Well, going back a couple weeks the twins got to celebrate
Grandparents’ Day at school with a short program, refreshments and a trip to
the book fair. My mom and Andrew’s mom joined them and they were very excited.
That afternoon/evening, Jackson had football practice,
Lincoln had soccer practice, Ellie had clogging and her duet class and I had an
organizational meeting for TriFAHL. There were only four of us there, but a guy
that Andrew has biked with some offered to take over the head position and we
were help him when needed. The girl who had organized it the previous two years
did an awesome job of organizing all of the material and I think Brian will do
a great job of pushing it a little further. When I picked up Ellie from dance,
I introduced myself to her duet partner, Makenzey’s, mom. I think we are pretty
different, so this should be interesting.
Jackson had football practice and Ellie and Lincoln had club
soccer on Wednesday. We have been so fortunate with the weather as the kids
have had some great weather for practices. Thursday was Andrew’s 41st
birthday and we started the celebration with donuts for breakfast and I gave
him his present-a watch. He is still wearing his $11 Wal-Mart watch though
because he is afraid of messing up a nicer watch 😊. That morning, I finally took advantage of a
gift certificate my small group gave me last fall for a massage at Warehouse
660. It was originally for 60 minutes, but I decided to break it up into 2 30
minute sessions and try therapeutic massage concentrating on my left leg/hip
that usually causes problems while working out since my accident. It worked out
pretty well and hope that doing it every now and then as I train for my half
Ironman helps things a bit.
That afternoon, Andrew and I went out to eat at Viva Italia
for his birthday lunch since our evening was pretty packed. We had our usual
Thursday afternoon…Jackson went from school to football to small group and
finally Middle School club. Andrew and Lincoln went to football that evening
and I took Ellie to swim team. The twins and I ran a package by UPS and had
just gotten to the YMCA playground for a little bit when I got a call from a
number I didn’t recognize, so I let it go to voicemail. I checked the voicemail
afterwards and it was Ellie using her coach’s phone to let me know that someone
had thrown up in the pool and they had to cancel the rest of practice. The
twins were sad we had to load up, but it didn’t take us too long to get Ellie
and we came back to the playground so they all could play. The twins were
excited to play with Lincoln’s friend, Miguel, again before they had to start
soccer practice. Then Ellie played with Ella while the twins practiced and I
finished reading our next chapter for bible study. Again, the weather was very
nice, so the kids enjoyed being able to be outside and run around. Andrew
picked up Jackson from K-Life later that evening and we finally got to finish
out his birthday celebration around 8:30 by singing happy birthday and letting him
enjoy his pumpkin pie.
Friday, Andrew ended up finalizing some of his plans for a
kids’ bike race he has been wanting to do out at the ranch which he is calling
De Ronde Van Farwell Land. I ended up making a Facebook event page for it and
it went live that afternoon. I have no idea how many people he will get out
there, but he is very excited about it and I think he checks the page often to
see if anyone has signed up. We do have a few people outside of our family that
have signed up so far and a few maybes. That evening, Lincoln had another flag
football game. It was a hot one, especially for the middle of September. Lissy
even came and watched and then we all went to my parents’ house where my mom
was having dinner. Kaitlin and her family came into town for the weekend and we
all loved on Sadie. The twins were so excited to be able to play with Owen and
Lola.
The twins had a soccer game Saturday morning. My dad, Zane,
Lola and Owen came to watch and then the twins went home with them. Lincoln was
excited to see Miguel at the game and they had to do their special hand shake.
After the game, Andrew went to an appointment and Jackson,
Ellie and I went to Red Barn. Ellie met Ella up there and they went around by
themselves for a little bit. Jackson ditched me too but my mom, Lissy and
Kaitlin came up and we wandered around together for a little bit. We mainly
just bought food. Then later that afternoon, Lincoln had a soccer scrimmage. I
just took him by myself since it was toasty outside. The others took advantage
of the heat and got another swim day in. Lincoln did a good job at his
scrimmage despite the heat.
