Welcome to Adulthood, Andrew!

 Our handsome, athletic, hard-working and quiet Andrew turns 18 today.  

Our dark-haired blue-eyed boy.

We've raised another child to adulthood and yet our sweet little boy you will always be.  Senior year is upon us, and the adjustment has been hard.  Mostly for your mom if I'm honest :)  You are loving the independence that comes with age, especially when it allows you to escape the noise and chaos that can be our home.  We always joke that you should have been an only child, as you don't understand why everyone related to you has to be so loud all the time.  You forget that you used to be quite loud and rambunctious yourself!  From walking at nine months old to excelling at anything you tried, you were our golden boy, and not just because you tan easily.  

You were the unassuming leader amongst your friends, and the girls always had crushes on you, which you were mostly oblivious to, thank goodness.  Between the speech therapy you needed as a toddler to your level of physicality, you were never one to sit and read a book, and we still aren't sure if you've ever read one entirely!  Have you? Ha!  You couldn't even be bothered to sit through a whole movie without wanting to go workout or play outside.  

You figured out how to work hard enough at school to get good grades and you are currently trying to raise your 3.98 gpa to a 4.0 to earn a big college scholarship.  Speaking of college, you aren't 100% sure what you want to study but are leaning towards Physical Therapy and casting a wide net of applications, and we will all be intrigued to see what you choose in the end.  When JP called from Austria, he made sure to let you know that you would love the European lifestyle.  From his experience, everybody is active all the time and laid-back and enjoys life, and he thought you would fit right in.  He's right, that's just your speed.  Unless you're on the field/court, then your speed is push-it-to-the-max.

 

You are probably our most fashionably aware child, and I like to ask your advice when I need to choose which shoes to wear.  You have an effortlessly cool style and always have. 

You love to hang out with your friends, and since most of them are wealthier than us, you like to see how the other half lives.  While you enjoy the material pleasures in life, you aren't afraid of working hard to earn them yourself.  You are always up for a boating or skiing or hiking adventure, if there is some kind of danger and the outdoors involved, all the better!

You were very disappointed when the doctor told you she thinks you are done growing, as you hoped to be over 6 feet tall and are stuck at 5' 11.5".  You're still our tallest child, so there's that!  You love to try and ruin photos by giving thumbs ups, but joke's on you because it just makes me laugh.

While I wish I could go back in time and freeze you right here, 

I am also so excited to watch you grow into the man God created you to be.  You will never be truly happy apart from Him but you already know that.  You are a sensitive and empathetic soul, yet unafraid and strong.  You laugh easily yet hate being the center of attention.  You are content to be part of a group, but won't just follow anyone.  You hate noise and chaos, but are always looking out for your younger siblings.  You are going to be the best husband and dad.  You have one foot at home and the other out the door and I hope you feel prepared for what lies ahead.  You are the perfect Andrew Pauric Francis Martin and we couldn't be luckier to be in your life.  Happy 18th son, we love you to the moon and back and back again.

That's What He Said

Brendan (age 6): You're the second best mom...ya know...after Mary.

~

Brendan's card that he made for Eamon's birthday:

~

Xander: Some kids in my class have only small roles in the Wizard of Oz.

Me: There's no such thing as a small role, only small actors!

Brendan: Yeah, like the Munchkins!

~

Xander (age 11): Mom, I think I should be able to get a phone early.

Me: No way, you're not responsible enough yet.

Xander: But you always tell me how responsible I am!

Me: When do I tell you that?

Xander: Whenever something bad happens, you say "Xander is responsible!"

~

JP: This weekend I'm going to travel with some more guys.

Dad: That's good.

JP: Yeah, it's tough being the only guy and having to carry all the bags and open all the doors.

A Tale of Two "Sisters"

Almost eleven years ago, I took my cutie-patootie four year old Maggie to get her first American Girl doll with my little sister and her two daughters.  I wasn't 100% positive back then, but I had a strong hunch that Maggie would be my only daughter.  When she was born, we had chosen her name to be Margaret Rose but before making it official, I had a little moment of panic and realized that if she was our only girl, I wanted to include Mary in her name to honor Our Lady.  That's how she became Margaret Rosemary and my prediction of her being the only girl seems to have come true *she types hesitantly knowing that things can still happen at the ripe old age of 43*.  

Being sandwiched in between so many boys has made Maggie awesome in so many ways, but she still prayed for a baby girl every time I was pregnant.  It just wasn't meant to be!  Luckily, she is able to call those two female cousins (one older and one younger) her "sisters" and has been following in the path of her older cousin her whole life.  They went to the same schools, played the same sports, danced Irish Step together, push themselves to be top of the class, and enjoy being around each other as much as possible.  Just like her big cousin, Maggie was asked to play up to the Varsity Volleyball team as a freshman after their middle hitter got injured.  Our whole family was there in full support of her first game, and she killed it!  Both Maggie and her cousin even got a shoutout in the local paper from that game.  She now practices with Varsity and plays for JV since their hitter came back, and she is loving life.  

Look at those sweet girlies...

...turned into killer volleyball players!

