14 Years

Bode turned 14 today; he can now legally operate a personal watercraft (e.g. a waverunner) on his own.  He took the online course and passed the boating safety test, so I guess that means he's water-legal :-)  To celebrate, we would have taken the toys out, but it is just a tad too cold for the water activities (at least that is what we are telling Bode :-)   

We started the day by opening presents and playing ring with Barkley.

Bode got some cool t-shirts and apple earbuds plus some hard currency from very generous relatives and friends.

We didn't do anything exciting during the day; I wish I could say we had huge plans, but we are sort of lame; plus, his birthday being right after Thanksgiving makes it hard to want to go out for a big dinner :-)  Still, we did get a wonderful cake--chocolate decadence, and Ashley and I sang the tune without paying any licensing fees to Warner/Chappell music; don't tell anyone.

Bode is quite the strapping young man.  

He's just a hair shorter than me, and at the last weigh-in, he topped the scales at 163 pounds.  He's also lifting quite a bit in gym class, which means I better start hitting the weights or he'll quickly surpass his old man.  It is hard to believe in one year, I could be taking him out for his first driving lesson.  Yikes.  Pleasant week to all.

Thanksgiving and a Birthday

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week.  Grammy was down for a visit, and Bode enjoyed having his other grandmother in town for the week.

I didn't take many pictures, and I should have done a better job planning a family photo.  I did get this weird one of Ashley--she's probably giving her critique of the peach cobbler she made (it was not good, but definitely not her fault--the recipe needs to be thrown out and burned.

JoAnne and Frank brought Ashley's and Bode's combined birthday gift.  Here are the two of them trying to figure out how to get the box open.

Nana and Papa got them a cool dart board for our new game room.  I think we just need to get a piece of cork-board to mount behind it--I'm not saying we're bad at darts, but I imagine we'll have a few throws where we completely miss the board :-)

Grammy left on Friday, and then on Saturday, we celebrated Ashley's birthday with a trip to the Goofy Golf and the Waffle House (she's an easy date).  We then hoped like hell for an Auburn win in the Iron Bowl, but they lost in 4 OTs... :-(  Still, Ashley managed to put on a happy face when she blew out the candles on her birthday cake.

And for those of you who are blog aficionados, yes, that is the same shirt Bode had on in his band pictures.  Bode and I even sang (badly) to Ashley.

Ashley's is now the big LI (in Roman Numerals).  She doesn't look a day over XXXIV.  Pleasant day to all :-)

First Chair

We received some great news last week.  Bode tried out for the All-County band.  Amazingly, Bode was selected as the first-chair for trumpet, which (I think) means he was deemed the best of the 15 or so other trumpeters that auditioned--well done young man!  Ms Tordi posted the achievement to the band's Facebook page:

What's actually kind of embarrassing is Bode also made the All-State band; this announcement was done a few weeks ago, and Ms Tordi also posted to the band's Facebook page. 

Why do I say this is embarrassing?  Because Bode is wearing the SAME SHIRT in both pictures even though these pictures were taken weeks apart (note the big change to Grace's hair...)  I guess we should get him some shirts for Christmas :-)  Pleasant week to all.

Joey

 We had to say goodbye to Joey today.  It was almost eleven months since he was diagnosed with cancer and we were told he had "weeks to months" left.  We are so grateful for our time with him.  He was the absolute best, sweetest dog, and we can't believe he is gone.

Barkley is really going to miss Joey.  She has only been away from him for less than a week since she's lived with us.  I wish I could explain things to her; the best I could do was to play this song for her because I think it describes how she (all of us) are feeling.

So long, Joey.  You were our best friend, and we love you so much.

Jun 2013 - 20 Nov 2021.

All-State

 We received some wonderful news last week.  In September, Bode auditioned for the Florida All-State Middle School band.  He had to play scales, do some sight-reading, and perform two pieces for a group of judges.  Kids from all across the state did this.  The results were published last week, and Bode was selected!  Pretty cool for him.  He gets a trip to Tampa Bay in January for four days where he will rehearse with the other members of the All-State band, and then they will perform for the Florida Music Educator's Conference.  One of us (or both) will go with him, so it should be a fun time.

The Meigs band did a tribute to veterans this week.  We asked Bode if there was anything special planned for the concert; of course, he told us no, but when we opened the program, we saw this:

At the very top, you can see Bode was scheduled to play Taps with two other trumpet players.  I think they played very well--Bode called it a Taps Echo.

They played a number of nice selections.  Here is America the Beautiful.

Nana and Papa came to the concert.  I tried to get some pictures, but Bode is definitely a teenager when it comes to taking pictures, so this was the best I could do.

To celebrate Bode's All-State selection, we took him to his favorite restaurant, Magnolia Grill.  I got a picture of Bode as we were going inside--I don't think he was thrilled with having his picture taken :-)

I tried to get some shots inside the restaurant, but the lighting was too low; below is the best I could do.

Bode got the filet mignon and loved it.  

The weather is getting cold here--it was below 50 when I woke up this morning!  Brrr...