A Visit from Cousin B!

Wow, were the boys surprised to see Bryan! It's been about 4 years and they all agree, he has certainly GROWN! We really enjoyed catching up during the 12 short hours we had him last Friday night, between 10 pm and 10 am! The boys were excited to show him their bedrooms, the kitchen addition and the dog, but his show and tell was the best and Peter and I loved watching them all pass around his DRIVER'S LICENSE! I think they stayed up until 4 am goofing around in the basement (Connor and Graeme go live on B's facebook) before a quick pancake breakfast and he was out the door again.

BUT, six days later, he came back... for 30 more whirlwind hours of fun! It was a great excuse for the middle schoolers to stay up late on a school night (although this time they showed some restraint and went to bed at 2 am) and then I got him to myself for the day! (Boo! Hiss! What a mean mom to send the boys to school Friday, but they all had TESTS!) I fed Bryan and Pierce McDonald's breakfast (you know I love ya B) en route to the world's weirdest Walmart location where Bryan helped me load the rug I'd ordered and had delivered site to store. (Try it, girls; I saved $17.99 in shipping!) We then went nuts on local fast food you can't get in Texas like Popeye's chicken and Dunkin' Donuts (and we got some for him to take home and share, too!) Now Bryan owes me a Sonic cherry limeade slush.

With about 3 hours left until the boys came home, Bryan found the perfect opportunity to indoctrinate me into the world of Twilight, which I had never read. He sucked me right in and on the way home we decided we had to stop at Blockbuster and rent the movie. Pierce tucked himself in for a long nap and Bryan and I turned off all the lights, shut the front door and watched the whole movie uninterrupted (how did I get so lucky?!?) ... and when is New Moon coming out? I'm hooked.

Then the boys came home! Luck was on our side again and at Bryan's suggestion, we were able to catch the Orioles at home at Camden Yards, facing the Red Sox. We'd never seen the Red Sox before, it's usually a "prime" game and tickets are hard to come by since Boston is close enough and their fans crazy enough to sell out our stadium reguarly when they play here. BUT with the O's stinking like the AL East basement dwellers they are, the stadium was all but empty of O's fans so after our traditional Chick-Fil-A dinner, we were able to walk up to the gate and get tickets for $6 each and join the Sox Nation to watch the home team.... from the 16th row, just beyond 1st base!! Of course, they lost, but the weather was perfect, Luke Scott hit a home run and Reilly even got his photo with The Bird.
We got home around 11 pm and Owen, Reilly and I went to bed, but what else was there for B and the big boys to do since he was leaving at 4 AM (?!@*!)... other than just stay up all night again. More Facebook and fantasy football and baseball, I think? And then to the airport, so sad. Thanks for coming Cousin B! We love you!
.... I think I'll go take a nap now.

Back in Action

With the addition of protective headgear, Connor is 100% back in action again, although you can hardly tell from these boring photos. He and his team play at such a highly competitive level now that my little camera just can't keep up anymore. It is amazing to see Connor able to play soccer again with all his old intensity, speed and strength. The Lord has been so good to us.
P.S. And not to be greedy or anything, but do you think the Lord could make Connor grow a little, too?*! See the top of his head behind the blonde boy bending over? Just remember, it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!

Back to School

Owen and Reilly took the plunge last Monday. Both boys were excited to put on their new shoes (if not their uniforms) and head back to NAPS and their school friends. Of course they would not be Joyces if they were not sad to leave behind the daily wiffle ball routine, but at least they still have the poison ivy, scratches and bug bites all over their faces, arms, and legs to prove it was a great summer.
Owen's entire 3rd grade class, including the teacher, all moved up to 4th grade together this year. I think the lack of "transition" has been nice, but Owen is most pleased to have his best friend Hank in his class again. He pretty much doesn't care about the rest of it. Except recess, where his aim for the year is to score 50 goals in soccer. For the first time ever, he was the first in the family to complete his summer reading program and I am expecting great things from him in the classroom this year... in between recesses, of course.Reilly is about to have the best year ever. He is in 2nd grade with Mrs. Regier, my favorite elementary school teacher in the universe. She is like Ms. Frizzle on The Magic School Bus. She is wacky, funny, musical and truly young at heart. She often dresses in costume, complete with enormous, colorful earrings based on the unit the kids are studying, uses the piano in her room all the time, and lets the kids do their spelling tests by tracing letters into shaving cream she squirts on their desks. She is from Minnesota and believes in outdoor recess, no matter what. Of all the boys, it was high time for REILLY to go back to school. He has a hard time keeping up with the bigger boys all summer and we are all glad he gets to go be 7 years old again.

