Fall is in the Air

Flag Football started this weekend!  Yahoo!  Jack was in his happy place...except that his team did not win.  He got to play quarterback for most of the game.  Andrew did great too, if by great you mean he stood on the field while everyone else ran around him.  Ha!  (The pictures below are of Jack.  He is #45.)

Monday morning I told the boys I would bring them lunch to school.  Andrew eats at 10:30.  Do you know how difficult it is to get lunch and get to school by 10:30?  Well...I'm just going to tell you it's really difficult.  The reason I know this is because I didn't get there on time.  No, I did not.  He had already started eating a school lunch.  I can not begin to tell you how bad I felt.  He seemed not to notice.  I won't be late next time. 

 After eating with Andrew, I volunteered in the library and then picked up lunch for Jack.  I ordered him a cheeseburger, but they gave him a junior cheeseburger.  Fail again.  Whoops.  He was so excited that I was there though, that even the junior cheeseburger snafu seemed not to phase him. 

After living here for almost 2 years these girls and I got together for lunch.  We met at Eleana's Taco Shop.  It was wonderful.  All of it...the food, the conversation, the friends. The only thing that would be better would have been for Tami to be with us.  The commute for her would be a little much though.   

Tuesday night we were at home again...yahoo! Since it was the last official night of summer we decided to celebrate with ice cream.  I could think of something to celebrate every night if ice cream was involved.

Andrew came home with a note from school on Monday telling me that Wednesday would be blue day.  My goodness he was very concerned about wearing blue on the correct day.  Very concerned.  I got this picture of his class from his teacher.  I think he nailed it.  

Wednesday morning was rather crazy around here because we were off schedule a bit.  Clayton had See You at the Pole so Fred took him (and stayed with him) at 6:00 am for that.  Jack had choir practice at 7:00 am.  And then I had to take Andrew to school at the normal time.  Since Jack wasnt' with me I couldn't just drop him off.  I had to walk him in.  Mercy. By the time everyone was out the door I felt like I needed to go back to bed and start a new day.  Here's a picture of the See You at the Pole Rally at Clayton's school.  If you look for a neon green shirt and a bald head you'll see Fred.  I still can't find Clayton, but I know he's there.

Thursday night the Tigers played Cincinnati.  I thought before we left I would make some cookies.  They look great, don't they?

I tried to make them with oat flour, but as you can see it was a huge fail.  We scraped them off the pan and made the best of it.  Don't tell me I'm not a "glass is half full" kind of person.  We try to see the positive in EVERY situation...especially when cookies are involved.

The Tigers game  was incredible!  Because it was a school night we had to leave at the beginning of the fourth quarter.  It was almost 10:00 pm when we left, which is far from our bedtime.  We ran to the car and listened on the radio on the way home and then ran inside to watch them play on ESPN.  We caught the end of it...just in time to see the Tigers win!  Yahoo!  And no one was grumpy Friday morning...no one.  I kid.  Someone was, but we won't name names.

Each fall our town hosts a Bartlett Festival.  This is actually my first year to be able to attend.  Our church has a booth.  The class that I teach volunteered to man it.  The big boys didn't want to go with me, but Andrew was all over it.  So we headed out.  

Please know I was supposed to be volunteering at a booth, but here I stand with Andrew riding rides.  Why is this?!?  He's the baby.  He's a hustler, relentless, and I'm tired.  Yep, that about sums it up.  

 They even had hot air balloons.  Isn't that beautiful?  When it started to get dark they lit them up.  It was a quintessential small town fair.  I felt like I was in the Charlotte's Web county fair...minus the pig and spider.

We snapped these pictures before Andrew swindled me out of some Italian Ice.  Then he REALLY wanted/needed a light up sword and something to drink.  I held firm on both of these and did not relent.  Much to his disappointment we left with neither a sword, nor a drink.  (We ate just before we left, so I knew he was fine.)  He was very disappointed on both counts.  He told me that we didn't have enough swords at home (we only have 57) and that 16 people had walked past us holding a sword.  16?!?  Yes, he had been counting.  That's what he told me.  We still left sans light up sword.

This Week

Saturday we were home all day.  By Saturday night we were grilling steaks for dinner and Jack asked if we could eat outside.  It was so pleasant here.  One thing led to another and before we knew it I was at Kroger buying ingredients for s'mores and the boys were building a fire.  It was a lovely night.

Sunday morning I stayed in the nursery in the 2 year old class.  I was talking to one of the precious little girls.  I held up my hand and asked her if she could count my fingers.  (She's really smart.)  She looked at me, pointed to my thumb and said, "That's not a finger. That's your thumb."  Ha.  It still makes me laugh when I think about it.

