Adventures in Leadership... and Baseball

It looks like our summer is quickly taking shape... around Carter's schedule, that is.

Actually, we couldn't be prouder of some news we recently received. One, Carter made the Rapids baseball tournament team again! Looking forward to 6 or 7 weekends of baseball. I'm serious, we love it! And so glad Carter's hard work in the batting cage this winter paid off.

The second bit of news was that he has been accepted into the new "Adventures in Leadership" program at the Iola fitness center this summer. Since he is 13, he is officially too old to go to the Kidz Camp child-care program. We weren't sure what we were going to do with him this summer so keep him active enough not to die of teen boredom. Then we heard they were starting this leadership program for teens going into 8th and 9th grade. They will learn skills like CPR and photography, but also help with the younger "kids" at the Kidz Camp while learning team leadership skills.

He had to fill out a lengthy application for this -- very lengthy in his mind -- and we let him fill it in his words, not ours, run-on sentences and all.

When asked "What are the top five things at which you are best?", he listed: Math, Band, Baseball, Soccer and making people laugh.

His greatest asset or strength? "My positive attitude. I'm easy to get along with because I'm smart, sensitive, friendly, and have a great sense of humor."

Sounds like my kid!

What does leadership mean to you? "To me, leadership means to be a good role model and setting good examples. It does not mean bossing people around, but working well with them, too."

I think we should hire him, don't you?

So our summer schedule looks like he'll commute to Iola with us Tuesday-Thursday, then we'll travel to tournaments Friday-Sunday. His Mondays are open. We had previously talked to someone about babysitting a day a week. I asked him, "Would you still want to babysit on Mondays if that's your only free day?"

"Well, Mom, how else am I gonna make money?"

Oh boy, this summer will be an adventure, indeed!

And personally, I can't wait.