Brian and I have been out in California visiting Sam this weekend. We left early Friday morning and he and I had all that day together to sight see and enjoy each other's company since we couldn't see Sam till Saturday. We drove around San Diego a bit. I'm feeling a lot more familiar with it after our trip here in December and all the driving we did that week as well as the running and walking Brian and I did. That trip we stayed in Ocean Breach but this time we're staying up north in Solana Beach, a quiet little town on the coast with lots of art galleries and expensive boutiques. We're in a small, older hotel on the main street through town.
Friday night we walked on the beach and then went to dinner at an Italian restaurant and shared a pizza and wine. We got up early Saturday morning and decided to go for a walk instead of running before heading down to Oceanside to meet up with Sam.
We got to Oceanside a little before he did and looked around a few shops. The Camp Pendelton shuttle drops the boys off in front of a movie theater in the middle of town. We saw a guy sitting out front wearing an army green t shirt, Raybans, and black cowboy boots and thought it must be him. When he greeted us with a loud Evans family "How y'all doin'?" there was no doubt in our mind. We walked out to the pier and then got some lunch at a fish stand on the beach. Sam was hobbling around because of blisters from his 20K hike during the week so we kept our walking to a minimum. We decided to drive up the coast to L.A. He wanted to meet a friend at a guitar store in Forest Lake to play and sing a bit, so we did that. After that we made our way back down the coast at a leisurely pace and were mesmerized by the natural beauty as well as the lovely towns all up and down the Pacific. We stopped in Carlsbad and explored the town a bit before having dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Sam didn't have to check back in until 10 pm., but he said he should probably get back by 9. We made the drove back up to Camp Pedelton North and actually got to go on base which was pretty neat. We took him to the School of Infantry area and sat in the car visiting for a while longer. The base is huge and seems so dark at night because it doesn't have highway lights and it's in the mountains. Sam seemed sad to leave but he's also so good natured that he doesn't let his circumstances weight him down for too long. He knows he's committed to the Marines and will give it his all until the day he is discharged.
Brian and I came back to the hotel in Solana Beach and enjoyed some drinks while reading about the towns we had traveled through that day. We fell asleep in our clothes with the light, still exhausted from the previous day, which was very long.
We're going to pick up Sam again today and spend some time with him before we have to leave. We don't know when we'll see him next. He'll find out his orders this week. Hawaii, Japan, California, or deployment? He is sort of hoping for deployment because of the excitement of it all and the rise in status that accompanies it though he knows it will mean he won't get to join us on any of our summer trips we have planned.
Margaret says that William borrow the car again the other night and went somewhere. What will we do about that boy?!
Sunday, March 1, 2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020
I'm waiting on the girls to finish eating their oatmeal and brush their teeth before we head out the door for school. Brian left a bit ago to take John to cross country practice at the high school. He plans to stop in at a job site out in this area then he'll come home and work from here. I love when he works from home. even after 23 years together we still never run out of things to talk about and our time together always feels like a date. Maybe it's because we've spent so much of our marriage surrounded by little ones that times alone still feel like a treat.
I'm waiting on the girls to finish eating their oatmeal and brush their teeth before we head out the door for school. Brian left a bit ago to take John to cross country practice at the high school. He plans to stop in at a job site out in this area then he'll come home and work from here. I love when he works from home. even after 23 years together we still never run out of things to talk about and our time together always feels like a date. Maybe it's because we've spent so much of our marriage surrounded by little ones that times alone still feel like a treat.
William is still here. He rides the bus still because he doesn't have a license or car yet. He was on the verge of getting his license earlier this month when he decided to "borrow" our my car in the middle of the night and go meet someone to fight. I don't know what teenage boys fight about, but the fight went sour and two boys stole his wallet and Airpods in the process. The Airpods were eventually returned but the wallet wasn't, so William has to get a new permit before he can take his driving test. Raising teenage boys isn't for the faint of heart.
Brian and William spent last weekend building a slide for the girls' tree house as a gift for Olive for her birthday. Brian couldn't find one to buy that was long enough to go off the tallest side of the tree house, so I joked that I was surprised he wasn't going to build one. I guess he took that as a challenge and designed and built it!
Hazel has a play at school today with one line - "The bad cat?!" Brian is working from home so we can both go watch it.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
I recently found my collection of old blogposts from back when I was on xanga and was inspired to get back to blogging. How sweet it is to go back and read about our day to day activities. Those days were long and exhausting but I would go back in a heartbeat to taste them one more time.
