Winding down and moving up!

This time of year is so busy with end of year activities and it is even busier when people are graduating or getting ready to change schools (dances, parties, field days, awards and promotion ceremonies). So, this post is all over the place but  it's a re-cap of some of our end of year activities so far.

Well, here we are and Harry will be finished middle school next week.  I am SO GLAD!  I don't usually wish away years or phases. Typically,  I try to enjoy each stage of parenting as it comes my way.  But I will say that having gone through it twice, I think middle school can be really rough.  Harry was plagued with stress and migraines in 6th grade and it was such a hard year for us.  He even transferred schools in October of 6th grade.  There were days that I was not sure we would make it.

But he did.  He managed to get through with straight A's even though he missed a ton of school due to illness in 6th and 7th grades.  He also took the most advanced classes available.  He played three years of lacrosse and was a real leader on and off the field.  And he was a good friend to others. He was also in the National Junior Honor Society. And finally,  I have loved working in the school store with him every Wednesday morning for the past 3 years.

This past weekend was the 8th grade dance.  Harry is not one who usually likes things like this but he had fun with his friends.  They are all going to different high schools so this was bittersweet.

And I took these pictures before the dance....

I am really thrilled that all three of our kids are well rounded and involved kids.  But, it makes it extra hard this time of year to get to all of their events/recitals/games.  Dave and I often have to divide and conquer (as most parents do). And sometimes we don't make it to everything.

Will just finished up water polo season and I am very proud of him.  He was really a leader on his team this year and one of the captains.  He has made so much progress in the last few years.  Often his games are at the time of day when I am picking up Kate from school or driving gymnastics carpool.  Often they are very far away too.  So between gymnastics, violin and lacrosse, I did not make as many of Will's water polo games this season as I would have liked to.  I am going to work really hard next year to get to more of them.  I really like watching him play.

Love this shot of Will about to score.  

He played really well this weekend and was happy to see us all there cheering him on.

I  think their teams took 2nd and 3rd in the championship tournament.

Kate had her violin recital a few weeks ago and it was awesome.  I cannot believe how far she has come. She trains 16 hours a week in the gym every single week for her gymnastics team now. So with homework, there is not a lot of time left for violin.  Her teacher schedules her group lesson for Kate's day off from the gym and Kate has the drive and determination to stick with it.  I am not sure how much longer she will be able to do that.

I did not video the recital because I just wanted to watch and for her to see my smiling face NOT the back of a phone.  But I did ask her to play a little Ode to Joy before the concert.  I posted it here on Instagram.

And Harry had his last regular season lacrosse game. It rained so I did not get a chance to take many photos.

That is Harry front and center #18.


Finally, Will had his Junior Ring and Cross Mass.

Kate could not go because it was her last CCE class before First Holy Communion.

We love Father Bravo.  He has been an awesome mentor to Will the past few years.  We are sad he is leaving Jesuit this year for an assignment in Puerto Rico.

Will has an awesome group of friends at his high school.

They are all really fabulous. accomplished, good guys.  I feel blessed that they are his friends.

Although his friends all ordered a high school ring, Will decided not to get one.  He LOVES his school but he did not think he'd ever wear the ring.  And he is probably right.  I am glad he was practical about it because none of his friends have worn their rings since they got them.

But they all got a beautiful handmade wood cross that they hang from their car mirror (his friend is holding the cross two photos up).  And they officially became seniors along with the privileges (going off campus for lunch).  It was a beautiful Mass and I teared up quite a few times thinking about his senior year and graduation.

I think I need a nap now;)  This week, we have Harry's powder puff lax game and field day, a field trip for Kate, her end of year gymnastics party and some award ceremonies.  I am looking forward to summer!

an Austin weekend

A few weeks ago, Will's water polo team had a tournament in Austin.  Austin is a really cool city and even though we knew that most of our time would be spent in the UT natatorium, we decided to make a quick family weekend out of it.  These are a combo of instagram photos and camera photos.  I really love instagram.  It is probably my favorite form of social media right now.  You can follow me on instagram here.

So we drove into Austin and I saw this painted wall.  I made Dave pull over to take photos.  This is when my kids moan and groan and loathe having a shutterbug for a mom:)  None of us were really in the mood for pics but this wall is so cute.  I think it would make a great backdrop for an engagement shoot or a wedding shoot.

