The busy but wonderful life

The past 2 weeks have been quite crazy - let's see:

- I have started 2 new Bible study groups - 1 is Couple Checkup on Sunday nights for Jason and I. 

There are about 15 couples and has been a lot of fun and very eye opening.  We just took the Couple Checkup "test" to see how we are doing as a couple and let's just say we have some areas for growth.  However, it is nice to see that other couples may experience the same thing.  If I could just bite my tongue sometimes and say things nicer :)

The 2nd Bible study is Brave by Angela Thomas. 

It is a women's study on Wednesday nights and it is wonderful to be able to fellowship with other women and be able to pray for their struggles.  Being part of the youth department doesn't allow me to be around other ladies my age, which I feel that I need.

With these 2 Bible studies, comes a lot of dedication.  It can be so difficult to get us all to church on Sunday night and Wednesday night and having to deal with dinner, soccer practice, baths, and getting to bed - Whew, I get worn out by the end of those days.  I pray that God will speak to me during these Bible studies and show me the things in my life that need to change.

Speaking of soccer, Brody is really not a fan of playing so we have a long month ahead of us.  We are making him stick it out even though I would love to have my Mon & Wed afternoons and Saturday's back, but I feel that we have to teach him about committment.  This past Saturday, he really showed that he didn't want to be at the game.  He just stood around the field and even asked the coach to come out of the game.  This is so not how Jason and I are - especially Jason.  Jason has never wanted to stop playing even if he was sick or hurt, however our son is not like this.  We have realized that contact sports may not be his thing so I think we are going to stick with tennis, golf and baseball.  We understand that he may not be the best on the field but come on can't a little boy run want to run after a ball and kick it?  This is so hard for me to understand and wasn't much of a sports player.  Lots of parenting lessons to be learned in our future.

Last weekend, I coordinated Crystal "Thompson" Scarbrough's wedding.  Jason and I teach 12th grade with her parents and I taught her in Sunday school several years ago.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The wedding was at Riverside Baptist Church, which is so pretty and the reception was at the Main Library downtown.  This wedding was so much fun and I really enjoyed being a part of it.  With all of the weddings I coordinate, Jason is usually right there to help me out with anything I may need help with and I am so thankful for this.  He was right there with me on this one as well even went to the rehearsal dinner which was a great time since we didn't have the kids with us and we were able to relax with 2 other couples who were kidless as well that night.  We almost left after the bride and groom because we were having so much fun. 

I couldn't believe how tired I was after that wedding - I definitely didn't wear the right kind of shoes. 

And a picture to leave you with of my 2 "sweet" boys having a blast in the tub.

We will never forget!!

The 10th anniversary of 9/11 was such an emotional roller coaster for me.  Like so many other people, I remember exactly where I was when I heard about the attacks.  My Grandmother had just passed away on the Saturday before the Tuesday of 9/11.  One of the thoughts I remember having was wow my Grandmother was just able to meet a whole lot of new people in heaven.

This year I watched several different documentaries about that day and different people's experiences - wow what a surge of emotion this brought on.  I can't remember the last time I cried so much.  I guess this is what happens when you have a family and it's hard to think if something like that had affected us - I had such empathy for those people.

We spent the special day attending church with some powerful music and a video that scrolled ALL of the victims of that day.  The list went on and on and on - truly amazing to actually see the list.  After church we headed to the first Jags game for our HOT season opener.  There was an awesome flyover and lots of other ways to help commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  Here are a couple of pictures of our HOT afternoon at Everbank field.

A TON of balloons released.

A little playtime to celebrate

After Brody's first soccer game, Jason headed to play golf and mom and I took the boys to Fernandina to play on the playground.  Fernandina has such a great playground - lots of different things to climb on and nice big oak trees to keep everything in the shade.  I actually packed a picnic lunch for us and the afternoon turned out great.

Trevor thought he was such a big boy.  Nothing was too big for him to try and climb.

Of course a trip to Fernandina isn't complete without a stop at Dairy Queen.  Trevor was so tired that he was barely able to hold his eyes open while drinking his milkshake.

Another one to add to the list

A couple of weeks ago Brody started playing soccer with the Callahan Soccer Club.  I really thought this would be a great way for him to exert a lot of energy by running around.  I don't really know that much about soccer so this is going to be new for me.

Brody was so excited about his new cleats, shin guards, socks, and ball that he couldn't wait for practice.  He was only able to go to 1 practice before his big debut game.

His games are on Saturday and are at 8AM or 10AM.  I thought I would be a good mom and get up earlier than him and make some eggs so he could have a good healthy breakfast.  However, he only ate a few bites so maybe that wasn't the best idea.

For his first game he did pretty good.  However, about half way through the game he came over and said he was pretty tired.  I was prepared for this since he didn't have much of a breakfast so he scarfed down half of a granola bar.  It's amazing what sugar can do for a 4 year old.

There are 6 kids on his team and 2 of them have played before so they are pretty good.

