Waited 18 years to use

     This year has been an exciting time for those of us that are 49er fans. This coming Sunday, they will be facing the Ravens in the Super Bowl!!! Needless to say, John is beyond thrilled and proudly hoisted our 49er flag outside our home after the team won the Championship game a few weeks ago.

     Another fun thing that we are bringing out in celebration of the 49ers being in the Super Bowl is a special party pack that has been accumulating dust for almost 20 years! The last time San Francisco was in the Super Bowl was in 1995 when they defeated the San Diego Chargers.

     If memory serves me correctly, John's Mom bought this little football party pack of 49er items shortly after the Super Bowl. John, wanting to use the items in the best manner, said that he wanted to hold off using them until they were back in the Super Bowl again. Never did we imagine that it would be 18 years until they could be used! I guess this shows our family isn't fair weather sports fans. We stick with our teams through thick and thin.

The 49er party pack- plates, cups, and napkins still wrapped up.

Along with a very mashed up football serving tray. This item has moved several times and survived the trek from California to Tennessee. Glad we still have this pack as all we can find in the local stores is Titans gear.

His face might not exude how happy he is, but I assure you John is SO excited that the 49ers are back in the Super Bowl. Looking forward to the big game this Sunday. Go Niners!!!

Award for JT

     With JT being just 3 1/2, he doesn't get as many opportunities as his sisters to be formally recognized for his efforts and achievements outside of High 5's and Cheering from John and myself. However, this week, JT received an award!

The No Cavity Club! Music to a parents ears every 6 months- "No cavities and everything looks perfect Mom." In addition to his little certificate, JT received a bag filled with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, some stickers, and 2 toy cars he selected when he was finished. Good job buddy! Love that beautiful smile!

Stairs Slide

     After being a Mom of just girls for most of my parenting years, I am discovering new things every week thanks to being a Mom of a little boy. While there are some similarities of course, but there are things JT does that the girls simply never did.

     Today's post is a small example of this. Last week JT called out for me to watch him come down the stairs. This is what I was greeted by-

     Nothing extreme thankfully (yet), but just how a 3 year old boy will think- "I think I need to slide down these stairs on my belly." amazes me. The girls never had the opportunity to come up with this, as we have never lived in a 2 story home up until two years ago, but I wonder if they ever would have at this age. I know that they never tried to jump from furniture piece to another furniture piece like he was participating in Parkour. What is Parkour? Watch this hilarious video from The Office. I haven't been able to catch moments like that on video yet, but it does happen.

Long lost twin?

     One of the shows we enjoy watching as a family is America's Funniest Home Videos. In  fact, JT will specifically if we have any "new videos" to watch every now and then. He is at a wonderful age where silly things like people falling down result in hysterical laughing. Sometimes I laugh more at JT's reaction than the actual videos being shown.

     Last night as we watched the show something unexpected happened- we discovered what appears to be a long lost twin. To whom? You be the judge. John and I thought it could easily be Lindsay or an older Courtney.

This screen shot reminds me of Lindsay for sure.

Here I thought of Courtney.

Kinda weird how much this reminds me of both of the girls. Anyone else see the similarities?

Father/Son Date

     After the girls and I enjoyed out night out, it was time for John and JT to have some fun. Their night involved a lot of dirt, noise, and big tires.

Before the big night, JT received a bit of a clue for his night in the mail. He would need a pair of strong ear protectors. Thankfully, he liked them right away and didn't want to pull them off.

Boys night out at Monster Jam!!!

At Bridgestone Arena, they converted the floor into a mini dirt track for the Monster Trucks.

Blue Thunder

Iron Man

JT cheering on his favorite trucks.

Midway through the Monster Jam, they had a  short dirt bike show. This guy here is catching some major air!

My 2 favorite guys having a great time!

Grinder

El Torro Loco

Grave Digger

Trucks getting big air!

Some of JT's expressions

     Both John and JT had a wonderful time at Monster Jam. JT talks about it nearly every day nearly 2 weeks after the event. His love for Monster trucks is just grown even larger/stronger. I'm wondering if his 4th birthday is going to be another Monster Truck party at this rate?

Side effect of hard working students

     We have been very lucky parents to be blessed with 3 daughters who have a love of learning, the drive for excellence, and great study skills. All of that comes at a price every now and then- girls who work themselves to the point of exhaustion.

     This week has been challenging for both Courtney and Lindsay. Take a look at two different photos that capture these hard working girls.

Courtney asleep at the table, pencil in hand, as she was preparing study cards for an upcoming test in Social Studies.

Lindsay, after working and studying all evening, was enjoying a mug of hot chocolate- and a cat nap. When we woke her up, she said that she just felt exhausted from her brain working so hard. *Honors Algebra and English are to thank for that work load.

