Week 42--28 Years!

Monday, Oct. 14th

Columbus Day.  For years and years, that meant meeting up with cousins and grandparent's at Buell's Orchard.  For a handful of years, it also fell on Nathanael's birthday so we would bring his friends, too.  One year we even did birthday apple pie out of the wagon.  Anyway....once travel soccer took over, a handful of kids were committed to tournaments and life happened and kids got jobs and suddenly getting up early to ride behind a tractor to pick a pumpkin just didn't have the same appeal at certain ages.  Sigh. 

Renna and Colombo were determined to still go this year.  Rocco and I would have joined, too, but we weren't invited- just a little date.

She left the face paint on for practice.

Rocco had team pictures.

Tuesday, Oct. 15th

The only picture from the day was watching seniors TikTok in the lot while waiting for Rocco.

Wednesday, Oct. 16th

Pastor Jonny was away, so he asked a handful of parents to step-in and facilitate Midweek.  Colombo and I were happy to help.

Thursday, Oct. 17th

I don't post details a whole lot here, but I will say, the last 4ish months without chemo have been amazing.  If you saw or chatted with Lisa, you wouldn't know she was battling terminal cancer.  She deals with SO MUCH privately, but never complains and only strives to run her race well, to make His Glory known, and to point others to the saving grace of Jesus.  As she does all of that, she wears a smile, goes to work every day, cares for her family, encourages friends, faithfully serves, spreads love, and inspires others with her faith day-in and day-out.  So proud of her!  

Smiles again on this call because scans look good.

Rocco and I finally made it to one of Aiden's soccer games.  He's unreal in net!

I then ran the boys to meet up with their buds.  Meg arranged a hospital visit to see Luke who had his appendix out.

Friday, Oct. 18th

Our 28th.

Colombo arranged for dinner and a show in the City!  Yay!  For fun, I googled Naked Cowboy's income.  $150,000 per year and he's worth $4 million.  There ya go!

We walked to Central Park, which was bustling on a warm October Friday happy hour.

We ate dinner at the same place we did in July and then to the theater to see "The Notebook".  So good!  We had listened to the soundtrack on the car ride down to familiarize ourselves.  Just from the music, we agreed it would be a tear-jerker.  It was amazing and we both bawled!

Saturday, Oct. 19th

I had the honor of joining Tina, as well as her mom, sister, and abuela, for some dress shopping!  The winner was a clear winner!  We knew from Tina's smile that it was the one.

We had previously worked very hard to secure this date for our Fall birthdays birthday dinner.  Somehow, slowly, this tradition has evolved.  We went from everyone getting their individual birthday dinner at Outback, to lumping same months together, to now more of a quarterly happening.  We'll see what happens going forward, but I will say, the change happened FAST!  And now with the size of our group and with Miss Ezra, it's just more comfortable to be at the house.  So Colombo cooked and I chipped in some, too.  I'm just beyond happy when everyone is together.

The fall birthday crew!  (Sept, Octx2, Novx2)

We face-timed Trevor in for Best Part of the Day.

Sunday, Oct. 20th

I did church and finance office, but apparently the only picture from the day was me at Rocco's game against the most unsportsmanlike team I can remember in recent history.  Unreal.  I actually think the boys may have been drinking before the game- it was that bad.  So it was extra sweet to come from an 0-2 deficit and beat them!

I'm not sure when this one is from, but I missed posting it.  Tio Nathanael with sweet Matteh (Tina's nephew).  From what I understand, they are quite bonded and neither has been around the family much without the other; no memories without each other in their timeline.

Week 41--Parents' Weekend at WOL

Monday, Oct. 7th

Monday night football- since this is my first year in the family Fantasy league, I sort of care a bit more than my usual sort of care.

Tuesday, Oct. 8th

Harlem and I watched Renna's soccer game on a beautiful, crisp fall day.

First apple pie of the season, which came with the frustration and imperfections of being out of practice.

Wednesday, Oct. 9th

Happy 21st birthday to our precious Nathanael.  

