Only a Doxie!

Bella loves to crawl into arm or pants legs if clothes are on the floor, and she usually gets stuck!

Hold Us Together

Pause the Playlist first

The last few weeks at church, the service has concluded with this song, which is the perfect theme song for the series. But what has been so cool is to see how friends, families and strangers are impacted by this song. People all over the building put their arms around each other, swaying back and forth and singing their hearts out. Families are held close and if you can get the 13 year old "anti-public-display-of-affection" daughter or son to join in, then you've really scored! It's a powerful thing for a few minutes and every time I hear this song on the radio, it's the image that comes to my mind. It also brings to my mind all the high schoolers sitting together in the front rows of the church during the services who are so relational and bond like brothers and sisters. The youth group, junior and senior high, is more than 90% public school students and they are fully aware that they are the light and love in these schools. They are in the world, but not of the world, and are strong and loving leaders among their peers. They truly are their brother's keeper.

I ♥ Saturdays

Since school is back in full swing, Saturdays are to be relished. The last few weekends, Saturdays mean slowing down (well, at least slow-er) and enjoying our time together as a family. Cary's schedule is such that he's gone most of the week for a few weeks a month, and then home over the weekends. During the fall, Saturdays mean taking Casey to gymnastics practice at 10:30, then heading over to Austin's football game. It's very pretty here right now with the leaves turning color and when the sun is shining, it's picturesque!

A weekend means....monkey bread! Super yummy!

I don't have a picture of Casey at gym practicing because well.... she wouldn't love me walking around with my camera during practice (whatever!). This past Saturday, all the moms were taking measurements for their new competition leos and warm-up suits. Nothing like a bunch of 13 & 14 year old girls letting their moms measure their inseams while people are walking in and out!

Then off to football! Go #40 Hawks!

I have to tell a funny story that happened Saturday morning. See the QB? Well, during one play he was settling in behind the center (or so he thought) for his hike and we see the "center" turn around and push the QB away - well, he stuck his hands under the wrong guy! We then see the QB hop over to the next kid, who is the actual real center, and we parents could not stop laughing - wish we had it videod! Just gotta love 11 year old boys...

Austin on the end...

He was awarded the "Golden Hammer" for making the first biggest tackle of the game Saturday. Needless to say, that brought a big smile. And let me add....he has the best sportsmanship because he always helps them up and gives a pat on the back.

And then it's instrument practicing... Casey lovingly refers to her flute as her "stick with holes". Can't you feel the love?

Brownie and Cocoa get some fresh air and sunshine...

Nicole was home all weekend, and brought with her the latest additions. Ferrets. Not my favorite choice, but she loves them to pieces and carried in so much stuff with her, that I thought they were here forever. Reminded me of Bethany when she travels with her little pups. They are strange little creatures - look like part snake, part rat - because they kind of slither around. I think they're related to the otter. Casey LOVED playing with them, while I stood in the bathtub when she first took them out of their cage in the bathroom because they freak me out. Austin's not too keen either - he did a little dance and scream when they nibbled his feet.

Of course, there's trampoline and wrestling time. If there is a love language for boys that is "wrestling", then it's Austin's.

Time for the Gator game!

and during the game, family game night - Apples to Apples was the choice and I don't think any family laughs as hysterically as we do! I took this photo really quick and didn't look at it until now, and look at my kids! Filled with personality, that's for sure!

So back to the week ahead, filled with school, volleyball games (I need to post some of those pics!), football practice, daddy flying, youth group, middle school open house, a new Bible study for me, and the momma-taxi. Have a great Monday!

Project Complete!

In early August, we began the process of putting new carpet upstairs and moving Austin's bedroom into Nicole's old room. That project got delayed because the carpet was on backorder. During the delay, everything upstairs was boxed up - ugh! Come to find out, they had the wrong carpet ordered! Our choice was in the warehouse all along...soooo once that got settled, the ball got rolling again. It's never simple in the Ryan home, as we had two rooms to repaint and move in addition to moving everything out of all the bedrooms! Then Cary's flight schedule got busy, so we had to wait a few weeks to move the office that was on the 1st floor, up to the 2nd floor spare bedroom. Not to mention, we had to pick out new furniture for what would be a small living room, and I was perplexed. On the second trip to the furniture store, Cary made the executive decision that we weren't leaving until we decided. We finally decided (on my original choice) and we love it. I did some research on how to furnish small spaces, and it totally worked.

Here's the office after moving out one piece of the desk....this was soooo much work and so many wires and computers. Somehow, we still laughed all day, even while stuck on the stairs with a VERY heavy desk. Got laughing so hard, I never thought we'd get all the way upstairs with the thing!

Dust. Was. Everywhere.
Slowly making progress...

Notice little Toby on my lap. While repainting the office (after 2 coats of primer because it was so dark), if I was on the floor at all, Toby wanted to be held. He is like a toddler and was tired of not having our attention.

Once an office, now a quiet living space. I'm not completely finished - it needs window treatments and a few more things on the wall, but it's so nice to have it done.

These are the 3 pictures hanging on the wall - I found them for a steal in Kirklands and I just love them.

This room used to be Austin's, and is now the office. We added shelving to the closet, and it provides so much more storage for all the stuff that was crammed under desks and into corners. This closet goes deep on the sides and we still had room for all the winter coats on the ends. It's much more organized! We still have to finish hanging pictures in this room.

Austin's new room

I found these decals called "Sudden Shadows" for the walls and they turned out pretty cool - the paint color shows through them.

(Note: he does not have any cable or tv in his room - this is for his PS2 only :). We found this cool tool storage cabinet and thought it would be fun to house his video games.

Casey's room:

A few Fall details....

And I've been slowly doing our bedroom in an ocean theme, so here are a few peeks.

Whew! Time to enjoy it for a while now!

Our Sweet Melinda Sue

Today was a very sad day, as we had to let our Mindy go. She was 19 years old, and the best kitty in the world. She had gotten very frail in the last year, but even so, she never lost her spunkiness. We got her from a shelter when we moved to Kentucky - Nicole was 3. Casey and Austin have had her their whole lives. As I was going through pictures, she's in sooo many of our family photos, always in the background, especially loving Christmas when there was all the paper and ribbons to play with. Her best friend was Sassy, our collie, and she tolerated the arrival of Bella, Toby & Stormy.

Mindy had a special sense when others were sick or sad. She would curl up on that person's bed and sleep with them all night. It always amazed us that she knew who needed her. She's always been gentle and good. Mindy loved, more than anything, to drink the milk from my cereal bowl every morning, and tomorrow morning, I won't know what to do when I go to set that bowl down for her.

Mindy, this morning....

Her earlier years...

She let Nicole dress her up and haul her around in strollers & baskets - she was very tolerant.

I will miss her so much.