The First 48

The boys have become pretty interested in one of "my shows." I've watched it for a quite some time but lately anytime it's on, the boys are glued to the couch. It's called The First 48 and it's a reality show that follows some detectives who are trying to solve a murder.

I know - it sounds pretty morbid but honestly it's really educational. Aidan seems to think he could be a detective once he grows up but he's a little worried about how little sleep they seem to get!

They've both learned that if you know someone who has done something wrong and you don't tell or you lie - you could be in a lot of trouble also. Not to mention, just being around when something happens could mean that you were involved - even if you had no idea it was going to happen.

It does make Tristan a little worrisome, but geez what doesn't? He's fearful of someone breaking into our house but this show isn't the root of that worry. He had it before any of this. It just gets confirmed by some of the stories on the show. It's sad to say but that's reality in this day and age.

So, if you might be wondering what we are doing at 8 am while we are waiting for our time to approach to leave for school and work? Probably sitting on the couch watching this!

Happy Birthday Steph!

Ahhh, to be that young again! I love this picture of you; you look so happy! Hope that you had a wonderful birthday! We love ya!

Wednesday already?

Woah!

First and foremost - Happy 4th Birthday Caeli! I hope that your bicycle was a huge surprise when you opened your beautiful eyes this morning! We hope that you have so much fun at your party tonight that you are sound asleep before you get home! Wish we could celebrate it with you but just know we are thinking of you! Love ya!

The boys had their second cross-country meet on Monday and did really well again. They ran the mile and Tristan took 4th place with a time of 5 min 54 seconds. Yep, that's right 5.54! Aidan finished 12th with a time of 7 min 9 seconds! He ran the whole thing this time, no walking! There were 54 boys who participated in the run! Next Monday is their final meet and they've decided to take the mile and a half on for a challenge! No pics this time around - they were going so fast, all of them were blurry! My camera isn't fast enough for all of this action stuff!

Tristan came home yesterday in tears! He had his first experience with a tough substitute teacher and feeling inadequate. She told him that he had done his math work wrong and erased his work on the page. She then sent him home with it to redo. I'm not quite sure why she erased it and told him it was wrong because he was doing it right by my eyes. After a little consoling, we rewrote it all and sent it back the next morning. This is a preview for what life will be like once he has to do something that doesn't come easily to him. He's so used to being great at everything that when he doesn't understand something it frazzles him! Ah, those life lessons!

Couple at church

This weekend at church we had a couple come up front during the invitational song. I've never seen them before and I don't know how I knew it; but I knew that he was sick. I found myself getting emotional just standing there during the song. Once the song ended, our pastor introduced them and told us what was going on. They were new to the church by only a few weeks and indeed he was sick. He has cancer. They've been married for 48 years and had hoped to make it to 50 but aren't sure that will happen.

I look over to their daughter who is not just crying but bawling, and that just gets me even more. You could obviously see the pain that they were all in but you could also see the love radiating from them all. He's been doing the "bucket list" stuff lately. They renewed their vows last week and he's taken a ride in a jet and a helicopter.

Anyway, not sure if it's the resemblance between him and my grandfather who just passed or just the situation in itself. Life is too short at times and even when you do have 48 years together it's not long enough.

Sorreeeeee

The above word along with a little attitude has been used for a while in our house. It's really similiar to when someone says, "Well, excuuuuse me!" Sorreeeee isn't the same as saying you're sorry and really meaning it. Last night was the final time that I hope to ever hear that.

The boys were getting ready to go to church for their youth night and needed some money to take for the snack shack. I didn't have any cash but offered my quarters and also said we could run to the ATM really quick and get a couple of bucks.

Tristan says that he has quarters but Aidan won't let him spend them. I told him that of course he could spend them (they're sharing money for some weird reason). He runs to get the 4 quarters and off they go.

