Picture of the Week - 7/8/2022

 I have gotten VERY bad at getting this message out on Thursdays.  Too many things going on and, to be honest, it slips my mind.  

The revolving door of people in and out this summer continued this last week...

- Beckett left for his 10 year old trip with my parents on Wednesday.  Much more to come on that when I get more pictures and stories.  Here's one of him in his new cowboy hat.  They went out west to Yellowstone and Cody, Wyoming, and Grand Tetons, etc.  

- Spencer's friend Bradford came on Saturday evening (and stayed through Tuesday)

- Bob and I left Monday morning for a short trip to Greenville to do some exploring with some friends.  Greenville is a cute little city - with lots of fabulous places to eat and drink!

- Quinn and Jess took Zane to Woodlands camp on Monday afternoon

- Bob and I came back on Wednesday

- Quinn left for a beach trip with Jess's family on Thursday

- Today we get Beckett back

- Tomorrow we get Zane back

Phew...  it's hard to keep up with - even for me!

Bonus picture of cute Gable all dressed up for July 4th

This weekend - not too much going on.  Then I am leaving on Tuesday for my first work travel in nearly 3 years.  Weird!  Off to NYC for a few days with my team - and will get to meet my boss for the first time in person.  Weird!

Have a great week everyone!!

Picture of the Week - 6/30/2022

 What a fun summer week happening 'round here!

We spent the last week doing "normal" summer stuff - pool and watermelon have been involved.  And gearing up for more fun!

What's going on?

- Zane and Beck had a wrestling camp this week in the mornings - then heading to a football camp in the evening.  Keeping them busy and tired has always been our goal!  LOL  Picture of Zane leaving weight training this morning.  Coach has them there at 7AM - he shares my "keep them tired" philosophy!

- Spencer has been working and has been filling in as a construction supervisor somewhere south of the city.  He's really getting the best experience!  He likes what he's doing too and has lots of plans for what he wants to learn next year.  

- Quinn is pretty much living his best life and has been out and at parties and having fun pretty much every day.  My thoughts on this, while I wish he were being a bit more productive, I also know you only get the summer after your senior year once.  So we pretty much go with the flow.

- Yesterday my parents got a contract on their house - yay!

- Today Beckett left with Berber and Pappy on his 10 year old trip.  I can't wait to hear all about it.  Here's a picture of Beck on the plane taking him out West.  They will spend the night in Jackson Wyoming.  Beck is actually taking the same trip that started all the 10 year old trips that Spencer took.  It's a nice way to bookend the grandparent trips!

- Zane has his woodlands camp next week and Bob and I are taking the opportunity with ZnB outta the house to head to Greenville, SC for a couple of night - just for fun!  Quinn's on puppy duty while we are gone. 

- Speaking of puppy, Gable is awesome.  He's actually really good - I think fewer accidents than we have had with our last couple of puppies.  He's SO cute and so sweet.  He's heading for his last round of shots today.  He's currently 14.5 weeks old and at least double the size he was when we brought him home 3 weeks ago.  

Hope you all have a great, relaxing, and fun 4th of July!  

Picture of the Week - 6/17/2022

 I can't believe it's mid-June already.  Where in the world has this year gone???

All good here!  Just busy busy busy!

(Work is crazy for both Bob and I right now, which has added an unexpected layer of stress.  That's what they pay us for and I'm sure things will stabilize again soon...)

Bob left this morning with Zane and Beck to drive to St. Louis to check the boys into Purler wrestling camp.  We have heard amazing things about these camps.  I can't wait to hear how they like it - and see the results!  

This week we finally got the tile done on the backsplash in the Kitchen Reno 2022 project.  That's a story in itself that includes very crappy craftsmanship, a 10 year old casing our house, and Bob raising his voice at many people.  (If you know him at all, you know this is very rare.)  It's all going to be fine...  we have the doors and drawer-fronts off the cabinets at the moment and the lady painting them should be done with changing the brown to white next Wednesday.  I'm so excited for that part!!!  (Bob is less so, because it's probably going to make me want a non-black microwave and oven...  and maybe new lighting over the kitchen table...  and while we are at it, the kitchen table may need a new look too.   Woot!)

