Summer's end.....

The days are still hot and humid, and we’re trying to be patient waiting for fall to arrive. Even though our days are very busy now that school has started back, we’re still enjoying the great outdoors, despite the heat. Here’s a little glimpse of our backyard “habitat”….home to deer, turkeys, skunks, an occasional coyote, possums, lizards, toads, birds in every color of the rainbow, our sweet Gypsy and her two feline nemeses, DC and Shady, and four sweaty kids (when I can talk them into leaving the air-conditioned great indoors.)

Isaac's

little

lizard

friend

"Josh"

(not sure

why he

chose

that name)...



An afternoon visitor drops by for a snack....

Mom

and

baby at

dinner

time....

Plump pears, ready for picking....

My pear-pickin' partner.....

An abundance of apples...please come get some!

Our sweet Gypsy girl....

Sophie & her favorite playmate, Shady

DC is utterly disgusted with all this photo- journalism...

Isaac is not too sure he wants to do the zipline....

...so big sister "helps" him out.

Can you make out the look of

terror on his face?

Hammock hilarity.....

This week, it's been good for me to contemplate God’s creation just outside our door, to remind myself of all the beauty in this world. Lately, the world has seemed like a not-so-beautiful place sometimes. Funerals, visitations, hospitals, cancers, sickness and sadness have filled up a lot of our time and thoughts recently and those things have a way of wearing you down. Of course, they also help us realize how blessed we are to have a perfect home waiting for us in the future, where none of these things will trouble us. But sometimes it’s hard waiting for that! So in the meantime, it’s nice to observe the beauty and goodness that God has included in this temporary home and remember that, despite the occasional trials and troubles, this world is still a pretty fantastic “waiting room” in which to spend the long hours until the big day arrives.

Jacob's touchdown

Let me take this opportunity to issue an apology to our fine football franchise, the Merrol Hyde Magnet Middle School Hawks, who put up our school's first football victory this past Thursday night. All that talk about them being a "geek squad," and jokes about calculators during huddles was obviously premature, short-sighted and just plain WACK, because our boys put a serious beat down on HCA!!! Jacob had a great game....scored his first ever TOUCHDOWN, threw a completion for extra points, and had a couple of great tackles (including an awesome back-field sack.)

CONGRATULATIONS, HAWKS!! Keep those wins comin'!!

Here's a video clip of Jacob's touchdown run....

First day of school....

Well, I guess the fun part of summer is officially over, but the kids have actually been pretty excited about school starting back, so we're still having a good time. Isaac was especially ready for kindergarten to start; he's been asking for MONTHS how much longer he had to wait. And he had a super first day....no separation anxiety for him. No, that was more of a problem for mom. Our last "first day of kindergarten" (as far as we know!).......I definitely had some moments of weepiness, but was mostly just full of joy for him as he was finally getting his wish fulfilled! All in all, it was a better day than I thought it would be for the lonely, empty-nester mom..... hmmm....in reality that might be because I never actually left the school. I know, I know....pitiful. It's just that I found plenty of very "urgent" projects around the library that needed my "immediate attention" (while spying on Isaac every half hour or so as he went on a "bear hunt," ate his first cafeteria lunch, smashed play-dough into the soles of his shoes, etc) until it was time to pick him up. I hope his teacher did not catch on to all those frequent trips past their door. She's no dummy, though.....she probably thinks I'm psycho-mom. "Well, would you look at the time! I can't believe it's already time to get Isaac and I'm still here!" YEAH, right.....I had been counting down the minutes!


ANYWAY, here are a few more pictures from the first day of school:

Isaac with his "best friend" and most favorite librarian in the whole world, Mrs. Scotti.....

Isaac with his new teacher, Mrs. Cawthon........

Sophie with her new teacher, Mrs. Ryckeley.........

Now, on to other "firsts"..........Jacob played his very first football game tonight! He is on the middle school football team for his school and it was SO MUCH FUN watching him out there on the field (even though we got whupped.) Now, you have to remember that our kids go to an academic magnet school (in other words, there is not a lot of expectation for a winning season, or even A WIN, for that matter. Can you say "GEEK SQUAD"?) Just kidding, we just like to make fun of ourselves. Jacob says the team makes jokes that they should break out their calculators during a huddle to REALLY intimidate the other guys. Nothing like a couple of logarithms to strike fear into the heart of even the brawniest football player. Our team only scored two touchdowns over the ENTIRE SEASON last year, so our main goal is just not to get hurt. We actually played really well tonight and only got outscored 34-0. Seriously, that is not a bad night. I can't believe I just said that. Sad, but so true......

