Picture of the Week - 12/22/2022

 We wish you all a VERY Merry Christmas!

Love

The Bovenizers

Picture of the Week - 12/1/2022

 I thought I'd take this week as an opportunity to share our family picture from Thanksgiving.  

As casual as this is, I love it.  It's not fancy.  No one matches.  There are unshaven faces.  There's a turkey onesie.  It's us.  In all our crazy, chaotic glory.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week - and are gearing up for all the awesomeness of December.  

Tomorrow morning we are pulling the boys out of school and heading to Gatlinburg.  We're going for a wrestling tourney, but really, it's just an excuse to go see Gatlinburg decked out in Christmas lights while staying in a rented camper* in an RV park.  There will be some wrestling, but mostly just a quick family trip and a break from all the "stuff" going on in real life.  

* for anyone unaware, we've been looking at possibly buying a travel trailer for a while now.  We've got one all picked out even.  We have researched (to death) and a trial run trip in a rental is basically the last hurdle.  Wish us luck!  Maybe someday soon I'll get to share pictures of our new camper!

Picture of the Week - 11/17/2022

 This week is so fun!  And so full of STUFF!  The kind of stuff that's leaving me mentally stressed and emotionally excited!

My parents are currently in the Caribbean somewhere.  Bob is in the frozen tundra (Fargo, ND) for work.  And my big boys are still at school.  This time next week - they will ALL be in my house.  I mean, if that's not enough to make a mama heart happy, I'm not sure what would do it.

In the meantime, I've got lists (to-dos and check varieties) and a spreadsheet of what needs to be done when.  (Turkey comes out today because it's an enormous beast.)  I haven't hosted Thanksgiving since before Spencer was born.  Feeling a little rusty - and also up for the challenge!  (So long as there's wine involved!)

In the middle of all the Thanksgiving prep - I'm also trying to get things ready for Spencer's first trip home since August and Quinn's return tomorrow as well.  I want to surround them with reasons to want to come home again - college parents out there, I know you get this...  I'm making Chicken n Dumplins for Quinn tomorrow.  I've got Chili fixins for Saturday.  Oh and the wrestling club's annual Thanksgiving Duals is on Tuesday.  I may be running all stuff that happens off the mats.  (Concessions, Hospitality, Volunteers, Signage, Decorations, etc.)  I love this tourney - it's my favorite of the year.  It's at our own high school.  It's very early in the season - so no stress or pressure.  It's MY official launch of the holiday season.  And I get to spend the whole day with my friends.  It's a really fun day.  (But it's also a lot of work!)  

It'll all get done.  Or it won't.  No one is going to die.  And all will be well.  

I'm grateful to get to live this crazy, chaotic life.  Wouldn't trade it for the world.  (Although I would prefer Bob be here instead of freezing in North Dakota.  And he needs a hat, right?!?!?)

Picture of the Week - 12/31/2021

 Wishing you the happiest of New Years!  Blessings for a fabulous 2022!

Picture of the Week - 12/2/2021

 Did you miss me?

Did anyone even notice I was "missing" the last 2 weeks?  (crickets)

I didn't really MEAN to skip POTW 2 weeks in a row.  I never really MEAN to skip it at all.  But life happens and my memory is sometimes bad and sometimes I'm just not in the mood to stop having fun (or working) to do an email.  And what probably sounds like a ridiculously lame excuse, my employer just increased their "security" and I can't get personal email on my work computer any more.  Sounds like a minor thing...  is not a minor thing...  I fully acknowledge that this is a first world problem, but it's cause some upheaval in my routines!

So what have we been up to?  Mostly wrestling.  And visiting with family.  We got to enjoy Spencer being home for Thanksgiving week - although we didn't actually SEE much of him as he was off having fun with his friends the majority of his break.  It's nice to see that he's doing well.  He also got to wrestle here in Georgia at Life University and won his first couple of collegiate matches.  Pretty fun!  Picture of him in his old West singlet because he was wrestling as an "unattached" wrestler while the Citadel starters were competing at a tournament at the Naval Academy.  I DO still long to get a picture of him in a Citadel singlet...  someday!

