Hello Tweenager...

Aaron's at it again!

All smiles with their Virginia souvenirs

Right now we're in my favorite time of the year. October weather is beautiful! The busy schedules of August and September are behind us. Fall has arrived and we've settled into our routines. I'm balancing the needs of our home with the needs I see all around me, dividing my time between friends, church, and family. While many days I feel like there's not enough of me to go around, things have a way of working out. God is much bigger than my needs, and He proves it to me daily.

Now that Braylen's finishing his first quarter of middle school, I'm seeing some changes in him.

• He wakes himself up every morning with his alarm clock.
• No more evening showers. Braylen showers every morning now.
• I've spent some time in the skin care aisle at Walmart, wondering what products are best for a 12 year old boy.
• Braylen is much more mature in public than he is at home. I'm glad he still has some little boy in him at home. :)
• He checks his email all the time, and reminds me every day of his wish for a cell phone.
• There's this 6th grade girl who captures his attention...
• I found Derek giving Braylen tips on how to treat this girl...
• Next we find out (from someone else) that our son has a "girlfriend."
• When asked what it means to be "going out" in 6th grade, Braylen replied, "It just means we like each other."
• Derek and I are in new territory here. I'm so thankful I'm not dealing with this on my own!
• We had a nice chat with Braylen about these tweenager things...

Things sure are changing in our lives. I feel like we're starting all over with our parenting. What in the world are we doing? It's like bringing our newborn home from the hospital. "Okay, now what?"

One day at a time. One issue at a time. Lots and lots of prayer. I really love how this brings Derek and me closer together. All of a sudden we have new things to talk about. And this is just the beginning. :)

Anniversaries of the Heart

We all have dates on the calendar that mean more than just another day. Today is one of those for me. My grandma has been gone for 10 years today. In some ways it feels like much less. In other ways it feels like more.

She loved Braylen. I'm convinced she would love Kaleb and Aaron too, if she were still here. And she'd be delighted with her new great-grandson, Will. Strangely, I remember the most insignificant things about that day 10 years ago. Like what I made for supper. Tonight we'll have the same thing, because that's how I am. Memories wrapped up in my mind and heart show up in my cooking.

Today I'll end with a funny. Grandma would like that. :) Aaron came home from church yesterday, plopped himself on the floor to untie his shoes, and said this to no one in particular:
"Sometimes I just talk when I don't know what I'm going to say!"

That boy...  :)

Virginia {Days 4 & 5}

On Sunday we drove to Colonial Williamsburg. I'm so glad we included this in our trip. Kaleb is our history buff, after all. :) On our way, we drove through lots of traffic and saw an accident happen behind us. I'm so thankful my dad stopped our car in time, the car behind us stopped in time, and we weren't the ones to hit the Porsche, which was 2 cars behind us. The day turned out to be a perfect fall day, and even the rain stopped when we arrived. To reach Williamsburg we needed to cross the Hampton Roads Bridge/Tunnel. We thought that was pretty cool. One minute we're driving on a long bridge, and the next we're entering a tunnel to drive beneath the water. Then we pop back out on the bridge, and eventually reach land.

Before our trip, I found this website for Kaleb to explore. It helped him understand a little bit about Williamsburg. Our boys have had more fun with this website! You can find it here.

Williamsburg was not crowded at all, making it even more enjoyable for us. We toured the capitol, governor's palace, ammo magazine, and many other buildings. We walked a lot! I think I'll let my pictures tell the rest of the story.

getting a good look at the capitol building

standing beneath a 200+ year old oak tree

a view of Duke of Gloucester Street

Grammy & Kaleb are locked in and not too happy about it :)

my turn to be locked in with Kaleb

Kaleb & Grampy check out the fire engine. I'm sure my dad's glad he never had to use an "engine" like this one.

The Governor's Palace from the front...