I'm sitting here in the kitchen with Olive while she does her weekly homework packet. Hazel went to after school Bible study with friends and the boys aren't home from the high school yet. Margaret still lives here about half the time. The rest of the time she's either staying over with Claire who lives with her grandfather, or with our friends the Koplins who have a ranch on the other side of town. We don't see her much these days with all the stuff she does: college classes, nannying, Bible study, church, and friends.
Brian and I fly out to see Sam on Friday. It will be about two months since we last saw him, which by military standards is a very short time, but we want to visit him before he gets sent to his permanent duty station which should be next week when he graduates from School of Infantry. There's a strong possibility that he'll stay stateside, but there is still a chance he could be sent to a base outside the US for the next year or three. We want to be prepared. He sounds like he's doing well. We get to talk to him every weekend, usually for several hours. He's happy enough. He goes over to the music stores near base every Saturday and Sunday and spends hours playing guitar with other Marines.
I watched Sawyer all day today. He's the 10 month old that I've been watching a few days a week since August. He's a cute little fella and his parents are super chill for first timers which makes my job a lot easier. The weather was pleasant so we spent a good amount of time outside today.
I'm trying to get back in the saddle with running since the Austin marathon a week or so ago. After walking the girls to school I ran five miles. I'm not sure how often I'll plan to run now that marathon season is past. I pretty much ran all year round after last year's marathon, but I'm not sure if I want to do that or not.
Brian and I are leading a group in the ReEngage marriage class at church again this year. This is our third time through it. We joined about two years ago when our church did a pilot program for those who might be interested in leading a group the next time around. Brian and I needed some marriage help so we jumped in thinking maybe we could get help and in turn help other couples. We have been so encouraged and challenged each time we've gone through it. One of the most difficult parts is that Brian and I have had to share our testimony each semester. It's hard to share a testimony when your story isn't finished and you're still in the thick of things. We are scheduled to share on Monday. There are about 70-80 in this semester's group and I don't LOVE public speaking. I'm glad Brian and I will have our weekend together in Cali to practice.
Well, William just got dropped off by a friend and John's bus just drove by, so I'm going to wrap up so I can get dinner made. Hopefully I'll be more diligent to keep up with this blogging thing this time.
I'm sitting here in the kitchen with Olive while she does her weekly homework packet. Hazel went to after school Bible study with friends and the boys aren't home from the high school yet. Margaret still lives here about half the time. The rest of the time she's either staying over with Claire who lives with her grandfather, or with our friends the Koplins who have a ranch on the other side of town. We don't see her much these days with all the stuff she does: college classes, nannying, Bible study, church, and friends.
Brian and I fly out to see Sam on Friday. It will be about two months since we last saw him, which by military standards is a very short time, but we want to visit him before he gets sent to his permanent duty station which should be next week when he graduates from School of Infantry. There's a strong possibility that he'll stay stateside, but there is still a chance he could be sent to a base outside the US for the next year or three. We want to be prepared. He sounds like he's doing well. We get to talk to him every weekend, usually for several hours. He's happy enough. He goes over to the music stores near base every Saturday and Sunday and spends hours playing guitar with other Marines.
I watched Sawyer all day today. He's the 10 month old that I've been watching a few days a week since August. He's a cute little fella and his parents are super chill for first timers which makes my job a lot easier. The weather was pleasant so we spent a good amount of time outside today.
I'm trying to get back in the saddle with running since the Austin marathon a week or so ago. After walking the girls to school I ran five miles. I'm not sure how often I'll plan to run now that marathon season is past. I pretty much ran all year round after last year's marathon, but I'm not sure if I want to do that or not.
Brian and I are leading a group in the ReEngage marriage class at church again this year. This is our third time through it. We joined about two years ago when our church did a pilot program for those who might be interested in leading a group the next time around. Brian and I needed some marriage help so we jumped in thinking maybe we could get help and in turn help other couples. We have been so encouraged and challenged each time we've gone through it. One of the most difficult parts is that Brian and I have had to share our testimony each semester. It's hard to share a testimony when your story isn't finished and you're still in the thick of things. We are scheduled to share on Monday. There are about 70-80 in this semester's group and I don't LOVE public speaking. I'm glad Brian and I will have our weekend together in Cali to practice.
Well, William just got dropped off by a friend and John's bus just drove by, so I'm going to wrap up so I can get dinner made. Hopefully I'll be more diligent to keep up with this blogging thing this time.
Saturday, September 16, 2017
It's Saturday morning and Brian is lying next to me trying to get a little more snoozing in. He and I had planned to go to Georgetown to run the Vern's 5K this morning, but we backed out. It's been a full week and it feels good to lie around.