Sunday night we went to a friend's house for some homemade gumbo.  I regretfully say I did not get a picture of the entire sweet group.  The reason I did not get a picture was because I was too busy eating delicious (I dare say, the BEST) gumbo I have ever eaten!  I had two bowls.  Yep, I did.

Monday my friend goes to chemo and I got to take her.  We had way more fun in that chemo room than we should have.  I have not laughed that hard in a while.  God is great with giving us things to smile about even through difficult circumstances.  (Read another article here.)

Andrew has been settling in to kindergarten.  We are getting used to it too.  The discipline chart here is different from when our other boys were in kindergarten.  I'm not really sure what's going on, but there are about 8 different colors and pink is one from the top.  Andrew has gotten on pink twice.  I'm not sure if there is cause for concern or not.  We asked him why he was on pink and he "just couldn't remember".  After the second time of being on pink we questioned him a little more and got the same story.  The following was our conversation:
Me:  Should I call your teacher to see if she can remember?
Andrew:  You don't have her phone number.
Me:  Yes, I do.
Andrew:  (With eyes as big as quarters and holding up his index finger)  Wait.  I think I remember.
After a quick email exchange with his teacher we discovered that neither one of them could really remember why he was on pink.  We also discovered that being on pink is really no big deal.  We'll see.

We had a rare night at home so we had a Connect 4 tournament, complete with a bracket.  We showed the kids who the boss is around this house.  We schooled them on some Connect 4.  Yes, we did.

Dash the Dog ate the remainder of a bag of Nutter Butters (about a third of the bag).  Below is his "I don't even care.  I'm not sorry.  They were delicious" face.  

Friday the boys were out of school so we decided to visit Incredible Pizza.  A good time was had by all!!  As you can see Andrew brought home another stuffed animal.  If anyone is counting it is, 

57-stuffed animals, 5-humans, 1-dog in this house.  

Friday night some friends had us for dinner.  They didn't tell us what we were eating.  We were presented a menu that was all in French.  We had four courses.  For each course we labeled three things.  The menu looked like this:

Unfortunately, the two years of Spanish I took in high school helped me none.  On this menu was our food, our drinks, our silverware, our napkins...everything.  For Fred's first course he got a piece of bread, a napkin, and a spoon.  One of our friends got a fork, spoon, and a piece of chicken.  The food was delicious, the conversation was delightful, and the experience was so fun.  I'd highly recommend a dining experience like this for your friends. (PS-Learn to speak French first...and you couldn't cheat by using your phone.)

This week

My parents came to church with us on Sunday.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Firehouse subs.  After we ate they took the boys to their house for the holiday on Monday.  WooHoo!  Fred and I had church Sunday evening, but that can't keep two party animals like us down.  I tell ya.  I stayed up until Fred was finished with his meeting so we could go out to eat together.  It was at least 8:30 pm by the time we got to the restaurant.  I'm not even kidding when I tell you it felt like the middle of the night.  I don't think I've eaten dinner that late in years.  We dined at our favorite Mexican restaurant on Summer Avenue.  It was delightful.

The next morning, in keeping with our wild and crazy streak, we slept until 7:00 am.  I know.  We were late sleepers!  I went to the grocery store.  Yep, I did.  But when I came back we drove down to the University of Memphis area and grabbed breakfast at Cafe Eclectic.
I learned two things:
1.  Hipsters pay a lot of money for their food.
2.  They make a great pumpkin latte.

This picture makes me laugh because Fred looks so tired.  This is exactly how Jack looks in the morning.  Exactly.

This is me enjoying my first Pumpkin Latte of the season.  Oh me, it was tasty.  It did not matter one bit that it was 92 degrees outside.  With every little sip I felt the season of fall coming on!  

We drove to Jackson and met up with our crew for my mother's birthday.  My dad grilled burgers and we celebrated it up!  Mom even opened presents.

When we got home that evening the boys were exhausted.  I sent Andrew to bed around 7:30 pm.  When I went upstairs to tuck him in he was crying...almost inconsolably.  When I asked him what was wrong he told me he missed Mimi.  I suggested we call her.  He suggested we FaceTime her.  Gotta love the IPhone.  This seemed to help him and then he was fast asleep.  The next morning he came to the top of the stairs and I greeted him with a very joyful "Good Morning!!"  He looked at me very straight faced and said, "I still miss Mimi."  Well...okay.  So, we called her before school.