Also this week the dogs have become playmates - although it's still kinda awkward to watch.  Brutus is sooooo patient with Gable.  He wants to play hard, but the little guy (who is like twice as big as he was when we got him already) is just too little.  It's resulted in some funny situations.  But every day those 2 doggos become better friends - and we fall a little more in love with our new buddy.

Stay cool everyone!  I'm planning a lot of AC time this weekend!!!

Picture of the Week - 6/9/2022

 I love chaos.  I really do.  I love a lot of things going on - especially when they are fun!  My mind works better when it's busy.  Really!

So this week, I've been IN MY GLORY!

We got home from the beach on Saturday.  The trip was so so so awesome.  Maybe the best weather we've ever had for a week on the beach.  It's early in the season, so it wasn't too hot.  We only had one evening of rain - and it was the last night and it waited until after we had packed up all the beach stuff.  The house was amazing.  It was on the marsh, so it had a private dock and the most spectacular sunset views.  It was really just a great week!  We were all sad that it was over, but...

The very next day we picked up our new puppy - a Golden Retriever named Gable.  He's been the best!  He's pretty laid back (for a puppy) and has us all enamored already.  He is so cute!  The boys (who are home) take turns puppy-sitting so Bob and I can get some work done.  Even Brutus has accepted him already - although it may be because the puppy came with a plethora of new toys that Brutus gets to steal and play with!  He's going to be an awesome addition to the family!

Then the day after puppy pick-up, we took Beckett up to Woodlands for his week at camp.  He chose to do the Xtreme version of camp this year - which has all the same wonderful content as every other year he's gone with the addition of a couple of field trips (horseback riding and rock climbing) and they sleep in a shelter in hammocks instead of the super nice cabins.  I can't wait to hear about his week.  (Funny story - I over-funded his camp account because last year he ended up buying snacks for all his friends and ran out.  I put more than enough in there...  and when I checked it this morning he had 50 cents left.  LOL  He's apparently quite fond of something called a Milky Way Mocha and I think he's purchased wristbands for everyone in his group.  Love him!)

At the same time Bob was heading north with Beck, I was heading south with Quinn for Georgia Southern orientation.  I kinda fell in love with that university.  It was my first trip and it's honestly a perfect place for Quinn.  There are around 5 thousand freshmen, which is big enough to feel different than high school, but not so big that you can't walk the whole campus in 10 minutes.  It's all red brick and beautiful.  I love that he picked that place - love where his dorm is - and can't wait to see him thrive there.

We got home on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning the tile guys came to do our backsplash.  We were told it was a 1 day job.  I kept saying "but our kitchen is bigger than the average kitchen, are they sure?"  Sure enough, they did not finish.  We have a new and exciting variety of kitchen mess at the moment - and don't expect them to return until Monday to finish up.  It's OK though because the lady who is painting our cabinets is coming tomorrow to show us how to take off the doors so she can come get them and start the cabinet painting next week.  She says it'll be perfect timing.  I'm just like - place is already a mess and half the kitchen is already in the dining room, so BRING IT.  

This coming week promises more chaos - the puppy playtime, rug scrubbing, cabinet dismantling, car-pooling to football/wrestling practice with the dogs in tow - kind of chaos.  And I wouldn't want it any other way.  

(Although, I admit that there are *multiple* times a day I have to do a mental inventory to make sure I know where everyone is...  and we only forgot to pick up Zane once this week.)

Picture of the Week - 7/1/2021

 Poof - just like that June is gone!  I'm not sure how your June went, but our FLEW by and felt like it lasted about 5 minutes.

July seems like it's going to have a bit more of a relaxed schedule.  Still fun summer things planned, but not as many camps and not nearly as many trips.  One fun summer trip, however, launches this weekend!  We are off for our annual beach trip on Saturday.  It will be super weird that Spencer won't be with us.  I'm trying not to think about that too much.  

And before you get TOO upset about Spencer not getting to go with us next week, he has some pretty awesome plans for the weekend!  Along with his ExCEL classmates, he will get to do a tour of Fort Sumter, a bridge run over the Cooper River bridge, and a July 4th celebration at Patriot's Point.  I'm fairly confident he will be JUST fine!

In fact, if his remaining summer weeks in Charleston go like the first week, he may never want to come home.  All is well at The Citadel.  He's doing great!  (I still don't have an address for him.  He will get one on Aug 12th at the latest.  Thanks to those of you who have asked.  I'm sure he'll love mail, but for now there's no way to easily get it to him.)

