19--Officially an adult in Nebraska

Tyler is officially 19 and is now considered an adult even in Nebraska.  For his birthday he just wanted food.  We made him a pretty delicious lunch plate with chicken katsu, macaroni salad, rice, and teriyaki chicken.  We concluded the evening with a Recess Peanut butter cake.  Both were delicious and left Tyler feeling happy.  He got an assortment of gifts.   His birthday this year fell on our first Sunday of home centered church.  Due to Covid-19 we are not going to church for a while because we have been asked to social distance.  He didn't mind staying home.  He actually prefers staying home and just relaxing.  Tyler spend a lot of time in his room playing his electric guitar and listening to music.  He's always willing to help if asked, but kind of likes to stay by himself a lot.  He is busy with school and I'm sure he'll enjoy this week of Spring Break.   

New Shoes--New Cleats--New School year!

New school year means new shoes...at least for Makai.  He was the only one who needed new shoes this year.  We found him the perfect pair...easy to get on making the morning a little nicer.  I can't believe he wears a size 9 in mens as a 9 yr old boy! 

We also got him and Trey cleats as we signed them up for flag football.  We'll see how the season goes.  Football rules this time of year with Kory playing freshman ball, Kyle playing Varsity and some JV games, and now Trey and Makai playing.  Practice is everyday for the older boys, but only once a week for the younger boys with games on Saturday.  Thankful for the YMCA for having Saturday games!! 

Football here we come!

Makai is also starting the 4th grade.  I think this will be a good year for him.  His teacher has him front and center!  A perfect seat for him.  His teacher seems like a perfect fit for him.  He's about her same size height wise and probably outweighs her by 40 lbs, but she seems to really want to help him be successful.  We are thankful for her. 

I should have gotten a picture of Kory at his new school, but haven't yet.  He spent all summer there doing football and even taking a summer school class, so it didn't seem like his first day of school, but he is in high school now.  The first day of school I took him to get Sonic to get a breakfast burrito because he got up early for Kyle's football practice.  We had a nice hour and a half long talk in the car while we waited for Kyle to be done and his school to start.  We watched the moon set and the sun rise.  It was a fun morning.  Can't believe he's in High School!  While in the car he talked about how this was the first year in 4 years I wouldn't be a his school.  I was pretty lucky to work at his school for 4 years in a row.  He helped me see how special that was.  He's going to rock high school.  Kyle is a junior, but he couldn't care less.  All he cares about is that football is back in season!  Him and Kory are enjoying some bonding.  And Trey is starting 7th grade.  It's his first time alone at a school without a brother, but his second hear in middle school, so he's got this.  He knows the ropes this year.  The boys are growing up so fast!! 

Cars!

Cars!  We need them...and as our family is getting older...we need more of them!  This year we need Kyle to start driving.  Last year Tyler just took them to all their practices, but since he's moved on it's Kyle's turn to be the driver.  Monty has been looking for a car for him and found one last week.  Kyle says he likes it because it looks like a Stranger Things car.  It's older than any of our cars and even older than any of our kids, but they like it.  Monty has a thing for these older cars.  His first car was an older Cadillac.  He loved it, till a buddy wrecked it.  Hopefully this one lasts a little longer. 

Going to get it proved to be an interesting experience.  We went to pick it up about two hours from where we live.  As we began the drive it started to rain.  The rain just kept falling...and falling.  What we didn't know was that our GPS would later take us down a dirt road.  At first things seemed fine, but shortly into the drive the van began to swerve and the dirt road became very soft. It was so hard to drive and keep the car out of the ditches on the sides.  Thankfully, we hit a bridge and decided to stop to survey the situation.  We were stuck.  In front of us was a huge puddle of water and behind us was a road we knew we couldn't go back through.  We decided the best thing to do would be just to wait and hope the sun would dry the dirt road out enough for us to make it to the mans house.  Our phones didn't work, so we couldn't tell anyone where we were, but we knew if we went forward we'd get stuck and back we'd get stuck.  We remembered the night before Kory had given a devotional on patience.  This was a lesson in patience.  Every hour we'd walk out and check to see if the ground seemed any harder.  We'd walk on the dirt and sink in.  Finally, after about 2 and a half hours of waiting we decided to just try it.  We backed up the van, and started to drive knowing that there was no turning back once we started.  Mud was flying everywhere as I didn't dare take my foot off the gas because if I did we'd for sure get stuck and not be able to get started again.  I felt like a NASCAR driver as I tried my best to keep the car as straight as possible and keep it going.  After what seemed like 10 minutes, but was probably more like 2 we made it through.  The van had about 20lbs of mud on it and mud in every crevice, but we didn't get stuck and we were able to get the other car picked up.  Thankfully, there was a better way out.  Had we known, we'd of taken that way in, but we didn't know.  We'd never been there before.  We thought it was a great lesson in life.  Sometimes life gets messy.  Sometimes we need to just pause and access the situation, but once you make a decision you've got to just go for it.  No matter how crazy it might get.  We knew we couldn't go back.  He knew he had to go forward, but we had to wait for the right time.  If we went too soon we'd put ourselves in greater harm.  Patience payed off, but it was still messy and crazy and we didn't think we were going to make it, but we did.  Such is life...    

