Thursday, August 1, 2013

You Know You Have Boys When...

Devil's Lake Wisconsin

Having a summer birthday rules! As a child I bragged about having a summer birthday to all my friends who had birthdays during the school year. Just think of the advantages: shoes were optional, sleeping in was a requirement, and no homework. My birthday gift last week, a new touch-screen laptop, rates as my top (and only;-) gift. Now, you see my level of technology has risen to new heights...I have pictures in my blog articles! Woo hoo!!

With my new laptop, iPhone, Instagram and Facebook,(is that TMI?) I feel like a teenager. BTW, I am not, because I have two teenagers of my own. LOL!! I'm not making fun of them;-)

As a mom of two boys and a four-year-old girl, my summers stay suspended in a circle of craziness. The above photo reminds me of a rare family moment on our Wisconsin vacation to the Dells and Devil's Lake. With everyone's crazy schedules, it is getting harder to be together as a family. I took this photo right before our entire family hiked the bluffs at Devil's Lake. There was one  exception--our thirteen-year-old ran ahead of the group and took the wrong trail back down. He actually beat us back down the mountain!

"You know you have boys when..." is a great way to begin a blog entry, don't you think? Here are some examples:

1. You know you have boys when...they don't know how to push the start button on the dishwasher, but they have more technical knowledge of their iPhones and computers than an MIT grad.
2. You know you have boys when...your oldest son breaks his arm at wrestling camp, has surgery the next day, a week before your long-awaited summer vacation.
3. ...then asks if he can drive, even with a broken arm.
4. You know you have boys when....their bedrooms look like a tornado dropped in, long after the real tornado (that touched down in our town a few months back) is long gone.
5. You know you have boys when you go grocery shopping one day and all the food in the house is gone the next.
6. You know you have boys when...you get a text at 2 am. from your son, reminding you that he's going to work out in the morning. Isn't it already morning?? And thanks for the heads up?!
7. You know you are crazy when...you take your two teenage boys to the grocery store and by the time you reach the cash register, you realize you have a cart full of Mountain Dew and Oreos.
8. And you know you have boys when...your two boys have multiplied into four or five boys camped out on the living room floor for an X-box all-nighter.

I hate to be that mom who always tells my kids, "I told you so." But when my youngest son went off to summer camp in June, I became that mom. Before he left, he packed his own bag. Throwing clothes, Twizzlers, Gatorade, and a bottle of soap into a sleeping bag, he was ready. I encouraged him to take a suitcase, but he assured me, as he slung his sleeping bag over his shoulder like Santa Claus, that his way was best. Not even five minutes after his arrival, I get the phone call. "MOM! My soap exploded all over my stuff!" (Insert evil laugh from me.)

Has your summer been as exciting and interesting as mine? Could you write an entire novel on your family's summer vacation? Or maybe turn your vacation videos into a short horror flick...

With only a month until school starts, (Yes!) I look back at my beautiful children and thank God I am their mother. With the summer winding down and basketball, wrestling, and football camps almost finished, along with a successful family vacation, I pray my boys have boys of their own someday (insert another evil laugh), so they too can experience the joys of boys and summertime!

...even with a broken arm!





2 comments:

  1. I have three boys and no girls. I wouldn't know what to do with a girl. My boys are older, though, and the things you mention weren't even available when they were little. But, boys will be boys. They built a tree house in the woods, turned a lot in the neighborhood where a foundation for a house had been dug and then abandoned into a 'dirt pile' where everyone played with cars, road bikes and had dust throwing escapades :o(. Ran into a barbwire fence and rode a bike into a mailbox. I could go on and on. I miss those days.

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  2. Janet,
    That sounds like my childhood! My sister and I were tom-boys and loved playing outside. We didn't own any gadgets because they didn't exist. I remember my sister dared me to jump out of tree with an umbrella like Mary Poppins! Sadly, I was unable to fly. Luckily, I walked away without any broken bones. We rode our bikes to the ends of the earth--on the handle bars--without a helmet! Miss those days too.
    Jenny

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