Halloween 2012

 

 Our house. In the middle of Day Lily Way...looking all spooky and ready for Halloween!

Carving pumpkins!

Kitty Pumpkin by Ryan

 

Ninja Pumpkin by Kevin

 

Tux the Linux Penguin by Jared

 

 My little urchins. Kevin-the dead rat. Ryan-the vampire. Jared-Dr. Who

Hannah, Sam and Jared went out together this year. Hannah was an 80's gal, Sam was Darth Helmet and Jared was weird. Ahem, just kidding-he was Dr. Who. The 10th doctor I think...

 

This is Ryan's sad face since she has to trick-or-treat wearing her boot :( She was slow but she got tons of candy with this pathetic face ;)

Ryan's "Fall"

What do you call a girl who can't get out of her own way? Ryan Homer. This poor girl started off October with an iffy score on her eye exam at the school. Since I am one of the testers I get the results in real time and can make an eye appointment before I get the letter coming home from the school nurse saying she needs to go get checked out. This happened with Kevin and it happened with Ryan in October. She did need to get glasses but not for nearsightedness like the rest of the family. She has trouble reading things up close so studying can be hard for her. She basically got reading glasses and we were back to school by recess time. 

 Looking super cute and very PINK today :D

 Nice glasses Ryan

Less than a week later she was opening the freezer to get out her breakfast. A brand new, HUGE, can of nuts from BJ's fell off the top of the fridge and broke her foot. Ask Jared about it sometime. Basically she had what was called a "healing fracture", a deep tissue injury. She would be out of the water for about a month. Two swim meets will be missed and she was one grumpy guppy. The good news was that we had the realization that she really, I mean REALLY loves to swim. If she was that upset about having to miss a few weeks, then that is where she belongs. Some kids might have said, "yay! I don't have practice for a while and I can skip two meets", but let me tell you...the poor kid felt like she was being punished. It was awful. Not to mention she had to go trick or treating with that thing on. That's another entry though. At least her brother was REALLY nice to her for a couple weeks. :D

The following week we had yet another doctor appointment. This time we had her 5 year cardiologist followup. She had an EEG and an EKG and everything looks good. She still has the VSD and the murmur can still be heard by her pediatrician but she is released from the cardiologist. At least one thing went well and she could finally get back into a routine at school without having to leave for doctors appointments!

Kell Football 2012

 This year was Kevin's 4th season with the Kell Longhorns. He advanced from the youth to the juniors since he is in middle school. They sure do grow boys big these days!! Kevin was able to play starting center again this year. Something he really loves and is pretty good at. He could always use a little improvement, but that's what the off season is for. :D Their team did not do so well, I think they were 2-8? Not a stellar record but they learned quite a bit.

 This is a pic of my boy after they got pummeled by the Sequoya team in October. Still smiling, WTG Bu :D

 "Before" shot of his helmet. Apparently it is a B.I.G deal for him to look at all his marks. He earned every one of those gashes, dings and splotches.

 It's always a sad day when we have to turn the equipment back in. I promise it was just June and we were getting all our gear and getting so excited for another great year. The "After" shot of his helmet erases all of the hard fought battle scars. Sorry Kev. :(

Win or Lose, Good or Bad, it was another awesome season for Rob and Kevin on the fields. 

I LOVE my Longhorns!!

Hook 'em!!

This was one Saturday afternoon in September. My folks came into town to celebrate our anniversary.  What does a football player like to eat? ANYTHING! Especially a piece of pizza bigger then your head!

Pumpkin Patch 2012

 We decided to hit a corn maze this year. My folks and my brother were in town and they decided it would be fun to go with us. We had a beautiful fall day and a great time getting lost in the corn. :D

 Ryan took the lead for team Gran/Grandfather/Uncle Ricky and Mom. Daddy and the brothers were long gone...

 pretty :D

 Corn Cannon!

 Kevin took aim. I think he hit the car in the field.

Jared's shot.

Before you know it we will be putting up the Christmas tree ;)

Homerhouse Flood 2012

It was a beautiful fall day. I was out in Villa Rica with my ladies tennis team for an afternoon of fun. I didn't have to rush home to get Ryan off the bus since she had robotics practice on Thursdays. Sounds nice, right? It was the perfect morning/afternoon. I walked into the house and heard a whooshing sound like the sink was on in the basement. Hmmm :/ I immediately thought how nice it was that the boys did their chores before school. Since I had to leave for tennis before they caught the bus my mind went to them doing the downstairs litter boxes and they left the sink running in the basement. Well 1)-they don't do any chores unless I ask and 2)- they always wash their hands upstairs after throwing the trash in the dumpster in the garage. As I went doan the stairs I got a worsening sense of dread. I came around the corner and was greeted with water at my feet. Not good. My next train of thought went to the new dishwasher that Rob and I had installed on our own a few weeks prior. I envisioned that we hadn't tightened something down right and now had a leak. Nope, not the problem. I noticed the top of the hot water heater was spewing like a lawn sprinkler. Found the culprit. :( Now my mind begins racing to get this fixed, cleaned up and done. Could I just fast forward 12 hours?  I knew I was in for a long afternoon/evening.