The other boys have all had great weeks too!  Quinn had a great time with his Wrestling family in Orlando last week at Disney Duals.  He bounced between a couple of hotel rooms and I think probably didn't exactly hate not having parents around.  I'm not taking offense...  I know how this gradual separation thing works...  he's just prepping for his own turn to leave the nest next summer.  (gut punch)

Zane is at Woodlands this week and Beck is at Wet & Wild camp.  If you are paying attention (and not sure why you would pay THIS close attention) this is the same combo of camps we did a few weeks ago - but the kids are reversed.  LOL  I'm sure Zane is having fun - Woodlands has always been a highlight for all the boys.  It's funny really because I just registered Zane up for 6th grade retreat with his Transit church team and the leader spent a long time prepping parents who might be sending their kids away for the first overnight experience like that.  I'm glad our boys have had an opportunity to grow up with Woodlands.  In addition to a wholesome, summer week at camp - it's also given them great exposure and experience for a bunch of other stuff along the way.  I love that camp!

Here are some fun pictures of Q, Z, and B.  (Yes, that's Quinn pinning a kid!)  I don't have any pictures of Spencer.  Hoping maybe I can talk him into sharing some soon...  

Have a super happy (and safe) long holiday weekend!  Happy 4th of July - and God bless America!  (there may or may not be a POTW next week...  don't worry if you don't see one - just means I'm having too much fun to pull out a laptop!)

Picture of the Week - 6/17/2021

 This was a heavy camp-kinda week!  

Beckett is away at Woodlands (sleep away church camp) until tomorrow morning.  Zane did a "wet and wild" day camp through parks & rec all week.  Quinn has been away at the Jeff Jordon wrestling camp all week with his team.  They are driving home from Ohio right now!  

Spencer, thank goodness, has been home this week - although since it's his last week before heading to Charleston to start his Citadel journey, he's been out socializing most of the week.  We leave on Sunday and he starts his class/program on Tuesday.  He's participating in the Excellence in Civil Engineering program (ExCEL program) for 3 weeks with 9 other students.  This is part of a scholarship he was awarded and I'm so excited about this program!  He will take most of his freshman year classes with this group of 10 and will have access to extra support (tutoring/mentoring/etc) through both the Civil Engineering faculty and also the upper-class members of this program.  For the firs 3 weeks they will dive into Calculus and a series of Engineering seminars to help them learn about the different sub-disciplines available and a bunch of other cool topics.  I think this is a pretty awesome program and can't wait to hear all about it!  If you want to read more - Engineering ExCEL-lence at The Citadel | The Citadel Today

The following 3 weeks, he will participate with a much bigger group of kids in the Citadel Success Institute, which is an intensive orientation to the school.  It also includes coursework and special events.  More on this program when it starts mid-July!

I can't wait to get everyone back into this house tomorrow - even if it's short-lived, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of my the next couple of days before we shake things up again next week.

Here are a couple of pictures of my campers this week.  :)

Picture of the Week - 6/10/2021

 Spencer made it back from his Appalachian Trail adventure.  They did fine - no injuries, plenty of food and water, etc.  They did get soaked as this week has been super rainy and humid.  And all the boys admitted that it was harder than they expected to haul gear up and down mountains.  

They also got to make a bunch of memories and met many interesting people!  I kinda love the idea of this exclusive hiker-society out there that few people know about and fewer experience.  These folks are all in this experience together and make fast friends.  They shared food and shelter.  One guy from California was with his friend, who was going much faster than this man wanted/could, so he connected with Spencer's crew and when I picked them up, he was there too.  Not sure what his plan is since his friend connected with someone else and ditched him, but he was super friendly and I'm sure will work it out.  Spencer made some "through" hiker's day by gifting him leftover cans of corn beef hash.  LOL

Countdown is 10 days before he leaves for Charleston and 12 days before I leave him there.  

The other boys are all great and already enjoying summer!

Quinn is actually pretty busy this month!  He's working, wrestling practice, and tackling some SAT prep to get ready for senior year.  

Zane spent this week at Outdoor Adventure Camp where he's gotten to hike, climb trees, kayak, stand-up paddleboard, and today I think he's rock climbing.  Tomorrow is a rope course which he's ridiculously excited about!  He's bruised and sunburnt.  He has bug bites and scraped knees.  It's kind of a perfect 11 year old summer week!  Next week he goes to Wet & Wild camp with MORE of the same - plus lake swimming!

