The Joys of Childhood...

Homework

Alex enjoying some nachos while doing his math homework. It's the only thing he is enjoying. Math is proving to be a bit of a struggle this year. He inherited his lack of math ability from his mother. Fortunately, Russ is pretty solid and has been able to tutor him...so far. Listening to Russ explain "what you do to one side of the equation, you have to do to the other" gave me horrible flashbacks. I pray Russ doesn't have to travel on a night he struggles with his homework. We will be up a creek without a paddle! I suppose we can learn together at the University of Google...or add on an addition for Grandaddy (the family math genius)!

Happy Birthday, Carter!

My baby boy turned 8 years old today! It's a bit hard to create a "special day" on a school and work day, but we tried our best...

The little prince started his day with breakfast in bed.

He says it was the best part of the day!

Followed by presents...yes, that is ANOTHER light saber.

Don't judge me, this one is the Ultimate FX :)

Posing with a couple of his new action figures.
We got him up a little early so he would have time to play before school.

Dinner at Purple Cow. Posing with my baby... on

account of me giving birth and all.

Carter and his milkshake. His menu choices never waver:

Mozzarella sticks for an appetizer, corn dog nuggets, fries

and a big, chocolate shake!

The Tyrrell's joined us for dinner to make it extra special.

Alex, Carter and Ryan acting goofy...and choking each other.

9/11

Today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. We spent the morning in church reflecting on the fact that that day showed the very worst and the very best of humanity. From the most evil atrocity, heroes emerged. We were asked to turn to the person sitting next to us and recount our memories of that day. These are my memories...

I was driving to work at Grace Lutheran. Alex was 17 months old. It was the first truly cool day of the season and he was wearing a new plaid jacket. I remember hearing the radio report that a plane had crashed into the first tower. I was in front of Jennings Osborne's home on Cantrell. I knew Russ was still at home getting ready for work, so I called to tell him the news. In my mind it was a small plane...an accident. When Russ picked up, he told me he was watching it on The Today Show and it appeared to be a commercial plane.

As I pulled into the parking lot at work, Russ called back to tell me that a second plane had hit the second tower. This was not an accident. We were under attack. I walked into work and everyone was speaking in hushed tones so as to not upset the children. Our director kept running upstairs to the church office to watch the news and come downstairs to report to us. We were having our morning snack when she walked off the elevator and announced that the first tower had fallen.

The larger buildings in Little Rock, including Russ' office on Financial Center Parkway, were evacuated for the day due to possible terror threats. This meant many of our parents were arriving to pick their children up early. Many parents simply chose to leave work and pick up their kids...you had a sense of wanting to keep the ones you loved close. I was so thankful to have Alex at work with me. As the parents drifted in and out of the school, they provided us with news reports of the plane hitting the Pentagon and of Flight 93.

I did not see the actual images of that day until I arrived home around 4:30 p.m. It was surreal to literally see the images that had been described to me all day. While all were disturbing, I remember watching the debris cloud engulfing the people running down the street...I remember thinking, "This doesn't happen in America." But it did.

My dad was in Little Rock on business and had planned to spend the night with us that evening. I remember us eating catfish take-out from Cock of the Walk while continuing to watch the coverage. Then, I remember us shutting off the TV and taking Alex to Lake Willastein to clear our heads. Again, another surreal moment was the stillness in the air. No planes. Everything had been grounded. Living so close to the air base, the buzz of planes is almost a guarantee in Maumelle. Not that night. I also remember watching 3 little boys run up and down the bunker next to the playground. They were around 7 or 8 years old. One said, "I know! Let's play World Trade Center." I remember thinking that they didn't understand and that this wasn't a game. It was our life, our world and it would never be the same.

Russ' memories from 9/11: I don't remember alot of details about what I was wearing etc, but I do remember waking up to a beautiful cool morning. After Aimee and Alex had left the house, I was finishing breakfast and was about to leave for work. The Today Show is usually an hour behind but the station cut to a live shot of the first tower on fire. My first thought was that the fire would be VERY hard to fight that high up and that it would take a while to rebuild and repair the building. Al Roker mentioned that even though it looked like the tower was leaning, both towers were built to withstand hurricane force winds (reassuring us that it was not going to fall over). The station pulled in on a tight shot of the burning tower when another explosion occurred. I thought perhaps something inside the first tower has exploded. A woman who was reporting to Matt and Katie said another plane had hit. The station rewound another angle and it showed the second plane fly in. At that point I STILL could not grasp that this was intentional. It wasn't until the NBC Pentagon correspondant came on and said, "I don't want to alarm anybody but the building just shook and people are running away." The next shot was of the Pentagon on fire. THAT is when I realized that we were at war. By that time, I had called my office. We were being evacuated because our building housed some federal agencies. After watching for a few more minutes, I went to the bathroom to wash my face and change clothes. When I went back to the tv, the first tower collapsed and I broke down for the first time that day. I watched the coverage all day.

When Aimee and Alex got home we eventually went for a walk. It was still a beautiful day outside but it was VERY quiet. There were no contrails in the sky and no air traffic at all. It was erie. Later that night I got up to get a drink of water and I turned on the tv. I think I did so because I wanted to make sure the events from the day were real. The tv showed a scene from Ground Zero with flood lights on the skeleton of the towers and volunteers looking for survivors. It was surreal. The next morning I looked through a file with some business cards. I had called someone in one of the WTC buildings a few months before who had worked on an earthquake project with my company. I found his card and the address was #2 WTC. For a while I had no idea if he had survived or not. I later found out that he had been killed. Michael Lomax worked at Aon Re. The company had offices close to the top of WTC #2. Apparently he had evacuated but was told like many other people to return to his office. He was above the impact zone when the 2nd plane hit and was not able to make it out.

