by Sarah | Apr 5, 2016 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Home, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Redefining Perfect
March was a sucktastic month, I’ve made no secret of that.
But it’s over now.
With some carnage around us, we are gathering the pieces together, and re-evaluating some things.
The teen is graduating soon and moving on to bigger and better (and warmer) things. He’s pulling up stakes and moving down south to pursue a dream.
Whether it’s me turning 40, hubby turning almost-50, the teen leaving home, or just the hell of a month we went through – we are starting to look at where we are ourselves vs. where we want to be.
We’ve begun to dream big.
Bigger than we’ve allowed ourselves to dream in a while.
Right now it’s all pipe dreams and wishes,
but as Walt Disney said – “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Now all we have to do is muster some courage and pursue them all.
We needed a spark of hope, and we’ve given it to ourselves.
It’s kind of terrifying, and so very exciting.
I’d gotten in a rut, and sort of beat down.
It feels really good to dream again.
by Sarah | Mar 15, 2016 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, Crap, Random, Redefining Perfect
It’s been a rough week and a half.
ROUGH.
And it’s not over yet.
As this is posting I’m going through a meeting I don’t wat to.
A meeting where I must get and use a backbone.
And I still have much to deal with in the fallout of last week.
So there is little left to do.
Except follow the immortal words of Dory…
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming…”
by Sarah | Mar 3, 2016 | All About Denver, All About Family, All About Me, Disney, Make-A-Wish, Redefining Perfect
There was one little detail Denver didn’t bother to tell us.
Of course, this was during the time he didn’t speak to us much at all, so that shouldn’t be surprising.
But, still, he didn’t mention that he didn’t choose Disney as his initial wish for one reason, and one reason alone.
He was certain he would hate it.
It would be stupid.
He was sixteen, what did he care about a land that all began with a mouse?
And then…
And then he went. He remained stoic through a good portion of it, but yet there were smiles.
Here and there.
Somewhere in that time, in that brief week of time – it happened.
He fell in love.
With the land that started with a mouse.
With the land he now calls home.
With the dream.
And I say we are a Disney loving family, but he is the king of it all.
Disney has transformed him in ways I had only hoped would happen.
He is focused, and driven (though not on school – that’s another story). He is ready to move on and out, and head back home.
And if I could, I would be right there with him.
It’s funny how Disney works that way. How it takes a teenager who’s too big for his britches, and too cool for such things…and makes him a believer.
Disney was special to me before – now it’s even more so because it brought my kid back to me.
by Sarah | Mar 2, 2016 | All About Denver, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect, Wordy Wednesday
Way back in the spring of last year, Denver asked me to take him to Half Price books.
I thought maybe he wanted to pick up some more comic books, as that had become something he was into. Still, I was deep in the depths of a book-buying obsession so I was always too happy to go, plus he had a gift card so I wouldn’t have to cover the cost.
Then he told me what he really wanted to get.
1984 by George Orwell.
I asked him if he had to read it for school.
He said nope.
He just wanted to read it.
Mind you, this is the boy that had always despised reading. Now and then he’d latch onto something he enjoyed, but there was never something voluntary.
Certainly not a classic.
Surprised by his initiative, I told him I’d pay for it, and he could use his gift card for his comic books.
That $3 payout has paid off in spades.
I believe this is the only book that my son has read – and re-read – and re-read again, and then yet again. I’m pretty sure in the past year he’s read it five times. Voluntarily.
I’ve always wanted him to find a love of reading.
I never expected it to happen with, of all books, 1984.
What about you? What inspired your kids to read? Was it Harry Potter? Little House? Something totally off the wall?
by Sarah | Feb 22, 2016 | All About Denver, All About Family, All About Me, Redefining Perfect, The Teenager
More often than not anymore, our conversations turn toward what’s coming.
Toward his inevitable departure.
How he will move.
What he will do when he is gone.
How we will handle the adult things.
Like a car.
A job.
Where he’ll live.
What he’ll leave with.
And come back for.
There is no talk of college anymore, and I’m okay with that.
Because he has plans and dreams.
A lifetime career in the land of the mouse.
He is taking a leap.
A leap I never dared to take.
To chase a dream.
And we are ready to rally behind him, and encourage such reckless dream chasing.
Or not so reckless – after all he’s a planner, a saver, a stingy penny-pincher, willing to go the distance to achieve his end-game.
And yet…
He is leaving.
If all goes well, in seven or eight months we will get in a car and I will take him south, get him settled, and leave him to his future hundreds of miles away.
The first to leave the nest.
To strike out on his own and take chances, make friends, create a life.
And I can only hope that we have given him the tools he needs to succeed. To live a life to its fullest. To care for his CF. To care for himself. To create a home.
And while I have my worries, as all mothers do.
I am proud that he is taking a risk to chase a dream.
I have a strong feeling he’ll succeed.
by Sarah | Feb 18, 2016 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Disney, Make-A-Wish, Redefining Perfect
We once again had the mixed blessing of a Make-A-Wish trip to Disney and Universal. How it came about wasn’t intentional, in fact the wish was originally something much different.
When we had our first meeting with Make-A-Wish Denver thought he’d hate Disney, that Kennedy’s wish would be awful, and he’d be so bored. His wish was to meet Sir Patrick Stewart. We were warned that celebrity wishes were difficult and took a long time to fulfill. So we waited.
I planned Kennedy’s trip in the few months we had, and we ended up going in pretty blind.
We had an amazing trip, as I’ve documented here (and will continue to do so), and all too soon we returned home. Although Denver returned home a changed teen, we thought that was it.
A few months later I got the fateful email – Denver’s original wish to meet Sir Patrick Stewart would not be able to come to fruition. He was working 27 hour days on the set of his new show and they couldn’t make it happen. Did Denver want to change his second wish?
Boy, did he ever. He wasn’t sure Make-A-Wish could make it happen because we’d just been, but if we could, could we return to Disney?
Turns out, they could, and so we were going to return to Disney!
Denver wasn’t done there, though.
To top of the already magical wish of a Disney vacation – he wanted to invite his grandparents (only my mother went).
And then he wanted to take it a step further.
He wanted to completely surprise his sisters.
So for seven months we kept the secret, barely at times.
The story of the reveal is one for another day, but suffice it to say, it went over very well and we made the amazing return to Disney.
We did more, saw more. Had better times, and some not-so-great times. We went on every coaster, sometimes twice. We took chances, we met princesses and dined with them.
We met villains and Eeyore and Mad Hatters.
The return was a breathtaking celebration, the fate of our family as a Disney family sealed. The future goals of our son irrevocably changed.
Once again their is so much to tell. So much that will come out over the course of the next few months. I’ll continue our stories from the first year and add in those from the second.
Needless to say. If we weren’t before – we are a Disney family now.
March was a sucktastic month, I’ve made no secret of that.
We’ve begun to dream big.