On Tuesday of  Thanksgiving week West held our annual Thanksgiving Duals.  It's my favorite tourney of the year.  I think it's because of the time of year maybe...  it's the first big tourney we do with local teams every year.  It's home and I really enjoy hanging out with all the other West families for the day.  I've no idea what I'm going to do next year when I'm not in charge any more...  Maybe they will let me run concessions just for fun!  Quinn had a pretty good tournament and the team is looking really strong again.  It should be a great season again for West Wrestling.

Zane and Beck got to compete recently too!  Zane went undefeated and Beck went 3-2.  Both boys look really good and are having a blast.  They are working 4 days a week at getting better!  We have a couple of weeks before they get to compete again, but I'm already looking forward to it!

In between all the wrestling we got to have a really nice dinner out with my parents, had a football party with all the coaches and families from Bob's team, celebrated the end of Zane's Midway football career at his football party (middle school football here we come!), and of course we had Thanksgiving!  It's been a fun, busy couple of weeks around here!

The rest of the month looks just as wild!  This weekend Bob and Quinn are off to North Carolina for a big dual tournament with some of the best teams in that area.  It'll be a challenge for our guys for sure!  And I'll be home with Zane and Beck getting ready to take the high school team up to Gatlinburg the following weekend for a super fun stay in a super cool cabin.  Bob and I are chaperoning - and responsible for feeding the whole crew.  I'm prepping the coolers and crock pots!

I hope you had a great second half of November and are gearing up for the rest of the Holiday season!  We're mostly focused on wrestling mats, but we DID manage to get our trees and outside decorations up!  Christmas presents are mostly ordered/obtained too!  I love this time of year!

Picture of the Week - 12/28/2020

 Well, I'm all off schedule this week!  Holidays on Thursdays and time off and getting unplugged from this computer have all thrown my Thursday POTW schedule for a loop.  

I considered just skipping last week altogether, but that didn't seem right since we have had such a fun week.  So I just decided to send it late and catch up.  Plus, who knows what will happen with this week and New Year's!  LOL

Last Wednesday was the boys' first day of break.  I think that's the latest they have gone to school before Christmas in years.  They all agreed that it was weird and made the time before Christmas go really fast.

Christmas Eve we went to Tricia's house for our annual Christmas Eve brunch/lunch.  It was fun to hang out at their new house and the kids always have a blast together.  After that we headed to The Melting Pot for a fancy Christmas Eve fondue dinner.  Believe it or not, we don't go out to eat as a family all together very often.  We eat out plenty, but it's pretty rare that everyone is free at the same time.  And even at 9 and 11 it's sometimes a hassle to take everyone and listen to the complaints from Zane and Beck about where/when/what we are eating.  Basically, it's just hard to make them all happy.  So we save the money and eat home - or feed them and then go out.  LOL

Anyway, dinner with the boys that night was SO NICE.  Everyone was excited.  They all ate.  Bob and I drank wine - thanks designated drivers - and we had both melted cheese and chocolate in the same meal.  Hard to find fault there!  It was a really fun time.

We headed home, opened up our matching PJs and everyone headed to bed.  Pictures attached are all from Christmas Eve.  I don't think I took a single picture on Christmas day.  

Christmas morning was so nice and calm.  I woke up first and we had time for coffee and to make the Monkey Bread before the boys woke up.  We dove into presents around 8 and really just had a great time together.  That afternoon we headed over to my parent's house with the biggest cheese and meat spread I've ever put together.  (Seriously I could have fed 40 people...) and celebrated Christmas again!  :)  

The weekend was full of rest and lazy.  It was awesome!

This week Bob and I are back to work for a few days and then another nice long weekend awaits.  We have no plans for New Year's.  We never really have celebrated New Year's Eve, so this is nothing new.  The boys are all back to wrestling practice now.  We have a tournament on Saturday and then quickly get into the heart of the wrestling season.  Believe it or not, there are only 2 more tournaments before we get into Regions, Quads, and State Duals - the wrestling equivalent of playoffs.  Still crossing all fingers and saying regular prayers that we can get through this season!!!  

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and have plans to do something you love for New Year's.  Stay safe and healthy!

