We Are Free

Shopping And Parties

The 30th I wake up and I am going shopping today. Halo did hers yesterday. Emily is so excited about her birthday. She knows Ava is coming but she doesn't know that she is spending the night.
    I eat some food and go get dressed. By the time I am ready to go it is about noon. I get the mail. I stand by the garbage can.
     "Junk, junk, junk, junk, bill, bill, junk, junk, and the gymnastics studio." I say as I go through it.  I throw the junk away and put the bills on the counter. I open the letter from the gymnastics studio. I read it and call for Halo.
      "What?" She comes to the room.
      "Listen to this.
      Dear parent/guardian of Emily Parks,
      Due to the inconvenience of having year round practice to most parents/guardians, gymnastics will be a season type sport. It will be in the fall from here on out. The cost will remain the same for each child attending.
                         Yours,
                                   Ms. Jacobs" I read.
      "She won't be happy." Emily says.
      "We have to tell her."
      "I know."
      "EMILY!"  I yell for her. She comes to me.
      "What?"
     "I got a letter from your coach. It has been limited to season to season. You start again in the fall."
      "What!!!" She looks at me like I am messing with her.
      "Yup don't believe me read it." She takes the paper and looks it over.
      "Could I do karate?" She asks me.
      "If you want to."
      "Yeah I want to."
      "Okay, I will stop by the place today okay."
      "Okay." I hug her. She took it better than I thought she would.
      "It's okay."
      "Just means I have time to do other sports." She shrugs her shoulders.
     "Right." I hand Halo the bills. "Your turn."
     "Light, and water, Yay." She rolls her eyes and opens them. I put my shoes on and leave the house. I go to the karate place. They were in a practice. Some were red belts other green and black. Some white.
      "Hi can I help you?" The instructor asks me.
     "Yes I am looking to get my sister into karate." I say to him.
      "Okay follow me." We go to a desk and he pulls out some papers.
      "What is her name?"
      "Emily."
      "Age?"
      "Nine on the 4th."
      "Okay. Has she ever been trained in something like this before?"
      "No but she did break a kids nose. He was bullying her and she defended herself."
      "Wow! Okay just fill these papers out and if I could have her sizes for shirt and pants I will get her a outfit and belt." I tell him her sizes and fill the papers out. He comes back.
      "Okay, um like I said her birthday is the 4th. Can she start after that. I want to surprise her." I ask him.
      "Okay, that is fine. Can I ask, why you are signing her up?"
      "Mom died in a car crash, dad is in jail, I raise her and my brother with my fiancé."
      "Okay. She can start the 5th."
      "Okay thank you."
      "Your welcome." I leave and go to the car I take a pic and send it to Halo. I tell her what I am going to do. She replies with I am mean. I go to Toys-R-Us. I get her presents.
    I go to Walmart and get her ice cream and toppings. I order her cake. I get it a gymnastics theme. I go home.
*4th of July*
I wake up and go into Emily's room. She was sleeping.
      "Hey! It's your birthday! Your turning nine!" I says loudly.
      "Go away."  She rolls over and I go to her bed. I roll her over and pick her up. I put her on my waist. "Okay I am up, put me down." I set her down. She goes to the bathroom. I go to the kitchen and get her breakfast ready.
     I had worked on it for an hour. I need to feed everyone else to. We sit down and eat our breakfast.
      "When will Ava be here?" Emily asks me.
      "Around noon."
      "Okay."
      "When you get dressed put on your swim suit and something over it. You will wear what you put over it home."
      "Okay." We finish eating. They get dressed. I pack a bag for Halo, myself, Emily, and Andrew. I get dressed and so does Halo. She puts on her bikini. She puts a crop top on and short shorts. She throws her hair in a pony tail.
     "I need a new bikini." Halo says.
     "Go buy yourself a new bikini." I tell her.
      "I know. Not today maybe." I run to the store and pick her cake up. I put everything in the car. Ava shows up and Emily runs outside.
     "Why does she have a pillow?" Emily asks me.
