Picture of the Week - 9/1/2022

 September already.  I continue to feel like this year is moving ever and ever faster.  It's crazy that we are already into September and right around the corner from my favorite month of the year.  The last few weeks here have been so hot and humid that I can't wait for some crisp air.  (And this from someone who is, literally, always cold!)

All is well with everyone.  No news...  is good news.

It's been a typically busy week with all our "stuff" in addition to some extra work to pull together a gigantic uniform order for the upcoming wrestling season.  We are looking like we are going to end up with around 90 kids this year.  It's been SO fun to help this program grow!  (Remind me I said that when all these boxes show up in my dining room for sorting and distribution!)

I think the promise of a 3-day weekend at the end of this week has helped make everyone's mood a bit better!  I know it's helped me!  We debated a number of things for this weekend - we have a couple of kiddos we could go visit or we could head to the N Ga Mountains for a bit of a break or we could have done a million things.  In the end, we decided a mini staycation with a focus on chilling out a bit was best for everyone.  We will be doing some household chores, some shopping, and a good bit of football watching.  Yay!

Here's our annual O H I O picture.  I had to get a bit creative with it this year because it never crossed my mind to grab a picture before Quinn left for school.  I truly love my boys for agreeing to get these college campus versions of the O and H this year.  I think it makes for a fun picture - and will be a good memory of what we were all up to in September 2022.

Go Bucks!

Picture of the Week - 9/16/2021

 There are so many fun and cool and awesome things happening right now!  Life is good, y'all!

Let's see...  where to start...

Beck and Zane are both doing great!  They are really enjoying school (as much as tweener boys enjoy school) and football.  Zane has settled right into middle school and has found a whole new group of friends.  We are in a weird feeder pattern here where only about 40 kids go from our elementary to our middle.  Thank goodness for sports because there are some friendly football/wrestling faces in the 6th grade hall!  Both of these boys are also growth spurting something crazy.  I'm including a picture of Zane, who is about to pass me in height.  He's pretty pumped about it...

Quinn is living his best life!  He has started his college application process, knocked out another round of SAT testing, and hits the weight room regularly getting ready for wrestling season.  We also got his senior yearbook picture proofs back and he has a college visit scheduled for Monday for his first choice school.

Bob and Quinn are heading to Charleston on Saturday with a bag of goodies for Spencer and a couple of tickets to the Citadel football game.  They will get to spend Sunday with Spencer and then will head over to Statesboro on Monday morning to visit Georgia Southern.  I wish I could go, alas I'm on Zane football duty - and of course work...

Bob doesn't have to worry about work next week because tomorrow is his last day at ADP.  He's been there for 21.5 years, so this is not a small change for us!  He will likely end up doing a very similar job, but maybe on the client-side instead of the vendor side.  We shall see.  The change is long overdue and I'm excited for him!

The boys are on fall break next week, which means that next Wednesday we all get to escape for a quick trip up to Ohio.  I am so grateful that Bob's sister has agreed to take Quinn's "real" senior pictures for us!  And we got tickets to an OSU game, which will be the first game we've seen in person since I graduated.  Crazy!

Good stuff all around!  Oh yeah, and the Citadel wrestling roster is updated on the website and includes a picture of Spencer.  That makes the whole thing even more real!  He's the first D1 wrestler West Forsyth high school has ever produced.  Pretty proud about all he's accomplishing and how he's handling the whole situation.  2021-22 Wrestling Roster - The Citadel Athletics

2021-22 Wrestling Roster - The Citadel Athletics The official 2021-22 Wrestling Roster for the The Citadel Bulldogs

Now if we can just get these tropical storms to take a breath and stop sending rivers of atmospheric moisture through Georgia...  

Have a great week!!

Picture of the Week - 9/2/2021

 Happy College Football Season kick-off day!  

Also Happy September!  Where in the world did August go?  I don't know... poof and it's gone!

No big news here this week.  Everyone is settling into the school routines and doing really well.  Our football guys have practices 3 times a week - so we are super pumped that the humidity level is finally dropping.  It's been a hot and sticky month!  Zane and Beck are also wrestling once a week to keep a little fresh.  Quinn is ramping up his wrestling practices getting ready for the season start next month.  And Spencer is doing a LOT of working out with the Citadel wrestling team.  They have team lifts several times a day and have started technique practices as well.  We talk to him a few times a week and he's really doing well.  He's very busy and learning to figure out how to best deal with conflicts in his schedule, but he's good.  

