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!

This week

 Sunday I decided that Jack and I would walk the 6 mile loop at Shelby Farms.  We just needed a little time together and hiking six miles certainly gives you time.
About 3 miles into the loop, the bottom fell out.  It rained, it poured, it thundered and then the lightening started.  I couldn't decide if we were better out in the open field or in the woods.  Jack just took off running.  At one point it was raining so hard I could not even hold my head up.  There was not a dry stitch on either of us.  Jack was pretty scared.  I knew we were going to be okay, but we were at mile 3 of a 6 mile loop.  I told Jack whatever we did, we were just going to have to get back to the car and the best way to do that was walk.  And walk...and run we did.  We made it back safely.  We made great memories that we are still laughing about.  It has been raining here since that moment at Shelby Farms.
The above picture was taken at mile 2.  The pictures below were taken at the finish.  We made it! You can't tell how wet we were, but just know before I got in the car I literally had to wring out my shirt.

 Since I was gone most of the afternoon with Jack hiking we thought it would be a good idea to swing through the drive thru at Taco Bell after church.  Fifteen minutes later we had our food and were headed home.  We sent this picture to Fred to show him that we were waiting at TB.  He was not surprised.
PS-My hair was still wet here.

This week it has rained a lot.  All practices were canceled, which means that we only had a few meetings each night instead of multiple places to be.  It was such a nice break...even though we are just a week into school.  

Every now and then a Friday works out just perfectly for me and Fred to have a date.  We decided to bike the Wolf River Greenway.  (It cloudy, but the glare was killing me!)  After we rode bikes we cleaned up at home and tried a new Mediterranean restaurant called, Casbah.  It was great!  

I had a gyro plate and Fred had schwarma.  My plate had lamb.  Typically we don't have dessert, but there was a Vegan Caramel Brownie that I was intrigued by.  I asked the lady if it was good and she said, "Are you a Vegan?"  Umm....No.  Lamb.  I just had a plate of lamb.  Fred and I got a good chuckle out of that.  The brownie was good.  Vegan for sure, but good. 

Andrew came home on Friday with his homework for the week.  I love this.  We can get his homework done on Friday afternoon so we don't have anything to do during the week.  Glorious!  This was Andrew's first time to do big boy homework.  Bless my soul.

 Friday night we had a DIY night at church for women.  If you know me, you know that a craft stresses me out.  I'm not crafty at all. I'm happy to report that I survived.  I'm also happy to report that these sweet girls from my class came to participate.  I sure do love these girls.  I'd also like to note that I'm standing on my tip toes to be able to see.  I'm not really that tall.  I'd also like to point out that I look tired.  That's because I am.  This picture was taken at 8:15 on a Friday night after the second full week of school.  So yeah, I'm ready for bed here.

Back to School

Monday morning, bright and early, we started school.  But on Sunday afternoon, the boys made their own lunch.  I typically make Andrew's sandwich because he's 6 and then he gets everything else, but on Sunday that all changed.  I started to make his sandwich and he said, "Mom, I'd like to make my sandwich this year so you don't have to do it.  You do too much for me and that's somethings I can do."  Well, bless his heart.

Monday morning we all lined up for the obligatory back to school photo.  8th grade for Clayton...

5th grade for Jack...

1st grade for Andrew...

Fred and I walked the youngest boys in to school, but you don't walk a middle schooler into school.  No, you don't.  Fortunately for me, my sweet friend was in the halls helping out and just happened to see Clayton...and she just happened to introduce him to his homeroom teacher as her foreign exchange student.  Then he teacher said, "Welcome to our country."  I have laughed and laughed and laughed at this.  I'm so thankful for friends that keep us laughing, that love my children, and that introduce them as their own foreign exchange student.

Here Dash's back to school picture. He was sad.  He missed the boys.  Apparently, I'm not as much fun as the boys.  Who knew?!?

Then, this crew came out of the middle school.  I remember when we moved here and my children didn't know anyone.  Tears streamed down my face as I left him in the 6th grade hall.  Isn't God faithful?  Look at this great group of kids from our church.  This group doesn't include his school friends. 

I went to my first of three parent nights.  Andrew's class was first.  This was his self portrait hanging on the wall.  Too sweet.