     "Surprise!" I say.
     "Really?!"
     "Yup!"
     "Yay!!!" They hug.
     "Does Zac's mom know?" Ava's mom asks me.
      "Yeah and she is cool." I tell her.
      "Okay." She gives her mom a hug. "Be good and I will see you tomorrow." She tells Ava.
      "Okay." Her mom leaves and we go inside.
      "Do I have time to go to the store?" Halo asks me.
     "Yeah, I don't care." I tell her.
     "Okay, hey girls." They look at her. "Do you guys want to come with me?" They both say yes and Halo takes them. I finish packing everything for the party. I wrap some presents and put them in the car. I put the rest in the car. The girls get back and Halo got a new bikini.
    She puts the top on but not the bottoms. The top was red so it matched. She just got a red one with the bottoms black and red polka dot. Ava and Emily helped her pick it out. We get everyone in the car.
    We go to Zac's Mom's house. We were the only ones left to show up. I pull Zac and Chloe into a room. I show them the karate outfit.
      "She will be excited." Zac says.
      "Yup, I agree." Chloe agrees with Zac. I leave the room.
      "Jace, did you go to the karate place?" Emily asks me having forgot about it with all the excitement the last 24 hours.
      "Yes, they said they don't have an opening right now but I put you on a list. You are very close to the top."
      "Okay, can we go play in the mud pit?" She asks changing the subject.
      "Yeah take your clothes off."
      "Okay." She takes her shorts and top off. Halo takes hers off. I take my shirt off and Andrew had already taken his off in the car. Zane didn't have a shirt when we got there and Blake was wearing a one piece.
"Uncle Ace!" Zane greets me.
"Hi." I take my sunglasses off and put them on my head. I pick him up and he hugs me.
"Play in mud?" He asks me.
"You want to play in the mud?" I ask him.
"Yeah!"
"Okay lets go." We go to the mud pit. It was huge, kinda like a pool. It had low areas and high ones. I set him in a low part of the mud and he starts splashing. I sit down in the mud and splash with him.
    He laughs. Blake comes to me. She walks into the mud up to her knees. She had a life jacket on and so did Zane. They swim around and play. They get muddy and dirty. Zac starts the ranger.
    Emily, Andrew, and Ava sit in the back. Blake and Zane sit in between Zac and I. We go on a dusty road and through the woods. We go over a bridge and the kids laugh. When we get back we are even dirtier then when we started.
    Zac's Mom watches Ryker. Chloe hops in and Halo and I sit in the back. She sits next to me. We go a little different route then what we started with. We get back and they were hungry.
"Uncle Ace." Zane tugs on me.
"What?"
"Hungry."
"Okay I will get you some food." He picks out the food he wants. I sit him in a chair and get the other kids some food.
"So kids you all having fun?" Halo asks them.
"YES!!!!!" They all yell through mouths of BBQ and corn on the cob.
"No!" Blake says. She smiles and starts laughing.
"You are a sassy butt." Zac tells her. She laughs again.
"Silly daddy!" Zane tells him.
"Close enough." We all eat our food then Emily asks to open presents. She was really, really, really spoiled. There was a lot of people and some we didn't even know she was getting stuff from.
    She opens her presents. She got stuffed animals, art stuff, clothes, hair pretties, nail polish, Nerf guns, bullets, a small drum set, a leotard, jump ropes, sidewalk chalk, doll clothes, bracelet making set, and more. When we think she is done I hand her the last one.
"Jace what did you do?" She asks me.
"I don't know!" I shrug my shoulders. She smiles and takes the bag. She pulls the tissue paper out and looks inside. She pulls the outfit out.
"You lair!" She calls me on my bluff. We start laughing. "I'm doing karate!"
"You start tomorrow." I tell her.
"Yes!!" She hugs me. She hugs everyone and thanks them for her presents. It is close to 6:30 by now. Emily and Ava do flips and cartwheels. They play in the hose and mud pit.
