RIP Stewart

 Reed told me I was being "disrespectful" to Stewart because I didn't post a blog about his passing.

Stewart, the escape artist hamster, passed away peacefully in his sleep last week. Reed told me "I think Stewart died, or he escaped again, he didn't eat dinner."  Not that I was happy Stewart died, but I certainly was happy he wasn't on the loose in my closet for the 3rd time. 

Kyle and Reed buried Stewart in the backyard and had a funeral for him, which I didn't attend, but heard it was a lovely service in which Amazing Grace was played. 

RIP, Stewart.  Nobody could give side eye like you.

I Know Him

 I don't tweet, but yesterday I was scrolling through twitter looking for updates on important things like housewives and 90-day finance.  I saw a tweet from our school district and thought I noticed someone familiar.

And wouldn't you know it, there was Kyle.  

Because of course he would be the one petting a lamb at the ag barn.

16 Minutes of "Fun"

 So while I was at Motley Crue, Reed was at the cross country meet.  Jason was texting me the play-by-play which doesn't take very long when it's a race instead of a game.

If fact, from start to finish it was only 16:01 minutes of texting since that's what his 4K (2.5 miles) time was.

With 59 kids in the race, I actually answered "that's pretty good" when the first text came in "he's in 15th" with this picture.

Then I got "moved up to 7th".

The next one was "Reed 5th, almost finished"

I was thrilled with that, so I was really excited when Jason said "finished 4th, they did crazy good."

Here he is with our very early morning carpool buddy.  4th and 3rd place. 

My 80's Favs

 Waaaay back in 2019 we bought (really good) tickets to see my favorite middle school bands, Poison, Def Leppard, and Motley Crue.

The shows were cancelled twice and when they announced that the new show would be in August of 2022, we gave up our tickets not knowing when JR's move in would be.

After we found out the move-in date wouldn't be a conflict, I kept hinting to Jason that I wanted to go.  I even went so far as to tell JR, "Tell your dad I'm really sad about you going to college and that you think it would cheer me up if he got me Motley Crue tickets."

While we were in New Orleans I got a text from a friend asking if I was going. I told her how sad I was I wasn't, and she just so happened to have an extra ticket because the girl she was going to go with wanted to go to see her son play in the 1st football scrimmage of the year.

I immediately jumped on the ticket, even though Reed had a cross country meet because the odds of me getting to see Reed in another cross country meet are way higher than all the members of these bands staying alive and/or being healthy enough to tour again! 

It was everything I wanted it to be, and here's my run-down.

The show started at 4:30 in the afternoon! 

Joan Jett opened and sounds exactly the same. At 63 she looks amazing. I mean, look at those arms!

Overall Poison sounded the best and looked the best.  Bret Michaels hasn't changed a bit!

The same can't be said for Motley Crue.  We couldn't help but giggle at Vince Neil.  I'm not sure he's even singing words, I think he's just making noises in tune. When he put on an Astros jersey we really had to laugh.  But, we loved every second of it. Apparently, Tommy Lee was the youngest person on stage the whole night at 58...he was banging on the drums like a crazy person.  He's still got it. 

Def Leppard looked pretty good, just older, but they sounded exactly the same!

It was a late night for all us old people, with the concert ending after 11:00! 

Another First

 Jason and I didn't rush home from Oxford.  

We knew we weren't going to be able to leave until after 2:00, so we decided that instead of rolling in at midnight, we'd stop off in New Orleans and spend the night.

We didn't get there until about 7:30, and we were much more tired than we had anticipated.  But we did have dinner at The Court of Two Sisters.  It was definitely the calmest night either of us has ever had in New Orleans!

We always try to get beignets at Cafe Du Monde for breakfast, but the line is always too long, and we've never been able to get a table to sit and eat.

Not only did we walk right up and order, we got a table! A first for us, for sure! 

Our first table experience!

We got home around 5, and were excited to hear all about the boys first 2 days of school. 

First Day of Starting Over

 While we were moving JR in, Granny Sherry was back home getting these two off for the first day of high school.  We're starting over the high school process.

Reed gets up at 5:30 to be running at 6:15 (not be at school at 6:15, the running starts at 6:15). Kyle gets to school only to board a bus and shuttle over to the ag barn where he spends his 1st two periods. Actually, Kyle spends most of the day on a bus since he takes a different bus to the natatorium for his last period.

So though they are both freshmen, they aren't taking any of the same classes and don't ride to or from school together. 

Here's their first day of high school picture (but after school).

Moved In

 Well, we can check move in off the list.

Of course JR wanted a "penthouse" room, which means move-in was not so fun waiting in line for the elevators. So I climbed the 11 floors with 2 guitars strapped to me and my purse.  (Jason also climbed the 11 floors and JR did it twice.)

We'd eaten this awesomeness for breakfast, so it was probably best we were forced to climb some of it off.  

I got busy making up the bed (the only time it will ever be made for the rest of the time he lives there) and decorating the room.

 Jason organized his closet.

I would like to point out that he's wearing a t-shirt Jason bought for Sherry at Woodstock in 1994 and a Hard Rock Cafe hat Jason bought me in Japan in 2000. 

All set.  

And here he is with his roommate.

We were in and out in about an hour and half.  

Boys are easy! 

Bags are Packed

 I'm coming to you this morning from Oxford, it's move-in day!

We got the car loaded up yesterday morning and had room for more.

JR had one last picture made with his favorite person.  She is going to miss him so much.

And with his brothers (I promise I try and make them eat)

He was 5 in the inset picture. 

We dropped him off at his dorm (his roommate is already there), so Jason and I went out (with all the other parents in town). 

We have 12:30 move-in time, and we are ready!

The First

 We had lots of firsts this morning.

It was Reed's first cross country meet of high school, and our first high school sporting event with a competitor...and school hasn't even started yet! 

Reed left the house at 5:30 this morning, but didn't run until 9:30.

I liked how each team had tents to hang out in until it was their race time.

Jason and I hanging at our first meet.

Pre Race

On his workout days, he's been done running for almost 2 hours by 9:30, so it was definitely hotter than he's used to.  Reed also said the course was pretty hard, and we've actually had some rain this week, so it was muddy too. 

He ran in the freshman division and came in 11th (out of 50+ kids) with a time of 13:14 (2 miles).

New Make-Up Trend

 We came home one day this week to find Chloe had a pink face.  We were joking that she must have tried out a new make-up tutorial. 

But she must be better than we even thought as the groomer couldn't even get all the pink off! 

Garth.

 I haven't been keeping up with my blogging, but we've been trying to get JR packed up for college and switch JR and Kyle's rooms.  After clearing out 2 complete rooms, I'm pretty sure my kids are hoarders.

We did go see Garth Brooks, who was great, and as JR said, "that concert totally exceeded my expectations."

Here we are looking like carbon copies of each other.

I've never seen so many people in one place.  

JR and his Garth cookie

Jason and I forgot to take a picture until after we got home.  

Jason wore his "capybara shirt", as he calls it. 

 (It's a "guayabera"). 

Oh, and when we were going inside one of the cops told me I had "the best hat of the night".  I wish I had a better picture of my hat band and feathers!

3 Sharks

 Jason took the boys who love to fish for a little overnight to Matagorda so they could, well...fish. 

Besides not caring at all about fishing, here's another main reason I don't go on these trips.

They couldn't have loved their trip more, and when all the fish were totaled they caught 8 trout, 15 catfish, 1 redfish, 1 stingray and 3 sharks. 

3 sharks! 

At least they were little, but 1 of the sharks they caught while they were wade fishing! 

No thankyouverymuch.

Friday night fishing

The non-sharks they caught on Saturday.