Powder Puff

Garrett helped coach the senior girls football team for powder puff.  He also danced during half time.  He had fun practicing with the girls a few times before powder puff. JJ had a rare Wednesday off from UMSL so he was able to come too.  We had fun watching him.  Such a fun time of life with so many fun things going on. 

 

Clara's Baptism

Conference weekend we went up to Springfield for Clara's baptism. It worked out perfect to listen to conference as we drove up.  We got there and had a nice lunch with Lauren and her family.  Bradens family had traveled from Kansas City and were also there.  Clara's baptism was really nice.  It was nice to feel the spirit there.  I am sure my mom was there as well.  We stayed until it was time for the afternoon session and then headed home.  I felt like it was the first time that we have been able to sit and listen to conference without interruptions.  Sitting in the car with little distractions was really nice.  I am glad we were able to be there to support Clara.  We were the only ones on our side of the family there for Clara.  I know it meant a lot to Lauren that we came to support her family. Clara is such a sweet fun girl! We are proud of her and her choice to be baptized.   

 

Garrett had a Thursday game, which was in the rain.  It rained the whole game, at times downpouring!  There was no game on Friday night.  Nolan's game was an evening game. It was strange to have our whole weekend all thrown off.  Saturday, we headed to Brommelsiek park for their fall festival.  I only wanted to do the hayride.  JJ and Nolan came with me, and we had fun going on a hayride together.  We were able to do some yard work and run some errands before Nolans game.  It was strange to have time to get things done around the house.  It was fun for Nolan to play under the lights in the evening. The Ellmores came to the game in the rain earlier in the week and also Nolans game.  It is fun to have them come support our boys. It really means a lot to me since we don't have family that comes to support them.  So many people have family that comes to every game.  It makes me sad that my boys don't have that.  I am happy they do have friends that do.  

 

Happy Birthday JJ

JJ turned 45! We had fun celebrating him. It was a Tuesday, so he worked and then went to football practice with Nolan.  He didn't have any requests on what he wanted for dinner or cake.  I decided on my own to make him a white chocolate raspberry cake.  He loved it!  We had a celebration with friends the weekend before.  It is strange to get older, at one time to hear someone was 45 seemed so old.  We don't feel like we are old, although sometimes aches and pains remind us that we are getting older.  We are glad we could celebrate with JJ and hopefully he felt loved. 

 

Football

September has been a busy football month for us.  We have spent a lot of Friday evenings and Saturdays cheering the boys on as they play.  It has been a hot month and one of Nolans games was very hot.  I don't think they should have even had a game.  We were in heat advisory, and it was hard for the boys to play well.  We had players dropping during the game with injuries and heat exhaustion.  Nolan pulled himself out of the game the end of 3rd quarter.  It took him a few days to feel like himself again.  The heat and some hard hits took it out of him.  Garrett played well, lots of good blocking and a few short passes were thrown to him.  Friday night games are always fun and it's fun to watch Garrett play.  He has worked hard and I think he is enjoying his time on the field.  

 

