Fall in Full Swing

Sometimes I stop and think about how FAR away summer seems now and it makes me sad. It was only a month and a half ago that we were basking in sunny poolside days at Hart Ranch and yet it seems like FOREVER ago. Our crazy routine kicks in and I can hardly remember what it was like to have days filled with nothingness. I subsequently have reached the conclusion I'm probably never going to figure out the elusive concept of BALANCE. :) But yet I'm so thankful I have two crazy kids to chase around and the most amazing husband on earth to support. So, insane schedule or not, I truly have a life filled with blessings from God and wouldn't trade it for anything . . .

Noah started out the school year with a major project on a state of his choice - he picked Alaska. Both mom and dad helped him out and he was pleased with the results (and got an A!!):And his mid-term report showed straight A's. I'm a proud mama.

Jack's doing great in his new school, but he has no time for it. Even while he's there. I had a chat with his teacher this week about how he's always in such a hurry to finish his work, his writing is nearly illegible. He maintains he is NOT going to have homework so he IS going to FINISH his work in school, no matter how it looks when he's done. :) We're now working on this.

After a really bad experience with a trial run at full-contact football, Jack and Noah are back in the NFL Flag Football league run by the local college. Lucky for them, I have a friend who works at the college, and happened to put together the teams, and also happened to know they are huge Viking fans, so she made sure their team was the Vikings. Needless to say, they were HAPPY. Jack has somehow manipulated the coach into letting him play quarterback 90% of the time.

Here's the cute thing. Noah is the one who can catch nearly all his passes. You can tell they practice together. ALOT.

Love love love this picture of Noah (below). That's my baby, scoring a touchdown!!!!

Here's Jack, seconds before scoring. Reminiscent of his track pictures - the feet hardly ever touch the ground.

Running through the parent tunnel at the end of the game - celebrating a hard-fought FIRST victory. :)

And we are really on top of things this year - we already went pumpkin shopping. Sadly we didn't have ANY pumpkins last year because we'd just got Murphy and I was a little preoccupied with all things puppy. So we decided to make up for it this year and get first pick at a cute nursery in Spearfish.

The boys take their pumpkin-picking very seriously.

Thankfully, Grandpa and Grandma were on hand to assist with the evaluations. And had more patience than mom and dad. But that's what grandparents are for, right?

We ended up taking home 8. Who's going to carve all those??

I love fall. :)

The Four BUSY Campers

Noah - is doing well on his own at the "old" school - doesn't seem the least bit phased that Jack isn't around. He's adjusting to a MUCH heavier workload this year - homework every night and "real" tests. He aced his very first test - Science - and was so proud. Just finished a big project on the state of Alaska. He's back in piano lessons and shows a gift for it - I hope he continues to enjoy it, he's so fun to listen to - and is also taking a drawing class. Playing soccer and flag football, but is having a bout with some form of tendonitis in his feet, so we're having to watch it and take it easy until that heals.

Jack - is doing VERY well at his new school - he truly amazes me. He's so independent!! I'm so impressed with the kids in his class - they are so friendly and nice to him, which is a huge relief to me. He's got a much bigger workload this year too - amazing the difference between 2nd and 3rd grade. He had FOUR tests today - the poor dude was so tired at bedtime tonight he had a good old-fashioned meltdown I'll post about later. :) He got braces a month ago and is so stinking cute, but I totally hate all this orthodontic stuff. It's a pain in the neck. I don't recommend it at this age. He's in soccer and flag football too, but quit piano, which is fine with us since he wasn't enjoying it all that much.

Mark - blew out his knee again a few weeks ago. :( Probably will never run on it again, but is currently in physical therapy to gain enough strength and mobility to stay active. For those of you who know how competitive and athletic he is, you know what a big deal this has been for him - really hard for him to accept! The boy is getting old. :) Work is going well, though, and for that we are so incredibly thankful. Every night the boys pray and thank God for daddy's job. Amen.

Murphy - is now 1 year old and disabled. Found out a month ago he's got two bad knees - they pop out of joint. :( Vet says it's hereditary, and no more fetch, no more running, no more stairs. Very difficult news for our very active family and we're still trying to decide what to do. It's so hard for him to not roughhouse with the boys, so we're debating finding him a quieter home (older couple, no stairs?) but that's easier said than done. Meanwhile, he's getting fat from no excercise. Uggh!