You can just see how excited they were to do this for me;)

One of the kids took an instagram of me and Dave....



So the reason we were in Austin was to see if Will's high school water polo teams could qualify for the Junior Olympics in California this summer.  And while his particular team did not do too well in Austin, his school qualified two teams.  So in a few weeks, Will gets to go to California to compete in the Junior Olympics.  We are really excited for the teams.  We are told they will probably not win any games.  Will's school has some of the best water polo in Texas.  They have won the State title a year or two ago BUT the California kids have been paying their whole lives and our kids have not.  It is a great experience nonetheless and they have so many fun things planned.







I really enjoy watching water polo. It is fast paced and exciting.  And the games last about 40 minutes max! There is literally no time to get bored. The tournaments all run precisely on time and most are indoors.  I have best friends who sit outside here in Texas in 100 degree heat all weekend for baseball tournaments.  That would likely drive me nuts.  I do not tolerate the heat that well. I am not knocking baseball at all but this sport is much more my style for spectating.  It is hard to photograph though especially without a good telephoto lens (hint hint honey).

Since, the tournaments run so efficiently, you can leave and come back. So we had a few things on our list to try to squeeze in while we were in Austin. One of the places we went was Barton Springs.  These are natural cold springs. And they were COLD!  But very refreshing...











Will and Kate had a lot of fun here.
 Dave, Harry and I went in too but I guess I did not get any snapshots of us.

After this we got to go see my niece's house.  She goes to college in Austin and so we got to see her very cool house and take her out for tex-mex and margaritas.  I cannot believe my niece (who was the flower girl in our wedding) is of legal drinking age now!  I did not bring my camera and have no photos which bums me out but we had fun!

The next day brought two more water polo games and then when we had a break we escaped for more family fun. One of Harry's new obsessions is rock climbing and he had researched a rock gym close to the natatorium n Austin.  So, we headed over there for an hour of rock climbing.








Look at the muscles in her back!





 An instagram of Katie Ru bouldering.
  She amazes me.  As girly-girl as she is, she can totally hang with the boys too.
  And she is wicked strong from all the gymnastics conditioning.

She has spent all summer hanging with me or the middle school boys that are always around (Harry's friends).  She even goes to the middle school chess club with all the boys!

That pretty much sums up our weekend in Austin.  We also ate a lot.  Like Houston, Austin had GREAT places to eat.  We had fabulous Tex-Mex, awesome frozen custard and one of our faves, Kerbey Lane.

And we stopped in a regional favorite place too...



{pronouced Bucky's}

What is Buc-ee's?  Well it is apparently the world's largest convenience store (67,000 square feet).  This place has everything.  And some really good Texas gourmet food too.  It is so much fun to wander around inside.  They also have the nicest and cleanest bathrooms.  Here are a few of my instagrams from inside....





If you ever go to Buc-ee's you need to get a kolache.
 I also hear the fudge is really yummy too but I am not a fudge person.

Hope y'all have a fabulous 4th of July!  I am sure I will be back with some pictures.
We have a hodge-podge of plans.

What is going on around here...

A lot!  We have so much going on around here and I think this is the most neglectful I have ever been of my blog. So I want to do an update on everything/one. This will be part one--Harry and Will.


Will has been doing well.  His first year of high school has been an adjustment for sure as it is perhaps the first time in his life he has had to study.  That was a bit of a shock for him I think.  It has been hard for us too as we want him to find his own way and make his own mistakes (and learn from them).  But we know how important all these years are in regards to college admissions.  He did make the honor roll and he seems to be improving on his organizational skills and his study habits (with quite a bit of coaching from me).

Will tried out for the water polo team and made the JV team.  We are so happy for him as not many freshmen made the team.  Traditionally, Will has not been one to really enjoy a lot of team sports.  Growing up, he played soccer and baseball and flag football but his heart was never really in those things.   It is so nice to see him finding his niche in high school with swim team and water polo.  His first few games were this week. I am looking forward to catching a game this week as I have never seen a water polo game before.

In other news, Will has his first job!!!  I am really proud of him for this.  Last summer he did a junior life guard volunteer program and they told me he was the best one they'd ever had and that once he was old enough to be certified, they would hire him.  So, he got certified over Christmas break and was hired a few weeks ago.  He is working mostly on school breaks (Spring Break, Easter and all Summer) and a Saturday or Sunday here and there.  He is trying to balance school, water polo and work and so far I think he will be fine.

