And then there's MORE....A LOT MORE!!!

I checked the mirror this morning and...YES!!....my head is still there!!! It hurts a bit...but it's still there.....hooray!!!! We've had a whirlwind of a weekend! After meeting Derrick on Sunday, we went back to Gresham on Monday to bring him back to his new house for a day to check things out. He was really excited to come. We were soooo happy and we had a WONDERFUL day together. He has the cutest voice, is so kind and thoughtful, and is super smart. It was really hard to drive him back that night!!

Now enter Tuesday -Wednesday.....1st day of school!!!!

Derrick: By some miracle I managed to convince Derrick's case worker to let Derrick come to his new school for the 1st day.....even though he won't be able to actually come back to school for another 3 weeks! That's the transition period that his case worker had worked out. Bob and I don't feel it's in Derrick's best interest....but....what do we know...right?? Anyway...at 6:00am, Bob and Amanda drove out to Gresham AGAIN to pick him up. Derrick was up and ready to go. He told Bob that he was soooo nervous and didn't sleep very much that night. He couldn't even eat any breakfast because he felt sick. Awww...what a sweetie. When they home, he did manage to eat a little cereal. We made him a lunch, put his school supplies in his back pack, took some pictures and then off we went to school....he was EXTREMELY excited to ride his new scooter. The day went great and after school he told me that he made some friends and one (turns out to be my friend Candace's son) wanted him to come over and play. Way to go Derrick!!

Nathan: Through all the the chaos....my little buddy Nathan was getting ready for his first day of Middle School!!!!. When he came down the stairs...he seriously took my breath away. He looked so grown up and handsome. What happened over night??? I swear he was even taller too!! At the end of school, Nate said the day was BORING....unfortunately he doesn't seem to know any other descriptive words....I'm learning that to Nathan "boring" equates to....it was just a good ole normal day. And, I'm happy that he's ALIVE!!!

Amanda: Lucky for me, Amanda didn't start school until Wednesday. We went out to lunch with her and had a great "last non-peanut butter and jelly lunch". At 3:00pm, I drove Amanda over to the highschool so she could board the bus for her 1st soccer game of the season. Soccer is her true love! Her team lost....bummer way to start off the season. Amanda had double bad luck when she had a ball kicked right in her face....made a 1/2 inch gash in her lip...and then, before she could do anything....the ball was kicked again...this time it hit her smack in the throat. It left the outline of soccer ball and a couple of letter from the name on the ball. She had a momentary "I can't breath"......the trainer helped her off the field and Bob looked through his camera's telephoto lens to see what was happening. It was hard not to rush out onto the field. I spent the next 15 minutes watching Amanda instead of the game....then... I was actually amazed when she got up and went back into the game for the last 10 minutes. We went over to the sidelines after the game and she had a huge lip and could hardly talk. The first thing she said was, "I can't believe that I have to go to my first day of school looking like this"......ha....ok....she's still a girl. Her lip went down in size and she had a great 1st day.

Julie: On Wednesday, I headed to the high school to teach my first seminary lesson of the year. I was up past midnight cramming it all together. Along with the cramming was continual praying, asking for forgiveness because I was so un-prepared and pleading for HELP!!!!! Amanda ended up in my class (poor thing). It turned out OK and I am really excited to continue teaching. If I can get through this first month....I'll be flying!!!

Bob: Just enjoying the chaos and working hard to pay for all of the gas we're using this month.

Derrick and Nathan on their first day of school

Amanda on her first day of being a sophomore.

Panda Bear's 1st soccer game....the trainer is the lady sitting in the background unknowingly ready to treat Amanda in a little while.

Derrick and Bob playing "don't touch the balls" on the trampoline

MY Boys!

Derrick had a blast playing with the kids on Labor Day

The many faces of Amanda.

Land Ho!!

Well...don't know if this is the safest thing to do....but it sure was fun!

Watch out when you make cookies with Derrick....he makes them just right and he LOVES to eat the dough!! You just may end up with no dough to put in the oven!!