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.....

Bullet Point Friday!

**So I bought some microwave popcorn last night.  I am a fan of caramel corn and kettle corn.  This had the words "salted caramel" on the outside of the box so I assumed...YUM!  Well, it tasted good, but barely had any caramel taste to it at all.  J.D. saw the box this morning and asked me now it was.  I told him disappointing and told him why.  He suggested that the next time I should read the ingredient list before I buy it.

**we have a dog...a miniature dachshund...she's little. And she is fast..  So something got into her yesterday and she decided to take off down the street.  Nathan and tried corralling her for awhile.  The little stinker would come just to where we could touch her and then turn around and run.  Sara stood at the door laughing at us. She said that she wished she had it on video so she could share it with the world.  Yet another reason my kids don't have smart phones!

**i bought my kids pop tarts as a treat for breakfast.  They were thrilled. They always feel like the pop tart setting is a waste on our toaster because we NEVER have pop tarts.

**Ashley went to the store with me last night.  As we were leaving I realized I forgot to get eggs. I mentioned this to Ashley and she said can't you just use banana as a substitute.  To which I replied...not for scrambled eggs.  I don't know why not was her response.  And she wouldn't understand since eggs and bananas are number 1 and number 2 on her dislike food list.

**I. Am. So. Excited!  One of our kids has decided to follow in his mother's footsteps and play the trumpet.  I pulled out my trumpet for him last night and began reminiscing about the fun that trumpet and I had together.  Then I had a brilliant idea!  I haven't really touched my trumpet much since I graduated from high school.  Sooooo...I suggested to him that I pick it back up again, shake the rust off my playing and then we could do a duet together.  His answer...."ummmm, no" partnered with a look of complete disbelief that I would even suggest such a thing.  I was almost to the point of begging, when he looked at me again and said "that is not going to happen."  Sigh....but I haven't given up!

I will leave you with a shot of two of the three handsome men living in my house:

(We've decided Nate's football nickname is "Heinz")

Where I've been

So the last couple of weeks I have been about a block from my house, hanging out here:

watching this guy:

If you look closely the second one in the back row has the last name Horn on his practice jersey.  That is Nathan.   In the first picture he is in the same row and he is the one running.  (These were ipad pics.  Hope to get my actual camera out to practice soon to get some good shots.).  I didn't get any pictures of John.  His team was away from the regular practice field last night.  They had gone to a different part to practice on the sleds which John absolutely LOVES!  This week was the first time this year I have actually gotten to watch them practice.  I took on a new role this year.  I am a board member now of our local JFL (junior football league).  I am responsible for registration.  So I have been consumed with making sure 103 table players paperwork is in order as well as all our flag and cheerleaders.  I have enjoyed it, but I missed getting to watch this.

Something interesting to point out....those of you who have seen John in his football uniform, may remember how he looks in it as he stands, walks, runs, etc.  (or that may just be a mom thing).  All the boys look alike when they are in uniform with a helmet so you learn to recognize your own kid's movements.  Those of you who know my boys also may know how different they are....they are built differently, act differently, etc.  The craziest thing happens when you put a football uniform on them though. They look just alike!  They stand alike and even run alike (Nate is still faster).  I can't get over it! They are definitely related when they are playing football.  I hope in high school they get to play on the same team at some point.  It would be so fun to have them both on the same field at the same time on the same team!

Do you see it?

Do you see an owl in this tree?  Yeah....me either.  My daycare kids are convinced there is an owl in the tree hooting. I can't seem to convince them that it is probably a dove.  They don't believe me.  And it does sound a lot like a hoot.

It has been a busy week here filled with football practice, work for both of us and a birthday yesterday for Joe.  Oh, and allergies....I have seriously started praying for frost so the itching can stop. Itching in my eyes, throat, ears...you name it, it itches.

Tonight we kick off the year for Salt and Light...our youth groups at church.  Our pastor does a family night of food and fun.  We have walking tacos which we discovered last year must be a regional thing because many had no idea what in the world a walking taco was. Another leader and I chopped and diced as well as browned meat this morning.  It is going to be a fun year.  I help out with it and the leaders were asked to submit an idea for a theme for the year.  There were some really good ones.  I am so curious to see which one we are going to do.

And now it is time to make our way inside...one of the 2 year olds is afraid of the owl, one is taking off her shoes and the itching has once again commenced. 

Quote of the day

Our quote of the day came very early this morning at the breakfast table.  Joe was sharing how far and how fast he had run this morning. It was a pretty impressive figure.  He has gotten fairly fast. Ashley, in an effort to be encouraging said..."dad if you entered a 5K you could beat....(long pause as she thought hard)...someone who is slower than you!" Brilliant, Ash, brilliant!

Hot Water

The definition of irony at our house today:  on the hottest day of the summer we have no hot water.  Well, that isn't totally true.  We still had a little hot water out of the faucets, but the leak in it was bathing our basement floor in hot water. So we had hot water; it just wasn't where we wanted it. So Joe got an early birthday present...a visit from our friendly plumber and a new water heater! Just what every 41 year old wants for his birthday, right?!  Happy Birthday babes!

Bush Baby

So Ashley woke up on Sunday morning looking like this:

Her eyes were completely dilated.  She looked just like a bush baby, and while it was kind of funny and creepy all at the same time, it was a little scary.  Go ahead and google causes of dilated eyes and you will be a little nervous for her too.  We drilled her with questions about other symptoms and of course her dad asked her if she had been smoking marijuana lately.  She had no other symptoms and she assured us that she had not become a druggy.   They looked a little better this morning but we went ahead and called the doctor.  A sure way to cure someone is to call the doctor.  By the time Joe picked her up from school for her appointment they were back to normal.  The doctor looked her over for good measure and the conclusion is that she was having an allergic reaction to an environmental allergen.  She may be back to normal, but I think the bush baby nickname may stick.

The promised picture....

So as promised here is the first day of school picture.  I had to change my instructions this year as they lined up for pictures.  Normally I say tallest to shortest, but this year I had to say oldest to youngest.  When I said tallest to shortest there was a discussion between the oldest two on who was tallest.  I think poor Sara will get passed up in this next year.  But I am pretty sure the boys are going to pass them both up at some point.