A less eventful September

September was way kinder to us than August! Thank goodness! In fact- it wasn't too exciting at all. I kind of like that. We were getting into the swing of school, and getting our routine back, which always makes me feel better.
We started the month off with Wyatt's birthday party. The big 7!! I am so glad that my girls have boy cousins...it helps balance them out. Otherwise our lives would be all "girlie" stuff. Wyatt had his party at the bow and arrow range! Way different than our American Girl and roller skating parties!
All the "kids" that were going to play the game got all masked up and listened to instructions.

Then they had to learn how to hold the bow and put the arrow on and shoot. That proved a little challenging for some. Luckily Daddy was there to save the day!

Then the game started! The girls decided really quickly that it wasn't quite for them. Getting hit with rubber arrows HURTS! So Josh and Uncle Dude stepped in and played for them!

 These two enjoyed the ring pops way more than the game!

I made sure to THANK Aunt Emily for getting the suckers that paint your mouth BLUE!

Happy Birthday to our Wyman! We love you dude!!!

Macie hung out at Maylee's on Alabama game day, and a Bama game day means Bama shirts!!

Hurricane Harvey did a number on the Texas coast. We had been watching on the news, and our hearts were breaking for everyone that was effected. It hit a little close to home since Becky's cousin Kristie lives in Houston, and her house flooded! We were so glad they were safe. But when the water finally started receding, they needed some help. SO Josh and Mike loaded up supplies like generators and fans and took a road trip to deliver them to Houston.

We had a get together with  Pops, Memaw, and the Popes at our house and the kids enjoyed riding the go cart!

Pops and Memaw went to school with the big kids for Grandparent's Day breakfast!

We took in a Ranger's game.

Goodness I love these two fashionistas!

Making Graddy proud with our cotton candy!

Josh and I enjoyed date night to go to the Ranch Rodeo followed by a Jake Hooker concert at the Parker County sheriff's posse. It has been a LONG time since I've been to a concert at the Posse grounds! Like pre kids and PRE Josh!

Aunt Bit and Taron came through Weatherford on their way to the silos in Waco for a girls weekend. They stayed with Dad and Kathy, and we met them for lunch the next day! Brenna and Macie always enjoy a visit with their Aunt Bit and Taron!! (and so do I!)

I introduced the girls to their very first hostess cupcake! I couldn't believe that they had never had one, but I had to fix that asap! (I think they are GROSS- but it's kind of a right of passage thing for every kid!) I also bought them twinkies because they hadn't had those either. They were not as much of a hit. Can't say that I blame them though....

Cupcakes were B and M approved!

We celebrated the Riley's birthdays. And what better present than a basket of Titos!!

But it was a wonderful night of hanging out with friends!

These two....Crack Head and Crack Head Jr.....bff's for life!

Sarah and I went to look at a new house in the neighborhood and got this text-

So we hurried back to visit with Brandi!
I love all these kiddos!!!! Only missing Madison and Landry.

It was such a fun night with great friends! Any night spent on a back porch with the Riley's (and Baldwins and Middletons) is a great night!!

The girls came to open house with me one night, and got a wonderful surprise!! TIA!!!

BFF's reunited!

I got this picture from Joni Peters at lunch one day.... Macie got to sit with Raleigh and Joni to eat lunch!

And the best part of the month....VOLLEYBALL season started!! Brenna was once again without a team, so she took pot luck. It didn't work out great for us in the end since many of them hadn't played before. But it was a great lesson for her in learning patience and that it's ok to not win every time. Macie was lucky enough to have a whole group of Peaster 2nd grade friends to play with. Ashley Swearingin volunteered to coach them. This season they were Sparkle and Spike. And I am happy to say...she LOVES volleyball!

Macie and Maylee played at the Baldwin's one morning, and I went to pick them up to let them play at our house that afternoon. This was the buggy on our way home.... 

I think this is a definite sign that you might be a redneck living in the country!

And that ended up a "normal" month for the Pools!!! (normal is a nice change for sure!)

August was a little bumpy...

August of 2017 was a little bumpy.... But before it got crazy, we managed to squeeze in some fun!
On August 1st, I took the girls to Hurricane Harbor. Our season passes for Six Flags got us in for free, but I had never been brave enough to take them by myself. I decided that it was time to brave it and just see how it went.

And because I have great kids.... we had a great time!! I will admit that it would have been way more fun with an extra person, but we made it work and enjoyed ourselves anyway.(but don't be fooled....I was EXHAUSTED by the time the day was over! Chasing these two all over a water park is a LOT of work).
We rode as many rides as we could, and decided to split some nachos for lunch and save room for a good dinner.