That evening, we ate dinner at my parents again and the
twins stayed for a sleepover. Andrew picked them up the next morning before
church, but they made sure to tell me that we were invited over for pancakes
after church. Sunday was actually a bit overcast and we had a little bit of
rain. I spent a large part of the day copying, cutting and hole-punching
activity punch cards that I designed for the Primary School’s Family Fun Night
that is in October. I need to do around 550 of them. Andrew and Jackson spent some time out at the
ranch and found some old bikes at his parents’ junk pile to pull bike parts
from to use for trophies for the bike race. Ellie ended up going to help Lissy
with Matthew and Kristin’s photo shoot that evening.
Monday was back to school with Lincoln having soccer and Ellie
having dance that evening. The weather continued to be really nice. Tuesday
morning, I had my women’s study. I tried a new recipe for an apple dessert
pizza and actually made my own dough, but I wasn’t the biggest fan. That
afternoon, Andrew and I went to Quincy for Jackson’s football game. My mom was
nice enough to pick up the kids from school since we had to leave by 2:30 with
the game being at 4. I started working on the final part of the punch cards by
cutting yarn and tying it onto each card. I think it will take a little while
to get all of them done. It was an odd
set-up for the game. It was an old field that looked like a prison yard. The
only bit of shade was on the home teams side, so we, including our players,
baked in the sun and there were little bugs flying around everywhere. They had
just a few sets of small bleachers and others sat in chairs. We brought our
chairs, but decided to sit in the bleachers so it was a bit easier to see since
the team would be standing right in front of us sometimes. They had a great
game and Jackson did a great job. We could hear the coaches yelling for players
since we were so close and I felt like they wanted Jackson out there, that he
was doing a good job. They were up 20-0 in the fourth quarter with just a few
minutes left to go, so they asked Jackson if he wanted to run the ball and he
said yes. He took the ball down the middle a few times and did pretty well,
pushing through with kids hanging on him and getting some decent yards. I think
he was pretty excited about his game as a whole and it was good for the team to
get a win.
After the game, we had dinner at Texas Roadhouse (Jackson’s
choice) and then made our way back to Kirksville. The others had all had their
baths and were ready to go when we got there. Wednesday morning, I ran a couple
quick errands after dropping the kids off at school and worked on cleaning out
the cabinets in the laundry room that have our board games and some toys while
waiting for Andrew to get home so we could go on a bike ride together. We had a
stiff wind from the southwest, which made part of the ride rough but did allow
me to best my time on a couple segments when it was at my back. Andrew also
decided we should do intervals…he does them about every ride and I just like to
do them on the trainer. He talked me into it though.
That evening the kids and I picked Jackson up from football
and went to the north McDonalds for McTeacher night. The kindergarten teachers
were going to be there serving the food and the twins really wanted to go. After
our delicious dinner, we dropped Ellie and Lincoln off and soccer and got
Jackson home so we could do his large amount of homework since he missed his
two hardest classes with the football game the day before. The twins played
with friends until it was time to come in. Andrew came home just a little
before dark and wanted to mow the lawn, so he did with the headlights on. I
picked up the soccer players and usually Ellie practices just a bit longer, but
they called practice since there was lightning. It rained a little that night
and the clouds and lightning were there Thursday morning to. The rain started
after we got Jackson dropped off and were on our way to drop off Ellie. It
usually wouldn’t be a big deal for her, but it was picture day. I offered her
my jacket and I Walmart sack to try to keep her hair dry, but she didn’t want
to bother with any of it. I think she made it pretty well though. I got the
boys dropped off and then headed back to Ellie’s school where I helped with
pictures the rest of the morning. We got done a little after 10:30, so I ran
home and did a couple quick things before meeting Andrew for lunch and then
going grocery shopping. I hit up Aldi one more time before it closes on Sunday.
I figured the last day may be pretty busy, so I just decided that Thursday
would be my last. The sun came out after lunch and things started getting
pretty steamy. So, I stuck to running on the treadmill in the AC. The rest of
the day was running around too. Ellie and Lincoln had Little K after school, so
I just picked up the twins. We ate pizza early and took some slices with us to
feed Ellie, Lincoln and Alex. We took Ellie to swim team and then Lincoln and Alex
to football before heading to YMCA as usual and letting the boys play on the
playground before soccer practice. They got to play with Miguel again and the
hour went by quickly as I was able to read the next chapter of our study. Then,
once the twins started practice, I went to pick up Ellie from swim and Jackson
from small group. When we got back to the practice, I was informed that Bennett
crashed with Luke and hit his head. He started crying again when he saw me.
