Fall 2021

 Fall 2021 saw summer activities winding down and school and fall activities taking over. If I look at my pictures, they are pretty much full of football and soccer, but I'll start off with some random pictures from September...we celebrated my Grandpa Mike and Karen's 50th Wedding Anniversary with a party at the Baring Country Club, the twins got to go on a field trip to the Urban Gardens pumpkin patch and corn maz and their teacher sent me a picture of them enjoying reading time at school. Andrew and the older kids got their Covid vaccines and the second one took Lincoln down for a bit right afterwards. He was all good by the next day though.

Jackson's team had a pretty good football season this year, finishing with a record of 7-4 and playing the district semi-final game. They say it is the best season they've had in close to 10 years. Jackson started at the beginning of the season, but didn't during the middle part and made his way back to starting by the end. And true to how his seasons have gone in the past, they switched him around a lot of what position he would play (all pretty much defense). We loved watching him play as he improved on those positions. While we had pretty decent weather for most of the season, it ended at a cold game in Jeff City. We had the 3 younger boys come with us since they started the ShowMe 3v3 games in Columbia the next day.

The twins had their last season of flag football and also played a lot of soccer. We didn't get to attend too many of the football games since they were close to the same times as Jacksons, but they did well even though they aren't the biggest fans of football. As far as soccer, they did both rec league and got to do travel for the first time (they were very excited) and Lincoln did the same thing. Rec league games were Saturday mornings and then we did travel league games Saturday afternoons. Then the season finished up with the ShowMe 3v3 games in November in Columbia. We had such amazing weather for that time of year, especially compared to what we have had in the past. 

Like I mentioned before, Ellie didn't have a fall sport, but she did find ways to keep busy. She was a line judge for some of the rec soccer games, she got to hang out with friends and did basketball open gyms, along with acing her first semester of high school.

Football season also brings Homecoming and it was back to regular Homecoming activities-pep rally (although outside), parade, game and dance. 

In the  midst of all of that, I was lucky that I got to go to St. George to watch Zane race in the 70.3 World Championship. Kaitlin and I flew from Des Moines together and Zane picked us upe when we got there. We shared a VRBO with Zane's parents, Brad and Andy and Autumn. It was a neat area and different than other landscapes I had been around. We got to go down to Ironman Village and to the reservoir the next day and went out to eat that night together. Race morning we were up early and joined Zane on the shuttle bus to the race start. It was exciting and a bit nerve-wracking to see everything all set up and everyone, including pros, getting ready.  The sunrise was so pretty and then the pros starting with Zane following maybe a half hour after that. We watched him finish the swim and then got on the shuttle to head back downtown. We watched some of the pros come in before a storm blew in while Zane was out on the bike. It was exciting Zane out there racing and watch him finish. He did great and I just love the atmosphere. The not exciting part was our flight being delayed on the way home and we missed out connecting flight in Detroit, so Kaitlin and I had to hang out in the airport for several hours but Kaitlin did get us some meal vouchers. While it would have been nice to get home earlier, it was nice just hanging out and chatting with Kaitlin.

We also made a trip to KC to meet the newest family member, Mary Claire. She was such a cutie and we loved getting to snuggle with her. It was also Caroline's birthday, so we picked up some Pear Tree and brought it for dinner.

Along with Mary Claire's birthday, we also celebrated Andrew's 45th birthday in September and Ellie's 15th birthday in November. Andrew had just had his second vaccine the day before, so he wasn't feeling too great on his birthday. I still made him his pumpkin pie though.

And Ellie's birthday was in the midst of Thanksgiving weekend, so we invited all the family over and had Oreo lasagna. She would have liked to keep it more low-key, but you just can't do that when you have family in town. We did have her open her presents early so she didn't have to do that in front of everyone. Then when she had a break from basketball practice, she took her permit test. She was so embarrassed that she failed it twice. As we were leaving, Kirk told her to study the actual book and not just the online tests. She did that and the next day she had an orthodontist appointment, so we went to Macon after that and she aced the test and we got back in time for her to go to basketball practice. Plus we got to have lunch at Koch's which is always a good time.

Of course the fall brings Halloween and Thanksgiving. For Halloween, Lincoln dressed up as a Glow Stick Man (ended up not being the best idea), Miles was a ghostbuster and Bennett was a knight. My parents were in KC, so it was just us. Andrew grilled some hamburgers and we ate quickly before the kids headed out. I hadn't planned on walking with the boys as they wanted to go on their own, but some other moms were so I went for a little bit. They went to a couple of neighborhoods and then went to Josh's to divide up their candy. 

It was an on Thanksgiving this year for my family, so everyone eventually ended up in town. It was a busy weekend. We started early with an early Thanksgiving with Andrew's family and then we did the Killday Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving day. Then Friday morning we had Molly's baby shower at Create the Vibe and all got to make Christmas candles and celebrate little Oliver who will be arriving in February. That night we had the Thanksgiving meal at my parents which is always so yummy. Then Saturday morning we did bell ringing at Hobby Lobby that night was Ellie's birthday. The weather was amazing so the kids also had a great time playing outside. Thanksgiving didn't end on a great note as someone busted out the window of Andrew's new truck that he had less than a week while it was parked in the Nazarene church parking lot. They didn't really take much, but it was frustrating to have to deal with getting the window replaced in a new vehicle. My car and Jackson's truck were also up there, but they didn't touchc them.

Andrew also had the unfortunate luck of lightning catching some of hay bales on fire. Thankfully some guys out there noticed it and were able to get the ones on fire off the rest of the pile. Andrew went out and spread them around a little more. With the same storm, they think a tornado went through Andrew's parents' place and damaged some of their barns and tore up some trees. Their in-ground house was pretty good except for some shingles.

A few other happenings from the fall...the first was that I had my final surgery in mid-October where I had my expanders exchanged for the implants. The surgery was a couple hours and I was much better coming out of anesthesia this time and we were back home by 3pm. Recovery was much better, but still a little painful and uncomfortable. He had to do some pocket work which he said would be cause some pain, but shouldn't be horrible. And a week later I had a good followup appointment and was so excited that I was on the other side of all those surgeries and had reduced my cancer risk significantly. My next appointment won't be until February and my breast surgeon will start the next phase of assessing my risk for some of the other cancers.

The boys got a little deer hunting in and Miles and Bennett both got one. They were pretty proud and Andrew is so good about getting them out there and having patience with it all. And Bennett decided he wanted to get his bow out. He spent quite a bit of time doing some target shooting.

Klife got off to a good start with our new directors. We had a great peer fundraiser, which I was so thankful for. We also got to have the leaders over for dinner  as we do each year.

And as we saw the end of soccer and football in November, we went right into basketball. Ellie had their Orange & Black scrimmage and they had to do a little dance during their introductions. Her group decided to do Footloose and she was so nervous, but she did a great job with a big smile. And Lincoln just got 3 practices in before his team went down to Jeff City for their first tournament.