Picture of the Week - 12/27/2018

Wow!  What a fantastic week!!!  We jammed a LOT of really great stuff into the last 7 days!!!

First there was the wrestling tournament last weekend.  So much fun watching this team!  Great families.  Great kids.  Great attitudes!  It's SO refreshing to have sport without drama!  I'm a fan!!

Then we got home and jumped STRAIGHT into Christmas celebrations.  We had a blast celebrating with my sister and her family - and of course with Berber and Pappy.  We laughed and played inappropriate games.  We ate and drank - and then might have drank a little more.  Good times for sure!

Christmas with the boys was amazing.  They had just the right amount of fun surprises mixed in with the obligatory wrapped chapsticks and other assorted toiletries.  We watched movies and put together Lego space ships and played with dart guns that are nearly as big as Beckett.  I love this crazy family of ours!

Then yesterday we went to get the newest little member of our family - Brutus!  We've been anxiously awaiting him for a few weeks now and the boys were ridiculously excited to get him home.  He's not disappointed!  He's SO cute!!  And he's SO chill!  Ozzie has been FAR better than I thought he would be.  I was really worried that he would be mean and jealous and aggressive toward a puppy, but he pleasantly surprised me.  We haven't had to separate them since yesterday evening and they even took a nap within feet of each other a little while ago.  I think they will be good buddies very soon!

Here's a picture of our dudes in matching wrestling-themed jammies and a bunch of cute pictures of Brutus.  (He's a European-style light-colored golden retriever.)

Thank you for spending another year with us!  Have a VERY Happy New Year!  Catch-ya in 2019!

Picture of the Week - 12/20/2018

Happy Thursday before Christmas!!!

I can't believe it's already December 20th.  Where in the world did this year go???

Today we are off to Pigeon Forge for some family fun and wrestling tournament excitement.  I've really been looking forward to this trip because it is the start of all kinds of Christmas and holiday fun!!  I love the traditions and the time off work and the chance to recharge batteries and reconnect with all my favorite people.  Yay!!!

We get home on Sunday.  Traditional Christmas Eve brunch at Tricia's and then movies in the fancy-once-a-year treat theater with the cool reclining seats.  Christmas morning with monkey bread and a quiche which only I will eat.  Then dinner at my parents with fun cocktails and lots of laughs.  Then we get to go get the puppy!!  I can't wait to get Brutus home.  I'm not really looking forward to the introduction to Ozzie...  but we'll get through that...

Stay tuned for pictures of wrestling, Christmas-y fun and puppy-cuteness overload!

Picture of the Week - 12/13/2018

Happy mid-December from Scotland!

I'm wrapping up my week in the office over here today and get to head back home tomorrow.  This picture is kind of the perfect summary of my week.  It's a combo of thinking about, worrying over, and prepping for Christmas all while working my tail off over here this week.  I really can't wait to get home.

We will hit the ground running in preparation for the rest of the year pretty much as soon as I get my feet back on Georgia soil - and I am SO looking forward to the coming chaos.  

I still have to finish shopping and start baking.  I haven't wrapped a thing.  I have to pack for our mini-vacation to pigeon forge.  And prep for a puppy!  Like it's a seriously long To Do list, but it's chalk full of fun and happy things.  I am ready to dig in and get festive!

This weekend Quinn is wrestling down a weight class (he's been sick and lost like 5 pounds in the last week) in a JV tournament.  Spencer is off for the weekend (aside from a practice).  Zane and Beck are wrestling on Sunday.  I'm ridiculously excited to just sit and watch wrestling in a gym for 2 days, despite the fact that it's going to put me even farther behind on getting stuff done.  

Have a great week everyone!  And enjoy all your holiday preparations!

Picture of the Week - 12/6/2018

Goodness!!!

Some weeks I really struggle to find something interesting to share.  This week there's TOO much!!!  Where to start...

Last weekend Spencer and Quinn started a tournament on Friday night.  In this same tourney last year Spencer didn't make it out of Friday evening - it's a double elimination.  So we weren't sure what to expect this year...  what happened was NOT one of the options we had planned out.  LOL  Life is like that, right!!  Wrestling season is DEFINITELY like that!  Spencer ended up hyper extending his knee doing a takedown in his first match and was out for the weekend.  Quinn went 1-1 and pinned his second opponent to make it into Saturday competition.  I was so happy for Quinn!  He didn't last long on Saturday, BUT he got there and that's pretty darn awesome!  Check out this cool picture of the 2018/19 Varsity squad!  I'm so proud of my boys!

Zane and Beckett were also wrestling on Saturday in their very first wrestling tournament.  The pretty much got stomped, but they had a blast.  The were already asking when the next tournament is almost before they were even home.  They go again on the 16th.  Beckett got to wrestle 5 times and went 1-4 - he also lost a tooth during his second match.  If it's possible, the missing front tooth makes him even more irresistibly adorable.  Zane was in a weight class with only 3 kids in it, so he didn't get as many opportunities and went 0-2.  He was pretty bummed about the losses, but has spent a TON of time this week thinking about (and then talking about) exactly what his opponent did to beat him.  He learned a ton!

Then on Sunday we got a NEW PUPPY!!!!  I'm so so so excited!  His name is Brutus and he's a golden retriever.  He's really light colored and ridiculously cute.  He was born on September 15th and will be around 14 weeks old when we bring him home.  The timing was probably not ideal because of all the travel we have coming up (see below), but the breeder we found has a cool program where they will keep the puppy and complete training with it.  This is kind of like a win/win!  We got the puppy we wanted and when we bring him home hopefully he will already have MAD SKILLS!  LOL  We are picking him up the day after Christmas.

Tomorrow I am heading to Scotland for a week.  Both the time of the year and the meeting agenda for next week have me kind of dreading the trip.  Bright side...  the weather over there this weekend is going to be nicer than here - weird!  AND Edinburgh is pretty gorgeous at Christmastime.  So I'm going to find my silver lining...  as soon as I pack.  Until then I just feel unprepared!!!  

While I'm gearing up for a UK trip, Bob is packing for a whirlwind trip to Orlando for a wrestling tournament.  He's driving 5 of the wrestlers and they leave at 5 AM Friday to return sometime in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  Thank goodness for Berber and Pappy - otherwise Zane would be in charge for 48 hours.  LOL

When I get home it will be mid-December and we will still have last minute shopping and wrapping and baking and a mini-vacay to Pigeon Forge (wrestling tourney) to cram in before Christmas.  We also have to prep for a PUPPY.  I'm just taking one step at a time - and maybe this will be the year of the New Years cookie platters...  

Have a great week everyone!  If you are so inclined to send some "energy vibes" my way - I could use them!