Long Sunday

Today was the most gorgeous day of the year with the temperature climbing to 80 degrees and the blossoms suddenly bursting forth on the trees.
Spencer is playing AAU basketball, which means many weekends are spent at local basketball tournaments. Today's tournament was 45 minutes away and they played at 9 a.m. so we left before 8. The morning was foggy and eerie until about half way to Lancaster. Then the sun burned through.
Only five guys showed up for Spencer's team, so they all played hard the entire game without any subs, getting only a 3 minute break at half time.
Spencer had some friends over for awhile then they decided to go bike riding. When Earl and I got home from ballroom dance class, a sweaty Spencer was sitting in a stupor on the couch. I took the boys for ice cream then Spencer swung his legs over the arm of the chair and he fell asleep while Tucker controlled the remote control. When Spencer roused after a little while, I urged him to move to the now vacated couch so he didn't get a stiff neck.
As the bright sun headed toward 6 p.m., it left these shadows on my tired boy's sleeping face.
An afternoon nap well earned during a pretty satisfying weekend.

More Tears

Just when you think the plane could be coming in for a smooth landing, things get bumpy again. Grace has been accepted at her number one college so things should be good.
Adding to her jubilation, this week, she found out she was nominated for Scholar Athlete. The newspaper asks each high school to nominate a male and female athlete. They get pictures and articles in the sports section of the newspaper, and 17 students are chosen to share a big pool of scholarship money. Grace was on cloud nine. The athletic director picked her from all the other female athletes in the school, including some with well-known parents. She learned that the athletic director talked to teachers and coaches before making her decision, so somewhere teachers and coaches are saying nice things about her. She felt like she had won for once.
Of course, the fly in the ointment, my husband works for the local newspaper. So he felt the need to clarify whether Grace was actually eligible to receive the scholarship money. After several rounds of phone calls, he found that although she could receive the plaque and the newspaper publicity, she couldn't receive the scholarship money since Earl works at the paper.
When I told Grace, she cried, leaving a wet spot on the leg of my pants. "I should give it back to them and let them choose someone else," she sobbed.
It's hard to know the right thing to do. Should Grace get the acknowledgement from the school and the city, or should she give up her spot to let another student at her high school have a chance at the scholarship?
I suppose even considering whether to return it means she's going to be okay either way. She thinks about doing the responsible things. Maybe she could be on one of those insurance commercials about people who do the right thing. Think she could get a scholarship for that?