There were only a few minutes left in practice, so he sat it out. When we got home, Andrew had the jigsaw out and was cutting boards for the bike race trophies.
The kids were excited that they didn’t have school on
Friday, but Andrew still had us get up early. He was already out at the ranch
when he called a little before 6:30 to have me get the kids up and meet him out
at the ranch where they were loading up calves they had sold. The trucks weren’t
there when we got there, so the kids entertained themselves riding the horses
and swinging from an old downed electrical line. When the trucks showed up, they
all got along the shoot and helped prod the calves along to the trailers. We
did have a bit of a problem when Miles had to go to the bathroom and after
putting it off, he couldn’t hold it anymore. We tried to find a spot where
hopefully no one would step in it and he went for it. The problem was that he
stood up before he was done and got some on his underwear and then it went down
the back of his pants and into his boot. As I was trying to clean it off and
take off his pants, he stepped in it too. I enlisted Andrew’s help and he just
drug his jeans through the grass to try to clean them off, I found an old
pullup in the car and we just had to go with it…gross! He rode in Andrew’s
truck home and went directly to the shower. Then we met Andrew’s parents and
Matthew at Colton’s for lunch.
Then it was time to get ready for having the Heeren’s over
for dinner that evening after football. We dropped Ellie off at swim team and
then went to Lincoln’s last football game of the season. We all thought he
scored a touchdown but Andrew said he wasn’t quite there. After the game, we
rushed home and finished getting the food ready and set out and my parents
picked up Ellie from swim team. Although, it was warmer than it should be at
the end of September, we had a nice evening eating and visiting with the
Heerens while the kids ran around and played. Andrew even think s he may have
Matt convinced to get a bike. We had him try out the trainer with Zwift too.
We got to sleep in a bit on Saturday since the twins didn’t
have soccer until 11. So, we didn’t rush too much in the morning and I decided
to do a trainer ride since it was already getting hot outside. The twins had a
great game, getting more aggressive. They both kept getting hit with the ball
and they just kept going. One parent from the other team even said he wanted
him to be his body guard since he just kept going after getting hit. After the
game, they had pictures and then we thought the pool sounded good. Ella joined
us and we picked up some Sonic for lunch and went to my parents for a quick dip
before Lincoln’s soccer scrimmage at 2. The scrimmage was hot, but Lincoln
played hard and hustled. We all appreciated spending some time in the air
conditioning once we got home. And we brought a couple extras as Leah was out
of town and her mom was at the game with Alex and Kate, but her mom wasn’t
doing well in the nursing home so we offered to take them home with us.
It was nice to have an evening at home. Ellie did have a
birthday party and Lincoln went to the movies with Alex, but the rest of us got
to hang around home. Andrew worked on the trophies for the bike race while
Jackson worked on a video of the route and I actually made dinner. We all had
successful results. The days before I had been working on getting the logo
Molly made for the race into a format and the right cut lines so I could cut it
out of vinyl on my Silhouette. I finally got it all figured out and it actually
worked well and cut nicely, which I was thankful for since I had not even a
full sheet of black heat transfer vinyl. Jackson sanded the boards for me and I
applied the vinyl to the wood with an iron and it worked out really well. So,
Andrew took those boards and added bike seats and handlebars to them to make
the “trophies”. And Jackson did a great
job with the video and we got it posted on the event page.
Sunday morning, Andrew went for a ride and I did a quick run
on the treadmill before church. The kids all slept in and enjoyed it. I thought
Lincoln and Miles were up, but I finally went up to their room around 8:40 and
they were still asleep. Lincoln had Aven’s birthday party that afternoon and he just rode his bike over. It was an American Ninja Warrior theme and he came home dirty and excited to announce that he had won and then went straight to the bath. While he was gone, I had Jackson and Ellie help me with putting the yarn on the punch cards. I had complete 140 at that point and they helped me get another 120 done. And we went to my parents that evening for dinner. Jim, Jane and Grace came into town for Grace to do a college tour of Truman the next day and stayed the night with my parents. We had a yummy dinner and good conversation before heading home to get ready for the next week.
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