Friday we get to knock-out a Class of 2022 senior milestone, when we get Quinn's yearbook senior pictures taken.  Woot!

Bob and I are going to take advantage of no football games this weekend to take the boys up to a ropes course they have been wanting to do.  The weather is going to cooperate beautifully!  Then church, a free day Monday, and back to the grind.  Countdown until we get to see Spencer is at 29 days.  Can't wait to hug that boy!!

Have a great first week of September!!

PS - It's college football season!  We had to celebrate with our traditional O-H-I-O picture!!

Picture of the Week - 8/29/2019

Whoa - if anyone ever needed a 3 day weekend it's this girl!  I can't wait for some downtime this weekend!!  Hoping to hit the pool for a while.  Maybe catch a movie.  And I definitely need some good, old fashioned American pizza.  Ha!

Along with all that goodness, we are ALSO gearing up to kick off college football season with a Buckeye game on Saturday that is UNINTERRUPTED on the calendar because both Zane and Beck have the holiday weekend off.  That's some kind of wonderful right there!  Here's the most recent in our O H I O picture series.  

Tonight Spencer has a JV football game.  Tomorrow he's playing in Alabama with the Varsity team.  Bob and I are making the trek over there (about 3.5 hours away) and I'm oddly looking forward to the drive.  It's basically a Friday date night!  :)  (I'm in denial about the fact that it'll probably be 2 am before we get back home...)

Have a fun - and safe - Labor Day weekend everyone!

Go Bucks!

Picture of the Week - 2/28/2019

Well...  BC4C 2019 is now behind us and...  phew!  What an amazing week!

We had SO much fun.  We drank so many adult beverages.  We ate so much food.  We laughed so hard.  We spent SO much time sitting around doing nothing.  We listened to SO much good music.  We saw SO many good friends.  We said SO many O-H-I-Os!

We are refreshed and recharged and (after a good night's sleep or two) will be ready to get after it again!

Major props and sincere thanks to my mom and dad for taking such good care of the boys (both 2 legged and 4 legged) while we were gone.  They are a handful for sure, but we came home to a clean house and dinner!  Love you Berber and Pappy!

And while cruises are ALL fun, this particular cruise also has a great cause.  The whole point of the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer mission is to raise money for cancer research.  We WILL beat cancer!  And this year over 3.2 million dollars were raised.  3.2 MILLION!  That's amazing and wonderful and such a cool thing to be such a small part of!

Our hearts are SO full!

(Now back to reality...  Bob's got his lacrosse team out at a practice right now prepping for their first game on Saturday.  Quinn and Spencer have a game on Saturday too.  Bring it on!)

Picture of the Week - 8/30/2018

Happy football season kick off!  O-H-I-O

Have a great week - I'm over in Scotland just now - heading back on Sunday - already can't wait!!

Picture of the Week - 9/1/2016

Pretty sure words won't do much to augment this picture.  

My happy, healthy boys.

Ohio State tradition

Football season

Love it all!

Have a happy and SAFE Labor Day weekend.  We plan on much weekend-ing and very little labor-ing, with a good dose of college football.  

PS - In unrelated, but still football news...  Spencer's team won again on Tuesday making them 4-0 for the season so far.  He's having a KILLER season - and a blast.  He's got 20-ish tackles so far and has only played 1 4th quarter.  This could be a pretty special year.  :)  Zane's team lost their first game last night, but he had fun playing center and particularly enjoyed the post-game goody bags.  :)  Next game for the Bovy boys is Tuesday night, then the real fun starts next weekend with football competing with lacrosse and flag football for attention.  Hang onto your seats - September's gonna be a crazy sports month!

Picture of the Week - 2/18/2016

Does anyone else get totally stressed prepping for a vacation?  I sure hope I'm not alone in this! 

I have lists and reminders everywhere.  Work and packing and sports and boys and groceries and laundry.  Oh yeah, and our house is a torn up mess and there are a variety of people needing a variety of appointments in order to get to a plan where our house eventually looks a bit less like a construction zone.  There's a lot going on, yo!

But there are still some little moments - even in the midst of utter chaos - where it's kind of awesome to be me!  A kind word from a co-worker.  Watching my oldest take one more last, lonely lap around the fields after practice just because that's how he likes to end while all the other kids are hopping into the cars and driving away.  Yep.  I'll take this crazy chaos.  I love this crazy chaos. 

