A Prayer of Thanksgiving!

We needed some prayers yesterday and the Lord again worked his magic. I am not going to go into details, but we praise him with thanksgiving for a good day!

It's that time!

Yeah, that time of year. Back to school. I know all you moms out there are as pleased as punch!

I had such a great summer that this year its harder to think about going back. Lucky for me I love my job, love the people I work with, love the kids I work with, enjoy the families I see, my boys will both end the day at school (no babysitter pick up) so life couldn't be much better.

Yesterday as Nick does each year, he let me leave by myself to get away. Totally broke off vacation and my one summer lump sum check gone, I didn't spend unnecessarily. I just enjoyed the car ride, walk through the mall, and radio all to myself. I ended the day with a movie with my mom and a friend. Bizarre movie - that was the only bad part.

I also reflected a bit. I have decided that I have two goals for the fall. Over the last several years I have walked off my path with The Lord. Shame on me! After all of the abundance he has given us, I feel terrible about how I have responded. Our number one goal as a family is that beginning Labor Day weekend, we will journey back to church with our new pastor. I have many things I need to work on about myself, which I know will lead me to be a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. Goal #2 is to always put my family first. I have kept myself very busy over the last several years with outside things (not that those things didn't benefit my family) but I think I need to remember to answer to them first and make them my priority. As school gets started, I end up making too many committments to too many things and before long the nights and weekends are gone. As I begin work tomorrow, I will put my family first and foremost! Back to cooking dinners (can't gain that weight back), walking with the kids, activities with the kids, giving baths, tucking into bed, and all the great rituals that the school year brings. So my day of shopping was spent reminding myself of the great husband and boys God has given me and the fact that I need to begin anew my relationship with Him. Northbrook here we come again! Watch out for that Reagan!

As you all send your little ones off to school, I wish you a happy and healthy school year. I am going to keep this blog up ... I guess that would be goal #3.

Thanks for reading!

Today's Creation

My mom always gives me her magazines when she is done, and I attempted to make desserts for Nick's parents anniversary today.

I loved the way the cake turned out. I only hope my ice cream pie is just as good.

The weather isn't great, but hopefully the food will all be good!

PNC Park, Incline ride and a famous eatery

Lots of plans today. We are starting with a tour of PNC park. Nick loved this in Cincy so I hope it is as good here. We are then going to take an incline ride. Little nervous about that. We are going to head off to a famous eatery that my brother told us about from the TRAVEL channel. We will end the day watching the Brewers play the Pirates.

I can honestly say we had a really nice family vacation. It is the longest we have been gone since our honeymoon.

Will post some more pictures when we get home!

Will lost a tooth!

Will finally let his dad pull his front tooth. It has been hanging there for days. That was his third tooth!
As Will says, "Look daddy my tooth disappeared and turned in to money!"

Vacation

Today we visited Will's favorite place, Hollywood Studios. I sat through Playhouse Disney on Stage two times. We rode the Toy Story ride two times, saw tons of shows and ended with the Star Wars ride. Nick even got to ride Tower of Terror.

Tomorrow we are off to Epcot and will have lunch at the French restraunt in hopes of seeing Remy the Rat from Ratatouille.

Really hot and no rain so far!

Disney World

Well, we have finally arrived after two days of travel. We pushed it the first day driving into GA. The second day the kids had had it! We got some dinner and picked up our passes with Dave and Libby and now are all set. We will get to our condo today and our vacation can really start! (The fun part anyways!)
We left Denise in charge of our pea green pool. If anyone can fix it, she can!

Horseback riding

One of Will's favorite things to do is horseback ride. We were introduced to the program last year through a psychologist Will was working with. This is a wonderful non profit organization run mostly by volunteers for kids with disabilities. This year Will has - to the amazement of the teachers - learned how to ride and control with reins.

We are so thankful for the many volunteers and the horses that make this therapeutic riding program possible for so many local children. Will is lucky enough to be featured on the cover of their brochure too!

Split Pea Soup

That is exactly what our pool water looks like!
Poor Nick was cleaning that thing like crazy yesterday. The pool chemicals all test fine, we must just have an algae buildup. Not good when you are leaving on vacation for 12 days!
Hopefully by Wed. our pool will be good as new. Cross your fingers or our house sitters won't be happy!
3 days and counting to Disney World ...

Anthony's Graduation

Last night we attended Anthony's High School graduation. Lots of people and lots of fun. The food was great, the kids loved the pool, and as always Karen and Tony's kids were so kind with our boys. They should be proud of the wonderful young men they are all becoming. They will have one on their way to college ... and three more to go! Nick commented how he looked around and saw so many different generation groups.
What a wonderful time it was! I wish I had remembered our camera.