I forgot to mention last week that Clayton made Honor Choir and Pop Choir at his school.  He is really pumped about this.  He has a great group of friends in this group.

We went to our first Bartlett High School football game Friday night.  A good friend from church is the running back coach.  We stood with the coach's father in law.  While we were standing there Clayton said, "Mr Jack (the father in law), Mr. Kevin (the coach) is doing an exceptional job with the running backs this season."  That boy and his words.  He cracks me up.
Also, while we were standing there we were able to eat a little food.  The culinary department of the high school serves food to city officials, school employees, etc.  Since Mr. Jack is an Alderman he let us join him.  I should mention that we had just eaten with Pawpaw, but you know my kiddos were in the line to eat.  I helped Andrew with his plate and as we got to the end of the line I asked him if he'd like a brownie and he said, "Certainly!"  Why did I even ask?!?

I have not been feeling that good this week.  I thought this Peanut Butter Hot Fudge Sundae from Sonic might help.  While my energy level did not increase, I certainly enjoyed the five minutes that I savored each bite of this treat.  Delish.

I had the privilege of taking Dash to the vet on Friday.  He only lost his mind twice.  I count that a success.  

 Friday morning I had the opportunity to listen to my friend, Melody, tell about the adoption of her daughter from Honduras.  It was such a joy to be able to watch it on my computer from my living room.  You gotta love technology, right?!?

 Saturday morning I tackled all of the boys fall and winter clothes.  I always save them from the last season on the off chance that somethings might still fit.  Good grief, these boys have grown.  What have we been feeding them?!?  Mercy.

 I sort everything by size of each boy.  Then I bring them in one at a time to try on their stack of stuff.  Andrew, by far, is the toughest.  It takes forever.  It takes all of my patience.  It takes all of my energy.  I'm happy to report, we made it through the clothes.  Well...I guess we made it through.  I'm still sitting on the couch recovering.  It was exhausting.  They were good sports.

Saturday evening I had the privilege so joining forces with my friend, Melanie Redd, to discuss mentoring.  We went somewhere in Mississippi.  (My Mississippi geography is not that good, so sorry.)  I think we were in South Haven or Horn Lake or something like that.  Regardless, we had the best time!

Sunday night we had an artist at church.  He painted while music was playing.  It was beautiful to watch.  We did not know it, but the painting was actually upside down while he was painting.  Andrew was really enjoying watching the process, but at one point he leaned over to me and said, "If he is trying to draw a picture of Jesus it doesn't look anything like him." Then when he flipped over the painting and it looked like this

Andrew said, "Well...he's a serious artist."  I was rolling at Andrew's commentary.  Fred misses out on some good times because he sits in the front of the church.  I was rolling.

Monday Jack came home from school all excited.  He ran the half mile with 40 people and came in 3rd place.  He told me later he would have come in 2nd, but a girl beat him.  Then he said, "It was only because they gave the girls a 10 second head start."  Competitive boy.
Fred, Clayton and Andrew headed to Renee's house to celebrate Tori's birthday, but Jack and I stayed back.  I had a meeting at Clayton's school (Oh, the beginning of school meetings!  I think this was the last one.  I hope.) and Jack had flag football practice.  Since it was just the two of us I decided we needed to celebrate with Mexican...i.e. Jack's favorite food ever.

  He talked my ear off.  It was really a good night for us.  He sure is a sweet boy and it's a joy to get to spend one on one time with him.  That just doesn't happen much when you are the man in the middle.
Wednesday was picture day at school.  Jack came down and wanted me to iron clothes for him.  What?!?  I did it, of course.  But please know, we are not the dress up kind of crew around here.  At least I didn't have to fix anyone's hair!  That afternoon when Andrew got home he reported to me that they had to take his picture seven times.  I'm not sure what that means, but I'm thinking he was sporting his weird smile.  Maybe I should look up when the make up pictures will be taken?!?

Thursday afternoon my mom and I headed out for our annual shopping trip.  You can read all about it here.

While I was away Fred sent me a message asking about Cici's night.  Jack and Andrew's school has a night at Cici's once a month where a percentage of the sales goes to the school.  Andrew really wanted to go because his teacher told him she would be there.  And she was.  And he loved it!

  Does Fred not win Dad of the Year?!?  He also took the boys to Jerry's Sno Cones.  I know they loved it!

Saturday night the Tigers had their first ballgame.  Andrew forgot that we were there to watch football.  He thought our only goal was to support the concession stand.  He almost succeeded.

The Tigers looked good and we're all looking forward to a great season.  Go Tigers Go!