I have become so intentional about pictures and selfies.  As I have been going through all the old blog posts, I am missing from so many pictures and as the boys have gotten older, I don't have as many pictures of them.  Ben and I recently got together with his friend Kaden and Kaden's mom.  They want to do a joint graduation party.  As Kaden's mom was talking about putting up pictures, etc, she pulled out the picture board she did for her daughter who graduated a few years ago, as well as Kaden's football picture board.  I think Benjamin was amazed at how many photos they had.  I kind of looked at him and said, we don't have a lot of pictures because you never wanted me to take any.  He agreed!  One of the many things I use to talk about but you can never go back and redo.  So, making a point for more pictures.....even with eyes closed!

This picture just warmed my heart.  Seems like there is so much fighting and disagreeing in our house.  One day I heard these two smack talking, laughing and cutting up and I just loved it.  They were playing each other in Madden Football on Benjamin's computer.  They had a good time and if I recall, Jacob won!

We are starting to have conversations about when Benjamin moves out.  I have told the boys that they better not get their hopes up.  They are thinking he will move out the day after graduation, but I am not so sure.  I know he would love to, but given that rent is close to 1000 for a one bedroom, not sure what will happen.  Plans are in the works though!

I walked into Benjamin's room the other day and saw this on his desk.  It brought such a smile to my face!  It is hard to read his handwriting, but he was running some numbers on real estate.  He has shown interest in wanting to buy a place to live and then rent out the rooms to pay for the mortgage.  I love the way he thinks!   We had a great discussion about fixed rate mortgages and ARMs.  He was asking about leveraging to buy things...unfortunately this comes from some tik tok people, so we talked about red flags of leverage and doing zero down!  We talked about how he should set a goal, something like putting money away and buying something when he is 20/21.  Sure hope he will see the value of patience and not move to quickly after graduation and end up house poor!  Fortunately the market is crazy enough that he would not be approved for a while.

Speaking of the market, average home price is now $700K!!!  Just crazy.  Over the summer there are a few streets in town that have become places for people to park campers because they have no other place to live.  There are probably about 3-4 dozen of them.  These are people that have jobs, just can't afford housing.  I was in the area the other day and drove through after dark.  Broke my heart to see a car pull up, loaded down with stuff and you could see an interior light on and they were trying to situate themselves to sleep for the night.  Not sure what will happen when the temperatures drop below freezing every day and winter sets in.  Our city commissioners have done a very poor job over the years to address our growth and now affordable housing!

Our weekly dinner group recently had a costume party.  I don't often do it, but I actually dressed up.  

(This was actually something I bought last year for a70s birthday party but was sick and couldn't go, so finally got to wear it a year later!  What you can't see are my really cool, comfortable suede boots)  This dinner group normally has an ugly Christmas sweater contest but due to schedules, we moved it to Halloween this year.  We have a traveling trophy for the winner.  I won this year!!!  Check out my trophy for the next year!

Either you get this movie reference or not!  The gal that started the contest is a huge A Christmas Story fan.  This is a small replica of a lamp in this movie.  (She actually has the life size lamp that she loves to put in her front window during the holidays.  I haven't found the best place for it to live year round, but thinking I will put in our bedroom window, that faces the street!  It is just a little wobbly, so hope it survives a year at our house!!!

 This past weekend we headed out to a local corn maze!  We climbed hay bales, played cornhole and mini golf and tried the homemade slide.  We decided for a friendly family competition inside the maze to see who could find the most pictures of animals (12), pumpkins (10) and numbers (1-20).  We were all surprised how hard it was.  The maze was huge.

 Hunting season is here.  Jacob and JR hunted on private land this weekend.

Jacob got a buck within 30 minutes and they were home by 9:30 am.  On Saturday JR got a buck within 30 minutes and were home by 9:30.  The freezer will be full, actually not sure that we currently have enough room.  We have a very small chest freezer and it has always been adequate.  However, they are hoping to do more hunting so not sure if we will upgrade or somehow make it work.

Football season is a wrap!  Froshmore won 2 games I believe.  The varsity won 1 game and their total season score was 350-60!  A lot of huge losses.  I hear there might be some coaching changes next season!

 A quick post today!  Three oldies but goodies!!!

 JR has made several more trips to his fort.  

This was taken a few weeks ago, before the recent snowfall.

He says it does not appear that anyone has found the fort yet.  I sure hope if someone does come across it, they leave it alone and don't take anything out of it.  It would be cool though if someone got lost or injured and needed a place and stumbled upon it and it provided some shelter for them.

