Fall weekend festivities

 Time marches on, doesn't it?  I can't believe it's almost the end of October.  We've had an unseasonably warm October until this weekend.  The cold reality has hit us hard.  It was 70 and warm on Saturday and rainy and cold on Sunday, and so it begins.  On Sunday we had Nick's XC banquet.  Full disclosure on XC, I made Nick do it, hoping he'd enjoy it.  He didn't, but to his credit he rarely complained.  He says he's returning to his first love next year, football.  Nick is at an age where as a parent you can still force him to do things.  By the time kids get to Jay's age, it's a fine balance.  I'm glad Nick tried it, but it looks like I'll be cheering him on at football games from here on out. 

 Can this picture be any cuter?  On Saturday we went to Erin's house for a cook out.  Our family loves and looks forward to the Douglas cook out every October!  For all the years we've gone I simply can't believe these boys are this grown up.  All of them are driving except yep, you guessed it, Jay. 

And here are some of the littler boys, although Nick would not appreciate that I wrote that.  I really don't consider Nick so little anymore, trust me!  I'm entering another week filled with basketball practices (Nick), conferences (Nick), and small group.  We are entering our busy time of year.  I'm so thankful for my job which allows me the flexibility and balance I need for work and family! 

Shifting gears

So this happened!  Jay's first truck.  After sweating like a slave in a cotton field, Oh wait, that was Jay, sweating like an pig in a corn field this summer, detasseling.  All that hard work came to fruition last night when he was able to buy his first truck -with his mom and dad's help too!  Mike actually found the truck in Peru, IL.  It is a 2005 Ford F150 and Jay is in love.  Now he gets to stare at it for three more months until his 16th birthday.  The truck came in under budget, it's clean and no body rot.  It has some mileage though, 177,000, to be exact, but with extra tender loving care, we hope Jay can get another 100,000 out of it. 
All moms say they can't believe their children are the ages they are and I'm no different.  This morning Jay drove us to church in his truck and as we were driving the new song by Lee Brice, "Boy," came on.  Note to any mom out there, Do Not, I repeat, Do Not, listen to that song with your teenage son driving, especially when he's a hop, skip and a jump away from turning 16 and he's driving his first vehicle!  I think I might have bit a hole through my lip to keep from crying.  I figured that having an emotional breakdown before church might not send the best message and Mike would really question my mental stability.  I have really had to shift gears with Jay the last year.  He's turning into a man right before my very eyes.  I wasn't prepared for the changes I would have to make, although to be honest, Jay has been preparing me for them for years, I was just hoping I could ignore them and not have to actually implement them.  Often I look at my little family and I wonder where the years of walking around the block went, where the nightly baths went, the bedtime stories, hearing the boys yell "mom" and running to me as I walked in the door from work.  Those years were physically exhausting, but there's an element of mental exhaustion these days.  I don't spend a lot of time worrying but I do spend time wondering what my life will look like in 5 and 10 years.  I told Mike the other day that in 10 years (actually maybe even less than that) we will be right back to where we started, at the beginning, when it was just him and I.  I find myself thinking about my mom too.  She probably thought that also, but then when it was all said and done, she had to do life on her own as my dad had left.  Talk about shifting gears.  One thing I know is through my life I've had to shift gears on more than one occasion.  Life is a series of gear shifts.  It's all in how you adapt and handle those changes.  During these times I rely heavily on my faith.  In every season of my life God has been there.  He will lead me into this next season and prepare me for my upcoming series of shifting gears because ready or not, here they come! 

