Time Warp

For the past week or so I feel as though I've been living in a time warp. Both flashing back in time and jumping far into the future. It has been a strange mix.

Just as baseball season started to wrap up Joey began practice for football. Tackle football. Gone are the days of innocent flag football games. Hello to pads and helmets and tackles and push-ups and drills. It all seems too soon to be happening in my head. I watch Joey throw on his helmet, pop his mouth guard in, and run up and down the field with his teammates. They do 25 sit-ups, 25 push-ups, a minute of planks, and more running. Rinse and repeat. I watch Joey not only keep up but hold his own very well. 

After practice I walk over to Joey and say, "Since when can you do 25 good push-ups in a row? How did that happen?" Joey just smiles and shrugs. Clearly he is pleased with himself. 

Soon Tommy's tackle football practices will begin. I'm sure it will be a little less intense for his age group but he will be out there nonetheless. 

Ben begins his very first year of flag football in less than a month. He tells me he has waited his whole life for this. And with the two older brothers in tackle football Ben will get Coach Daddy all to himself. Oh rapture!

Today I registered Grace at her new school. She will be going to a different school than her brothers this year since we wanted a half day kindergarten program and her school wasn't offering it. We met the new principal, a few teachers, and we even got her class pictures taken. I know my shy girl is going to have a lengthy adjustment period, especially without her brothers around, but I think it will all be very good for her. After spending much of the summer complaining about switching schools I was pleasantly surprised by how excited she was about her new school after registration. 

My kids are moving, growing, spreading their wings at warp speed and I'm fighting to keep up.

It doesn't help that this past weekend was my 20 year high school reunion. You'd think an event like that would bring home just how much time had past and just how much older I am but it didn't. Just the opposite, in fact. 

I had my two best friends (one friend has been my bff since the very first day of 1st grade and the other since the beginning of freshman year in high school- the three of us were always inseparable) come and stay at my house and it was like no time at all had passed since high school.  

On Friday night we got together with a large group of girlfriends from high school. I swear the ladies hadn't changed at all. I don't know if they were all drinking from the same fountain of youth or if we had just deluded ourselves into thinking we looked the same. However, we had dozens of people come up to us and remark that they overheard we were celebrating our 20th reunion and they thought it was a joke. There was NO WAY we were 20 years out. They thought we were in our mid to late 20s tops. That did not help with our delusions. And of course we didn't exactly ACT like we had matured at all either. 

We stayed out entirely too late on Friday night and didn't get any time to sleep in on Saturday. Our reunion was kind of thrown together at the last minute. It was planned and then cancelled. And then planned but no one knew about it. So, I offered my services and ended up getting thrown in as one of the hostesses. Luckily I had my two best ladies with me to help set up and decorate and then we spent the rest of the day shopping (although none of us actually ended up wearing what we purchased that day to the reunion) and chatting. The three of us ended up jammed into my bedroom/bathroom all getting ready together and raiding my closet. Just like the good old days.  

You always have a vision as to how you think your 20th reunion will go. You hope it is fun. You hope people will have matured in all the right ways. But there is still a bit of nervousness there. Concern of awkward moments. Luckily, we needn't have worried.

I must say the reunion was far better than I could have ever imagined. It was the most fun I've had in a very long time. I talked to every single person there. We danced, we laughed, we ate, we teased, we looked through pictures, we even cried a little bit thinking of some of our dear friends we've already lost. Everyone was happy to be there. 

There is a point when you come to realize what a role all of these people have had in shaping who you are. Even if you did not know them well. They are part of your history and therefor part of your present and future. It seemed like we all got that and it was pretty neat to see everyone embracing our shared history.

It was a small reunion (about 60 people) for such a large class (340 people) but I am positive the next reunion will be at least double the numbers. Everyone in attendance had so much fun they were all calling for a 21st reunion. Good times with good people. 

It also drove home for me, once again, how lucky I am to have this man in my life.

I am always so proud to have him with me, tell people that he is my husband, and know he is my partner. He is so comfortable in his skin, talking with strangers, making new friends, making people laugh, and putting them at ease. He was so happy for me to have my girlfriends here (on his birthday weekend!!!!!) and he did everything he could to make it a fun weekend for us. Such a good man. I'm not sure how I got to be so lucky.

By the time both of my girlfriends had left on Monday I was completely wiped out and exhausted. So much partying and talking and craziness ensued since Thursday night when they had arrived and not a lot of sleeping. I think I must have had a total of 8 hours of sleep in 4 nights. By the time the ladies were gone I had lost my voice, gotten a sty in my eye, and had severe body aches. Maybe 20 years had passed after all.

Now my girlfriends are back in Oklahoma and Colorado, the reunion fun is over, and I am watching my children grow right before my very eyes. I can't figure out if I am living in the past or glimpsing the future.

For now I'll just try and embrace the present as best as I can.