Picture of the Week - 11/27/2020

 Day late, but I'm not gonna sweat it.  

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and we had a great day.  We are blessed to have family nearby and got to celebrate just like we normally would have - it felt normal in a weird, weird year.  We have much to be grateful for - and it was nice to celebrate together.

And I finally got a family picture of us - which had alluded me for months!  

Today we are doing some work, putting up some Christmas decorations, and packing up for a day-trip over to Jefferson GA for a youth wrestling tourney tomorrow.  I normally may not have been excited about driving an hour or so at 6 AM for a day in a gym, but I'm not sure how long this season will last and we are going to take advantage of every opportunity we can to let the boys all enjoy a 2020-21 wrestling season.  

Speaking of...  The high school team opened up the season in a dominant fashion with a 5-0 run through a JV Dual Tournament on Monday and a 4-0 win at our Thanksgiving Duals on Tuesday.  More to come...

Picture of the Week - 11/5/2020

 Well this has been a super weird week - and full of nervous energy all around - due to the election and ongoing post-election drama.

I won't say anything more about that.  It's in line with the rest of this strange, strange year.

I thought about sharing pictures from Halloween, but I didn't get one of Quinn, so it felt weird.  Spencer dressed up as Marge Simpson - in a blue wig, yellow dress and yellow tights.  Complete with the big red necklace.  It was every bit as funny as the picture in your mind.  Beckett was an inflatable unicorn which was AWESOME.  He refused to take it off nearly all day Sunday.  Zane was an inflatable guy strapped to a rocket.  The best part of his costume was that his legs were the rocket flames so when he walked the flames swished back and forth.  I loved their costumes - and the fact that we got to go Trick-or-Treating and had a nice neighborhood get together in the street.  It was a fun day.  

This weekend Bob and Beck have another football playoff game.  Zane's team lost last weekend, so he's moved onto wrestling season.  He's also starting personal training tonight.  

Other than that...  we are just taking things one day at a time.

Here's a picture of some pretty flowers that Bob got me for my birthday.  They are so bright and pretty and have brought me many smiles this week.  I hope they bring you a little joy as well.

Picture of the Week - 12/12/2019

Big Happy Birthday wishes to Bob today!  I wish we could celebrate, but mid-week birthdays are rough.  I'm sure he will take a rain-check for birthday fun!

The boys cooperated with me last weekend to get the traditional, annual Santa Hat picture.  Love this almost as much as I love them!  

Newsy-stuff...

Tomorrow the varsity team is heading over to Pigeon Forge for the Smoky Mt Duals*.  They went last year too and had a really fun time.  Spencer is wrestling the 220 spot and Quinn got invited to go in case coach wants to juggle up the lineup.  Bob's driving the "Bob Mobile" with a car full of boys and will likely be playing Uber-duties for the team during the trip.  They should get home late on Saturday.  Can't wait to see how they do!  It's a big tourney with a lot of high quality teams attending.  I like our chances against most of them!

Then Sunday, Zane got chosen to compete with the Morris Fitness Elementary School duals team.  He's SOOOO excited.  Bob should get home just in time to grab some sleep, repack the cooler and head to a different gym full of wrestling mats.  'Tis the season!  (Spoiler alert, next weekend looks very similar...)

Have a great week everyone!  Get all that shopping and baking and shipping and wrapping outta the way so you can sink into the magic of the season next week!  

* For anyone who doesn't know wrestling...  a Dual is a team event.  For the high school, there are 14 weight classes, so the best kid at each weight class is part of the Dual team.  The team competes against another team and each of the weight classes wrestles head-to-head.  Points are earned by one team, based on the type of match/win.  The team with the highest point total at the end of the 14 matches is the winner.  I love Duals.  They are super easy to watch because all of our guys are wrestling back-to-back on the same mat.  There is a great combo of strategy and skill - because the coach can juggle the line up a bit to get the match-ups he wants.  For example, if our 120 is good, but the opponent has an amazing 120 and has a gap at 126, we may send out a back-up 120 (expecting the loss) and take the win at 126.  It's a bit cat-and-mouse and very entertaining!  It's also really awesome to watch the team cheering for each other.  Wrestling is an individual sport, but Duals folds in the team aspect in a really exciting way.  