I called my in laws, I needed help quick since Rob was out of the country. Rob's God parents, Myra and Darryl, showed up first. They came bearing shop vacs and we all got to work. Barb got Ryan from school and things were moving along quite nicely. I got all my brother's boxes moved out of the danger zone and cleared out all of the debris. The repair man came by around 9 pm and we had a plan. Rob called about 3am his time to touch base after my initial panic call. He put a call into his buddy Charles and he would be by in the morning. I cancelled the guy from the first company and by 11 am the next day I was FINALLY getting my hot shower that was due after my tennis match the day before. I literally time warped 24 hours, it was a bizarre experience that I really could have done with out. 

 

 

Between the leaky upstairs toilet, the dishwasher install with Rob (we are still happily married-thank you very much) and the hot water heater I jump anytime I hear water running. That reminds me...did I tell you the one about the ice maker that went haywire before school one morning shortly after our hot water heater burst?  Oh, yeah. That's a good campfire story as well...

Tri for Tourettes 2012

This year we only had one Homer that wanted to do the Tri for Tourettes.  I was very excited as the funds this time went to my friend Brad Cohen's camp Twitch and Shout. The excitement started when Gran and Grandfather were bringing the bike to us from the lake.  A bike tire blew in the back seat while they were driving and we had to get that fixed. Never thought to just fix the other one too while we were at it.

Jared was one of the older kids there so he was the 2nd one in the water. He got out of the water 1st and ran up the hill to transition. He was about the 10th one out of the transition and onto the bike course. We need to work on that. :) My mom was there to help me cheer him on. We waited for him to come around the corner so we could ring our cow bells. We kept waiting. And waiting. I started to worry that the other tire blew. We waited some more. He FINALLY came around the corner and said he wiped out. I told him he was fine and to keep going. He came by for the run and said "it's really bad, I wiped out REALLY bad"...again I told him he was fine and cheered him on the the finish line. As I pondered how bad he was hurt (he looked fine and he was talking, that's good, right?) I also was amazed at his determination to finish the race. He came across that line and I was so proud. SO proud of that boy. Some days he makes me bananas but that afternoon I was hoping I could be like him when I grow up. Then I saw the damage. He was bleeding from the mouth-a busted lip. To me it looked like his tooth was cracked as well, time will tell on that. His chin was bruised from the helmet strap. His elbows were torn up. His knees were shredded. And his ankle..well, lets just say the wound was so deep it wasn't bleeding. He will have that scar so long that his kids will ask him how he got it. Yeah, it was bad. If you thought I was proud of him before...Jared, buddy, that day you were my hero. You got back on that stupid bike and you finished. Most days I wonder what on earth you are thinking but that day you never gave up. Way to go, I am so proud of you!!

Labor Day 2012

Hanging at the lake, nothing better than a summer day on the water!!

Unless you want to go hang out an fire a few rounds at the gun club :D

Great relaxing weekend! 

2nd Annual GSLC Bake Off

 This is the second year that Ryan and Kevin have gone head to head in the GSLC Fall Bake Off to benefit the youth group. This year they both had a title to defend. :)

 

Kevin won last year for taste with his "Water into Wild Berry Pie", this year he took an entry called

 "Kevin's Cherry 3.14". He did not win for either category but I LOVED his pie, super yummy as always! Too bad people didn't get the 3.14 part...boo.

Ryan won last year for taste with her "WWJD?...Eat my cake!" If you recall it was a box cake made with tons 'o love. This year she decided to stick with what worked last year.  Her "Bless Your Heart Chocolate Cake" took best taste the 4-9 year old division! Next year she will be cooking with the big kids, let's see if she can pull off a hat trick. :D

Sadly for the second year in a row, all I took home was my left overs. I decided to go with brownies since everyone likes them. I made a double batch of box brownies but I put a layer in the middle of chocolate bars...I guess they were ok, I didn't eat them. All I heard as Rob was choking down a gallon of milk was that they were very rich. That's a good thing with chocolate, right?!?!

1st day of school 2012

How on earth did time go so fast?  The more I try to slow it down, the faster it seems to go. Not fair. I LOVE hanging out with my kids in the summer. I am.not. ready for them to go back to school and leave me all alone. 

See? I'm not ready. Not.Ready. How can I have an 8th, 6th and 4th grader in the house??? Oh my, next year starts high school.
EEEKKKK Run away!

Since it is inevitable, I hope the kids have the best year yet!
 I know that Ryan is over the moon because she got the teacher she wanted.
She is also sad because this is the first time she will be ALL alone, no brothers in the school.
I know Kevin is worried about getting where he needs to be on time and locker nightmares have started.
 I know that Jared is over it and is ready to be top dog in the school.
 I am not sure what will transpire over the next 180 wake ups, but I DO know that each time that alarm goes off we are one day closer to summer 2013! :D

Summertime fun!

 It's always hard to say goodbye to summer. We love hanging out with our friends at the pool, lazy wake ups and great family time. This year was one of the best summers I can remember and it went by way too fast as always!

 Kevin doing push ups under water

 Jared-you rock ;)

 Gretchen and Ryan, the under water mermaid queens :D

 My little fishy

Jared and Hannah chilling out while the littles play. It was nice to hang with our Mabrey peeps this summer. It is so difficult during the year to squeeze in quality time. Being at different schools can make it hard to see each other during the year. No one is ready for school to start!