Sushi + Starbucks = awesome girls night!

Oh, I love my friends. I really do. We have SO much fun and, after tonight, I am more determined to make an effort to get together with my friends on a regular basis.

It started with Ami joining me after she got off of work to accompany an after school football pick-up of the oldest boy. She also got to witness the sacred vacuuming of the family van when she arrived. Lucky girl.

Anyway, we were joined by the charming Jess and headed to our first stop - sushi! We indulged in five sushi rolls. We actually kind of devoured them -- embarassingly so. They were SO good!

From there, on to Starbucks. We met up with Louise and sat outside and laughed, laughed, laughed. We marveled over many life-altering subjects such as, why do we call everything we order at Starbucks a "Starbucks"? Is it because we can't remember what we actually ordered by the time someone asks us? What's wrong with asking random strangers for their autograph? And my biggest question; why does every situation in life have to be tied to an episode of Friends?

If you don't have friends with whom you can just laugh and be stupid, I would highly recommend you find some right away.

"Stevens is a cool freshman"

I have been putting my children on big, yellow school busses for several years now. Yeah, I teared up a little two years ago when I sent my youngest off to kindergarten, but normally they (and I) are ready for school to start back up.

Today was different though...

Today I sent my child off to high school.

Yeah. High school.

I know I'm not the only parent in the United States that sent their oldest child off the high school for the first time this morning. It has happened for years past and will continue for years to come. It's just so... weird. I mean, I remember high school. It wasn't that long ago. (OK, maybe it was :-) I've been kind of building up to it all summer, but it's starting to hit me. He's in high school.

One thing we for which we are SO thankful is the high school that Josh has the privilege of attending. Eastern Technical High School is strictly a magnet school; there is no district -- it is by application and qualification only. Only one of every three students that applies is admitted and it is one of the best public high schools in the area. Students get to chose an area of study as well. Josh has chosen multimedia communications - computer stuff, video editing, etc. It's stuff he likes (and I figure you might as well study stuff you like since you have to be in high school anyway) What a blessing that Josh has this opportunity!

Actually, if I may brag on him for a second... Josh has been weightlifting a good part of the summer to get ready for football. Then, he's been doing two-a-days (8-11, 1-4) since August 16th. After 13 JV players were cut, Josh not only remained on the team, but also made 1st string offensive and 2nd string defensive.

He's also learning wonderful lessons about seniority and hierarchy. He's been with just freshman and sophomores (the JV team) during football preparation and has seen how cocky, mouthy freshman tend to get food thrown at them and mildly harassed. He's kept his mouth shut and worked hard. Slowly but surely, he's starting to make some friends, some of them sophomores. The other day, one sophomore was asking another why he was talking to Josh, a freshman. This kid's reply? "Stevens is a cool freshman."

Ha. Stevens is a cool freshman. Yesssss. I knew it!

More than two hours after Josh got on the bus, it was time for Micah and Jacob to do the same. They are starting fourth and second grade, respectively. They were both excited about starting school, though both said their tummies hurt a little!

So the house is quiet - just Tucker and me - and I'm not going to lie -- I'm loving it! My lesson schedule doesn't swing into full gear (about 20 hours) until next week (I'm in my last week of my August schedule -- only about a dozen or so lessons). I have an opportunity to get on top of things this week, organizationally speaking. I'm hoping to make the most of my time, while also snatching some time with friends here and there.

Ah. The change of seasons and times. It's good.

Let's call the whole thing off.

Growing up, I never cared much for tomatoes. In fact, I disliked them quite a bit.

Well, I just finished eating a tomato for lunch. Just a tomato. No salt or pepper. No nothing.

I think it all began to change when I realized that there are two kinds of tomatoes: the ones you buy in the grocery store and the ones you get out of friends' gardens. The first are watery and not appealing at all. The latter --- mmmmmm, buddy!

I probably discovered this years ago when we had our first garden in Ohio. Since coming to Baltimore, we haven't again gardened ourselves but fortunately have plenty of friends that do!

The tomato I just consumed was red and sweet and... well... quite wonderful.

Don't you just love late summer? Viva la tomatoes!!

