Our Thanksgiving

For some reason, I was really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year! We only had 2 days of school last week and had 5 days off. I'm sure that was part of the anticipation. It was so nice to have a little break. Thankfully the long holiday weekend was just as relaxing and enjoyable as I had hoped!

One of the weekend's highlights was having family over on Thanksgiving day. Ron smoked a turkey, my mom made a meatloaf, and we filled in the side dishes with a little something for everyone. And of course there was plenty of dessert. Oh, I almost forgot one of my favorites - my breakfast! I have been hungry for a gooey cinnamon roll for weeks. We enjoyed Cinnabon rolls for breakfast and they were every bit as wonderful as I remembered them being!!

 

 

This sign was by the register at the place I got our pies.

Jack was in the hospital right after Tyler's birthday and then we were busy, so we also celebrated Tyler's birthday on Thanksgiving. He wanted a strawberry cake with strawberry icing again, so that's what he got. Danielle bought me some decorator tips for Christmas last year. I haven't used them because we've been avoiding the sweets but we decided to try them out on Tyler's cake. Danielle had fun attempting to use them. The flowers turned out more like Smurf cowpies, but you can't be unhappy about more icing on a cake!

This is how we spent the afternoon - watching tv, eating dessert, talking, putting together legos, eating more dessert. It was just about perfect.

We have so much to be thankful for - high on that list for me is Jack's recovery after being so sick. It was so nice to spend the day enjoying each other's company...and eating desserts (did I mention that part?).

Ron and I got to spend a lot of time together over the long weekend, and we had some good family time, too. It was a very nice Thanksgiving break.

Honor Band Weekend

Tyler was nominated by his band director to attend Capital University's Honor Band. He has been nominated to participate in Ohio State's Honor Band the past two years, but after being nominated, participants are selected by a lottery system. For this honor band, nominations were actually reviewed and then some students received invitations based on their qualifications and submissions from their band directors. Tyler and one other student from our school were invited to attend.

He missed school yesterday to attend. His day started early, though, with chair auditions. Earlier this week he received an email with audition music attached. He also had to play a difficult scale and sight read a piece. He has auditioned for chairs in his own band, but never in front of strangers in a formal environment, and I don't think he had to sight read a piece then. I'm sure he was nervous, but what a great experience! Something like that can only make you better.

After auditions their day was filled with practices, master classes, campus tours, lunch & dinner, and concerts by a local high school band and the college's concert band. His day ended around 11pm last night. He reported at 8am again today and did more of the same. The weekend culminated with a concert this afternoon. All said, they had around 6 hours of actual playing time together. Keep that in mind when you listen to the pieces they performed. It was amazing!

Tyler had a great time! He said it was so neat to be surrounded by so many talented people. Even their first time through, the music sounded decent because they all knew what they're doing. The conductor was a famous composer/arranger who has written a lot of the music they've played in band. He thought that was neat. This was a super experience for Tyler and I am so very thankful he had the opportunity to be a part of it!!

The first piece is my favorite. The last piece is Tyler's favorite. My cell phone recording does not do the sound justice. The first piece is long, 5 minutes. The rest are shorter. The 3rd song is Indian and has a droning sound through the whole thing that my phone doesn't really pick up. The 2nd song has a guest performer who is playing the flugelhorn. (Sorry it's a little shaky at first.) We have joked with Tyler for awhile about getting him a flugelhorn because it's cool to say and looks kind of like a big trumpet. It was neat to listen to someone play one. 3 of the 4 songs were composed by James Swearingen, the gentleman conducting.

 

 

We went to dinner afterward. Doesn't everyone dress up for Chipotle? I know he had a good time because he chose to talk to me about his weekend during most of dinner rather than texting or surfing on his phone. Danielle had a college softball showcase out of town today so she and Ron couldn't go. We scheduled it at the end of summer and couldn't get a refund. Sounds like she had a great day, too. One of the college coaches remembered her from a previous tournament and commented several times on her speed. It's fun to watch the kids excel at what they love, but it doesn't just happen. They both work very hard.

Smile!

Danielle's big, beautiful smile got a little shinier today.

She is sore tonight but making the best of it. She will have to have rubberbands, so that is sure to be an adventure. If everything goes as planned, she will only be in braces for 12-15 months. I'm counting on the 15, but hoping for the 12. She's always had such a beautiful smile. Now it's even more dazzling. :)

Here are a couple more pictures of that beautiful smile from this weekend.