At the end of the day, we decided we were ready to head home. The girls wanted Pappasitos for dinner (I may have possibly influenced this decision. Because I think that every Mama that survives Hurricane Harbor deserves a frozen margarita...) So we cleaned up, changed clothes, and went and enjoyed Mexican food looking like homeless people. Oh well- it was good and luckily the chances of us seeing anyone we knew in Arlington were slim! No shame in my game!
The rest of that week I attended my summer teacher's conference in Dallas. FYI- I hate Dallas. Like really HATE. The traffic is horrible!!! But I survived my 2 day drive, and got to hang with my wonderful co workers, so that made it totally do-able.
That Friday, we hung out at the Baldwin's pool in the afternoon. Macie and Maylee had been over there that morning playing, and Madison did their make up.

As soon as they jumped in the pool later on- they learned an important lesson on the value of waterproof mascara!

OOPS!! I laughed so hard that I cried every time I looked at them! Such sweet friends, and such wonderful memories they make together.
The next day, the Pools packed up and headed to Granbury for one last summer get together!
We had plans to go to the Rahr brewery and check it out. And it was a lot of fun! But SO VERY HOT.
Macie got a pretzel necklace...

And the Pools and Rileys never miss an opportunity for a group photo!

We didn't make it there long due to the heat. Just long enough to drink the 3 (or 4...I can't remember) beers that came with our ticket. I only had 2 because I didn't care for the beer that much.
I love these people!!

When we got back to the Riley's, we were all so hot that we immediately got our suits on and jumped in the pool!

These 3 played as hard as they could all afternoon! We all had fun just hanging out and being together. Sarah and I may have napped on floats IN the pool.... Now that's what I call a GREAT afternoon!
The next day we got up and hit the lake! Our girls had never been tubing, and Schaef needed to fix that!

Brenna and Carter were up first. And I will tell you that Brenna Grace is definitely my child. Being ON the lake is ok, but being IN it is not her thing. (hellooooooo you can't see what is swimming right by your foot for crying out loud!) She had fun on the tube, but it wasn't something that she desires to do again.

She was a good sport and rode with Macie for a little bit. But I think she would have been happiest if we had just strolled around the lake at a slow pace instead of going fast.
Macie on the other hand....loved it! She's always been our dare devil.
She and Carter had a GREAT time riding together!

Thanks for a wonderful weekend Riley's!!!

From there, our month took a turn....
Josh started feeling bad when we got home on Sunday. Monday he stayed home from work, which is totally not like him, Tuesday wasn't much better, and by Wednesday he found him self back at the doctor.
The girls and I had headed over to swim at Kim's when he called and said he was headed to the ER in Willow Park. So I threw on some clothes, left the girls with Nina, and headed there to meet him.
We soon found out that he had an appendicitis and needed surgery. Talk about a whirl wind! So he had to be transferred downtown.

And I followed along behind him.

Never a dull moment for the Pools....
I met him at the hospital. He was in a room by the time I got there and Becky was there as well. And our waiting began. We waited and waited and waited.... Finally around 5 they took us down to Pre-op, and told us we were the next surgery. FINALLY. Then a few minutes later they came back in and said an emergency came in and we had been bumped. First of all- it had been a loooong day already of waiting. Second-- our patient was loosing his patience. He was hurting, and hungry. NOT a great combination. So we got moved again since they were closing the pre-op we were in, and we ended up in recovery. Josh's spirits were dwindling, and his pain was getting bad. They finally took him back to surgery about 10pm. Thank goodness Subway was still open because we were STARVING. I'm pretty sure Mike, Becky, Jana and I INHALED our sandwiches.
Surgery took a while because when they finally got in there, they discovered that it was ruptured. So Josh and I didn't get to our room until about 1am.  We didn't find out until the next day that gangrene had already set in. But that explained all of the pain, and subsequent pain over the next few days.
On Thursday Becky came and sat with Josh while I went home to shower and switch the girls from Nina to Jana.
I'm pretty sure the kiddos thought they were on an extended vacation after getting to eat and do whatever they wanted at Nina's for 24 hours, and then getting to spend 2 days with Aunt Jana! I got several pictures of their adventures...
They went shopping that night...

And got to go to Strawn with Aunt Jana the next day! They hung out at the Pac A Sac, went swimming, and went to Jana and Dude's to feed the deer!

And face timed Mommy and Daddy!!! 

