September 2016

Wow, September...somehow it's already over...

My goofy Kinders...and they are pretty goofy...but I am falling in love with them even as I am working really hard to figure out the best ways to teach each one of them...

I have a ton of great friends, and most of them very cheerfully help me when I whine about something. On this particular day I was whining about tearing out and collating and folding and stapling all the pre-decodable books from my Kindergarten curriculum and Niki volunteered herself for the afternoon to help me...and then her stapler broke while she was doing this good deed! She tried to fix it, but I am pretty sure we threw it in the garbage. Sorry, Niki!!

Sarah had her first meet as a Knight! She ran well and placed in the top 15 overall, which earns you a t-shirt and a spot in that picture below...

My brother and his family were there to watch, so that was so fun for her and for me to know that she had her own cheering section. It was the first time they had gotten to see her run, so I think they liked it, too. ;)

I decorated for fall over Labor Day weekend because I knew if I didn't do it then...it might not ever get done. I dusted at the same time and ended up putting out much less in decorations than I normally do...I think the thought of dusting stuff sounded really awful!

Bethany had a big meet at Sehome on a sunny Saturday and we had a great time watching her and all her teammates run. Bethany isn't fast, but she is determined. I'm so very proud of her.

Becca's been running cross country, too! Her team is doing awesome and she is improving a little bit every time, too! She LOVES the time she spends with those girls and I LOVE that cross country gets to continue to be a blessing in our lives.

Becca moved into Sarah's room (just for when Sarah is not home) and so Elise made the extra bed in her room into a couch, which now holds her reading chair and Sarah's gigantic stuffed bear named Mitch.

Elise & the neighbor girls found a painted rock in the trail by our house...apparently some kids decided to paint rocks and hide them around town. If you find one, you're supposed to post it with the #lyndenrocks and then rehide it and give clues. They had fun figuring out the mystery of the rock and finding a new place to hide it on the trail.

Got this fun bubble blower on clearance for a couple bucks...worked great for about a day. I am sad because it came highly recommended as a quality toy!! 

We had our GEMS kick-off! The theme this year is "Love Overflows" and all the suggestions for games and decorations are for "splash parties" and that type of thing...you know...overflow?? So my awesome counselors came up with great snack ideas and a fun cupcake craft for the girls for our open house beach party!

And then there was my favorite weekend of September...the one where Sarah and her team came to Seattle to run in a big meet! What a blessing and a gift it was for us to spend Friday night having dinner with her and her team, Saturday watching them all run and hanging out (& watching some LC kids run, too!), and Saturday night at the Mariners' game with all of them and Sunday morning worshiping with them. It was perfect timing in our longing to see each other (for her AND for us) and so very, very, good for this mama's heart.

Watching her run again and do what she loves so very much was like salve for my heart.

It was a pretty wet day for a race, but the two days before were beautiful and sunny and the team was able to see the mountains, climb some awesome hikes, and Sarah and the other WA runners got to show-off their state!

Sweet reunions with sweet friends.

Some of Sarah's teammates from high school ran the high school races as well and Sarah stuck around to watch them and help them with the chips on their shoes and moral support and all those things that Sarah is so very good at.

And then they had to say goodbye again. 

Thankfully, we got a little more time...

Our worship time with the team at Pastor Geoff Van Dragt's house was wonderful. Geoff is a chaplain at UW, and a former Calvin Knight All-American runner! The team sang and shared and we got to see some of the coaches' love and dedication to their runners. I am so very thankful for that time.

Oh, these loves of mine...

Back to real life...

As soon as we got home from our #epicroadtrip, we unloaded, started laundry, and made plans for the weekend and the following week. We arrived home on a Friday evening and "Meet the Teacher" day was on Monday, followed by the first day of school on Tuesday...followed by MY first day of school on Wednesday (because Kinders don't come on the first day and also because I only teach MWF).

So, on Saturday, I spent MOST of the day at school, finishing up some things that weren't able to be done before I left (like putting away curriculum and other things that were ordered) and finishing up putting children's names EVERYWHERE. Thankfully, I had my sweet friend Tamara from AZ stop by and help me for a little while before she kidnapped me and made me have a little fun. ;)

We finished putting up my welcome bulletin board, which she had helped me with via text before she came. She's always good for creative input!

