Loss of a wonderful dad

Please keep the Reeder family in your prayers. This is a beautiful family that has a second grade girl and a fifth grade boy at Keowee. The dad, Kenny, died of a massive heart attack last night at the gym at his work. He was only 36.

He leaves behind his beautiful wife, Anna. His oldest son, Kaden is my top runner in the running club. Kenzie runs too. He was the kind of dad that told his children daily how much he loved them and how proud he was of them. 

Hit way too close to home for me. 

Keowee Kids Running Club

http://www.wyff4.com/dales-school-salute-101314/29085440

Running club in the news again!

Running club, birthday and field trip!

Running club started last week and was awesome! Kids ran for 25 minutes and I had 6 kids earn a foot (which means they ran 3 miles)!!!

Here are my sweet birthday cards from the boys...

Flowers from Bryan 

Luke had a great field trip to Denver Downs

Emily's wedding

Emily and Andrews wedding was fabulous!

We started getting ready at 8:30 for a 10:30 departure.

Overall the boys enjoyed the festivities! Just a few minor wardrobe problems (these boys are growing so fast!)

Henry could not get his dress shirt top button  to button, so he skipped the tie. 

Dashing!

Granny enjoyed everything!!

The organ was amazing! Henry went back in to take pictures. We all had goosebumps when Emily walked down the aisle! 

The amazing picture James and Stacie took!

I love to look at each one of their expressions!

My date

We even managed to make it to the Clemson game before the second quarter!

Congratulations Emily and Andrew!

Nate's fundraising!

Please support Nate and the Walhalla Middle School band by purchasing Florida navel oranges and grapefruit (you can only order in the US :-(

https://www.floridaindianrivergroves.com/orderFundraising_pre11.asp?OrgId=611184

Here's the link. You can choose Nate's name on the checkout page.

Mrs. Moore's class

I am volunteering in Mrs. Moore's 4th grade GATE class every day for the next 2 weeks.  Today she had them wrap it up early and they all sang to me.  So sweet!!

Breakfast and tailgates

Breakfast is out of control here at the Duncan household.  In my quest to help Nate gain weight, I am willing to cook anything (everything).  I've been cooking bacon daily for quite some time.  I like to cook it in the microwave.  Well, Nate has decided he only likes it cooked in the iron skillet. 

Henry and Luke (of course) still want it cooked in the microwave

And this was the weekend breakfast choice (thank to Uncle Grandpa) Bacon Pancakes!

Saturday morning fun

3:30 games are my favorite and this Saturday's weather was perfect!  High of 69, a little chilly when the sun went down.  Griffin got to go with us! So much fun!

Tara stopped by with Lawson.  She was so sweet!

And Bryan's high school friend Luke Haymond stopped by. 

Boys playing ball on the hill

Don't panic!! Griffin is just joking to take a picture for his mom!

Sometimes I think they love game day so much simply because they get away with drinking sodas!

So many fun things to do before kickoff!

Free sunglasses! YES!

So glad Sandy brought miniature corn hole!

As we were about halfway to church Sunday morning, Bryan looks at me and says, "my phone! I think I left it on the hood of the car!"  I say, "well turn around and let's go look for it!" So we turned around and then we heard (and felt) "crunch!' The boys said, "Dad, I think we found your phone." and we sure did.  completely crushed in the road.  Bryan handled it well, considering we just got it in August.  I reminded him that we didn't have a wreck and no one was hurt.  But, it still hurt.

The annual Maxie-Powell reunion was Sunday.  Here is Brent helping Preacher Barnwell give the blessing. 

Nate enjoying his second piece  of apple pie, thank you Julie-ann!  He loved it and had another piece tonight.  I'll let you borrow my pie dish any day if it means I get it returned full of pie!

Nate and the saxophone

Last Thursday I found Nate lying across his bed crying. What's  wrong Nate? I ask.  After many long minutes of me begging him to talk to me, he finally tells me that he's awful in band! He says everytime he plays he's embarrassed and he's actually just pretending to play during class.  He is absolutely devastated!  He goes on to tell me how band is his most favorite thing and  he wants to be a good player so desperately.  It breaks my heart to see him so upset, so being the helicopter mom I am, of course I email his teacher that night.  I tell her that he really doesn't like attention, good or bad, and he would never come to her with this.  I tell her how he's pretending to play and ask for any suggestions or advice.  She replies immediately the next morning.  She's an amazing teacher and she begins by telling me that she had tears in her eyes writing me! She said when she read my email, she immediately got his instrument out to inspect it.  Turns out, the octave key was stuck open (he's playing my 30 year old sax) and the only sound that would come out of it was a squeak!  I was so glad to know that it was something so simple!  She never told him what the problem was.  He came home from school very happy that day and said he thought he'd figured out what he was doing wrong all this time (puffing his cheeks out too much)! That next night while he prayed he said, "Jesus, thank you for that miracle that happened with my saxophone and just keep letting miracles like that happen to me."