Wednesday randoms

 Got to brag on my boys a little now. I am so proud of Luke and his reading. He brought home a paper yesterday saying that he is reading on a second grade level! He absolutely loves his teacher and loves going to school. According to his teachers he is an angel in class. Too bad that's not the case at home ;-)

 Nate made a bet with Henry that if Nate scored a certain number on a standardized test Henry would have to eat a pickle. Nate scored way over what he had hoped for. Henry was a good sport and only gagged a little.

Henry may  occasionally argue with his brothers at home but away from home he is known for his fabulous babysitting skills. Here he is with Grace and Eliza taking care of them while Elizabeth starts dinner.

Inspired by his friend Reed, Luke has decided to pack his own lunchbox every night! i'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, considering it took him about one hour to do this. If he eats this many raisins he may never come out of the bathroom tomorrow.

Ripple of one fundraiser

 This past Saturday was the yearly fundraiser for my friend Stephanie's organization Ripple of One. 

 It is a unique organization that works with parents who are on welfare. Using incentives and matching savings, ripple of one attempts to get people off welfare and into a job.

 We spent the morning decorating and preparing for the event.

 Because all of the grandparents were out of town, Dora's kids babysat. 

 The event was a great success. Can't wait to hear how much money was raised.

Baby Kitty

Our hearts are just broken. Baby kitty went outside last Tuesday night. We have not seen her since. 

All three of our cats sleep in our basement. Due to construction they were having to stay upstairs. I think in all the confusion baby kitty got excited and ran away. We have searched high and low, called all the vet offices, and went to the animal shelter to search for her. Our only hope is that she has found another wonderful home.

Without a doubt she was the most interesting cat I have ever known. She would get in the bathtub with the boys and crawl onto anyone's lap who would let her. We love you baby kitty and hope you are safe somewhere!

Atlanta nighttime color run

We signed up for the color run a few months ago in Clemson. Due to the Clemson triathlon, traffic was a nightmare that day and we missed the start. The color run team was so gracious to offer us another free run any time this year.

We chose the nighttime color run in Atlanta. 

Julie-ann had made us these adorable matching shirts to wear at the Clemson run so we decided to wear them again last night.

After an early dinner at Moes we headed to the Atlanta motor Speedway

Every race packet included in awesome black T-shirt with glow-in-the-dark stars and a headlamp that you had to wear for the race

Luke was recovering from a terrible stomach virus that he had on Friday so I was prepared to piggyback him

Nate and Bryan decided to run their personal best

A conga line to the start line. Henry followed the runicorn

The race was fine. I have to be back to Luke about half the way. The boys loved all the color!

Super fun weekend! Can't wait to do it again!

Saving $$$$

 Nate had an appointment on Monday to have a tooth extracted. It was a pretty large molar that wasn't even wiggly. I told him today, jokingly, Nate why don't you pull that tooth yourself and save us some money. Little did I know what he would do this evening when he got home. This boy has no fear when it comes to pulling teeth! Believe it or not the tooth fairy is still coming to see him. Small price to pay considering what we would've paid on Monday

Ford Transit

I'm thankful to say that I had another car accident this morning but everyone is OK. Again one of those crazy days where I took Henry Luke and Walton to school. I was coming back home to get Nate to take him to the orthodontist. So I had no kids in the car. I was completely stopped in a long line of stopped cars at a stop sign at the end of Keowee school Road waiting to turn right to head home to get Nate. The car behind me got distracted I supposed and hit the gas before I ever moved. He plowed right into the back of my car.

Of course it scared me to death. The window was shattered out in the whole back tailgate has to be replaced. It took about two hours to finish with the police and then another two hours to find out that, due to the Clemson game this weekend, the only rental car available in the entire upstate was this fantastic Ford transit.

It is basically a delivery van that seats five people. It's horrible! Makes me  thankful for my wonderful 2012 Honda Odyssey. I wish you could've seen the boys faces when I pick them up from school today! Also there's no way this car will ever go over 55 mph. Another little trick I learned today is that you have to open the driver door to unlock all the rest of the doors. That will be fun at pick up and drop off. Hoping this is the last wreck I have to report ever!

First Walhalla meet!

What a great day yesterday was! A few friends and I had the pleasure of serving 800 snow comes to the middle school students during lunch. They were free so it was a big hit.

Then on to set up for the first cross country meet Wahalla has hosted in 10 years! It was an invitational preseason race with 8 schools there. Walhalla, Seneca, Pickens, Wren, BHP, Palmetto, West Oak and Daniel were all there. 

As a team Wahalla did fantastic! They took first place in Boys varsity, first place in boys JV, girls placed 5th varsity and third JV!

Nate has improved so much! The first time he ran a timed trial his time was 33 minutes. The second time it was 30 minutes and yesterday he was under 28 minutes!

Coach (Pastor) Buckner praying with the team before the meet began.

Thank you Deedee for helping me pick the boys up so that I could be a helper during the meet.

Top 4 varsity finishers. 

Nate's choice of a recovery meal... Homemade guacamole and chips!