Connor and Graeme had one additional day of summer to savor, so while Owen and Reilly were trying out their new pencils and crayons Monday, Connor and Graeme were hanging with friends at the beach and the pool, catching crabs, and definitely squeezing in a little more wiffle ball before packing lunchboxes for their first day on Tuesday. Since they are both middle school veterans already, it was the easiest first day of school for me in quite a while and, I admit, I'd gotten anxious to turn the page on our crazy summer and start a new chapter.
Everyone was grateful that Connor received medical clearance to start 8th grade on time, even though it required two trips to Hopkins the week before to jump through the proper hoops. His recovery is all but over now except for 2-3 more weeks of sports restrictions. He found that in every class, when one student was brave enough to ask what happened to his head, he quickly had a captive audience and pretty much won the "What I Did This Summer" contest. I hope his teachers were listening and don't think I let him have some weird punk hairdo. He gets lots of well wishes from former teachers and friends who learned about the accident through the grape vine during summer and continues to appreciate the nice things people do and say. His favorite class is Stock Market and he has the most homework in Geometry, which he is taking for high school credit. Peter and I are in absolute shock that this is his last year before high school.
Graeme can now say "Nihao" (Hello, pronounced Knee-How) in Chinese, but that's it. After just one week, he begged us to drop Chinese and take French instead because his class has only 4 students and the other 3 are girls, which makes him very uncomfortable. (Should I be insulted or relieved?) Also, I met his teacher and had to agree with him that her English was not very good. So, instead, we say Bonjour to the 7th grade. Graeme is otherwise very happy and well adjusted, seeing lots of familiar faces from last year sprinkled across all his classes and finding himself well liked enough to be sitting at a really rocking lunch table, with no effort at all. Starting 6th grade fresh out of NAPS was a whole different ballgame, you may remember. Also very unlike 6th grade when he had only 1 teacher who Connor had, this year he has ALL the same teachers Connor had last year, including the very cool Mr. Deen for social studies. He can't wait to play Trashketball for current events review.

Hey Guys! Where are you going? What about me?

I guess I'll just climb in my toy basket and watch some Sesame Street by myself for a while. Boy, it sure is quiet around here.

Capturing Summer

I've been working all week on saving some of the season's best to enjoy this winter. So far I've canned 1/2 bushels of tomatoes, apples and peaches from our local farmers market. I love pretending to be in a chapter of Little House on the Prairie! Aren't they pretty? But if I'm capturing the end of summer, you know what come's next, right? Boo Hoo. It's the back to school posts. Stay tuned...

We all have work;
let no one shirk.

OK, OK.
Let someone shirk!

We are working on putting in a pea gravel foundation for a paver patio outside our mudroom door. When it is finished, our worker boys have asked to be "paid" a trip to Old Country Buffet. I think we can manage that! But it's not done yet, guys..... and by the way, where's Reilly?

No more high chair!

The Long and the Short of It:

Part I

Connor's long hair and staples

Connor's short hair, 1 week after staple removal

We were really looking forward to Connor's trip back to Hopkins for staple removal. All 40 staples came out in less than 10 minutes with no problem. He brought along balloons and a basket of magazines, puzzle books and candy to share with the other teen patients at the hospital. It was an amazing blessing to be on "the other side" already and to be able to visit other kids, share his smile and story and wish them all a speedy recovery, just like his!

The scar is healing extremely well. You can see it on staple removal day above in green shirt, 2 weeks after accident, and then see how it has healed even more one week after that on haircut day in the blue shirt above, 3 weeks after accident. Now he's just waiting for medical clearance to start a little running and non-contact soccer practice this week. It is amazing how far he has come so quickly. We are so grateful.