Here's a picture of the Little Boys first lacrosse practice of the season.  It's Beckett's first "official" practice ever.  Last year we couldn't keep him off the field, so this year we signed him up as part of the Little Shooters team.  He's a full year younger than the next youngest kid on the team.  And he hung right in there with the rest of them.  Love that child! 

Saturday morning Bob and I are taking off before dawn to head on the annual Buckeye Cruise trip.  The boys will be with my parents (in the disaster house) for the week.  I'm not worried about any of them - other than maybe how my mom will feel sleeping with Ozzie curled up behind her legs.  LOL  There's no snow in the forecast and very little chance that our cruise will get delayed due to fog like it did last year.  It's going to be a great week - so forgive me if the POTW is late next week.  We've got some serious R & R to take care of and may not have a chance to write.

Have a great week everyone.  We'll raise a bucket of beer to you at some point over the next week!

Picture of the Week - 9/3/2015

Traditions

We aren't overly focused on traditions in our family (at least not in my opinion) but there are a few that I love and am determined to continue.  These things (events/activities/etc) are the things that I hope the boys will think of when they reflect on our family.  I suppose this is true for most groups.  

I could go into detail about some of these family traditions (this email is one of them), but I fear I would write for days and not scratch the surface of what I want to say.  We have some daily traditions (is it a tradition if it's daily or just a habit?) - like the *exact* words Bob and Quinn exchange every night before bed.  We have some randomly timed traditions - like every time we go to IKEA we have pizza on the way home.  And of course there are yearly traditions.  Stuff that happens at the same time every year is probably most common.  We get new pajamas on Christmas Eve.  We visit Burt's pumpkin patch every October.  We celebrate the last day of school at a fancy restaurant.  I make a photo collage for each boy on his birthday.  And we gear up every year for football season.  

We, as a family, enjoy watching football of all kinds, but particularly college.  It doesn't hurt that we happen to be Buckeye fans - and they have been very fun to watch in recent years.  Pretty much as soon as Beckett could stand and follow directions, I made the boys form the well-known O-H-I-O as a kick off celebration for the new college football season.  Someday I envision having a whole awesome series of these pictures.  Individually they are pretty cool, but as the collective in my mind - totally awesome!  Here's the 2015 version of our O-H-I-O picture.  

And the previous pictures for a fun comparison!

This is a tradition I can't wait to keep!  

Go Bucks!

Picture of the Week - 1/15/2015

Today I have a bunch of random things...  really random!

First - how 'bout those Buckeyes?!?!?!?!
This has been a really, really great week to be an Ohio State fan/alumni.  It (I think) is somehow even sweeter living in SEC country as a Buckeye fan.  This has been one of the best football stories I can remember.  Even if you aren't a Buckeye fan, you have to respect the way this team worked together to overcome adversity.  And you have to agree that Urban Meyer is a motivational wizard.  Bob and I leave for our 3rd Buckeye Cruise for Cancer in 34 days.  I can't even imagine how crazy fun it is going to be this year.  It's been more fun than I can describe in the past...  throw in a national championship and I expect the very best kind of bedlam!


Second - January is a blessing
Man I like this time of year (aside from the weather...)  It's so nice to have some down time.  We don't have any evening sport practices and very few weeknight obligations.  It's a great time to take a much needed breather.  I'm soaking it in now because in precious few weeks we will be back to the grind.  Right now we are taking advantage of our gym membership and I am starting new quilting projects with a vengeance.  Next weekend is lacrosse evaluations (have I mentioned that we have 3 boys playing lacrosse this spring???) and that will be followed quickly with our first middle school football meeting and then lacrosse practices start the first week of January.  I'll be enjoying my feet-up, under a blanket, in front of a TV time while I have it!


Third - Speaking of the gym
So we joined a gym in October.  It wasn't really the New Year's Resolution crowd, but I'd hardly say we are regulars.  It's been kind of fun to go though.  I think the thing that is making it different for me this time is Spencer.  He's SO committed to getting into great shape that he's motivating ME not to give up.  I meet him there after work/school and we workout and then head home.  There are many days that I know I would have just gone home if I didn't know he was going to be meeting me there.  It's fun to go with him and I really couldn't be more proud of him.  (PS - He can already curl about twice what I can do and seriously puts me to shame on a treadmill...)


