Bronco Stampede 2025

Bronco Stampede 2025! I have been really looking forward to this day!!! It's the only school event both kids will get to participate in! And it was Jackie's first official XC race for Evans! Derek and Ellis had to be there early, Ellis just because the team gets there early and Derek was there to work the parking lot. He's doing well, just can't really run around too much. 

It was a cool rainy morning. There was a light rain for the first few hours we were there. Ellis ran around 7:30. He had a PR and ran 18:07. So close to breaking 18 minutes. We are rooting for him and hoping he can hit that goal this season. He was 18th out of 180 kids in the varsity division and qualified to go to the meet in Austin in two weeks. 

Then it was Jackie's turn, she was actually the last event of the day! She didn't run until 10:30, so it was a lot of hanging around after Ellis ran. Not very often you need a sweatshirt at a XC race! She has some really sweet friends on her team! 

Jackie did great! She got 6th place out of 230 girls and her team got 3rd! Thanks to her and her friend Riley for coming in 5th and 6th. Her time was 11:17. She had a side cramp for over half the race and ran with her arms on her hips, which her coach afterwards told her not to do again, ha!! She was really proud. She told me after the race her goal was top 5, which honestly is kind of crazy given how many girls there are. I thought she did pretty great for even being in the top 20. We saw lots of friends who go to different schools at the meet too and that was fun. 

This morning was just so much fun and it was so neat getting to watch both of them run on the same day!

Mary Poppins JR - Fall School Show

 After a week of auditions, Jackie finally found out she will be Jane in Mary Poppins Jr at school! She is so excited! Overall, this was her 20th show to audition for and it's only the 4th time she has gotten the role she wanted. I was so relieved for her! 

Derek's Back Surgery

 Derek had back surgery on Wednesday. He had a 360-degree fusion and they removed a disc. He's been having a lot of lower back and nerve pain for awhile and it was finally time to fix it. The surgery was about 4 hours long. Pretty much right after he woke up he said the pain down his leg was gone. That afternoon they had him up and walking, and he got to use a walker too! I stayed at the hospital until about 9:00 pm and headed home.

 I walked into a water leak in our garage from an overflow AC pipe. Awesome. The next morning Derek called and said the doctor wanted him to stay overnight another night, which ended up being a good thing so that I could take care of the pipe issue. I stayed at home all day Thursday to wait for the AC guy only for him to arrive and tell me it was a plumber I needed. The plumber couldn't come out until Monday, so I went to youtube and figured out how to siphon out the water and redirect it past the garage. Yay me.

Friday afternoon he was released so I picked him up. He seems to be doing pretty well! 

Moms Connection 35th Anniversay

Tonight I went to the 35th Anniversary of Moms Connection at Chase Oaks. I was part of this group for about three years, starting after I met my friend Lauren, who first invited me. I can’t quite remember if it was fall 2009 or spring 2010 when I began (apparently I didn’t document it on the blog as well as I thought!). It was such a fun evening of reconnecting. Lauren and I met for dinner first, then headed to the church. Back when we attended, our group had so many playdates and get-togethers outside of the regular meetings. One of the women even reminded me that I once hosted a Christmas party at my house. I had completely forgotten until she mentioned it! If I’m remembering right, I stopped going after Jackie was born, and then later joined the group at our current church for a year or two. Looking back, it was such a sweet season of life and so good for me. Hard to believe it was over 15 years ago!

Night XC Race

 Tonight was the night XC meet. Thomas Valles was there, he was one of the main runners whom the movie MacFarland USA was based on. He was very nice and it was nice to talk with him about the movie and his story. He told us it was difficult to watch it when it came out because all of it was true. 

First Day of 11th and 7th

 First day of 11th and 7th grade!!! Ellis was out the door early. They didn't have XC before school, but he still wanted to beat all the traffic, so he left at 6:15. He did have to run an hour when he got home though....and had homework on day one. He had the same math teacher the last two years, and she was not our favorite; she didn't teach very well. He has a new math teacher this year but turns out she actually taught his old teacher 7th grade math! This is her first year to teach calculus so we are hoping that will mean she will actually have to teach it. It's going to be a tough load for Ellis this year, so really praying we can find a way to help him manage it all. He is taking choir again this year, so that should be fun for him. 

