A full week....

This was a full week of the normal.....

**Three football practices

**Anticipation of Junior Madrigal auditions next week.  Ashley is so excited to audition to be a part of the high school madrigal dinner.

**Studying for spelling tests, social studies tests and science tests

**Learning a trick from Ashley (which she learned from her math teacher) on how to remember the negatives and positives of multiplying integers.

**Battling hay fever and now a cold...ugh

**Trying to figure out how the new confetti, glitter nail polish got all over my bathroom including my towel and then somehow ended up in my hair.  At least I was sparkly on Thursday.

**Owing the world of Facebook a big thank you for convincing me that I don't have to wash and air dry my son's football pants everyday.

**Fun preparations for Joe's annual guy's game weekend.  We are hosting again this year and looking forward to the guys hanging out here.

**laughing as Sara mentioned that John playing his trumpet sounded like an elephant dying.

**loving watching my son's eyes dance as he described a scrimmage with the team above him at practice in which he made the first tackle and it was behind their line

**wondering how in the world I am going to convince my son that he needs to sleep tonight so he can have enough energy for his game tomorrow

In the midst of all that I paused this morning when I heard John getting ready for school belting out "My Lighthouse" by Rend Collective singing along with the radio.  It has also been a heavy week. In the past 7 days we have come to realize that Joe's grandmother will soon be with Jesus and my brother in law was diagnosed with cancer.  He is the husband of Joe's sister, Father to three little girls and a mighty man of God. Yesterday I was thankful that an early morning thunderstorm gave me reason to skip my morning walk and spend more time in the Word.  During the heavy weeks in my life I have learned how much His Word can soothe the soul.  I have been working my way through the Bible this year and on Thursday I happened to be in Psalm 119.  I love the reminders of the benefits of His Word.  I am so thankful that His "word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Thankful that His Word gives life and reminds me over and over of His steadfast love.  And as the song says:

In the silence, You won't let go

In my questions, Your truth will hold

Your great love will lead me through

You are the peace in my troubled sea

You are the peace in my troubled sea

My Lighthouse, my lighthouse

Shining in the darkness, I will follow You

My Lighthouse, my Lighthouse

I will trust the promise, 

You will carry me safe to shore 

Of dogs and brussel sprouts and ornate toes....

,So Joe took the dog to the vet today.  Joe hates taking her to the vet. If it wasn't for my job we would probably play rock, paper, scissors to see who had to take her...loser would obviously be the one taking her.  Evidently she has horrible teeth and this is causing her a lot of pain. It is so much pain that she gained 3lbs since last year.  And she wagged her tail when the doctor wiggled a loose one.  Sigh...I know I should have compassion and agree to have two teeth pulled, but the quote of $250-$400 for the procedure pretty much zapped my compassion.  Holy cow...that is more than it costs to pull a human tooth.

Our garden is still mightily producing.....

This is what I picked on Monday.  I was feeling so guilty about not having time to get the green beans picked that I finally pulled all my green bean plants.  In the left side of the bowl you can see brussel sprouts.  My kids LOVE brussel sprouts.  So I planted some this year.  Some equals 16 plants.  That was an accident.  How was it an accident?  Well, it becomes an accident when you don't pay attention to how many plants are in the flat you purchased.  I roast them with salt, pepper and olive oil until they are crispy on the outside.  Yum!

Here is the finished product:

So I will leave you with a closed captioning typo...or maybe someone thought no one was reading what he was typing at 4am.  Yes...I was awake around 3:30 this morning. My allegies are really making me miserable. So I got up so my sinuses could clear out. I turned the TV to Fox News and they were carrying the live press conference with President Obama and the Prime Minister/President of Estonia (not sure which it is...the news scroll said Prime Minister, but our President addressed him as Mr. President). Anyway, the leader of Estonia was speaking about how much they appreciate being in NATO and appreciate their allies.  What he said was "our NATO allies"; however, he stumbled over the words a little. What the CC people typed was "ornate toes allies". I was literally laughing out loud in my living room at four in the morning. It struck me really funny.

Labor Day...

Labor Day as a day full of......labor!  Our weekend did not go as planned.  We were hoping to have a relaxing, long weekend with all of us at home. This is something we haven't had in a long time.  And it wasn't meant to be this weekend.  Joe had to make a quick trip to Indiana on Saturday.  And due to the heat and rain the grass was super long. So on Monday morning I tackled the yard with Nathan and then I helped Joe with this:

We have desperately needed new flooring in our hall and bedrooms for a long time.  We have Nathan's room and the hall done (I should say Joe got those done since I contributed absolutely nothing to those projects).  The goal for our weekend was to get our bedroom done.  Because of the shake up of our schedule, that pretty much left Monday for that project.

Here is the before:

Pictures don't really do the grossness of this carpet justice.

We actually made a pretty good team.  Joe ran the pressure hammer gun (I actually have no idea what he actual name of it is) and the rubber mallet.  I unloaded the wood floor out of the boxes and laid them out on the floor.  AND I ran the saw! Yes...I ran the saw.  I got really good at it.  We are almost done with our bedroom and then we just have John's room left.

Here is the lean, mean, floor laying team.....