Head count

Can you count all 7 Fitz kids in the tree? Click to enlarge and make it easier. I can find them all. I can find them with my eyes closed. I spend a good portion of my life doing head counts wherever we go. So it pains me to think that next year I will be coming up one short with each count.

I have always had a hard time with any of the kids being away for any length of time, so it is unfathomable to me that Kaleigh will be going off to college next year... away for months at a time. She is looking fairly locally... but still. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to counting 6 instead of 7.

Last night was the high school sports banquet. Being a tiny high school of only about 300 kids, we have one awards night for all the teams together. Kaleigh was announced as the “unsung hero” of the soccer team. I wasn’t surprised to hear the way her coach described her. He said that she gave her heart and soul out there for ever single game. I wasn’t surprised at all. Kaleigh gives her heart and soul to everything she does.

One of the schools that Kaleigh recently applied to requested a parent letter, describing important qualities you felt your son/daughter has. The first word that came to my mind was passion. From the time Kaleigh was tiny, everything she did she did with passion and she continues it to this day. Whether it is school work, on the sports field or sitting with her guitar in hand, she puts everything she’s got into it.

She will be a huge asset to any school that akes her next year, but she will leave a big hole in this home while she is away.