I just finished my third week of school. I'm enjoying this semester so much more than the previous. My classes are interesting and I'm not taking any math - Yay! Margaret is home two days a week since two of her classes are online, so we spread out our school work and study together on Mondays and Wednesdays. She is gone to class all day Tuesdays and Thursdays, and is home all day on Friday when I go in for classes. She watches Olive for me and gets Hazel to and from school. I wish every semester could work out just like this one is, but I know it just can't and won't.
Margaret has taken on several regular nannying jobs in the neighborhood. These have turned out to be much better than her restaurant job as the pay is better, they're closer, and she's able to study while she works. The downside is that she no longer takes or picks up Sam from work as they no longer work together.
Sam has been on crutches or in a boot for the past month recovering from a stress fracture. He ran the first XC meet of the season and was the fastest finisher of all the runners there. The next day he started hobbling. By the next weekend he was in so much pain he struggled to even finish the race. He's been off of running this month and has been going to a therapist. He's continued to work out aggressively every day to stay in shape so that he'll be reading when he gets the go ahead to run again. He rides 20-30 miles every morning on the bike, aqua jogs in the pool every night for 45 minutes to an hour, and stretches and foam rolls for an hour. It may sound over-the-top, but he really wants to stay in shape so he doesn't lose anything he's worked so hard for over the past year. He still has his eye on a running scholarship, and this is the year schools will start talking.
I've had a colitis flare up this year and finally scheduled a much needed colonoscopy. Not looking forward to that two day prep, but it will be good to know if I've got anything going on in there. The worst part for me is not getting to eat. I don't like to not eat.
Brian's sister and husband's home was flooded in Hurricane Harvey last month. They're living with friends for now until they can get the house livable again. They had to throw out almost everything that was in their downstairs. We went down to help that over Labor Day weekend. It was both very sad, but very encouraging - so many people loving their neighbor as themselves.
Well, I have two little ladies wanting me to fix breakfast - I've promised biscuits and sausage - so I must cut this short.
I just finished my third week of school. I'm enjoying this semester so much more than the previous. My classes are interesting and I'm not taking any math - Yay! Margaret is home two days a week since two of her classes are online, so we spread out our school work and study together on Mondays and Wednesdays. She is gone to class all day Tuesdays and Thursdays, and is home all day on Friday when I go in for classes. She watches Olive for me and gets Hazel to and from school. I wish every semester could work out just like this one is, but I know it just can't and won't.
Margaret has taken on several regular nannying jobs in the neighborhood. These have turned out to be much better than her restaurant job as the pay is better, they're closer, and she's able to study while she works. The downside is that she no longer takes or picks up Sam from work as they no longer work together.
Sam has been on crutches or in a boot for the past month recovering from a stress fracture. He ran the first XC meet of the season and was the fastest finisher of all the runners there. The next day he started hobbling. By the next weekend he was in so much pain he struggled to even finish the race. He's been off of running this month and has been going to a therapist. He's continued to work out aggressively every day to stay in shape so that he'll be reading when he gets the go ahead to run again. He rides 20-30 miles every morning on the bike, aqua jogs in the pool every night for 45 minutes to an hour, and stretches and foam rolls for an hour. It may sound over-the-top, but he really wants to stay in shape so he doesn't lose anything he's worked so hard for over the past year. He still has his eye on a running scholarship, and this is the year schools will start talking.
I've had a colitis flare up this year and finally scheduled a much needed colonoscopy. Not looking forward to that two day prep, but it will be good to know if I've got anything going on in there. The worst part for me is not getting to eat. I don't like to not eat.
Brian's sister and husband's home was flooded in Hurricane Harvey last month. They're living with friends for now until they can get the house livable again. They had to throw out almost everything that was in their downstairs. We went down to help that over Labor Day weekend. It was both very sad, but very encouraging - so many people loving their neighbor as themselves.
Well, I have two little ladies wanting me to fix breakfast - I've promised biscuits and sausage - so I must cut this short.
August 2017
I just got back from taking the little girls and Sam to Menchie's for frozen yogurt. Too bad, so sad for the others who happened to be out of the house at the time and missed out. Our house is like Grand Central. I never know who will be around at what time on what day. The other night it was John, Hazel, Olive, and me sitting down together for dinner. Last night it was everyone but John and William. That should change some after school starts and people stop working as much or gallivanting the neighborhood all hours of the summer days.
I'm all done with school for the summer. I have a week and a half to enjoy the break before the new semester starts. I'm taking three classes: US history, psychology, and english comp. Two of the classes are online, and the classroom one is just once a week, so I should be available for Olive and not miss many chances to be up at Hazel's school as needed.
We went to Port Aransas a week or so ago. Thomas arranged for all of us to be in a large house in a nice neighborhood with beach access. Everyone agreed that it was one of the best beach trips that the family has taken together. I spent hours and hours in the water and was kind of emotional about leaving. Not sure what came over me to make me like that.