Picture of the Week - 11/1/2019

Oops - missed Thursday two weeks in a row.  I'll get back onto a schedule soon!

Last night was Halloween (of course) and the boys had a blast.  It's a chaotic evening these days.  Long gone are the days where we could get everyone all dressed up and leisurely wander around the neighborhood.  

Beckett was a skeleton last night.  He was thrilled with this costume when it was 80 degrees.  It was a little less practical after the cold front came through yesterday.  He was eager to get going and went all out for about half the neighborhood.  Then he got cold, went home and was perfectly content to sit and watch TV the rest of the evening.

Zane probably had the best time last night.  He adored his "blow up man" costume.  (I admit it's one of my favs too!)  He ran with the group (and Bob, with Brutus) for a long time, then took off solo with a couple of other boys.  This is the first time he's ever gone off on his own and he was LOVING LIFE!!!  Also, picture in your head "Blow up man" with a blow up dino RUNNING.  SO funny!

Quinn went to a party with a few friends and came home late.  I haven't even talked to him about it yet because he was back up and at wrestling practice at 6 AM this morning.

Spencer had a friend come over and took over handing out candy duty.  I really appreciated him holding down the fort at home while Bob was trick-or-treating and I was playing the role of chauffeur.  

Crazy Halloween this year.  I know I will miss this chaos someday...

Tonight Spencer's team takes on an in-county rival.  Tomorrow Beckett's team tackles round 2 of the playoffs.  If they win, they are in the championship game.  I'm taking Spencer over to Tuscaloosa for the day to attend an admissions brief to learn more about the Naval Academy.  Busy day!!  

Have a great week!  Happy November!

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 - 11/22/2018

Happy Thanksgiving 2018!!!

Enjoy the day and all the blessings in your life!

Picture of the Week - 11/15/2018

Quickie update this week because I just got home from a work-trip to Nashville that was pretty much the opposite of "fun" in just about any way I care to measure it.  

Putting that behind me and gearing up for a fun weekend!

Spencer's football team is still in the playoffs and will be traveling to play on Friday night.  

Saturday Quinn (and Spencer IF they lose on Friday, but if they win on Friday, he's still out for wrestling for another week) will get to participate in the first varsity dual of the year.  I much prefer Duals to individual tournaments.  And if you had told me 2 years ago that I would even HAVE a preference, I'd tell you that you were a little crazy.  

I'm ridiculously excited for the holiday week next week!  I'm going to enjoy the heck out of a one-day work week!  And we are hosting a wrestling tournament on Tuesday which should be a fun time!  Then it's holiday season!!!  Woot!!!

Here's a fun picture of Zane & Beck that I'm sure all our Buckeye fans will love.  LOL

Picture of the Week - 7/13/2018

Do you believe in magic?  

Not the David Copperfield kind...  the real life, actual MAGIC that happens all the time.  The tricky part is recognizing that it's happening and then calling it what it is - SPECIAL!

Maybe you don't call it magic.  Maybe you call it fate.  Or divine intervention?  Maybe karma?  If you believe in luck (which I don't), you may think of these things as "lucky".  

For me, it's magic!  

We experienced a WHOLE lot of magic last week on vacation.  I mean really, just BEING on vacation is magic.  The idea that we can get paid to hang out at a gorgeous beach house on a gorgeous beach is magic.  The idea that we have enough money saved up to be able to afford to pay for 2 houses for a whole week.  The mere fact that there IS a beach as lovely as St. George Island that allows us to share it.  None of this is a given...  all of it could go away if we don't make good decisions and do the "right" things.  It's easy to take these things for granted.  It's far too easy to not see the magic all around.

