Saturday was my 20th high school reunion. In fact it was exactly 20 years ago this week I graduated high school from the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. My big goal at the time was getting down to Myrtle Beach with my friends and we barely slept, leaving for the beach at 6:45 am that next morning.

It was a summer of fun, everyone was heading off to college and buying all the things they'd need. But in general there were no worries since the concerns of undergrad life weren't known and high school was over. I think it was the last time I was completely carefree.

Seeing so many old friends was fun. People have taken different paths in life, with parenting too. Some have little ones just born and others already have college students. We scheduled a family day on an athletic field at our old high school and grads piled out with their kids in tow for lunch, sports, a bounce house and socializing. My ten year was the 'photographer' and wandered around asking people if she could take their photos - she did a good job.

It was amazing to see people I spend years with are now parents. So many of them were frozen in my mind as 18 year olds, not 38 year old mothers of three. It was wonderful to see all of these kids from people we grew up with in school. There were a lot of parents chasing after children, keep them cool and occupied.

I'm no longer that carefree 17 year old from that summer. I have a child and husband who I love plus a mortgage and job. There are burdens and responsibilities for me to manage. The trade off has been worth it though, being a wife and mother has been as rewarding as I could have ever imagined.

Tonight our daughter went to stay at grandma and grandpa's for the night. An evening to be spoiled was more than enough to get her to happily head on over. We chuckled today at the family day at how many kids would be at their grandparents for the actual reunion that night.

The reunion itself was lots of fun. We had a nice turnout and people enjoyed the evening. For me, it was nice to remember that 17 year old me and all her friends for at least one day. But truthfully, I already miss my child and can't wait for my folks to bring her back.

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High - TIME

I'm astonished to read above linked story about a group of seventeen high school girls that decided to get pregnant together at a high school in Massachusetts.

The girls made a deal to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Unfortunately few of them seem to have taken as much time to plan their life as they did getting knocked up. One of them is pregnant by a 24 year old homeless man.

By all accounts the Gloucester area is economically struggling and it seems like some of the families are floundering as well. The value of education, family planning and respecting yourself are all seeds planted at home. A child that can be dragged into this pact is a child who needs more from their parents, not to become a parent.

The school is paying a price for their folly - and the actions of those young students pregnant in the past. There is a daycare center on site and a culture that accepts these young women and their children. Of course there is a great value and even a 'return on investment' for helping young women with children grow up to be educated and good parents. It is far better to spend that money on pregnant teens to keep them off welfare and keep their children out of social services - not to mention just that protecting young children is the right thing to do. But at what point does helping those who have made a mistake become enabling those who are making bad decisions on purpose? These girls were celebrating being pregnant as a group.

Humorously two school clinic officials were disciplined for giving out birth control without parent approval, which is acceptable under the law there and does happen at other area schools but was not school board policy in that school system.

Perhaps we can guess that the nurse and doctor at the clinic were so frustrated with giving 150 pregnancy tests to a student body that included about 600 girls that they decided they had to do something to try to stem the tide. The nearest free clinic is 20 minutes from the school and they decided to try to do whatever they could.

That of course upset the town's mayor who felt the pair, "have no right to decide this for our children."

I hope the best for those children-to-be but I suspect these young women, their parents, school officials and rest of the community will pay a very steep price for this very serious game they've played.

High School Musical 3 started shooting on May 3rd of this year and with a scheduled 40 days of filming, sometime this week or next the work should come to an end.

Now editing and about 90 days separates us from the third installment of the wildly-popular High School Musical series as High School Musical 3 is set to come out in late October. As if we as parents didn't end up buying about 101 different items from the HSM themed items, this time we'll have to cough up more cash since this one debuts in theaters. Having racked in bags of cash with the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds concert they released to theatres, expect this kind of stuff more often.

Yes dear fellow parents, you'll have to face the crowds at movie theaters to see the movie. Disney decided to cash in on the over-the-top interest in the series and release this one in first in the theater. Expect the tween/teen version of the new Star Wars movies over this one. I have this sad vision of parents sitting out in line, not unlike they probably did in the pre-internet days trying to get good tickets to rock shows.

For those who want to get in right mindset early, all of the major actors, director/choreographer Kenny Ortega and writer Peter Barsocchini all return for this senior year extravaganza. It wasn't a given that everyone would be back - several cast members held out for more money and Zac Efron is getting over three million just himself for this episode. I don't blame them, HSM series has made a killing based on those kids' work and they deserve more of the profits.

HSM3 centers on the core of the senior year high school experience - the prom and graduation.