I was also blessed to be one of the people she told in person that she is pregnant with baby #4! We are super excited for this amazing blessing in their life! And I know we have photos of us from that day...but I can't find them. :( Tam, send them to me!! 

Then came that first day of school...

We were all pretty excited to start school again! Junior, 7th, and 5th! Just. Stop. Growing.

In 5th grade I still get pictures with the teacher...and since she's my baby, I'm assuming I'm going to get to keep right on taking pictures with the teacher until she graduates from college.

Bethany drove herself to school for the first time and while it wasn't as weird as the first time Sarah drove herself to school...it was still weird and worrisome...

Elise had to fill out this personal survey on the first day...I love that part where she says "The person I like best is 'my sister, Sarah'". As it should be one week after saying good-bye...

I also like where she wrote that next summer she hopes to see the Ball cousins. We hope so, too! Maybe even in Arizona, her favorite place to be. ;) 

#epicroadtrip Coming Home

We took 4 days of driving to get home...we didn't leave on the first day until around 11:30 since we had to bring Sarah to cross country camp that morning. We went as far as Minneapolis that night, and were treated to an amazingly red sky as we came into the city.

Our hotel that night was a LaQuinta, and it was very inexpensive, but it was in a suburb of Minneapolis and let's just say, as the girls did, it was sketchy. We weren't there very long - probably our shortest hotel stay of the entire trip.

The next day we drove to the small town of Glendive, Montana. On the way through North Dakota, we encountered a rest area that happened to be inside of Theodore Roosevelt National Park! It was a beautiful overlook, and had it not been so cold and windy, we might have ventured on a little hike out from that location.

We stayed in a cute Comfort Inn in Glendive, had dinner at a 50's diner, the girls swam, and it was probably one of our favorite hotels the entire trip! We tried to go to the Albertson's in that small town, but they had no power...so no fresh food...so that had to wait until the next small Montana town the following morning.

When we got home and back to school, I found out that our school secretary had actually grown up in Glendive, Montana! She was tickled that we had stayed there because she said no one has ever heard of Glendive when she says that's where she is from. I highly recommend it if you need a place to stay in Eastern Montana along I-94.

We left Glendive, Montana that morning and arrived in Missoula, Montana that evening...#bigsky #bigstate. We treated the girls to a night at "C'mon Inn", which is a western-themed hotel chain in Montana. Since we just had the little girls with us, we thought it would be fun for them to have something special. We had a lot of fun there and we have decided we really like the state of Montana!

Dinner at Cracker Barrel, which wasn't all it's cracked up to be. ;)

We arrived home the next day before dinner, 

with that many more miles on our new van. Thankful for safety in so many miles and different experiences, tired of driving and of good-byes, sad that these moments had actually come and gone, and ready to be home and to start our #newnormal.

#epicroadtrip Days 9, 10, 11, & 12

Our days in Grand Rapids were busy, full, fun, and filled with wondering and dread about saying good-bye to Sarah. How would it go? Would I be able to hold it together? Would I be able to say what I wanted to say to her? When should the sisters say good-bye? They were hard days, but they were good and necessary days.

I was able to meet up with a couple college friends for breakfast on Saturday morning.

I had to run a few errands so Pam & I even got to shop at Target a little bit together. We bought matching teaching outfits since it was buy one, get one half off. :) 

Later that afternoon we headed to Calvin. We had hoped to go to the lake, but the weather was very storm-like, so a tour of Calvin seemed like a better idea. Little did we know how storm-like it was...

We went first to the fieldhouse, where we knew Sarah would spend a lot of time...we needed to find a certain room where she would be having a physical on Tuesday morning and we just thought it would be good for the sisters to see what Sarah would be experiencing. We ended up spending A LONG TIME in the basement fieldhouse, thanks to a tornado warning!! We had to sit in the basement athletic training center for about 45 minutes while the storm passed. My sweet niece couldn't quite say tornado, she said to me, "That was a big tomato warning, Aunt Julie!" I will never forget that. She was quite concerned about her mom, who hadn't come with us to Calvin, but her daddy had talked to her and she was all safe in their basement, so thankfully my niece was easily reassured. (FYI: The tornado passed within a mile of my brother's house, bringing down some branches - one branch right where our brand-new-to-us-van had been parked - but thankfully he had no significant damage). Once the worst had passed, we ventured out for more Calvin touring...

