Fall Walk

Yesterday morning the kids and I were in town so we decided to take a walk.  We started out at Wilshire Trails Park and walked the trail to the library and back.  It was good exercise and the weather was beautiful.  A little warm, in fact.  

And, surprisingly, the boys wanted to be photographed.  This happens…never, so I was happy to oblige.  

I have some handsome boys, if I may say so myself.  

The walk took a little longer than I thought it would, so we had to scramble to get our school work finished before the Fall Festival at church.  We made it, but our day was hectic and we were bushed after everything was over. Of course, we brought home loads of candy and we're planning on going out for more in a little bit. I can already tell we're gonna be hiding the stuff once the kids are in the bed!

Scary Stories

A few weeks ago, when our Georgia summer finally experienced a cool snap, Jordan went outside and said something along the lines of, "Mom, I think the weather should be like this all the time.  I'm tired of it being so hot".  

I totally agreed.  

Then he said that he wanted to get some spooky books from the library since the weather felt like Fall. I did what any mother would do:  I called on Alvin Schwartz.  I reserved some of my favorite spooky books from the library, some of my childhood favorites:  In a Dark Dark Room, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.  Those last two scared me silly as a child, and  I hoped my boys would love them, too.

They did.  

We loved them so much, in fact, that we renewed them twice and kept them six weeks.  For a while there, Jordan started telling everyone he knew a scary story.  I had to put a stop to that…not everybody appreciates a good scary story.  We had a lot of fun with these books and they brought back lots of memories. I have to turn them in today and I'm kind of sad about it.  

Until next year, my friends!

Not Your Average Sunday

Church was interesting today, that's for sure.  For starters, it was an extra early day for us.  Shaun sang with the Solution Choir in the main service and we were actually on time for the 7:15 a.m. sound check.  

I can never, ever get any good shots of my kids when they minister.  This is the best I could do from the balcony.  For the record, the choir sounded great.  Shaun was on the front row giving it all he had.  I love that he loves to worship.  

We had a special guest during Pastor Franklin's sermon today.  We are currently in the middle of a sermon series entitled Fear Fighters.  The special guest was Tino Wallenda of The World Famous Wallendas. The message was a good word for me about staying focused on God in the middle of your circumstance.  I needed to hear it!  Tino did his thing on the tight rope to illustrate the sermon.  Very cool!

Again, I couldn't get a decent picture from my seat, so I stole these from my friend Steven's Facebook page.

Like I said, not your average Sunday at church.  I love it!  I also loved that my parents came to church with me.  :)

And, just because it's adorable, here's a picture of Violet admiring her Daddy during his soundcheck this morning. 

Pumpkin Carvin'

Our dear friends the Cyphers invited us over to carve pumpkins today after church. These guys are serious about pumpkin carving.  The last time I carved a pumpkin, about 20 years ago, it took about 10 minutes.  We did the standard triangle eyes and nose and snaggle-toothed grin jack-o-lantern.  

My husband and his friends from work spent hours… literally… carving their pumpkins.  The kids helped a little, but mostly this was chance for the grown-up boys to play.  :)

In the meantime, the kids played with various electronic gadgets and and ate delicious Halloweenish food.  

The pumpkins turned out great, as you can see.  The fellowship was better.  We are blessed!

Old Friends

We're becoming old friends… with this lady in the green scrubs.  

Here she is with Shaun just a few weeks ago:

And here she is again, putting another cast on Shaun's leg two days ago.  

It almost looks like the same picture… same color of clothes, the same frown on my first born's face.  But, they are indeed two different pictures from two different days.  

Shaun's foot is broken.  

He broke it last Monday when he was riding a scooter barefoot.  Allowing him to do so was NOT my smartest move.  He said he "stubbed" his big toe and it was a little swollen.  The next day it was hurting but we reasoned that even if his toe was broken, there is nothing to be done for a broken toe.  He stayed home from co-op and choir practice to rest and the next day it was a little better.  This week, he said the pain had moved to his pinkie toe and then I noticed that the top of his foot was swollen.  So we went to the doctor.  And they told us that his foot is broken.  Not his toe.  His foot.  

I let my son walk around on a broken foot for over a week.  He's pretty tough, I guess.  Thankfully, he only has to wear this cast for three weeks.  "Three long weeks" as Shaun says.  The important thing is that we've all learned to never, ever ride scooters without shoes.  Sigh. 

Jr Trojan Football 2013

Well, football is over, at least for us.  Our final game was last Saturday.  The 7U Jr Trojans were 2-6.  Not the best record in the league, but I think most of the kids had fun anyway, and I know Jordan learned a lot.  

We had some frustrating moments… like when Jordan was suddenly pulled from the offensive line with no warning whatsoever.  He's good at offense.  Really good at blocking.  We didn't understand why he wasn't playing offense anymore.  And then Chris found out that Jordan told his coach that he wouldn't play offense anymore unless he could be the quarterback.  Sigh.  And ha ha!  He never did get to the the quarterback, but he's taken to running at the track with me so that he'll get faster and have a shot next year.  I love his determined spirit.  

Football surprised me.  I have never been shy about my dislike of the game or the fact that I did NOT want Jordan to play.  I thought it was too hot to make them work so hard at practice, and I hated when the coaches yelled at our boys.

