Soccer Victory

Tiffany and Paul love watching soccer and are both former soccer parents, so they showed up to watch Julia play and brought a couple of surprises with them.  

I believe Ira entertained the crowd with his banter.  With 15 minutes left in the first half, he announced, "15 minutes till the real game starts!"

This was a truly disappointing game for Julia as she got minimal playing time - the least she's had all season.  She's used to playing more than half the game.  At one point Ira yelled, "Go Julia - even though you are on the bench!"  

He had all of us laughing.  The other parents recognized them from my social media posts and really got a kick out of them.  Isaac could not attend.  He's got one more shot at seeing a game this week - not sure whether he will make it or not.

Sweetest Words

Wyatt, Andy and I are home today as Wyatt recovers from a minor surgery.

I was cleaning up a spot near the chair where Wyatt is camped to rest, and Wyatt said to me,
"Thanks, Mom, for taking care of me."

My heart swelled.  Those are not typical words from a 15 year old boy.


While waiting this morning during Wyatt's surgery,  I had the opportunity to chat with a former student.  Breanna was always a breath of fresh air wherever she went, and that has not changed.  Prior to our arrival in the waiting room, she had struck up a conversation with a man awaiting a procedure. After she left, we learned this man lost his wife suddenly three weeks ago.  We enjoyed a nice conversation, but he is hurting.  I don't know his name, and I don't get the impression that he has a faith community to lean on.  Please join me in praying for him.


Finishing this post with Julia's pics on social media loving on her brother pre-surgery because I thought these were really sweet.

Move in Day and All the Good Things

Last week was a marathon.  The kids started school, and Saturday loomed ahead with Savannah's official move-in day.  I have a newly organized space courtesy of Andy and the kids for my birthday.  To add a little color and life, I picked up these sunflowers at Target of all places.  My intention was to return and get some for Savannah's apartment, but I failed.

Friday night before Savannah left I was feeling a little frustrated that the carpool to practices and such kept us from enjoying a relaxing evening at the pool.  We opted to go for a walk at sundown and enjoy some ice cream across the bridge.  It was a perfect night for it.  A live band was playing on the other side of the river - actually a very good Eagles cover band.  That resulted in a funny quote.  They were playing Take it to the Limit (not sure if that's the official title), and I was singing along.  Wyatt asked, "Mom, have you heard this song before?"

The Saturday schedule was packed.  Savannah had a set window of time for move in.  We had a class picnic and an obligation to the church nursery.  Julia really wanted to help Savannah decorate her room but was committed to a babysitting job.  In the end Julia backed out of the job, and we arrived at Savannah's apartment close to 9:00p.m.  At that point Savannah had unloaded her car and at least had her bed made so she could crash when exhaustion hit.  She had not eaten anything all day except for a piece of pizza and had pretzels and some dry snacks on hand.  Instead of organizing and unpacking, we took her to dinner and to the grocery store where we made sure she could eat for a few days.  We returned exhausted and facing a midnight arrival at home, so we left it at that.

Packed and ready to receive her keys to her first apartment.  This momma knows that Savannah isn't likely to move back home. It's a possibility for a summer since our town has better internship opportunities than her college town, but she may need a summer course and has signed a 1 year lease.  My guess is that these girls will simply renew that lease next year and finish out school there.  Savannah will likely then stay for grad school.

The apartment is pretty awesome in many ways.  It's spacious and furnished.  The four girls each have their own bedrooms, and there are two bathrooms.  It's close enough to campus that Savannah will still walk to her classes for the most part.  The best part though is that it seems to be run by an attentive landlord.  I remember apartments close to campus when I was in school were old, converted houses, and they were crazy expensive and often not kept in good repair.  Savannah talked about moving into an apartment last year, and I really impressed on her why I thought it was a bad idea based on my own experience.  I hated being separated from the campus experience.  It was pricier than living on campus despite what that looked like on paper.  This, however, is not the case for her.  Other parents have confirmed that this is much cheaper.  I also like that the lease is individual.  If one of the girls has to back out of the lease, the others are not stuck with her part of the rent, and they all have the option to sublet over the summer if they aren't staying.  If I had any interest at all in running apartment buildings, this would be the way to go. I am really excited for these girls- such a fun time of life.

The complex also has a nice workout room, a pool, and a nice courtyard with a gazebo.  

If I'm honest I was a little sad driving away.  This time it seems that she's really moving out.  However, the stuff left behind in her room says otherwise ;)  Julia plans to spend the next few weeks switching her room with Savannah's.  She's so anxious to get that bigger room.  Wyatt couldn't care less and plans to stay in his tiny bedroom.

Go rock your junior year, Savannah!  I love you bunches and bunches and bunches...and even more than that!

Back to School

This happened.  Sophomore and freshman year began.  I wanted signs.  Julia did not deliver.  The picture was bad, so I asked for a do-over.  The first day went just fine.

