Summer Recap....

School is in full force now.  Austin and King actually brought home progress reports a couple of days ago; and I'm proud to say out of 10 classes between them,  there was only one C!!  Wanna guess who got the C and in what subject?  Yep!  Kingston...and reading.  The boy hates to read, but he's off to a good start this year overall.  We're just encouraging him to stay focused and to do his best. 
Read more below and see photos...

Plus,  we still have football to keep him motivated, and I'm sure having mommy read bedtime stories doesn't hurt either.   What!  He loves it!! REALLY!!!

Anyway, I feel like my life stood still the entire summer in the blogisphere because of our computer issues.  But in reality, we had something going on just about every weekend.    I thought I'd open up with a summer recap highlighting just a few things we did.

July

My SIL, Nicole's baby shower for my little nephew, Noah.  Here with my other SIL, Chanda.

And this was a beautiful sight at Noah's shower.  Nicole, with two of her closest friends, Cicely and Faye, all expecting around the same time - all boys.  While it was a precious sight to see, the rest of us ladies stayed away from the punch.

Me with my SILs...and crooked necklace and chunkiness (picked up a little weight over the summer).

After a long day at the baby shower and organizing Noah's gifts, we headed out to take my little niece, Markia shoe shopping. She had recently started walking and needed some hard bottoms.  Here she's asking the sales lady if they have this pink high-top in classic white. :-)

Markia's ready to pay for her shoes.  She reaches for her bag to take out her plastic...cup, but it's not enough to cover the her purchase, which is a small fortunate for baby shoes.

Two pairs of shoes and a pack of grippy socks later, she is ready to stride rite into the world!

And just to add a little drama in the mix...I found out Lon apparently has an  S on his chest.  On the way home that night, a van shot past us going at least 100 mph.  A few seconds later, we came upon this scene at the top of the I-95 bridge.  This car was smashed from front to back, and the van was facing the barrier between the highway and the river below.  My husband - Superman - pulled over, jumped out of the car faster than I could blink and started helping people out of the car and moving debris off to the side - cars still speeding past us.  Very scary, but I was very proud of him.  Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.  We found out the woman driving the van was high on drugs with a child in the car.

Mid July, our close friends Kim and William Anderson came to visit.   Over dinner at Casa Maria's at the beach, we talked for hours about old times and caught up on the latest.   For about 5 years, we were as thick as thieves.  We did everything together - dinner,  shopping, movies, vacations...you name it!  It was a sad day when they decided to move back home to Minnesota after Will finished his duty with the Navy.  It's not often that you find people who will make an impact on your life.  When you find that person or persons - cherish them and the time you have together.

Lon & Will

Me & Kim

Kim and Will's children Natalie and Marcus.  Nattie was born here in Jax.  She was a toddler when they left.  Now she's nothing but legs.

End of July brought high anxiety - for me and excitement for Lon and Kingston.  We finally decided to let him play football.  He knew he had to get his grades up before he could play, so he worked hard in school and earned this reward. Here, Lon gets him all suited up for practice.  I, on the other hand, kept a paper bag handy to stop hyperventilating... especially after the first practice. Couldn't understand why the coaches wanted them to ram each other so hard.   Too much for me.  Below, Lon makes a mean face to snap on Kingston's chin guard strap.

Imprinting his five teeth in his mouth guard.  Since this picture, he has lost at least three more baby teeth.  Not much to guard.  :-)

Lon gives him a little lesson on tucking the ball - I think.  :-)

But the first week of practice was met with some frustration.  Kingston wasn't afraid to hit, but he had to get used to intentionally ramming into someone.  He was really hard on himself.  Lon gave him a pep talk as my little niece, Malaya, listened in.

But by game 2, #4 was banging helmets all over the field!  And guess who was standing in the bleachers yelling louder than anyone else in the crowd?  Let's just say I don't need my paper bag anymore.  :-)

August

If you want to find characters for just about any cartoon or comic strip ever created, you can be sure to find it in Orlando. Weirdness like this is normal in O-town, but what's not normal is ME in the midst of it.  These otherwise normal citizens of our great country left their business suits, doctor's scrubs, and teacher's glasses and hair pins to don tights, wigs and in some cases, tails at the 2011 Anime Festival.  Lon and I had promised to take Austin if she could find a convention close to home.  Needless to say, she's a relentless child.  After a thorough search of the internet, she found this one in Orlando.  Lon conveniently had a photo shoot that weekend.  So Kingston and I were subjected to a day full of costume-clad weirdness at the Wyndham Hotel.

We started our exploration in the expo where we were greeted by a fox (for the sake of this story, I'll pretend these aren't real people.  I mean, we were in la-la land, right?)  I think he - the fox-  was some popular cartoon character because everybody stopped to take his picture. 

Austin stood out in the crowd while checking out the goods.  The three of us were definitely not dressed for the occasion.  Next year (yeah, she wants to go back), she plans to dress the part - and bring a friend.  I won't be going back.  Austin eats, sleeps and drinks anime.  In other words, she draws them, reads the books and watches all the cartoons.  I'll share some of her drawings one day.  At first, I was nervous that some of these people were a little creepy (kept my eye on the bunny on the right), but the more we walked around, I got a sense that everyone was there to just have fun.  I loosened up a little.

While I was watching the bunny's every move, Kingston had found a table full of swords.   I almost had a conniption until I actually grabbed it out of his hand. It was just a metal toy and not sharp at all. The answer to Kingston's question was still no. Notice the guy in the background...

I think he was just as nervous as I was, but I snapped a picture and made Kingston put it back.

Then we walked around and found groups like this that would stop walking and strike a pose at the drop of a dime.  It was definitely different, but you could tell these guys were pros.           

The only character I recognized - The Little Mermaid.

I - I don't know... At this point, I was just taking pictures for Austin while she was in a workshop.

This guy showed up just before we left.  He really stole the show.  Even I was amazed.  Before, I was stealing photo ops that someone else would asked for, but I actually went up to this guy and told him I had to take his picture for my daughter. He gladly went into character and struck a pose...

I called him Blue Boy...not sure who he was supposed to be.

We made our final rounds to the booths.  Kingston tried to help Austin pick out anime character buttons.

Finally, a decision....

She came...she saw...she... took all my money to buy buttons and some other goodies.  But finally, we could go home!

 Then...BAM!!

It was time for my date with Johnny!  Ok so it wasn't just me - not that Johnny Gill wouldn't invite me to an intimate concert in a secret location.  But it was actually a V-Intimate Nights concert sponsored by our local R & B  and Old School station, V101.5.    Special thanks to my SIL, Nicole, asking me to tag along.  She was expecting Noah in just a few weeks, but she was not about to miss this one.

Talk about intimate!  We were right up front.  Well - behind the right-up-front group of  screaming women.    Had to protect Noah from middle-aged women trying to steal a hugs , kiss or touch from Johnny.  I would share my video, but it's all over modulated because I was so close to the speakers.

Johnny put on a show that was out of this world amazing!  He sang all of our  favorites: "My, My, My"; "Rub You the Right Way" and his new one, "In the Mood".  Great concert!  Now if I can see him on stage with  Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike and Ralph, all would be right with the world.

Sending smooches to V101.5 DJ, Ericka, for the invite!! Check her out every Friday and Saturday night from 7 p.m. to  12 a.m.!