{instagram /I-phone sneak shot--he really does not let me take his picture much}

I cannot say how happy I am that he is working!! I have observed that fewer and fewer teenagers have jobs these days and it really bothers me. I think having a small part-time job teaches teens SO much (time management, scheduling, personal responsibility, honesty and integrity, money management, communication skills, how to get along with others and the list goes on).  It has always been very important to me that our kids work once they are old enough and it makes me thrilled that Will wants to work. He is at work right now in fact!


Now for Harry...

We are really trying to get some relief for Harry's chronic migraines. I know I probably sound like a broken record but they are so debilitating y'all.  And he gets so many.  Sometimes he gets 4-5 a week.  In fact, as I was typing this, he was upstairs with one that started a day ago.  We have traveled to Austin (3-4 hours each way) for two atlas orthogonist treatments which are meant to help with these and he ended up with a horrific migraine immediately after the treatment.  We have felt so defeated.

I will say that I think the atlas treatments are helping me and I hope they will eventually help him.  But it s quite a challenge to travel there for them at this stage of our life.

{Harry and Scout Instagram shot}

In other news, Harry is loving lacrosse.  He is the team captain and is playing with most of his best friends which is so nice. I love watching him be a leader out there with his peers. He has never been on a team with his best friends before and they are having fun.  They are a new and very "young" team with a volunteer Dad coach (who is fabulous).  So they were losing their games by quite a bit each week.  But every week they narrowed the score and last week, they had their first win!  Of course, it was the week I did not bring my camera and Harry scored 4 of the 6 goals.  He assisted on one of the other goals too.  Harry needed that.  Sometimes these headaches really get him down as he misses out on so much.  So, to be such an integral part of the team felt so good to him. Since it has taken me a week to finish this post...they had their 2nd victory yesterday.  So proud of all his buddies for working so hard.

{how adorable is that smile--taken after the big 1st win and goals?!}

{Habu is #36 here but I think he'll be #18 when his jersey comes in though}

{These are I-phone snaps}

I did not think I would enjoy watching lacrosse nearly as much as I do.  I am not a huge sport spectator (at all) but this game is so fast moving and exciting.  We are really enjoying it.

Also, remember last summer when I told you that Harry and I had something BIG going on?  Well we were invited to be part of a magazine shoot for a great community organization here called Positive Works.  Harry has been really involved in +Works as a student and I attend as many of their functions as I can as well.  We are so thrilled with this organization and what they do.  +Works and Harry are featured in this month's Redbook magazine!  So proud of him.

I am working really hard with fabulous clients, giving talks, organizing our summer camps and vacation, getting things ready for The Nurtured Home site and cheering on my athletes in water polo, lacrosse and gymnastics.  It is just constant activity around here.

Please pray for my friend Mary.  She has an incredible story.  A few months ago my friends and I started meeting to pray for our friend Norma who has Inflammatory Breast Caner (she is doing well so please continue to pray for her too).  We meet every Monday at my house and say a healing rosary. Mary started coming to the rosary and we welcomed her in (I did not know her but figured someone in the group did).  One week, after we prayed the rosary, Mary shared her story with us.  She told us that she was in Houston waiting on a heart.  She always had a back-pack (LVAD) but none of us thought anything of it. It turns out that back-pack was keeping Mary alive while she waited for a perfect match. Mary was here with her youngest son for 2 years waiting while the rest of her family lived in their home state.  She had to be here so that as soon as they got a match, she could have the transplant.  So, we began praying for God to let Mary have the perfect heart in His time.  We prayed this just last Monday with Mary.  And lo and behold, this week Mary got her heart!  She is doing really well but you can imagine how difficult a heart transplant must be.  She needs prayer for continued healing.

I share this story with you because Mary has been such an inspiration to me and my friends.  She showed up every week to pray for other people even though she needed a lot of prayer.  I never heard her complain about being away from her family or waiting so long or feeling bad.  She always has a smile and asks about others.  She wears a collection of miraculous medals and has miraculous faith if you ask me.  I love when God puts these women in my path.  I learn so much from them.

I have Kate's update coming next.  Hope you are doing well.