Beckett is at a STEM camp this week where he's gotten to build a robot and fly drones.  From we hear, his robot is the biggest and the fastest and the strongest.  No idea if that's factual, but you gotta love his confidence!

Bob leaves with Quinn on Sunday to drive a 12 passenger rental van to Ohio for a wrestling camp.  Beckett leaves Monday for his sleepaway Woodlands week, which leaves me home with Spencer and Zane next week.  That's another unique combo for the summer.  Interested to see how that dynamic works out...

If anyone is curious what *I* am doing...  it's mostly trying to keep up with laundry required for the revolving door of activities and people around here.  This weekend I get the added excitement of iron-on nametags AND get to tackle building a closet organizer in the newly painted basement bedroom.  I'm living my best life.  LOL

Picture of the Week - 5/30/2019

Tonight we were a family of four.  Zane is still at camp and Beck is hanging with my parents.  The rest of us enjoyed a nice dinner at a Korean BBQ place.  It was lovely.  It was disconcerting to ask for a table of four.

I'm heading back to Scotland tomorrow.  There's a lot of travel in my summer...  which sucks for summer, but should pay dividends with far fewer trips this fall.  Fingers crossed!

I'm more than a little bummed that I won't get to talk to Zane (in person) after he comes home from camp tomorrow.  I can't wait to hear about his week.  If it's anything like Beckett's, the rest of the summer will be dull in comparison - no matter what we do.

Summer camps are a funny thing...  there's a different camp (and schedule) pretty much every week for us this year.  A variety of sports and sorta-educational and general summer fun stuff.  They all require lunches and of course they all have different requirements for bringing a water bottle or a beach towel or an art shirt or 2-3 snacks.  Whoever said summer was full of lazy days clearly wasn't trying to manage the summer camp rodeo.  

Spencer and Quinn are into summer sports season in earnest starting on Monday.  Spence has football 4 days/week and they are both doing wrestling 3 days/week.  The first wrestling tournament of the summer is scheduled for the Saturday after I get back from this trip.  I can't wait to see them back on the mats this summer!

Speaking of wrestling - if anyone would like to sponsor our wrestling team with a donation - or golf in our tournament this summer - we sure would appreciate it!  www.westforsythwrestling.com for all the details.

Here's a quick picture of our "party of four" from dinner tonight.  These days may not be lazy, but they are fun!

Picture of the Week - 5/23/2019

We dropped Beckett off today - solo - for camp.  I guarantee it feels weirder for us here without him than it does for him there without all of us!  Upon drop-off, his counselor (who we instantly loved) had the kids fill out a little info sheet.  It was questions like "what are your hobbies, what are you looking forward to, what subject do you like best, etc.  One of the questions was "are you nervous about coming to camp"?  If so, what are you nervous about.  He was like "nope.  I pressed a bit and asked "Is there anything you are uncomfortable about?"  He looked at me like I was crazy and was like "nope".  Then, "when are you leaving?"  

Safe to say he's going to have a blast!  We pick him back up on Saturday.

The other boys are all finishing up school tomorrow.  Spencer and Quinn have had a super weird schedule this week.  The basically only had to be at school when they had actual exams.  Quinn exempted out of almost all of his, so he's mostly just been lounging at home all week.  

Safe to say I don't understand how high school works!!!  In any case, they both have a final tomorrow and then they are finished for the year and we will officially have a Sophomore and a Junior.  Weird.

Zane gets to have a special night tomorrow flying solo at my mom's house after finishing up his last day of 3rd grade.  He had a really great year.  Zane goes up to camp on Monday and spends next week up there.  I imagine he will be slightly more reserved than Beck was.  Fingers crossed that he bonds with his counselor as fast as Beck did!

Tomorrow is our 22nd wedding anniversary.  I'm so excited to get to celebrate with Bob.  He's got date plans all worked out and it will be a really great way to end a really tough week.  Nothing earth shattering or wrong - just too busy and too much going on - same story everyone has in May.

Next week - we start the craziness of a different schedule every week.  Spencer is right into summer football and both he and Quinn kick off the summer wrestling season.  No rest for the weary.  I leave next Friday for another week in Scotland.  At least the weather doesn't look too bad for this one...

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!