Josh finally got to come home on Saturday! We were so thankful to finally all be back under one roof!!!
Sunday we laid low and rested, much needed for us all!
Monday I had to go back to work. It was hard leaving Josh, but he assured me he would be fine and I left early to go home.
Tuesday we went to the Dr for a follow up and to ask why he was still in so much pain. She assured us that it was normal, and re-emphasized how sick he really had been!
Josh went home to rest, and I went to work for a little bit. I had to cancel a water park date with Mrs. Sara the week before due to him being in the hospital, so I rescheduled it for Tuesday afternoon. I grabbed the girls, Tia, and Mrs. Sara and we headed to have a little fun!

These 3 had a blast playing together! And I enjoyed some much needed relaxation and conversation with Sara.
And because she is totally amazing, she made these kiddos a chocolate cake!

Us Pool girls sure do love us some Mrs. Sara, and some Mrs. Sara's chocolate cake!! I had a fork in the pan (from where I had been eating out of the pan, and I came around the corner and caught this....

Caught red handed!!! I'm pretty sure that cake didn't make it more than about 2 days at our house!

We went to meet the teacher later that week.
I love that these 3 get to go to the same school!

2nd grade had a great set up for photos!!

And Macie is SOOOO excited that her BFF Maylee is at her school this year!

Friday was the last day of summer for the girls. So they stayed with Nina and got to go get a pedicure!

We laid low on Saturday to let Josh rest since he was still feeling terrible and hurting really bad. On Sunday I had planned to go lay by the pool with Brandi, Jamie and the kiddos. I took the kids over to play, and before I could get there to hang with them we were researching some of Josh's symptoms. Sarah Riley and another friend both agreed that it sounded like a blood clot! Talk about scary! So we reluctantly loaded up and headed back to the ER. (God bless good friends that take care of your kids on the day before the first day of school!)
After we got there, they agreed that it sounded suspicious of a blood clot. But to test for it, they had to use iodine...which Josh is allergic to! The only other way to test for a blood clot is with some type of nuclear test....that can only be done at the hospital in Ft. Worth.... So here we go again..

By this photo...

I was in tears. I couldn't believe we were here again. And I know Josh was just as frustrated as I was.
The girls started school the next day and I had been looking forward to taking them myself for weeks since I didn't start till the next week with kids. I was a basket case to say the least. My heart was torn...I wanted to be with Josh AND with the girls. But since they couldn't do the test until the next morning, that wasn't possible. I didn't want to leave him, but he insisted that I go be with the girls and get them in bed and off to their first day of school. Reluctantly- I did.
The next morning, I got them up and fed them warm cinnamon rolls..

Doesn't every 5th grader drink cappuccino for breakfast? No? Just Shirley Johnson's granddaughter??  Well ok then... ha!
We got dressed in time for our annual photo shoot..

This may be the last year Brenna can stand ON the fireplace!

Oh Macie Claire... you are one of a kind!

I loved getting to walk them into school on the first day! It seems like such a small thing to parents that get to do it all the time, but to a Mommy that is also a teacher and had never taken her babies to the first day of school- it was the best gift ever!!

We even met up with Wyatt for a picture!

Brenna ditched us and went to her class by herself. I was a little sad, but I totally understood. Thank goodness Macie let me walk her to her class!

SO excited to finally have a locker!

My sweet second grader and her bff Raleigh!

I left and headed to the hospital, where Josh got the results that he did NOT have a blood clot! Thank you Lord! He called Papa to come and give him a ride home, and I headed to work. What a day!!
There was an eclipse that afternoon, so I joined the other teachers in looking at it!

I'll admit that it was pretty neat!
I was so happy to get home that night and be with Josh and the girls!!! They had a great first day of 5th grade and 2nd grade! Thank goodness!

This was my photo from later that week...

Coffee AND a large Dr. Pepper.... it was much needed!! What a week!
This was my sight on the way home one afternoon that week. I needed a sign, and was thankful for this one!

On Friday afternoon, I walked out of my classroom not to return until Monday...the first day of school. It's always nerve wrecking to leave that last inservice day knowing the next time you walk in it will be to greet kids. But after all my preparation...I was as ready as I was going to be!

Bring it on 2017-2018!!
That night, Macie fell asleep in my arms! 2nd grade is hard work!

Since we missed our annual "back to school tacos" at Memaw's due to Josh being so sick, we had "first week celebration tacos" instead!

Memaw's helpers!

Wow! That's not even all of them! Us Pools know how to eat some serious tacos!!! Thank you Memaw for starting this tradition for us! It's one we look forward to all year long!

SUMMER of 2017 was packed full of fun....but we were ready for routine and normalcy again!