     They get absolutely dirty but we all do to. We pull the fire works out around 8:30. We all settle outside. Zac and I light them off like we always do. Everyone loved the display but it was Zac's Mom who picked it out.
    Blake and Zane falls asleep so they put all the kids in the car. We get ours dressed and put them in the car. They fall asleep. We clean everything up. We are all very tired. We go home and it was 10:30ish.
    We give them all baths and put them to bed. I take a shower while Halo puts things away. Halo showers and I fall asleep. I don't even hear her come to bed.
We all wake up really late the next morning. I call Ava's mom. She will be here around noon. I feed the kids and Halo was still sleeping. I help Ava pack her bag. Emily has practice at 2:00. She wants me to go with her. She is so excited. Ava's mom come to get her.
"Was she good?" Her mom asks me.
"An angle."
"That's good." Ava comes to her mom. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah I got dirty!"
"That doesn't surprise me."
"Well she got a bath." I tell her mom.
"Okay." They leave and I put all of Emily's new clothes in the washer. She is going to wear her karate pants, a tank top, some spandex, her top, her belt, and I put her hair in a messy bun.
"Jace, can you build my drums with me?" She asks me.
"Sure!" She smiles and I get the needed tools. We go to her room and open the box. She hands me pieces and I build it. It was blue and silver. It has a bass, two snares, a symbol, and sticks.
"When are you and Halo going to have a baby?" She asks for the hundredth time. Then again I told her when she was nine.
"After I graduate."
"Why?"
"Well I just have a lot on my plate and having a baby isn't on that plate right now."
"Oh, well when are you guys getting married?" She asks me. She has asked that question as much as she has asked about the baby.
"Don't know we haven't even started planning it yet."
"That sucks."
"We will soon trust me."
"Okay, after the wedding can we go visit mommy?"
"Yes of course."
"Okay. Do you promise?"
"I promise."
"Okay."
"When Halo and I have a baby what do you want it to be?"
"I don't care. I already have a niece and a nephew. I just want the baby to be happy and healthy."
"Okay, you know what I want?"
"What?"
"I want a little girl. I want a little mini Halo." She giggles. I smile and she looks at me. I finish screwing a screw into it completing the bass part of the drum set.
"What do you want to name her?"
      "Well I want Taylor and Halo wants Rebel."
      "Why don't you just combine it. Rebel Taylor." I look at her as she sits on bended knee her chin on her knee. She was holding screws.
      "That is a very good idea. I will talk to her about that."
      "Okay." I look at my watch.
      "Okay after this you have to get dressed."
      "Okay." We build the snare drum. She puts together the stand for it. She has really grown up. She don't play with the Barbie house anymore and she outgrew the bed.
    I got her a single bed last year and there is a mattress under it. Her bed sheets are not Barbie anymore they are black and neon stars. She has glowing stars on her walls, gymnastics posters, shelves with trophies and medals hanging under them.
    She will have the drum set. She has a storage drawer set for her arts and crafts, nail polish, and play makeup. Her shoes are lined up in her closet on the floor and her clothes hanging in there.
    Her hair pretties in a small plastic box. When we move in she hardly had anything and now she can't push the old stuff out fast enough. She said she wants to give her stuff to people who are less fortunate.
    I thought it was a great idea and have started looking. I just can't believe how much she has grown in the 4ish years we have lived in this house. Andrew has grown as well. They are not little kids anymore they are their own people.
     I think back to a time when Emily had hair to her shoulders and now it was to her mid back. If we ever have to move it will crush me. I will understand why we have to do it but it will still crush me. So much has happened in this little home.
    Everything has got better in the last 4 years. Before I know it we finish the drum set and she checks it out while I get her clothes. He hair has fallen out of its pony tail holder.
    I come back to the room. She puts her spandex on and her tank top. She puts her pants on. She puts her top on.
      "It doesn't have buttons." She discovers.
      "No you put your belt on." I put the belt around her waist and she holds her top shut. I tie the belt in a lose not. I pull her hair out and brush it. I put it back in a messy bun.
