Write to Carter, Please

Posted: June 24, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Carter’s first day at camp and I was looking forward to making some progress on my giant-never-ending-been-on-the-list-for-years house projects.  You know the kind of things you don’t want to do, but you really want done, like cleaning out the junk drawer or organizing old pictures.  Thanks to my opening my big mouth in the winter and volunteering to research, write and produce ten skits for church this summer I spent the majority of the day writing.

 

This upcoming Sunday’s skit, which is a take off on “It’s a Wonderful Life”, required me to re-watch the whole movie.  I already had the basic idea in my head, but needed a couple of actual lines from the movie, which true to form did not come until the end of the second hour.  But I like that I have checked off this job on Monday because I need to start racking my brain about the following Sunday.

 

Before I wrote that assignment I had to write Carter a real letter at camp so I could get it in the noon mail.  I had written her a note to leave on her pillow at camp, but her bunk was consumed by a giant gaggle of girls in their getting-to-know-you session so I could not get close to her bunk and was getting the leave-already look.  I forgot I had that note written and wrote another.

 

Getting mail at camp is the most important activity there is.  I think that Carter grades me on how many letters I send her.  I have religiously sent her a real letter everyday she has ever been at camp, but since no mail gets delivered on Sundays she feels like I must be slacking off somehow.  Quite frankly that is not that much happening without her home so the letters tend to get repetitive.  How many times can I tell her Shay-Shay misses her?  I know she does not like to here that she should not have left her room such a mess.

 

This year I am trying something new.  As a reader of this blog would you consider sending Carter a note or postcard at camp?  It does not matter that she may not know you, but I think it would be fun for her to get an avalanche of letters.  You can even put in it that she could share it with someone who did not get any mail that day.  If you went to camp as a kid tell her what your favorite camp activity or memory was.  Her mailing address is:

 

Carter Lange

Sequoia

Camp Cheerio

1430 Camp Cheerio Rd.

Glade Valley, NC 28627-9731

 

I am not telling her about this, but I will report her reaction when she actually sends me a letter.  This may free me up to not have to write so much and I can get to my big list of chores, or maybe go to the movies or feel less guilty if I start a new puzzle.  Oh no, I am starting a big new list of fun things to do while Carter is at camp, which means my yucky list might stay intact for another year.

Eighth Grade Graduation

Posted: June 6, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: , , | Leave a comment
8th grade graduation

8th grade graduation

When I was a kid we did not graduate from eighth grade, but today was Carter’s closing exercises for her middle school.  For Carter the end of middle school means that she will move to another school campus next year so it is fitting to have a ceremony to commemorate completing four years of school.

As a parent I am thrilled to have middle school behind us.  I don’t know anyone on earth who loved the years between ten and fourteen.  Outside of the time from birth to two years old, middle school years represent the greatest change a girl makes, both physically and emotionally.  In our house the physical definitely rivals the emotional and I think they are both fighting it out to see which one is the winner.  Judging from the great differences in the boys in Carter’s class many of them are still in the throws of the great change.

I want to publically thank every teacher Carter encountered in middle school.  I have said it before and I’ll say it again, it takes a very special kind of person to want to spend time with adolescents.  The most important thing that Carter learned was her own voice.

There is so much ahead for her and her classmates and I hope that they go forward with kindness and respect for all people and a greater curiosity for the whole world.  But now at last everyone gets the rest that comes with summer break.  Although the sleeping in will be short lived since Drivers Ed starts Monday.

Tonight the kids will have a big party to celebrate their “graduation.”  It will be a last goodbye to some kids who are moving on to different schools.  Those friends will be missed, but new students will be joining Carter’s freshman class in the fall changing the whole dynamic.  Middle school is done forever. Hooray, Hooray.

Sister C and Sister E

Posted: May 19, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

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Almost fourteen years ago I was at church early saving two pews because my whole family was coming to witness Carter’s Baptism.  A tall skinny blonde woman I did not know shimmied into the pew I was saving in the front.  In my typically officious voice I announced to her that the seats were taken because my daughter was being baptized that day.  She looked at me and said that her daughter was also being baptized that day, news to both of us that we were sharing the day.  It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship that did not start out so friendly.

 

Carter and Ellis, now affectionately called Sister E and Sister C unknowingly started their life long friendship there and then.  Today they were both confirmed together in the same church where they were baptized.  This time their parents happily chose to sit together.

 

Carter choosing to join the church and be confirmed was not a slam-dunk.  At first she was unwilling to agree to go through the classes.  I told Carter that she did not have to pledge her allegiance to any God, Church or Jesus, but that she had to go through the classes to learn what she did and did not believe in.  I know that she was challenging to her teachers in her questions.  I am thankful that many smart adults, Taylor, Nancy and her mentor Jamie did not tire of helping this prove-it-science-type adolescent come to an understanding of faith and grace.

 

I ended up being asked to be Ellis’ mentor as a church elder.  It only seemed fitting since I consider her my own bonus daughter.  Ellis’ mother Lynn often says of Ellis that she is more my daughter than hers when Ellis is being her natural comedic self.

 

So today I celebrate not just Carter and Ellis’ confirmation but the years of friendship with the whole Toms family started there at Sister E and Sister C’s baptism and continued on today and for years to come.