Big Week at the Snail Household...

What a week it has been at the Snail household! First of all, my younger daughter had two award ceremonies this past week. The first was Thursday night, when her middle school gave out sports awards for the all of the fall sport athletes. Youngest played soccer this year and even though her team won only one game (a forfeit!), and only scored one goal all season, they had the most spirit of any team there. I'm telling you - they cheered loud and enthusiastically for all the other athletes and still had lots left for each other. She proudly accepted her very first letter,pin, service bar and certificate. They don't actually have Letterman's sweaters/jackets these days - I guess they use hoodies now to display these things. Oh, and there was ice-cream. And cookies. And whipped cream, cherries, jimmies, chocolate sauce, etc....

The second award came Saturday at the library. The local reading council had a county-wide contest for creative writing and she placed second out of all the middle-school entries. Need I tell you how proud she was to know that she (a mere sixth grader) beat out many seventh and eighth graders? She wrote an action adventure story befitting Indiana Jones. Her story is about cats with laser swords that go to a temple (hidden in a couch) to retrieve the "Golden Catnip". This time she got to read her story aloud, meet a local author and along with her certificate she also got $30.00. Yeah. And snacks/drinks after. What could be better? Oh, and she gets to attend a workshop next weekend with the local author to learn more about writing. That's what. Recognition, honor, food, money...living la vida loca!

Now, the other thing that happened at the Snail household involves my older daughter. You see, she now has an OFFICIAL BOYFRIEND!!! Yes - can you feel the excitement? Did you jump up and down and scream!? You can tell it's official because on Facebook she and the boyfriend's status has changed from single to ...not.... So of course all her friends have been texting all day to say that they saw her new status on Facebook. Let the high pitched squealing begin!

I've tried for a while (she's a junior this year) to understand the current state of affairs of teenage dating. It's not called 'going steady' anymore. First, when two young people are interested in each other they 'talk'. 'Talking' starts with your mutual friends asking each of you if you are interested in 'talking'. Then it moves on to actual talking - via phone, Facebook, texting or even (gasp!) in person! Sometimes people who are talking have lunch together, hang out with friends and may even go on a date or two. There seems to be a lot of 'talking' but so far not much 'steady' dating. Until now. So, while she has 'talked' and dated during high school, this is her first actual, official boyfriend.

I got to meet the not-yet-boyfriend Thursday night. He's a nice kid - tall, smart, polite, good looking. Seems he and my eldest wanted to go watch a lacrosse game. As fate would have it, that was also her younger sister's sports award ceremony and she didn't want to miss that. I suggested they meet up after. Then (amazingly) he offered to come to the sports awards . Which he did -without even knowing there would be ice-cream. He came and sat with us and cheered when younger was called up to the podium. Need I tell you he earned some points with all of us by doing that. You see, my younger daughter is a good judge of character. She has a pretty good feel for people. When my older daughter has friends over, the youngest sizes them up pretty quickly. If she doesn't like you, you're probably not going to last. So I jokingly tell my eldest that if a friend can pass the sister test it's all good.

So that's it. Two awards and an 'official boyfriend'. Does it get more exciting than that?