Busy 101

 I am thankful I am healthy.  I am thankful for my job, and I am thankful for the health of my family and the work Mike has been given.  That being said, I am tired and a wee bit overwhelmed.  Perhaps if I look over my blog posts from previous years I might find I feel this way around this time of year, or maybe it's just because I'm getting older and I know that very soon I will have some relief since Jay will be turning 16 and will be able to take over some of the driving.  Who knows.  I just know that lately I'm felt worn out.  I'm fairly faithful in my blogging but notice I haven't blogged since December.  That is proof of how busy we've been.  But enough complaining.  I thought I'd post some pictures of what we've been up to lately.  Nick desperately wanted to have some friends over during break.  I might have picked the coldest day over break to have boys over.  Perhaps not my best move.  To top it off I took them out for ice cream on that very cold day.  The boys came back to our house to play ping pong.  Again, I was tired and wasn't in the best frame of mind to have kids over, but I was able to fulfill my promise to Nick and he was happy so mission accomplished.

 This was the day I was doing a happy dance.  It was the first day back to school after Christmas break.  Hallejah!

 This picture is really disgraceful of Jay and I (notice Nick's smile in the back, however), but I had to post it.  Jay was less than thrilled about the picture, as you can see, but I didn't care.  I had to document the moment.  I drove the boys to school on Friday for what would be the official last day of me driving them to school.  While I know there will still be days here and there that I will drive them to school, it was really the last day before Jay gets his license.  Monday is MLK day and Tuesday is his birthday.  Notice my smile?  I was feeling guilty about being so excited about Jay getting his license because in no way does my excitement mean I am not worried about him driving.  I'm praying for God's protection over Jay daily and will continue to do so.  Whether I was depressed or excited about him driving, the worry would still be there.

 This picture really speaks to what Mike and I and the boys have lived and breathed lately - basketball.  Nick had a tournament this weekend which was horrific.  They lost both games by 30 points. Jay had a game on Friday night.  Jay is not getting the playing time this year and it's frustrating to him, but we keep encouraging him to stay with it.  I got to thinking the other day that next January may look entirely different from any other January we've seen in 6 years as both of my boys may decide not to play bball next year.  All I've known in January is basketball.

 For the first time in a very long time we went out for dinner together as a family.  As usual we decided to go last minute.  Thankfully Nick's dinner time appetite never disappoints.  He ate an entire 16 oz prime rib.  I'm not even appalled anymore, but our waitress was.  Mike, Jay and I had finished our meal and waited another 20 minutes so Nick could finish every last morsel on his plate.  It's ridiculous, but somewhat amusing.

After dinner we made a quick stop at Ausili's. As I go into this week I am excited for Jay turning 16.  He's beyond ready as he's the last of his core group of friends to turn 16.  I'll post later this week about Jay's bday festivities.