A few weeks ago we met Brian's family at Schlitterbahn for the day and then spent the night at their place which isn't too far from the park. Hazel and Olive were real troopers and rode anything we put them on. We rarely saw the older kids the entire day.
Margaret has decided to focus on babysitting instead of a restaurant job. She posted her info on the neighborhood babysitting site and has been booked solid. Definitely better money than she was making at the restaurant and more enjoyable for her. She's so fun and imaginative and all the kids just love her. She is just an amazing girl! She may look like she's 14, but she takes control and tackles challenges like someone much older than her age of 18. She's always been an old soul with childlike enthusiasm. She's never been silly about boys like I was. She isn't out looking for someone to marry. She has places to go and things to do. Yeah, she wants to marry and have children eventually, but there are more important things to do in the meantime.
Samuel has his first cross country meet tomorrow morning. Without bragging or exaggerating, I can say that he is one of the fastest boys in all LISD and our entire UIL district. We're excited to see how the season plays out. This is the year he needs to start looking at colleges. He would very much like to run in college and his times already could get him into division 2 schools, possible even division 1. He needs to work on staying on top of his academics though. He wants to be a psychologist or something along the line of counseling. We'll see.
William has been hitting it hard with football this summer. He's determined to do well, not just in football, but also in academics. He signed up for all AP and preAP classes and keeps telling us how motivated he is. He's a smart kid and was an incredible student until half way through 6th grade when he bottom fell out. Puberty hit him hard. He started breaking things - phones, computers, using racial slurs towards kids at school, bullying, texting vulgar things on his newly acquired phone, charging nearly $2K worth of Madden football related things to our credit card, etc, etc. As abruptly as they started, the behaviors subsided. He's matured so much the past 9 months. One summer night he came in really late. We were frustrated with him once again not getting home by the time he said he would. To back up a bit, remember, he was the kid who didn't speak for four years of school. He was too shy to befriend anyone. Fast forward to this year. He is all over the neighborhood dropping his calling card from Bella Mar to Canyon Glen (two sub-divisions within our city-size neighborhood). So he comes in late and starts enthusiastically talking about a discourse that he and several other 8th grade boys had had been having for hours over theology. They were from different back grounds and denominations sitting at the park discussing what they believe about the Gospel.
"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3 John 1:4
I started this blog post nearly a month ago and am just now getting back to it to publish it. Oy!
I just got back from taking the little girls and Sam to Menchie's for frozen yogurt. Too bad, so sad for the others who happened to be out of the house at the time and missed out. Our house is like Grand Central. I never know who will be around at what time on what day. The other night it was John, Hazel, Olive, and me sitting down together for dinner. Last night it was everyone but John and William. That should change some after school starts and people stop working as much or gallivanting the neighborhood all hours of the summer days.
I'm all done with school for the summer. I have a week and a half to enjoy the break before the new semester starts. I'm taking three classes: US history, psychology, and english comp. Two of the classes are online, and the classroom one is just once a week, so I should be available for Olive and not miss many chances to be up at Hazel's school as needed.
We went to Port Aransas a week or so ago. Thomas arranged for all of us to be in a large house in a nice neighborhood with beach access. Everyone agreed that it was one of the best beach trips that the family has taken together. I spent hours and hours in the water and was kind of emotional about leaving. Not sure what came over me to make me like that.
A few weeks ago we met Brian's family at Schlitterbahn for the day and then spent the night at their place which isn't too far from the park. Hazel and Olive were real troopers and rode anything we put them on. We rarely saw the older kids the entire day.
Margaret has decided to focus on babysitting instead of a restaurant job. She posted her info on the neighborhood babysitting site and has been booked solid. Definitely better money than she was making at the restaurant and more enjoyable for her. She's so fun and imaginative and all the kids just love her. She is just an amazing girl! She may look like she's 14, but she takes control and tackles challenges like someone much older than her age of 18. She's always been an old soul with childlike enthusiasm. She's never been silly about boys like I was. She isn't out looking for someone to marry. She has places to go and things to do. Yeah, she wants to marry and have children eventually, but there are more important things to do in the meantime.
Samuel has his first cross country meet tomorrow morning. Without bragging or exaggerating, I can say that he is one of the fastest boys in all LISD and our entire UIL district. We're excited to see how the season plays out. This is the year he needs to start looking at colleges. He would very much like to run in college and his times already could get him into division 2 schools, possible even division 1. He needs to work on staying on top of his academics though. He wants to be a psychologist or something along the line of counseling. We'll see.