But on the bright side, we only have 18 kids on the whole team, so they all get a lot of playing time. (In contrast, our opponents tonight had 42 kids on their team). Here's our little safety, running back and "special teams" guy after his first game...........

Isn't he cute!!!

Cramming in the last of summer.....

Wow, only 11 days left until school starts back! We have been trying to take advantage of the last little bit of summer break by cramming in more fun than we can stand over the past few weeks!

Jacob and Mary Rose had a great time at Kamp Kennessee. They loved.....seeing old friends and making new ones, getting freaked out on the 60 foot high zip line, the daily Bible devos and spiritual atmosphere, the grand-daddy of all "slip and slides", (which incorporates dish-washing detergent, shaving cream and industrial strength fire hoses down a very steep hill--whoa!!)
....just to name a few of their favorites.

Here is Mary Rose with some of her camp friends and bunk mates:















And Jacob with his good buddy, Tanner:















After picking the kids up at camp, we headed to Texas for our annual trip to the Lonestar state. It was awesome, as always.....lazy days, humid nights, dear friends and loads of fun! We thoroughly enjoyed staying in Conrad & Mary's beautiful new home, a modern marvel perched in the treetops.




Here is a view from their living room...










And we finally got to meet their newest addition, Cora Mae, who is 5 months old already!!





Here is a snuggly, swaddled baby Cora with Jacob What a sweetheart!









Kevin played with his "boys" in the Tyler golf tournament and put up some respectable numbers. His buddy, Reagan, talked the guys into having a "retro" dress up day, so they showed up on the course modeling some happenin' vintage golf wear. OOOOweeee, I know they were having to fight those cart girls off!! No, I'm not posting a picture of them......I don't want all of you viewers to be blinded by their male beauty.....just trust me when I say they were SMOKIN'!

We headed out of Dallas and spent a couple of days visiting other friends and relatives on the way back home. Spent an afternoon with my Aunt Anne & Uncle John in their "retirement" home in Bryan/College Station. They were so good to us when we lived in College Station while Kevin was finishing school at A&M. We love them dearly and wish they weren't so far away!





The kids with Uncle John & Aunt Anne











Then we headed to Centerville, TX for a great (but too short) overnight visit at the home of Brian & Rebekah Klutz and their 4 kids, Magnus, Titus, Justus & Rayah. What a wonderful family...we wish we could see them more often!

We spent the night with my sweet Uncle Andrew and Aunt Polly in Bradley, Ark on the last night before heading home. Going to Bradley is always an adventure...we love to hear Uncle Andrew's stories and see his "souvenirs" from all of his world travels. And he always takes us on a tour of the farm............acres upon acres of soybeans, cotton and sometimes wheat. The kids get to ride for miles in the back of his pickup down dusty dirt roads and if they get too hot, he lets them drink out of the irrigation pipes. How fun is that?! Sometimes we go up the road to where the Amish farmers raise catfish and the kids get to watch thousands of catfish leaping up out of the surface of the pond during feeding time. Talk about exciting! Who needs Disneyworld when we've got Uncle Andrew and his farm?!!




Jacob taking a swig from the irrigation pipe....



















Uncle Andrew teaching Kevin how to calculate yield per acre.



















Riding country roads in the back of Uncle Andrew's truck


















It's a great year for Uncle Andrew's cotton....it's already taller than Mary Rose and still a month away from harvest!!















"Farm livin' is the life for me!"














SO, that's our "western" trip in a nutshell!

Home again, but still on the go! The day after we got home, Mary Rose headed north to Bowling Green for violin camp at Western Kentucky University. She and her friend Emily had a great week at camp and she enjoyed seeing her relatives and friends in BG.





Emily and Rosie at violin camp with cousin Claire, who came to see their final performance.










This past week everyone has been back home for good, and we've enjoyed having my sister, Sharon, and her kids here from Atlanta for a few days, as well as Kevin's parents for a short visit.
Busy enough for ya?? Like I said, we're cramming in the fun while we can!! Only 11 days and counting down...........