One of the coolest things that I've ever experienced happened while we were relaxing at the beach last week.  This is the first time in several years that we've been able to vacation over the 4th of July and one of the things I was most looking forward to was watching fireworks on the beach.  As we got ready last Wednesday for the "show", the sky started clouding up and you could hear rumbles of thunder in the distance.  As nightfall approached, the house was surrounded with storm clouds.  There were storms and clouds to the east, big storms out to sea, and a lot of activity in the sky behind the house facing inland.  We stood on the beach in front of our house, adult beverages in hand and were amazed by the fact that it wasn't raining on our little stretch of island.  Darkness fell and people up and down the beach started setting off fireworks.  I'm not sure where these people shopped for these displays, but I'm sure glad they did!  These "amateurs" were lighting fireworks that rivaled displays at profession events.  They were huge and numerous and beautiful.  There was one group of BIG fireworks to our left - another to our right, just a couple houses away.  Down the beach farther, you could see the "official" St. George Island fireworks display.  In between these "big" ones were dozens and dozens groups setting off smaller versions of these big spectacles that on their own would have been potentially a bit disappointing, but put all together was quite the show.

We've been on beaches during the 4th of July in the past.  It's always awe inspiring and fun.  But this year, Mother Nature decided to join in on the act and lit the skies up with these storm clouds.  Throughout the fireworks shows there were brilliant flashes of lightening literally ALL around us.  One second there was an amazing, brilliant explosion of manufactured color and sound.  Then the next, a streak of lightening light the entire beach up for a split second.  All around us.  We literally just stood in the middle, slack jawed in wonder.  (Or at least I did...)  

It was magic!

Actually, the whole week was fun of laughs and cards and playing and eating and chilling.  I read a book on the beach.  I can't even remember the last time I was that relaxed.  It was exactly what I needed!

Picture below is of the sky out to sea before the lightening started.  The sky that night was amazing!

In other, slightly less magical, news...  

- Zane got himself a nasty ear infection while we were on vacation.  We know knew were the closest urgent care is to St. George Island.  Then he got swimmers ear on top of it...  he was a miserable little dude.  All better now!

- Then just as his meds were starting to work, he got his braces on!  Honestly, I think he's handled them far better than I expected him to!  He's not even complaining about pain any more.  We're hoping that missing tooth of his will finally decide to make an appearance now that the braces are making room for it.  Picture below is of Zane and Berber after camp on Wednesday.  He was so excited to surprise her with his new braces!  (No idea why there's a sticker on his head...)

- In other teeth news...  Quinn had his wisdom teeth removed this morning.  He's currently sleeping off the anesthesia with a bag of frozen peas on his face.  He did very well and I'm sure will be back to normal in no time.  His swelling isn't even that bad!  (Spencer needs his wisdom teeth out too, but we aren't sure when we can do it because he's literally in sports year-round.  Thinking he's going to have to pick a wrestling tourney to skip...)

- Speaking of Spencer, he's currently on an overnight workout trip with part of the football team over in Carrollton, GA.  They will be back sometime late tomorrow.  He's enjoying football, but still not as much as he enjoyed wrestling. His games start mid-August, which will be here before we know it!  

This weekend, aside from nursing Quinn back to health, we have no plans for the first time since...  um...  Easter weekend?  Maybe???  No idea what we are going to get into.  It might be as simple as sitting up at the pool and watching Zane and Beck play.  Come to think of it, that sounds like Magic!

Cheers!

Picture of the Week - 3/29/2018

I know I'm biased, but I really have the best kids!  Goodness...  they blow me away!

I've been away from home a lot lately.  And I miss my kids - and they miss me back - which is both heart warming and a bit heart wrenching.  

Zane and Beck found some old cell phones in our junk drawer.  They were determined to get them working.  They bugged Bob - and bugged him and bugged him and bugged him.  Zane was particularly persistent while I was away from home last week.  Bob worked on them for a while, then got distracted with things like cooking and care taking and taxi service, then worked a bit more.  They needed new Apple IDs and the old kind of chargers and had to get cleared out.  None of that is hard, but just takes time.  

So Bob would do a bit and then walk away and Zane would ask if they were done.  Rinse and repeat.  Finally on the day before I was scheduled to come home, Zane asked again if they were ready and Bob said no, but he'd work on them that night.  Zane said, "OK, but I really wanted them so I could Facetime with Mom."  I mean, really!  How sweet is that child!!!

