Meanwhile.......

Bryan and my girlfriends were planning a surprise birthday party for me! 

And believe me...I was very surprised! 

Such a fun night! 

I am blessed with some wonderful friends!

And a super sweet husband! 

It's the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown train ride

John daddy and DeeDee bravely took on the task if taking all 6 grand kids to ride the great smokey mountain railroad Saturday! 

They drove my luxury minivan so all 8 would fit.

It was a hit with all the kids!

Luke has been sick with the croup all week but he felt great and was fever free for the trip!

I'm glad I didn't witness this stunt!!!

Thank you John daddy and DeeDee! I know you had your hands full!

Making memories they will treasure forever!

What a nice day!

Luke had a cough so he stayed home from school this morning. We laid in bed and read one of his favorite books "Shark vs Train" just before lunch, I found this beautiful origami owl necklace my friend Robin sent me! It has a "B" charm, all the boys birthstones and a red heart! I love it! And I love you Robin!

Then, my sweet friend Stephanie took me out for a birthday lunch at Circa and pedicures at Soluna!

It was so relaxing! I even forgot about all the 5th grade homework we had to do tonight! Thanks Stephanie!

After school, DeeDee and John Daddy had a fall party for all 6 grand kids! Here is Silas and Luke playing "fishing."

Everybody loves vampire teeth!

Trailer ride! Thanks John Daddy!

Decorating pumpkins

Roasting marshmallows redneck style! On coat hangers! 

Doing math and spelling with sidewalk chalk! What a nice day!

Nate's sept book report

I'm not sure if Nate put more hours into reading the book, or doing the book report.  Either way, we have to thank Cliff for making it awesome! We love you Cliff!

Running club

Thanks for all your advice! Yesterday went a little better!

I had a mom take some pictures because the kids love this!!!

They are actually disappointed when I blow the whistle to stop running!

Thank you so much to my parents who are helping. Next week we are dividing up...k-2 on Thursdays, 3-5 on Mondays.

The kids were disappointed. They were hoping the change would be to everyday after school!

Is it Friday yet???

It's been a "rough week." Bryan left for 10 days in Spain Friday. I have had a terrible cold/sinus infection. I started a running club that unconvinced about 40 teachers/administrators. Nate has had a rough week of 5th grade. 

I was near tears all day yesterday worried about social studies, running club, how i was going to help nate with 3 hours of homework without henry and Luke killing each other and what was for dinner. 

I talked the boys into haircuts at my salon. Picture day is Monday and I couldn't stand Henry's sideburns. 

I didn't tell the stylist what to do. I let the boys tell her. Now they're upset they got it cut. They've been whining (Nate) and crying (Henry) all evening about what a disaster their hair is. "It's too short!" "Can we take some Quick Grow Vitamins?"

I sat in the bedroom tonight while we were praying and gave them a pep talk. I told them how I understood the frustrations of a bad haircut. I've been there! 

I tried to explain that even though they were sad their hair was too short, in the big scheme of things it's so insignificant. They struggled to believe that 40,000 children will die today of starvation. That some kids would give anything, shave their head, for the food we threw away. That children in our very county were being abused right now. That we were so blessed. To just be thankful that our biggest worry was our hair.

Then I thought about my "rough week" and felt so guilty. 

Ready to run from the running club!

The running club is complete chaos! I'm so sad and so distressed. 136 kids. It's too much! I can't even talk to them because of the noise level so my lessons aren't possible. Pickup is a nightmare. All I know to do is to separate them into 2 groups and have younger kids one day, older kids the other. Any suggestions?

Saturday night fun

Since we are missing Bryan so much we decided to distract ourselves with some company! 

We had Bennett, Walton, Gracie Claire, wright, calla and Sarah over for a party! Miller was at soccer tournament and griffin wasn't feeling well. 

Luke and wright found the Halloween hair paint

All 4 of these girls are growing up! They managed to take fantastic care if the twins without ever removing their Kavu bags!

Helping Luke and Calla clean up their mess!

Earlier, the boys had enjoyed national hunting and fishing say with scouts!

Papa joined us and took over when I decided to go home....thanks Ronnie!

Nice catfish!

Running club kickoff

The running club kickoff was a hit! I had 102 kids running Yesterday! They ran a total of 163.5 miles. 28 more kids were signed up but were not at the kickoff. Looks like we will have 130 runners!
I had about 8 kids run 3 miles and earn their first foot charm!
It was fun but absolutely wiped me out! I didn't get any pictures because it was so busy! Hopefully some parents will send me some.