about a boy

Cole has been busy this summer. I can’t believe he’s so grown up. He’s 14 and mows the lawn for us, (which is great because it’s one of the only ways a 14 year old kids can earn any money), babysits whenever I need him to, and now that school is out, is really quite pleasant. Last weekend he also did his first garage sale.

Here he is standing in front of all our old stuff that he’d like to sell.

Of course, he didn’t just do it all by himself. It was his “band fundraiser” garage sale, and all the money he earned goes toward his band trip this fall, but did he do it alone? No. I’d been collecting things for the previous two weeks. I went through the girls’ closets and tried to weed out the clothing they didn’t need. Jenna’s was the most fun. As the 3rd girl in the family, she ends up with a LOT of clothes. We went through her closet and picked out everything that said size 6 or 6x (since she’s 7 1/2 now) and then tried to whittle down the dresses to “just 10”. I know, I know. Just 10? She had a lot more. I even got rid of a bunch of stuff from my closet, too. We also brought up the kids’ kitchen set and the little tykes tool bench and tools, the bouncy horse and mini trampoline from the basement. The kids weren’t too thrilled that I was getting rid of their kitchen. “We LOVE that!” they wailed. But I was insistant that if we are ever going to finish our basement, we need to start getting rid of some of the things we don’t really play with. Besides, Cole could use the money.

The kids and Ryan loaded all that stuff into the truck, and then I drove Cole and Megan to the High school at 6:30 to set up. I can’t believe all that stuff that I had been collecting for weeks only took up one load in our little pick up truck. I thought it was a lot more.

I had to leave the young entrepreneurs at 8:15 so I could go to my Saturday rehearsal, and by that time he had only sold a few dollars worth of our stuff. Darn. But things eventually picked up and he made a total of $50. And we got rid of a bunch of stuff. What didn’t sell, of course, went to DI, and that was just fine with me.

Yesterday, Cole marched in his first “REAL” parade, the Lehi Round-up. As former residents of Lehi, we’ve attended this parade many times, and the kids have actually even been in the miniature parade before. But this time he had to march AND play the flute at the same time. For two grueling miles in the hot sun. And they started at around 11:00am. Oh, and did I mention that they are wearing black?

They can’t be like a lot of high school bands and actually wear shorts and a t-shirt for their parades, they have to put on the whole flipping uniform and nearly sweat to death for their parades.

The worst thing, though, is that Cole is severely sun burned. Oh, yeah. He and Megan went with some awesome friends (thanks, David!) to Classic skating and waterslides on Friday, and I sent him with a bottle of sunscreen. Here is where this is kind of my fault. I SENT him with the spray can of sunscreen. I didn’t spray him all over myself before he left. And kids don’t seem to understand that you can’t just lightly spray that stuff on, you have to spray enough that you can see it, and then rub it in. Well, that didn’t happen, and he didn’t just wear his shirt, like I’m going to insist he do at all future sun/water events. His shoulders and back are very red, and he just walks around all day saying, “ow”. We’ve slathered on the aloe, and he’s taking tylenol, but he’s still very uncomfortable. So, needless to say, the whole marching in the hot black uniform wasn’t the most fun thing. But he did it. he survived, and he’s stronger for it.

(Just for the record, I didn’t actually attend this parade, as I had another Saturday rehearsal, so thanks to Ryan for taking the kids and sitting in the sun waiting for Cole to come by. They did get TONS of candy and stuff thrown at them, though. They even got a couple of t-shirts! So, Ryan, if you have anything to add here, feel free!)

He’s lucky he didn’t have to strap on the drums or a tuba!

And for his reward, the marching band plans to go to Seven Peaks Water Park tomorrow! Yippee! I’m not sure if Cole will want to go, or if he’ll be able to hang with his cousins, who are in town and will soon be staying with us.