September Roll Up

I have no idea where to start in order to catch up with my blogging.  I'm pretty sure I have never gone THIS long between posts, but I'm just plain busy!  I should carve out time to write but haven't been able to find the energy to do so.  I'll start with a recap of the last three weekends.  We took the kids to  Nolin Lake Labor Day weekend.  Saturday was a gorgeous day to be out on the water.  Isaac couldn't WAIT to go inner tubing.  In fact, he'd called my dad a few days before to make sure he had a tube for the boat.  Dad knew we had some tubes at the lake but decided to go shopping for one and got a "steal of a deal" at Cabela's.  Karson had turned her ankle in volleyball practice the night before and spent most of the day limping around.  She didn't want to jump off the dock, like the wild hooligans below (but did enjoy some tubing).

The two smallest children in the boat chose the biggest tube while the two larger children chose the tiny tube.  The rope broke on the big tube, go figure!

Luckily, there was a tube at the lake when we got there so we hooked up two inner tubes to the pontoon boat.  However, when we took off, one of the ski ropes broke in half (yep, that's how things go for us) and flipped the little girls off the tube.  Fortunately, we weren't out of our cove yet and took the one (smaller) tube and broken rope back to our dock. 

We spent the entire day on the water. 

Isaac having dinner with the girls while Hunter (behind) has stuffed himself into the inner tube box.

 Volleyball, although a short season, monopolizes all of our time these days.  Well, that, and SWHS golf.  Matt and I are on opposing schedules and constantly shuffling around our kids, carpool and lining up sitters (and additional chauffeurs).  Karson has had a wonderful season and spent the last two weekends at tournaments.

 The Muletown tournament was last weekend in Spring Hill, Tennessee.  It was a Friday/Saturday tournament with lots of good competition.  Our 7th grade team played hard and did well in our pool and bracket.  We ended up coming in 8th place out of 20 teams, most or all were 8th grade teams.  Karson and I capped the tournament off with some PF Chang's.

I also decided to have Karson's "13th" birthday this weekend as well.  Her birthday is in October, but with fall break, Miles's birthday in October too, and basketball starting up, I thought a pool party would be a fun way to celebrate early. Plus, she could invite lots of friends to the pool.

 Shannon had the volleyball net set up, and the pool was heated since it was cooler that weekend.  I don't think the girls minded it at all.  They loved playing pool volleyball and getting in the hot tub.

Karson has some wonderful "old" and "new" friends!

 I got Karson's favorite cake a fudge Blizzard cake from Dairy Queen and made her favorite dessert, Oreo Balls.  I also got some sandwiches and chips in case the girls got hungry.

Grandparents Day at Plano landed sometime this month - I'd look it up but it's 10 p.m. on Wednesday night, and I'm tired.  We love our Pap and Pops - two of the greatest people on the planet!

 We spent last weekend in Lexington at the middle school state tournament.  Things didn't go so well for Karson the Friday night before we left.  Her plan was to leave practice, which ended early, and go see a movie with her friend.  Plans quickly changed.  

Before telling that story, I have to backtrack just a little.... (bear with me) 

Did I mention my 20th High School Reunion also landed during this month?  Yep, that happened as well.  It was the consensus of our group that we do something simple and that didn't require any sort of monetary (up-front) cost.  We decided on a Friday night football game against Central (our arch-enemy from back in the day) which was last Friday and a Saturday picnic at Kereiakes Park.  Both events were family friendly and very nominal cost.  Later we decided to do an "adult-only" event in the atrium at Montana Grille on Saturday night which also didn't require a deposit, just an RSVP with the agreement to order something off the menu. However, when the small group of us starting planning it back in the spring, I hadn't gotten Karson's volleyball schedule at that time.  Of course, as luck would have it, she had an out of town tournament that weekend which was Saturday/Sunday.  Drats!  I told the group that I could make the football game on Friday but couldn't make the Saturday events.  (resume to story)

Miles helped me paint a banner which never got hung.

I was excited about seeing my pals at the Friday night game when I got a phone call from Matt as I was getting ready for the game.  He told me that Karson was being carried out of practice and had hurt her ankle really bad.  My heart sank.  We were supposed to leave for Lexington at the crack of dawn for the tournament.  NOW, in most circumstances like this, I would play the wait-n-see game and ice her ankle and give her some Advil.  BUT, with the tournament the next day, we decided to call Dr. Paul Mag and see what he thought.  He was at the soccer field watching Evan play and happened to be with (Sports Medicine Doc) Dr. Macy.  They asked her to come over to the complex, and he'd take a look at her.  He didn't see anything wrong with her ankle and told us to ice it over the weekend and stay off of it.  I proceeded to tell him about the tournament, and he felt it would be best for us to get an x-ray to rule out any sort of fracture.  I wasn't able to go to my reunion and spent Friday night at Urgent Care.  Karson wrapped her ankles, iced and stayed on Advil all weekend.  Her team played strong but fell short to most of the 8th grade teams at the tournament.  It's always a great experience playing against tough teams, and the girls learned a lot.

Karson and Madelyn had some pool time at the hotel on Saturday afternoon.  We crashed with the Yonts family throughout the day because our plans were to stay with my cousin overnight.  Because our tournament pool ended early on Saturday, I knew Karson would want to hang out with all of her friends at the hotel.  We went the mall and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called Bella Notte - yum - my mouth is watering thinking about it!

Miles got this Garfield necklace for turning in some TIME Magazine forms with the addresses of family and friends.  He's been proud of that necklace and wore it everyday until it broke (about 3 days).  Speaking of Miles, he has also lost two baby teeth in the past two weeks.  AND, Isaac has lost two as well.  The tooth fairy is pulling overtime at our house.

I might force Matt to post a blog (one time on here) and tell everyone about a little adventure he took the boys on while Karson and I were at the Muletown tournament.  Hilarious story that only he can tell...stay tuned!