The Farwell Family

It was back to school Monday and it was a little rough. I did a bike ride in the morning and got done a little before seven. When I came out to the family room, the house was still very quiet and everyone was still asleep. So, it was a bit of a rushed morning. I helped in Lincoln’s class that morning and it seemed like a lot of the kids were dragging. After I was done helping, I had been debating whether to go for a run outside or not and since it was so nice, I decided to go for it. I usually get sore after running outside the first couple of times, so I was trying to decide if it was worth it. I got done just in time to get the twins from school, but then Andrew texted me telling me he could get them since he saw that I was running. That afternoon, Ellie had math practice and Lincoln was asked to be in a commercial for the Parks and Rec. sales tax that will be on the ballot in April. They wanted to get a group of kids from the soccer club playing a game. Since it was nice and the soccer field was just down from his school, he and Jackson just walked there after school and I had him put his uniform on in the car. We were done at about 3:40, in time to get Ellie from math, but Andrew offered to get her. He had big plans to take us all out to the ranch for a little bit before I had to get to the Newman Center to decorate for the Mary Immaculate Sports Banquet. They have a pretty steep ditch in one of their pastures that the kids like to play on. They also brought their gold panning stuff and tried to find some gold in the dirt and creek. They had a lot of fun trying to climb all the way to the top-Lincoln was the one that accomplished that. They also had a little path that ran down the slope that became their slide.

I had plans to make dinner, but didn’t have time with Andrew’s excursion, so we ordered Colton’s on our way home and I picked it up while Andrew got everyone and the dog cleaned up. I ate quickly and then headed to the Newman Center. It didn’t take too long to decorate. It was just setting out some tables and chairs, adding tablecloths and some centerpieces that they have had for years. My mom thought they were the same ones from when Molly was there and they were pretty tacky 😊.

Tuesday brought cooler weather but that didn’t keep the kids from getting outside to play. We didn’t have much going on that day except the banquet. I made a strawberry cake and fruit salad for the dinner and we dropped the younger ones off at my parents. The dinner went well. We had three bigger tables set up from for all the players to sit at and they left one table empty and all the boys squeezed into one table and all the girls into the other. After dinner, the coaches, Brett and Dylan, each gave short speeches. They both cared so much about their players and declared coaching the best part of the college experience. It will be sad to see them go as they both graduate in May. Then Kiersten gave a little speech thanking her sister and the Behnen boys did it for Dylan. They gave them their presents-basketballs that they all signed and gift cards. And each of the players got blue sweatshirt-material blankets that had MI Hawks Basketball on them. At the end, Bob Behnen got up to finish out with thank yous and he proceeded to thank me for the decorations (Michele had told him to thank me for getting the basketballs) and I tried to let it be known that I didn’t have anything to do with them. I said it was God keeping my pride in check because I would never want to be associated with being responsible for those decorations 😊.

Wednesday morning I did some swimming and running and then I tried to do yoga again. I’m pretty stiff and I have issues with running. I can’t get my pace back to what it was before my accident and have pain that I didn’t have before, so yoga was recommended, specifically yin yoga. I found a video on YouTube, and while my poses definitely didn’t look like the lady in the video, I do think it will help. I thought it would be funny to get the whole family to do it because I think Ellie is the only flexible one among us. I think Jackson is even worse than me. We would be a pretty funny sight. 😊

The twins have been full of energy lately and constantly talking to each other. Some of their conversations are pretty entertaining, especially as they learn to use new phrases and “slang”, but there is also quite a bit of arguing about stuff. Sometimes I just have to tell them to not say another word to each other for a while. Especially while we are waiting in the pickup line at school for a ½ hour. Ellie had to pick up the pizzas she sold for RAP after school, so we had to wait for her to get those before we picked up Lincoln. And Jackson had weights after school, so by the time we got to Lincoln he was wondering where we were.

Thursday morning, I had small group. We finished up our latest book and decided on a new study. It is actually an online study that doesn’t start until April, so we decided to take the next week off. I had to make chocolate chip cookies and M&M cookies for the K-Life 3on3 tournament coming up that weekend, so I did that after lunch. Bennett is always the one who wants to get the beater. When he notices me doing any baking, he climbs up on the counter and waits for me to finish mixing things up. And the kids were excited that I had enough to put a few back for them instead of taking them all to K-Life. Ellie and Lincoln had Little K after school, so I dropped off the cookies and Gatorade when I picked them up. Then we got Ellie off to dance and a little later the rest of us went to Mary Immaculate to have a quick practice with Jackson’s 3on3 team. They were all boys from his team, but we thought a quick practice to get used to playing with each other and the 3on3 format would be good. We just went for ½ hour and we were good. The school had a book fair going on in half the gym, so I stood guard to try to protect the books, but we did pretty good.