Jackie had a good first day. This year she has several friends in her classes, last year she didn't have many. And this year they can finally sit wherever they want at lunch, so she is thrilled about that. Math is her favorite class and her teacher will also be her tennis coach if she makes the team. Her English teacher was Ellis' teacher 6-8th grade so we know her pretty well. She is also taking choir and theater. 

End of Summer

Well, summer has come to an end. It was a really good summer. Ellis was out of town for a total of 5 weeks, but we still were able to get in 30 hours of volunteer service. Jackie was gone for 4 weeks, but was still able to get in two day camps (tennis and improv) and a few sleepovers with friends, and she also got 8 volunteer hours. I'm really not ready for the new school year. I already feel senior year is getting way too close, and I know this junior year is going to be really difficult for Ellis. I'm praying it won't be too overwhelming and stressful....but if it is, we'll find a good way to manage it. Ellis actually had their first official cross country meet of the season on Saturday. Last week, they had a scrimmage with the McKinney schools. Jackie sang at the MISD convocation on Friday, so she had rehearsal on Wednesday. So a few school things before the official end of summer.

New Car

 Well, it was finally time to say goodbye to the van. We put it off as long as possible and I'm think we are lucky we got the last two years out of it! (In 2012 the engine they used was bad, otherwise I bet I could have gotten a few more years out of it!) My goal was to get through the elementary years, so I guess mission accomplished. There is no denying a minivan is the most convenient car when you have kids, unless you have experienced the joy of sliding doors you just don't get it!! I would be in my car and driving away while my friends were still getting their kids into their cars. It makes parking next to another car and getting out way easier too and the space inside is so efficiently laid out. It's not bulky like a big suburban yet has all the space. All that to say, it's very hard to get rid of van because of all those features! If our kids were still little, I would hands down get another one, but it's pretty rare these days when I have both kids in the car with me, so needing all that extra space and seats isn't as necessary. The last 6 months, the engine had been acting up and it really started to sound like the A/C would give out anytime, so it was time. We had our choices narrowed down and on Saturday Derek and I went and test drove a few cars (Atlas, Pilot, and Cherokee). I don't love 100% of any of them, but I liked the Atlas the most. We left because I wasn't buying anything that day. But Derek went back up to the dealership Saturday evening to ask a few more questions and look at a specific one he saw online after we left. I totally wanted another silver car, I just really like silver cars, but I was out voted on another silver car, plus we couldn't find one that had everything we wanted. Derek sent a few pictures from the dealership of a car he found, the sales guy said he could take it home that day, but Derek said no, he would have to wait until Monday. Well then he brought it home Monday and the seats were a lot darker than the looked in the picture. I could get used to the outside color, but not the inside. Ellis and I had meals on wheels deliveries on Tuesday and I didn't want to get the car filled with food smell (it honestly usually stinks) so I didn't take the new car and didn't really drive it until Tuesday night. It was then I was thinking I might really regret not buying the higher technology package and I really didn't like the dark inside. Wednesday morning I looked at the dealership website and saw a car I wanted to ask about so I called the sales guy. Unfortunately, that car had a bench for the middle seat, BUT then he said, "hang on it looks like we might have what you want", he was thinking it was in another city, however it was actually there in McKinney. He said I was still in my window to change it if I wanted, but I had to make a pretty quick decision. It didn't have any pictures online because it had just been delivered Tuesday afternoon. Jackie and I went up to look at it and we liked it SO much better! Called Derek and told him I wanted to trade it. I really think I would have regretted getting those darker seats. And a few of my friends have the 360 camera and they love it. I waited 13 years for a new year I felt like we should get what we wanted. Derek actually likes this car better too. So all good!! I do really like it, it will just take some getting used to. I went back and read my post after we bought the van and it's pretty funny because I talked about how high tech it was....and we did not buy the higher technology package at the time, so it really had nothing...but he DID have the DVD player and CD player. 

On Monday Jackie and I had several errands to run that day, so had some "van time". We absolutely teared up when Derek drove it off that nigh. It does seem silly to be sad about a car, but we had so many good memories in that car!! It was a dream come true for me to be a "minivan mom" with two little kids in the back. It dropped Ellis off at school for his first day of preschool, brought Jackie home from the hospital, 10 years of elementary drop offs, 4 years of middle school drop offs and went through lots of states and road trips!!  What I like the most is how much our kids appreciate things. It's one thing for your kids to get to do things or have things; that's all fine and good, but if they don't appreciate them, that's where there is an issue and I truly feel like my kids appreciate what we have.