William has been hitting it hard with football this summer. He's determined to do well, not just in football, but also in academics. He signed up for all AP and preAP classes and keeps telling us how motivated he is. He's a smart kid and was an incredible student until half way through 6th grade when he bottom fell out. Puberty hit him hard. He started breaking things - phones, computers, using racial slurs towards kids at school, bullying, texting vulgar things on his newly acquired phone, charging nearly $2K worth of Madden football related things to our credit card, etc, etc. As abruptly as they started, the behaviors subsided. He's matured so much the past 9 months. One summer night he came in really late. We were frustrated with him once again not getting home by the time he said he would. To back up a bit, remember, he was the kid who didn't speak for four years of school. He was too shy to befriend anyone. Fast forward to this year. He is all over the neighborhood dropping his calling card from Bella Mar to Canyon Glen (two sub-divisions within our city-size neighborhood). So he comes in late and starts enthusiastically talking about a discourse that he and several other 8th grade boys had had been having for hours over theology. They were from different back grounds and denominations sitting at the park discussing what they believe about the Gospel.
"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3 John 1:4
I started this blog post nearly a month ago and am just now getting back to it to publish it. Oy!
Thursday, August 17, 2017
July 2017
A month and a half has passed since I last blogged. I get so busy living that I forget to write about it. Then something reminds me: a great memoir I'm reading that inspires me to write my own story, a friend posting on her blog after a long hiatus, or finding an old journal of mine stuffed away in a box in my closet.
I'm sitting in Starbucks at the neighborhood Target. I dropped William off for Strength and Conditioning this morning and decided to spend the next couple of hours before class studying. Target is a distracting place to study. I keep thinking I need to go check out the hair products, or see if they've put those throw pillows on clearance yet. I have midterms this week. I'm only taking two classes this summer. With all our traveling I didn't think it was good to take the 5 week biology class. I really didn't want to take that class anyways. It was just a refresher course that wouldn't count for anything and felt like a waste of time, money, and energy.
Since I last blogged Margaret graduated high school (!), William graduated middle school, we took a trip to New York with the older four kids, Hazel learned to swim on her own, Olive potty trained herself, we took a week long camping trip to the Davis Mountains with both sides of our extended family, I got a new library card (woohoo!), and there were many small and large blessings from heaven that I do not have the time to chronicle here.
We hosted a big graduation party for Margaret and Claire. Everyone chipped in to make it special for them. I made a 600 photo slide show to play at the party, and I think I cried every time I worked on it in the weeks leading up to the party. Those girls are precious. We watched Claire accept her diploma on Friday, June 2, and then Margaret on Saturday, June 3. Brian and I whooped and hollered for all the seniors we knew personally in the Viper Class of 2017. That was a special class. We came home to a house full of food leftover from the party and scrambled to clean up and pack for our trip to New York early the next morning. Margaret left for Project Grad with her friends, and the rest of us went to bed for a few hours sleep before getting up at 2:30 am. We picked up Margaret at Dave & Busters where Project Grad was held around 4 am. and headed to the airport. After such a crazy, hectic last month, we kept joking about how we were headed to New York City to "get away from it all".
The trip was just what we needed. It's great to have kids that are at the age you can enjoy taking adventures with them. It's no longer stressful, and they are really fun to be with. New York was beautiful as ever. I'm Texan through and through, but there's a part of my heart that belongs to New York City. I think heaven will be something like NYC, all the different colors, languages, and beautiful people God made all living together.
As mentioned above, we just got back from a week long camping trip to the Davis Mountains. Brian bought a mansion of a tent for us, and he and I enjoyed having a "room" all to ourselves with the little girls in the next door on the other side of the nylon partition. It was like that old movie It Happened One Night. The rest of the kids were divided up among the 9 other tents our group set up. We had far too many tents for the number of people in our group, which wasn't much of a problem until it started raining and we had to rush and zip up every tent window and door. Or if we had happened to be away when it down poured, which happened several times, we had to go tent to tent and pull out all the wet things and hang them out to dry.
