brenden back to college

 We took Brenden back to college today.

Boohoohooohooo!

I was so sad....and so happy.

I know that's horrible (the happy part).

But this kid was at the end of his rope with being

at home.

He had no job.

He had no hobbies.

(Except eating and sleeping.)

And he was just so ready to be back

on his own.

I can't blame him!

I love his little college and am so happy for him!

Here is the pictorial:

Leaving Lucy.

The hardest part for both of them.

(Seriously, they are so attached.)

Unloading at school.

 Unloading, done.

Going to lunch now.

Lunch at a BBQ place.

Uncle Kenny came along with us.

We love him!

(He is SINGLE, girls!  Just saying. More on that later.)

Then we went for a quick-trip to a thrift store.

Brenden driving us to the thrift store.

(This is so exciting, right?)

Look what I found!

Is this not the most hideous thing you've ever seen,

ever?

I so bought it!

No, I did not.

DID NOT. 

And B really wanted this dental chair 

for his dorm room.

Maybe for Christmas.

Then we said goodbye.

Uncle Kenny and Brenden.

Brenden and me.

(Wahhhhh!)

K-Man, Brenden, and me.

(Wahhh, wahhh, WAHHHH!)

The End.

Now, leave me alone while I 

cry my eyes out, and deal with the remaining kids.

One down, FIVE to go!

Yesssssss!

cheesy and delicious {loft bed and cute friends}

Yesterday afternoon K-man drove to B's college to
deliver the loft bed he made for him.
Don't you love it?
It even has a fluorescent light and a power strip.
It's the ultimate college loft bed.

And don't you love the $20 couch?
It's disgusting.

So the kids and I were home for the evening.
And we had two very lovely visitors stop by!

My dear friend Gayly and her gloriously adorable daughter Clara
were in the area and came by to see us!

And when I broke out the camera, Clara put on her cheesy Chinese face.
She's rather clued in to the fact that she's delicious.

Umm, how cute is this?!

My, oh my.

Have you ever?

We had such a wonderful time!!

a quandary in my soul

My Brenden went back to college yesterday.

Wahhhh!

I'm not sure who thought up this whole,
grow-up-become-independent-want-my-own-life,
thing.

But really,
it's ridiculous.



**Thinking Back...Dream segment**

The time Brenden stripped down to his boxers in the
car because it was like, 137 degrees outside.


The time Brenden planted himself smack-dab in front
of the TV (in Lucy's little chair) to watch Shawn Johnson.
**Dream Segment over**


I thought about strapping myself to his car
and refusing to let him go...
but he'd just drive the whole three hours back with me
dangling there.
So it seemed pointless.

But it did conjure up some reminiscing as he pulled
away.

And I couldn't help but have THIS POST stand out in my
heart and mind.

If you've been around a while,
you likely know exactly what I'm talking about.
If not, you better go read it.

And after having read it again,
my sad heart is a little less sad to see him leave.

Or is it sadder?

It's a quandary in my soul.

bye bye, b {and friends}

Well, I didn't take very many pics over our long weekend.

I just enjoyed my house FULL of kids.
And the 458 loads of laundry.

Then tonight all the big ones left to go back to school.
I managed to not cry this time.
Well, until they were pulling out of the driveway.
Sigh.

Don't you love Nick's pose in the background?


And Little Miss Lucy was like velcro to Brenden all weekend.
She sure loves him so much.

But we get him back in two weeks!
All to ourselves...for FOUR weeks.

Yay!

back to normal

Here's another random post for you.

A potpourri of tid-bits, if you will.


My college kids left yesterday.
I was well prepared, or so I thought.
I felt kind of ready for them to leave...well, not so much them,
but all their stuff.

Anyway,
I was majorly sad.
I even cried.

"OH, Mom," Brenden said.

I adore these kids.
They are such godly young people with hearts bent on
serving the Lord.
And they are fun beyond measure.

It pleases me SO much that Brenden has such incredible discernment
on picking good friends.