Later last night, we are getting ready for bed and I look over to see the board of state quarters that Aidan had been collecting. We had our board full thanks to my mom who sacrificed one of hers from her safe. Pennsylvania was a hard one for us to find and after a year we had almost given up! Anyway, my stomach dropped once I saw the board with 4 quarters missing. I immediately yelled for Tristan and yes - those were the 4 quarters he spent on skittles and a ring pop! No wonder he said Aidan wouldn't let him spend them. Why didn't I question that?

Tristan reminds me that I said that he could use the quarters; but that was me thinking that they were normal, regular quarters in their bank (which are there by the way). Aidan and I are in complete disbelief! And wouldn't you know it he used one of the Pennsylvania quarters which were the rarest of rare for us! Mom, we are so sorry! Aidan was extremely upset!

I told him that it was his responsibility to replace the 4 quarters asap! He looks around and manages to find two of the four we needed in dad's coin holder in the car. Our plan then was to contact the church and ask them to look through their drawer for the missing coins. (This is a long shot I know, since they hand out change all night but it's worth a try right?)

Forward to this morning - the boys have a little extra time before we leave for school and they are playing hacky sack in the living room. Of course they manage to kick it into a picture frame and knock the frame down on the shelf. I'm putting the frame back together and moving my knick-knacks back in place only to find a stack of quarters hidden under a musical water globe. They've been there for a while due to the dust that was collected and the fact that neither one of them remember hiding them there.

Immediately I search through them and I couldn't believe it - there was a Pennsylvania quarter!!!!! Tristan looks at me and says, "It's a gift from God!" I told him that it definitely was and that he needed to say thank you. Tristan told me he had prayed about it last night and that really touched my heart. I explained that I'm happy he prayed all on his own and it's good to do that. I also told him how important it is to not only ask God for things but to also remember to thank him for answers.

Wow, this little experience was amazing! We are still missing a New Jersey quarter so if anyone might have one, Tristan could use a little redemption in his brother's eyes. (You could always put it in an envelope with a return address of heaven.) Just kidding, but that would be really cool.

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Mom- I'm so happy we don't have to tell you that we used that quarter. (Although, that's what really happened.) Aidan wouldn't have minded telling you this story at all. They love talking about each other's mistakes and screw-ups.

Father figures

So last Friday at bible study there was an interesting topic that I could totally relate to. How has your father/father figure affected your life?

Our leader shared his story and a book that he was studying. The book stated that if you didn't have a father who was loving and encouraging, it could impact how you think of yourself now. Our leader had a father who up and left their family for another woman and moved across country. He didn't have a relationship with him for about 20 years. He struggles with insecurities big time. He never thinks that anything he does is good enough and he constantly worries about what people think of him. It's unreal really, he's the nicest guy possible and wouldn't hurt a fly.

Why am I talking about him you might ask? Well, I feel the same way! If someone calls or emails me that we need to talk and they don't tell me what it's about, I immediately think that I've done something wrong and I'm worrying about usually nothing until the talk takes place. I constantly worry about what people think about me, if I see someone and they don't speak to me then I immediately wonder what I might have done wrong. It's silly at times, but I'm a very anxious/worrisome person.

I don't think that improving my relationship with my dad now will help me with all of that. It's probably ingrained in me; but I'm thinking about it. It's not as if I don't already try but I think I could put a little more effort into it. It's sad but true that I struggle at times with just making father's day and birthday phone calls.

This is exactly one of the main reasons that I encourage our boys and constantly show and tell them how much I love them! My husband isn't as good with the verbalizing as I would like but he tries when I point certain things out. He is very active in their lives and that's something I didn't have so it's a plus. It's also why I feel so strongly about keeping my family together.

Just something that's on my mind and I'm going to continue thinking on it. Family members - no need to comment unless you want to. I'm not trying to start drama, just wanted to share my personal thoughts and struggles. It's all about learning and growing!

Cross country meet #1

Wow, what fun that was last night! The boys had a lot of fun and I got that choked up feeling of pride again. Here's the crew before the race: Eman, Tristan, Aidan and Joel (left to right).

Everyone ran the mile race except for Joel who challenged himself with the mile and a half.