Carter's Buddies...

We had each of the boys pose with Carter when he opened their gift. Such cute little guys!

Isaac

Owen

Carl

Thomas

Luke

Jax

Party like a Jedi!

We celebrated Carter's 8th birthday on September 9th with a Star Wars themed scavenger hunt. The boys' soccer and football schedules had us severely limited on party times, so we decided to kick it "old school" and host a party at home on a Friday night. Carter claims it was the best party ever, but I think he says that every year! I served on the organizing and decorating committee, but Russ gets all the credit for designing and setting up the scavenger hunt. Rumor has it that he may win an Oscar for his portrayal of the Sith lord at the end of the party.

The boys listening to Russ explain the rules of the hunt. He was trying to

set a very dramatic tone, but the boys weren't buying it.

Posing in the tree house after locating a clue.

All of the clues described a Star Wars "icon" that they boys had
to locate. Alex, Carl and Isaac reading the clue off of a blaster.

They've spotted another clue! We had them running all

over the neighborhood. The goal was to exhaust them, but

their endurance was far greater than ours!

Posing with all of the icons. Each boy had to return home with one

in order to receive their light saber for battle.

Russ making his grand entrance as a Sith lord.

Yes, he is sporting a beach towel on his head.

Each Jedi had to battle the Dark lord in order to reduce his power.

Defeated! These boys were on a testosterone high. I'm sure

some of the "new age" parenting books would find this picture disturbing!

Some people like to use pinatas at their parties, we prefer to use Russ!

Victorious! Striking their best Jedi pose.

Hot and sweaty, but so ready for cake and ice cream!

From left: Luke McMahan, Isaac Wilson, Owen Counts, Carter,

Thomas Naylor, Alex, Carl Daughtery, Jax Coleman

(not pictured was Karter Pawelczak who made a quick appearance before his soccer game)

Catching a big one...

Fishing has been a bone of contention with my boys for many, many years. The problem? They've never caught one. The bigger problem? Natalie catches one every time she sticks her pole in the water...literally. Labor Day 2011 started out to be a repeat of years past...except the boys were VERY determined to break the cycle.

In keeping with tradition, Natalie posing with the first catch of the day.

Yes! About 10 minutes later, Carter emerged victorious!

SUCCESS! About 20 minutes later (and we were starting to sweat it!),

Alex caught the final and fattest fish of the day.

Natalie still holds the record, but the boys are on the board!

WPS!

It's time for Razorback football! Seems like we've been

counting down to this day FOREVER...

Birthday X 2

We went to the lake this weekend to celebrate Labor Day. We had a dual birthday party to celebrate Papa and Carter's birthdays (September 3rd and 12th). I'd like to give a shout out to the Highland Town and Country for creating what can only be described as the ugliest birthday cake ever...we also have to give them full credit for the laughs that accompanied it. Camo and yellow icing? Really? Mimi requested "no flowers" because "it's for two guys." Apparently, "no flowers" translates to "add some camo to make it extra manly!" Nonetheless, it tasted pretty darn good!

Mimi and Natalie did some sidewalk chalk to welcome Carter back from a boat ride.

Feel free to zoom in on that cake!

I wonder if Papa is wishing for a real light saber, too?

Gassy Gus from Uncle Chris and Aunt Wendy. This game will require a

video attachment to do it justice. Gross!

That is the face of pure joy! I honestly thought we had every Star Wars

ship known to man, but Mimi and Papa managed to pull out another one!

Let's Dance...

Alex had his first middle school dance on August 19th. There was a big debate among his friends on whether or not "they" would go. It was only the first week of school and no one was too comfortable mixing with the 7th and 8th graders. After waffling for days and saying, "I'm waiting to see what Jackson or Wyatt is doing," we told him that they were probably waiting on him and someone had to be the first to make a decision. I was very proud of him when he stepped up and said, "I guess I'll go." That's about as definitive as it gets for an 11 year old boy.

I'm happy to report that he had a wonderful time. He even danced...in a group. That totally counts!

Striking the cool pose before picking up his friends.

He was pumped about wearing his custom Converse shoes...compliments of Mimi and Papa.

This further proves my theory about boys and their shoes...

2nd Day of the 2nd Week

Before school even started, Russ and I were placing bets on which of our little darlings would be the first to get sick. I suppose I "won" by putting my money on Carter, although I certainly didn't suspect it would be so early in the year...2nd day of the 2nd week. Ugh!

Russ is coaching Alex's football team so we are doing a ton of dividing and conquering with the boys. On this particular day, I worked until 4:30. Russ was trying to wait on me to get home so he could leave for practice with Alex. I got stuck in traffic so he was literally waiting on me in the driveway. As I'm heading in the house, he shouts, "Carter doesn't seem to be 100%. He's been kind of low key since he got home from school." This is what I found when I walked into the house...



Not 100%? He had 102 temp and fell asleep 5 minutes after I walked in the door. Bless his heart! I told Russ the next time Carter claims to be "freezing" in 100 heat to stick a thermometer in his mouth. In his defense, he tried...he got him the pillow and blanket!

Side note: It was totally viral. He stayed home the next day and was rearing to go by Thursday!