Picture of the Week - 10/13/2022

 I started writing this about a dozen times today and I really wish I had finished it earlier!  I had grand plans to share all kinds of good info and news about the last week.  Now, however, I'm tired!  Long day after a few back-to-back long weeks is taking it's toll!  Lemma try to rally here...

Last week, after I got home from a work trip to Minneapolis, we packed the suitcases back up and prepped for a trip to Charleston.  But before we left, we dropped Gable off at the dog trainer for a couple of weeks of doggie boarding school.  We did this same program with Brutus and Ozzie and really liked the results.  So when we get Gable back next week I'm excited to see what he's learned.  He's been a really good puppy without the formal training, so this additional discipline will be bonus for us!  Man I miss him though!!  And I think Brutus REALLY misses him!  Here's a picture they sent us.  

We headed down to Charleston for Citadel's Parent's weekend while my parents held down the fort and took on Uber duty and cheerleading responsibilities for Zane and Beckett's practices and games.  Bonus - Quinn drove up to see us from Statesboro, which is about a 2.5 hour drive from Charleston.  We really had a great weekend.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  The rental we had was in a great, convenient location and had a ton of space for us.  We had some great dinners and some fun conversations.  We did a lot of people watching and talking with other parents who are just as happy and proud as we are.  It's a really fun weekend!  It's also kind of sobering to realize that in 2 short years, Spencer will be a senior and will be receiving his ring.  Time flies!

This week we, sort of unexpectedly, saw the end of Zane's football season.  The team lost a heartbreaker of a game on Tuesday they needed to win in order to make it to the playoffs.  It was a really bad call from a ref that's kind of notorious around here for being a pretty big jerk.  It was a hard way to end the season, but Zane took it all in stride.  He's already looking forward to next year as an 8th grader.

The next day, he started wrestling season.  I'm really interested to see how this year goes.  I am always excited for wrestling season - and this year is no different.  But it might be a growth year for both boys, who both moved up an age group this year.  While they are both really good wrestlers, with more experience at their ages than most already, they are also on the young side and will compete with kids a year older than them.  I'm not sure if you've ever seen the difference 12 months can make in a teenage boy on either side of puberty or not...  LOL  It's a big difference!  SO we shall see how things go - and I know that they will either win or learn!  :)

This weekend we only have 1 football game - which should leave plenty of time for me to sort and organize (and then distribute) 80ish wrestling uniform gear packs.  My basement looks like a screen-printing warehouse at the moment...  

Next week we celebrate Beckett's birthday.  11...  crazy!

Have a great fall week!  Go outside and enjoy the crisp air and the color on the trees.  And be grateful for all of it!

Picture of the Week - 9/22/2022

 Happy first day of fall!

I love this time of year.  It's that first chilly evening sitting at a football game/practice that gets me!  And sitting in our bedroom sitting area and watching the first leaves fall off the trees.  Love it!

This week is also the last week of BUSY before fall break.  We had a trip planned for fall break at one point.  We were going to tackle Disney and Orlando and I had a whole itinerary laid out.  It was going to be fun and glorious and exhausting.  We canceled.  Many reasons, but it basically boiled down to 1) work and 2) protecting the "recovery time" this week brings every year.  It's nice to know we don't have a bunch of activities/games/stuff and can have dinner together as a family for a couple of days.

I am taking Friday off and heading down to see Quinn.  No real reason - just want to put my eyeballs on him in person and give him a hug.  It's a good excuse for a day off work too.  

I may swing up past Charleston on the way home if Spencer is going to play in the rugby matches that day.  Undetermined at the moment as he got a bit hurt at practice yesterday and may need some time off.  Oh yeah - Did I mention Spencer is playing rugby?  LOL  He's having a lot of fun (or was until he got hurt) and the team has really embraced him.  I love that he's found something to do with people he likes and I'm really proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone and trying something new.  He even got highlighted on the team's schedule flyer.  I guess if nothing else, he looks the part!

More on all of that next week...  for now - gotta get through one more weekday and one more 5th grade football game (someone remind me it's our turn to take snacks...) before some downtime.  

Picture of the Week - 9/8/2022

 Let's see...  what's new?  

