Hurricanes in Ohio?

I sat down at the computer last Sunday evening to finally get our August blog written when our power went out. Who would have thought we could be affected by hurricanes here in central Ohio? The wind storm with gusts up to 80 miles per hour lasted for several hours, knocking power out for most parts of the state. Thankfully ours was back on in only 8 hours, but there were still enough places in the dark to cancel school for a few days. Monday we spent all morning cleaning up the debris around the yard. We fared better than a lot of neighbors who lost some big trees. Ours was mostly just cleaning up branches, pinecones, leaves, and a Barbie that had been stuck in a tree for several weeks finally was shaken free! The rest of the week we had beautiful weather and it almost felt like summer vacation again!

Brooke turned 4 on August 13th! Brittany had decided that we should have a Dora party for her. Because she is still nervous around other kids, we kept it to just our family and were so grateful that my parents and Bev, a friend of theirs from Cincinnati, drove over for the evening. We spent some time enjoying the pool before having pizza and cake back at our house. Brooke loved opening up her new photo albums filled with family pictures and playing with her magnet pictures of her extended family. Her siblings had bought her some new Barbies and accessories since one of her favorite things to do is to watch Brittany dress them and organize them into families. They have given all of the dolls names of family and friends that Brooke knows so it's fun to have her tell us who they all are. And I love being a Barbie!

The icing on the cake was a concert put on my Barr and Jared Halley in our family room. They were rehearsing for a recording they had the following night, but we were grateful to hear their practice performance. What made it even better was that Brooke was finally able to dance again after not being able to put any weight on her right foot for over 2 weeks. She had fallen down the stairs and must have pulled or strained something. We went in 3 different times for X-rays trying to figure out what was wrong, but never found anything. After 2 weeks of carrying her everywhere, I was pretty glad she could walk again! That was the best birthday present!

We had to get a cousin swap in before the summer was over so my parents left Adam with us and took Ben back to Cincinnati with them for the week. It worked out perfectly since we had one of Brittany's friends stay with us for 4 days as well while her parents were out of town. It's nice when everyone has a friend!

I even got to see some of my friends in Indiana last month. Barr was doing a sprint triathlon at Eagle Creek State Park with Sid Norton, a good friend from Fishers, so it was a nice excuse to take the family back for a visit. We had a great time hanging out with the Fields, our old next door neighbors, and going to the pool with the Andersens and the rest of the gang. We really felt loved, so thanks guys! Barr had a good race although he swam a little further than he had to so was a little disappointed in his time for that part of the event.

That was a fun way to end summer with school starting the next morning. Ben had told us numerous times to say goodbye to him because he was sure he was going to die on the first day of middle school! He was convinced he would get lost having to change classrooms or end up getting stuffed in a locker. No surprise to anyone but himself when he came home the first day almost smiling. I even convinced (he would say forced) him to go to the school dance/activity last Friday night. It was fun to see him worry about what to wear like he's almost starting to care about that stuff. Even though we told him most people would just be wearing what they wore to school, he really wanted to wear his pink dress shirt. His nerves were so evident in the car as he kept adjusting his sleaves and putting his colar up and down, trying to get the perfect look. It was hard for me to watch him walk up to the large mass of kids hanging outside the school waiting for the doors to open and see him trying to find a friend. I couldn't leave until I saw him find someone to talk to and of course his first question was why was Ben so dressed up! I am so glad I'm not in middle school anymore! He said he had fun but played air hockey the entire time. He didn't even make it into the gym where the dance was! We won't have to worry about him and dating for a while!

That first week of school they had a 4-day weekend so Barr's parents flew out to celebrate Labor Day and Barr's birthday with us. We took advantage of them entertaining our kids and Barr and I went out both Friday and Saturday nights. We had a few movies to get caught up on! Saturday was Ohio State's first home football game so we enjoyed short lines at the Zoombezi Bay Water Park. I had always just been with Brooke in the lazy river, the wave pool, or the kiddie area and had gotten out of riding any of the water slides all summer. With Grandma there to watch Brooke for a little while, Brittany dragged me on what she said was the calmest ride. Somehow motherhood has made me a chicken and I screamed the entire way down. Shooting down backwards in a pitch-black tunnel of terror is not my idea of fun! I haven't seen Brittany laugh that hard in a long time!

Some other things Barr's parents did with us: They got to hear his other band perform at a pool party of one of the guitarists, Mike Muczyk. We said goodbye to a fun summer at the pool by enjoying several hours there on Labor Day and then having a cook out at our neighbor's complete with a water balloon toss, which turned into a water war! They got to see Brooke get on the bus for her first day of preschool this year. I think Brooke had thought school was over for good and it took her several days to get comfortable going again. That evening we had a little birthday party for Barr and we celebrated Brooke's again too since his parents weren't there for the first one. And to celebrate the kids back in school, Barr's mom treated me to my first pedicure. Brittany was pretty sad she couldn't come along so I promised her I would give her one later. The day after the grandparents left though I tripped over Max on the stairs, smashed the bowl I was carrying against the wall and cut my hand open. It's finally now healed enough that I could give her that pedicure, but I'm hoping she has forgotten about it!

One of Barr's birthday presents was tickets to the stage production, The Lion King, so he kindly took me with him. I was surprised at how closely the Broadway show follows the movie, like almost word for word. It was funny how most of the older people there were laughing at the jokes like they were hearing them for the first time. We realized they, unlike those of us who have the movie memorized, probably were.

Now that it's fall, soccer season is in full swing. While Brigham's first two games haven't been victories, he's still having fun. He's playing football everyday at recess so wants me to sign him up for that next year instead of soccer.

We bought the boys an electric guitar and Ben has started guitar lessons. They are hoping to get good enough to start a family band. If the Jonas Brothers can do it, why not us? Maybe there is something good coming from all those hours of playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero!

Brittany started swim team this week. It looks like her love for swimming has replaced gymnastics...at least for now.

Barr is in Virginia right now participating in the Big Lick Triathlon so I'm sure he will be writing a blog entry about that soon. He enters the water in 23 minutes....go Barr!