Waiting for the Bus...

On a cool fall morning, my sweet boy played outside while waiting for the bus:


I love watching him, he has such a great imagination!

Go Titans....

Our lil friend Max is playing for the TN Titans and we were very excited to go watch him play:

Best buds! (and they're the same age, Alex is only 1 month older!)

Blog your heart challenge...

The fabulous Stephanie Howell is a blog from the heart blogger. She's inspiring, not only as a mom, but a wife and she's real, honest and hilarious too. She put a challenge on her blog today, to tell what's on your heart. I'm hesitant to do this because everything that I thought of sounded so whiney and complaining, but I'm going to have a go (don't feel obligated to read, I'm just recording my feelings to hopefully look back on later when things are looking up!).

1. Alex is doing great in school, I'm so proud of him. There are still bumps, like the other day in his mainstream class when everyone partnered up and he was the only one without a partner. Broke. My. Heart. to hear him tell me about it. I wonder is this because of his disabilities or that's just how it ended up? I want to always protect him, but he needs to be independent. I need to let things roll. He'll be fine, right?

2. I've applied for every position in 4 school districts and have NOTHING. It's getting to the point of ridiculousness, I feel like I'm starting to look desperate to the HR departments, I've got that many applications in.

3. I love our church more every time we are there! I was talking with parents of a student that is in Alex's A+ class at school and they feel the same way about Berean - everyone in the church accepts our sons just as they are and they LOVE them. Have had some thoughts that we might need to look for a different church because of "others" coming to our church, with "their new family", but know that "they" come for Alex and do not care that I am at our church for every event, class and volunteer opportunity. It's God's house, not mine and everyone is welcome. I love the church, I don't have to love everyone in it, so we're staying because our church is our sanctuary - it's our only constant in MN.

4. On that note, MN...ugh still don't like being here and we're going on 4 years. Still have one friend. ONE! Of course she's from Iowa and has no family here, so we're each other's local family. Everyone here is "MN nice" - they chat with you, but don't invite you into their lives. They have lived here all their lives, made all their friends in kindergarten and when they're not hanging out with their life-long friends, they're with their huge extended family. I have many nice acquaintances. In my heart, MN is not where we belong.

5. I miss my family.

6. Haley will be 20 this month and more than anything I want to be able to hug her on her birthday - hate being so far away.

7. I cannot do anything on time and cannot stand it. I buy gifts well in advance, but am weeks late sending them. Why? I have NO good reason.

8. No matter how heavy my heart feels, Alex makes me smile. He's the sweetest, funniest boy ever!!

Okay, that took two cups of coffee and many tears to write. I guess it's good therapy! Thank you Stephanie for the challenge!

Friday Night Football..

I had two cute lil dates and needed something fun to do with them, so we headed out for a high school football game!

Our Lakeville Cougars were playing the Eastview Lightning.
Here come the Cougars:


Cougars scoring another touchdown:

Alex and Max liked watching the game, but I think they enjoyed the treats from the concession stand a little more:

It was fun, but we left in the 3rd quarter since it was getting late and we were all getting tired. Alex and I want to catch a few more games before it gets too cold to enjoy them.