This week

My aunt lives in Nashville, but she attended the University of Memphis for college several years ago.  She has not been to a U of M (Memphis State, as she calls it) game since she graduated.  She came in for a visit on a game weekend and we had the best time.  Go Tigers Go!

You may not know this, but my super human talent is that I can stand on my head, like forever.  My sister in law sent me a message and told me that she was working on her head stand.  (Why?  I have no idea.)  Just to mess with her, I sent a selfie of me in mid head stand...in the church nursery.  Yep, I sure did.  Sometimes you just have to stop what you're doing, go into an empty room, and rock a head stand. Good times.

Jack had a Colonial dress up day at school.  This was the best we could come up with.  Fred crafted that hat out of newspaper.  When I picked him up, that hat was in his backpack.  I asked him if he wore the hat and he told me he did not, because "all the other kids had on real hats and it was just embarrassing."  Well, without the hat he was just a kid in a blue dress shirt and some baseball pants, but whatever.  He got the extra credit...so score.  

Since the boys are back in school, Dash the dog has been living a life of leisure.  I mean, he sat like this for hours as I worked all around the house.  It's a hard knock life for Dash.  

Speaking of "hard knock life for Dash"...guess who ate Andrew's entire lunch while we were at church last week?  Dash broke the lunch bag and ate the entire contents.  I found a juice box upstairs before he finished up.  I guess he was saving the drink for last.  

Fred had a men's retreat with church on Friday night and Saturday morning so the boys and I endured three games.  It was a HOT morning.  After all the games we made our way home, headed to a wedding, and then headed to the Tigers game.  

Before we headed to the Tigers game and in between flag football and the wedding, Fred and I made Jack's 2 twin beds in to a one king bed.  Bless his heart.  The big guy has been sleeping on a twin bed.  We made several modifications to the beds and we have one very happy ten year old boy.  Now he has a bed that he can grow in to.

The Tigers had a great victory by winning 77 to 3.  Since the game started at 7:00 pm, we only stayed until half time.  We had a great crew at the game with us to cheer on the Tigers!

Someone was tuckered out after our long day.  That's one sweet exhausted fella. 

Aside from my head standing, I also love to clean out and organize.  I love it. My friend and I swap cleaning each other's houses.  Sometimes when it's her turn she has me help with an organization project, which I LOVE.  Here I am, knee deep in her cabinets.  It just doesn't get much better!

Today was See You At The Pole.  Since Fred is a pastor I thought he should represent our family with Clayton...at 6:15 am...around the flag pole...at Clayton's school.  This is the picture he got.  I'm not sure where Clayton is, but I can see that it's dark and it looks like everyone has had a donut.

This week

Sunday night we started a program called Bible Drill.  It's a fun way for children to learn the books of the Bible and verses from the Bible.  We had around 24 show up.  Naturally we had to take a selfie.

Earlier in the week, I met a friend at Starbucks.  When I got my liquid gold I laughed when I looked down at the spelling of my name.  Too funny, right?  It's so bad I almost feel like the person did this on purpose just to be funny.

Andrew and I are reading through Charlotte's Web.  He loves listening to a book.  Each time I read it, I'm taken back to some of my favorite memories in the classroom.  We read Charlotte's Web together and then had a big county fair of our own.  It was a blast.  I will not be hosting a county fair for Andrew, but I think we'll watch the most recent movie together, which will be just as much fun.

Andrew is also really into playing board games these days.  He talks through the entire game, has to go first and always wants to play "one more time".  It's just precious.

We had a day off from school and I've been craving pumpkin, so I made pumpkin french toast.  It was delightful.  It got thumbs up from everyone.  You can get the recipe here.

Jack forgot his binder one day this week.  I really needed to get a workout in, so I decided to just run it up to his school.  Literally.  His binder may have been a little sweaty, but I got two birds with one stone.  Good times. 

The boys have been begging to go camping.  The big boys have hammocks that they really wanted to sleep in...all night.  They were out of school one Friday so we decided to take them to a local campground.  I should mention it was 95 degrees, Clayton had a soccer game that wasn't over until 7:00, the campground was 45 minutes away, and Oh, I hate to camp.  Yes I do.  This picture sums up my feelings on camping, getting 90 minutes of sleep, and it being 95 degrees. 