"Everything's been stepped up a few notches, all the dances, and I think the songs are pretty catchy this time around. And it's our senior year, so we've got graduation and prom to look forward to. All fun things to have in a movie," Efron told People Magazine recently.

Somehow I have to expect that the prom will be fair more tame than most proms. I know I know, the whole thing is a leap of faith about almost everything, a fictionalized version of a squeaky clean high school where no one drinks, cheats, has sex or gets into real trouble - which is almost plausible since this is set filmed in Utah (but set in New Mexico). An over-bearing girl and public perception seems to be the major problems of the entire series anyway. But of course this is Disney and that's why our kids are seeing the movie.

This is the final installment for this gang but ala Saved by the Bell, Disney is probably going to try to restart the HSM franchise with another young group. Along those lines, there are three sophomores with roles in HSM3 - want to bet they form the core of HSM4? This might never end.

You don't see the old 'Mom's Taxi' joke as much as you did when I was a kid. The parent act to lampoon - the sports pack mule. The bags that parents carry about with newborns with the essentials are nothing when you start to check out what some parents pack and carry to various sporting events for their children.

The average recreation sports child needed their jersey and a ball, and not much else. A wider variety of sports have been available across the board, as well as more levels of competition involved. Travel teams that started as a place for excellent teenage athletes are now common for slightly better than average ten year olds or in some cases, pretty much anyone who'll write a big check, buy the gear and show up.

I'm not ragging on the system - we are part of it in a big way. The kids do benefit from more opportunities of course. I'm just chuckling at how involved it has all gotten. In that vein, I'm checking my list for the swim meet we have to report for today at 4:30pm - we expect to get home about 9:30pm so we've got five hours to watch our child race in six races. Yikes.

All this for a sport in the pool...

Swim meet list:
Dry towel
Swim towel
Two sets of junior racing goggles
Sunblock
Sharpie
Swim team suit
Swim team cap
Swim coverup
Shorts and tshirt (check sun level to see if we need rashguard shirt)
Ipod
Headphones
Deck of cards
Four gatorades
Water bottles
Grapes
Brownies
Money for dinner
Camera, lenses, batteries and memory card
Chair
Cooler
Magazine

We got an interesting email that might appeal to some of you:

My name is Leah Gritton and I work at an advertising agency in Los Angeles. Bugaboo is one of our clients. I was wondering if you could help in one of our projects. We are conducting a casting search and are looking for modern parents who would like to be filmed on a family adventure (your audience). We'd like to document the exciting moments of families traveling. There are no rules to the types of adventures and trips we are seeking. The trips could be for pleasure and fun or difficult and challenging.

To begin this search we're reaching out to our friends, family and colleagues to help us find adventurous families all over the world. If you know anyone who you think would enjoy participating in filming, we would really appreciate it if you forwarded the attached invitation or link!

Check out the invite to apply

I can't wait for summertime, even if it is a shorter summer with our daughter being in year-round school.

It has been a pretty good year at school but there has been some conflict. My child definitely plays a role in the issues going on but her actions are more of reactions. I'm not absolving my child of her role and she'll pay a price for that.

However there were two incidents where another child physically caused her injury while upset with her. Neither injury was dangerous but one could have been if it was a half an inch higher. But both were enough to have had to go to the office and the school had to send home physical injury notes to us as well as the parents of the other child were informed of her actions.

Then there was a third and most serious situation where same child did something else serious enough to get the school's administrative staff involved in. When I called vice principal to talk, she didn't know about the previous physical incidents when the third situation happened despite the administrative intern supposedly documenting it all. She said she was shocked she didn't know about the other two and that communication would be addressed. I was also very insistent that the child's parents be informed again about what was going on so her parents can go over the situation with her.

I was waiting for a follow up from the school about it but nothing had yet. School is ending soon and it was end of grade testing so I knew everyone had to be swamped so I was patient.

Then there was another incident yesterday that got all this rolling again. The same other child started it and my child finished it. I'm not happy about her role at all but my child being the only one who gets in trouble isn't right either.

But this really isn't about what happened - it wouldn't be possible to do that without listing details that just aren't relevant for anyone but us. My issue is how the school is handling things.

I called the school for to talk about things. Yesterday when I called, the teacher hadn't been informed of the third most serious incident. This teacher has both of the children in her class and a major incident isn't even communicated to her? That then confirmed to me that too that the parents haven't been informed about that third incident.

I love this school. This teacher has been very kind, the administrative and support staff just lovely. All that said, how are incidents not documented in a way that everyone knows what is going on? I've raised my stink and have asked again for everyone to inform everyone what is going on. I don't think that is too much to ask.