my baby is a high-schooler.....

sniff....

austen started 9th grade today. 

9th grade!!!

how does this happen?  he was just in kindergarten last year, or was that two years ago....

this mama is having severe anxiety about her boy growing up.

it is all happening too fast.

high school starts much earlier in the morning than middle school.  he has to get up an hour earlier than he did last year, which was 6:30 am.

5:30 am is ear-ly!

so we had everything ready last night.

backpack packed....check....

cereal and bowl set out.....check...

ninth grader showered, dressed and ready.....chec----whoa!

5:30 is really, really early!!!!

so early in fact, that it is still pitch dark out when he goes to school now.

so i had to take the pictures in the house.

i made him smile by telling him to say the proper name for "weiner". 

 he compromised and told me to stop taking pictures.  through gritted teeth...

we're even!!!!

have a great year buddy.  i love you!   ..don't let high school make you grow up too fast...

promise me, okay? 

senior pictures......

the lovely kellie......

 we found a few really cool places to shoot her senior pictures.

this lovely gazebo and fountain is at the entrance to a subdivision a few miles away. 

 i also found an abandoned railroad track with the graffitied up train cars just waiting for us to use as a backdrop.  that's her cute dog...

 we also took some of the pictures in my yard.  

the weather was perfect.

 my favorite place so far though, is this old abandoned house.  there are no windows or doors, just an old crumbling foundation and peeling paint...perfect backdrop for teens...

 and last but not east, we found a golf course that closed a few years ago and is now completely overgrown.  it's sad but it was cool for us.

we drove our car on the cart path to get to the spot where we took the pictures....we weren't there for 10 minutes when a car came driving up behind us asking what we were doing there.  apparently, it has been used by the local kids as a party spot and they were making sure that we weren't there to party...  huh?  one car, three people and a camera?....oh well, i can appreciate that they are looking out for the surrounding neighbors...

thank you kellie, you were a perfect model and you are beautiful....

uh-oh......

austen was at baseball practice yesterday and slid into second base.....and sprained his ankle.

 but he sprained it in the weirdest place.....just below his ankle on the top of his foot....weird!!

 i know it looks like bruising above his ankle but that's boy dirt....along with dirty boy toenails that i made him clip before i took these pictures....it didn't help.  :P

and wouldn't you know,  he has his first track meet tomorrow....they have missed 3 track meets because of crappy weather....he is also supposed to have another baseball practice tomorrow after his track meet...

looks like that's not happening either....

if he is anything like his mama, this is just the first in a long line of ankle injuries that he has to look forward to!!!!

"dodgeball"....

just hearing the word brings up visions of the movie with vince vaughn and ben stiller. 

austen had his second annual gbwms (grand blanc west middle school) dodgeball tournament last night. 

 i did manage to embarrass him in front of his friends by asking him if he wanted his bottled water...(?)

and then again, when i asked them to pose for a team picture...

at least i'm keeping up on my parenting skills... :D

anyway,

since when did they replace those red rubber balls with nerf balls???

there is just something about the sound of the ball thwacking off of someone's forehead during the game...alas, the times they are a-changing and rubber balls might leave a mark on the little darlings as they ping off of their heads.  

it just wasn't the same...the balls barely made it over the center line they were so light 

seriously, look how small some of the balls were.  

i digress....
they had a lot of fun and actually came in second place.  

this picture was after one of their earlier wins....austen wasn't too happy about coming in second and he barely cracked a smile on the way out of the gym.

but it wasn't anything a frosty from wendy's on the way home couldn't fix...

4th marking period....

   bliss...

click on photo to make it bigger (and better)

we are so proud of you, bubby....

mom and dad...