It was a beautiful fall day.  JR, Joseph, Ben and I hit the driving range again today.  I wish I had gotten a picture of JR.  I am not a golfer by any means, but his swing was so bad and unorthodox, but yet he managed to get some really good drives off.  I can only imagine how athletic he would have been if he had grown up playing sports.  (In Honduras there was a little soccer and then probably kick the can)

After golfing, we stopped at Crumbl.  If you aren't familiar with Crumbl, you need to be.  There cookie menu changes every week.  I found it interesting that the cookie on the left is called Aggie Blue Mint, then there was Double Chocolate Brownie, Pumpkin Spice and then their traditional sugar cookie.  Very good.

Jacob has one more football game left and then things get quite for a bit.  This past week we got him skis and ski boots (outgrew the others).  He is set for another winter on the slopes!  Hopefully this one will be injury free!

Found some pictures that JR had taken and wanted to post them here.

 

Not sure when this was taken, probably a few years ago but I don't know that I had ever seen it.

This is amazing.....wall worthy!!!

Bree sure loves to hike

And play in the water

 Last week Benjamin had the opportunity to go flying with a family friend.  He said he got to fly for a little bit.  He was taller than the plane!

I have finally joined a gym in town.  Will be nice to get back to workouts.  Hoping it works for Jacob to go with me.  Would love to watch him lift.  

Benjamin is still working 6 days a week, although I think he will be cutting back soon, as senior happenings will start.  His Europe trip from last summer is hopefully on for next summer, although he is unsure if he still wants to go.  Fortunately we have up until last minute to cancel.

Since we have paid off the house, I have tried to cut the credit card use.  I have had this particular credit card for over 35 years and did not realize how much of a security blanket it was for me.  We always paid it off every month, but I know I still spent more money with the card than I would have with only cash.  Using a debit card has been hard for me to get use to.  It is really requiring a whole different mind set.  They say cash is the most painful to spend because you see it going away, I think a debit card is.  I swipe my card and then I have to go home and 'respend' the money as I enter everything into Quickbooks.  My bank reconciliations take much longer and just seeing multiple pages starts to stress me out.  It will be interesting to see what happens with the credit score.  Since paying off the house and not having a large balance on the credit card, my score has dropped, as I expected it to.

JR and Jacob are gearing up for hunting season.  The youth have exclusive hunting privileges the first two days, Oct 21, 22.  I find it interesting that the first two days of hunting season fall on the yearly state teachers convention...tells you how many hunt around here.

 Just one picture......It is crazy the amount of red that is showing up in this picture with the sun.

Just for the record, I do not like snakes, of any kind.  However, I know that JR is very careful and loves to hunt them.  Joseph got in on the action the other day and shot a couple of them.  It is the time of year where they start migrating back to their dens, so they are easier to find in multiples.

The days have been so beautiful here!  Sleeping with open windows makes for some cool mornings, but oh so nice.

Travelled two hours away to a froshmore football game yesterday.  Jacob played the last 1.5 quarters.  Their team got blown out of the water, but Jacob did pretty well.  They had him on the defensive line!!!  He is not really build as a lineman, but he has proven himself to get in there and get the job done, plus he is faster than a lot of the bigger guys.  Coach told him he just needs to be prepared to play just about any position.  Guess it is nice he is versatile, but then he never can really hone his skill if he is all over the field.

I am in the process of turning my blog into a Word document and then will print it out at some point.  Wow, what a project.  First you copy and paste everything, then reformat font/size/pictures, then wrap text around pictures.  Have been poking around on how to print/bind it.  I want 4 copies, so its a huge undertaking.  I have 979 posts...maybe I can finish out the year with 1000 even!!!  Sure wish I had thought to do this when Ben was young, but started in when Jacob was about 1.  As I was going through the old posts, I came across one of Benjamin wearing a hilarious tie, that did not match his shirt.  I took a screen shot and sent it to him.  In the past when I have sent him pictures he has responded with "Mom".  This time, though, when he got home, he asked me to send him some more pictures of him.  Wow, he has taken an interest in this project.  I actually think it will be amazing because I have documented all our trips, sports, day to day life, etc.  Maybe I can have 2008-2015 done and formatted by the end of the year!  Would be nice to print volume 1 before I start working on volume 2 in case I want to do something different.  I anticipate it being 400 pages total????
 

With Jacob basically gone from 6am to 7:30 pm with workouts and football and then Ben is gone most evenings from 4-10pm on, I feel like I never see them all together.  So, they just hate it when I tell them we are gonna have some family time!  On Labor Day we hit the driving range  Benjamin has been out a handful of times and Jacob a few days prior actually played 9 holes with some friends.  (Over last 9 months or so one of JR's clients was downsizing and passed along two sets of decent and really nice clubs.  This was perfect because I have always said I want my boys to learn golf and basketball, because they both are great to play as you get older and a way to connect with other men).

Everyone ended up having a good time and was impressive to see what they all could do, especially Benjamin.  I even had a couple of good drives.  And the best part, Christmas and birthday ideas...tokens for baskets of balls!  Benjamin would really like to visit a Top Golf, so might go for a road trip sometime soon, if he ever gets two days off!