 See that hammock?  Don't let it fool you.  Ten minutes after everyone was settled Jack made his way into the tent with me and Andrew.  About an hour later, right as I was drifting to sleep, Clayton was standing over me asking if it would be okay for him to come in the tent.  Sure.  The more the merrier. And I'm up now after the whole stand over me incident.  

 At one point in the night, Jack looked at me and said, "I'm sorry I convinced you to come camping mom."  Sweet boy.  I told him not to worry about it.  I was having a blast (thankfully, it was dark so he couldn't see the look on my face.)

As I crawled/stumbled out of the tent Friday morning after about 90 minutes of sleep I asked the boys if they had fun.  Fred laughed out loud, because he and I both knew what I was thinking...Good, because I'm never coming again.  Ha!

One of our favorite things to do is play Would You Rather? at the dinner table.  The other night we were playing and Clayton's question was, "Would you rather win an Academy Award or win a gold medal in the Olympics?"  He response was, "Well, since everyone knows I'm smart, I'm going to go with gold medal."  Fred and I looked at each other very puzzled.  I then explained that an Academy Award was given to actors and actresses.  He laughed really big and told us he had it confused with a Nobel Peace Prize.  I told him that he would not soon live this down.  All week, we've had fun with this:
Do your homework.  It shouldn't be difficult for someone who's won an Academy Award.
Fold your laundry, please.  I know it seems like a menial take for someone who has won an Academy Award, but just give it your best.
And so on and so on.  He will be my age and we'll still be laughing about this!

In that same game, Andrew's question was "Would you rather live in the city or the country?"  We explained what it meant to live in the city and country.  He thought for a minute, looked at me over his little glasses and said, "I don't really care, as long as I'm with you."  Melt.my.heart.

This week...and maybe last...

Andrew had an incident at school where he "fell asleep" during PE.  Long story short, he passed out.  Long story short, we met with a pediatric cardiologist.  I'm pleased to report that all is well.  Andrew gave me a thumbs up on the appointment.

Clayton had a back to school bounce party.  It is a genius idea by the PTO at his school.  They charge $7, the kids get to miss class, bounce on bouncers, and catch up with friends.  Winning all around!

Jack had to have pants for a program at church.  This is not normally a big deal, unless you are trying to clothe Jack.  Mercy.  After several attempts with Target buying pants, trying them on at home, and returning them...on repeat, I'm pleased to report that we had success at the first store we visited.  I felt like I deserved a trophy...or at the very least some cake.

The program that we were needing the jeans for was called Generation Hymns.  Our adult choir, along with the children, youth, senior adult choirs at EBC and three other churches sang 11 "old" hymns with a new twist.  It was a great night.  I just love worshiping with all generations.  Here were my partners in crime.  I'm pretty sure this was their first selfie.

It's been so hot in Memphis.  I can't even tell myself that it's almost fall.  Someone in our neighborhood has been putting in a pool and they've been driving a dump truck through the green space behind our house.  At first Dash the Dog was on it and needed to show them who was boss, but eventually, because it was so hot he just lost the will to even try.  It's just TOO hot, said Dash the Dog.

Friday morning I made Jack's day by having canned biscuits and sausage.  Our friends in Paris used to help me in the mornings when I had to go to work.  She would always have sausage and biscuits for the boys.  We moved from Paris 2 1/2 years ago, but Mrs. Kathy's sausage and biscuits still hold the title.  I tried my best and Jack's polite response was, "they are good, but not as good as Mrs. Kathy's."  Sweet boy...loves a sausage biscuit and Mrs. Kathy.

Friday night Fred and I went with some friends to dinner and then to the Escape Room here in Bartlett.  We had a blast and I'm pleased to report that we made it out!

Football season is here!  Yahoo!  Saturday night was the season opener for Memphis.  We have season tickets, thanks to Mun.  She gives us money every year at Christmas and we save it just for this occasion.  It's the best!  We make memories every game day AND I don't have to clean anything out.  Good times.

While we were waiting for the game to begin we heard that Tubby Smith (University of Memphis's new basketball coach) and the basketball players were signing autographs.  We took the boys over and were able to grab a quick picture.

Then we settled in for the game.  Memphis won! Go Tigers Go!

Sunday night we had a church wide picnic and the youth went swimming.  I have no pictures from the picnic, but I do have one from when we were swimming. It was a fun night.  We're looking forward to Labor Day tomorrow and celebrating Mimi's birthday!