This one was of our more interesting weekends.  We got to attend a square dance on Friday night!!  (James says, "We HAD to go.")  It was with one of the homeschool groups we're a part of.  It actually was quite fun.  Christopher endured some kind of knee injury that involved bumping into some immovable, very hard object and wasn't keen on participating.  (Although I did see him late in the evening flinging a young lady around in the "kid's corner."  Daniela was cute...maybe more about that another time. 

James was quite the participant.  He danced every dance and even danced with some GIRLS.  It didn't seem to matter which girls they were just as long as they wanted to dance.  I even got his last dance when he was boxed out of one of the squares.  (OK, I couldn't resist the pun.)  I had as much fun watching him as I did actually dancing.  It also brought back a lot of memories of when Keith and I first met - many of our first evenings together were spent country western dancing.  It was fun - if you get a chance to go square dancing any time, bow to your pardner and do-si-do....

Christopher woke up with a very sore and swollen knee, but he had a soccer game.  I wasn't sure how fired up he was going to be after all was said and done, but it was his most aggressive game.  He was everywhere.  He was very proud of his hat trick - he scored 3 goals in this game.  I love to watch him when he is totally engaged.

Finally, we had the last race of the season.  Keith and I didn't go because James's coach had offered to take him.  We were up at the crack of dawn to get him to the QuikTrip.  We waited anxiously for James's call.  His start time was 9:31 and we thought he should be done in 20-25 minutes.  It was an 8-mile out and back time trial - the Georgia State Championship.   Finally, he called after what seemed like a really long time.  All the words came out in a massive jumble - something about coming in last, a car crash, having to turn around because it was graphic but he saw no blood.  What?  Slow down and start over.  He was second to start and quickly overtook the guy in front of him.  (In a time trial, they start the riders every 30 seconds.)  About 2 miles into the ride, the officials started yelling at him to slow down and turn around.  He couldn't really understand what they were saying until he realized there had been a car wreck.  He passed the wreck and the officials chased him down and made him turn around.  He was feeling good and, according to his speedometer, was going very fast.  He mosied back to the start thinking they would do it over.  After all, that stopped him halfway.  Only, they didn't.  That was it.  He was disappointed, but he is so good about disappointment.  

As he rode back he said he kept wondering about how that lady could have a one-car crash in such a beautiful day on such a straight road.  We were just thankful it wasn't a one-car/one bicycle crash.

Now the season is over.  We get a few weeks to slow down a bit before the hard training starts for next year's season.  I can hardly wait.

Just More of the Same

I've lost count of how long it's been since I posted anything.  The world has gone quite crazy and so has my travel.  I really thought I would get around to getting something done last weekend, but alas, no such luck.  I'm glad to report that Morgan Stanley still exists.  Hopefully, this isn't a temporary state.  For those of you who don't know or understand exactly what I do, I won't bore you with details but it is woefully tied to these now infamous "credit markets."  For the past month or so, I think I've been home about one day each week.  Our sermon series on suffering has been so well-timed and helpful in keeping everything in perspective.  Blogging has definitely taken a backseat to getting to the grocery store, sleep, and just seeing my boys.

That said, I've actually missed it.  Several of you do let me know you like keeping up with us via this medium so I consider it worthwhile.  And if nothing else, printing them out and sending them to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law makes it worthwhile indeed.  

Our pace of life really hasn't slowed down much.  School for the guys is as intense as ever.  I have come to find out that my family is much a reflection of my own personality.  We're intense and if we're going to do it, we're really going to do it.  There are several homeschooled children on Christopher's soccer team.  I overheard a couple of them talking about their schedules and their motivation for teaching at home.  I was struck by how ours was the same, but so much more.  James is doing algebra for goodness sake and Christopher's reading ability in second grade is just phenomenal!  (Also, his ability to think through issues.)  Even this morning, he wanted to know about the process for getting accepted to college.  We even got to the discussion about how there were some professors Mommy and Daddy might not be the craziest about because they had goals that went beyond teaching their subject matter.  His response? Maybe I supposed to be in those classes to challenge them!  He's seven.  I told a woman at church this morning that sometimes I feel like I'm in over my head.

Christopher has had his first spend-the-night company during this time that we've had nothing else going on.  Aaron is absolutely "to die for."  He was in my "Tater Tots" group when these guys were two so he and Christopher have been friends for a very long time.  They were so good.  We hardly knew they were there.  Until I was ready to go to bed.  Keith had been in 

bed for a little while, when at 11:40 I was beat.  They had told me they wanted to make it to midnight.  I had my doubts, so I went in and made sure they had on pjs and had brushed teeth. Aaron assured me he tucked himself in all the time and they could handle it.  I could go to bed and not worry about them.  So....I did.  I heard them whispering and giggling until midnight when I fell asleep.  Keith woke up around one and heard them talking quietly.  Christopher told me they were asleep by one so we're not sure exactly what time they went to sleep, but we do

 know Christopher got them up at 7:15 on Sunday morning.  Aaron can come over any time.

Sports continue on.  Christopher is doing great in soccer.  He was sick last week - sick enough we took him to the doctor on Saturday.  He had croup, but the doc said he wasn't contagious so he could do whatever felt like doing.  What did he feel like doing?  Playing a soccer game on Saturday and then again Sunday afternoon.

 

His coach from last year really keeps encouraging him to move up to a select team - he told him last year he thought if he worked hard he could make the national team one day.  Christopher just shakes his head and says he just doesn't love it enough to play year round.  His game yesterday was a great one.  We tied this team in the first game of the season - they are a really tough team with a superstar kid.  Christopher plays with so much heart and gets frustrated with his teammates sometimes.  He scored a goal this game and played some awesome defense. Yesterday, they got it all together for a 3-1 win.  In his freetime, he's also taking tennis lessons.

James, of  course, is still cycling.  He had a road raced yesterday and a criterium this afternoon.  An overall third place finish in the junior age group (14-year-olds and under) and second in the 10-12 age group in the road race.  Today he was working for another kid to win.  He had a valiant attack that lasted for two laps.  Crits are really fun to watch because you can actually watch the strategy unfold.  Later in the race he tried to slow the race down so our designated winner could have his own attack.  (His attack was a decoy to try to get our opponents to chase him and get tired too early in the race.)  What was most fun, though,  was hearing him say how used what he learned at Nationals in developing his strategy during the race.  Maybe all that money, planning, and just general stuff was worth it.