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Monday, September 12, 2011

Let it Rain


Well, after one long, hot summer, Labor Day brought us rain and cold! It was the first time in a long time that I remember Labor Day in Alabama actually bringing an end to the Summer temperatures - a novelty for sure!

It rained most of the day on Sunday, but our neighborhood picnic still went off without a hitch, thanks to the clubhouse and the smart thinking of our Social Comittee who ordered an inflatable water slide and realized that (as long as there is no lightning) a water slide is twice as much fun in the rain! Our kiddos spent over two hours racing up and down the slide until they were super cold, but they still didn't want to get off of the slide!

I hoped the rain would end by Monday evening when we had planned to grill out with my family, but alas the rain continued well into the night.

ML all bundled up on the drive over to Grandma and Papa's



Wii was invented for days like this!



Tuesday brought no end to the rain, but we bundled up in jackets and rain boots and headed off to school. We had both the Young Adult Bible Study at our house that night and JR had a football game, so we planned to divide and conquer with Big Daddy tackling (hardy, har, har, har! I made a football funny! :-) the game and me leading the study. After I picked up ML from school, we made cookies for Bible Study:




The rain never let up and all afternoon I watched my email inbox assuming they would be calling off the game any minute, but by 4:30ish, still no word, so we suited up and after dropping off ML at dance class, JR and I grabbed some yummy Mexican food:




In the middle of eating, Big Daddy called to say that they had finally canceled the game (1 hour before!) and that he would be able to join us for Bible Study! Yay! So we picked up ML and ran through the Chick Fil A drive through to get her dinner and raced home to get everything ready for our guests.

Wednesday finally saw a break in the clouds and JR's football game was rescheduled for that night. It was still a little chilly, but it was a great game. JR's team won something like 26 to 6. Awesome!


ML had fun running around with friends.



Thursday was supposed to be soccer practice for Coach Big Daddy and ML (still haven't seen her play this year - I am always at football with JR.) but Big Daddy called around 4 to say he wasn't feeling well. He was so sick in fact, he called to ask if we could come get him! Yikes.




Poor guy. He slept for a few hours and woke up feeling 100% better. Whew! I was so worried we were about to have the stomach bug invade our house.

Friday was ML's first Kindergarten Field Trip to the local Botanical Gardens. We love the Gardens and we had a great time.




The Children's Garden is one of my favorite areas. Big Daddy helped build this area of the Botanical Gardens. 1000's of volunteer hours went into this area, including quite a few Saturdays and afternoons given by Big Daddy to construct this treehouse/ gazebo and parts of the 'Rainbow Garden.'








I have precious pictures of JR at about 2 1/2 marching around the 'construction zone' of the Gardens in overalls and work boots, 'helping' Big Daddy construct the Children's Garden. The only thing recognizable in most of those pictures is the sidewalk!







The weather was perfect on Friday and after the Field Trip we drove over to have lunch with Big Daddy.





That afternoon was tooooooo perfect! We had lots of friends over to play and we just sat outside and enjoyed the weather.


JR and his friends were pretending to be spies (Star Wars spies I guess???) spying on the younger kids.


ML and her sweet friend from across the street made up a new game involving a small basketball and a bat. Still not quite clear on the rules of this game.


On Friday, I got a text from our dear friends the B. family inviting us for dinner on Sunday, but I knew we wouldn't be able to make it due to other plans, but we really wanted to see them, so I asked if they could spare a few hours on Saturday to come over and hang out with us! I was so happy they said yes!

So I got up early and ML and I headed out to get 'Game Day' supplies. We put the chili in the crock pot before we headed off to ballet.



As a side note, what is up with the ugly Crock Pot never dying????? I must admit to really, really wanting to buy one of those super cool looking stainless ones, but being too cheap to buy another crock pot when I have one that works already. Why can't this one die already? Why?

I finally snapped a pic of ML in her ballet attire.



And one through the blinds of her class.




Then it was home to cheer on our Auburn Tigers! And spend some time with our sweet friends.






Saturday night brought more time with more sweet friends who invited us over for the best steaks you've ever tasted!

Sunday it was off to church and then I took ML over to my parents house to play with my nieces. My dad has just finished the treehouse and it looks amazing!





We ended Sunday with our other Bible Study meeting at our house. Love, love, love our C groupies!

These days are so busy, I can hardly think. That's why I'm so glad to have this blog to write it all down. One day, I'll have too much time on my hands and I know I'll sit back and read about these days and be glad I have this blog to remind me of this sweet time!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Second Half

Wednesday was a much calmer day. No football practice, so we spent most of the afternoon/ evening at home! ML dressed up in celebration:




Thursday ML had her first playdate with a friend from her new school. I didn't get any pictures, but it was great! Then on to football and soccer.

Friday was a big day - Grandparents Day at school! JR had been looking forward to this for a long time! Usually my in laws come from Chicago for this (they have the last 2 years) but this year they decided to come for Big Daddy's birthday instead. The two events are really too close together for them to come to both, so it was just my parents attending this year. My dad had a meeting that ran long, so for the first time, it was just one grandparent for JR instead of 4! He was totally okay with it though!

No pictures from Grandparents Day - #1 because they asked the parents to 'stay away' if we could because of space issues in the classrooms and #2 because as soon as it was over, we had to high tail it over to the doctor to get JR's ankle inspected. We told my parents we would meet them for lunch at 12:30 and ran over to the doctor's office. Well, the doctor sent us for an x-ray and we had to take a rain check on the lunch with the grandparents.

Look at these poor children.







They did so well. By now it was almost 1:00 and still no lunch for these two! Our 11:30 appointment turned into a two hour ordeal! We had to go to the doctor, wait to be called. Wait on the doctor, see the doctor. Have the doctor send us to the xray place. Submit our paper to the xray place. Wait to be called. Fill out more paperwork and fork over the big moooonay. Then take our papers over to the actual xray place and wait to be called again. Fortunately, I think the man who came out to call the next patient saw us sitting there looking so pitiful and had mercy upon us, because he took JR right back with him and he was in and out in 10 minutes! Praise God!

By 1:30 we were chowing down on some cheap Chinese food! (They put us in the back all by ourselves....... I wonder why???? Ha!)









After lunch we ran home and packed. We finished just as Big Daddy got home and we were on the road by 3:30 headed to the Loveliest Village of the Plains - Auburn, Alabama!

Because of the fact that most hotels in Auburn require you to stay 2 nights on game day weekends, we actually spent the night in Lynette, Alabama. It was awesome - so close. If you need a recommendation on where to stay, hit me up!

We were up bright and early Saturday. War Eagle!





We had so much fun - Tiger Walk

Eagle soaring, band playing, cheerleader greeting, seeing old friends who are students now. It was great! Not to mention a great ball game! We came from behind in the last 3 minutes to win the game! Gah!




After the game, we followed the crowd to Toomers where we saw even more people we knew.




It was sad to see the trees so sick.
They stand as a living testament to how letting something small and insignificant (like a football rivalry) fester in your heart, can become a big ball of anger and hate and lead to acting in a way that is just unkind. So. Sad.

But we were there for the celebration! And we were thankful for a turn to throw the rolls,





and celebrate with our 'family.'



In case you didn't know - We're All In.



:-)