Fun Run and Fun with Fish

 Whew! We made it through the all the curriculum nights and life is now back to regularly scheduled programing.

This week Elsie had her fun run at school. I can't remember why but I wasn't able to make it last year and so apparently I "never come to the fun run". I guess I also didn't specifically tell Elsie I was coming, so when she came out to the starting line and saw me, she lit up. She is still getting over being sick and I think she was glad for the extra support and cheering as she ran.

Despite being just as busy as the rest of us, Merrick somehow made a lot of time for fishing this week. He is becoming quite the fisherman. This week he and a friend decided to give night fishing a try and went out with headlamps and in the rain to give it a go. They were hoping to catch catfish and didn't end up with any, but did catch 12 other fish. They have started fishing with chicken liver as bait and that has been pretty game changing.

After two weeks of running completely ragged and nursing Elsie back to health, I ended up going down a couple of days ago. My fever broke last night and I am hoping I am on the mend. There is never enough time for being sick. 

Extra-Fancy Busy

Sometimes I feel like a broken record on here. I am constantly talking about how busy we are, and it's true, we are always super busy. That said, there are certain times of the year are are worse than the baseline busy, they are extra-fancy busy. We are half way through two of the busiest weeks of the year. This is the time of year when all to the regular busy, collides with all of the back to school events for the kids and for my work. Over a two week period, I end up being gone more evenings than I would like.

When I thought back about the week, there was lots of running around, meals in the car or just not eating, and juggling who was available for each of the many drop offs and pickups. I was telling Jeremy that with all of that, I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about this week. He reminded me about two things: 1) I wrote about all the kids fall sports last week, but I only had pictures of Elsie 2) I have never written about his new job. So, here we go...

Unsurprisingly, we had to divide and conquer for games this week so the pictures of Merrick's basketball games are courtesy of Jeremy and the pictures from C.C.'s volleyball games are from yours truly. Elsie, was well represented last week and we have no new pictures to share this week because she was, unfortunately, home with a fever.

I think I have made reference to Jeremy's new job, but did not share too many details, so here is the full rundown. Jeremy started mid August at a new personal injury firm called Bridge City. He is getting to work again with former Advocates BFF, Jamison. Jamison left the Advocates at the start of the year to go over to Bridge City. When they determined they needed another attorney at Bridge City, Jamo was quick to reach out to Jeremy and the rest is history. Ultimately, this job presents opportunities for growth, both professionally and financially that the Advocates did not. From my perspective, the change has been a good one and Jeremy is happy with the change and really likes working with his new co-workers.

Wish me luck to make it through the next week and then we will back to our regularly scheduled busy lives.

Fall Sports 2026

 Back to school also means back to fall sports and we are in full swing on the sports front. This is a magical year, where for the first time ever, all three of my children are playing indoor sports. No more anxiously watching the weather, waiting to see if we will be watching and playing soccer in the pouring rain. I am not broken up about the change.

Merrick, not surprisingly, is playing fall basketball. He is playing on a team with all guys from the high school and they are being coached by a member of the high school coaching staff, who also just so happens to be a former NBA player. Practices and games start this week. It should be a great experience and get him well prepped him for the regular season.

Carrigan is returning to volleyball this year, but the bar has really been raised. In past seasons, she has been allowed to serve underhand or overhand and there was some flexibility on whether or not they served behind the line. This year they have to serve overhand and will ultimately be expected to serve from behind the last line. CC is working really hard on her serving and is making some great progress. She will get there, it's just a bit of a struggle since she doesn't have a lot of weight to put behind the ball.

C.C. is also doing dance team again this year. This isn't really so much of a fall sport, as it is a most of the year commitment, but practices started last week. This year C.C. thinks they will be learning a hip hop dance for competitions. That should be fun.

As mentioned earlier, Elsie has decided to take a break from soccer this year and give volleyball a try. She has had several practices and one game so far. In her game, on one of her turns serving, she scored the max 5 points they cap the kids at. It is still early days, but the smile on her face has me convinced we won't be going back to soccer any time soon. She is also the only one I managed to get photos of this weekend.

As for Jeremy and I, our fall sport is just trying to keep up with the kids' schedules. Jeremy helps shuttle kids whenever he is home, but since he is still in the early days at his new job, he is still working from the office 5 days a week and typically isn't home when the running starts. I am so grateful that Merrick is driving now too. Not only can he drive himself to practice, but he picked C.C. up from dance for me one day so that I could make dinner. It is going to have to be a real team effort to get it all done.

Merrick's 17th Birthday

Yesterday was Merrick's 17th birthday. He's lucky that his birthday often falls during Labor Day weekend and he often gets it off of school. This year was no different. His birthday landed on a Saturday and we took full advantage.

We got up early, packed a picnic and headed to Sandy, Oregon. Our first stop was the famous Joe's Doughnuts. We then headed to a nearby park/campground with access to the Sandy River. 

Merrick had brought his fishing poles and was really hoping to catch something big. It turns out this was not the day for catching anything in the Sandy River. Not only did we not catch anything, but neither did anyone else we talked to (granted it was a fairly small sample size because we only saw a few people the whole time we were out there).

