No child left behind...this year

We have had a lot of changes this week and you know how well I deal with change!! There is not a carb or chocolate bar in sight that I have not eaten and conquered. I have resorted to drinking to dull the pain and am now up to (at least) three Diet Cokes a day. Soon I will need a self-help group (local of course, with the price of gas).

It is not going well for the Mother in the family, but the children are handling things just fine, thank you very much, since the inmates run this insane asylum!

Last week, my Samuel promoted from the fifth grade. He is no longer in elementary school; he is now a sixth grader, a young man in middle school. He received an award from the Rotary Club, “Student of the Year," for Ramona Elementary, one of only two children to receive it in the entire fifth grade. His name will be placed on a plaque in the halls of Ramona Elementary School for time and all eternity or until the massive budget cuts have the teachers burning anything for heat in the winter.

We have had four boys go through elementary school, Cub Scouts, Pop Warner, Little League.... Alan coached Williams’s team for Basketball, Matthews’s team for Baseball. I even coached Alana's soccer team one, and only one, year. There have been countless Blue and Gold dinners, Pack Meetings, PTA fundraisers, field trips, book fairs, Popsicles...Where did the time go?

Poor Alana. I am going to smother her with attention in a futile attempt to record every last shred of her childhood. There may be a need for an intervention.

William graduated from Valley View High School on Wednesday, June 11th, the same day Samuel promoted. Our son was stoic, grim even. William did not want to walk or have us come to his graduation and yet, after the ceremony, he had a grin from ear to ear. Wow. That dental work paid off. I haven't seen that big a smile on his face since he discovered girls! My mother sent leis from Hawaii, which he refused to wear before the ceremony, but happily wore after in his euphoria. Of course, they completely butchered our last name when it was William’s turn to walk and collect his diploma. I mean, really. How hard is it to say Keliipuleole?

I finished this semester with four A’s and one C. (Damn that math, I should have given it the attention it deserved.) Combine Finals, one promotion and one graduation and that equals one psycho Mama! (See, I can do math!) Then, to complicate things even further, William left for college on Father’s Day. He flew to New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) for five days and then to Leadership Training in Fort Knox for five weeks. My baby! My 6’1” 18-year-old handsome baby has left the building. Smiling too, I might add.

Life goes on here in the Keliipuleole household but sometimes I just want to hit the pause button to slow it down and take it all in. The batteries must be dead in my remote because it’s not working! Oh well, Carpe Diem!

This summer I will take more classes (Biology!) in the pursuit of becoming a real-live grown-up, Matthew and Sam will go to Hawaii for two weeks (Sam for Explorations at Kamehameha, Matthew for fun) and all summer Matthew will train for football for his junior year. Alana (our social butterfly) will still practice TaeKwonDo and Minor Fields of Study (she is a Black Belt in TaeKwonDo and a Yellow/white belt in JuJitsu and Yellow belt in HanMuDo), go to Girl Scouts and Achievement days for Church. If college doesn’t pan out, maybe I can put my experience as Alana’s chauffer to good use!

Aloha,

LeAnne, Alan, William, Matthew, Samuel, Alana (Rex, Rocky and Jack, too)

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. ~Fr. Alfred D'Souza