Me - Have become so crazy busy my head spins. It always amuses me that some people think us stay-at-home moms have nothing to do all day. Ha. Monday mornings I'm doing a Beth Moore study at church - Esther - which I love love love but it involves a fair amount of homework. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are filled with BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) where I'm a group leader again - and actually involves another 10+ hours of work each week aside from Tues. and Wed. Then Thurs. and Fri. are my days in which I feebly attempt to do everything else (housework, laundry, bills, grocery shopping, church projects, etc.). After entering our fall schedule kicking and screaming, I've found peace with it and am so grateful to God that I have been blessed with normalcy in my life - raising a family I adore and learning and growing in Jesus. I can't ask for anything more.

Now you're up to speed. Kindof. But that's all I got in me at the moment - my comfy bed is calling . . . .

This is AWESOME. Read it.

"Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun. If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time. If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well. Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old’s nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all… because soon he’ll be wiping his own. If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And grieve well. At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift.”

Be PRESENT.


Kyle Lake (1972-2005)
University Baptist Church
Waco, TX

Yes we do have another child and yes he DID start school.

Good grief. I can't believe we are already so busy I haven't even had time to put a post up about JACK'S first day of school. Uggh.

Anyway, he ventured off into a new world a little over a week ago. He's so brave. So determined. And yet so calm.

And his mama is totally inspired by him.

It's like he just KNOWS this new school is where he's supposed to be. I totally believe I am watching the hand of God at work in his life. The whole situation is too far-out to NOT believe that. I mean, really - when you think about it, how many 9 year old kids ASK to go to a new school? It still blows me away.

At bedtime after the first day he expressed some concern that no one would ever get to know him but that was IT in terms of fears or concerns. The next morning when I dropped him off, he ran right out onto the playground into the group of boys in his class. And, thanks be to God, they are accepting him. Now a week into it, he now has some new buddies. :)

I'm 29 years older than him and I wish so much I could be as fearless and independent. What lessons you can learn from your children . . . .

Let's get this over with, shall we?

Back to our originally scheduled Hawaiian programming.


Keep in mind, I'm doing this for the sake of the family scrapbook, not to bore you even more than you were already before you clicked on this blog. :)


This post should wrap things up and then I can start carrying on about how depressed I am that school is starting and summer is so OVER and my babies are in 3rd grade and where does time go and sunrise, sunset and oh the sadness of it all. (Seriously, have you EVER looked at the lyrics to that song?!? Oh my word.) So enjoy some happy island pictures before things go seriously downhill on the Four Happy Campers.


Here's our beach. The kids LOVED the beach. They've never experienced WARM bright blue/turquoise ocean water and just had a ball soaking it all in.

This was a huge lagoon on the resort property the kids could swim in as well.

Learning how to snorkel in the pool -

We learned pretty quickly you do NOT eat on Hilton property unless you plan on taking out a 2nd mortgage on the house so we had fun trekking to the tourist spots like Senor Frogs and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.

Before our Luau (and yes, the men really wear the leis and beads to luaus).

Here's that snorkeling place I mentioned before - headed there in the middle of the week. It was AMAZING. 450+ different species of tropical fish and we probably saw 100 of them. The kids did awesome - snorkeled for an hour and a half straight before we made them hit the beach for a break.

Here's a view of our beach from our tower -

And a view of the main pool -

And the beach looking the other direction. You so cannot capture the color of the water in megapixels. Not with my camera, anyway.

Lastly, here are the resort's resident penguins. Right outside the doors of our tower. In Honolulu, Hawaii. Where it's 80-85 all year round. ?? Go figure. They sure were fun to watch, though.

And that wraps up Mark's 40th birthday bash. It was a huge success and something we'll remember forever. Actually I do have about 100 other pictures I could post. But I won't. Unless I'm lacking blog material in the dead of winter.

We interrupt our Hawaiian programming . . .

. . . . to bring you this special report:

One of my sweet boys started 3rd grade today.

My other sweet boy starts next Tuesday.

Oh my aching heart.

Hawaii . . . Part 2

So after our Hawaiian lunch, we continued on our tour and unexpectedly stumbled upon the Pirates of the Caribbean movie set.
They weren't filming at the moment, but we saw their trucks, tents, crane and equipment and . . .

Yep - Jack Sparrow's ship, THE Black Pearl. It was awesome.

We then headed up a mountain for some spectacular views . . .

Then down to a couple more beaches . . .

We could tell this area is popular with Hollywood because then we ran into the Hawaii 5-0 set (starting Sept. 20 on CBS) . . . .

If you can see people out on those rocks, that's them filming.

We then saw this AWESOME bay, which as it turns out is the nation's #1 snorkeling beach. We went back later in the week . . .

And then our 10 hour tour came to a close, much to Jack and Noah's relief, and they headed STRAIGHT for the water.

Sheer joy.