It was bound to happen eventually....

Sydney had her first fender bender. Unfortunately (or fortunately from an insurance perspective) the car she hit was mine. She was pulling in to the spot next to me and scraped along the side of my car. The damage looks fairly minimal, but we haven't taken it in yet to be sure.

I forget sometimes how much she has going on this year.  She's working and swimming and still getting straight A's. The night in question, she was leaving the district swim meet to rush to her choir concert. She was trying to get there on time because she had a solo and wanted time to warm up. She also was taking the PSAT the next morning. No pressure, right?

I think we handled it okay. We still try to impart the importance of driving safely, but we've all made silly mistakes behind the wheel. Our saving grace is that we have more experience and can often times recover before it's too late.

I'm pretty confident she will be a lot more careful from now on. She was pretty darn freaked out!

Unfortunately, while this was her first accident, it may not be her last. Hopefully if it does happen again, it will be equally as minor. 

For now, she's just having to deal with a whole lot of teasing...and a lot of parking practice!

4 Weeks...

Peyton has been away at college for four weeks. So far, so good...

I remember when we were so proud of ourselves as parents for keeping her alive for four weeks! It seemed like such a big milestone.

She seems to be loving college life. She dyed her hair the first week, so our cute redhead now looks like this:

I think she expected us to be mad. Honestly, I kind of like it. Go figure.

I'm assuming classes are going well. We really don't hear much from the "Great White North."  I think that's a good thing? Also, if you got that reference, you are SUPER cool...hoser.

We did get to see her over Labor Day. She and Emma sweet-talked Mark into letting them come home for the long weekend.

Macie was probably the most excited to see her...

 I think the feeling was mutual.

I'm sure Peyton was super excited to hop in the car again the next morning...

 It felt a little like this:

We put her to work at the Catholic fair booth at the Twin Falls County Fair Saturday night. I think Uncle Scott was happiest to see her there. He needed all the helpers he could get! We've been helping for the last several years and I think Peyton would have been bummed to miss out.

We got to have a little fair fun, and a lot of fair food on Sunday.

Mark missed his baby a wee bit I believe...

Not me though. I'm stoic...

We will get to see her for Homecoming the first weekend in October. I think we'll totally play it super casual though. ;-) Oh, and....Go Vandals!

Tverdy, party of 3...

Well, it's finally happened. The time has come for Peyton to leave for college. In fact, she and Mark drove away about an hour ago.

Even though we have been preparing for weeks, I think the denial is still super strong for all of us.

We walked by this pile so many times that I'm pretty sure we stopped noticing it!

It doesn't seem like too much stuff. I'm sure that dorm room will fill up quickly though.

Here it is in packed form...

I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job of staying chill. Especially since jury duty coincided with moving week. Nothing like having to wait until the last minute to see if you are able to travel. And I am the eternal optimist so I was SURE I would get to go. Finding out at the last minute that I didn't in fact get to go was bit heartbreaking.

I did lose it at Church Sunday. The priest had all of the students headed to college stand in the aisle and the congregation blessed them. That's so far been the only time I cried. I also made my people take photos after Mass to commemorate her last Sunday at home. They were thrilled.

We had a fun going away lunch with Emma's family after church. I hope she and Peyton will be successful roommates! I think they will do well.

Syd is still super terrified to be our sole focus. She's pretty sure swimming will take up a lot of time so she won't constantly be bugged by us. I imagine she'll find a few extra hobbies if we get too obnoxious.

As of now, I'm waiting to hear that they arrived safely. Tomorrow is official move-in and I made Mark promise they would face time me so I can at least see her room!

The tears haven't actually started yet, but I'm definitely on the brink of crying. I'm pretty sure it will be short lived if and when it comes. At least I hope so! Peyton will probably stay fairly tear-free since it's Mark there and not me. Fingers crossed anyway!

And it's ONLY 7 weeks til U of I's Homecoming and I get to see my girl again.

Life skills...

"I can't believe I'm 15 years old and I already have to pay taxes!" - Sydney Tverdy

Dude, you're preaching to the choir. I can't believe I'm 43 and still have to pay taxes!

A year or so ago, Peyton mentioned that she didn't think she was ready for college because she didn't know how to do anything.  Including filing tax returns. Well, as much as I think this would have been a good skill to teach her this year, I ended up just doing them for her...again. Maybe next year. (Yeah, right.) Hopefully we have prepared her for being on her own. Thankfully, she will have her friend Emma as a roommate. Pretty sure they will be a good balance of adulting skills. Peyton knows how to cook, do laundry, manage money. I'm not at all worried about her study skills. What are we missing? I'm sure there is something.





We seem to be screaming through April, which means my first baby will be turning 18 shortly. And then there is graduation. We should probably work on getting those announcements out. Throw in a few swim meets for Syd and another nerd camp and a driving test to obtain her license and she seems even busier than her sister.

I think the next few months are going to be a blur.

It's Official!

This chick is #UIdahoBound!

She's filled out the housing application and sent in her deposit. In 5 short months, she will be on campus.

How is that even possible?

I think we knew all along this is where she would end up. It makes the most sense in all aspects. She was accepted everywhere she applied, and received a crazy amount in scholarship offers. But none could come close to U of I financially.  Even Idaho State would have been more expensive. I'm not sure how that even happened.

We are pretty excited.

Some might say we brainwashed her...I'm not following that logic. ;-)

   

Just because she has always been drawn the the black and gold doesn't mean we had anything to do with it! She makes her own clothing choices. Always has...

