School started 2 weeks ago, and man, is it off and running!
The girls both have cross country practice after school each day, with meets once a week or once every two for Della and once or twice a week for Lana. Morrison is playing fall ball with Little League and flag football again, so those games and practices are once a week. I’m waiting to sign the twins up for their next round of swim lessons until this winter, mainly so the family calendar doesn’t burst into flames and my head keeps from exploding. 😀
We did make sure to have a lot of fun that last weekend before school began again, though. Obvisouly Donut Monster, Della went on her annual up north trip with her best friend and her family, Ryan took the other 4 up to Sheboygan Falls for dinner with his family and a hometown high-school football game, and those here did a few nights of backyard camping. Well, not me. I don’t camp. But I did put up the tent and get it all situated for them. 😉
Hard-earned $ from a lemonade stand the day beforeTreats bought with that $!Last early-morning walk together of summer 2025
I went to Parent Orientation for the boys this week, and I absolutely love getting the peeks into their daily lives at school when they’re away from me. I hope to god our schools always stay safe and keep them protected. But they all have fantastic teachers and are off to a great start, so I think it’s going to be a wonderful year!
Della turned 15 last month, and the independence she’s gaining is nothing short of astonishing.
We actually just had her physical, too, shockingly on time, so here are her official 15-year stats:
Height: 5′ 7.7″ (so we just call her 5′ 8″ 😀 ) (94%)
Weight: 127 lbs. (69%)
BMI: 19.4 kg/m2 (43%)
She’s a sophomore this year, and I swear, even since this school year began just a few weeks ago she seems more grown up. She’s carrying a full class load this fall semester with her first AP class (comp sci) and no study hall, plus she’s added a second sport to her list – cross country. I was very surprised when she said she wanted to join the team this fall earlier this summer, because she doesn’t like running. But she went to most of the optional practices this summer and is all in this fall. They’ve had one meet so far, and she did great! She ran a sub-8:00 first mile, then in the 9:00s for her second and third miles. That’s pretty impressive to me, seeing how she couldn’t even finish a full 3 miles running when practices started. She’s doing this as conditioning for her first sport, lacrosse, in the spring, and I think it’s great. They do a lot of cross conditioning like yoga and swimming, and they work with a strength coach for muscle building and to help prevent injuries, plus a dietician and nutritionist. I wish we had all those extras back when I was in high school! After the first meet I asked her how everything went, and she said it was great aside from the running. 🙂
But the independence. She chose and scheduled all her classes by herself. She’s already thinking about colleges, seeing which ones on Ryan’s list of tuition exchange will fit her best. She keeps track of all her practices and meets by herself. (in fairness, i obviously do, too, but she almost never needs a reminder for anything) She started going to the chiropractor with me this summer so we have all those appointments set up. Side note – her scoliosis got much worse over the past 5 years so we had to go back to the back doctor for x-rays this summer, but fortunately she’s pretty much done growing so it shouldn’t get any worse; we go back for follow-up x-rays in a couple more months to confirm that. She makes plans with her friends and they do stuff all on their own. I always tell her I don’t remember doing anything on my own when I was her age. But I also didn’t grow up in a place like this where we could walk everywhere at any time and never need rides from our parents. She can pretty much fully take care of herself and siblings when needed, but she does still prefer my help on that kind of stuff. 😉 And I’m happy to give it!
She has a great group of friends, which is so important in these weird high school years. This summer they went out to a pizza farm for one of the girl’s birthdays, then the very next day they went down to Chicago for an amazing overnight shopping trip for another girl’s birthday. They went to her first concet at Summerfest to see The Lumineers right after the 4th of July, and they’re always going over to one of their houses before and after football games to get ready and hang out.
For all the “grown-upness,” though, she still loves to be silly. Making faces, picking on her siblings, having summer or weekend sleepovers with the twins, burping the alphabet, showing me all of her purchases and product unboxings. She tried to get a summer job this year, but that didn’t pan out. She did do some mowing for one of the neighbors a couple times, but it wasn’t quite the regular paycheck she was hoping for. We travel a lot during the summer, though, and she had lacrosse and cross country practices, so I’m not sure where she was planning to put that job. So not totally grown up quite yet… 😉 She also has a tiny strawberry plant that we got from a neighbor’s baby’s 1st birthday party this summer that she started from seed and has been taking meticulous care of – bringing it in during heavy rains, misting it with a spray bottle when it’s dry. Still the caring peanut she’s always been.
She just got her driver’s permit a few weeks ago, too, and she’s already scheduled her first behind-the-wheel session for later next month. She did 30 hours of online lessons this summer and passed the written and road signs tests last month. I took her to a big abandoned parking lot a few blocks from our house for her first driving lesson last month, and she did really well. She only revved up then slammed on the brakes once, ha! She said she was scared to actually get behind the wheel, but I was very proud of myself for staying completely calm the entire time so I didn’t freak her out, even when we thought we might crash into the sidewalk there at one point.
Happy 15th birthday, Della Jolee! You have no idea how proud we are of you, and your quiet confidence impresses us constantly. You’ll always be my little peanut, but this bigger version is turning out to be a really great one. We love you so much!!