His plan for the day was his usual- work, host small group, hockey practice.  This was one of those days I'll look back on and have no clue how I pulled it off.  Colombo was out of town on a business trip, I was hosting Aria who was visiting from Califormia. In addition, I decided just a few days prior to hijack Nathanael's small group, to cook dinner for the guys, and invite some additional friends.  I visited with Aria for several hours, picked up Rocco from school, dropped Renna off to Jon for hockey, got Rocco to Meg's for Midweek, and got out of the house so Nathanael's gang could show up.  Somehow, in between all of that, I cooked dinner for 10 guys and got the house ready to go. Aria and I went to Lisa's for a quick dinner and visit and then did another loop to pick up Renna before returning home at 10p to clean up from the party.

The pictures aren't great but at least someone took a couple!

I count it all joy that Nathanael chose to be around the Bible study table for his 21st rather than at a bar or club.  It is all grace and for His glory alone.  Andrea, who has been hyping up his 21st and looking forward to celebrating with him, thoughtfully got him a gallon of milk in lieu of other beverages.

Thursday, Oct. 10th

I love that students and faculty choose to start the day in prayer- just wish it wasn't to Mary.

We got more time with Aria and enjoyed a few hours with Sophia and MJ.

Homeschool co-op gym class.

I did Trevor's buddy, Ariel, a favor by sitting through his very first sales presentation.

Speaking of Trevor, he sent us his pictures of the Northern Lights, also visible from Manchester, but I was completely unaware it was happening until after the fact.

I had a lovely conversation with Maddy just before watching Renna play her soccer game.  This fall has been one of the best!

Scenes from recent youth nights stolen from IG.

Friday, Oct. 12th

We road-tripped up to the Adirondacks to visit Trevor for Parents' Weekend.  

We soon spotted the flyer he had created for Faith and Football.

We got some time to sit and hang with just him in his dorm room.

Dinner in the caf- the kids were so amazed by the cereal options.

Family service.

Saturday, Oct. 13th

Trevor had some responsibilities on campus, so we tried to work around that.  We started out taking the tour of The Island, which was Word of Life's first property way back when.  

As we were loading up for a boat ride back, Trevor arrived on The Island to do some filming.  

Then we went back to our hotel to check-out.  It's called The Lodge.  It's beautiful, but it's not super bougie.  It has a building with standard hotel rooms, then private cabins, and even some glamping setups.  It's a sprawling property overlooking the lake with amenities like free mini-golf for guests and a game room (all of which the kids had time on Friday to use).  It's dated, and they ran with the adirondack everything theme including moose heads!  The kids were just enamored.  Their hearts were won over with the giant chocolate chip cookies at check-in.  Anyway, Rocco in particular went on and on about how nice it all was.  I kept thinking, yes, it's nice, but it's not like, nice-nice.  Then it finally occurred to me on day 2......when you've only done Holiday Inns or the equivalent your whole life, then yes...this was very nice!  Anyway, it still makes me smile to think about his gushing over it.  I'm sure we'll be back!

We had an hour to kill, so we squeezed in a visit to the local attraction, Natural Stone Bridge and Caves and hiked for an hour.

We got back to campus in time to meet up with Trevor and eat lunch in the caf.

We sat at the women's soccer game while Trevor floated and filmed.  Then he needed to go edit and we needed to hit the road, so we said a quick goodbye and headed out.

We had a nice visit with Trevor.  It's just good to put eyes on him and arms around him.  It was good to be on his turf and meet some of his people.  It was a quick visit- like 27 hours- and he was busy for much of it, BUT the gorgeous October drive and the "getaway" with Renna and Rocco were completely worth it in addition to seeing Trev.

About 20 minutes into our ride home, I got a video from Maddy of their last drive away from their first house.  I lost it.  My little girl saying goodbye to their precious 3rd floor apartment that held ALL their firsts.  Such a difficult thing to let go.  Such a hard goodbye.  Such a big transition into so much that is unknown.  Thank you, Elm Street; God provided so well, and you were a good spot for the last two years!

We made it home in time to scoot to Rocco's 8:10 game.

Sunday, Oct. 13th

We served at the 8:30 service and then divided and conquered for hockey.  I had Renna in Hartford, so I snagged Harlem.  Gabby was thrilled!