Lastly - Mary Engelbreit calendar
Since we are kind of smack dab in the middle of plain old normal life, I really haven't taken many pictures lately.  I even went through my phone pictures to see if there was anything worth sharing.  The only kind of interesting picture I have on there is of Beckett's face after taking a faceplant on the corner of a bookshelf while jumping on the couch in the toyroom.  He may have needed stitches, but I was out on a business dinner and by the time I got home it was late and the bleeding had stopped, so we chalked it up to another "chicks dig scars" event and went to bed.  This one is going to leave the most interesting Y-shaped mark right under his nose.  But I digress... 

I decided to share this picture of my desk at work (the clean parts) because I love love love the Mary Engelbreit day calendar from this past Monday.  If you can't read it, it says "We are a noisy and blessed little family" by Mary E Turner.  I feel this way often.  My house is very loud and pretty messy.  My boys are kind of crazy and our kitchen frequently resembles a zoo.  But I couldn't feel more blessed to be living this life Bob and I have built.  It's exactly the way it should be and I am thankful for that every single day.  Aside from the saying, the picture is almost a drawing of our family.  If you replace the little flute-playing girl with a large tooting dog, it IS our house!!! 

PS - In the background you can see another Mary Engelbreit picture that I have taped to my monitor so I see it ALL the time.  It's a Winston Churchill quote that says "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."  So very true...

Picture of the Week - 1/8/2015

Greetings from the frozen tundra version of the Picture of the Week

Yes...  I know it's way worse in many other places than it is here.  But my van hit 9 degrees on the way to work this morning.  My thinned out, wussified blood can't take it!  Bright side (at least down here) is that it will be back to nearly 60 by this time next week...  so I suppose I should look on the bright side and view the cold snap as an excuse to wear my favorite sweaters (which conveniently hide the extra weight I gained eating Christmas cookies) and see my little guys in hat (which is pretty darn adorable!)

I don't know that I've taken a single picture since last week.  I take it back, I have taken some pictures of our animals snuggled up in blankets because they are cute, but I seriously doubt you want to see that. 

We have spent the week trying to get back into the swing of a routine.  I think the week following a long, relaxing, wonderful holiday break has GOT to be the longest week ever.  How is it possible that it's only Thursday morning?  Why oh why did my boss schedule a 2 day roadmap planning meeting for today and tomorrow.  2 days in a room with the same group of people will not make the time go faster...

And then there's the excitement of being a Buckeye fan right now!  Wow!  How much fun was that game last week?!?!?!  It was SO much fun.  It's even more fun to be down here in the middle of SEC country and able to witness the free fall of the "best conference in football" following their rather dismal bowl outcomes.  Pretty funny...  we still occasionally hear casual football fans (like the radio personality on the local country station) lamenting the fact that there's no SEC team in the championship game.  It's pretty funny.

I thought I'd re-share this picture of my boys in support of the Buckeyes.  You all know what we will be doing Monday night!  Go Bucks!  Beat the Ducks!!

Have a great week everyone!  Stay warm and wear cute hats!

Celestial Star QAL - final linkup time!

A short fast post to share today as my final link up for the Celestial Star QAL.  I am not quite done with this quilt yet.  I still have the quilting to do on 11 of 12 of my stars. 

I have really enjoyed this project!  And I am super pleased with the results - imperfections and all!

Thanks Diane for hosting such a fun quilt-a-long!


Here's my top with the binding all done.  I'm calling this quilt "Buckeye Stars" since the color scheme is inspired by Ohio State football helmets.

 

 

And here's the back - which I don't think I've shared anywhere before.

 



Thanks for taking a peek!!  I'll share one more blog post about this when all my stars are done. 

By the way - if you are interested in seeing close-ups of all the blocks - check out this post

Picture of the Week - 8/28/2014

 

Football season!  Woo Hoo!!!

 

It shouldn't come as a surprise that we really enjoy football season around here.  We enjoy watching games at all levels and it makes up a huge part of our autumn routine. 

 

Last night Spencer had a pre-season scrimmage against a power house program.  We went down to play a Catholic school in the area and when I say they are well funded, it's probably a gross understatement.  This little catholic school has (literally) dozens of state and national championship sports teams and their athletic director has won national AD of the year, multiple times.  The campus was VERY impressive.  Bleachers on both sides of a turfed football field ringed by a first class track.  It was clean and well organized and intimidating.  Spencer went quiet as we walked across their vast common area, lined with big mature trees.  A beautiful place. 

