Rowland July 2016

Momma Deer and her 2 fawns (can you find them both?) have been frequenting the neighborhood.  We got a good sighing of them one morning.

Will and Beth:

Will has a bit of a change of his schedule starting this month.  They had to switch around some people on his shift due to someone being out on a long term illness and also getting a newbie on the shift and anyway Will now has the business district assignment which means he  works 10am-10pm.  He still works the same days on and off  just the hours are changed to match up with businesses hours.  It wasn't maybe his top pick but someone on his shift had to step up and do it, were not sure how long he will be on it but for the foreseeable future anyway.  The cons are that his isn't going to be around in the evening for dinner or bedtime now when he works.  But the pro's are that he doesn't have to get up so stinkn' early, we will all get to see him for a bit in the morning before he goes into work, maybe he or I can even get in a run or a workout before he heads off to work, also I will always know when there is a good sale at the mall going on! ;)

Marathon trianing is going pretty well.  It's been super hot and steamy but we have been getting our runs in when we are supposed to. We are up to 12 miles. (half of what we will be doing!)  So far the runs have all been distances I have done before.  Next month is going to be interesting, and when I think I will find out if I'm cut out for this marathon thing or not.

Rex and Grant:

One thing that has really surprised me this summer is how well the boys have gotten along and just how much time they spend together playing.  Its nice not have a schedule and not having anything big to do most days of the week.  They boys are sleeping in till 8 or later, having breakfast and running upstairs to play legos together for hours.  I'm not saying its perfect there are fights about "I was using that" and "Yes my guy is invincible and your guy is dead" but they are becoming fewer and farther between.  They can build up a big story and get lost in it for a long long time.  Ahh summer.

getting in position to see the deer in the backyard

Rex got a little digital watch that he has been bugging me for since school got out.  I may higher him out as a personal time assistant, because he updates us what time it is constantly.  "It's 11:44 mom....Oh its 11:45 now" "Hey dad when are you leaving?  Its 8:57 aren't you supposed to go at 9?"

the boys helped (a little) with clean up when we lost a good size limb in the back  yard

Nugget a.k.a. Grant has a new nickname.  He was playing with Will and for some reason he told Will to call him "chicken Nugget"  Will said "I'll just call you Nugget" and it stuck.  I'm not sure why we haven't called him it sooner he is quintessentially a Nugget!

4th of July boys

The boys and I had a lot of fun at a Touch a truck event in Fairview.

The boys and I found maybe the smallest public park in the world.  We had it all to ourselves and they loved it.  What is it about having a playground all to yourself that is so magical?

We found this cool dude hanging on our screen one day.  I looked him up and he is an Imperial Moth.  The boys really thought he was neat.

The boys and I watched an entire thunderstorm one day from the front porch.  It was a pretty decent storm, lots of thunder, lightening, pouring rain, and even some small hail.  The boys liked picking up some that bounced onto the porch.  They didn't know it was ice.  It melted in their hands almost as soon as they had a hold of it.  

Rex went to a Baseball sports camp/vbs at the park just 1 mile from our house the last week of July.  Our neighbor buddys Lem and Ezra were going and it was a missions team from TN in association with their church that put it on.  He really liked it and said he learned a lot, but he cant remember any of it to tell me ;)  Even though he's been to a whole year of school and is getting bigger I still don't really like to drop him off and leave him places.  It was a little hard to entrust him to someone elses' care that I didn't really know at a park (not school or church) and drive away.  It was as good for me as it was for him I think to trust and let go a little.

Also during the last week of the month the boys had VBS at our church in the evening.  This was the first year that Grant was old enough to go, Since they were both there I volunteered to help too.  I got to be in the 4 year old room with Grant.  Which was fun, we had 19- 4 year old in our room! Rex was actually  more nervous about it than sports camp.  He was in a new room he'd never been in at church with a lot of 1st graders and didn't like it and said it made him nervous (the room that is), so he cried half of the first night.  poor guy. But he got used to it and there was a leader in his room the 2nd night named Beth, which made him very happy.  He told me "I didn't cry any because I was just pretending she was my mom".

I registerd Rex for 1st Grade this week!  Only 2 weeks of summer are left.  It has been a really fun summer, busier than I thought it would be, but in good way.  We're going to try to make the most of our last 2 weeks and do a few things we haven't yet and then get back into the school routine.

Fun at the Bubble Bus at the Library for the end of the summer reading program party

We found Lem and Ezra in the bubbles