Despite the rain, the trip was amazing. West Texas is so barren and harsh, but at the same time so beautiful. The little town of Fort Davis does the Fourth of July week in a big way. We all joined the throngs lining the main street on July 1st when they had the parade. I still don't know where all the people came from as the town has a population of about 1200. There were probably 5 or 6 thousand in town that day wandering through the craft and food booths surrounding the courthouse, watching the Cowboy Hypnotist do his thing, drinking cocktails in the garden behind the Limpia Hotel, touring the fort, or eating at the handful of cafes in town
We did a lot of hiking, both in the Davis Mountains state park, as well as at Big Bend where we all caravaned one of the days. We split into two groups, one group hiking the Window Trail, and the other, more adventurous ones opting for the Emory Peak trail. Every since we planned this trip I had hoped to get to hike to Emory. It's where Brian proposed to me 20 years ago last April 2, and it would mean a lot to me to make the trek this year. It worked out that we were able to make the nine+ mile hike, us along with about 6 teenagers and Olive who Brian carried in the Ergo. I've made that hike three times and no time have I seen it as pretty as it was that day. They must've had some rains recently because the dessert plants were all in bloom. When we reached the pinnacle where you have to do a bit of scaling to reach to geo marker I completely froze. I couldn't look down and couldn't move. How did Brian ever coax me up there back in 1997. I have no memory of being afraid. We just climbed right up and spent about half an hour up there taking pictures and enjoying the miles and miles of views into Mexico. But this time was different. I almost didn't climb up to the top, but Brian spoke spoke courage into me and I made it up. There was a guy at the top that we discovered was also from Austin and he was kind enough to snap some photos of us. William was the only other one from our group that climbed to the very top, the others, Olive, Margaret, Patrick, Lil' Thomas (we still call him Little Thomas even though he's now 16 and taller than most of his counsins to differentiate him from the other Thomases in the family), Samuel, Tommy, and John stayed just below.
Another day we drove over to Balmorhea to swim in the large spring fed pool. The drive there is spectacular and snakes through an area that was once part of a great-great uncle's ranch.
It's now been nearly a month since I blogged the above post. I haven't had a chance to come back and wrap it up.
The past month has been filled with all the things I love best about summer: hours and hours spent at the pool, visits to the library, late nights watching movies, playing in the sprinkler, reading books together. I've been taking two classes, but have tried to not let it interfere with our usual summer activities.
Margaret and Sam have worked most days/nights of the summer. They both work at a neighborhood restaurant, she hosting and he bussing. She'll be moving on to a different job soon, and I'll miss seeing them coming home from work together in their matching work shirts.
Margaret has decided to go into nursing, and is registered for fall classes at ACC. We will have some classes together, which is kinda cool.
Activities has started picking up around here. William has been going to strength and conditioning every morning all summer at the high school, and now he and John are in football camp in the evening. Samuel trained with his trainer, David, all summer. cross country just began their season training yesterday, so he'll be having early morning workouts every day till winter. Sam is determined to get a running scholarship and is putting in hours of running and weight training every day.
William and John will both play football this fall: William at Vandegrift and John at Canyon Ridge. I'm happy to have another season to cheer on some of my boys in my favorite game.
Hazel starts kindergarten in less than four weeks. We've talked and talked about it for so long and it's finally almost here. That little golden haired baby of mine is starting school.
Olive doesn't have much on her agenda for this fall but to be loved on by all her people. That girl gets cuter every day! Her curly hair now hangs in ringlets around her face which is sprinkled with freckles. She is a firecracker! Not a day goes by that I don't have to tell her to stop tormenting Hazel. She knows how to push Hazel's buttons and teases her mercilessly. She's feisty and stubborn and is so much like me.
A month and a half has passed since I last blogged. I get so busy living that I forget to write about it. Then something reminds me: a great memoir I'm reading that inspires me to write my own story, a friend posting on her blog after a long hiatus, or finding an old journal of mine stuffed away in a box in my closet.
I'm sitting in Starbucks at the neighborhood Target. I dropped William off for Strength and Conditioning this morning and decided to spend the next couple of hours before class studying. Target is a distracting place to study. I keep thinking I need to go check out the hair products, or see if they've put those throw pillows on clearance yet. I have midterms this week. I'm only taking two classes this summer. With all our traveling I didn't think it was good to take the 5 week biology class. I really didn't want to take that class anyways. It was just a refresher course that wouldn't count for anything and felt like a waste of time, money, and energy.
Since I last blogged Margaret graduated high school (!), William graduated middle school, we took a trip to New York with the older four kids, Hazel learned to swim on her own, Olive potty trained herself, we took a week long camping trip to the Davis Mountains with both sides of our extended family, I got a new library card (woohoo!), and there were many small and large blessings from heaven that I do not have the time to chronicle here.
We hosted a big graduation party for Margaret and Claire. Everyone chipped in to make it special for them. I made a 600 photo slide show to play at the party, and I think I cried every time I worked on it in the weeks leading up to the party. Those girls are precious. We watched Claire accept her diploma on Friday, June 2, and then Margaret on Saturday, June 3. Brian and I whooped and hollered for all the seniors we knew personally in the Viper Class of 2017. That was a special class. We came home to a house full of food leftover from the party and scrambled to clean up and pack for our trip to New York early the next morning. Margaret left for Project Grad with her friends, and the rest of us went to bed for a few hours sleep before getting up at 2:30 am. We picked up Margaret at Dave & Busters where Project Grad was held around 4 am. and headed to the airport. After such a crazy, hectic last month, we kept joking about how we were headed to New York City to "get away from it all".
