Picture of the Week - 8/25/2016

Urgh - the last couple weeks have been hard!  Too much work, not enough fun!

I am home for a while now (fingers crossed) and looking forward to stopping to smell the proverbial roses.  I fear that I'm letting this whole season slip away.  

We are on the run, for sure, but I'm determined to enjoy the "fall".  It's a bit hard to consider it as the fall season when it's still 90 degrees every day...  but I suppose that's a different issue.  

We are 3 games into Spencer's football season and the team is looking good.  Spencer has turned into a beast.  They are fun to watch.  He is fun to watch!  I am determined to enjoy the next 4 games and see what happens.  Looks likely that we will get into the playoffs and then we'll see.  Not counting any chickens yet, but this team has a personality about it that could turn into something really special.  I'm so pleased to be a part of it.  I'm so proud of Spencer's role on this team.  It's going to be a season to remember for sure.  (We just have to make sure we are stopping to enjoy it every now and then.)

Zane's first game is next week.  He's having SO much fun this year.  Last year he kind of seemed to tolerate football.  This year, he's loving it.  Really looks forward to the practices. 

And Quinn just found out that he gets to play for one of his favorite coaches again.  He hasn't gotten to play with him for a few seasons and is really excited about this team.  

Sports are fun!  (Exhausting, but FUN!)

We are also gearing up for a bunch of birthdays around here.  I'm having a pretty hard time with that this year.  Also, online shopping is very helpful! :)

Here's a picture of a sweet tackle that Spencer made in our last win.  And a couple of pictures of Zane heading off to school on picture day.  He's now insisting that Bob stay home so he can go to the bus stop by himself.  How is he old enough to go to the bus stop alone???  Sigh.  

Have a great week everyone!  We have more of the same this week - minus the business travel.  It will be very nice to spend a whole week at home!!!

Picture of the Week - 8/18/2016

Greetings from Scotland!

Today, a bunch of random pictures.  Some are from here.  A couple are from back home.

While over here this trip, we did the only "touristy" thing I've ever done here.  Most people continue to think it's glamorous to travel over here.  It's not.  It's just hard.  Hard work, hard on my body, exhausting on the mind.  But alas, it's my job...  

This trip happens to coincide with The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.  For anyone who doesn't know the term Tattoo used in this manner (as I didn't either), a Tattoo is a military performance of music.  The Tattoo in Edinburgh happen every August and is a daily show (all of which sell out) for 30 straight days.  We decided to buy tickets to the performance on Tuesday night and I'm SO glad we went.  It was very cool.  They had military bands from all over the world come to do a performance.  It was impressive.  And I may have fallen a little bit in love with a marching band that includes a bunch of bagpipes.  Here are a couple of pictures from the Tattoo and one additional picture of the castle I took on our walk back to the hotel after dinner last night.  The picture of the American flag projected onto the castle was during the US Military band's performance.  

Back home things seem well under control.  Bob has done a great job of keeping me up to date on all the various things happening back in Georgia.  I really miss my boys!  Here's a picture that Beck's daycare sent this week.  The teacher in his new Ga Pre-K class takes great pictures!  And I adore getting pictures of him from school - even when I'm not on the other side of the globe.

And finally, a picture from Spencer's football game Saturday night.  I love this picture, taken by Chungman Photography.  This is at the very end of the game, which was a VERY close game.  It's a shot of our offense kneeling down to secure a 21-14 win.  It was a messy game, both in terms of penalties and mud.  The team pulled together to get the win and they should be very proud of their performance.  I spent the better part of Tuesday night getting nearly play-by-play updates from Bob.  I stayed up WAY too late, laying in bed awaiting the texts that would tell me the outcome.  I hated not being there in person, but between the updates from home and the action shots of the game, I feel like I was *almost* there.  (Spence is #59.)

Tomorrow morning, I head back home.  It's a long, long day of travel - essentially around 17 hours start to finish if everything's on time - but the very best reward awaits me back in Georgia.  Can't wait to gather up a week's worth of hugs!

Have a great week all!  

