Week in Review: Andrew Tours Austria, We Tour Sports Games and A Tour of Healthy Pours

Happy Friday!  

This weekend, Andrew is travelling through Poland with his classmates and I'm so excited for the adventures he has in store.  He hasn't been travelling too much yet, just getting to know Gaming, Austria:

Campus

A day trip to Salzburg:

Andrew bought those Birkenstocks as soon as he arrived in Austria.

And a weekend trip to Hallstatt, Austria which looks like the setting of Frozen:

That's his bff and roomie "Smiles" and I'm sure he'll be in a lot of the photos I get, so I wanted to acquaint you all.  Smiles is such a great kid and has been an awesome friend to Andrew.  They played soccer together and have both been officially accepted in the Nursing program (yay!) and are practically brothers from other mothers.  The weather has been awesome over there, and the classes are way harder than he anticipated (reading has never been his thing, and he's taking some English and Philosophy classes).  I sent him a little care package from the German Amazon and found the way they translate into English to be quite lovely.  Adding an item to the cart is called "the basket" and shipping an item is referred to as "dispatched".  Very cute, very demure.

Eamon has been in a lot of the soccer media posts which makes me giddy.  Finally somebody else forcing him to be in photos!   He is starting the college process, or at least I think he is, I am staying out of it completely except when it comes to financial aid.  I did read his college essay and it's basically about how loud our family is, so that's humbling (true, but humbling). 

Maggie went with her bestie (and her besties parents) to a Red Sox game and it happened to be "Catholic Night", I mean, what are the chances?  I'm glad the Red Sox aren't a great team anymore because that means we can now afford tickets!

She also sent me some of the volleyball team pictures, including this one of her friend "M"...

...whom she's been friends with since preschool! I had to dig up a photo from an old playdate for proof.  Maggie used to call her "sis" when she was this wee age which cracked us up:

Sisters from different misters

Home volleyball games are my jam and I'm hoping I can see them all this season.  Last night's TWO HOUR game ended in an upsetting loss but Maggie played every minute of the whole game so it's very fun to watch and loudly yell from the stands.  And I'm just realizing that both Eamon and Maggie are number 8.  Planned?  I'll have to ask!

Declan started soccer last week for a league that he played for last year, but I pulled him out after one practice.  The league didn't have enough U15 players so they combined U12 with U15 which means Declan (age 10) would be playing with and against 14 year olds.  Declan is a great player - skilled and fast - but he only weighs 61 pounds and is not confident or aggressive on the field yet.  He will start in a different league today, which is made up of only 10 year old boys, has a friend from school on his team, and a good coach.  Glad we solved that fast!

Sports practices.  The only time I get to enjoy sunsets.

Xander and Brendan began swim team this week - one swims from 4:30 to 5:30 and the other swims from 5:30 to 6:30 three days a week and then Xander has a longer practice on another day.  I was able to do a workout class on two of the nights that aligned with the swim schedules, but man is this going to be a long season. Have kids they said.  It'll be fun they said ;)

Phil and I walked over to the Indian restaurant for our last date night and the food is just so yummy though we hardly know what to order as two very white and unspicy Americans.  We did branch out a little and tried the paneer (Indian cottage cheese) which was enjoyable to try once, but we will stick with our chicken tikka masala and garlic naan - yum!

That man keeps me sane.

I have added a few things to my diet, in order to supplement this old body's needs and I really like both of them so I thought I would mention.  The first one is this Lemon Italian Ice protein powder.  I mix it with water and drink it after a workout.  20 grams of protein and it tastes delicious.  No big blender needed but I like using this blender stick.

The second thing is Bloom green powder which I also just stick blend into water and drink alongside my coffee in the morning.  I add it to 16 ounces of water to rehydrate and get in some good nutrients right away.  Sometimes I get real crazy and mix the greens and the protein powder and creatine together in one fell swoop.  And you thought you knew me.  Ha!

If you're the praying type, would you mind sending one up for JP's big MCAT tomorrow?  He has been studying like crazy because he really only wants to take this once and start applying to med schools.  Thank you in advance and have a wonderful weekend everybody!