Proud to Be a Boy...(He leaves no doubt)

Happy Birthday, DAB!

The Big 6-5!

14 Years, 3 Months

This may be the family record: you'll have to tell us if you have a longer streak. From the time I started driving at almost 16, I have driven without having received a traffic citation or being involved in a wreck. (I won't say, however, that I did not receive a warning or two along the way for speeding.) Unfortunately, both streaks ended yesterday a.m. as I drove in to work on Mopac.

It was a slow speed, almost stopped in the typical bumper-to-bumper traffic that time of day when I glanced down for an instant and then found myself drifting into the back end of a GMC Sierra.

I'm doing fine; the white Kia isn't. April and Lena were safe at home.

Please join me for a moment of silence as my clean driving record drifts away.

Blessings to all.

-James

Josh is Eight!

These are Uncle Tod's glasses - do they make him look younger?

Molly

We said a very sad goodbye to Molly yesterday. She was able to hang on until Grandma got to say goodbye to her when she got home. I wish I had pictures of her at her best to put on here. Mom, could you find a few? (For you lurkers, Molly was Grandma's dog.)

We will always remember Molly as Grandma and Grandpa's greeter. Almost every time we went over there she would greet us with great enthusiasm. And if she was at the lake when we arrived, we have fun memories of her running across the field from the cottage to the lodge to greet us there too!

My kids adored her. I think I have a picture of her with each of them at the "sitting up" stage of babyhood. Olivia hadn't yet grown out of her need to pull Molly's hair, so she probably wasn't one of Molly's favorites, but the rest of the kids loved to snuggle her and always got "lovin's" from her. Alex and Katy took great pride in having her sleep with them when they spent the night there.

Grandma, we know you will miss her and we are sorry she is gone. Thank you for sharing her with us for all these years. I've always said we didn't need a dog of our own because we had Molly to love on. We will miss her too.

It feels weird to write about a dog when such a heavier weight still fills all our hearts because of the loss of Connor. I think often of words Tod spoke at Uncle Les's funeral about how temporary this life on earth is--that we are made for something more, and oh so much better. We long for heaven, where our hearts will not hurt as they do now.

Labor Day Pictures

I finally downloaded pictures from my camera and thought I would share some of the pictures I took from our Labor Day Weekend. There aren't too many, since I was more of trying to enjoy my time with you all, and not thinking so much about pictures, but there were a few photo opps I just had to take advantage of. I'm glad I got to see you all.

April

The almost 2 year olds.

Luke and his tiny frog.

Olivia is such a funny girl!

They still got it!

Alan wakeboarding



















Tod wakeboarding

Gotta love this boy!

Lena decided to try the sand to see
what it tasted like.

Moriah and Lena in their matching shirts.

Hot time in Brazil

The headline today in Campo Grande is that it is going to 'boil' here during the next few days. We are enjoying seeing old friends and hearing about good things God is doing in thelivesof the sweet people here. The message I am getting on this computer (in Portuguese) is that I may have lost my connection so I am going to try to post and get back later. We are on our way to Cuiaba for our last stop, if you don't count having dinner with the Meadows in Sao Paulo on our way home. We love and miss our family. Dad

They've got skills!

Tod is how old?

I thought surely Tod would post about our trip to Dallas last week, but I'll write and let him fill in details as he wants to. As you all know, we went to Uncle Les's funeral and Tod preached. As we were waiting to board the plane to return home the lady next to us interrupted our conversation to ask Tod how old he was. (Now I must add that he was looking quite dashing with his handsome self and sharp-looking suit, complete with pristine white handkerchief in the pocket.) She was wishing her grandsons, ages 21 and 23, would dress that way and found hope in Tod, assuming he was in the same age range. As you can imagine, he enjoyed that compliment very, very much!

He also did a beautiful job at the funeral. And it was fun to see Cary in his element as Tod and I got to sit in on a business lunch he had in Dallas. I have said it before, but I'm so proud of all my brothers.

We are looking forward to hearing about everyone's games--Reagan, Allison, Emily, Mitch, Hutton, Abby Claire, Annie, Josiah, Luke, (are Josh and A.J. playing baseball yet?)... We hope you all have a great time playing and cheering for your teams and we want to hear details! We'll let you know how the Pink Ladybugs (Katy, of course) and the Hurricanes (Alex) do in soccer.

I don't know if Mom and Dad are able to get internet access, but we're looking forward to hearing about your adventures too! We're also anxious to hear how the beginning of school has been for our Como cousins! And Bailey, are you out there somewhere???

We love you all!

A Big Day

He's looking pretty relaxed for a guy who's about to be on national TV.

Not bad for a Midland Texas boy.

Paul and Cary got the 32oz. Kobe beef to celebrate that night. They ate the last of it "Texas-style."

American Idol Star Sightings in NYC

"Gina" and all the American Idols were staying at the hotel where my friend and I were staying. I saw Hayley, but didn't get her picture. Gina stepped out of the elevator and was very nice and let me take her picture. Does anyone think I look a little "stalkerish?"

"Chris" from American Idol

Jennifer Pellow and I loved watching tennis at the US Open