sweetie!

Later, I asked him why he did that in front of his friends, and he said "I don't care what they think. I saw that flower and wanted to give it to you."

I will never ever ever ever ever forget that moment as long as I live.

IMAGE: Actual daylily head not pictured.

The season is over - and after that, I think it's over for good. He just doesn't dig baseball. You know what he digs? Math. Sci-fi books. And chess club. Can barely wait for school to start so he can join - as he beat a bunch of boys in chess at camp last weekend.

That's my boy. So what if baseball isn't his thing?

He's been at Boy Scout camp since last Saturday - can't believe how much I miss him. Going to pick him up in 50 minutes.

SORT OF RELATED: I hated camp so much when I was a kid. My mom practically rejoiced for weeks before, always talking about how she couldn't wait for the break from us, and I always felt unwanted, abandoned and "shipped off." I'm pretty sure Colton doesn't feel that way because I'm a big, clingy wreck the day he leaves and a big clingy wreck the day he gets back - so probably psychologically damaging him some other way, right?

TOTALLY UNRELATED: Went for a run yesterday and turned my ankle in the first half mile, but kept going for three miles. Not the best idea. Can barely walk this morning. Pathetic.

Been meaning to post this for about a month - Little E and his buddy picked me some dandelions one Saturday when I had to go to work, and when I got home that afternoon this was waiting for me on the kitchen table:

What a cutie!

BONUS: Got to tell the friend's Mom about her kid picking me flowers and leaving me a note. She was all, "Hey!"

When I told people at work I was running the Girls on the Run race with my daughter today, one of them actually LAUGHED. So that was my first clue that I'm a fat-ass, lazy loser. (The second was having to scrape old grape jelly off the kitchen floor later that night - a sure sign I haven't been cleaning much either.)

The good news is we both made it - and she blew my doors off, actually - didn't even stop to walk once. I'm so proud of her I could burst! And she did it all in a skirt!

My son rocks! And he doesn't get it from me... :)

From what I understand, which is not much, it's five timed tests taken throughout the year. And Colton took first out of all, across over 200 6th graders (although I'm pretty sure they didn't all participate).

Here's more on what The Continental Math League is all about.

I need to ask him if he was in the Pythagorean/Euclidean Division or the Calculus League, although both sound equally torturous to me.

IMAGE: Middle School awards (hilariously presented at the high school) from last Wednesday night. He said, "I thought the medal would be bigger."

UPDATE: It was Pythagorean/Euclidean ... and he said only about 20 kids got invited to try.

Eric turned 8 on April 16, and Colton turned 12 at 12:57am this morning. Where does the time go?

The older I get the more I understand what a short amount of time we have with our kids. I only have 6 years left with Colton, give or take. Can't stand the thought of him leaving. Maybe I'll be one of those mothers who does her kids' laundry until they get married.

This shot was taken last summer at our 1st annual Levitt Lebowskifest - which pretty much meant I took the kids bowling and confused them by yelling, "Mark it 8, dude!"

Colton and Tim will be backpacking The Bighorns with the scouts this summer, so this weekend was the first "come with a pack and see if you can hack it" camping weekend.

I came home to help him get ready on Friday, and he literally almost fell over backwards when he put this thing on...

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