I really wanted a family picture of all of us in Calvin gear in front of the fieldhouse...but my eyes are closed on all the pictures. :( 

Sarah's future dorm! Unfortunately, we didn't get to move her in since she was going to 5 days of Cross Country camp first and we had to be home before she would even be back from camp. Thankfully, she had some good help from my brother and the student move-in crew and got settled pretty quickly after camp.

Becca thought it was cool to see the FAC and while we couldn't find the lights in the auditorium, we did manage to sneak onto the stage through the backstage. 

The littles found things to entertain themselves with everywhere we went...

We of course had to go to the Nature Preserve, which holds lots of memories of favorite moments. (We also earlier went into the Science & Math buildings, where Ed exercised his memory, but I took no pictures.)

A bit of a recreation of a picture from when Sarah was a toddler...it's still so surreal that she has all grown-up and gone off to Calvin...

There was lots of time for playing and watching Olympics at my brother's house.

We even celebrated birthdays!

On Sunday it was quite windy, but we headed to the lake anyway. Ed never went to the lake during his time at Calvin, so I made this a must-do for the weekend.

There was a red flag, so we wouldn't let the kids in the water, but they couldn't understand why other people were in the water...

We took a little hike and ended our afternoon with Captain Sundae!!

On Monday, I took Sarah shopping and in the later afternoon she headed to a dinner at a teammate's house, while Ed & I took Bethany to the airport so she could head home for her cross country camp.

^^These two shared a bed for the nights we were in GR at my SIL's parents' house. They actually got along the entire time! 

Bye, Bethany! She did great flying alone and got home from her camp before we were home from the drive...but that was kind of nice because she got all her laundry done first! 

That evening we picked Sarah up at Calvin after her first team event and it was obvious that she was going to fit in just fine. Tuesday morning she had her physical, then said her good-byes to her sisters (there were quite a few tears from them, too) and Ed & I brought her back to campus to leave for the cross country camp.

Saying goodbye was really, really, really hard. I couldn't say anything because if I tried to talk, I was afraid it would turn into a big ugly cry. I really didn't want that. Thankfully, someone had advised me to write down things I wanted to say, so I had done that right before our trip (I wasn't sleeping then anyway, so I would write at night...) I had tucked the letter in her big suitcase that I knew she wouldn't open until after cross country camp. I told her it was there, and it took her a couple weeks before she even read it. But she was thankful I had written it down, too, and not tried to say all those things while we were saying good-bye. And not because it prevented the big ugly cry, but because now she has that note of things forever and she can read it anytime she wants. So, if any of you reading this are going to take your child off to college in the next few years, I think the writing a letter is a good idea. 

Even though in my head, I KNEW all the things...like this is what we raise them to do - to go off and be productive citizen in God's kingdom...and like she's at an amazing place with good people...and all of those things...my heart balked. It felt like I left a piece of me behind. It's taking some real work to get used to the new normal around here.  And it was a very quiet first few hours back on the road back home again...but thankfully we knew that we would see her in 26 days when the team headed to Seattle for a big meet. That will be blogged about later, but it was such a GIFT.

My social media post when we left her behind was this picture^, with the quote, "My heart I offer to you, Lord, promptly and sincerely." Lots of people know that is the Calvin motto. But when I left her at Calvin, I think I understood that motto better than ever. It's easy to offer OURSELVES to the Lord for His work. But to offer your child? That's a whole new level of trust and commitment. By leaving her at Calvin, I was saying to my Lord..."Here's my heart. This girl. She's yours." And I know we're supposed to think of our children not as ours, but as the Lord's, but usually it takes some sort of circumstance to truly understand what that means. I've had a few of those circumstances in my 18+ years of being a mom, and this one was just another on my continued path of learning. 

My heart I offer to you, Lord, promptly and sincerely.