Football. Done.

3 Boys

10 weeks.

20 Games.

DONE!!

(Basketball starts next week!)

Poor Jared.....

Poor Jared. Tuesday night the boys were in the car waiting for Keith and I when we heard crying from the garage. Keith opened the door and Jared was sobbing while holding his nose with 2 very bloody hands. All he could say was that Cale punched him in the nose. Blood was just pouring out of his nose!


I got Jared in the bathroom and started holding his nose with a Kleenex. He was getting a little hysterical with all of the blood. He was getting sweaty and clammy and couldn't quit crying. I finally hollered at him "You are NOT going to die!" He finally calmed down and I had Cale come in with his side of the story.


"I was trying to get him to flinch and he moved his face closer. I didn't mean to! It was an accident!"

Jared confirmed that story, but it didn't make it hurt or bleed any less. It took us nearly a half hour to get the bleeding to stop. In the mean time, Keith was cleaning everything up. There was blood in his car and there was a trail through the garage, through the laundry room and down the hall into the bathroom. There was blood on the toilet and the sink. He had blood on his shirt, his shorts, his sweatshirt and I had it on my pants. This house looked like a murder scene! I told Keith that this wouldn't happen in a house full of GIRLS! He said, no, probably not but someone would've ripped someone else's hair out by now!

He slept good but it started bleeding again when he got up Wednesday morning. Since I don't go into work until noon, and his first period of the day was a study hall, I kept him home just to make sure that the bleeding stopped for good. He has been in good shape all day. I did manage to share the story with some teachers, and the principal when I got to work in the afternoon.


During the last period of the day on Wednesday, Mr. Billings (the Middle School principal) walked into Cale's class holding a rolled up poster. From what I understand from Cale, this is how things went and what Mr. Billings said:


"May I interrupt your class for just a minute? Cale can you come up to the front? (Cale is thinking...wellllll, OK) This is a poster of Albert Pujols that has been hanging in our lunch room. I have always promised Cale that he could have that whenever I took it down. Well, some things that happened last night may have jeopardized that. Cale, tell your friends what happened."


"I hit my brother last night."


"You PUNCHED him in the FACE!"


"I tried to get him to flinch, and he moved his face. It was an ACCIDENT!!"


"I think that I'll give this poster to your brother instead." He started walking to the door, and turned around and said "Just kidding...here is your poster. And by the way, your Mom told me to do this."

"Of course she did. And it was an accident!!" :)

His class was gasping, giggling and giving him a bad time. Even his teacher was feeling bad for Jared!


I am happy to report that Jared is doing very well and he some how managed to avoid any black eyes. (Not sure how he did that!) I am thinking that in about 15-20 years the boys will talk about this incident...."Remember when....."

I guess that I should expect things like this to happen once in awhile. Afterall.....

BOYS WILL BE BOYS!!

I heard it!!

I heard it! I really did!! I heard Cale actually say "I'm lucky I have a Mom!" :)

Never mind that it was because he was half asleep and had put his shirt on backwards and I told him so he could turn it around. He said it. My teenage boy actually admitted it!!

I'M LUCKY TO HAVE A MOM!!!

(I'm sure he'll deny it, and I may not hear it again for a looooong time, but I know what I heard!!)

Sharing

Trevor is suppose to bring something for sharing at school on the 12th. of each month....or the closest day if the 12th. falls on a weekend. Well, the 12th. of October fell on a Wednesday, and that is also my day to volunteer in his classroom. While he was trying to decide what to bring I told him that since I was coming any way--I could be his sharing. I was pretty sure I could fit in his backpack. He didn't really think that was going to work......

Me: I could be your sharing this month. I think I could fit into your backpack.
Trevor: No, Mom. You would make my backpack weigh like 500 pounds!!
Me: WHAT?! How much do you think I weigh?!
Trevor: Not that much...but I would have my folder in there, too.

How refreshing to know that it would be his folder that would tip the scale to 500 pounds....NOT me! :)

Brought to Tears

Tuesday night Cale had his last football game and it was in Webster City. More on that some other day. We were driving by a large cemetery when Trevor told me from the back seat that when he died he would like his tombstone shaped like a baseball. I told him that I didn't want to talk about something like that.
I told him that he would be out living me, so I wouldn't have any say in his tombstone. I told him that I would be waiting for him in heaven.

Then Jared said "Yes, Trevor. She will be in heaven saving you a spot on the couch waiting to snuggle with you."

Yes, I will. I will have a spot for all of them.

I got a large lump in my throat and my eyes welled up a bit. I really didn't want to talk about something like that, but I was glad to hear that Jared "gets it."

Love them. <3

To My Kids

The sign I saw at Jimmy John's had this on it. I. LOVE. IT. I really wish I could hang it in the living room. And my kids' bedrooms. And their bathroom. And the kitchen. And the garage. To my kids:

Your parents weren't always so boring.

They were fun until they started paying your bills,

cleaning up after you, and listening to you talk

about how cool you are.

Let a New Week Begin!!