This van is so old.  Her left blinker doesn't work.  She has had to be resurrected more than once, (thank you Tyler) but man, when the going gets tough, she always pulls through.  One day soon I'm sure she will die.  But she's been loyal.

The Expedition however just might be dead!  We have no idea what is wrong with it, but I think it might have bit the dust.  I always thought the van would die first, but I guess Grandma is tougher than grandpa.  He won't even turn over.  Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I think he's toast!  

Whoops...

The group of kids I go go school with decided they wanted to have a BBQ to celebrate the end of our summer session.  We took 4 classes this summer and cried together, laughed together, but all survived together.  One of my classmates offered to have it at her house and as we've gotten to know each other she learned that I was a member of the church.  She grew up a member of the church, but no longer attends.  Nevertheless, she is still very respectful of our standards.  While at the party there was a lot of alcohol.  Monty went downstairs to get a drink and grabbed what looked like just a carbonated juice. When he got upstairs my friend stopped him saying, "Don't drink that.  It has alcohol in it!"  We laughed and he went downstairs to get a Coke.  While driving home Monty looked at Kyle and asked him how his drink was, as he had seen him drink one before he grabbed one.  Kyle felt so bad, without knowing it he'd drunk one of the "fruit juices".  We had a good laugh.  Such is life.  He said he couldn't tell it had alcohol, but when she stopped Monty from drinking it he had already had one.  When driving last week we found one on the side of the road, so I had to get a picture.  Not the end of the world, but a funny memory!      

Summer project

Because I had some time off I decided to paint the house.  Stupid, but hey...sometimes I do stupid things.  It started with having to cover up one spot and slowly turned into the whole house.  But, I will say it looks better than it did.  I couldn't figure out how I was going to paint the second story. It was keeping me up at night as I was trying to come up with the perfect way to get a ladder on the roof safely.  We have a tall ladder, but because of the porch the angle wasn't right for the ladder to touch the house.  I was trying to figure out a way to put a ladder on the roof and kept praying to help come up with an idea that would be safe.  I got the ladder out and Kyle agreed to help me.  I told him my idea and he responded with..."Um...that doesn't sound safe.  How about you just use an extension poll."  Why didn't I think of that!  It worked like a charm.  I learned something about myself that day.  I was praying for a safe way to do it my way.  There was a safe way to do it, but it wasn't my way.  I couldn't think of any other way.  Kyle's way was much safer and easier.  Interesting lesson.  The chimney was a little scary, but Monty held the ladder and we got it.

All Signed up for College...

Tyler is officially signed up for school this semester!  He's a Maverick!  Getting them to take this photo was harder than it looks.  They were being a little stubborn...

HAIR!!!

I blame Kyle!  Kyle decided he wanted to grow his hair out and then none of my kids wanted hair cuts.  I thought that in the heat of summer I could convince them to cut their hair, but nope...they wanted to grow it out.  Makai has such thick hair.  Thicker than anyone in our family and probably competes with most sea otters.  Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and convinced him to cut his sides.  Doesn't this look so hot!! It's summer time! Lets be real--I wanna shave my head!      

Then there is Trey.  H'm shocked by how much body this kid has to his hair.  The longer it gets the more curly it gets.  But again...at least let us cut the sides...

goofball!!  

Okay, so I might need to take some off the top too!!  Luv you bud.  

One of the hard things about having older kids is how much control you loose.  When they were little they dressed in the clothes I picked out, and cut their hair whenever I wanted them too.  I'd just say, "Hey, do you want a hair cut like...(insert favorite character at the time)? and they would agree.  Now that they are older I've lost that.  They don't just want to do things to make me happy...they have opinions.  I'm having to get use to letting go and just going with it.