Zane and Beck now have working phones (well "working" when on wifi...) and now have the ability to both text and Facetime with me.  This week while I was at my strategy meetings (only away for 2 nights this week...) I got pretty consistent texts from the boys.  (Aside, I'm sort of also blown away with both Zane's vocabulary and his sense of humor, which is VERY dry.)  I LOVE this!  I mean REALLY love it!  It is so cool to be able to communicate with them while I'm away and to get a glimpse of what's going on with them.  I also get lots of pictures of the dogs.  LOL

This picture is a selfie Zane took and sent to me Monday morning before he left for school.  Gosh my kids are cool!

Here are a couple of really cool pictures of Quinn too from his game last weekend.  He had a great Low to Low shot and the league photographer happened to be in the perfect spot to capture a whole series of pictures of the shot.  Quinn's really growing up in the last 6 months or so.  He's easily taller than me...  has muscle definition and is turning into a young man.  Sigh...  only 2 months of middle school left for him and then onto high school!

I can't wait to get to spend some quality time with Spencer and Quinn and Bob next week.  We are leaving on Saturday night for a trip over to London and Edinburgh.  It will be a cool - and very different kind of - trip!  Mostly I'm just looking forward to hanging out with these cool kids - while my little dudes hang with Berber and Pappy and send me adorable text messages!

Happy Easter everyone!  

Picture of the Week - 12/21/2017

Wow!

A LOT of stuff has happened since last weeks email.  This has been one weird - and mostly good - week.

As I'm sitting here with a glass of wine and really want to go plop on the couch beside Bob for a while, I'll make this a new-sy kind of update and  leave the philosophy for another day!

Since we last "spoke"...

- I had surgery on my eye again on Friday.  I'm still messing with this droopy eye.  I had it fixed last November and it looked way better than it started, but still looked pretty different than the "good" side.  So we did a different procedure this time and I *think* once the swelling is gone and the stitches all heal and I look a bit less like Frankenstein, I'm going  to be really happy.  The recovery for this one was much easier than the last procedure, which was great!  But it still sorta knocked me on my butt last Saturday.  

- While I was applying cold compresses on Saturday, Spencer and Bob were at a wrestling tournament.  For this one, Spence got to wrestle at 195 lbs, which is his "real" weight class.  He did really well and ended the day in 4th place with a 3-2 record.  The 2 losses were both to the same guy.  There were 11 guys in his weight class.  The first time the guy beat him, he got pinned in about 35 seconds.  The second time, they went to the 3rd period, so Spencer definitely improved.  Tomorrow he's going to a BIG tournament down here.  It's a 2 day deal and he'll be at 195 again.  We're taking all the kids to watch him tomorrow (except Zane*) and hopefully it will be another fun day for him.  

*Zane is staying home to go to a Minecraft coding camp at the High School.  I think he's almost as excited about this camp as he is about Christmas!

- On Sunday we got 2 new members of the family - a couple of Guinea Pigs we've named Phineas and Ferb.  They are adorable.  We are all kind of smitten with them.  Quinn likes to put one on his shoulder and carries him around nearly everywhere.  The boys aren't even phased by the fact that these guys are poop machines.  LOL  Ozzie hates them.  Or maybe he's afraid of them.  He's been a nervous wreck since they got here.  Willow could care less.

- On Sunday we also got to watch Quinn play a lacrosse game.  He's definitely got more of a temper now than he used to.  I guess testosterone will do that to you!  At one point he got a penalty - then mouthed off about it - and got an extra minutes.  LOL  I kinda love the  fire!

- Somewhere in there we discovered that the truck wouldn't run.  So we left it parked with a plan to get it to the shop on Monday.

- Sunday night we got to go out to dinner and a concert with my mom and dad.  We had gotten my mom some concert tickets for her birthday and it was SUCH a cool night.  We went to a Korean barbecue restaurant and then watched a really cool Christmas concert with For King and Country and Casting Crowns.  Such a fun night!

- Monday we did the work thing, Bob went to Beckett's holiday party, and we found out the truck needed 6000 worth of transmission work.  BLAH

- Tuesday Bob went to Zane's holiday party while I took Quinn for a check-up at the scoliosis clinic*.  Then we went car shopping.  I test drove a bunch of different options and picked a car we thought we wanted.  Of course when we went to test drive it, the battery was dead.  So back home we went with a plan to revisit the next day.

