a week to catch up

It's been far too long since I've updated this blog. The past few months have been busy. Yesterday I finished my Anatomy & Physiology I accelerated course (15 weeks of material in 7 weeks) and I feel like I can finally exhale. I loved the class, except for the long hours studying and the many hours in lecture and lab. It really solidified my interest in the medical field and has me excited to start the nursing program (hopefully in the fall- fingers crossed I get into the program). I have a week of "down" time until Anatomy and Physiology II begins and then it will be another crazy seven weeks of cramming enormous amounts of information into my brain. I'm also taking Microbiology this semester, which thankfully is at a much slower pace.
I've got all sorts of projects I want to get done in the next week and at the top of my list is updating the pictures on my blog and adding some new posts. I also need to do some spring cleaning, get my garden planted and get back in the exercise routine.

Savannah

We had a wonderful visit with Grandpa over the Thanksgiving holiday. Here he is helping the boys build marshmallow shooters.


We had two days of a yummy Thanksgiving feast and ate lots of sweet potato pie. LOTS!
Then we spent the weekend in the beautiful city of Savannah. The historic houses and buildings are amazing. There is so much to see and do. I would definitely go back.


Oh yes, and we tried crawfish for the first time. They aren't bad, but I think this Northerner will stick to shrimp instead.

Undefeated record

Flag football has come to an end, but it was a great season with great coaches that were dedicated to teaching these boys football, playing hard and having fun too. The Jets were undefeated!

Jake is #82

The big man is 9!

And I do mean big. He's growing like a weed and is now up to 5 feet 1 inch tall. His feet are growing just as fast. He's blown though three pairs of shoes since the beginning of the school year. He's wearing size 8's now... men's.


Jake, you make us very proud and happy as parents. It's fun to see you grow up and excel at the things you enjoy. We're so proud of your hard work at school. Keep putting forth a strong effort at everything that is important to you.
We love you!

Halloween

Long gone are the days of my boys dressing up like super heroes or movie characters. This year the boys wanted "scary" costumes, including Mel.


I didn't dress up. How could I compete with those costumes? Mel thought it was pretty funny to scare the older trick-or-treaters. I had to keep reminding him not to scare the little ones. We ran into one little girl a couple times throughout the neighborhood and every time she saw Mel she said, "It's just a man in a scary mask. It's just a man in a scary mask."

Camping

Jake's cub scout pack had family camp in October. We had the choice of going one of three weekends offered. I was really dragging my feet to decide which weekend, if any we would go. Not that I didn't want to camp, but rather it was only one night so the the thought of packing all our gear for ONE night seemed a little ridiculous. Okay and yes I was a little worried about poisonous creepy crawlies and snakes. Jake wasn't thrilled with the whole camping in snake country (wonder why), but he was excited to do the archery and BB shooting that was offered at the camp. We picked a weekend and started talking it up to both the boys. Kyle was beyond excited. He told us he was going to make a shelter in the woods to sleep in. He helped me get the tent out and set up to make sure it was clean. He searched for every possible flashlight in our house, checked to make sure they worked, packed his backpack with enthusiasm and counted down the days until our big (one night) camping trip. This was actually Kyle's first ever camping trip so he had every right to be excited.

As we were getting our gear packed the night before we left, Kyle asked Dad, "Are you bringing your gun in case we see any wild pigs?" Mel said, "No Kyle. I'm not worried about wild pigs." Kyle replied quite shocked, "You mean you don't care if a wild pig just eats your whole family?!"

We ended up having a good time and a good experience- no snakes, no spiders, no wild pigs, but we did have an armadillo run through our camp while we were sitting around the fire.

Saturday morning football game

We had a great morning today watching Jake's flag football team win 14-13. Jake scored the two touchdowns for his team and one of the extra points. He loves to play football and it shows in his attitude and determination on the field. This was also the first game Mel got to see of him playing so it was fun to watch it together.
We're proud of you Jake. It's fun to see you play something you love!