So here's a pic of our last dinner.
I whipped up some Parmesan chicken.
They ooohed and ahhhed.
I'm gonna miss that.

Even with the leaf in the table we couldn't fit everyone...
(Eli is on the very end but you can't see him beside Nate. And Macy and
I were sitting at the grown-up table.)

*****************


Isaiah.

This kid is all boy.
And he's adjusting into our family so well.
But he still has anger management issues.
Nothing major...just meltdowns.

So anyway, we do time-in's, which work REALLY well for him.

And this is his usual time-in spot,
right by me as I'm doing laundry...

And the thing is...he loves it.
In fact, he wasn't even in trouble for these pics.
He just saw me doing laundry and wanted to sit in his spot.

All boy, I'm telling you.

And yes, we had him tattooed.
We're so cool that way.



Well, I need to get Eli off to school now.

Have a really great Wednesday!!

brenden's home!

As some of you already read on FB,
here is a recent conversation I had with Lucy regarding
Brenden coming home for the weekend:

Me,
"Lucy, when Brenden comes home this weekend, he's
bringing four or five friends with him!"

Lucy:
"What? No!! Mom, we already have enough kids!"

Me:
"Lucy, we aren't going to ADOPT them! They're just staying here
for a few days."

Lucy:
"OH! Okay!"

So here's a few pics from our first evening together...


Brenden isn't nearly as annoyed as he looks.
Really.

You know, somebody told my husband recently
to be prepared because when a kid goes off to college,
then comes back for a visit,
you'll be anxious for him to leave again because he will have
changed and you won't really like him being there.

Yes, someone really said that.

So, even though I couldn't possibly imagine me ever feeling that way,
I still braced myself for the fact that the time
Brenden has been away from home and on his own,
he might have changed a bit.

Well, he has changed.
He's even more adorable than ever before.
I'm so not kidding.

And he has THE BEST group of friends ever.

All through high school I kept waiting for the terrible teens to
strike and for him to be a snot that I would take pleasure in grounding
ever other weekend.

It never happened...

He had (has) THE best group of high school friends ever.

And now he has this amazing group of college friends.
(They are from Maryland, California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania)

I am so tickled, I can't even tell you.

Last night they got home at about 7:00 then left about
15 minutes later to go to a football game.

It was a sweet and SHORT initial reunion but I was okay with it...
and figured I wouldn't see them again until really late
last night.

Well, God bless the fact that college students have zero money
because they were back home by 9:00.

They hunkered down in the kitchen and let me feed them!
They were SOOOO appreciative of all the homemade goodness.

Fun, fun!

So that about wraps it up for the first night.
I get to keep them until Tuesday so I'm super excited!




Lucy, I'm so sorry...but we ARE going to adopt all of these kids after all.

a fun weekend ahead!

I'm sitting here with a couple minutes of computer time
while Lucy is coloring a math worksheet.
So I gotta make this quick!

First, I need to tell my mommy,

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!!

She's super cool.
And totally young.

By the way, Mom, you have some sweet birthday wishes
on your Facebook wall...if you can ever figure
out what your password is.

Bless your heart.


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


I woke up at 2:00 AM unable to get back to sleep
last night (this morning) because my mind was racing with all
that I have to do to prepare for this weekend!

My Brenden is coming home!!
And he's bringing this friend...

(oh dear)

AND he's also bringing 3-4 other friends.
GIRL friends.

Oh my.

So, I'm having fun figuring out what yummy meals & snacks

to fix all these hungry college students.



And now I need to get back to helping Lucy.

Then I'll kick my tired rear-end in gear to clean and cook!

today it happened...

This...

And this...

This...

And all this...

...can mean only one thing.

Today, it happened.

We took our baby boy to college today.

*Sniff sniff, boo-hoo, waah-waah-waah*
Repeat.
And repeat again.
And again.

I'm so happy and excited for him!

And I'm so sad for me.

No, he isn't going to OU.
He's just wearing that t-shirt to confuse you...and me.