Candy Connections

We don't often do Halloweeny events, but this one is pretty cool! After football practice, the six of us (Gabby was at work) headed to the zoo for a fun night of lights, fire dancers, a DJ, spitting fish, and a TON of candy!

When we arrived at home, Brennen and Buck weighed their candy . . . Graysen's was more than 11 pounds and Buck's was more than 16!! Brennen wasn't in to trick-or-treating . . . until he saw how well it was going for his dad and brother, ha! He snagged my empty popcorn box and went back through the line to do some sugar gathering before the booths shut down for the night. Caelan filled her backpack purse with candy, too. Easily more than 30 lbs total. Wowza!

Goin' Courtin'

The story of Chase and Gabby began quite some time ago. As family friends, we spent countless hours, days, and even weeks getting to know each other. The kids went on near-constant adventures, which eventually led us to a Colorado vacation in the middle of the pandemic.

One day we were out hiking, I say we, I mean my NGF's kids and youngest brother and my kids were out hiking, in a beautiful, secluded pocket of mountains tucked away in Eleven Mile State Park. As the sun began to fade and handfuls of kids returned without some of the kids they'd left with, we thought, "Maybe sending them back into the woods, unattended, with no cell phone service, was not the best move on our part as parents."

As it turns out, we were correct. Gabby fell into a crevasse and couldn't get herself out. Chase appeared (I'm sure backlit by blue sky and beams of sunlight, just as a hero should be) and helped her safely escape what could have been a pretty dangerous scenario. It was at that moment that they both realized they liked each other . . . but they kept their feelings to themselves.

Fast forward to the spring of 2021--after their choir concert Chase confided in Gabby that he cared about her in a special way, and Gabby, delighted, said that she felt the same! They were both walking on clouds :)

But they were both young, and in Chase's family's eyes, still far too young for a relationship. And so, for the next year, they entered into a major time of trial. They had to trust God to work in His timing, and that was not easy to do. Their months filled with lessons about honoring their parents, trusting generational wisdom, and hoping that the required separation would not last. But it did last, for longer than they would have liked.

Then suddenly, in the summer of 2022, something changed. Chase spoke seriously to his dad for several hours, and his parents realized this wasn't a childhood crush. Gabby and Chase really care about each other. So, Chase's parents invited Gabby to church, then to lunch, then to movie night . . . she started spending more time with them than with us ;) We decided it was probably time to visit with Chase, so when he contacted Buck to set up a time, we scheduled a chat on the day we planned to leave for Ohio.

At the Scooters coffee shop, Chase opened up our time with a word of prayer. "Getting to know you" questions weren't really necessary, as we know so much about Chase and his family already. He's a great friend to our boys, he's generous, kind, and a hard worker. He's a talented musician and knows how to do all the scary things farm kids know how to do :) But we hadn't ever had the chance to hear his thoughts and to get to know his heart. So, we started by asking him to share his testimony--praise God for Christian parents raising their family to glorify Him and for summer camp! Then we asked about the year or so when he and Gabby were not permitted to spend time with or communicate with each other--which they were not always 100% successful at doing. Chase basically said of those months, "I love Gabby and I knew she was important."

We talked about his future plans and goals, and he's doing a lot of solid thinking at 17 years old. It was a good conversation and we felt comfortable permitting him to continue to pursue Gabby's heart. So, he hopped on his motorcycle and rode to wherever Gabby was (I think on campus?) I sent this message to Gabby . . .

And a few minutes later, this showed up on Facebook . . .

I think they still have some time to wait to be like official, official, official (when Chase is 18 in the spring), but I'm not sure there is much unofficial about them currently :) We're glad our girls have found really special guys! Thank you, God, for that!

Homeschool Homecoming '22

Wow, the weather was amazing for homecoming this year! Made me wish there was a football game to go with it, well, I guess there is one tonight :) This year, the boys didn't invite any guests to the dance, which made things a bit easier, coordination wise. Instead, I checked with a mom who is newer to the community to see if she wanted to send her boys with us. Our four guys have become good friends; they've been over to dig the pool, our boys have been to their house to play video games, they all volunteer at church together, etc. It's always more fun to do pics and go places with buddies!