...and from the back

pathway leading from the palace to a canal...I love it when the treetops intersect

All in all, we had a really fun time in Williamsburg. Because of our late breakfast, we skipped lunch. We were pretty hungry by 5:00! We walked to the merchant's market and found Kaleb a place that serves macaroni & cheese. I wanted another Carolina pulled pork BBQ sandwich, and was happy to see this restaurant--Stephano's Pizza & Subs--had it on their menu. :) We were all happy to sit down and rest our tired feet!

Of course we couldn't leave Williamsburg without dessert. Lattes for the adults and ice cream for Kaleb. Mmmm. :)

Day 5 means it's time to go home. After such a fun and full trip, we felt like we had been gone for a week!

ready to leave for the airport and say goodbye to our car

I knew our first plane ride would be fun--Grammy and Grampy were with us. Saying goodbye in Chicago was hard. Mom bought us lunch and 2 cookies for the plane, and then she and dad left. Kaleb and I had one more flight, so we used our time on that flight to do his homework. Our travels went smoothly, and we arrived home earlier than expected. Braylen didn't greet us with hugs. Instead, he blurted out, "Mom, you're home early! I haven't had time to vacuum yet!" Hmm, Daddy gave Braylen a job to do after school. I finally got my hug when he finished vacuuming. :)

I'm very thankful for our trip. I'm blessed with parents who see the importance of building memories with their grandsons. (and daughter!) :) Mom and Dad, where do you think we should take Aaron when he is 9 years old?

Virginia {Day 3}

Grammy & Kaleb playing peek-a-boo at the museum

Anyone who knows me and my side of the family knows that we like to take our time in the morning. We sleep in. We take our time at breakfast. We're not in any rush. :) Which is why our first stop on day 3 began at noon. The Norfolk History Museum opens at noon. Perfect. I don't think the museum staff is used to visitors lining up waiting for the doors to open, because the staff didn't show up until 12:15. We used the extra 15 minutes to walk through the garden and take a few pictures.

Today is the day we met up with my cousin, Nicholas. He and his wife followed their jobs and moved across the country 3 years ago to settle in the eastern shores of Maryland. I love Nicholas. Our lives couldn't be more different--but we're cousins and we've always been close. He drove for almost 4 hours to meet us in Norfolk, and I was so excited to see him again! While waiting for him to arrive, we walked around the MacArthur Center. This mall is huge. Of course Kaleb liked all the escalators. I did my best to steer him away from the "Bra-ha-ha" event going on. (an event showcasing all different types of bras--yikes!) We had lunch at Johnny Rocket's and finished just in time to meet Nicholas.

can you see Kaleb?

 If you ask Kaleb what the best part of his trip was, he'll tell you it was this part: touring the USS Wisconsin. Nicholas is the one who suggested this tour, so it was great to have him join us!

The famous 16 inch guns; I say famous because I learned in Hawaii that 16 inches refers to their diameter, not their length. :)

pretending to fire the 5 inch guns

Nicholas with Kaleb and me at the stern

Kaleb needed a boost, and Nicholas was right there for him

Mom and Dad with the city in the background

You can't tell from my picture, but I was beginning to feel awful at this point in our day. Living in denial and hiding how I felt only made things worse. What a terrible, awful, horrible time for a migraine...I've only had two in my whole life and they're separated by years. Why did number 3 have to come on this day? Riding in Nicholas's car on our way to Logan's Roadhouse for supper, I thought the worst was about to happen. Finally confessing how bad I felt, he told me I needed to get back to the hotel and go to bed. I agreed, although I wanted to cry. He drove all this way for this? I flew across the country for this? And now I might be sick in his car? I felt so awful...

Back at the hotel, I crashed in the dark bedroom. Nicholas stayed and visited with my parents and Kaleb in the living room. Every now and then I'd hear them laugh, but mostly I just slept. Eventually Kaleb came in to tell me Nicholas was leaving. I made myself get up and tell him goodbye. He told me not to feel bad about this happening...it was okay...but I was so sad. :( I had so much I wanted to ask him, so many things to talk about and share with him, but it didn't work out the way I'd hoped and planned. He didn't even get anything to eat for supper.

I wanted a do-over for this day. I still do. And that's day 3.