Mid July, time marches on!!!
Benjamin continues to work 30-40 hours a week. He works at a nice sit down restaurant and a sandwich shop. Both of them have tried to get him to quit the other job and just work at one place. The sandwich shop can offer morning hours, which he likes, but loved the kitchen experience of the restaurant. He has been out paddle boarding and golfing lately! One of JR's clients gave him a used set of nice golf clubs so I see the links/driving range becoming a more frequent thing. We have started having senior year conversations and what things might look like going forward. He is 100% undecided to what next year will hold. The one thing he does know, it will not include traditional higher education, at least not for next year or two. I totally agree and support him either working or finding a trade school, etc. We recently celebrated his 17th bday! Can't believe it. He and I have been trying to go out to eat once a week. I told him his Senior year I would love to explore all the many eating options that our community has to offer. (Eating out is not something we have ever done on a regular basis, so we could easily go every week and not hit the same restaurant twice.
Jacob has been involved in all things working out. Still doing PT twice a week and morning workouts from 7-9 M-F at the high school. There are not a lot of kids and I think he really enjoys working out along side some of the upper classmen. There is a new coach this year doing the workouts and Jacob adores him. Comes home every day talking about how he know just how to push athletes for more, encourage them. I see him as a coach that will definitely build into Jacob's life through his high school years! This next week, he will be working out 7-9, helping with younger football camps from 9-11 and 1-3, then participating in a high school camp from 5-7. Makes for a very exhausted kid! But the best kind of exhaustion. I love watching him strive to get bigger and stronger. Unfortunately, his vertical challenges (height) put him behind the 8 ball but I have just told him there are lots of amazing athletes that are well under 6 foot. He just needs to work harder. We have also had conversations about his friends who are choosing not to do workouts and how coaches see that and all the work and dedication that kids put in. He has also been working with JR a few days and really helping him stay ahead of things. And oh my word, we are starting to have driver's education conversations!!!! He could start driving as early as September if we go the Driver's Ed route or next March, if we choose to bypass Driver's Ed.
Joseph! He has found his second home at the skate park! He will hop on his scooter and be gone for hours on end! The sun, fresh air and exercise are amazing for him. He enjoyed his few weeks of summer school (they ran it more like summer camp, but educational). He has a 12th birthday coming up and discussions are underway as to what he wants to do. He would love to go to a hotel for overnight, but holy cow, hotels are about 300 a night here!!! Yikes! For Christmas last year he just wanted money for extra curricular things (like pool, trampoline park) and he has just recently empties his money envelope. Now comes the huge life lesson of you either find a way to make money or you don't get to go and play! We recently got him a phone with restrictions on it. As much as I wanted to wait a year or two, there is such a peace of mind knowing I can get a hold of him and him me. I wonder how we ever survived without cell phones...ha. Sure made life much simpler without them!!
JR has some long days this summer. He has done a great job of slowly growing his clientele and, in my opinion, learning how to be competitive in this market. Living in a resort town, service providers often charge 20-30% more than what he does and it is hard to wrap your mind around what people would pay for your service. I have had several conversations recently where it is stated that people of higher income usually don't mind paying more because they feel like they get more, so they actually look for the higher priced services. He has a long standing client who is almost fully moved into the new 10,000 square foot home he built and JR will begin to manage that. It is crazy to think how someone could need that space, and three laundry rooms, but sounds like he basically built three wings so that when his two kids bring their families, everyone has their own private space!
I have enjoyed voluntarily lowering my hours for the summer. Of course the money is nice, but I need to be available to go and play with the boys too. I have been meeting some friends up at the high school track 3 days a week at 5am for workouts! I really love the early mornings and watching the sun come up, as long as I can get to bed early enough. Since its summer I don't stress about the boys being up (they are old enough to manage their time, not that they always do, but if they choose to stay up until 2am and miss their early morning commitment, no better way to learn). So, I have been getting in bed around 9. Sure is nice. There have been few car rental turn overs this month. I think there was such a frenzy on rental cars in June that dealerships, etc go smart and started renting vehicles, so market is somewhat saturated. Again, sure don't mind a slower pace!
We have our annual camping trip this weekend but given schedules, location, etc it is looking very different this year. I had hoped to borrow a friends camper but that fell through. Joseph doesn't want to sleep in a tent, so just Jacob and I are going. Really looking forward to just down time! Might get a hike in on Saturday. There is no cell service so excited for Jacob as the weekend will be all about being a boy and exploring!
Here are a few pictures from recent outings.
JR and I took out the four wheeler one day. Rode about an hour back. Sure was beautiful and weird to see the new electric poles so far back.
