Homecoming Game 2009

October 31st was Clemson's Homecoming game. My folks got tickets for our whole family and we tailgated together and went to (part) of the game - it started pouring just before kickoff. We made it through the first quarter, and walked back to the car and headed home to trick or treat.

This was the first time we'd all been to a game together since I was there 10 years ago. It was really fun for me, and also the first time our family of 4 had all been to a game together. The kids did great, had a blast, and we can't wait for more times like this!

Kickoff, Go Tigers!

Little brother Ray gives our seats a thumbs up. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Family tailgate.

The parade down to the stadium.

Listening to the band in the amphitheatre. Nancy wanted to close her ears. I could just squeeze her, and often do.

Beginning of a Long Goodbye

Our dear friends the Gainors are moving to South Asia at the end of the year. We got a chance to visit with them and Mary and Dave sans kids (all 8 of them stayed home with grandparents!) while we joined our friends in Jacksonville, FL for a couple of nights. Definitely on the list as one of the most grown up things we've done - stay in a hotel, no kids, eat out, pay for parking?!?! Who do we think we are?

It was truly a blessing to spend time with our friends. I met Mary and Brandy 12 years ago when we started Clemson. Twelve years!! I am thankful we have managed to maintain our friendships over the years of change, involving lots of moving, lots of babies, new jobs, and learning to be grown ups. It was a sweet time for me, as I got to see more of the work they will be doing after they leave the country, and helped prepare me and my family for how to keep in touch and love on them while they are gone.

Dave & Mary, Gray & Brandy and Ryan and me.

Enjoying some Indian food together. Now I'm not scared to go get some another time!

They guys at the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium. We got to watch the team come out for practice. Apparently that's an exciting thing.

Mary and Bran - between the 6 of us, we only had 2 cameras, both with low batteries. There are very few good pictures!

A few weeks later the girls and I were able to visit with Brandy and the kids. It was so neat to be there. They were totally in transit, getting rid of furniture and food and toys and clothes, literally as we were there! A family came and hauled off their huge sofa! We had a good time visiting, and I enjoyed watching the kids play together. It was hard to leave, but knowing we'll see each other one more time in December helped. It would have been really, really hard for that to be the last goodbye.

When we got in the car and down the street towards home, I looked back and Kate had huge tears in her eyes. I asked her what was wrong, and she said "Sarala is moving to India and we'll never see her again, and I'll miss her so mu-hu-hu-huch!" I was surprised at her emotion. I think it's interesting that kids can spend very little time together and consider each other the best of friends. I cried too, knowing that I'd miss them just as much; and Nancy said "Can I cry too?" and started fake crying. She didn't want to be left out!

Jackson and Nancy, "to infinity and beyond!!"

Sarala and Kate enjoying some masala chai, some of the sweetest I have ever tasted!

Watching Toy Story, eating popcorn.

My Brave Trip to the Children's Museum

The Children's Museum opened up this summer in Greenville, a long-awaited opening for me. I was very excited about having one in town, but soon realized that Kate is in school all day, when would we all go together?! Fall break, of course. So one gray October Thursday, I took myself, my two girls and our free passes (thanks Emily!!) and we had a great time. I was most impressed, of course, with myself, for making it through the 2 hour event without vomiting, spontaneously napping, or craving a giant chicken drumstick.

We have since returned again to the museum with our cousins, and it was even more fun and we stayed for even longer. 3 hours, and we didn't even do everything there was to do. Thankful for the town we live in and the opportunities we have here.

Grocery shopping. You could pick out your groceries, and even scan them to check out. The bakery has a spot where you can decorate a "cake" (magnetic tiered things with plastic piping and rosettes), and a meat department and produce. The kids love it, but for me, it's about as much fun as the real thing. Actually less so, because the kids call the shots here.

Kate checking Nancy out. I think she bought all dairy products.

The construction zone, they both liked it more than I thought they would.

Lite Brite, Professional Baseball Style. (ahem, steroids.)

The farm spot is for kids under 5. It had some cute stuff, but mostly Nancy just went down the slide. This is also the spot you would come if you are a nursing mother. They literally have a stall with rocking chairs for you to sit in, right beside the hens laying eggs and across from the cow milking exhibit. I think this was a joke the one man on the Museum board wanted to play. How he pulled it off, I don't know.

Jack and the Beanstalk in Fairy Tale exhibit.

Cinderella's carriage; Nancy was the evil stepmother.

Dining at the table of Beauty and the Beast.

An Anniversary: A Mini-Rant and Reflection of Our Life Since October 2008 (or could be titled "Why God, Why!??")

The picture is just to make it interesting. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the post.

One year ago yesterday, it was a glorious fall day, much like yesterday's weather. Nancy was still a baby (at 18 months), I was still figuring out how to homeschool my kindergartener, and we were enjoying a picnic lunch on a beautiful afternoon. Ahh, bliss.