*Way more on the scoliosis thing next week.  Short story is that his curves are worse than they were last year.  He has 3 instead of 2 and they are all more curvy.  So we need to go see a specialist.  I was, honestly, shocked because to me he didn't look any worse than he had before.  Oh well...  we have an appointment with an orthopedic scoliosis specialist next Wednesday.

(We were still trying to work through all of these distractions.  Work...  BLAH!)

- Wednesday Bob and I both put in a few hours at our jobs and then headed back to Carmax.  (BTW - This is the second time we've used Carmax and I really couldn't recommend them any more highly.  It's an easy experience.  No pressure.  We love them!)  I bought a black 2014 Infinity Q50.  I love it.  To say it's a step up from the 13 year old truck is about the biggest understatement of the decade.  

- Today we did the work thing again, gather up the big boys - who both got out of school early today because they had finished their exams, and had a lovely lunch with them.  Then I had an appointment with the eye doctor.  After that pleasant experience (seriously, does anyone enjoy getting stitches OUT???) we drew names and let the boys shop for their annual gifts to each other.  This year I had Quinn and Zane and Target.  LOL  We had fun!  Knocked over a whole display of wrapping paper.  Bought WAY too many bags of holiday M&Ms and giggled through the store.  Goodness I love those boys!

I am SO excited for Christmas!!!

Before we get there though...  we have MORE stuff going on!

- Tomorrow is wrestling day (and somehow I need to find time  to grocery shop or there's going to be a mutiny...)

- Saturday is WAY up in the air because our plans will depend on how Spencer does in the tournament tomorrow.  It also will, hopefully, include our Church service and our traditional Christmas Eve-Eve Mexican dinner if we can squeeze it in!  (If not, concession food it is...)

- Sunday we get to go to my sister's for our annual Christmas Eve brunch and then we are going to see Star Wars.  One of my favorite days of the year!

- And of course Monday is Christmas.  I can't WAIT to share some of the secrets that we have wrapped under that tree!

I wish you all the Merriest Christmas!  Enjoy those around you!  It's such a special - and kinda nutty - time of year!!  I love it!

Cheers!

Picture of the Week - 12/14/2017

The countdown is definitely ON for Christmas!!!  I can't wait!

Let's see....  what's new....

I finally got home LATE last Friday to half a FOOT of snow!  Craziness!!  The forecasters knew it would be cold enough to snow, but totally missed on the moisture content in the air.  They predicted no more than a dusting.  They were really wrong!  It was unbelievably beautiful!  I had plenty of time to admire the sites during my drive home from the airport in the dark on Friday.  LOL  Bright side - the only other vehicle out that night was a salt truck so traffic was a breeze!

We had a blessedly quiet weekend due to basically everything being cancelled because of the snow.  It was kind of awesome!  I baked and cuddled and cooked and relaxed and hugged and did a mountain of laundry.  

This week has be awesome!  Bob and I took a couple of days off work to celebrate Bob's birthday and to prep for Christmas and hang out together.  Nothing says love like a mid-week Chinese food lunch date.  :) 

Tonight I'm going out with some friends.  Tomorrow I'm having a wee bit of surgery done on my eye again.  Hoping it heals up quickly because we have a weekend full of wrestling (which I'm skipping, I think, even though Spence is finally getting an opportunity to wrestle in his own weight class (195) instead of wrestling up) and lacrosse on Sunday.  Then Sunday evening we are going to a Christmas music concert.  I can't wait!

It's going to be Christmas and Smiles and more Cuddles in NO TIME!

Here are a couple of holiday pictures to enjoy.  The first is from Friday night in the snow.  Definitely not something you see every year here!  There's our traditional Santa Hat picture - which I am probably going to make them redo because Quinn, who was dressed for a band concert, looks a little too morbid for a Christmas picture.  And finally a picture of Spencer and his girlfriend Ava on "ugly sweater day" at church.  Too funny!

Have a great week everyone!