Today was “promotion” day in our church. Which means that all the kiddos moved up to a new Sunday School class.

Zane was promoted into the Youth department.

And I’m excited about that.

Our Youth Pastor is awesome. I consider him not just a Pastor but a friend. Oh… and he’s my running buddy too.

And there’s probably no one - apart from Carmi or myself - that I would trust any more with our son’s spiritual growth.

This is going to be a great time in Zane’s life.

Zane got a cell phone today.

Which is probably a big deal for most teenagers.

But not so much for him.

He didn’t ask for it.

Mom and dad just desired a little peace of mind.

I could probably count on two hands the number of times he’s talked on the phone - any phone - in the year and a half that he’s been home.

So hopefully the cell phone bill is safe.

OK.

So we had a r-e-a-l-l-y bizarre message on our answering machine this morning.

A lady from Zane’s school called to say… and I quote…

“Mrs. Henderson… my name is [blank] from [blank] Middle School. I was calling in regards to Zane. We’re in the first 3 days of school and we don’t believe we have seen him here at the Middle School. Just checking to see if perhaps maybe he had gone to a different school this year? If you could give me a call back, that would be great.”

This was a serious what the heck moment.

In fact, I said it out loud.

Then I quickly returned the lady’s call and introduced myself.

“I can assure you”, I continued, “that Zane has been at school. And the correct school. I’ve personally dropped him off every morning and my mother-in-law has picked him up in the afternoon.”

“Mr. Henderson, let me check on something and I’ll call you right back.”

Which she did. And here’s the lowdown…

Zane has not been to his ESL class which, according to my discussion with the principal on Open House night, is an elective that he’s required to take.

Even though I had talked to Zane about ESL, he apparently didn’t remember and had been going to a Life Skills class in cooking and sewing.

Yep. Cooking and sewing.

Now there’s nothing wrong with cooking and sewing. English is just more of a priority right now, you know?

But seriously… what kind of nitwit calls a parent and says their child is missing from school when he’s just missing from a single class?

Zane made it back safely from church camp yesterday.

Carmi and I couldn’t wait to see him after a week.

And I think the girls - especially Eliana - were secretly ready for him to come back too.

When I asked Eliana at lunch if she missed Zane, she shrugged and said, “A little”.

But she was stuck to him like white on rice from the time we arrived home around 4:00 pm until they went to bed.

And lemme tell ya… he MUST have enjoyed himself because h-e t-a-l-k-e-d m-y e-a-r-s o-f-f telling me all about the stuff they did.

These are just a couple of photos that one of the adult leaders took.

And I pilfered these from Facebook. Hee.

Hopefully I can get more a little later.

The group will give a report on Wednesday night so we’re looking forward to that.

A bus-load of kids from our church departed this morning headed to a five-day, four-night camp for 3rd–6th graders.

This will be Zane’s first time away from the family in the 16 months he’s been home.

But he is ready.

One mother asked Zane if he would miss his sisters.

“A little bit”, he said.

And on a humorous note… at my expense of course…

There were boxes of snack foods sitting on the church sidewalk waiting to be loaded onto the bus.

In a previous life, one of the boxes held weights for a barbell set. On one side of the box was the graphic of muscular dude performing a barbell curl.

Zane pointed at the box and said, “Dad… did you ever do that?”

“What? Lift weights?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Sure. I lifted weights when I was younger.”

“It doesn’t look like it”, he said with that Zane giggle.

You just wait until you get home, boy.

Our boy l-o-v-e-s him some tomatoes.

What’s odd is that he’ll stand around, as he did tonight, and eat a tomato like it was an apple.

Now… I love me some tomatoes too.

But mine have to be peeled.

And I prefer them sliced or quartered.

Oh, and with just a dash of salt.

At the dinner table.

I better stop because my mouth is starting to water.

And s-o-m-e-b-o-d-y may have eaten the last one!

The girls, bless their little hearts, were their normal chatty selves tonight during dinner.

During a surprising lull in conversation near the end of the meal, Zane commented that he would like a girlfriend who didn’t talk much.

Once I stopped laughing and caught my breath, I said, “Son, I have news for you…”

Our poor boy. He still has so much to learn.