One year ago yesterday was also the day I flooded our bedroom trying to wash a loofah in the bathroom sink. We had so many people come to our rescue to help us clean up my mess - my brother Ray and sister-in-law Heather, Lee Anne Cavin, Kim DeLoach and her wonderful dehumidifier, my parents for letting us crash at their place, Sean Weiland for getting us a very good discount on insulation....I remember the details very vividly. Reflecting on what we were doing a year ago caused me to think about what else has transpired over the year following "the great flood":

The night we returned from the beach with the Keevers last year, my brother and his wife announced they were expecting their first child! And we still hadn't ordered the photos from their wedding yet! I was 2 weeks behind on ornaments, Ryan's work laid off several people almost immediately after the Lehman Bros. fiasco, I got sick before Thanksgiving, turned 30, Ryan and Kate were sick on my birthday, Holiday Fair and weekend in Tryon with girlfriends, Christmas (and one of the best Christmas Eve's EVER), sinus infection #1 at beginning of January, weekend in Tryon with girlfriends from college, Nancy and I sick at end of January, more layoffs at Ryan's work, Kate's broken arm and flu in the same weekend in February which caused us to miss a wonderful leader's retreat in Flat Rock, March was Ryan moving home from the office to work out of our bedroom, Cohen's First Birthday!! and Concert With Cohen. April and May were relatively normal, finishing up school and having a Kindergarten graduation. I started working parttime at the church in May. Sinus infections #2 and #3 hit in May and then July, and I am currently nursing one. Our summer was not the lazy, relaxing one we had had the year before, though, and I wonder if it was me, and just my attitude?

It is so easy for me to look back and think of all the things that didn't go the way that I wanted them to...almost everything! There were many happy moments, but my frustration at the bad ones overshadowed the joy in the good ones. Am I so stubborn and blind to my selfish ways that it takes an entire 12 months of things not going my way that I finally realize that God is trying to tell me something? I was never good at discovering themes in Lit class. And do I believe that because life didn't go the way I wanted it to, it was all wrong? Yes, and I had a miserable year. Not because what happened was miserable, but because for every moment that went differently that I thought it should, I spent feeling sorry for myself and my family and lived like God was against us instead of for us.

Our past year has just been life, real life. Why am I surprised that it went the way it did? So we were sick some and were financially stressed. I can't remember any year since we've been married that didn't look pretty similar to this one, but for some reason this year, I took it all very personally. What it's come down to is this: is God enough for me? Even though life happens and it doesn't seem fair, is He enough for me to trust with the good and the bad, the hard and the super-easy-convenient, and believe that it's all part of His plan for His glory, and doesn't really have all that much to do with me? He has shown me, beginning last October with the biggest mess I've ever made, that I treasure comfort, ease and my own agenda more than I do Him and even my friends and family. I find more self-worth in what I can accomplish in a given day or week than who I am in God. It has been a hard and humbling lesson to learn. Here's hoping and praying I only have to learn it once.......so I can check it off my list.

Ryan Turns 30!

Ryan turned 30 on October 2, and the beginning of us being the same age for 58 days. We had a fun steak dinner on the porch on his birthday, and I was so proud of myself for cooking, since I had not cooked much because all food makes me nauseous. The next weekend we reserved a shelter at the park and grilled and had friends come and play and visit. I hope I did him right by his big day, even though he is very easy to please. I felt pretty guilty about feeling sick all the time and not having the energy to "do it up right", like I threatened to before I got pregnant. Luckily we'll have many more birthdays to do it up.

Here's a mini-quasi-public shout out to my man to say I love you, and you are the best thing to me on this earth. I'll bring it at next year's birthday.

Kate and all her friends were just dying to stick their faces in this ginourmous cake.

The birthday boy and "Nanners".

Our nephew, Spencer!

Daddy's annual birthday carrot cake. And 30 candles, of course.

Happy Birthday!!

NC Burnseses

At the end of August, we traveled up to Boone to visit the NC Burns Family. Ryan's brother Scott and his wife Carol live there with their kids, McKenzie, Paige, Lauren and Zach. Every arrival invokes a shriek-fest from the big girls - they love each other so much! We had a great time spending time with them and meeting some of their friends and staff from their church.

Scott is the Student Pastor at their church, and he and Ryan ran a brutal 4 mile race Saturday morning in the drizzly mountain weather. Carol and I had a very pleasant morning eating pancakes with the kids while Scott and Ryan were up and out of the house by 6:30am. I was planning on racing, too, until I caught word that regular runners in the church called the race a death wish. I thought it best to not set myself up for failure on this one. I think Ryan won (against Scott), but only by one-one-hundredth of a second or something ridiculous like that. But he also did get beaten by a 66 year old man. They spent the rest of the weekend walking around jelly-kneed and complaining about their legs hurting.

We crammed a lot into 36 hours - pancakes and a road race, picnic lunch at the park, ASU Fan Day, grilled out dinner, and church the next morning. A very busy weekend with 6 kids and 4 adults! It was really fun!!

Nancy enjoying the slide. With gum.

Zach. He's not unhappy, I swear. He's just observing.

McKenzie, Kate, Lauren and Nancy

We went to the App State Family Fan Something Appreciation Day. This is their mascot, I can't remember his name. He's a mountaineer... and Kate is busy choking Nancy.

See, he's happy!

Thanks for letting us come and stay with you!

Killing time before we leave for church.

5th Annual Sky Top Trip

This was our fifth annual trip to Sky Top Orchard in Flat Rock, NC, and our second annual with the Wieland family! Since I'm blogging this 3 days before Christmas but this even occurred on October 3rd, I think I remember it was a beautiful day but was slammed with people because there had been 4 or 5 weekends of rain, so everyone had the same idea we did.

We did not get our usual photo of the 4 of us with the mountains in the background, I think i was too tired and there were too many people and not enough apples, so I was bent on getting our buckets full before the kids had a meltdown. In situations like this, I always romanticize the event, but in reality it ends up being what feels like a race against the meltdown/tantrum/hunger clock. On outdoor pick-your-own events, Nancy's good for 15 minutes, and then just wants us to hold her. Since she weighs in at 32 pounds, that's easier said than done! The Wielands keep us grounded, though, with Sean's antics and Stacey's clumsiness - hopefully we can do it again next year. But a bushel of apples? TOO MANY!

I love how Nancy is loving on the "Cortland" sign. We told her to hug it like it was our friend Cort!

See? They are so fun!