Start of the mile! The guy in green is called "the rabbit". He's the guide through the race trail. Can you see the boy in the red shirt leading the pack? That's Tristan. He passed the rabbit in the beginning of the race but used all of his steam too early so he slowed back down during the middle of it all.

Tristan arriving at the finish line. He got second place in that large group! So, so proud!

Aidan finishing! He walked in the middle a bit but overall he really amazed me! We aren't sure what place he got (waiting for the results on-line) but he came in a few after Eman who is in 5th grade!

We are excited to do this again next Monday! Aidan thinks in two weeks he's going to challenge himself with the mile and a half. Joel did well and got second place with 8 min 12 sec. Amazing!

So Lost!

I got so lost in Denver on Saturday! We had soccer games at the same time but at two different locations in the Denver area so we had to split up. We decided that we would meet for lunch afterwards. Good idea huh? Yeah.

I had mapquest directions and felt completely confident. After 40 minutes and still not arriving at our destination I got a little worried. I called Josh (as he's waiting at the restaurant for me) and he told me to use my i-phone map. That's hard for me to do while driving through a busy downtown area with stop and go lights every five seconds. I tried but couldn't concentrate on it since I was still driving around in circles.

After an hour of driving and being completely confused I gave up. I stopped at a McDonald's and gave Josh the address to come and find me! Come to find out, I was on the east side of the street and needed to be on the west side which took 20 minutes to get to. I could have just screamed!

Josh and the boys had quite a few laughs from this. That is, once Aidan got out of the car with me. You should have seen the look of relief on his face once his dad drove up!

Once we finished our late lunch and headed home, Aidan was insistent on riding home with me although Josh definitely has the nicer ride. It took a bit to convince him that I would be okay and once I got on the interstate I would make it home just fine. What a gentleman he is!

And yes, I made it home just fine. Exhausted but fine (thanks to my hubby)!

yIKEs! (Stolen from cnn.com)

Ike is scary looking! We are thinking of everyone in Texas! I'm sure our tv will be on CNN tonight and tomorrow trying to stay up to date on it all.

Shell - I'm glad you got your deposit back for the weekend in Galveston but I'm sorry everything got cancelled. Hope it doesn't get too bad for you guys in Austin.

Everyone in Tyler - looks like it might go that way and I'm not sure what that necessarily means. A bad thunderstorm and some flooding? You are all in our thoughts and prayers.

Sissy - thinking about your beach house! Please keep us updated.

Love ya!

Picture Day today!

You would think that having boys would make picture day so much easier but it's not. The process for school pictures has improved or has become more complicated (whichever way you choose to see it) with technology. We have 10 backgrounds to choose from, then you have to decide on the layout, not to mention the package choices. They now offer a re-touch/softening options for acne, scarring , whatever it may be. (Gosh, I wish I would have had that in high school!)

The boys chose different backgrounds so I then had to pick out a shirt to go with each. After $70 I sure hope they turn out well!

****I had a hard time with the chose/choose wording in this post! Spellcheck didn't pick up on anything so forgive me if this is all wrong. One of those mornings!

Heartbreaker

Can you tell that I wasn't in a hurry to update you on the soccer games?

Tristan's team lost to their rivals 4-3! I didn't get to really see that much of the game because I was watching Aidan's but from what I hear they should have won. At least five shots on goal didn't go in! Tristan is okay but was obviously disappointed. He gave it his all as usual and from what Josh says, "he didn't have much help."

On the other hand, Aidan started his season out on top! They won 5-2 and he has no idea how many goals he scored. I think it was 2 but it's awesome that he wasn't keeping track! His team had a slow start but they looked great in the second half.

So, there's the update! Practices start again tonight so the rest of our week will fly by!

Busy week!