Technology 101

In our town there is a store that has been in business since 1954.  The name of the business is "Hobby Land."  It sells electric trains, remote control cars, doll houses, etc....Mike worked there part time during our early married life.  The other day I drove by the store and noticed it had a going out of business sign out.  I was heart broken that this iconic land mark was going out of business, but as Mike pointed out no one does anything anymore.  Kids don't make model trains or RC stuff.  Instead they set up snapchat, Instagram and facebook accounts.  Adults are just as guilty.  I'm appalled at how many times a day I check facebook.  I have a love/hate relationship with technology.  I love texting.  I realize it takes out a certain element of socialization, but in the busyness of life, texting really is a gift!  I love google.  Google maps has saved me on more than one occasion.  What I hate about technology is when it doesn't work which in my world is 80% of the time.  Right now I'm dealing with an old cell phone that locks up at any given time.  I think this is a conspiracy driven by cell phone companies.  They deem the phones as "old" after you've paid them off so that you are forced to go in and buy the newest model.  I'm digging my feet in this time and keeping my old phone.    Then Verizon decides not to renew a lease they had on a nearby tower in our area, therefore my cell phone only gets 1x.  What does this mean?  It means I don't have 4G which translates to I can't send picture text or download group messages.  The other night I had to drive in my car down onto another road in order to download a text.  Don't even get me started on our internet.  My internet provider, Frontier, hasn't been able to fix my email for over a month.  I can't get email on my phone or my laptop.  Everyday I have to log into frontier's mail center in order to retrieve my email.  And that's only if my internet is working.  It cuts in and out all day long and in the evening when the boys are home from school and everyone is home from work, it really gets challenging.  There is no such thing as paper homework anymore.  Everything is done on line.  Nick has his own google chromebook provided to him from the school.  All of Nick's homework is done on the chromebook which requires internet access.  Jay's assignments are done on google docs which require internet.  It's mind boggling to me that as a society we have become so reliant on the internet.  My job requires it, much of Mike's job needs it and the boys' school work depends on it.  Whether I like it or not, technology is here to stay.  Now if I could only get it to work!

Hoco 2017

 Time is going by way too fast.  It's been a whirlwind week.  It was Jay's homecoming week.  His attire in this picture was for beach day at school.  The dogs were not pleased with his get up.  I think it was the straw hat that threw them off. 

 Confession - I missed how hoco was last year.  I missed all the pictures with all the boys, although Aaron and Ayden are two of my fav's.  I missed Reece this year.  The weather did not cooperate this year so the boys and their dates met at the restaurant.  There was a few hiccups with getting that plan in action, however.  Last year the festivities were planned by the parents so everything came together flawlessly.  This year....not so much, but the kids had funny and us parents had minimal headaches.  It was challenging for Jay this year because all of his friends are driving except for him. 

                                                                  Jay and his date, Hope! 

I can see

When I was in college I noticed I could not see the board so I got glasses.  I've been in glasses ever since and my eye sight was terrible.  I was legally blind.  I could not go anywhere without corrective lenses.  The straw that finally broke the camels back was my beach vacation this summer.  Something and who knows what irritated my contact lenses and I could not wear my contact lenses during my vacation.  Instead I had to wear my glasses at the beach with all the sand, the ocean water and sun.  It was a major pain.  Even after I got home I had issues with my contact lenses.  I  was starting to accept that I was aging and that perhaps the time had come that I would have to wear my glasses permanently, but it was a hard reality to accept.  Some people like glasses, but I hate them - not on other people but on myself.  They are a pain and personally I don't find myself the least bit attractive in them.  In September my mom presented me with a  gift, she wanted to give me the gift of lasik eye surgery.  Even though I don't like to make it a habit of accepting these kind of gifts I readily accepted this one.  My mom literally gave me my sight back.  I had the easy peasy surgery on Oct. 6 and my vision is wonderful.  My biggest challenge is not grabbing my glasses right after my shower at night or grabbing them first thing in the morning when I get up.  I keep thinking I should have them on my face but then when I look around the room and realize my vision is 20/20, I almost have to pinch myself. 

I love you

There are two types of families.  One's that verbally say I love you and one's that don't say it so often but show it more than they say it.  I'm not saying that if you say it verbally that you don't show it, that by saying it, it eliminates the need to show it.  We are a family that says it and we say it a lot.  We always have.  And yes, of course we show it too, but we throw it around here like it's candy!  I love you easily flies off our tongues.  I grew up in a house where love was freely given and of course my parents told me they loved me, but I don't recall that we said it on a daily basis.  My mom, sister and I will tell each other we love each other every couple of weeks, and sometimes it will be months.  When I met Mike we told each other we loved each other before ending every phone call, and before we ended each date.  It became second nature to us.  I remember when we were younger and we were at work.  Mike was surrounded by his co-workers and as I walked away he said (out loud) I love you!  I think his co workers razzed him for months about that.  Mike still says he loves me when we're angry with each other.  Me, not so much.  Jay doesn't think it's as cool to say he loves me, but he stills says it, just on his terms.  Nick says it all the time.  Just today Nick was fishing and called me from his phone.  He ended the conversation with I love you. We are an I love you kind of family!  We aren't perfect.  In fact we are far from it.  We get on each other's nerves, we annoy one another, but at our core we love each other!