As is always the case, the first week of school-even a partial one- is a bit crazy and a lot tiring.  It also happened to be Savannah's only week home after her summer internship.  We decided to do dessert in a park so the whole family could visit with the girl who has not been around for a family event in months.  We couldn't make it happen on a weekend, so it happened on the. first. day. of. school. Yeah, for reals.  Not everyone made it.  I am not sure where Joshua was.  I wanted to include Andy's family, but a week night with the distance they would need to drive was not doable.

Despite the unusually cold temperature, the kids were okay with getting wet.

Then I got my do-over on the second day of school because block scheduling really means two first days.  You can see the wet road in the background.  That was the rare day where I tuned in to the news before heading to work.  Lots of overnight rain and storms had me questioning whether the schools had power and could be in session that day.  There were problems on. the. second. day. of. school.  In our building there was flooding in the basement and thus our first displaced class of the year visited the library.  So it starts...

It's gonna be great!  Really, it is!

Just a Phase, or a Midlife Crisis?

Andy bought me a watch for Christmas.  It happens to be a series 1 Apple Watch that he purchased to replace my dying Fitbit.  Tracking my exercise is both motivational and brings me $$ through Go365.

I wrestled for a while about whether I wanted an Apple Watch.  I like pretty watches and am pretty picky about analog and numbers.  I didn't really want something sporty.  However, I have since realized that with some inexpensive bands, I can dress up or dress down my watch.  Therefore, I have collected a few with my $$ earned through Go365 or Amazon points.

Another thing that I have really liked recently is the color olive green.  I have a winter and now a summer/fall blouse as well as a jacket in that color, and I really would like some work and casual pants in that color.  So I thought an olive green silicone band would be fun.  I mentioned this to Julia.  Her response, "I think you are going through a phase."  Andy piped up with, "Your midlife crisis looks really different from mine."

Really? Because of a watch band that only costs $6?


Wow, just wow!

Culture Day- Last Summer Hurrahs Part 2

We journeyed down the road to take in an exhibit of the terra-cotta warriors.  While I know this does not even begin to compare to seeing them in China, it was still a cool exhibit, and China is not exactly in the budget right now -hopefully, someday.

of course I loved the jewelry that was part of the exhibit

My brother, Joshua, joined us for this journey.  He loved the museum, not sure how he felt about IKEA.  I think he did enjoy trying Swedish colas in a variety of flavors.

It is not lost on me that these are mere idols for the emperor.  It is also not lost on me that the amount of work and number of artisans involved in the process of creating these had to be amazing.  It made me wonder how many lost arts there are.  I know that visiting China that is one striking thing - the artisans seem to be losing numbers.  The art of China is amazing.  My favorite is the embroidery.  I have yet to see an American museum display the amazing embroidery work in an Asian exhibit.

Someone in this group was grouchy -the.whole.day

Before leaving the museum, I had to take a picture of this Van Gogh piece.  It really popped among the paintings displayed near it.  I really loved many, many of the paintings and pieces on exhibit.  It's a museum worth seeing.

Our view on the long walk back to the vehicle.  Museum parking was the only let down.

After our museum visit, we took in some modern Swedish culture with our first (hopefully, not last) visit to IKEA.

It was a dream come true for Julia.

Yes she did spend some of her babysitting money on some room decor!

It was a fun, fun day.  So glad we did it.

Last Summer Hurrahs - Part 1

I return to work full time on Monday.  I worked two days this week and sandwiched an amusement park visit between them.  That day was lots of fun, but I wish we'd had either more hours at the park or done a two day visit.  This park closes too early in my opinion, and it has such a great water park that you get little time in the rest of the park.

Tiffany and I paired up to take Jonathan's kids.  I drug Andy along - lol.  Not really.  He had fun too.  My own kids did not go.  Julia backed out at the last minute to attend a school event.  She had some regrets over that, but she got a really cute t-shirt out of the deal.

Let's just get to the pictures.

Tessa and I humored the kids with this spinning ride.  I did the ballerina turns of my head that I learned in dance class before I was a decade old - it worked.  No dizziness coming off this ride.

Initially Isaac was my riding buddy.  He has apparently been saying his favorite thing was riding the dodge cars with me - one of my favorite rides too.

Love Andy's face in this one!

These kids are well behaved.

We lost these two in the water park (they were with their parents), and I didn't get many pictures :(

Peace out! 

He's obsessed with the height requirements.  He had to read the signs for himself.  I told him he wasn't tall enough for one of the rides.  He said, "let me just go see."  He went to see and returned saying I was right.

My favorite quote of the day:

"Hi, I'm Isaac!  I am forty-two inches.  This is Aunt Tiffany, and she's an adult."

(said to a ride attendant for a ride that required you to be 48 inches tall to ride without an adult)

Our attendant, Hannah, told him she was much more than 42 inches tall :)

This was a log flume ride, and he loved it.  He wanted to ride again, and since it was a walk on, we went right back through the line. Of course Hannah recognized him.  Before she could utter a word, he grabbed my hand and stated, "I have to ride with an adult."

This guy wanted so badly to hang out in the wave pool.  He gave up the water slides to end the day there.  His big sister met some kids and played with them while we finished our time in the water park.

I have wanted to return to this park for years.  I certainly hope we can make it happen again next summer.