Keeping Busy

Here's what we're doing while we're waiting:

The Brain Injury Association of New Jersey is sponsoring a fund raiser tomorrow (Saturday, October 1st).  Scott, Neil, and I will be walking for an undetermined amount of miles.  (I guess we'll just stop when they tell us to.)  Feel free to join us or sponsor us (or just wish us happy thoughts!)  We are Team Stone Soup.  We each have our own sponsor page, as follows:

Scott's page

Neil's page

Lori's page

As I write this, Neil has the most sponsors.  Surprised?  Yea, me neither ;-)  A thousand thank yous to our generous donors!  Eric would be there except it's marching band season, which means he's either practicing or competing at any given hour of any day.

Also, we're making guesses for Alison's baby's birth date and weight.  Please venture a guess in the comments!  FYI, her official due date was yesterday, (though she always thought it should be October 1st). One dear friend predicted 5:00 PM tonight.  Guess not.  Want to guess again, Trinyan?

Just Sitting Here Waiting By My Phone...

Stole this pic from Alison's blog

A Tribute

In honor of RWC 2011, I give you...

More look-alikes!

Which one is the rugby ball?

I know.  Kinda hard to tell, right?

Eric almost picked up the wrong one for a spin pass...

Is It Just Me...

...or does this tomato from Alison's garden look like Leonardo?

  

Fresh Start

Eric chose to celebrate his first day back to school by participating in a mud sliding contest after band practice.  Yes, he is a high school Junior.  But he did clean up after himself when he got home.  Yes, the shoes are shot--he had to cut the laces to get them off.  But they were too small for him anyway, so no harm done.  I'm learning to chill about stuff like that.

Here's Neil on his way to his first day at the community college.  You can tell from his smile that he was pretty excited about it.  The problem was, because of days of constant heavy rain falling on our already water-soaked, hurricane-abused state every road we tried to take ended up in a "road closed" barricade.  Fortunately, we allowed 30 minutes to make the trip that usually takes only seven.  He ended up arriving to class only 10 minutes late.  He wasn't the only one tardy and his teacher was very understanding, so yeah, he's chill, too.  Just like me.  I think Neil's in good hands.

By the way, Neil was smiling like that on the way home, too.

Touched Down in the Land of the Delta Blues

Mmm, Mmm, Mmm!

Our brief weekend get-away had two purposes.  Firstly, BYU was playing at Ole Miss for their season opener and it seemed like a great opportunity for us to celebrate our 29th anniversary.  Secondly, Neil and Eric would have a chance to prove they could be responsible and take care of themselves and each other.  Well, despite a nail-biting game throughout, BYU eventually pulled off a win, and Scott and I had a wonderful time enjoying the hospitality of our southern neighbors.  Check off purpose number one.  Neil and Eric managed to get along and not burn the house down.  That's a check for number two.  Success!

Can you tell Scott enjoyed that tasty Memphis BBQ?

We had time before the game in Oxford, Mississippi, so we followed the map on my phone to William Faulkner's home, Rowan Oak.  Really, really cool!  (Well, actually, it was really, really, hot.  We learned there was a short-cut through the woods and gratefully took that way back to the stadium.)

We experienced the never-ending tents in The Grove, the biggest tailgating party ever.  Seriously, you'll want to check out that link.  It was amazing.

And finally, the game.  I don't think we ever really stopped worrying until it was over.  That was a tough win.

A hopeful Scott, before the game