Day 86: Rewarding Hard Work

Whew, what a day. I'm exhausted. Spent time visiting the kid sister Jennifer whose in the hospital following our trip to Bass Lake where several of us caught a virus -- food related perhaps. Had several tests done myself to see if I had/have the same food virus. Ran umpteen errands for the family, cooked the yummy shrimp & pasta dinner for 7 teenagers then made a trek with 4 of them over to the local Target for a big purchase.

Brian and I have never been the parents who say "you'll get a dollar for every good grade you bring home on your report card" or similar comments. We have always told our boys to work hard, apply themselves and do their best. If their best is always an A so be it, or if it is less than this so be it, but if they know in their hearts they worked hard then we are always happy to praise and acknowledge a job well done.

Harrison & Spencer completed their first year of High School magnificently. And I don't just mean because they aced their academics, but they really mastered this freshman year well. They hung in there with an enormously difficult baseball program and both made the Palisades Baseball Team. They collected a whole new lot of terrific friends who I am happy to welcome in my home at any time, and all along the way they maintained a stellar GPA.

As parents all you really want for your children is for them to be happy & healthy. That really is the bottom line and everything above this is like the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae.

I had told the boys that if they ended their first year of High School with the best grades they could achieve then a reward would be granted. I just saw them working so hard and really maturing during this very emotional and challenging first year of High School and I wanted to acknowledge this hard work. They made good on their promise and so did I tonight. So we piled in the car both of them and two friends and headed to Target where we bought an XBOX 360 -- for those of you who don't know what that is it's a video game console. My boys didn't have one (schocking because it seems like everyone does).

They were very grateful, but I was even more grateful. Grateful & thankful that they surround themselves with good friends, thankful they are very healthy, thankful they are bright and school is a natural for them, and mostly grateful because they are my two beautiful sons.