     Hoping that as the girls ease into the semester, the workload will lighten or their little brains and bodies will adjust. In the meantime, we do all we can to help- lots of love, encouragement, and helping out wherever we can.

Wagon Wheels a-Rollin'

     Way back in mid December, Lindsay had her first high school play performance. For one of her electives, she took Theater 1 this fall. As part of the requirements of the class, each Theater class puts on a performance. Lindsay's class was performing Wagon Wheels a-Rollin' a western type play with quite a bit of humor mixed in.

Lindsay played Lullaby- a medium role according to her.

 Part of Lindsay's "crew" hanging out on the rock discussing the days events.

 They spotted a shooting star!

 Lullaby making a wish on the star.

 While the wish was being said, the bad guys creeped in!

 Lullaby was beside herself with emotion being overtaken by armed bad guys.

 After her crew was saved, one of the final scenes with most of the cast on stage.

 Lindsay's great acting skills showing shock at the vision of the shooting!

 Well done Lullaby! Take a bow.

 Lindsay and her friend, Alyssa, after the show.

Nursing School

     The spring semester for all the Apedaile girls started late last week. All of them have either a completely new batch of classes, or for Courtney a few new elective classes sprinkled in the mix. For Sarah, a new chapter begins- she started nursing school!

      Last year, she told John and I that she felt that she had found her calling in life- to pursue a career in nursing. She diligently worked hard and fast to gain acceptance to the nursing program with her first application this fall. Sarah is nervous, yet very excited to start the program.

     The nursing program is 2 years long at Campbellsville University. At the end of that time, Sarah, upon successful passing of board exams or the like, will be a Registered Nurse. Time and work in her program will reveal the area(s) of specialty/interest Sarah would like to work in. Though being a RN is fantastic, Sarah's goals aren't stopping there. She already plans to continue her education with the BSN program, which although is "just" a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing, in actually is more like the equivalent of a Masters Degree for most areas of study with you consider the class hours and requirements for the nursing department. I love and respect the drive and ambition Sarah has for her life.

     Talking to other nursing majors, Sarah has informed me that her social life will now be over for the next 2 years. Much of her time will be dedicated to learning, studying,eating, and breathing all things nursing. So if you can, please keep Sarah in your thoughts and prayers over these next 2 years and beyond. Maybe send her a word of encouragement or love through text, email, FB, or even snail mail. College students LOVE to get real mail from friends and family. Praying for you Sarah on achieving your dream of becoming a nurse.

Mother/Daughters Date

     Before Sarah returned back to CU, the girls and I had a night out together. We headed to Uptown Art for an evening of painting.  At Uptown Art, there is a calendar of events with each evening having a different painting that you can (hopefully) recreate. You are also allowed, and it seemed encouraged  to bring your own beverage to sip on while painting.The classes are usually 2-3 hours long. It was dominated with lots of women, but there were a few kind boyfriends and husbands who obliged in joining their partner.

After checking in we got on our aprons and assembled our pallet of colors.

From beginning to end the class is structured very well. We used acrylic paints and were told how many pumps to place on our pallets. 

Lindsay and Courtney were ready to paint! You can see on the gallery wall some examples of the different pieces they offer as options.

Sarah and I sat in front of Courtney and Lindsay.

Lindsay and Courtney getting started.

Courtney blending two colors to get the perfect shade.

Sarah working on her painting.

Lindsay leaning back for perspective.

Courtney making sure the edges were painted as well. 

Lindsay looking at the instructor for what to do next. 

You can also see how we mixed our paints directly on the paper covered table.

Step by step of my painting

It was quite amazing how all of these little steps came together for a decent outcome. First step- two blue dividing lines. The instructors gave us clues like "three fingers from the bottom" make your first blue line. Painting for dummies basically ;)

After blending some blue, black and a bit of white, we filled in the spaces. I really liked the streaks of black that would show up and create some shading.

Filled the middle section with black.

Then we made our Nashville skyline. The main building we were instructed to include was what we call the "Batman" building. It's probably the most iconic building from the downtown skyline. I wasn't happy with my Batman building- too much like cat ears(oh well!).

Then we started adding in the well know swirls in the sky from Starry Night. This was challenging to make it look light and flowing.

I missed a few steps, but you can see we added the moon, some stars, and more "swirls" in different shades of blue.

Then we filled in our skyline with black.

We then focused on the water area and did some cool wave like movements and little flares of blue along the  shore.

The final part was some lights along the shore and reflecting in the water. Another challenging part to do well. After that, I played around a bit creatively in my water area and then was pleased as could be for our class time with my painting.

Starry Night over Nashville

I love how each of our paintings were of course similar, yet different in the final outcome. We all had a wonderful time and we are looking at the calendar for when we can make our next painting together.