Road Trip!!

 We visited Zach this weekend for his homecoming.  The weekend included a mom's brunch for the football moms and a Father/Son team breakfast.  When we dropped Zach off on campus, we were told that if we could only be there for one weekend, plan for this one.  We packed the family up, and while I was concerned about Savannah and Wyatt missing school, they both seemed okay with the extra work they would face.  Julia, on the other hand, was very disappointed to miss the grand opening of her classroom store.  Then she was invited to a sleepover which she only knew about because she thinks she co-owns my phone, so she read the text message before I saw it, so she was disappointed to miss that as well.  Fortunately, Julia does not hold on to disappointment.  She just moves on to the next thing.

van selfie

The campus is especially pretty with the trees all changing color.

I could not resist this gorgeous tree on campus.  I wanted to get a good shot of the kids with it, but that did not work out.

After sharing my Facebook woes,  a couple of people suggested that I need to drop FB and head over to Instagram, so I tried it out making this picture one of my first posts --not sure about Instagram at this point.

found this on my phone

We went on Friday specifically to see Zach play.  He only plays JV, and the JV team was playing the alumni on Friday afternoon.  Zach did not disappoint.  He does his job on the field and does it well.  I know these football years are fleeting.  We only saw him in action this one time this season and won't likely see him in action again.  That may have been the last we will see him play.

Zach likes his school.  He went on his first football road trip last weekend and loved it, but he indicates that he might return home next year.  I think that being a poor college student is not what it is cracked up to be for him.  The demands on his time only allow him to work a couple of hours a week.  He only gets enough money from home to cover his phone bill and gas money, so he truly has no money for any fun.  We borrowed the money for his tuition, room and board, but I refused to borrow beyond that. I think it is really starting to wear on him.  His only wish for his birthday was to have his phone bill paid so that it would not be cut off.  That's pretty much what he got.  He has the option of attending an interim semester in January to help move his college requirements along.  He is opting to forgo it to come home and work.

Afterglow - After each game the team gathers to compliment each other on what went well. They can give a shout out to each other for being encouraging on the sideline, for great plays, for recovering from difficult plays and getting back in the game.  One touching moment this weekend was when the coach gave a shout out to a player who lost his mom within the last two weeks.  He pointed out how hard it is to get back to school and on that field with a loss so raw.  After the shout-outs for the team, every team member gets the opportunity to introduce any family members who are there for them.  When Zach did this for the JV game, he got some chants for "Bone."  After the varsity game, the team did a few trademark Bonecrusher "Yep"s.  

We learned this weekend that Zach has a play named after him signaled by his characteristic nod.  He is really being embraced by his teammates.

We enjoyed Mario's pizza with Zach and Granny while there.  If you are ever in Greenville, definitely try Mario's.  After that we went to the student union to enjoy Savannah's homemade chocolate birthday cake for Zach and Granny's homemade cookie cake.

Savannah logged 7.5 hours of driving on this trip.  She is so close to the required hours to get her restricted, and while I don't look forward to picking up insurance for her, it would be nice to get the road test out of the way before winter sets in as it is very difficult to schedule.  I would make her pay for her own insurance since she is working now, but she has to cover her phone bill, and she is working so hard to save for a car.  She spends very little of what she makes on herself though she is generous with others.  In addition to working so hard for a car, she is working very hard academically.  She is trying so hard to go to college for free, and I don't know if she will get there, but she should come very close to the requirements to do so.  She maintains a 4.6 with really challenging classes and is applying for a challenging summer program that helps with scholarship money even though it will be hard to give up weeks of her summer to do it if she gets accepted.  I have to remind myself that we can't be disappointed if her hard work does not pay off.  She's leaving no stone unturned, and I have to remind her sometimes to have a life.

The band show at Greenville is such fun.  They don't do all the props common to band shows now.  As a former marching band member, I am not fond of the props.  The president of the college is such a good sport and plays Dr. Who for the show.  This cute, old British guy gets out there and "directs" the band, "marches" with them and even does the Gangum style dance with a couple of the girls on the flag team.  Cute! Cute! Cute!  The students clearly love it!  I have to say again that I have never set foot on a friendlier campus.  

We enjoyed our visits with Zach. The trip was not without its headaches.  We thought the Father/son breakfast was today and planned to come home afterward.  Andy booked a hotel that was 35 minutes away from campus.  Because he booked online and paid online, they would not let us out of our second night even though we did not stay for it.  I RSVP'd for the mother's brunch but was never given a location for it.  As it turns out, there is a mom's email group and FB page.  I am not on either and cannot find the FB page, so I guess I've missed a lot of information as the moms all indicated the value of these tools.  I spent a lot of the weekend trying to find the FB group but had no luck and as the season comes to a close, I guess I don't need it now. Despite our glitches this weekend, we enjoyed beautiful weather and valuable time together as a family.