Celebrating Our Kids

Our kids are pretty awesome. It's nice when other people realize it, too. :)

Danielle was recognized at school last week for her leadership and Ideal Characteristics. I really appreciated the note the teacher who nominated her sent home. It talked about Danielle helping a struggling classmate, but I know there's more to it than that. Not only does the classmate struggle with the material, but she struggles socially, too. Danielle's talked about it at home.  We want to stop the violence and make the world a better place? This is how it's done. By being kind to people because "you never know what they may be going through" (quote from my daughter), and by loving people simply because it's what God calls us to do. This is how Danielle is going to change the world - one struggling student at a time. I love her heart.

Tyler was nominated and selected to play in Capital University's Honor Band this coming weekend. It's kind of a big deal. Only 2 people from his school were selected. He will miss classes on Friday and has to prepare an audition piece. There will be a concert Saturday afternoon. I'm excited for him! He also has concert band auditions this week. Today the squad leaders and seniors left school to play for a veteran's day assembly. Danielle snapped a picture for me before he left home this morning. He looked so handsome. 

 

I absolutely love listening to him practice. He has a real talent for playing, and I'm so glad that it's being recognized and encouraged.

This is Us

My family cooperated for some pictures today. It was extremely cold, the lighting was difficult to work with because of the time of day we went, and ultimately none of us was happy with how we looked in the pictures. But... wrinkles, acne, wind-blown hair, too much smile, no smile, sweaters that make our hips look too wide... the reality is that this is who we are and what we look like at this moment in time. There will never be a perfect time and we will never look perfect. I think we will all look back one day and not see any of those flaws in these pictures anyway. So, here are some pictures from today. For better or worse, this is us.

 

 

Of course, the selfie cell phone picture is my favorite:

Softball Road Trip, Part 2

Danielle's team played 3 games on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Since it was a true showcase, there wasn't any bracket play. Everyone played 5 games, and it didn't really matter who won or lost. The point of a showcase is to give players the chance to show their skills to college recruiters.  It's neat to see all the college coaches and recruiters standing behind home plate, taking notes and whispering to each other. Of course, everyone there was competitive & wanted to win, but that wasn't the ultimate goal of the weekend. It changes the game a little when you aren't necessarily playing to win. Sometimes the coaches will put one player in over another so the college recruiter can see them in action. That means you aren't always fielding your winning defense. It's definitely a new game for us this year.

Yes, that's her breath.

Our games started early, with warm-ups starting before sunrise on Saturday. With the time change, we started right around sunrise on Sunday. The lights on the field welcomed us in both days. It was cold and frosty and early, but it was softball! I was entertained by the melting frost on the grass on Saturday and watching the fog roll in on Sunday. Ron and I both expended a lot of energy complaining to each other about being cold. :) Ron says he's missing a lot of insulation this year. It's definitely an adjustment!

 

Danielle plays centerfield this year, which is her favorite position. She loves it because she gets to run and make plays that a lot of girls can't make because they're not fast enough. She had some great catches again this weekend. It is so fun to watch her fly across the field and snag a ball you thought for sure was uncatchable. She generally is in the top 3 batting wise, but she really struggled this weekend. We're not sure why, other than sometimes it just happens. I think sometimes when you have a bad game, it gets in your head and snow balls. I know she was frustrated with herself and felt like she was letting her team down. Realistically, she ended up 6th out of 12 batters for the weekend, so it wasn't terrible. It just wasn't her best and she knew it. Softball certainly offers a lot of opportunity for building character.

 

 

We went to dinner and a movie Saturday evening and then were back at it early on Sunday. Sunday was a little better, but still not stellar. We finished up early in the afternoon and then started for home. The scenery on the way back was so beautiful. The leaves through the mountains were beautiful. We listened to Christmas music all the way home, Danielle finished up her homework, and we stopped a few times to eat and use the restroom, finally getting home around 9:30pm. I'm pretty sure we were all in bed by 10. It was a weekend full of ups and downs, and it was a long weekend. But, it was a weekend of watching Danielle play softball, spending time with my husband, and talking to Tyler through text way more than he would have talked to me if I'd been home.