Endoscopy for Garrett

For the past several months Garrett has been having a lot of problems with his stomach.  It started around track season.  He would throw up a lot.  It was usually around his running events but then became more frequent.  He started having a hard time keeping much down and barely had an appetite.  One time he threw up a little blood.  Since it was only the one time the doctor said he probably had a small tear in his esophagus and it would heal.  I talked with the pediatrician about it at his well child visit.  At that time things seemed to be ok, slightly better even.  We didn't go much further at that time.  Then during the summer, it started to bother him again.  He started to log his food to see if we could pinpoint anything that was specifically making him feel sick.  We couldn't find anything with that so he went back to trying to eat whatever he could.  He was down to eating mostly rice, bananas and applesauce.  He had lost at one point almost 15 pounds.  I decided that we should take him back in.  The pediatrician had him start some over the counter antacids and referred us to a GI doctor. We were able to get in to see them right before school started.  They didn't really have any answers.  We were going to do some labs and then see where to go.  Labs came back all fine and we decided the next step was to do an endoscopy.  JJ and I had mixed feelings about doing this.  It was going to be expensive for us.  We have a high-deductible insurance plan.  We also knew that we needed to find some answers for Garrett. He can't go on not feeling well.  We got the endoscopy scheduled. We knew that we might not get many answers from doing this all this.  I did feel that at least we would know what it wasn't.  I took off work a little early and headed to the specialty outpatient area for his procedure.  With everything Lucy has gone through I feel like this seemed so minor.  I forgot that this was not really minor for Garrett.  He hasn't been put under and had anything like this done.  He had a lot of questions about what they were going to do.  He was surprised to find out he would have an IV.  I told him it wouldn't be a big deal and he would be fine.  He didn't have any problem with getting labs done and has donated blood several times.  Everything about this experience was new to him.  The nurse was so sweet getting us checked in and answered lots of questions.  I could tell that Garrett was nervous, but ok.  He just looked around at all the medical things and asked all sorts of questions about what was happening.  It was a very quick procedure.  It took us longer to get checked in and ready to go then the actual procedure took.  The doctor came to talk to be after and said everything looked normal.  She went over all the pictures they took and the things they saw.  It was good to know there wasn't anything major that they found.  It did still leave us with answers that we wouldn't have until the biopsies came back. I got back to see Garrett while he was waking up.  He was very talkative with the nurse sitting with him.  He was telling her all about the chick-fil-a point system and how he likes to use his reward points on fries.  Once he was awake enough to get dressed, we headed home.  He felt normal and like nothing happened by the evening.  A week or so later I got a call with the results.  They didn't find anything. It all came back normal.  We were worried we would go through this whole thing and not really have any answers.  Although she said this is probably due to stress.  I know that is very common, and even more so after talking to more people about Garrett.  We talked with Garrett about these results.  He did say that he is stressed.  I know that he has expectations for himself with sports and I think that adds up with this starting around track season.  It also makes sense that he felt ok but then as football started up so did the stomach aches.  I know that he feels stress with his future.  Senior year is full of a lot of choices and decisions.  That can all be very stressful. I hope that we can help Garrett learn to cope and deal with stress in a healthy way.   I also hope that he can feel confident in choices he makes about his future.  I know he is a very smart boy and his future is bright.  I also hope that he knows he is a good kid.  I don't want to add to his stress by making him feel like he has to be a certain way or live up to any standards that he might think we have for him.  We are proud of him and all he does.  I am glad that we went through with finding all these answers and hope we can continue to find ways to help Garrett.          

 

Labor Day

We went back and forth on fun things to do with everyone on Labor Day.  We have a fun park near us that we decided to go to.  There was a good variety of things to do there. Kids rode bikes on the pump track and kids splashed around in the new splash pad area.  There was the fun playground area and the inside climbing gym.  We also reserved two pickleball courts indoors for an hour.  Us sisters had fun playing together.  I wouldn't say we are good but had fun trying to play and hitting the ball to each other.  We were there for several hours and did everything until I think the kids were all worn out.  I think we made a lot of fun memories with each other.  It was a short weekend together.  I was thankful for everyone efforts to spend time together.  I know each family made their own sacrifices, and I recognized and appreciated all of them.  I know as we get older and our lives get busier it is harder to gather. 

 

Family Dinner

Natalie and her family decided to come into town for Labor Day weekend.  She said it has been too long since we had gotten together.  She wanted to have her kids spend time with their cousins.  Lauren and her family made plans to come in town and Christy and her family were also available.  We offered to host Natalie and her family.  I was glad we could all pull together to make that possible.  We put kids on air mattresses in the basement and some in beds upstairs.  I am thankful for my family being helpful with getting the house ready as well as willing to share our space with the Wrights for a few days.  Natalie has always been such a great host to our family and I was glad we could return the favor.  They got in late Saturday evening and we basically just all got settled for bed.  We all went to church together and then hosted everyone at our house for dinner that evening. We did something simple that would feed a lot of people.  I made some salads, got some chips, cut up a watermelon and grilled a bunch of hot dogs. It was simple but hopefully appreciated.  My coworker was so sweet and made some cookies for me to share with my family.  She said she knew I had a lot on my plate this weekend and hoped the cookies would make something a little easier.  It was so sweet and thoughtful of her. After dinner we got all the cousins together to play water balloon volleyball.  It was fun to see the cousins having fun together.  I know several of the cousins don't even know who their cousins are.  It is sad for our family that once not to many years ago would gather frequently to go so long that the cousins don't know each other.  It really made me grateful for Natalie and her efforts to encourage this weekend.  We had a really fun evening all together.  It made me happy to have my house full again.  