Picture of the Week - 8/11/2016

It's FOOTBALL season, y'all!

And it's so much fun!  :)

Spencer's team has had 2 games - a scrimmage down in Camden county and our season opener against rival Riverwatch.  The scrimmage was used as a learning opportunity and team building event.  We lost 10-20, but honestly the score was unimportant.  The team looked good.  They had a blast!  And the most important thing (to me) is that everyone was returned home happy and healthy.  The booster club pulled off the weekend without any major issues and it was a huge relief to get that mountain of work behind us.

The season opener on Tuesday was a good old-fashioned throttling.  We won 34-7.  The team looks good.  Spencer looked awesome.  It was probably the best game he's ever had.  He had something like 8 tackles and was named Defensive player of the Week.  He was a beast.  I couldn't be prouder.  We happened to be playing a team that had 4 or 5 kids on it from our Paladins team.  Remember back when Spence rode the bench on that team when he was in 5th grade?  Yep, he was extra motivated to play them this week and he proved how much he's changed in 3 short years.  Sports aren't the most important thing in life, but that night, watching my oldest play football was nothing short of awesome.  Proud mom here...

And then there's Zane.  Zane's K/1 team has been practicing for a few weeks and they are starting to settle in on positions and figure out what kind of team they have.  Zane, as a 1st grader with decent size and a year's worth of experience, is a pretty valuable player on the team.  They've tried him out in lots of different positions - corner back, quarter back, various line positions, and center.  Zane's favorite of them all is center.  And he's actually really good at it.  He's having a blast and jabbers all the time about his team and how excited he is to get to play center.  His confidence is growing in leaps and bounds.  Love to watch that!  He has a scrimmage tomorrow night and his first "game", which is a jamboree to get the refs ready for the season, on the 20th.  

We are still waiting on the start of fall lacrosse (starts on the 15th) and flag football for Beck.  I love the fall!

I'm heading off to Scotland on Saturday for my quarterly visit.  I'm bummed that I'll miss a football game and the first lacrosse practices.  I'm thankful that I won't miss more and I'm being VERY careful with my travel schedule until football season is over.  Work/Life balance is important!

Here are a couple of pictures from the week of football events.  Zane at practice (in Spencer's throwback Midway Packers jersey from when he was in Kindergarten).  Spencer at Camden on the O line (#59, he's a 2 way starter this year) and serving as team captain for the coin toss on Tuesday.  I couldn't be prouder that he was voted (by his teammates) to serve as captain this year.  I've heard from multiple sources that he's turned into a true leader and motivator for his team.  Proud mom, indeed...

Offensive line at Camden

Team captains

Picture of the Week - 8/4/2016

Happy First Day of School - 2016 version!

I still find it kind of impossible how it's possible to seem like time both flies and drags simultaneously.  I swear we were just starting summer yesterday and also this has been the longest week...  Perception of time is odd - or at least mine is!

We have made it through open houses and school supply shopping.  I've got all the fall lacrosse teams set up and many of our football activities are done or in process.  It's been a very busy week, but a successful one!  The boys all seem happy with their schedules and anxious to get back to class and their friends.  The only one who showed some trepidation about going back to school was Quinn.  I know that as soon as he gets back into a routine with his buddies, he will settle right in again.

Here's our 2016 version of a Back to School picture. The big boys got up early just to take this traditional picture.  All I had to do was tell them it would make me happy.  Love those guys!

Spencer - 8th grade

Quinn - 7th grade

Zane - 1st grade

Beckett - Pre-K

This weekend is Spencer's first football game of the season.  We're off with the team to Camden County (where they grow football players for lack of much else to do).  The booster club board is responsible for feeding the team, but thankfully the coaches are taking care of chaperone duties!  It should be a fun weekend - as long as it doesn't storm on us!  Zane also started his football practices and was pretty pumped up last night.  It's fun to watch him have fun.  Quinn starts lacrosse on the 15th and we have a reprieve with Beck, who doesn't start his flag football schedule until after Labor Day.  Our quiet, empty calendar is all jammed up again!  :)  Just the way we like it. 

Have a great day everyone!