While it wasn't in cards to catch anything, we still enjoyed our time at the river. We relaxed on the bank and waded in the water. C.C. used leaves to make a craft project spelling out Merrick's name. I did some whittling. The girls built a sand castle. We ate our picnic lunch. Mostly we just enjoyed the quiet and our time together.

When we got home, we opened the few small presents we had gotten Merrick. We wanted to give him a bigger gift this year because he ended up getting a little cheated on his sweet 16 present when the basketball shooting machine we ordered got delayed over and over again and we ended up just canceling the order. This year, what he really wanted was a jet ski. We really did consider it, and even measured the garage. Unfortunately, we all came to the conclusion that it just was not in the cards. 

As a second choice, he decided he wanted Jeremy to sit own with him, open a brokerage account for him, and get him started in the stock market. Hopefully, he can grow the money we have given him to get started and it will be a big blessing for him down the road. Either that or he will lose it all. Time will tell.

After the stock lesson, we had dinner and dessert before he headed out for the evening with his friends.

I am so grateful we had this day to celebrate him and that he is not too cool to spend the day with his family. As he turns 17 and starts his junior year, I feel the time slipping away. I am treasuring everyday we have left with him in the house.

Back to School 2026-27

This was a big week in our family. Not only was it the first day of school, but it was also Merrick's 17th birthday. C.C. tells me I usually combine these two post, but this isn't sitting well with me. So today, we are getting 2 blog posts for the price of one.

Tuesday was the first day of school for all the kids. Merrick is starting his Junior year, CC is in 8th grade, and Elsie is in 3rd. So far everyone seems to be liking school as much as you can. Merrick has a really hard schedule this year with 2 AP classes. In addition to that, he is taking an A hour and doing 6am seminary. This year is going to give him a run for his money.

As a whole, I'm optimistic that it's going to be a great year.

Goodbye Summer

This past week was the last week of summer and, like so many before, it flew by. School starts on Tuesday and as I looked through my pictures, it was all back to school prep. I have pictures with school schedules, pictures of bus schedules, and pictures of locker numbers and combinations.

Last week, both girls had open houses. We started the afternoon at Elsie's school. She has the same third grade teacher as C.C. so it's nice to know what we are getting into on that front. Elsie was really excited to find her classroom, see what friends she has in her class, and get to play on the playground with them. While a lot of her friends have a different teacher, she has a few friends and a friend from church, who is coming over from one of the elementary schools that closed, in her class. 

 C.C.'s back to school day came next. She was less excited to get back into the building, but did want to go and find her classes and, most importantly, try out her locker. It was a good thing we did go preview because we discovered she had a bottom locker on the opposite side of the school from all her classes. We were able to get that switched and she is much happier with her new locker.

Merrick didn't get to have a back to school day, but he has picture day tomorrow. Hopefully, he will take a minute while at school tomorrow to figure out where his classes are.

Other free time during the week was spent back to school shopping and gathering and organizing school supplies.

I think we are physically prepared for Tuesday. Whether we are emotionally prepared for Tuesday is another story. In either case, ready or not, here it comes.

Summer with my Favorite People

Summer is dwindling. I went back to work shortly after we returned from Tahoe and the kids have just over a week until they go back to school. Jeremy also started his new job this last week. Time is flying by and it feels like summer is just slipping through our fingers. With that said, I think today might be a bit of a hodge podge of some of some of the last bits of family fun squeezed into this summer.

Merrick has spent a good chunk of his summer fishing. If he is not working or with his girlfriend, you will usually find him at the river fishing. Last week, Elsie wanted to go to the park and practice softball. Since the field is right next to the river, Merrick decided he would come along and fish. Pretty soon, CC decided fishing sounded like fun and she would come along too. Eventually, Elsie got tired of practicing and the whole fam ended up down at the river to fish. As Merrick put it, if we are ever in a position to have to fish for food for survival, we are in trouble. Not only did we not catch anything, but we ended up losing several of Merrick's lures and I owed him some money before we called it a day.

Another recent highlight was this week's youth trip to the coast. They went out on Friday afternoon to play, have dinner, watch the sunset and have a devotional. While they were gone, Elsie and I had some special time. She wanted to go to the arcade. We had a bit of a slow start after arriving, but hit our stride playing Fruit Ninja and the fishing game. Elsie was thrilled while playing the fishing game that she caught the shark twice (worth 25 tickets each) and even caught the elusive jellyfish (worth 150 tickets). After the arcade we went to dinner together to cap off our special night.

Yesterday, I helped put on a church activity for all children ages 8-12 in our congregation and the neighboring congregations. We had an Olympics theme. We started by making Olympic torches and having opening ceremonies, then had stations for the groups to visit before having closing ceremonies and presenting cookie medals. Elsie is the right age to participate and C.C. came too to be a helper. It was a fun day and even more fun to have my girls there.

I have to say that the highlight of my summer has definitely been the time spent with my family. Having little kids is hard, but as my kids have grown and become more and more self-sufficient, it is less work and more enjoyment doing things together as a family. They are really just my favorite people. Even with that, sometimes they still have there moments, especially at the end of a summer spent with a lot of togetherness.