 

We won the game, but the coach wasn't super pleased with the team.  I anticipate a tough practice tonight... 

 

I, on the other hand, was pretty darn pleased with my son's contributions.  He got the start at defensive end and the coaches left him in for the whole game.  He's also on the kickoff team.  Special teams!!  This is a significant improvement over his bench-warmer status last year.  We do have a couple of kids hurt, so I'm not sure if he will start when they come back, but I do know already that this is going to be a very different experience for him than last year.  I won't say a better one, because he learned an awful lot about himself last year.  But it's going to be fun!  His regular season starts next weekend.

 

The Ohio State regular season starts THIS Saturday!  Hooray!!  I'm so excited to get to see some college football again.  And a long, holiday weekend is icing on the cake. 

 

Here's an up to date version of the Bovy Boys doing O-H-I-O.  Go bucks!

 

 

Picture of the Week - 9/5/2013

Two pictures for you this week - and not very many words. 

 

Bob and I are still in the recovery period from head colds that wrecked our long weekend.  Sad...  I had hopes for 3 days with no plans...  alas, most of the weekend was spent trying to survive the boys. 

 

Things are looking up now though!  Today we have decent weather and a lacrosse practice on the NEWLY turfed field.  I love lacrosse practices because even though they start at a very difficult (for anyone with a job) time of 5:30, they are over by 7.  That means we can load up little boys and dogs and spend an evening together.  (As opposed to football nights where we have to divide and conquer so the little dudes can get to bed on time.) 

 

We also have our first regular season football game this weekend.  I'm excited and nervous and very anxious to see how things go.  Spencer has been having a good time with this team - and has already learned a TON.  I think he's going to get to start - or at least get some serious playing time - but they move kids (and especially Spencer) around during practice so much that it's kind of hard to tell.  I think he's starting D line and back-up O line, but who knows... 

 

Speaking of football...  lots of you probably already saw the picture I took of the boys doing O-H-I-O.  I sense a new football season tradition in the making...  I wanted to share it here for anyone not on Facebook. 

 

Here's a new picture of Ozzie and Willow too.  Oz has now lost almost all his baby teeth (thank goodness!) and has started to mellow.  We're working on training with him and he's starting to be less of a pain... slowly!

 

 

Picture of the Week - 2/28/2013

So long February!  I am ready for spring!!!

 

This past week has been WAY outside our normal routine!  This time last week we were on our way to board a cruise ship with a bunch of fellow Buckeye's and a couple of good friends.  (Hi Bigs!)  I admit that I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pretty excited to be on the proverbial doorstep of a rare adventure. 

 

We really had a great time!  There were parts of the Buckeye Cruise that seemed surreal.  There was an alumni band and alumni cheerleaders.  Brutus was there.  And a couple dozen former football players who I was unexpectedly star struck to see walking around.  All of this in the middle of the Caribbean.  Odd...  but a really good time. 

 

And even though we have only been home for a couple of days, it seems like it was SO long ago!  Welcome back to reality. 

 

It was awesome to see the boys and my parents again.  We definitely aren't used to be away for so long.  Even my work-related trips aren't usually more than a couple of days.  They all did great!  Thanks Berber and Pappy!!!  Now we know you can handle them all for a few days.  Bawhahahaha  :) 

 

Easily the worst part of the return to reality (aside from having to be somewhat coherent at work) is lacrosse practice.  It's COLD.  Luckily my dad has stepped in so we don't have to drag the little guys out of the house too much.  I am definitely ready for some warmer weather.  The trees have started blooming, it's light on my way to work in the morning, and the daffodils are out of the ground.  Won't be long now!!

I will just have to stare at this picture and remember drinking CocoLocos on Coco Cay until we can get the last of the winter weather behind us!  Have a great weekend everyone.  We only have 2 more practices and 3 games before we get a day off from lacrosse.  Phew!

 

Picture of the Week - 2/21/2013

Greetings from Florida!

Bob and I are ready to board the Jewel of the Seas with the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer!

We had an awesome trip down here yesterday. It's pretty awesome to be reminded how much fun traveling can be without all the effort required to travel with kids.  (It's also pretty awesome to be reminded why I married that crazy guy to begin with!)

Hope you all have a great weekend. We will be busy having fun with 2200 new Buckeye friends.