Nothing - everything

I asked Spencer how he was doing the other day and his response was something like "same as yesterday, I think I'm in Groundhog's Day".  And that's kinda how I feel.  It's the same every day - get up, get kids out the door, work until my back aches, take a break, work some more, dinner, pick someone up or drop someone off or both, do load of stinky football uniforms, brush teeth, go to bed.  Next day - basically the same...  pick-up/drop-off routine may change and sometimes we throw in a game for fun.  But it's rinse and repeat.  

And in that day in - day out - same same same - it's REALLY easy to lose sight of what is actually happening.  Progress and growth and decisions and and and.  It's not a small, meaningless, repetitive existence here.  These days of "puttin in the work" are, in the end, the important ones.  These are the days that make us who we are.  Am I right?

Yes, the vacation pictures and game highlights and dinners out with friends get all the limelight on the socials, but these "normal" days are where the real magic happens.  

And it's so easy to forget that.  I admit I get lost in planning vacations I may never take.  I reminisce in FB memories of big game moments from years past and look forward to the ones that have yet to happen.  I scour restaurant menus and arrange plans to "get out".  I do all these things because they are exciting.  So today, I'm reminding myself - as much as you teeny number of people out there still paying attention to these POTW messages - that exciting is fleeting.  The routine and mundane should be just as celebrated because it's just as (I will say more, even) important.  

Life is ACTUALLY the stuff in between the highlight reel...

So what's new?  Nothing - everything

All boys are well and settled very nicely into the fall "real life" stuff.  Spencer has decided not to wrestle this year.  I was sad, at first, but he's really happy to not have that pressure, stress, and time commitment anymore.  And he's taken up Rugby on the Citadel club team.  He is taking a LOT of classes this semester and handling things pretty well so far.  He's got a good roommate this year, whom he likes and generally seems happy.  Tomorrow he's interviewing for some internships next summer and apparently he's got a "hot date" this weekend too.  All good there - and we are looking forward to going to see him for Parent's Weekend again in a few weeks.  

Quinn continues to be GOOD.  He spent Labor Day weekend on campus and with the extra downtime, headed to Savannah for dinner.  Sounds so glam!  At one point both Spencer and Quinn were on Islands (Daniel and Tybee, respectfully) while Bob and I sat at home listening to the rain and cleaning stuff.  Those boys are living their best lives...  Quinn also got to learn how to deal with a flat tire on the interstate.  He got to talk to tow truck operators and find a tire repair place and all kinds of grown-up stuff.  (Of course he called me first for help.  Why me?  Tires are a dude thing.  I handed the phone to Bob like it was on fire!)

Zane is still crushing 7th grade.  He's frustrated with football this year because as a 7th grader on a 7/8 team he's not getting a ton of playing time.  He's a lineman - and a good one - but he's undersized.  He gets some playing time, but not like he's used to.  This is not a unique experience - and honestly it's exactly what we expected - but it's new for him.  He's still having fun on the team with all his buddies though - and really isn't that what's most important anyway.  (We aren't shy about our desire to leave football and go full-time wrestling with ZnB at some point, but the timing is totally up to them!)

And Beckett is just adorable.  He is home alone with us a LOT more than he's ever been before.  First of all he's on "early elementary" time this year, which means he gets home at like 2:45.  Zane wouldn't get home until 5 without football practice - with football, they never see each other.  Beck leaves in the am before Zane wakes up.  Then he's out the door for wrestling/football practice before Zane gets home and by the time everyone is back under one roof, it's time for bed.  I think there were around 48 hours last week those 2 didn't even SEE each other.  Weird!  Also hard to make dinner plans...  Anyway, Beck is great.  He's funny and helpful and he talks A LOT. 

Here's a picture of Beck with his serious football face.  His football experience this year has been interesting.  This is the first year Bob hasn't coached him since he was 6.  He's been bounced to a few positions (all on the lines...  Bob and I make ATVs, not sports cars) and has landed in an O guard spot and right D tackle.  He's having a blast this year and it's pretty fun to watch him make his own way.  

OK - enough rambling...  I'm off to pick up Zane and reheat some dinner for him.  Then comes the load of stinky laundry, brush teeth and bed.  :)