Well, the last two weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. Company in town, weekend trip to Louisville, kids to Atlanta with my mom, then me to Atlanta, then everybody home for a couple of days, hosted a Fourth of July get-together at our house, then we took 2 kids to Kamp Kennessee, whew! And we're just getting started! July is our crazy month every summer, and this one is no different.


Kevin and I had a great weekend in Louisville last weekend. Stayed at a beautiful historic B&B in "Old Louiville" for our anniversary, then to my cousin's wedding reception at the Galt House in downtown Louisville Saturday. Had a fun night staying up late and playing cards in the hotel lobby that night with other couples from church in Nashville that had come up for the festivities.

Here's our required "anniversary weekend" shot, outside the fountains at the Galt House:

Mom took our kids to Atlanta for the weekend, and was brave enough to treat all 16 grandkids (everybody was in town that week visiting) to a fun day at the Georgia Aquarium. It sounds like an amazing place! They all had a blast and our kids had a great time hanging out with Papa & Mimi for a few days. I drove down Monday and enjoyed myself tremendously in my old home town (i.e. shopping, shopping, and more shopping!). Here's a picture of Papa and the kiddos:

Tuesday, the girls and I went to see the new American Girl movie, while my mom took the boys to see "Wall-E." She thinks I got the better end of that deal.

We all headed home Thursday afternoon. We had hoped to make it home by dinner, but the highway had other plans for us. A terrible accident on I-24W had us stopped on the interstate for 3 hours, along with lots of other people. We made the best of it...visited with truckers, played football in the median, sweated and grumbled, and finally made it home by bedtime....

Here's Jacob, taking advantage of the

"free time" to play football...

And here's Isaac, not too happy about the delay.

Check out the STUFFED van, full of the fruits of my labors.

(aka: shopping)

Then Friday night, we had a our "group" from church over for a 4th of July celebration. Lots of good food, fun and of course, fireworks. My hubby, the pyro, had his hands full trying not to dash the hopes of 10 or more little ones who were sure they could hold the Roman candles safely in their hands, too, and not put an eye out. They eventually settled for some very tame sparklers and left the heavy duty stuff to the adult male pyros. What is is about guys and fire??? I guess it's like woman and shoes. Here's some of the gang from Friday night, camped out in the back yard during the pyrotechnics.....

Whew! What a week! Yesterday, we dropped Jacob and Mary Rose off in Dickson (about an hour west of Nashville) at Kamp Kennessee. This is Mary Rose's first year to go...she was pretty excited, and not TOO anxious about sleeping in a cabin, going without hand sanitizer or books for a whole week, and using PUBLIC SHOWERS. Despite all that, I know she'll have a great time and Jacob, of course, always loves camp life. Sports competitions every day, all-you-can eat cafeteria bar at every meal (the food is actually very good), and no mom around to nag him about taking showers or practicing piano! Yeah, life is sweet for him this week! But we are missing them already! We will pick them up from camp Friday evening and leave straight from there to go to Dallas for our week in Texas. More on that trip later.....

Summer's in full swing!

Well, the kids had a blast at Pops and Grandma's last week in Mayfield. The highlights include fishing, bumper cars, movies, Chuck E. Cheese, Speedway racing, putt-putt golf, picnics, bowling, shopping for toys, Indiana Jones cereal and Kung Fu Panda cereal for breakfast everday and lots of icecream! Boy, were they ever depressed those first couple of days back home....nothing but healthy food, chores and bedtime curfews around here!!

Here's the whole gang on one of their many ice-cream outings....



Kevin and I had a great week, too. Besides eating out way too much and sleeping in way too late, we did get a few projects done around the house that had been on the "to-do" list for way too long! My big project was refinishing our kitchen table and chairs. They were in bad shape, but I didn't want to get rid of the set since they belonged to my grandparents and have a lot of sentimental value. So, with a lot of elbow grease and sweat and even a few tears of frustration, they are looking better than ever! Here's a couple of before and after pictures:

FINALLy got this project finished just in time for the whole gang to come over and grill out at our house tonight. My sister-in-law, Cynthia, and her 3 kids are in town this week, and my mom just arrived today from Atlanta. So all of them, plus Jonathan/Shawna and their boys were here for dinner and a very dangerous display of pyrotechnics in the backyard (Kevin and the boys made a run to the fireworks tent down the road for a little early Independence Day celebration) My picnic table will never be the same....but I'm not about to start refinishing that. I'm ready to take a good long break from any more "projects!"


