It hit me last week when I got the notification from the middle school that 8th grade graduation will be held June 21st.  Oh my God - that means CoffeeBoy will be a freshman in high school.  High School?!?!?  How the hell did that happen?  And when did he start looking me in the eye?  I am now officially the mother of a teenager and all the fun (and drama) that that includes.  An update?  He's still taking 2 dance classes a week (ballet and hip hop), still plays flute, piccolo and piano and will be performing in an honor band this weekend.  Swimming?  Yup still swimming and is on his 2nd year of the high school varsity swim team (yep - he started in 7th grade) and still swims on a rec competitive team.  Newest addition:  triathlons and long distance open water swims.  He will be the youngest this year to swim around the Statue of Liberty and under the Brooklyn Bridge.  So yeah, we are kinda busy.  It has been an amazing ride...and I cannot wait to see where it takes us.



There also has been some sadness this year.  We lost a very dear friend of ours, Caroline Corley.  Caroline was a DJ at a local radio station and became one of our family in all ways.  She passed suddenly in November.  No warning, no good bye.  To say that her loss devastated our family is an understatement.  Caroline was especially close to CoffeeBoy..  she called him her "boyfriend" and doted on him.  They had a special bond with music and she opened his eyes to all sorts of genres.  Her loss has been the hardest on him, but in his own way he has learned to cope.  This year he decided to turn his training and participation in the local triathlons into fundraising for Caroline's favorite charity - a local no-kill animal shelter called Pets Alive.  Being that I work in a veterinary hospital and Caroline adopted her hurricane Katrina survivor chocolate lab, Mick Jagger from them - he saw this as a perfect way to honor her memory.  Please take a look at the link below and if possible, any donation would truly mean a lot to him.

Alex and his two Carolines... 

https://www.kintera.org/faf/login/page_edit.asp?ievent=1099578&lis=0&kntae1099578=2D06B32EE95941FD92980F0C88C6792A

The above is the link to his website - not sure how to make it clickable, but if you copy and paste it will work.  Thanks so much!