I thank God every single day for the friendship between my kids and their cousins, something I never had as my cousins all lived far away, but especially for Maggie's "sisters" who surround her as good influencers and best friends.  God certainly provides.

Sweet Sixteen

Our joyful, intelligent, hard-working, holy, funny and pleasure of a son to raise turns SIXTEEN today!  Happy birthday Eamon :)

We started celebrating on Saturday by going out to lunch at a restaurant where his friend's band was playing.

On Sunday we celebrated his birthday at home since today, his actual birthday, involves school and soccer practice and a violin lesson and a volleyball game, oh my.

Week in Review: Boys Soccer, Bruschi Sighting, and Birthday Season

One of the Varsity soccer dads from our high school takes great pictures and videos of the games.  Here's my Senior defender, Andrew, who (much to his mother's dismay) loves heading the ball:

And here's my Sophomore striker, Eamon, who has been getting pulled up from JV to play with Varsity and was able to score his first Varsity goal (hence the celebrating in that first pic):

I need to get some professional photos of Maggie playing volleyball, but for now here is a photo she sent me from yesterday's game of the opposing team's coach who happened to be Heidi Bruschi, former USA Team Volleyball player and Tedy Bruschi's wife.  Which is kind of a big deal if you're a Patriot's fan:

We are about to begin Birthday Season around here.  We have three birthdays in two weeks and that means my brain is constantly thinking about gifts and menus and how to make them feel especially loved on their big days.  Work is pretty busy lately because I have my huge annual report due to the state next Friday.  It feels like most of my work happens in the month of September and then I can sail through the rest of the year without getting too stressed.  Of course my body has decided to break down right when I need it most *shakes fist at sky* in the form of a sinus infection last week and a coldsore/extremely sore throat/exhaustion this week.  I've taken five negative Covid tests and been disappointed every time because at least a Covid diagnosis would buy me 5 days of rest and relaxation.  Kidding, kinda.  But it is annoying to get sick and rundown and still be expected to function because it's Not Covid.

Meanwhile JP is in Santorini, Greece living it up:

Phil and I are trying to reschedule our 20th Anniversary Canada trip so that brings me a lot of joyful anticipation and feels like the light at the end of the September tunnel.  We are going to Montreal for two nights and if you have any must-see places between Massachusetts and Montreal, please let me know!  We basically just eat our way through our getaways, so food suggestions are always welcome...poutine perhaps?

I took this photo of our town's high school last night after the rain:

I hope everybody has a double rainbow type of weekend, or more importantly has someone in their life who will run in and point it out to them so they don't miss it.  Thanks, Declan.

Monday Motherly Meanderings

You know how when you serve your family a meal and they are all quiet, you wonder if it's because it's so good or so bad?  Well when my blog gets quiet, you know it's because life is neither good nor bad.  Just insanely busy.  To be completely honest, this school year is kicking my derriere a little.  With three in high school, and all playing a fall sport on different teams, and only one can drive, it's so much coordinating rides.  Then I feel guilty if I ask one to stay half an hour later to catch a ride with the other, but it doesn't make sense to pack up the littles and spend 30 minutes driving to pick up someone (plus the cost of gas) when they can just sit tight for 30 minutes and get a ride home with their big brother.  I know, I know these things teach kids patience and that the world doesn't revolve around them which are important lessons...and yet I still feel guilty that we can't provide for them in the way smaller families can.  

At the kids elementary school this year, they will be performing a play, and my 3rd grader was overheard telling teachers that he couldn't be in the play because "it cost too much".  The play costs $100 to be part of but that's not why we said he couldn't do it.  He can't do it because we literally can't pick up the other elementary kids from school (no buses) then pick up teens from sports then go back for the kid in play practice then back for the other teens.  Plus, the play practices twice a week and on one of those days he has his violin lesson, and on the other day he has his soccer practice.  So it's just a NO.CAN.DO for him this year, and I wasn't even feeling badly about that until I heard what he told people at school.  I think our kids just assume we don't do things because of finances, since we do use that reason a lot (Disneyworld is too expensive for all of us, we do family birthday parties at home because renting a place for a friend party costs too much, we buy this cereal because it costs less than name brand cereal, etc.)  Again, great lessons for kids to learn in the long run, but it breaks my heart to hear it come out of their mouths.  I also don't want them to resent having a large family.  I don't think any of them do, and I know I sure didn't resent growing up in a big family myself, but I don't want the number of children we have to prevent those same children from getting to do what they want.  All moms must worry about this stuff, right?  Tell me I'm not alone.

Wow, okay Colleen, you were just going to come here and post a few photos from the week and call it done, and now you've become *un*done in the process.

Sorry, Colleen, but writing is cathartic.  I guess I had some things to release, and you know what?  I feel better!  Back to regularly scheduled programming...

JP is in GREECE for his 10 day break while studying in Austria this semester.  He is spending the first half of the week in Athens, and the second half in Santorini and sent a couple photos and texts to his obsessive loving mother.

Honestly though, my thoughts are so often with JP and worrying about him from afar.  I didn't think about him nearly as much when he was on campus at Franciscan.