Softball Road Trip, Part 1

Danielle's travel team finished up their fall season with a showcase in southern Tennessee this past weekend. The fields we played on were actually across the border in Georgia. Danielle left school an hour early on Friday so we could get a good start on the 7 hour drive. Tyler opted to stay home for the weekend, which was probably for the best. He was able to take care of Clara for us. He also would have been miserable with the hotel accommodations and cranky about the fact we listened to Christmas music pretty much all the way there and back. I know he enjoys having the house to himself and having the freedom to come and go and get up and go to bed when he pleases. I am thankful he is responsible and trustworthy enough to leave home alone for a weekend.

We took a break to stop for dinner somewhere in southern Kentucky. There was a Halloween store with sale signs on the door just a few doors down from the restaurant, so we made a quick trip through there before resuming our travels. Tyler really, really wanted a fog machine to enhance the Halloween décor this year, but we didn't want to spend that much money. We promised we'd look for something on sale after Halloween. We found one for a decently discounted price at the KY store, so we picked that up for Tyler. We may have tried on some costume heads, too.

We finished our trip and finally rolled into the hotel a little after 11pm. This showcase was a "stay to play", which means we had to stay at an assigned hotel if we wanted to participate in the tournament. Unfortunately our team drew the short straw and got stuck at a Motel 6. And, since all the hotels in the area were full because of the showcase, they all inflated their prices. So, we paid twice as much as usual for a sub-par hotel room. And it was just about as bad as we had feared. The towels were dirty. The sheets were dirty. It smelled bad. They didn't offer shampoo. Even if we left we were stuck paying for the room for 2 days, so we made the best of it. (Of course the first thing I did was check for bed bugs. I don't care how much it cost, bed bugs are a deal breaker. Fortunately there wasn't any evidence of those!!) Ron found a 24 hour Walmart and bought some shampoo, a couple sleeping bags, and some pillows and pillow cases. The one nice thing about the hotel was that it was only 10 minutes away from the softball fields, which was a good thing since it was late when we finally got to bed Friday evening and we had to be there by 7am Saturday morning!

Not a happy camper

Our Halloween

We had a very busy October. There wasn't a good time to go pick out pumpkins together until this past weekend, so we decided we'd go after church and lunch on Sunday. Even that didn't work out, though. Danielle ended up with what we suspect was food poisoning Saturday and spent Saturday afternoon, evening, and Sunday morning in between the bathroom and her bed. The three of us stopped by the grocery store after lunch on Sunday and picked out pumpkins. Thankfully Danielle was feeling better Sunday evening so we did get to carve them together.

Some things never change - Tyler still doesn't want to touch the guts. Ron saw someone online use a drill to clean out their pumpkin last year, so he thought he'd try it. He and Tyler cleaned theirs out that way. Danielle and I did it the old fashion way, and I think our way was just as fast and thorough. The drill was amusing, though. Every once in awhile a pumpkin seed flew out of the pumpkin and across the room.

 

Danielle started with one concept but decided it was too ambitious once she started cutting and quickly changed directions. Ron's and Tyler's both look similar to pumpkins past. Mine probably does, too. I like how they turned out this year, though, and I'm thankful we found the time to carve them together.

 

This was the first time in 17 years we haven't had our own trick-or-treater. Both kids decided they wanted to have friends over instead. Danielle wanted to have friends over to watch a movie, and Tyler wanted to have friends over to hang out and help pass out candy. I ran across a couple recipes I'd been wanting to try and was excited for the chance to make goodies, so I may have gone a little overboard. We had slow cooker hot chocolate with a variety of toppings, 4 different types of cookies, 2 different types of brownies, rice krispie treats, chips of various sorts, and homemade Halloween chex mix. Everything was wonderful, but of course there was way too much of it. I took some in to my coworkers today and Danielle took a big pan of leftovers to Bible study tonight. Danielle's friends didn't make it very far into the movie, and Tyler and his friends lasted about an hour into passing out candy. At that point Ron and I took over candy duty and both groups of kids decided to play board games together. I feel so fortunate that both Tyler and Danielle have good friend groups. The kids they surround themselves with are good people with good morals from good homes. Out of all the parenting worries I have, thankfully wondering if their friends will be bad influences is not one of them.

Ron and I enjoyed our evening, too. We went for a walk around the neighborhood to see all the cute costumes and get a little exercise while Tyler's gang was passing out candy. When they were done, we sat in the garage and passed out candy together. Once we ran out of candy, we watched a movie in the bedroom while we listened to the kids laughing downstairs. It wasn't our traditional Halloween, but it was a good one.