The Last Times

Monday, November 3, 2008, by Sherra

Sweet moments this weekend as I watched those tiny baby twin daughters of mine lined up to run their last race of their high school cross country season.

I remember reading an article many years ago titled “All the Last Times” by Sue Diaz. (I think but I’m going from memory here because I’m being lazy and not digging into my files to find the actual article.)

Without reprinting or plagiarizing the entire article here –she told of how we are wired to take pictures and record all those “first times” in our children’s lives. Like their first step, first tooth, first day of school, etc. It made an impact on me and helped guide me through these 19 years of parenting with a vision I might not have had if I hadn’t read that article.

Her unique perspective touched me and I have remembered through the years to savor “All the Last Times” and not just the firsts. It’s a challenge because those last times aren’t always so easy to remember or record. I vividly remember one of her examples…the last time you could carry that baby in your arms and tuck them into bed before they became too heavy to lift.

So I watched those tiny twin daughters of mine and remembered that Saturday was a milestone day. The Last Time they would run a cross country race as seniors in high school…

The practice, conditioning and plain old hard work it takes is often overlooked by the “bigger” more popular sports. There are a lot of great cross country slogans the teams have printed on their t-shirts. Here are a few of my personal favorites:

“Cross Country: no time outs, no half times, no substitutions”

“Our sport is your sport’s punishment.”

“If it was easy, everyone would do it!”

Everyone doesn’t do it - it really is a grueling “underdog” sport that is rarely recognized. I just wanted to take a moment to recognize this last time. And I am so proud of both of them…

For the curious few, Roger Leroy has not had another growth spurt nor is she as tall as Wizzy. I think she was standing on a small hill.

On a totally unrelated note…

This may be the first and last time that Scary Baby will or has ever offered up her Halloween discards to us without me having to sift through her bag and ~~steal~~ beg for candy.

Look at the loot she gave us that she didn’t want. Woo-hoo - except for that trail mix stuff.

It was a very good weekend. How was your weekend?

Life Lesson (LL): The Last Times are just as sweet and as important as the Firsts…

Share a Life Lesson (SALL): Any “Last Times” you have savored and will share here?

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5 Responses to “The Last Times”

Ok - the trail mix comment made me LOL! I don’t even know your family, yet I feel as if I’m part of the family. We have a Sr. boy (well, I call him a boy and always will) and I appreciate your reminders to document the “lasts”. It brought tears to my eyes until I saw the trail mix comment! Thanks Sherra.

I am PROUD of the girls!!! I wish I could run like that!!! They will be able to do that throughout their whole life unlike many of the sports!

I wish I lived by you…I would be fighting for some of that candy! Girls too old this year and we have none

I remember reading that same article….. Lots of last times this year…. last homecoming… last prom……. there’s no doubt about it, this is a very special year….

As far as scary baby’s candy, what exactly did she keep if she gave you all the good stuff?? Have you got her trained or what?

Keep it coming…

oh, yeah, have you voted???

I am in that last x/c year, too (x/c meaning cross country—see, you learn things here). Spent yesterday at Crystal Springs in Belmont, CA at the Conference Finals shivering in rare CA wind and rain—truly miserable conditions for runners and parents alike. The course starts going down a gravel-covered hillside and during the varsity girls race a runner fell just after the start and took many other runners down with her. They had scrapes and bruises but continued on. She suffered a broken arm and huge amounts of humiliation as the officials wouldn’t let her leave the course until the EMTs arrived, so they literally had six “officials” stand around her with orange flags so that the runners wouldn’t trample her when they came back up the hill. Hopefully it was not her “last time” and her mom wasn’t taking pictures. X/C is a gruelling sport. Our team came in second in their conference so we won’t have a “last” until 11/15. Was trying to spot some of those clever running shirt sayings to add here, but most kids were well-covered due to the conditions. The only ones I saw were, “I challenge you to a foot race” (can you tell the coach is an English teacher?) and “We put the short back in shorts” (no—I don’t get that one either. Can anyone enlighten me?).

@Mollie: Welcome to my family - that’s exactly how I want you to feel! I’m glad you got the trail mix comment; what the heck - it’s Halloween?!! My BOY said the same thing. We were laughing last night because he saw it and hadn’t read the blog and we said how about a toothbrush and an apple to really put a damper on the GOOD treats. {tee hee}

@Kim: You would have had to fight my big kids who took most of it. Not surprisingly, they left the trail mix for me.

@Melinda: Of course I VOTED!!! And Scary Baby kept all the chewy, sour, sticky, yucky candy that is covered in sugar granules and makes me sick. Shhh - please don’t tell her she gave us all the good stuff!

@julieann: What does it mean when we don’t understand the t-shirt slogans? Roger Leroy didn’t get it either so that made me feel a little better. Way to go for your XC team making conference. We’ve transitioned right into rec league basketball with evaluations last night. We don’t want to accidentally have a FREE weekend!!

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