Week in Review: Blessings and Endings

Happy last Friday in October!!  I look forward to this time of year so much.  It's giving beautiful weather, it's giving cozy vibes, it's giving fall sports are nearly over :)  I love that my kids are involved in sports, I love that they are athletic and social and having fun.  But I also love the breaks between seasons, they are a blessing to our family life.  Speaking of blessings, look at this clever costume our pastor wore:

This week had lots on the calendar - two annual physicals, three soccer games, three volleyball games, seven swim practices, three soccer practices, two volleyball practices, two basketball practices, two evening DRE meetings for Phil, and four Parent Teacher conferences at the kids school.  Tonight we have the homecoming football game where senior fall athletes are announced with their families, and then tomorrow the high schoolers have their Homecoming Dance for which I procured 12 dresses and four ties for them to try on.  The tie has been chosen, the dress is still up in the air.

We also decided to start working out at the gym at 5:45 am because we don't have enough free time after work.  We're tired guys.  The type of tired that makes you think if we ever get sick with something whose symptom is exhaustion, we will never know.

Declan and Brendan have been going out into the yard to play "Catch the Leaves as They Fall from Trees" which is fun to watch as I make dinner:

Beautiful trees near my work

Eamon played his last ever soccer game this week:

Just take my word for it that Eamon is out on the field

Me and the Other Maggie cheering on the boys

Eamon's been playing soccer since he was four years old so that's, let me do the math, that's 15 years!  I went looking for a photo from his younger days and found this gem of the kids wearing their uniforms which meant it must have been a Saturday in the fall:

Kids ages: 7, 6, 4, 3, 0

I was a soccer mom for so long, with up to five kids playing on five different teams many seasons.  But now I only have one soccer player left (Declan) which is so strange.  Since we have two swimmers, I guess my role is now swim mom?  Maggie finished up her (Junior year) season of volleyball this week and played really well.  Her team is not the greatest and their league is not the hardest, so it's not really bragging to say she's one of the best even though she is ;)  

Quit glazing me Mom.

Declan still has a couple of weeks of soccer left but basketball practices started this week as well.  His first practice was from 7:45 to 9 pm on a school night.  Ummmm his bedtime is 8 pm so this is going to be a problem.  Future practices and games should be a little earlier I've been told.

JP flew out this morning to visit his girlfriend/friends/cousin at Franciscan for a week.  He still hasn't started his job as an ED Tech because apparently the orientation was cancelled and the next one is in November so he is using his free time to visit, do secondary med school applications, and finish up his EMT recertification.  This pause between jobs has actually been helpful to allow him time to get everything done.  Oh!  And he started shadowing our primary care physician last week, which he loves.

Andrew is living the life in the Austrian Alps.  They had a dance this past weekend where they dressed up in Austrian garb and learned some folk dances.  

Andrew in his Irish cap, that dapper lapper

I don't know all the names of his guy friends (sorry guys!) but I do know the names of these lovely ladies that Andrew enjoys hanging out with who are also in the nursing program with him:

Say "grüß Gott" to Meg, Al, and Sky

Andrew is currently on route to Medjugorje with a lot of his classmates for an extended weekend trip.  He asked for any prayer requests so that he could pray for them while he is there, so please feel free to comment or email me anything and I will pass it along.  

Have a wonderful final October weekend everyone!  I hope we can all get some time to relax and enjoy the moments with those we love.