I've been so busy but all it seems that I do is work and then hang out at a park for soccer. No personal time at all, I have a week worth of shows recorded to get caught up on! Here's our weekly recap:

Monday, Opal somehow managed to shatter her toe nail behind the couch. We still have no idea how she did it but she went to Tristan right after it happened so we know that much. Fortunately it wasn't a bleeder like the one that sent her to the ER. (Josh cut too deep and it wouldn't stop without medical intervention.) It did hurt though and she limped around for two days but I'm glad to say that she is getting much better. She's my little shadow and you should have seen the look on her face every time I went to another level in the house. She always followed but it was a lot slower and she wasn't too happy about it.

We've had a few cooler days so the pants had to come out of hiding. Tristan has somehow managed to outgrow all of his pants except for two! That was a bit frustrating because some of them were only worn 2-3 times. Guess we will have some shopping to do soon, although I'm secretly hoping for a few more weeks of warmer temps.

The boys have started Landsharks. It's a running club and they are learning long distance running right now. From what I hear, Aidan is really good at it and it's not hard for either of them. They definitely get that from Dad because I've never been good at running. They both like it and we're all excited to see what a meet looks like.

The NFL season started last night. I'm happy but my husband is even happier. He was counting down the days all week. Funny thing is that he missed the first quarter of the game because he thought it started an hour later and he thought it was a double header but there was only one game. I'm hoping that Brett Favre has a good year after all of his drama and change. Also cheering for my Cowboys!

Big soccer weekend for us. Aidan has his first game of his season and Tristan faces his local rivals. The both play at the same time, same park so we'll have whip-lash by the time its all over. We're hoping to set up somewhere in the middle of the fields to be able to see it all. I'll update you all with the results.

Happy 6th Birthday Miss Alyssa!

Her personality is showing in this picture! I love it!

We hope you enjoy the CD's we sent! Wish we were there with you to celebrate! Love ya, Aunt Shea, Uncle Josh, Tristan and Aidan

Thornton Kick-Off Tournament

Busy Labor Day weekend for us but it was worth it! Tristan's team played in the Thornton Kick-Off Tournament and came away with 1st place!! The teams that we faced on Saturday weren't much competition unfortunately. They were the kind of games where after they scored three goals the coach gave them restrictions (such as passing it five times before a shot, passing back to the goalie before shooting, and then only left foot kicks).

Anyway, Sunday's games were tough! The first game we tied 3-3 but there was drama involved in that game and I really think that's why we tied. Tristan got hurt and was down for quite a while on the field. We weren't worried until a cart comes over with additional people and Josh went out to see what was going on. He was met with, "Step back, you can't touch him!" Now this got him all worried and secondly pissed him off. You don't dictate to Josh, belittling him isn't effective and secondly, that's our child! The director of the tournament had heard that he hit his head and although he was perfectly fine he wouldn't let him get off the ground until a trainer came over. Our assistant coach is a trainer but he wouldn't listen to him. The director's comment to him was, "This is my field."

Josh proceeded to lift Tristan up and walk him over to the bench. The director follows him and causes a huge scene. Josh walks to the other side of the field and sits back down with the director following every step, still talking. He then gets in Josh's face (bad breath and all) and says, "It's unbelievable what you just did! I have every right to throw you out of this park right now!" He then storms off and we are all sitting there in disbelief!

Tristan was perfectly fine, another player elbowed him but he didn't have a bump, nothing. He played the rest of the game but his team missed him, I believe this was the reason for the tie. After the game, Josh goes over to the director to try and clear the air but all he heard was, "Are you an effing doctor?" So the conversation ended on that note. Josh walked away which I was really happy about. This man was on a power trip and nothing you could have said would have made things better. I didn't want Josh to get thrown out of the park so I was fine with it ending that way. You can imagine that our team had lots to talk about during lunch.

The second game was a rematch of the 1st one. This time there wasn't any drama and Tristan played the entire game. We won! Tristan and his best friend Joel finally got a goal on something they had been working on for over a year. Tristan kicked a corner kick and Joel headed it in! Awesome, it was like watching the pros!

Trophy!!!

Tristan and Joel with their medals! We had to make a trip to Dave & Buster's to celebrate the win!