Andrew took the older kids to school Friday morning and he let me know that his mom called him earlier to let him know that Matthew had hit his head the night before and he and Kristin spent most of the night in the ER and they thought he had a concussion. I sent Kristin a text saying we didn’t really know what happened but if she needed help with anything, like bringing the kids home from school, to just let us know. She called a little later to let me know what had actually happened.  It was after the kids had gone to bed and Matthew was going down their stairs outside from their screened-in porch when he fell and hit his head. Kristin said she heard him yelling for her and she went out to find him slumped over with a huge laceration on his head. It started just above the bridge of his nose and went up on his scalp and curved over close behind his ear. It was around 8 inches and cut deep enough that his skin was hanging. Kristin said he basically scalped himself. She got him to the ER where they were really busy, so they called up another doctor that was off, but sleeping at the hospital. It was a doctor who used to practice in Kirksville and comes back to work a bit, Dr. Maples. They did a CT scan and checked with head injuries and got him sewn up. They did think he had a concussion too. He was released to go home though and Kristin said he was able to rest some but would get nauseous anytime he tried to move. I offered to come out and clean up because she said there was blood everywhere-in her car, outside, etc., but she said she was feeling an extra burst of energy and was going to tackle it. Then we offered to get dinner, but she already had someone getting something for them.

Andrew ended up going out during the afternoon. He took Lincoln with him and Lincoln spent some time with Granny while Andrew visited Matthew. Lincoln said he helped Granny with her new TV and showed her how to use the remote. They were out there later because Andrew stayed to help unload some cattle that Matthew had bought earlier that were being delivered that evening. They ended up not getting home until around 9. Back at home, Jackson had small group after school. I also had to pack up for the twins and Lincoln to go to KC the next day with my parents for Baylor’s birthday. My mom had offered that day to take them if we were fine with them going. They were very excited. After dinner, I had to get Ellie to dance. They had an extra practice for their competition routine. But then she wanted to get to bed early since we had to leave early the next morning for math competition. The kids also brought home their 3^rd quarter grade cards and they did awesome. Jackson and Ellie both had straight A’s while Lincoln had all but 2 V’s (one S in handwriting which I imagine is just because he tries to do stuff too quickly) and he improved his reading score to 2.3. Very proud of them.

The next morning, Ellie and I left around 6:30 in the morning and it was still dark and raining. We drove in rain until around Monroe City and we were thankful to see the sun peek out. Her competition was held at the Hannibal middle school and they had to be there between 8 and 8:30 and started testing soon after. Since there wasn’t much to do in Hannibal, I sat in my car working on this blog and billing for the office. Then I went by JC Penney and picked up a few things since they were having their friends and family sale. Ellie was done around 10:50 and then we went to eat lunch before heading back for the awards ceremony. Ellie was almost sure she wouldn’t get anything although she was admiring the fancy ribbons they were going to hand out. And to her surprise, she placed in each test for her grade and qualified to go to state. She was a happy girl and we were so proud of her.

My parents picked up the twins and Lincoln that morning and made their way to Kansas City. They got to go to Urban Air that afternoon and then had Baylor’s party that evening. My mom sent me this picture of them all snuggled into the sleeper sofa at the hotel that night, ready for bed.

Ellie and I got back to Kirksville for part of Jackson’s first game for the 3on3 tournament. There ended up only being three teams in his age bracket, so they just played three games and lost all of them, but they played well against some tough teams. I was impressed with how well Jackson played and they had fun together.

Andrew went to the office after the games and then met us at La Fuente that evening for dinner. After dinner, I took Jackson and Ellie to the shoe store to find Jackson some new shoes. He actually ended up with a big hole in the side of his tennis shoes, so he definitely needed some new ones and I knew I didn’t have time to order them off Amazon. I realized that he hadn’t really been shoe shopping and was just used to me buying something for him to try on home. He eventually learned how to find his size in the different styles. So he went around and finally found a few pairs he liked and he actually had to end up getting a size 9-crazy. When we got back home, we put on comfy clothes and watched Risen. With the younger kids gone, I thought it would be a good time for Ellie and Jackson to watch it and they did like it and find it interesting.

Sunday morning Andrew went to the office and then we went to church. I did some grocery shopping afterwards and cleaned up some mud that Andrew and Jackson had tracked into the garage the day before. Jackson and Ellie were playing knockout with some of the other kids for a little while and then Jackson thanked me for cleaning up the mud. I finally got around to doing a run and then my parents were back with the kids. We had decided to eat at Fort Chariton that evening and it was a good dinner. It was a fun atmosphere and the food was good, so I think we’ll be back. Back home, the twins were excited to try on their new cleats I got them at Wal-Mart. Now they say they need to learn how to hit. Andrew spent time trying to teach Jackson the finer points of fighting. Totally a boy thing.