We stopped by the farm on the way home from the meet. One of the boys is running cross country this fall. They had an early bird meet up in Bloomington this morning. We left here at 6:45 and were there within an hour. I was excited to go. These meets have always felt like ways we get to spend family time together.

Ethan facetimed in with me and the other boys. He had a break from his orientation activities and wanted to cheer for his brother. For as much as the boys were good sports with his sporting events, it made me happy he was showing support for his brother. He was playing Minecraft when I called and was playing the other night when the boys were on. Josh wanted to know if he’s actually getting out and hanging out with other people or if he’s just been playing Minecraft the whole time. He said he has been getting out.

He and Laura have their own Minecraft world now. I don’t know if he was playing with her or someone else from camp or school. The coach sent out an orientation week schedule where it shows everything the team is doing from when they arrived to when school officially begins Monday morning. They’ve had workouts and meetings, as well as team bonding and travel activities. I am assuming that a college level coach has been watching the weather and is well aware of the 100+ temperatures next week.

I was hoping that things would settle down after his actual launch day happened. It seems to be so, at least so far. A girl in my class last year said she cried every day for two months after taking her first son to college. I’ve probably cried every day but after the first night it hasn’t been bad. I stuffed a lot down during class this past week but had car rides to make up for it and “Love Is” by Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight. I feel like they pretty much nail it as far as love goes except for one line that almost ruins the song.

They say: “And it fades away so easily.” That is the most untrue thing I’ve ever heard sung about it. I still wouldn’t say that the years went by fast. Some definitely seem to go by quicker than others, and when I look at pictures of the kids from past years I can hardly believe how much they have grown. It does seem to happen in ways only seeable when you look back in time. In the moment they’re just with you and you’re eating and drinking and living your days.

The house is coming along quite well and they’ve started in now with the electrical wiring. Watching a house go up has actually been quite incredible. My father-in-law has been in the hospital since the night of our 20th wedding anniversary. I still want to write an anniversary post but haven’t had the chance to be in that space yet. I’ve started two so far but they weren’t the right ones.

They moved him to St. Louis a couple of nights ago. He’s now on the oncology floor and being tended to by the doctors down there. The tumor he had surgery for back in June is growing back and causing paralysis in one of his legs. This whole cancer thing with him truly came out of nowhere and it doesn’t seem possible that this is the position we are currently in. My mother in law says she wants him to be able to live in the house. This house has been around for as long as I’ve known them.

We went out to lunch together once we came back into town. We were celebrating our son’s first meet and doing something fun before kids start school. Dad and the kids had their waterpark day yesterday, with Miles and his younger brother Graham taking me and Ethan’s tickets. My daughter commented that we’d hardly gone regular grocery shopping all summer. That’s something we’ll be needing to get to again but today we were soaking up summer days.