BJ's soccer last week (he's in gold)

One for the other team!

One for us! Notice BJ has two team members he can pass to, and his coach is on the sidelines telling him, "BJ, there are Tristan and Dante, pass it to one of your teammates," and BJ strategically kicks the ball IN TO HIMSELF for a breakaway!!! His motto, "whatever it takes!" Just kidding!

Beatrix Potter

As the boys are tucked under their many covers tonight, they are listening to this wonderful collection of Beatrix Potter books on tape that we checked out from the public library a couple of weeks ago. BJ just LOVES them so much, esp. the Tale of Peter Rabbit. I thought I might tell my family about this tonight, just b/c it these stories always take me back to childhood when we read these same stories. They are so good! BJ likes to be tucked in, covers up to his ears, snuggled next to his monkey, black puppy, and Pooh bear, and THEN he's ready for me to push "play". Sadly, we have to turn them back in tomorrow. We'll probably check them out again on Friday though. We've done that twice now. Ha ha.

Also, Aunt Bess, wanted to let you know that BJ has become the master of the memory game (candy style) that you gave CJ so many years ago. He beat me tonight, fair and square, by one pair. He wants to play every day, and man those candies look good:)

Halloween Puppets

12 mile run today!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so delighted to share two new records with you. First of all, today I ran 12 miles, without stopping, for the first time in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!

I attribute this success to one of Rick's Charlene Blassingame Del Ray Woods cookies and a small bagel. I usually do not eat before I run, since I go so early in the morning. But with the temps below 32 again this morning, you better believe I waited until 9AM for rec center to open up. I had time to eat before running today, so I thought I'd do a little science experiment to see how the carbs before running might affect the run. It was fantastic!

With the quantitative research class I'm taking, I should be able to identify what the independent variable and the dependent variable are in this treatment program!!! But I can't tell you!!! I always get those two variables mixed up.

Man did I feel good leaving the gym!

And so, that brings my weekly run mileage to a new personal record as well: 42 miles

S- rest
M- 7 miles
T- 5.5 miles
W- 7 miles
Th- 4.25 (not bad considering I had a 7:30 meeting that morning!)
F- 6.25 miles
S- 12 miles

Now of course I'm sitting in the red chair with my legs propped up on the footstool and drinking some hot cinnamon tea in the Flavia mug that mimo gave me a while ago. I love this mug.

who is that big kid on the field?

I know it's a bit small, but CJ is wearing all black. He passes to his buddy Caleb, who in turn passes it back to CJ and into the goal. It was a great play!

The other video you'll notice all these sweet kids who love to play with Rick after the games. Tonight they played for about 15 minutes after the game was over. So funny.

bikini bread

A friend of ours gave us a loaf of chocolate chip zuccini bread a month ago, which both boys ate up in one night and since then BJ has called it "Bikini Bread." Every weekend since (three times) BJ, CJ and I have made banana bread. Last weekend we tried pumpkin bread. BJ calls all of them "Bikini Bread."

In this picture you see BJ eating some of the "bikini" bread out front while waiting for our wonderful babysitter to arrive. She is a junior at the university, secondary ed major with biology specialization. The boys just LOVE her and we are so fortunate b/c she is willing to take them both to CJ's soccer games on Monday nights when Rick and I are in class. I happened to work with her all summer, which was a stroke of pure luck for our family.

I came home from school one night to find lego ships all over our bathroom. The boys were SO proud of their creations and apparently had done experiments with our babysitter to find out which ones sink/float best...

BJ's soccer game

Last week was SUCH a busy week. Unfortunately I have class on Monday nights, so I missed CJ's game that night. I'll have to take some pics this week at his game for everyone. CJ scored 7 goals at his Wednesday night game and BJ finished his Thursday game with at least 8 goals (a few for our team, and few for the other team too!). They are loving soccer and so are we.