     She puts her flats on and I get her a water bottle. We leave, she gets in the car and we go to the karate place. We go in and I take my sunglasses off.
      "You must be Emily." The instructor meets her by the door.
      "Yes!"
      "Okay, do you know what karate is?" He asks her.
      "You learn to fight." She guesses.
      "Correct but it is also about discipline. It teaches you how to be a strong individual. So when I ask you a question I want you to respond with yes sir or no sir. Is that okay?"
      "Yes, sir!"
      "Okay, I have something for you." He pulls out a shirt on the front it said sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal, suck it up princess. On the back it had the karate place on it.
      "Thank you!"
      "You are very welcome." She hands me the shirt.
     "I herd you are in gymnastics?" He says to her.
      "Yes, sir!"
      "That comes in handy with karate. You need to be very flexible. I want to see you run from this line to that blue wall and back. Let's see how fast you are." I sit with the other parents and she runs. She does some kicks and punches. They do push ups to. I can tell she is having fun. I start talking to one of the kids parents.
      "Which one is your son/daughter?" A mom asks me.
      "I don't have any kids." I tell her.
      "I am sorry." She says taken back but feeling bad that she mistaken me for one of the parents.
      "It's okay, mine is the one with the grey shirt under her top."
     "I see her she is cute. Looks just like you. You sure you aren't her dad?"
     "Positive, I am her brother."
     "Oh, parents?"
     "Mom died, dad is in jail."
     "Oh I am sorry."
     "It is okay. I have a brother that is 5 and a fiancé. I got another brother that is 21 he is married and has two sons and a daughter. Life is good."
      "It sure is." They come to us for a water break. Emily takes her water bottle.
      "You having fun?" I ask her.
      "Yes!"
      "Okay, that's good." They go practice for another half hour. She comes to me. She takes her top off. She was warm and it was no better outside. We get to the car and she takes her pants off.
      "We have to go to the store." I tell her.
      "Okay." She sips on her water bottle. We go get some food, turtle supplies, and dog food. We go home and I put the things away. I help Emily put all her birthday presents away.
      "Jace, can we go through my room?" Emily asks me.
      "Why?"
      "I just don't have enough room."
      "Okay do you want me to get a box?" I ask her.
      "Yeah." I get up and get a box. We go through her dresser. Drawer by drawer. I hold up the item and she tells me what she wants and doesn't. Next we go through her closet.
    She tells me what clothes she wants and what else she wants. I place it all back in the closet when she is done. I get a new box and she puts some art stuff in it, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals. She looks at her Barbie house.
      "I don't want this any more either." She says with a hand on it.
      "You sure?"
      "Yeah, there is some other little girl that needs it more then I do. There is some little girl who's mom and dad can't buy it for her."
      "Okay." We put the things in the car. I take her to a charity. We bring the things in.
     "I am very proud of you." I say to her.
     "What did I do?"
     "Thanks to you a little girl is going to have a warm coat this winter. Thanks to you a little girl is going to have warm blankets and pillows, a doll to call her own, and a friend."
     "I never thought of it like that."
     "Well, now you did. Let's go home. Halo is making dinner."
      "I'm hungry."
      "Me to." We get home and Halo was setting dinner on the table. We eat and I clean up. Halo gets them in bed. When she is done we sit in bed and talk.
      "Emily came up wth something today." I say to Halo.
      "What's that?"
      "Well she asked what we are going to name our baby if it is a girl. I told her what we want and she said we should combine them. Rebel Taylor."
      "I really really like that."
      "I do to. So I was thinking we could combine our names. Rebel Taylor for a girl and Ethan Daniel for a boy. We could do it vise versa to."
      "I like them just the way they are."
      "Is that what we want though?"
      "I love it the perfect names and we haven't even started trying yet."
      "I do to they are just perfect."
      "So a girl is Rebel Taylor Parks. A boy is Ethan Daniel Parks."
      "Yes." We high five. We fall asleep. I'm glad we got the names now we just have to figure out the rest.