For my Niece

Okay, Katie.  Just for you.  I left of in June with Hannah's 4-H State Show.  Victoria had a fabulous time at Camp Broadway in Jacksonville and some delicious smoothies with her Aunt Cynthia.  In July Victoria headed to Honduras with a team from our church.  It was a smidgen difficult to let a 13yo go out of the country without a parent along, but she's the 4th kid, right?  We've relaxed a whole lot.

Hannah worked horse camps with her trainer and saved every dime she made.  In mid-July she found an affordable car to buy, so she was all set to be independent when that Sweet 16 rolled around in September.  Kevin was slaving away at Starbucks while Alyssa stayed at her job at Lai Lais and was a part time nanny for one of the Care Net nurse's kids.

Hannah showed Grace at the State Federation of Saddle Clubs show over Labor Day weekend.  She came down with a bad cold and fever right before the show and I worried about her getting dehydrated or worse.  Of course she'd worked so hard to be there, nothing was going to stop her.  She had a successful show that culminated with a first place in English Pleasure.

School started with Kevin and Alyssa both at the College of Coastal Georgia, Hannah in 10th grade and Victoria in 8th.  Kevin also had been working on his application to Highlands College, knowing the CCGA was nothing more than a place to get some core classes out of his way.  Sadly, we started the school year minus a student who had become a part of our family.  Caitlyn turned 4 over the summer and was enrolled in preK.  It is still a little strange, after four years of having that little squirt under foot, to be without her now.

Not having Caitlyn did open some other doors for us.  Hannah's trainer had knee replacement surgery, so for 6 weeks, 5 days a week we made the 25 min drive to Shady Oaks Stables to feed 20 some horses at 7am.  Between feeding, Hannah's job cleaning stalls and her riding Grace 5 days a week, it seemed that Hannah lived there.  Thankfully by this time Hannah had her driver's license and could go alone some days.

In early October, Alyssa received a fat manilla envelope from the Health Sciences Department at CCGA.  Enclosed was her acceptance letter to the School of Nursing.  Woo hoo!  Graduation is just 4 semesters away!

Christmas came and went with me missing the simplicity of last Christmas...when we "skipped" Christmas and went to Haiti.  Despite my objections, the season flew by and it was time to take Kevin to Birmingham to enroll at Highlands.  I sort of pride myself with being a no nonsense kind of mom...but I was a mess as we packed Kevin's room.  I was trying to hold it together, really I was .  Geez, I didn't want his parting memories of me to be of me crying and sulking around the house.  And I wasn't doing half bad until he picked up a box and said, "You know, this really does feel like I'm leaving my childhood completely behind."  Boo hooing ensued (and I'm misty eyed right now just typing it).

Thankfully I'm through the most severe pain (I hope).  He is happily settled at Cory and Sarah's house ( my brother and sister-in-law) and is now a part of their daily routine.  According to all accounts he's liking school there and, praise the Lord, feels like he's in the right place.

Hannah showed Grace in her first American Quarter Horse Association show last weekend.  Even with much stiffer competition she held her own.  That show deserves its own blog post now that I'm "back in the saddle" here at Imitating Steventen.

So there it is, Katie...your very own whirl wind tour of the latter half of 2012.   I have, no doubt, left off a few things like Victoria's participation in the Miss Golden Isles pageant and her change of dance studio.  She's now taking ballet from Val Salnikov, a take no prisoners sort of ballet teacher.  But what else would you expect from a Russian male ballet instructor?

Hope to see you back here at Imitating Steventon soon.  I've decided that a simple blog post that is complete and published is better than a witty or profound post that never gets typed.  That's my now motto, and I'm stickin' to it!