Megan's news lately...

Megan loves hanging out with her cousins & enjoyed time with them this past weekend. I thought this was a fun picture of the blond M's in the family - Mallory, Megan, & Mikiah. I apologize if I missed any other blonds or Ms. Bruce doesn't count cause he used to be blond but is now officially gray. I guess Zella & Amy VG are blonds too. We need to get you girls in the "blond" picture.
Megan loves babies and little kids. I've often thought she should teach Kindergarten cause I think she'd be good at it. Here she is playing with the amazing Z who can pull herself to a standing position without any help - just needs a little balancing.

Amy VG got this fun picture of Megan with her bag of tic-tacs. A friend asked her to the Homecoming dance by filling our mailbox with packages of tic-tacs. It was a fun idea and we are all enjoying the tic-tacs! I'll be sure to post pictures of Megan & Matt when they go to the dance in two weeks.

Megan performed in her first pep rally on Thursday. She did great & had a huge smile on her face the whole time. She certainly loves to cheer. She told me she was super nervous - even more than her first cheer competition last year. I guess it's because this was in front of her friends vs. judges.

That's Meg's friend Abbie in the picture. For those who heard the story, this is her friend with the "anger" issues. She's also a cheerleader. That's "Rocky the Raider" in the background. He's the school mascot.

Ryan is next - he has a super busy weekend so I'll have lots to report. He's got the first football game of the season on Saturday & a baseball tournament too.

A post about Bruce...

Bruce is in Vermont for work so I'm blogging about him. I can do this cause he's not here to tell me not to :)

Bruce and baby Z - our adorable 6 month old niece. He's always loved babies and Zella is very lovable - a good match!

I finally got a new camera and this was the first picture I found. Looks like Megan grabbed the camera for a close-up with Dad. I know Megan took it cause Bruce doesn't know how to work the new camera (or any camera) yet.

For anyone who thinks Bruce isn't "with it" - he says "Yo, yo...what up widt dat!"

Hawkeye boys -- Ryan and Bruce heading to a local sports bar to watch the Iowa game since it wasn't on our cable service. Ryan is basically Bruce's "mini-me" when it comes to being a Hawk fan. If Ryan didn't look so much like me, he'd be 100% a Bruce "mini-me!"

So that's what's new with Bruce...Megan's update is next. Lots going on with Megan :)

A sign of the times....

We have a new sign in front of our house announcing a SMS cheerleader lives here. Megan is posing with the sign and she's appropriately wearing one of her many cheer t-shirts.
This is all new to me & Bruce since we grew up in small town Iowa. Suburban high school parents are really involved with not one booster club for the school but rather a separate booster club for each sport. They even have a booster club for the choir, band, and theatre departments. I recall one Lohrville booster club that sold seaters and jackets. That was it -- not in OP, KS. Although we do fund raise too - anyone want to buy frozen cookie dough :)

We have a booster club just for cheerleading and I (Brenda) am the new treasurer. I think everyone else was afraid to count money :) We have our own SMS cheerleading spirit wear, signs, car decals, etc. It's kind of crazy. And...each sport/group booster club has their own end of season banquet.

So...the next time you drive by a house and see one of these signs, you'll know there's a very involved booster club doing a ton of work behind the scenes. It's all new to me...I'm curious if this was the case in Minot, ND and Wichita. Maybe SMS is normal and Lohrville was the exception.

First Days of School

School started this week and the kids are getting back into the swing. Ryan started on Monday where they have only the 7th graders and 9th graders attend. This gives them the ability to learn a new school without upperclassmen in the building.

Here's Ryan's first day of school picture. It was pouring rain so we couldn't take it outside. It was either in the kitchen or garage so we decided kitchen:
Megan started on Tuesday since she is a Sophomore this year. Her favorite part of being older is getting to drive to school. Bruce said he'd love to see what the Sophomore parking lot looks like at dismal in the afternoon. I'm sure it would make a parent cringe!

Here's Ryan's 2nd day of school picture:

He was waiting for the bus when I snapped this shot. It's not cool to have your mom taking a picture of you in front of the other Jr. High kids. I threatened to take his picture getting on the bus but didn't :)

Megan's New Hairdo

Megan got a new "back to school" hairdo. I think it's very cute & very blond. The blond is for cheerleading. We've found the blonder you are under those lights the better it looks. Guess it matches all that glitter make-up better :)

Meg thinks she'll go back to her original color someday - post cheerleading days. Her original color now is almost as dark as mine. She used to be blond like her daddy when she was little so who's to say what her "original" color is.

Here are the photos of her hair. I thought all the hairstylists in the family would appreciate these multiple views:

I don't have a good camera so you can't see all the layers. It's much shorter and she almost cried when she saw the finished look. She kept her eyes closed while it was being cut. Yikes! She likes it now but always reacts that way when it's newly cut. That's why I don't subject family members to cutting her hair. It can be traumatic until she decides she likes it :) - which is usually several hours later.

I gotta say though - the kid has guts to go for drastic changes!

End to Ryan's Golf Season

Ryan's golf season ended Wednesday when he played in a 3 day tournament. Actually, it was two days since the tourney was rained out on Tuesday. They added the Monday & Wednesday score together for final placings.

Here's Ryan with his 5th place trophy for his flight. They gave trophies to 6 places so he barely snuck in there. He shot a 54 on Monday and a 57 on Wednesday for a 111.
Funny if you look back to last year's blog for this tournament -- Ryan got a 4th place trophy and is wearing a different green & white striped shirt. Maybe a green & white striped shirt is his lucky charm :)

Our August

Here's a pictorial summary of what August means to us:

Football - Ryan heading to the first practice in pads:

Cheerleading - Megan is off to a four day cheer camp. Her schedule for August is crazy with camps for both high school & competitive cheer. She's driving (yikes) to a local high school for the SMS cheer camp in this picture:
And yes...she called me and made it there safely :)

Ryan recently joined a new baseball team and will play year-round starting this month. I'll try to get a picture of him playing "fall ball" once it starts mid-month. His new team is red like his old team so it may look like repeat pictures :)