 

Senior Night

The first home game was senior night. JJ and I were happy to be there to support Garrett.  We walked him down the track. It was a fun and very hot evening, and we loved seeing his big smile. They got a new inflatable eagle tunnel that the team runs through as they enter the field. We were so glad that he could play after his hard hit the weekend before. Garrett works hard at football and has come a long way. I still admire him for starting in 8th grade when several of his teammates had been playing for several years. He has a lot of fun and has made some great memories along the way. 

 

First Football Games

We had an exciting first weekend of football games.  Garretts first game was away, in Cape Girardeau. It is two hours away, so we decided to watch it from home online. We had the Elmores over for a BBQ a to watch the game.  We hadn't seen them in a while and were excited to catch up with them.  It was fun to hear about their daughter's wedding and all the things going on in their lives. We were watching the game and as it was almost over the Elmores decided they were going to head home.  Liberty was behind and they were going to lose. As we were saying goodbye JJ looked over at the TV screen and saw that there was a player down.  We realized it was Garrett that was down.  We were able to back up the streaming and see him get hit.  It was a bad hit and hard to watch.  After being hit he just laid there.  I felt a lot better when I saw him start to move. I could tell he was crying.  After several minutes they carried him off the field.  We had some friends down at the game, so we called them. They had started to leave since the game was almost over and didn't realize that was Garrett that was hurt.  She went back over and went down to him.  He was still crying when she got to him.  She told him I was on the phone, and I heard him say tell her I am ok!  We talked to him for a little bit and then also the trainer.  He thought his foot was broken and that we should have him seen.  We told Garrett that we would go get his car from the school.  His friends said they would bring him home and help him into the house. We were so sad for Garrett.  We could tell that he was in a lot of pain and still had a two-hour bus ride home. We felt bad that he was hurt during the first game of the season that he has worked so hard to play in. In the morning we planned to take him in.  He got up and came walking into our bedroom.  He was walking fine.  We were shocked!  He said he actually felt pretty good.  He felt banged up but didn't think he needed to go to the doctor. He could jump up and down and move his ankle all around.  It was such a miracle for him to be better.  I was talking to him about this experience, and he said he really felt like he was being watched out for.  He told us that one of his coached offered to pray with him after he got hurt. That meant a lot to us. This coach also knows us and knows we believe in the power of prayer. We are so glad Garrett is ok!  Playing football makes me nervous and I worry a lot about the boys getting hurt.  

Nolan had a great first game.  They started off with a great win! It was such a fun game and fun to be watching the boys play again.  

 

First Day of School

 I was able to get home and jump right into back-to-school mode for me and the boys. I walked Nolan over to the bus stop.  He was sure he didn't need me to come but I insisted on coming. I don't have many more years where I get to watch him get on the bus. I kept my distance but still got a video and a few pictures. I hope that Nolan has a good year.  He doesn't have many friends on his team but hopefully he will find or make a few friends. Garrett had morning football practice.  He had an early morning but got home from class just as I was leaving for work.  Just in time for me to get a picture of him and he took one of me on my first day back to work. Garrett only has a few classes at school this year.  He is doing dual enrollment and also work release.  He gets done with school and usually works the lunch shift at Penn Station.  I am back at work in the cafeteria at Discovery Ridge Elementary.  This will be my 5th year. This year will bring some staffing changes that I am a little nervous about.  Our manager retired so our cook became the new manager.  The daytime custodian took over the cook position. I am hoping we have a smooth-running kitchen, and it will be a good year. I can't believe this is Garretts senior year.  I know this year will fly by, and it will be graduation time before we know it.