  Well, now, it has grown on me and I'm seriously sad that our games are over. 

Chris was able to help coach.  Jordan both loved and hated this.  Ha!

I love this picture of Chris, Coach Scott and Jordan walking back to the field after a half-time.  I wonder what they were talking about?

And Shaun and some of his friends helped with water.

Violet did not care for football.  Sometimes she was such a handful that I couldn't even watch the game…I just pushed her around in her stroller and listened to her whine.  She did look adorable in her spirit wear, though.  Go Big Green!

I got out the monkey leash on our 7th game.  I wish I had thought of it sooner.  She was content to walk around and I could watch the game. 

Like I said, we didn't win many games.  Here's Jordan's victory dance after his second win of the season.  Priceless!

Even though we're sad it's over, it was nice to sleep in this morning.  Our lazy Saturdays won't last long.  Jordan's already talking about wrestling and Shaun will be starting basketball soon.  Exciting times around here!

Field Trip!

The Smith Academy took a little field trip yesterday.  We drove to Kennesaw and met up with some other members of our co-op at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History.  It took a lot longer to get there than I anticipated and we were late.  Our group was gracious and waited on us, thank goodness.  It was a great museum!  We all love the Civil War and Shaun is taking a Civil War Class at co-op.  The boys and Chris really enjoyed it.  I let them spend time together and hung out with Violet during the tour.  The museum has an AMAZING playroom for little ones and she had a blast.  

We did manage to look around the actual museum a little bit.  She kept saying "Hey" to the statue railroad workers and seemed very confused when they didn't answer her back.  I guess she was wondering why they didn't make a big deal about her the way everyone else does.  Ha!

After the tour was over we explored the old caboose outside and I was finally able to take some pictures. 

And one more of the five of us.  

Things may be different next year.  Jordan is talking about going to "real" school next year.  We're praying about it and I'm preparing my heart for the possibility of him not being home all of the time.  We have almost a year to decide...I think it will take that long for me to be ready.  Ha!

For now, I'm soaking in every minute of having all three of our kids at home. We had a really fabulous day together yesterday.  After the field trip, we had lunch and took Shaun to his piano lesson.  Then we continued our quest to find Violet a pair of black Mary Janes.  It should NOT be this difficult.  Since we were in the mall and Halloween is next week we decided to pay one last visit to the "Halloween" store.  Others know it as Spirit. 

We've frequented this store for the past several months.  We never buy anything but it's cheap entertainment.  The first time we went Jordan screamed like a little girl at the jumping spider.  This caused me to laugh so hard I nearly peed my pants.  The kids LOVE this store.  I thought it was amusing at first but here's the way I felt yesterday:

To say that I'm over the "Halloween store" would be an understatement.  

Sigh. 

We were really just killing time until Jordan's end of the season football party. 

And then it was time for home.  And bed.  It was a good day. 

Just Some Funnies

Jordan is going through a phase.  He's been starting every sentence with "to tell you the truth".  Such as...

"To tell you the truth, I'm not going to church tonight."

"To tell you the truth, those guys on the Spartan team were calling us cuss words."  

"To tell you the truth, I'm not ready to go to bed yet."

To tell you the truth, he sounds like a little old man and it's hilarious.  

*****

Today in church, I ran into a lady in the bathroom.  She asked me if Violet was my baby.  I replied, "That's my girl!" and she said she was taking care of her in the nursery.  She went on to tell me how sweet my little Vi is and then said that she remembered when Jordan was in her class.  I was about to ask how in the world she remembered him from so many years ago when she said, "I'd never forget Jordan".  Yes, he is quite unforgettable.  

*****

My teenager has been broody around the house. Extra broody.  His broodiness rivals that of Edward Cullen in New Moon. I would be annoyed, but he broods the way I brooded when I was his age.  So I just smile and remind myself that this, too, shall pass. 

He did, however, go visit his baby sister today at church while she was in her class.  Violet's teachers let him hold her for a minute and she cried for him when he left.  It's funny how she can bring out his soft side. 

*****

Recent conversation with Violet:

Me:  "Violet, let's get ready for Jordan's football game.  Are you going to wear your green shirt?"

Violet:  *silence*

Me:  "Are you going to cheer for your brother?"

Violet:  *claps her hands*

Me:  "Are you going to wear your pretty green bow?"

Violet:  "Nah!"

Given her extreme refusal to wear hair bows, I assume Nah means No!

*****

Violet loves dolls.  She loves to pretend to be a mommy.  Here she is with her newest doll.   See how much she loves her baby?

A few minutes later I had the idea to use Violet's favorite blanket to wrap up her baby.  I did so, and handed her back to Violet.  Vi took one look, ripped the blanket off, and threw her baby on the floor.  Ha ha!

*****

I received a phone call from Jordan's choir director last week.  She had to tell me that at their last rehearsal Jordan got in trouble for looking under the stall while his friend was using the bathroom.  When I questioned him about it he said, "He wasn't even using the bathroom."  I asked how he knew that.  And he replied, "Because we'd already used the bathroom.  He just ran back in there to hide from me because I was shaking water from the sink all over him".  While I searched for the words to say next, Shaun piped in with, "Jordan, when are you going to learn to not goof off in the bathroom?".  Is it wrong that I was relieved that Jordan wasn't being a Peeping Tom?