It's a big year around here.

'Tis the season for back to school and at our house that means two major milestones. This is Annie's senior year and Charlie's freshman year of high school. Honestly. I'm not sure I've settled into the reality of that quite yet.

I'm not at all melancholy about it, although I will own up to thinking "how did that happen already?"

But I'm so excited for them. Annie is knee-deep into college visits and SATs and senior privileges like eating lunch on the lawn and red polo shirts. Charlie has spent the summer working out with the soccer and basketball teams, has earned a spot on the JV soccer team and may or may not have already asked a girl to homecoming. 

I'm so enjoying watching them becoming the people they were born to be. They are both such good kids (not without fault, surely). I look at this picture of them -- taken on the first day of school on Friday -- and I can't help but feel a swelling in my chest. This is really a fun stage of parenting for me to be in. I'm clueless about enough that they can tease me, but I'm up front and honest about enough that they can trust me.

Letting go of my control freak tendencies has been something I've been working on for the past year or so. That's coming in handy while parenting teenagers. I have confidence in the way we've raised them and in their ability to make good choices -- something I remind them to do, thanks to my friend Ann. That's not to say that I don't make use of the "Find my iPhone" app to keep an eye on them from time to time.

They are not going to the same high schools. That's really no surprise to me. Annie's school fits her perfectly. Charlie's fits him. They are only in high school one year together, so we will manage. (Would someone please remind me of that in about 3 or 4 weeks when having 3 kids in 3 different schools seems like an overwhelmingly crazy idea?) While I think it would have been fun for them to be at the same school, I know we've chosen the right school for each of them.

As I was walking the dog yesterday, I stopped to talk to a neighbor who'd just moved his son into a rental home for his sophomore year of college. We talked about how quickly the kids have grown. I could close my eyes and see Annie, at 17 months old, running through our then-empty home on move-in day. Charlie wasn't even a glimmer then.

And now, here they are. High schoolers. A senior! and a freshman. I didn't even see it coming. Gosh. I love these kids.

Milestones and more

Congratulations to Kristin who tonight became the first woman to ever lose 100 pounds while staying at the Biggest Loser ranch! (The pic above is from the beginning of the season.)

Both Tara and Kristin had the chance to hit that milestone tonight. They weighed Tara first because she had won immunity in this week's challenge. She lost 3 pounds -- for a total of 99 pounds. I'm not ashamed to say I was glad. Tara kicks butt and takes names in everything that happens on the ranch. I really wanted the record to go to Kristin. And it did!

She needed to lose 3 pounds to hit the 100 pound mark. She shattered it, losing 8 pounds for a total loss to date of 105!

Single file
The other big news tonight is that the players are going stag -- the teams were dismantled and the competitors went to singles competition. They have to compete and succeed or fail all on their own.

Their first decision as individuals was to pick a trainer. The selections went as follows:

Bob
Ron
Kristin
Sione
Filipe
Aubrey

Jillian
Tara
Mike
Helen
Laura

Which basically means they are all training with the person they've been training with for the past several weeks. What a waste of 20 minutes of air time!

Challenge time
The challenge tonight was a brick challenge with immunity on the table. The players had to place bricks on other players' scales, equal to the amount of weight they'd lost on the ranch so far. Kristin called the game "Let's See How Much Everyone in the House Hates You!"

Helen and Tara were given the lion's share of the weight. Helen received 200+ pounds (215?). Tara was given 257 pounds. I felt a little bad for her. Everyone was laughing at all the pounds being given to Tara and she was clearly hurt by it.

But she has to understand that she is the strongest competitor in the house. She has said it herself, she has a target on her back. However, no matter how the producers edit the film from tonight, there is no way that I was going to believe that Tara was going to quit. She is way to competitive for that. And of course, she's not leaving. A waste of another 10 minutes of air time.

The second part of the challenge was that the players had to pull a car 1/2 mile. In addition, their cars were loaded with the extra weight they were assigned in the first part of the challenge. Sione and Mike started out fast, but they looked like they were struggling by halfway through. That's when Tara started catching up. She passed Mike. And soon was neck and neck with Sione. And she won the challenge, which meant she won immunity.

In the beginning of the season, I didn't like Tara. I thought she was arrogant. Then I got to like her because she was a hard worker and so driven. But she's back to being arrogant and I'm back to not liking her so much.

Going home
The elimination came down between Filipe and Aubrey. If I had gotten to vote, I would have sent Filipe home. But the majority of the folks did not agree with me and Aubrey was voted off.

The at-home video of Aubrey was probably the most honest I've seen. She talked about how hard it is to put herself first because she fell right back into that mommy role, doing stuff for everyone else. It was so authentic, so different from the scripted fare the Biggest Loser usually offers up, I found it pretty powerful.

Best quote of the night
Ron, about Mike's decision to train with Jillian -- "My son is 18 years old. He's an idiot. All 18-year-olds are idiots."

Creepiest commercial
Boost Mobile w/the grown man riding in the Baby Bjorn carrier. He says, among other things, "I also happen to like breast milk."