Life in the Middle Age Lane

December 2004 Dear Family & Friends, This is year instead of the traditional Christmas card wishing one and all a Merry Christmas; we thought a letter would be nice for a change.   Many of you have kept with us through e-mails or an occasional phone call but somehow those instances are never enough time to fill you in on the entire family.   So here it goes……. John as been doing great with his job, he no longer writes software but sales instead.   Who would have pictured John as a salesman?   And he is very good at it; he markets consulting services and software to banks throughout the United States.   He has traveled to Hawaii, Bahamas, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New Jersey, etc..   Too many places to mention.   This year our family vacationed in the Bahamas and John’s Father and I went to Hawaii with him while my mom watched the kids for us. I have been busy with PTO as the representative for the camp...

I have debated on writing this post for the past month, and it was difficult to find another topic to blog about since this subject matter is at the foundation of our lives currently.   So here it goes..... John and I are going into our phase 2 of our empty nester type of life, the first one was when Shelby decided to go to boarding school in her sophomore year in high school.  We adjusted, learned to enjoy our free evenings and weekends traveling to Dallas or vice versa. During those three years, something happen, we lost sight of each other.  Shelby was our commonality that made us interact with each other.  As strange as this sounds, our household is very divided in responsibilities and the only interaction was decisions regarding the kids. We decided we did not like the way our marriage was headed.  We have done counseling in the past and I felt that we needed something much more.  A drastic change in how we see our roles in our relationship. ...

When Shelby started Kindergarten and I was looking for activities for her to do, joining the local daisy troop in scouting seemed like a fun thing to do.  She would get to make friends with girls in her school and learn some fun things along the way. That was 13 years ago. Even though she was part of Troop 11012 for two years, she ended up joining 11054 in her 2nd grade year.  She had an amazing troop leader who breathed and bled scouting.  She was great for the young girl scouts who needed guidance and leadership.  Of course we all know that there does come a time when the girls themselves need to lead.  That is what scouting is all about; Empowering girls to gain confidence, leadership, and accountability with their community.  This is where I stepped in about 2010.  I was the co-leader for many years and an active troop mom throughout Shelby's scouting years. The past four years have been exciting, trying, lagging, frustrating, encouraging, ...

Wearing my mother's day gift from John a J.McLaughlin scarf May has come and gone. All my graduation responsibilities completed more or less.  Did I mention that after going to all the trouble of getting our parents up to Dallas to watch Shelby graduate we did not get ONE picture of them with her!!! I was so mad with myself. Anyway back to me.  I started Crossfit in February with my good friend Paige and her husband Jimmy. The first month I told myself this is the last month, since I already paid for it but I would not renew in March.  It was so scary pushing myself to do all these exercises that for sure were going to kill me. I started by going three times a week, every other day.  Every day I would show up in fear mode about what the WOD would be.  WOD is work out of the day.  Though it should stand for Wish On Death, for some workouts but not all.  I had a brutal one on Monday and still having a hard time squating...for girls this sucks, i...

August 2011, first day at boarding school.  She was so excited to start her new adventure.  I can't believe we let her do this.  It was so hard on us, to not see her everyday, be at her school for every little celebration or event.  But here we are three years later and we did it!  We ALL did it!! As they say at Hockaday we are HOCKADONE!!! Shelby wore the traditional white dress that all the Hockaday Seniors wear for graduation.  The dress is voted on by all seniors and a fashion show with models of all sizes showcasing the dress. In the years past the seniors would wear white hats with flowers and carry a flower basket.  However being the centennial year the girls reverted to the original hats of pastel colors.  Shelby chose yellow, my favorite color on her. The ceremony was outside and very humid....look at me glisten and let's not mention my hair.  uhg! Hockaday has century old traditions that are truly southern....

John treated me to a Mothers serenade at the Wortham. The best part was Emilio performed with the Latin Philharmonic.  Being able to watch our son perform on the Wortham stage was magical.  Makes all those drives after school and weekend violin lessons worth every minute of it.   Shelby presented me with a gift she made at school for me.  You would think that at age 18 she would have ditched those hand made gifts and just gone shopping but my super kid did both, shopping and a beautiful, thoughtful gift. Warning several pictures coming..... I hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Day and sorry for the late post.  More to come soon!!