Chase and Gabby decided they didn't really want to go to the dance, but they did want to dress up fancy, take pics, and then go to a fancy dinner at a steakhouse. Chase drove to our house after his senior pictures and got fancy in our laundry room. He ended up wearing the tie Noah selected for him when they stopped by his work, and it matched Gabby's ($10!) gown perfectly.

It was a little hectic getting that many ties tied well, quickly, but Gabby made sure everyone was looking dapper before we left . . . and I realized about five minutes down the road, that we'd forgotten the boutonnieres Caelan made the boys from these really cool "wood" flowers we found online. Drat!

Pictures went swimmingly at our friends' house, and I even took a family Christmas card picture for them before we left :)

We took lots of pictures in the fading light, here are some of Chase and Gabby and their first formal event . . . everyone else was wearing comfortable shoes, Gabby thought she should, too!

(Gabby remembered about the "look angry" model pose, but we forgot to tell Chase! :)

Graysen wore his knee brace and his sweet Air Force Ones. He said by the end of the dance, he and his buddies just sat out on the patio because his knee was hurting. "I did the worm in the middle of a dance circle, though." :) He said his knees never touched the ground, so it was fine. Ha! Let's see, other highlights I got . . . the DJ was good, but not as good as previous years. Someone snuck six raw potatoes into the dance? Random. It was fine until they started throwing them and our Varsity QB got hit in the face. Also, the perpetrators made the DJ take a bite of one of the potatoes, at risk to his own health. Idk. Weird. Oh, a bunch of their football friends were at the dance. The guy who got the concussion and ruptured eardrum wore a black fedora with a foot long feather pinned to the side. Graysen said it was sweet, but also annoying because the feather kept hitting people in the face :)

Meanwhile in the parking lot, lol, this was very funny! Buck drove up to hang out with me when he finished working. We got some food at one of the little businesses in the homecoming dance business park. When we returned to the van, Buck wanted to charge his phone off of the van's battery (Buck wanted to play his video game ;) After awhile I said, "Should I start the van to recharge the battery?" He said, "Nah, you could do this for seven hours and the battery would be fine!"

Maybe five minutes later, the whole van went dark. We both stared laughing and I said, "I TOLD you!" Buck texted Graysen and had him ask Rylan if he had jumper cables in his car. The text back: "Rylan didn't drive." Buck said, "Ask Cisco." "Cisco didn't drive either." This was about 30 minutes before the dance was due to end. All the other cars in our fleet have jumper cables in the trunk, just not either of the vehicles Buck or I were driving. I texted Caelan, and she was just getting off work. We were way out of her way but had to get the van started! I cancelled her rescue mission when I saw that there was a Walmart five minutes away that closed in about 20 minutes . . . Buck had just jumped out of the van to go get in his car, when his NGF walked up--with jumper cables!

It turns out, Buck started texting his NGF when he found out he and his wife planned to pick Rylan up from the dance. Little did we know, they were taking a nap in their vehicle, just one row away :) That's a quick rescue! The next challenge was the three-foot patch of rose bushes and landscaping between my van and Buck's car, which he'd parked a level lower than mine. It took some repositioning to get the cables to stretch, but they got the van up and running with just minutes to spare! Hooray for friends and unexpected bro time, lol, what a funny way to wrap up the evening :)

All the Football

Since I last updated, they boys played several flag football games. I'll start with the most memorable one . . . Graysen played QB, as he always does, for the duration of the out-of-town JV game. Graysen was well on his way to hitting his normal 36 attempted passes, when a player from the opposite team got a little pushy and sent Graysen crashing out of bounds. G$ was a bit slow to get up and had to take a pause because his shoulder didn't feel right. Buck had to hold me back. I was going to go get that pushy kid! :)

Our team led most of the game and was up by five points in the fourth quarter. A few plays later, Graysen launched a ball into the end zone. We all watched as his teammate tried to snag it, but it was just out of bounds. Then we looked back, and Graysen was on the ground for real this time. Nobody saw what happened because we were all watching the play. 

