My little boy…  now a high school  junior….still my little boy.  This will be the first year our son has participated in cross country.  He has had much success with his track career and really was born to run.  Cross country makes sense for a young man who desires to run in college.  We are very excited to see what his future holds in this new area and look forward to watching this strong team this fall.  But for a short moment, I would like to acknowledge everything that football has brought to my child’s life.  Our son has been a football fan since birth with strong brainwashing from Dad when it came to especially the Green Bay Packers and the Wisconsin Badgers.   🙂   He loves football and everything about it.  He told me not long ago that some of his best friends today came to be after one day in 3rd grade when my quiet child went up to a group of boys at recess and asked, “Can I play football with you?”  Once, I drove past his school when he was at recess.  I saw him playing football with his friends.  He caught eye of me and peered around a tree and waved and ran back to his game.  During the following years, he continued to develop confidence, he made friends, and he learned the value of teamwork and respect.  He loved being the quarterback and he performed well in his position.  I celebrate the memories that we have of him playing this sport and we look forward to watching him develop new memories as he continues to run.

The obsession with the self-portrait….  I’ve noticed it  especially among kids who are the same age as my children, but occasionally adults, too.  So, for the heck of it, I decided to try this experiment.  I have taken self-portraits before, but honestly these were for business purposes, taken with my professional equipment.  So, in my office one afternoon, on a fair “hair day” I pulled out my small point and shoot camera and starting shooting away.  What I found was that I became increasingly critical of my appearance in every picture – I don’t like my eye in this one, my smile is crooked, my neck looks funny here, etc.  The more I took, the less satisfied I was.  I finally settled on this picture, which I didn’t think was too bad.  I finally wondered, perhaps this obsession with pictures is the ongoing quest for the “perfect picture.”  One with the perfect smile, the perfect make-up, the perfect hair, the perfect clothing….  all in an imperfect world.  Therefore, the quest will continue and most likely we continue to “settle” until the next photo op.  Maybe the next picture will be perfect.