The trip was just what we needed. It's great to have kids that are at the age you can enjoy taking adventures with them. It's no longer stressful, and they are really fun to be with. New York was beautiful as ever. I'm Texan through and through, but there's a part of my heart that belongs to New York City. I think heaven will be something like NYC, all the different colors, languages, and beautiful people God made all living together.
As mentioned above, we just got back from a week long camping trip to the Davis Mountains. Brian bought a mansion of a tent for us, and he and I enjoyed having a "room" all to ourselves with the little girls in the next door on the other side of the nylon partition. It was like that old movie It Happened One Night. The rest of the kids were divided up among the 9 other tents our group set up. We had far too many tents for the number of people in our group, which wasn't much of a problem until it started raining and we had to rush and zip up every tent window and door. Or if we had happened to be away when it down poured, which happened several times, we had to go tent to tent and pull out all the wet things and hang them out to dry.
Despite the rain, the trip was amazing. West Texas is so barren and harsh, but at the same time so beautiful. The little town of Fort Davis does the Fourth of July week in a big way. We all joined the throngs lining the main street on July 1st when they had the parade. I still don't know where all the people came from as the town has a population of about 1200. There were probably 5 or 6 thousand in town that day wandering through the craft and food booths surrounding the courthouse, watching the Cowboy Hypnotist do his thing, drinking cocktails in the garden behind the Limpia Hotel, touring the fort, or eating at the handful of cafes in town
We did a lot of hiking, both in the Davis Mountains state park, as well as at Big Bend where we all caravaned one of the days. We split into two groups, one group hiking the Window Trail, and the other, more adventurous ones opting for the Emory Peak trail. Every since we planned this trip I had hoped to get to hike to Emory. It's where Brian proposed to me 20 years ago last April 2, and it would mean a lot to me to make the trek this year. It worked out that we were able to make the nine+ mile hike, us along with about 6 teenagers and Olive who Brian carried in the Ergo. I've made that hike three times and no time have I seen it as pretty as it was that day. They must've had some rains recently because the dessert plants were all in bloom. When we reached the pinnacle where you have to do a bit of scaling to reach to geo marker I completely froze. I couldn't look down and couldn't move. How did Brian ever coax me up there back in 1997. I have no memory of being afraid. We just climbed right up and spent about half an hour up there taking pictures and enjoying the miles and miles of views into Mexico. But this time was different. I almost didn't climb up to the top, but Brian spoke spoke courage into me and I made it up. There was a guy at the top that we discovered was also from Austin and he was kind enough to snap some photos of us. William was the only other one from our group that climbed to the very top, the others, Olive, Margaret, Patrick, Lil' Thomas (we still call him Little Thomas even though he's now 16 and taller than most of his counsins to differentiate him from the other Thomases in the family), Samuel, Tommy, and John stayed just below.
Another day we drove over to Balmorhea to swim in the large spring fed pool. The drive there is spectacular and snakes through an area that was once part of a great-great uncle's ranch.
It's now been nearly a month since I blogged the above post. I haven't had a chance to come back and wrap it up.
The past month has been filled with all the things I love best about summer: hours and hours spent at the pool, visits to the library, late nights watching movies, playing in the sprinkler, reading books together. I've been taking two classes, but have tried to not let it interfere with our usual summer activities.
Margaret and Sam have worked most days/nights of the summer. They both work at a neighborhood restaurant, she hosting and he bussing. She'll be moving on to a different job soon, and I'll miss seeing them coming home from work together in their matching work shirts.
Margaret has decided to go into nursing, and is registered for fall classes at ACC. We will have some classes together, which is kinda cool.
Activities has started picking up around here. William has been going to strength and conditioning every morning all summer at the high school, and now he and John are in football camp in the evening. Samuel trained with his trainer, David, all summer. cross country just began their season training yesterday, so he'll be having early morning workouts every day till winter. Sam is determined to get a running scholarship and is putting in hours of running and weight training every day.
William and John will both play football this fall: William at Vandegrift and John at Canyon Ridge. I'm happy to have another season to cheer on some of my boys in my favorite game.
Hazel starts kindergarten in less than four weeks. We've talked and talked about it for so long and it's finally almost here. That little golden haired baby of mine is starting school.
Olive doesn't have much on her agenda for this fall but to be loved on by all her people. That girl gets cuter every day! Her curly hair now hangs in ringlets around her face which is sprinkled with freckles. She is a firecracker! Not a day goes by that I don't have to tell her to stop tormenting Hazel. She knows how to push Hazel's buttons and teases her mercilessly. She's feisty and stubborn and is so much like me.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
I'm so disappointed that I've neglected to blog in ever so long! So much life has happened worth noting, or at least that I'd like to remember, but I've been too bus to stop and type it out.