Tuesday night the whole crew headed out to Dave & Busters, which is basically a giant Chuck E. Cheese for the more mature (HAH!) crowd. Most of us went bowling (though it was a little too tame for some of the older kids) Here are some pics of us at the lanes...

Eli keeping score












Rosie & Sophie with
cousin Aubrey






Me, Shawna & Cynthia trying not to break a sweat....




Kevin with Silas (Shawna's oldest boy)















Most everyone is headed out to Atlanta tomorrow, so the house will be quiet again. Mom is taking all four of our kids to Atlanta for a week, while Kevin & I take a short weekend trip to Louisville for some wedding festivites for one of my cousins and a little anniversary getaway for us since tomorrow is our SIXTEENTH anniversary! Amazing! Time flies when you're having fun, and my sweet, selfless, and wise-cracking hubby of 16 years still manages to make everyday fun. Sorry for the sap..........but he is pretty great and I feel very blessed.

More summer fun....

Well, enough about the boys....here's what the girls have been doing this summer.

Mary Rose has been staying busy with her friends, with violin and of course, with her one true love......books!

She gets into kind of a panic when she's on the last few chapters of a book if she does not have something else on hand to start reading immediately. Most people make a dash to the grocery when they run out of milk; we make unplanned dashes to the library because we've run out of books and can't last a day without them! It's an addiction, I tell you!

Last weekend, Mary Rose got an amazing opportunity to participate in an artistic workshop with Alexandre Renoir, who is the great grandson of the impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Alexandre is also an artist and one of our local museums had an exhibit of his work. Pierre also hosted a workshop for kids.....Mary Rose came home with an original sketch by him, which she painted at the workshop. It was a neat experience and she had so much fun attending with her friends Emily, Abigail and James. Thanks again to Mrs. Brenda for taking the girls! Here's a picture of Mary Rose at the workshop with Monsieur Renoir; she's standing a couple of people behind him in the striped shirt...

Sophie had lots of pool time last week with swim lessons in the morning and then a swim party for her friend Skylar's birthday. She LOVES the water! She is getting braver each summer and is finally going off the diving board. Here is a picture of her with her friend, Skylar....


Now for the REALLY exciting summer event..........all 4 kids are in Kentucky for whole week with Kevin's parents!!! They are so very generous and brave to take on all of those grandkids
each summer! Cousin Claire is also with them...the girls especially love having her there to spend the week at Pops and Grandma's, too. They are packing in the fun....the first day involved bowling, a movie and Chuck E. Cheese....all in ONE DAY!! I'm tired just thinking about it, but Pops & Grandma are going strong! I can't imagine what else the week has in store. Pray for them all!! Here is the gang all loaded up and heading out to Mayfield....look, Grandma's already praying....or maybe she's thinking "When I open my eyes, this will all just have been a bad dream...."


Kevin and I have been out on the town every night! It's amazing how much cheaper we can eat without 4 kids in tow! Last night, we puttered around Barnes & Noble with no kids......aahhhh (big sigh of contentment.) Tonight, we may get really crazy and go to the cinema.....

The season comes to a close....

Well, baseball season is officially over (FINALLY!!) !!

Isaac's team came in last place with only 1 win for the entire season, but that didn't stop somebody from going out and buying the most ginormous trophies for the team....it looks like they won the pennant or something! I have never seen a kid more excited about a trophy than Isaac. He has been carrying that thing everywhere with him....it goes with him to the bathroom, sits beside him at mealtime, rides in the car with him, and, of course, he wanted to sleep with it. Kevin even observed him going to the kitchen towel drawer and get out two towels...the first he got wet and proceeded

to clean his trophy, then polished it with the dry towel. This is when the trophy is about 2 hours old and already as shiny as a new Ferrari!

Jacob's team, the Rangers, played in the playoffs last night and won 1st place for the season against a team that had beaten us twice! It was a GREAT way to end the season!

Papa & Mimi were in town and got to watch him play before heading back to Atlanta. Also, Uncle Jonathan, Silas, Cooper and Kevin & Karen Bain all came to watch the big game. Thanks for the support, sports fans! Of course, a celebration was in order after the big win, so we headed to Dairy Queen. Here's Jacob with Papa & Mimi at DQ. We enjoyed having them in town for a much-too-short visit!