As everyone took a knee and coaches started pouring out onto the field, Buck said, "Just wait." He saw Graysen rolling in pain and said, "Okay, go." I basically dropped the stats board and ran out onto the field. He was in soo much pain. The ref tried to get him to calm his breathing and started asking him questions. Graysen was able to say that when he thew the ball, someone crashed into his right knee with a shoulder. It hyperextended it backwards or sideways, not really sure, exactly. Two nurses from the other team's bleachers ran out to do an assessment. We had a PT an EMT and our own team medics all evaluating. Gosh it was scary. I'm in tears again thinking about it. It seemed like he laid there in pain for 30 minutes, but it probably wasn't that long. He couldn't put weight on his leg, so Buck and one of the coaches helped more or less carry him off the field.

Our team medic set up his own chair (which was an amazing luxury cushioned thing), for Graysen to sit in. We did a group prayer, got ice wrapped around his knee, and gave him 800 mg of Ibuprofen (that's more than he's had in his lifetime :). His teammates came over to check on him individually and in pairs, all wishing him well and asking him how he felt. Not great, especially since the opponent ran the ball down the field and scored, putting them just ahead of our guys. Our back-up QB made a valiant effort to get the ball downfield in the final seconds, but a jersey tug put an end to our runner's attempt to reach the end zone. After all the Falcons did the traditional end-of-game sportsmanship line of "good game" high-fives and knuckles, they all ran to Graysen's chair to do the same for him. I was super impressed, that was pretty thoughtful!

By halftime of the Varsity game, our medic needed to leave. Caelan and Noah were going to bring over one of the chairs they were sitting in, but Graysen's pain meds had kicked in and he wanted to try to walk. And he did! He limped down to the halftime meeting on the far end of the field and then gingerly walked around the remainder of the game. That was a huge Praise God moment!

And believe it or not, that wasn't the worst of the day's injuries. Another really sweet young man on their team got mixed up in a pile of other guys. He cracked his head, but thought he was okay. By the end of the game, the Varsity's first loss, he couldn't hear out of his ear and was disoriented and dizzy. They called an ambulance for him. It turns out he did indeed suffer a concussion, plus hearing loss from a ruptured eardrum, gasp!! This game is so physical! Thankfully, he's doing okay.

A few highlights from that game for Brennen . . . he reached out and grabbed the ball with his fingertips, which should have resulted in a touchdown. Actually, he did "almost a touchdown" plays several times. The refs were a little flag happy and called so many penalties on our side, even focusing on a few rules we hadn't heard before. So, yes, the first loss, is always a bummer, but the boys played well. And my NGF got some great pics of B during the Varsity game, which I will share now . . .

After the game, our head coach and his wife invited all of the players and their families to his house for a hot dog roast. It was a beautiful evening, and lots of the guys could make it. They played volleyball and, of course, football in the giant yard. Graysen mostly sat, which seemed wise :) We enjoyed getting to know some of the other parents better and of course decompressed by discussing the day's injuries and their mostly positive outcomes.

With only Sunday off before the next game, Graysen took it slow in the morning, missing his scheduled Sunday school supervising duties. He did want me to come back and pick him up for church, though, and he sat in the audio booth with his buddies. He went to a car show with some of the guys and a youth leader right after church. After that, he and Brennen stopped home to catch up on some chores, before heading to their youth leader's house to put up Christmas lights with some of the other guys in their small group (Graysen just watched). After all that, they drove to get chicken, then went to a movie night with a couple of other student ministry leaders and friends from church! Super fun day, super limpy G$ :)

Buck had Monday off, so he went to our chiropractor's office and brought home a brace for Graysen's knee. Graysen has been wearing it pretty much ever since, when he leaves the house. He decided that he could play his final JV game Monday night. I was a little iffy about this, but Buck made sure he was good. Also, it was freezing. Absolutely bonkers cold! Graysen played the first half of the game but kept getting stuck into running plays . . . by halftime he was limping badly, so coach pulled him from the line-up. We are glad that he doesn't seem to need any further medical attention. If he's still hurting in a week, we'll probably take him in for a scan or some PT. We're just thankful he was not injured more than he was. Because as you probably all know . . . I CAN'T do knees, blech!