The trees are turning already. The year has flown by. I have a son in college, a son in high school and a son in 5th grade that is making me crazy.

Matthew's introduction to the "real world" (laugh with me now) has gone pretty well so far. We've worked out a system where I continue to pay him an allowance and he puts all of his money from his job into savings. It's the same amount of money out for me and will be a huge help to him in the coming months. He just got his graduation present from us this week and he couldn't be happier. I have to tell you that I now have MattLaptopEnvy. Horrible disease where you buy your kid a present and then covet the said present on a regular basis. It's contagious. You may, too, get MattLaptopEnvy.

Zach is doing great... he's a boy. He picks girls poorly. There's no way around this and I don't know how to help him. School is going well, though, so that's a relief. I bought Zach concert tickets for his birthday. I knew he'd love them so I called him to tell him. I started the conversation with "I just bought your birthday present. I am the best mom ever. You are so going to love me" and you know what that jackass thought I bought him??? A CAR. You can laugh. I did. Everyone I tell this to laughs at his presumption. That's Zach, though. Optimistic to the very end. :) He still loved the concert tickets, though.

Ian is distressing me. He's acting out at school and constantly tells me he's not good at things. He's like Mike only younger. Pessimistic, adorable and incredibly affectionate. It's like he was absent the day they handed out confidence cards. It's hard to be angry at him because I can see his distress written all over his face... but I have to be firm about what's okay and what's not or I'm going to have some real problems here soon. It's just heartbreaking sometimes.

I am going to see Ben Folds with the Denver Symphony in just a couple of weeks! I'm so excited about this. The only thing that has me even a little concerned is that Mike's parents might be coming out that same weekend. I want to see them desperately so I'm kind of sad that we'll miss a night. Also, wouldn't you know that's the weekend that the school decided to have Homecoming? So, working out the details... but I GET TO GO SEE BEN FOLDS! Other than the Ben Folds thing, though, life is just plugging away... as am I.