What in the world would make you wanna get up in the morning and do that?

It is a Monday morning.

To set the scene, currently living in this house with me, the 51 year old wife/mom, there are three men ages 52, almost 23 and 21, and one 18-year old daughter. As far as non-humans are concerned, we have the big black shedding machine that somehow manages to scarf down an entire bowl of little crunchy pieces of dog food and still avoid the one little dog-food-sized pill in the bowl. Impressive.

If you live here, on any given weekend day there will be sports playing on the television in the family room. If you get tired of that and want a nap, you can go lay on your parents' bed and watch a movie up there. If you have homework to do while you watch a movie, you can spread out your stuff all over the basement couch. You can come and go at all hours and drive here and there and who knows where. You can be tired of work. You can plan a trip abroad. You can borrow the big car to drive all the guys around. You can even leave at 11:00pm after begging for a later curfew.

If you attend grad school, college or high school classes, you can have lots of books, notebooks, paper and writing utensils. You can own shoes for sports, work, running and mowing. You can wear a variety of coats throughout the day and night. It is November, after all. You can get a new glass or cup for every drink and enjoy several cans of soda or bottles of water each day. And of course, you can eat.

Got the picture?
Then you will understand why I was cleaning out the spice cabinet at 9:00 this morning when Andy came downstairs and said, "What in the world would make you wanna get up in the morning and do that?"

Andy's a UM Alumni!

Today, Andrew Scott Mears graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS in Accounting from the Robert H. Smith School of Business. We are so proud of our son!

Andy with his Poppo, Mom, Dad and Mammaw.

Andy and his sis, Kayti.

(Brother Willie is camping on the Appalachian Trail.)

Buddies: Chris, Andy, Mitch and Mikey

Andy and Katie

I found him! There's my boy!

Congratulations, Andy. We love you so much!

A Lesson on Sharing

It is hard to teach your children to share when you aren't willing to offer bites of your long-coveted, finally here and completely frozen Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Halloween Pumpkins ... you know those don't you, the ones with LOTS of peanut butter in them? Oh. My. Goodness. There goes a day's worth of Weight Watchers points in 3 bites.

There are some things that are justifiably off limits when it comes to sharing, like germs for instance, or brand new tall sweat pants, or the last sip of the Chick-Fil-A Diet Dr. Pepper, or the new couch, or your new car.

Well, alas, Kayti wore my new sweats to school yesterday. The soda is long gone. And I have to keep tons of pillows all over the new denim couch to keep the dog off.

As for the new car, I taught my kids how to share, too. Andy's car, the one that he bought with his own money this past summer, is now in a heap up in a College Park salvage dump. Andy wasn't driving. He wasn't even in the car. He lent his little white Versa to his very good friend and well, accidents happen. To add cliché to cliché, we thank our lucky stars that no one was hurt. We will get Andy a new car as soon as possible (after we get through the GEICO nightmare that is now upon us). In the meantime, he will get rides from his girlfriend and life will go on. Frankly, despite what happened, I am very proud of my boy for being willing to share.

As for the Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins, well I'll quote my father ... "Do as I say, not as I do!"

Goodbye, Versa.

Out of the mouths of Mears Kids

Andy: I'm considering double-majoring in Accounting and Philosophy.

What an amazing brain that my boy has ... he loves the black and white, right and wrong, yes or no of accounting and the all gray, maybe, what-if world of philosophy. No wonder Andy can do anything he puts his mind to! It sure will be fun watching the world open up to him and traveling along beside him as he explores the many opportunities that will come his way.

Willie: I'm not coming home for Fall Break. Oh really, why not? There's a Young Life Mens' Retreat at Rockbridge this weekend. Cool. Are you going to help with the retreat? No, Mom. I'm a man!

Willie is 19. My goodness. He is a man now. Not only that, but this young man is now also a JV basketball coach at a high school in Newport News! Willie has always been drawn to younger kids and it warms my heart so much to see him follow his passions. He will be an amazing coach. (Can a mom show up at a game to cheer on the coach?)

With Andy only a little over a month away from turning 21, I guess I need to come to terms with the fact that both of my boys are now men. While I miss the little guys running around in cowboy/ninja/army/pirate outfits, I am so very proud of the adults they have become.

Kayti: How nice it would be to win that much money. Yes, but the government gets a big part of it you know. They have to pay taxes on Lottery winnings? How much? About 30%. You're kidding? That's three times as much as God needs!

Ahhh, out of the mouths of babes! I never get tired of seeing the world through Kayti's eyes. Her brain moves faster than I thought humanly possible and her connections and segues simply fascinate me. One blip in daily life to the rest of us can bring to Kayti's mind a stream of music, lyrics, scripts, pictures and new ideas that will flow for hours. She makes me smile every day!

Isabella and Black Thunder

Over the summer, we sold Isabella, Willie's beloved old Jeep Cherokee when Willie bought his new Honda. Andy also bought a new car and instead of selling Black Thunder, his old Ford F150 pickup truck, to Carmax, Gary & I decided to buy it from Andy so that we could use it and lend it to our friends.

Now, one of our buddies needs a truck for his construction business. What a perfect opportunity to help someone and to give Black Thunder a purpose beyond moving the occasional piece of furniture or carrying cases of soda from Costco. Selling him the truck is the right thing to do.

That does not mean it is the easy thing to do. The loss of Black Thunder also marks the end of an era for me ... one more step toward empty nesting and Part Two of parenthood. With the boys, I have now moved from being a full-time manager to a mere consultant rarely consulted. Just as it should be, I suppose.

Farewell, Black Thunder. It's been great!

Black Thunder

Isabella

Andy

ANDY

This boy has wanted a kayak for several years now ... he got to paddle around the pond last month while we were in Williamsburg. He wants to take scuba diving lessons someday. His classes at Maryland started on Monday ... he's taking 5 classes in the business school ... that's tough but he'll do just fine. He called yesterday to ask if his new red shorts would be okay in the wash ... he's doing his own laundry. Such a proud momma I am!