Then we decided it would be a great idea to host Clayton's birthday party on Friday night after the first full week of school.  #augustbirthdayprobs
A sweet group of guys headed to our friend's house for swimming, fishing, and eating pizza.  The plan was the camp out, but with high rain chances we opted to come back home for a little sleep over.

Happy Birthday Clayton!  I hope you enjoyed this sleepover.  No more sleepovers.  I'm too old for this.  Just kidding.  Well...maybe not.  Ha!

Routine is Coming

School begins tomorrow, which is a giant Boo!! around here!  Here's what's been going on the last couple of weeks though...

Clayton spent a week at the Ocoee serving several families.  He had a blast and even found my love of pressure washing.

While he was there he got to raft the Ocoee and he fell into a rose bush.  I'm not really sure how that happened, but it did.

The other boys spent the week with Aunt Janice in Jackson.  They had a blast.  There was back to school shopping, eating whatever they wanted, and staying up late to watch Cardinal baseball.

Aunt Janice also took them to eat lunch with Fred's grandfather.  They had a blast!

While the kiddos were gone, we did all sorts of fun things like wash our fence and mow the yard.  Seriously, when these boys leave home, we are moving into an apartment.  I'm not maintaining this yard without them.  We did have lunch together and just enjoyed the quiet house.  It was all things glorious.

 Andrew had to go to the Little Clinic because he had an ear infection.  We were going to the doctor in a few days, but when your ear hurts you need immediate assistance.

 Speaking of taking boys to the doctor...if you haven't taken 3 boys to the doctor at once, you haven't lived.  Those rooms could not be smaller.  It's awesome. God bless Dr. Thompson.

Fred celebrated his birthday on Thursday with a Happy 16th birthday balloon, because I'm a dork.  Then, later that afternoon we drove to Jasper, Arkansas for a last hoorah before school begins.  

True story...I called the place we were staying for the physical address to put in my GPS.  They don't have addresses.  The place is so rural...they don't have 911 addresses.  I had a lot of questions about this, but I just kept my eyes opened as we were driving and literally said, "There it is."  Literally, no mail box, no sign, nothing.  I just remembered it by the picture on vrbo.  Who knew?!?

Our first day there we hiked to Triple Falls, which was more like Triple Trickle.  It was not much of a waterfall, but it was a fun hike none the less.  

All of the roads that led to trailheads were gravel.  Gravel.  I would not recommend a Honda Odyssey for this type of driving.  We made it out on a wing and a prayer.

After that hike we headed to Eden Falls/The Lost Valley.  We hiked to the waterfall and then did a little cave exploring.  When I say cave exploring, I mean crawling through spaces that were about 24 inches.  I am pleased to report that we made it, despite the fact that we followed the word of some teenagers that were in front of us assuring us that this was the way.  I'd also like to point out that one of the teenagers was wearing FLIP FLOPS.  Yes, flip flops.  And yes, we followed this kid through this cave.  Later that evening I asked Fred what we were thinking and we both just laughed.  I mean, when your boys are saying, "Come on mom.  Come with us."  That's what you do, right?!?

After that hike we headed to Whitaker Point.  Yes, we tried to squeeze in a lot in one day.  I'd say we succeeded.  The drive there was 6 miles on a gravel road.  Whitaker Point is the most iconic hike in this area, so naturally we had to hike it.  Minus getting separated from our children, the guys, and not having water (Mercy.) it was worth it. I mean, look at this view!  Please note that these pictures look worse that reality.  We were all safe in taking these pictures.  Really.  I wouldn't have walked out there or allowed my children to walk out there had I not felt safe.

After this hike, we decided to call it a night.  Saturday morning we loaded up and headed to Mountain View, Arkansas to tour Blanchard Springs Cavern.  Thankfully, this one was a guided tour with lights and guides and stairs and guides and safety precautions and wide passageways and lights.  It was worth the price of admission.

After the cave tour we explored Blanchard Springs and Mirror Lake falls.  It was beautiful.

We had the best time together!  Until next summer friends.  I think I better go get some boys to pack their lunch for school tomorrow.  Can you hear the cheers of excitement?!?  Ha...just kidding!