Grrrrrrrr

If anyone actually did their chores without being asked or even did them thoroughly the first time, I think I would fall over in a dead faint.

Seriously.

How did it get to be mid-August?

Wow.

Hi.

Remember me?

I know I'm in big trouble with some of you who have been checking in regularly (thank you for doing that by the way) and finding nothing. Nevertheless, here I am! Da ta da!

As always, the easiest way to catch up is in bullets.. and backwards, I guess. So here I go:

• Matt and Josh left for church camp on Sunday. I'm excited for the experience for both of them -- Josh especially. I've been holding down the fort with visitors and a delicate balance between busyness and laziness! I started back to part-time lessons last week, all the while working hard to fill my fall schedule.
• My parents also left to go home on Sunday. Mom was here for a whole week and Dad drove in just this past Friday. We really had a nice time. And the weather, oh, the WEATHER has been GORGEOUS! I don't ever remember August being so non-humid and nice :-)
• While my mom was here, we observed the third anniversary of Caleb's homegoing. It was a weird day, as it always is in some form. We kept the day pretty loose and mentally observed our own individual ways. We did go out to lunch and then on to the cemetery with flowers. Sorry I didn't do my usual reflective and lengthy blog. It certainly doesn't change the fact that it's still a difficult day and I still miss my boy...
  
• The day my mom flew in, Matt and I arrived home from two full days away to celebrate our anniversary -- 16 years. We usually only go out for dinner or at the very most, away for one night and home the next morning. But this year, we had the time in our schedule and the responsibility of our 14-year-old to hold down the fort and were really able to get away. We drove to Wildwood, New Jersey (on the Jersey shore) and stayed in a charming little bed and breakfast. We had a whole little cottage to ourselves. It was really a couple of days like no other. We had no schedule or obligations, went to restaurants, walked along to boardwalk, drove around Wildwood and Cape May and, the highlight for me, walked on the beach in the moonlight (Matt even made a sand angel!). I can't even begin to explain how wonderfully relaxing it was and how badly we needed it!
• About 10 days prior to our little getaway, we returned home from a concentrated month of Chain Reaction. We started in late June with our intern, Jess, arriving from Massachusetts. A few days later, Matt's mom and sister, Allayne, arrived for a week's visit as well. We were busy in our training and preparation for our first week: Baltimore. On a personal level, I was particularly excited about the Baltimore week. Not only was there a group coming from Howard county and another from a Mennonite church in Ohio, but there was a group coming from Trinity Baptist Church in Marion, OH; the church in which I grew up. Three of their leaders were people I had literally known since I was a child; two I grew up with in church and the other was my best friend in elementary school who lived down the street! Also serving as an adult leader was a woman whom I met and became friends with at a Women of Faith event last year. Not only was the week wonderful in hanging out with these old friends, but the true highlight was in the group itself. They came with such an amazing attitude to serve! They worked so hard and were truly open at the same time for God to do things IN them as well as THROUGH them. The rest of the teams were incredible too. Matt and I felt it was one of the best Chain Reaction weeks we've had to date. From there, we went to New York City to be a part of Abounding Grace Church's annual outreach -- Jesus Loves You New York. We got the opportunity to work with teams from Maryland, Minnesota and Florida. It was a hot, but good week. From there, we headed to our last leg: Haverhill, MA. We kidnapped one of the young adults from NYC, Frankie, and took him with us. This was the first year we went to the Boston area with no real service assignment, which was strange for us. We took a few days to be with the beloved Yeo family and to celebrate Micah's 9th birthday. We explored some parts of the area to which we had not yet been including a New Hampshire beach, Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine. We headed home from there sans our intern and via New York to return Frankie. We drove through a pretty nasty rain storm to come home, but were so glad to be back!

That's it in a very large nutshell. If you read the whole thing, I'll buy you a Starbucks or something!

School starts a week from this coming Monday. Hard to believe, yet true. I think the boys are ready to go back. Josh is both nervous and excited about starting high school. He's been working hard to get ready for football -- weight training since early June and starting two-a-days this coming Saturday.

OK. I'm going to finish watching tonight's installment of the Olympics and head off to bed. It's good to be back among the blogging. Big blessings to you as always...