As Staind would say all the way back in 2003, it’s been a while. Side note: I actually believe that number of days is still correct.
You know how it is though; life gets crazy sometimes. When
the kids started back to school last fall, it got really crazy, really fast. Part
of that was my own doing though. After all, when you spend nearly 60 days
working as an elementary school substitute teacher, days fill up pretty fast. That’s
not all bad though. After all, how cool is it that I could frequently cross
paths with Ellie and Ethan in the hallways on their own turf?
Of course, subbing wasn’t the only thing keeping us busy over
the past few months. We also decided that the thing to do was to buy a new
house. Yes, that’s right. After 13 years of making our home on 103rd
Street, we finally pulled the trigger and decided to make a move. Even though
we didn’t actually move until the end of May, there’s been plenty of projects
to keep us busy in the meantime. For example, we ripped out the carpet in the
basement of our new house and laid down luxury vinyl planks. There’s also been
plenty of work to do to get our old house ready to be a rental. Yes, that’s
right; we’re going to be landlords. Cool, huh?
One of the biggest changes though for our family has to be
that Ellie turned 10 on Saturday! If I’m being absolutely honest that has to be
one of the weirdest changes that we’ve gone through recently. While there
definitely weren’t any massive mental or physical changes between her last day
of nine and her first day of 10, something just felt different. Perhaps it was
the knowledge that she officially has less years remaining under our roof than
what she has spent thus far. Maybe it’s just the reality of her growing up and
continuing to gain new experiences. Or maybe it’s a simple as 10 being a
landmark birthday since it has a zero following the first number.
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Seeing as how Ellie is 10 now, it’s probably a good time to
do a quick check-in. In case you’re wondering, she’s 155.7 cm and 79 lbs.
Actually now that I look at that 155.7 cm, I’m not convinced that the doctor
didn’t measure her incorrectly. After all, that would be something like 5 feet,
11 inches and I can definitely say that she’s not that tall.
What I can confirm is what exactly Ellie at 10 years old is
like. For one thing, she absolutely loves to read. She’s easily already read
ten books this summer and she’s not just picking the easy ones. She’s always
trying to challenge herself. That’s fairly evident in her love of math. She’s
constantly wanting us to give her complicated problems to work through and can’t
stand failure. She will just keep trying until she gets something right.
One of her biggest loves currently is space. Ellie will tell
anyone who listens that she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. Here’s
hoping that it happens because that would be a pretty sweet job. She even has
embraced space with her new room. The ceiling is adorned with glow-in-the-dark
stars and planets. She has a color-changing lamp shaped like a planet that she
bought with her very own money. She even received a new comforter with a
depiction of a galaxy on it for her birthday!
Something that definitely hasn’t changed is Ellie’s penchant
for activity. She hates being stationary and always has to be doing something.
If we’re at home, she’s either playing outside or doing some kind of art project.
As far as athletic pursuits, she just finished up tennis camp last week and
will likely be playing volleyball again this fall. She also loves swimming so
it goes without saying that our pool passes are getting plenty of use this
summer. She also is active in 4H and is submitting 3 different projects to the
county fair this year.
I’m sure that it’s obvious that I’m pretty proud of Ellie.
However, I haven’t even gotten to what makes me the proudest. You see, I love
the person that she has become over the past couple of years. She has turned
into a genuinely kind person who loves everyone around her. At school, it’s not
uncommon for her to take an interest in the kids who might be an outcast and
invite them to be part of her group of friends. If I had to guess, I’d say that
the attitude she has developed for others comes from her faith in Jesus. She’s
totally unafraid of representing Him and has shared about her faith with all of
her friends on multiple occasions throughout the years.
Ok, I’ve probably gone on about Ellie for long enough tonight.
It was actually really fun to sit down and write after a lengthy break. I’ll
try to be better about doing so in the future. No promises though!
#DaddyWrite
