Future Tarheels

In mid-November we got together with some friends at the UNC football game. We haven't been to a football game since the kids were really little.  This time we had awesome seats close to the field, so the kids were pretty into it.  We won 80-20... it was so bad that the coaches agreed to shorten the 4th quarter by 5 minutes.  Not that we would know since we left early; even the adults were getting bored!

We got into Chapel Hill a little early, so we spent some time walking around campus and Franklin Street.  The kids thought this giant Ramses was awesome!

My little Tarheel ;)

Pretty cool pre-game Star Spangled Banner (yes, the stands were really that empty early on!)

Some of my favorite Tarheel girls!

Cheering loud for the Heels!

Family pic - Go Heels Go!

Kate and Dad

Carolina girls, best in the world!

Tammy and I in front of McIver where we were RAs together.  We've been friends since we were 16 where we met at a retreat for high school juniors and seniors.  Small world to end up RAs in the same building on a huge campus!  I know what you're thinking about RAs, but you didn't have US as your RA.  We had so much fun and are still friends with many of our McIver girls!

Paint!

There is a house in our neighborhood that we've really liked since it was first built a few years ago. We always said that when the time comes to paint our house, we're going drastically different, and toward those colors. Fast forward a little bit and the painter that was painting across the street came over... I'm sure you can see where this was going. The price was right and he hit us at a good time. Let's just say that you get what you pay for and I'll NEVER make this mistake again, but in the end the house was painted the color we want and all is right in the world (even if I did make them re-paint the shutters after I HATED and I mean HATED the original color).

Before

Before

Before (pardon the mid-construction mess... it was the only back of the house picture I could find)

MUCH different, and much happier (even if the picture is a little dark, sorry about that!)

October - Soccer season wrap up

And we're back! Time to catch up :)

Rewind to late-October when soccer season finally wrapped up.  Todd and I helped with some of the behind-the-scenes details this soccer season, which was eye-opening, but was no where near as detailed as what our friends, Andy & Kristin, do for this league!  Plus they have full time jobs and three kids... I don't know how they do it!

Anyway, here are a couple pictures from our last (chilly) soccer morning at the TFS fields.

Brett and some of his team mates cheering for the Dolphins!  It was definitely the most exciting game of the season!

During the medal ceremony, they started joking around about which player was the fastest on the team, so they decided to have a race to find out.  In the picture above, you can start to see the catastrophe unfold.

And there it is - massive pile up of 7 and 8 year olds!

One last "GOOOOOOO DOLPHINS!"

End of Kate's game - "GOOOO MONKEYS!"

Memere and Poppy came for the fun too!

Quick family picture on the field

Ch-Ch-Changes are coming!

That's right! After more than a year and a half of never having two days off in a row and working every flipping Sunday, my schedule has changed! Whoop!! I'm now only working 4 days instead of 5, still with some weekend days in the mix, and taking on two 13 hour days each week (gotta get the hours in somewhere). I'll have 2 days off in a row at some point during every week, with a 3rd day off somewhere in the mix. We've only been through one week, but it was a week with everyone in school and Todd in California, and we made it with minimal tears. Success! So what does this mean here? It means that there is a one-seventh greater chance that I might keep up with the blog :) Let's start by looking at the SD card... something that hasn't been done since mid-November - eek! See you soon ;)

Facebook recap

Every so often I like to skim back through my facebook posts to see what we've *really* been up to.  You know, like when you go on a rant about this-that-and-the-other or you post something like, you'll-never-believe-what-my-kid-just-did!  Yes, those moments that tend to never make it over to the blog.  Here's a little re-cap of some of our down time...

On my Tuesdays off, I sometimes drive down to visit my nephew, Parker.  My mom watches him Monday through Friday while Erin and Jeff are at work.  On the random days when our kids are off and one of us isn't, she also watches our kids.  Kate LOVES to spend time with Parker (and Memere too)!  Last Friday I was emptying her folder and going through her school work and I came across this: "Dear Parker, I love you.  Love Kate. To Parker. Kate"  So sweet!

A quick pic from Morning Prayer on the first day of school... one of my favorite things about the kids' school!

Few more beach pics from OIB, take 2!

Kate and Teri building sandcastles

The view from our porch - minus the house falling in the ocean, it was gorgeous!

   

 Parish Athletics night at the Railhawks - Brett & Kate each with a friend

Awesome pic of Kate from a friend's camera during a Saturday afternoon game this season

During halftime of the Railhawks game our teams got to go onto the field and scrimmage.  They were nervous playing in front of all of those people, but they did great!

Kate with her friends during a Saturday game (again, thanks to a friend's camera!)

Another quick shot from the Railhawks game

End of season picnic with Brett's 2nd/3rd grade team

Our pumpkins this year - carved by yours truly - Brett wanted pac man and Kate wanted a true jack-o-lantern

Brett & Kate (Luke & Leia) ready to go trick-or-treating

Kindergarten & 1st grade have a costume parade on Halloween.  We couldn't go since we were both at work, but Kate's friend's mom dressed up as Princess Leia and snapped a picture of them together :)  Love it!

neighborhood kids ready for some candy!

2nd Grade Saints Mass - each second grade student has to pick a saint, research it, do a written report, a poster, and a costume for their saint.  Brett chose Saint Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes.

This was Brett's Saint Sebastian poster (top) and Kate's Cuba poster (bottom)... Brett's Cuba poster is due next week.  Is it wrong that I want to re-use the same project?!

Other than Halloween and soccer and projects, we've been busy with work and school.  It's the height of flu shot season for me, so come get your flu shots and help my team reach our goal :)  We're also getting the exterior of our house painted... pics to come soon!  It is drastically different!

Pumpkin Patch

I took vacation for the kids' fall break for a couple reasons - 1, I needed a break, and 2, we're trying to keep the days that my mom has all the grandkids by herself to a minimum. I was pretty excited to be off with them during the week because it really just doesn't happen often. We had parent/teacher conferences bright and early (they went great), then went to breakfast at The Flying Biscuit with our friends, and then had the rest of the day totally unplanned. Kate had been begging to go pick pumpkins, so I thought we'd go to Page Farms, but wouldn't you know they're closed except for field trips during the week. Seriously?! Anyway, we ended up going to this little pumpkin patch right around the corner from our house. We were the only ones there and the kids had a great time checking out all of the pumpkins! I even squeezed in a few extra pictures :)

 

 

 

 

Kate wanted to carve one of these... I told her that I was game as long as she was scooping them out herself :)