Brody really doesn't know what's going on but he's exerting a lot of energy and he's learning.  My dad offered him .25 a kick just to try and get him motivated.  Of course it wouldn't be complete without a few kicks to the other goal - we tried to get my dad to pay up for that but he didn't agree.

The game ended up in a tie and I guess Brody enjoyed it okay - definitely not tball.  This may be a long season.

He started out playing goalie - which I think would be kind of boring because the ball never gets to him since we have 2 really good players on our team and they keep the ball on the other half of the field.

Guess what Trevor does during the game - eat snacks.

Out of goalie position but still looking a little sleepy.

Just a little change goes a long way

When we got married 10 years ago and moved into our house, I was able to convince Jason to let us buy a wrought iron glass breakfast table with beige seat covers.  Well, 10 years & 2 kids later the beige seat covers are slight than pleasant to look at.  Let's see some pen marks, chocolate, and whatever 2 boys may drop on some seats.

Towels didn't help much either.

So, it was time for a change.

Yeah, it's a huge difference and I am so happy with how it turned out.  I debated on putting the plastic on the seats and I'm so glad I did because we have already some milk spilled but no need for me to get upset because the seats are protected.

The rest of our NY trip

Saturday and Sunday of our trip were very laid back.  Here's a little of what we did.

A trip to NY is not complete without a visit to FAO Schwarz.  The BIG piano made popular from the movie BIG is so cool.  We actually got to see a demo.

The Lego store.  Brody's only request from home was a Statue of Liberty shirt & book, so we thought he would like this.

No trip to see Ms. Liberty.  We figured we would wait and take the trip when the boys are with us. 

Our mode of transportation - the subway.  

 Union Square - this is where the Farmers Market was and we did a lot of shopping in this area as well.  We also ate dinner at Max Brennars - a chocolate lovers dream.  It was a Willy Wonka for adults.  I ate a small dinner so I could enjoy the chocolate fondue

Levain Bakery - I had read about this little bakery on Food Network that has THE BEST cookies.  It was on the upper west side so we made a special trip Sunday morning to get my mom some.  She loves her desserts so we thought it would be a great treat for her.

The wonderful $4 half pound Chocolate Peanut Butter cookie.  It truly was the best thing I've ever eaten.  Jason even liked them and said it was Really good! 

The Flatiron building.

Several people had told me about Snack Shack in Madison Square Park.  Here's the line I waited in for hamburgers, fries & a shake.  It was about a 15 minute wait, but once again oh so worth it.

Here's what Jason did while I waited in line for our food.

No trip to NY isn't complete without a visit to The World's Largest Store.

Friendly guy in the sky - NY style

One really nice thing about our trip was that we got to wake up whenever we wanted - no kids or alarm clocks.  We didn't really have much planned for the rest of our trip - just a relaxing time of being together, shopping and seeing the sights.

Friday we headed out and walked through a farmers market - this is one reason I could definitely live in NY.  How cool would it be to walk down to your local farmers market and get cheese, bread, fruits & vegetables.

We walked to Chelsea Market to grab lunch.  We were both fans (mostly me) of The Next Food Network Star.  This last season the contestants went running through Chelsea Market to find some great food, so of course I made a note of the place to visit.

We headed to Ground Zero and it was chaos down there.  This is the progress of one of the towers.  We weren't able to see the Memorial - only pictures.

That night we had tickets to see Spiderman.  This was Jason's Father's Day present.

The view from our seats.

Before the show we headed out into Times Square - this place is crazy.

Of course with having kids, we felt the need to visit Toys R Us located in Times Square.  It was actually nice to be able to go in there with no kids and feel sorry for the parents with the kids who were CRAZY!!  This place is huge and is a kids dream.  A ferris wheel inside the store.

Huge lego statues - Optimus Prime for Brody.

On our walk back to the hotel, we walked through Bryant Park and had a great view of the Empire State Building.

The BIG day - US Open

Thursday we headed on the 7 train to Flushing Meadows for a full day of tennis.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.

The outside of Arthur Ashe Stadium

Our first stop was the practice courts and one of my favorite players - Nadal - was at the end so I was able to snap a couple of pictures through the bushes.

Serena practicing before her match.

Our seats for the first match in Arthur Ashe stadium were near the top and boy is that stadium high & steep- I was so out of breath by the time I reached my seats.   We sat and watched Roger Federer play for a little while and then headed out to watch a few others.

The view from the top of the stadium

Louis Armstrong stadium with the Mets stadium in the background.

A better picture of the ball.

There was tennis everywhere and it was a little difficult to try and see everyone Jason wanted to see but we saw quite a few.  Yeah, probably most of you are like me and had never heard of these people but needless to say I learned a lot that day.

Tommy Haas

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga playing in the Grandstand.

Fernando Verdasco

Our seats for the night match in Arthur Ashe were in the middle section.  Carol Wozniacki & Novak Djokovic were playing so it was 2 quick matches - thankfully because sometimes the matches can go really LATE at night.  We were out of the stadium about 10:30 or so and headed back to the big city.