A new week is starting, and I can't wait. Last week was a good one to get over with. This next week HAS to be better!

**My parents filled me in about my Uncle Frank (Dad's brother) that was in a head on collision back in July. If you remember, a car crossed the center line and hit my uncle's car head on. He was severely injured and my aunt was killed. After almost 2 months, he has been cleared to drive. My parents were there to take him to the doctor and helped him get an old car to run well enough for now. A few days after Mom and Dad left, Frank went to a follow up appointment about some blood work and other tests. Frank has now been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Really?! He's been widowed and will now have to do radiation all by himself. Seems like he's had his fair share of things to deal with....and it's not over yet.

**Last week my brother made 2 visits to the ER, within 3 days, for a kidney stone. They just couldn't get his pain regulated. The second trip got him an IV which seemed to help speed up the process. It was homecoming in Grinnell last week, and he was just trying to enjoy all of the activities...parade, Luke's football game, Abby's powder puff game, Abby's last homecoming to cheer for, coronation. We are thankful that he was feeling better before Abby and Luke had to be ready for the Homecoming dance.

**Keith had an odd mole on the back of his head...in his scalp. I had been after him for a couple of months to have it looked at. We always forgot until he got another haircut and we could see it again. I finally made an appointment for him and he had it biopsied a couple of weeks ago. He went back on Friday to have the staple removed and to find out that it was indeed basal cell carcinoma. The doctor told him that it was the form of skin cancer that "everyone else has." Maybe so, but I didn't think that HE needed to have it, too. They said that it contains to the one spot, and we are thankful that it isn't a more serious form. And for the record I'm still waiting to hear: "Thanks, Heidi for making me go in. I should've listened to you a couple of months ago." But he's a guy, so I'm not holding my breath waiting for it. I am just glad that he did go!

**My parents have some really good friends that live close to them named Roger and Mitzi. Their son is 49 and has advanced brain cancer. In fact, Mom just told me yesterday that they have found more spots on his brain. They also have a daughter who is 41. She moved back in with her parents around the first of the year and has mental illness issues. Well, Mom called me on Saturday to tell me that Roger and Mitzi had been to Ankeny to visit their son on Friday. They came home in the late afternoon and opened their garage door and found that their daughter had hung herself in the garage. Wow. Chances are, they will have to bury 2 of their children (they have 1 other son) within a month or so of each other. That just seems to be more then parents should have to endure. I know that God knows exactly what he is doing, but I just don't see or understand it. I also know that I don't have to understand it...just trust him.

My knees are worn out from praying so hard the last week. Won't you join me?

Flash Back Friday

Five years ago today I took Cale and Jared up to Cedar Falls to watch the UNI/Missouri State football game. There we met up with our friends the Allen's. Their Dad, Terry, is the head football coach for the MSU Bears. He used to coach at UNI, then at Kansas and then at Iowa State before he went on to Missouri State. Cale and Chase were in the same class for a couple of years when they went to school at Gilbert, and Alex was a year older then Jared.

And this picture was taken last November when they stopped by our house on their way to Cedar Falls for the UNI/Missouri State game. Yes, Chase and Alex really ARE that much taller then my kids!!

It's always great to see them! We wish they didn't have to move, but the life of a coach takes you all sorts of places!

T Minus 8 Months.....

Eight Months from today this kid:

and I will board one of these:

for a 20 hour ride (yes 20 HOURS!) to:

as part of an 8th. grade trip.

I. CAN'T. WAIT.

And I think he

is excited, too!

We will get to see and do a TON! Like....

(The Capitol, the White House and The Supreme Court.)

and these in honor of Presidents:

(Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, FDR Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial)

And these solemn sites:

(Holocaust Memorial Museum, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the Pentagon Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery)

And these war remembrances:

(Iwa Jima Marine Memorial, Korean War Memorial, WW 2 Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial)

We will also get to take a cruise to:

(Mt. Vernon--George Washington's Estate)

We will see:

(The National Cathedral)

Our trip will also include a stop here:

(Georgetown Cupcakes)

This kid:

is very excited about going to:

(Nationals Park)

to watch:

in a baseball game.

I am so thrilled to get to share all of this with

This guy, however,:

is a little worried about what he'll feed these 2:

for 5 days!

I am already thinking that I will need to get this:

fully loaded and charged for my 20 hour bus ride!

And don't you think this would be a great time to get a new one of these??

Language Arts 101

It was SO windy during Cale's game on Thursday night, and Trevor had NO interest in sitting out in! I felt for him since he had just missed school on Wednesday with one of his dreaded unexplained fevers. Keith's niece, Maddie, had no real interest in watching her brother, Garret's, game either so I left Trevor with her and they had a grand time playing games and who knows what else.

When I went to pick him up he had some little toy in his had and I wasn't sure what it was and he just kept calling it "a thing." But what IS it? "It's a THING!" So Teri finally asked him "What is a THING?!" His answer....(are you ready for this, Lisa??).....

It's a NOUN!

(duh)