What? ;-)

For now, she has her work cut out for her addressing these babies...

Being a grown-up isn't all it's cracked up to be sometimes. ;-)

Oh, and watch out Nate and Erin...it will be here before you know it!

Responsibility

This morning, in my usual Saturday fashion, I was unable to sleep past 6 AM. Which totally makes sense since on weekdays, I'm having to drag myself out of bed at 6:45 so I'm not late for work.

As I was sitting there drinking my coffee, I heard Peyton's shower go on. I was thinking she forgot it was Saturday and was going to be super annoyed. About the time I realized what was going on, Mark came out and said "I completely forgot Peyton was taking the ACT today." Oops.

Peyton was not excited about being up early on a Saturday. She was not excited about taking the ACT. She was stressed, nervous, irritated, and completely annoyed with us. Yet, in the back of my mind I could only think "She is becoming responsible!!"

All through her breakfast, she was complaining. As she was getting ready, she was complaining. Before she left, she was complaining. But, still, I was happy. She's becoming responsible!

We tried to talk to her, but that only seemed to make it worse. And then I started to get annoyed with her bad attitude. Which also made it worse. Shocking, I know. But, at the end of the day, I'm elated. She's becoming responsible.

And I couldn't be prouder.

Setting Goals

We recently had a goal-setting session at work. Historically, I'm not much of a goal-setter. I am a planner, but I don't think these are necessarily synonymous. I have definitely not EVER been a "5 year plan" type of person. This fact is super annoying  impressive to my husband. I'm sure you can imagine.

But, I wonder if we're doing the girls a disservice by not teaching them these skills. I thought parenting would get easier as they get older, but well, I was SO wrong!

It seems like time is slipping away so quickly, and there is so much we still need to teach them about being adults. And then, I realize that I'm a sucky adult sometimes. So, what the heck am I doing teaching them anything?

I wonder if I could suggest a class to the colleges "Adulting...all the things your parents should have taught you but didn't." My girls know the basics, how to do laundry, feed themselves, change a tire, etc. But what about things like doing taxes? Mark joked that they would actually have to be motivated enough to make some money before they have to worry about taxes. What about budgeting? Right now, we have a "family account" with each girl having a debit card. However, our great intentions of this teaching them about managing an account flew out the window. Basically, it is now me just putting money in there on an alarmingly frequent basis. So, high five, right?

But in all seriousness, there are a lot of things that we don't even know they don't know! How do you plan for that?

So, maybe I should become a goal-setter type of person. My first goal can be to figure out what the girls should know before they leave for college. My second can be to find someone to teach them these things that they will actually listen to.

Someone adultier than me.

I saw this on the internet and it seemed fitting...

Parents Gone Wild?

The four of us played hooky from work and school on Friday. We drove up to Moscow, Idaho to attend the University of Idaho's Homecoming game.

Here is our obligatory Dutch Bros./beginning of the trip shot...

 
We stopped in Riggins for Mark to visit his favorite "trip to Moscow" restaurant where he was super excited to get to eat a He Devil. I'm pretty sure it lived up to his memory. He and Syd also played a cut-throat game of pool.

 

 And I got to sit under this guy. So, there is that.

 
Then we got back on the road to be met with this:

Yay road construction!


The girls have been to U of I one other time, but I doubt they remember much as it was 5 or 6 years ago. Upon arrival, we headed directly to the bookstore to stock up on gear for the game. Then we drove over to Pullman, Washington since that is where our hotel was. As we turned onto our street, the girls noticed a couple of "interesting" stores.  Seriously, there were two pot stores within 100 yards of our hotel.

After getting settled, we ventured out for dinner. As we were leaving the restaurant, we saw this store...

Which made me think that a lot more folks smoke pot than I realized. ;-) Because, really Washington?!?

Saturday we woke up and headed to the parade. We wandered around campus a bit and then headed over to the Kibbie Dome.

Well, after one brief stop I guess...

 The girls were shocked that I was drinking a beer! So funny. And for the record, that was my only drink of the weekend.

The game was great! The girls really enjoyed the half-time show too.

And the Vandals won!! Which then necessitated this photo..

When we were walking back to our car we encountered our actual "Gone Wild" incident. This car drove by and there was a gal leaning out yelling/slurring "Go Vandals. Any way you can!" About the time we were going to have a talk with the girls about underage drinking, someone in the car said "Mom, seriously, get back in here!" LOL. Parents gone wild, indeed.

After the game, we headed to visit Mark's cousins for a bit. Unfortunately, we were so tired that we didn't visit very long before we headed back to the hotel.

And then today (Sunday) we headed for home. It was a great drive back with some beautiful scenery...most of which the girls missed...

After our visit, I'm fairly confident Peyton would be happy going to school there if that is where she ends up. She thought the campus was really pretty, and a good size for her.

Mission accomplished...

College seems to be looming large...

So, I received another "little" gem in the mail today. Just some light reading, right?

Peyton attended a college fair yesterday. She just took the PSAT, along with the rest of the Juniors and Sophomores in the country. How did this start sneaking up on us so dang quickly? Seriously, didn't she just look like this?

We are headed to the University of Idaho this weekend for Homecoming. The joke is that it is the extent of her "college tour." The reality is that her grades are pretty amazing. If she tests well on the SAT/ACT, a lot of doors will be open for her.

I'm not 100% sure how I feel about that. We have a lot of friends with older kids. Watching them send their babies off into the wild blue yonder is somewhat terrifying! But, really, this is what we have been preparing her for her whole life.

The problem is no one prepared me...