Boys at Cane Creek Falls

career ambitions of the student of the month

Owen was choosen as student of the month for his kindergarden class and was presented with a certificate at the assembly. He was a little shell-shocked when he had to go up front. he looked just like Will when he has to speak in front of a crowd! He was thrilled with the whole thing - especially excited about the "gold" seal on his certificate. This is his picture that is hanging on the lunchroom wall.

I have to tell you a funny story about Owen … the other night at open house the kids had prepared this life size cutouts of themselves with “All About Me” things written on them. You know, “My favorite food is..”, “I have 4 people in my family…” etc.

So I am looking at these things and one of the questions is “When I grow up, I want to be _______”. There were responses like a mommy, a train conductor, a paleontologist, a doctor, etc. And then there was Owen’s…. “When I grow up, I want to be A WORKER AT MCDONALDS”!!!! Such high aspirations!

Actually, he changes career choices every time you ask him about it. For a while it was an architect (wonder where that came from) or a NASCAR driver (“They only work on Sundays, mom”).

Makes me tired just thinking about it!

Gosh! Can't believe its been almost 4 weeks since I've posted an update. I was going to blame it on us being so busy, but I think I've finally come the realization that we are ALWAYS busy and that the exception is when we don't have anything to do. Every weekend from mid-August to October is busy. And now that school started is even more jammed.

Our weekday schedule goes something like this:
530: Alarm goes off - Will and Andrea moving around.
620: wake the kids up. this is no small feat. some mornings there is a lot of whining about being tired (owen) or flat out yelling to "go away" (jack). they eventually make their way downstairs for bfast.
730: leave for school. dad takes owen, mom takes jack.
8-5: work for mom. owen gets out of school at 310 and then goes to afterschool program. he works on his homework there and i check it in the evenings.
5-6: commute, pick up the kids, arrive home. i'm lucky that the job is so close. i can't imagine if i had a "real atlanta commute."
6-8: make dinner, play with kids, get the ready for bed. no fancy dinner - it takes too long. i figure as long as its healthy, the real point is to spend time together. bath only every other night.
8 strict bedtime. otherwise everyone is a crabby mess the next day. they are both usually asleep within minutes of hitting the sack.
8-10 domestic duties and sometimes some downtime with Will on the front porch,

add on top of that that we usually have at least 2 nights during the week that we juggle other things. for example, this week it was a sunday school meeting on monday, school open house on tuesday, and a funeral visitation on wednesday.

and people wonder why we don't miss cable tv....

First Day of School!

The long anticipated day has arrived. Owen seemed a little nervous (He was a little quiet on the walk in), but once the teacher gave him a coloring activity, he was all business. Sat down, got out his pencil and started going at it, barely waving goodbye to me. I was probably more worked up than him (I did not sleep well last night). Hard to believe he is so big – I mean, he goes to school with fifth graders!!!!

William reports that Jack did his usual bury his face in the shoulder routine, but once he saw his friend Connor, he jumped down and began playing Legos.

I’ll write more tonight….

Aunt Steph's Birthday

We went to Bham Satuday to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday. A great time was had by all! A neighbor’s friendly kitten was hanging on her front porch and the kids, especially Jack, were thrilled. Ibt he was out there half the afternoon talking to it, petting it, giving it water, “feeding” the cat sticks. Her’s a picture with his friend Tiger….

So long, Ol' Shep

Well we had to put Maggie to sleep this week. I knew it was coming, but I still hated to do it. She was really kinda out of it. The vet said he thought she had dog dementia - she paced a lot and had stop really responding to us, even when petting her. She did crazy things like stare at corners in the room and would try to walk up the stairs even though she could barely walk. Will said he knew she must have really been out of it because she is scared of the vet but when he took her, she didn't even act like she knew where she was. Which was a blessing for her, I guess.

We had been talking to the kids about it over the last week or so, trying to prep them for what was coming. One time we talked about it while riding in the car – I told them I thought Maggie was getting old and she was probably dying and we would miss her, yada yada. Owen had a couple of comments about heaven, but Jackson was just kind of quiet. Owen had also told Gram a couple of weeks ago that he wasn’t sure he wanted to go to heaven “because I don’t know what I’ll do there”. Gram told him nobody knows, but she was sure that Jesus would let us know. I still don’t think he was convinced. Anyway, when we got home we were feeding the dogs and Jack got all excited and said “Look Mom! Maggie’s not dying, she’s right here!!!” Oh boy…

After I told them that Maggie had died, Owen had all sorts of questions: “Is Maggie in heaven with Granny? Is heaven fun?” Of course, both of them said they were sad and missed Maggie. I told them me too, but let’s think about all the fun things she did, like getting excited about Will coming home and how much she used to like for Owen to throw her that tennis ball. Then I said “She’s probably in heaven right now chasing some squirrels”. Owen was incredulous – “There are squirrels in heaven?!” Well, I don’t know!!! I told him that God wanted us to be happy in heaven, so I guess if squirrels make Maggie happy, I guess they will be there (that’s in the New Testament, right?!)

Jack kept saying “Now we only have one dog, not two.” They wanted to know if we could get a “friend for Lewis.” I told them I don’t think Lewis likes any other dogs expect Maggie.

Now every time we come home, they both say “I miss Maggie”. And they are very attentive to Lewis. The funny thing is both Will and I think Lewis is happier without Maggie there – I think in the past couple of months she had been driving him as crazy as she had been driving us… pacing at all hours and doing other crazy things.

Happy Birthday Grandma Reese!

Went to the pool today to celebrate Grandma Reese's big day. Jack and Owen also made a little video for her... I'll post soon.

When we get to bed , Jack says his prays. Tonight he said "thank you for Grandma's Birthday." I though that was sweet. Also, he always argues with me about whether it is pronounced "A-MEN" or "AH-MEN". Naturally, he thinks it pronounced the opposite or whatever I say.