Margaret went to prom a couple of weeks ago. She was lovely in her peach skirt and brocade cropped top. She chose to go with a group of girl friends instead of a date. She was asked by three different guys, but turned them down. Not sure if I should feel proud or frustrated. She had so much more fun this year than last. not that last year was bad, but this being her senior year I think she was soaking it all up, cherishing the last moments together with her classmates.
We hosted a Mother's Day get together for the family here. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Our house has become the hub for family events in recent years, and I really don't mind at all. Both Brian and I enjoy hosting. After everyone left and things calmed down, Brian took me to dinner at Napa Flats where Marg and Sam work. It made me happy to watch them working. Margaret has just moved up to serving, and Sam is a busser.
William has been playing 7 on 7 football for the past month or so, so Brian and I meet over at Vandegrift and watch his practices and games on Wednesday nights. Not terribly exciting, as it's more practice than actual games, but it's a chance for Brian and I to spend a little time together. Our times alone are sometimes hard to come by, so we take what we can get.
William turned 15 on Monday. Brian and I took him to dinner at the place of his choosing, Kome on Airport Blvd. We let him in on the surprise trip to NYC in a couple of weeks. He was excited in his own way.
We took the kids out of school early on Wednesday and drove to Houston for the U2/Lumineers concert. We got to town a few hours early, so spent a little time walking around down town and West University Place. Over dinner we told John and Samuel about our upcoming trip. John didn't believe us. To John, New York City is the greatest place on earth bar none. He knows more about it than maybe some locals. He can tell you everything you want to know about all the important buildings. our flight leaves at 6:23 on his 13th birthday. To him, this is the ultimate birthday gift.
We missed half of the Lumineers because we spent too much time admiring the houses around Rice, but caught enough to renew my appreciation for them and their talent. U2 was amazing. Indescribable. It was so worth it!
I've been working like mad to pull together Claire and Margaret's graduation party. I have one week and so much left to do!
I start school on Wednesday. Thinking of it makes me exhausted. There's so much else going on right now. It is difficult to invest much energy or thought into it.
It's that time of year when the flies come in droves to vacation at our house. I've been listening to two buzz around me head while I type this. I guess I'd better turn out the lamp so they'll leave me alone.
Margaret went to prom a couple of weeks ago. She was lovely in her peach skirt and brocade cropped top. She chose to go with a group of girl friends instead of a date. She was asked by three different guys, but turned them down. Not sure if I should feel proud or frustrated. She had so much more fun this year than last. not that last year was bad, but this being her senior year I think she was soaking it all up, cherishing the last moments together with her classmates.
We hosted a Mother's Day get together for the family here. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Our house has become the hub for family events in recent years, and I really don't mind at all. Both Brian and I enjoy hosting. After everyone left and things calmed down, Brian took me to dinner at Napa Flats where Marg and Sam work. It made me happy to watch them working. Margaret has just moved up to serving, and Sam is a busser.
William has been playing 7 on 7 football for the past month or so, so Brian and I meet over at Vandegrift and watch his practices and games on Wednesday nights. Not terribly exciting, as it's more practice than actual games, but it's a chance for Brian and I to spend a little time together. Our times alone are sometimes hard to come by, so we take what we can get.
William turned 15 on Monday. Brian and I took him to dinner at the place of his choosing, Kome on Airport Blvd. We let him in on the surprise trip to NYC in a couple of weeks. He was excited in his own way.
We took the kids out of school early on Wednesday and drove to Houston for the U2/Lumineers concert. We got to town a few hours early, so spent a little time walking around down town and West University Place. Over dinner we told John and Samuel about our upcoming trip. John didn't believe us. To John, New York City is the greatest place on earth bar none. He knows more about it than maybe some locals. He can tell you everything you want to know about all the important buildings. our flight leaves at 6:23 on his 13th birthday. To him, this is the ultimate birthday gift.
We missed half of the Lumineers because we spent too much time admiring the houses around Rice, but caught enough to renew my appreciation for them and their talent. U2 was amazing. Indescribable. It was so worth it!
I've been working like mad to pull together Claire and Margaret's graduation party. I have one week and so much left to do!
I start school on Wednesday. Thinking of it makes me exhausted. There's so much else going on right now. It is difficult to invest much energy or thought into it.
It's that time of year when the flies come in droves to vacation at our house. I've been listening to two buzz around me head while I type this. I guess I'd better turn out the lamp so they'll leave me alone.
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