Toole Cousins

Abbigail

Hunter

Toole Grandkids

Texas Bound

"Mom, tomorrow I think we need to leave GA at about 5:00AM. That should get us to Oma's house at 7:00, just in time for dinner.....What? You don't like that idea? But 5:00 is the time you get up for school every day. You should be used to it by now cuz I think you've been doing that for like fifteen years or something....."

A few minutes pass.

"Mom, I was thinkin'. I think we should probably try to leave GA at 1:00AM so that we can get to Oma's before it's dark. What? You don't like that idea either? Just think. We will be the only people on the road at that time and just think how fast we could go."

A few minutes pass.

"Mom, I was thinkin'. Why don't we just leave tonight after dinner? I could sleep. Keagan could sleep. You wouldn't have to listen to us fight, and then we would be at Oma's house in time for lunch and in time to play football with Opa!"

Evan, I was just thinkin'. I can't wait for you to be sixteen so that you can drive all night and get us to Oma's by lunch!

15 hours in a car with two boys, driving a car on its last leg. I think I must be crazy. I keep telling myself it will all be worth it, though, when I reach that Texas line. 

SOAR Student

Last week Evan came up with the great idea of having a class kick ball tournament. The Best of Five, he calls it. He some how persuaded every kid in his class to participate (even the girl who wears high heels), and he even asked the teacher to be the umpire (because according to Evan his teacher knows everything about kickball, and just as much as Opa knows about baseball). He went so far as to say that he thought the wins and losses should be graphed in a bar graph (he just might be my son).

He wrote up a list of names for the draft, created team rosters, and even wrote out his kicker line up. Believe me when I say he has put a lot of time into this kickball tournament. In fact, he left the house this morning lamenting the fact that he had put all of his weak kickers in the middle of the line up and he didn't think this was a really good strategy. He decided to re-write the line up while on the bus on the way to school.

If anyone knows Evan, you know he is competitive. He can't lose, just can't lose. At anything. Uno. Checkers. Soccer. So when teams were created and he began picking the kids from the class to be on his team, I was completely shocked to hear his choice. He picked a special ed student, the kid that doesn't really fit in and the kid that others laugh at when they see him in the halls. Today, in game three of The Best of Five, that kid kicked a triple and later scored a run so that his team won. The team went wild and this little boy went crazy with excitement. Eventually, the entire class was cheering for this little boy. Evan's retelling of today's game brought a tear to my eye...okay maybe two tears to my eyes.

Next month, when I am believing for the 500th time that I have made the worst decision in the world to send my kids to public school, I want to remember today's story. This lesson in life could never be taught in my living room. This lesson in life would never be experienced at the private school down the street.

Congratulations, Evan. This is just one reason why you deserve this month's recognition as SOAR student!

Night Before Christmas

It's 73 degrees and the air conditioning has been on all day, but today was the first grade Christmas program. Keagan's class dressed as reindeer.

Keagan nailed his lines and his phenomenal acting skills had everyone chuckling, or maybe it was because it was the only set of lines audible by the audience. Either way, it was awesome to be able to see it, and since the front office at my school lost my leave form, I almost didn't get to see it.

The program went off like any other program with 125 six year olds, something akin to organized chaos with really bad choreography. However, the star of the show was Santa himself. It wasn't just any old Santa cameo, though, Guys. This Santa really got into the finale of the program. He danced with Mrs. Clause, sang a few lines of the Christmas carols, and walked through the sea of little kids patting them all on the head. Until his pants fell down to his knees. No lie, Guys. Santa was standing in nothing but his underwear in front of 450 people dancing, and after what seemed like a lifetime, he finally realized his pants were wrapped up around his knees. The lady sitting next to me, a complete stranger, grabbed my arm with one hand, put one hand up to her mouth in a state of shock, and started mumbling words, words completely lost to me because I was trying to figure out how Santa's lack of pants could be related to the story of the Night Before Christmas.

We all left laughing so hard our bellies were shaking like bowls full of jelly.

Keagan said, "It's a good thing Santa likes to wear Under Armour because if he wore Tighty Whities like Daddy, then that just would have been really embarrassing." 

St Nicholas Day

The German tradition continues in Georgia, and the boots are next to the door. In nine years, this is the first time we have not used combat boots. This year they are actually being used by our soldier.

Today Keagan asked, "Mom, why am I the only one in my class who knows anything about putting my boot next to the door?"
Evan answered for me. "Keagan, you have to be Germans like us to know anything about St. Nicholas and putting your boot by the door. All those other kids weren't born in Germany so they don't understand."

I LOVE how Evan is in third grade and still believes he is German. He told me the other day that if Wes gets the job in Germany next fall, he will refuse to learn German. I asked him what he planned to speak with his German soccer friends, and he said, "Well, they will just have to learn English."

He may believe he is German, but he thinks like an American.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Sports Injuries

We got second place in this weekend's soccer tournament. It was so much fun - especially on Saturday when we came out on top at both games. In fact, it was so exciting to see my two babies play forward together that as Evan made a pass to Keagan, and Keagan took a shot on the goal, I was jumping up and down and screaming with anticipation. I might have been shouting "SHOOOT!!!" I might have been shouting, "Sweet Baby Jesus let that ball go in!!!!" Because it is the holiday season, my prayers and the birth of Christ could have mingled together in my head to form some new plea of divine intervention. I really can't remember. But I do know that I was not the mother who shouted to her son, "Push his a$$!!!" That was the opposing team's loud, vocal mom, and as loud as I might be, that type of language has never crossed my lips. My mind maybe. My lips no.

But here I was on the sidelines. The ball was moving in slow motion. I was cheering. I was jumping. I took one giant leap, as if I were going for the ball myself, and I felt it pop. My right calf. My right calf popped. I calmly took a seat and decided to stretch it out, but I couldn't. I couldn't even walk up the sideline to watch the corner kick that resulted in Keagan's missed shot.

I continued to cheer when Evan stopped a million shots on the goal, though, and I continued to jump up and down when Evan beat the other team to the ball. This time, though, it was on just one foot. After the first game, I became quite proficient at the one legged cheer.

Evan thought it was pretty cool that I had a similar injury to Miles Austin. He asked me to explain how it felt. He wanted every detail; I think because he doubted the severity of his favorite player's injury. However, I spent Saturday night scooting around the floor of the house on my butt, that's how painful it was, and he quickly understood a pop in the calf is a serious injury. Especially when it impacts the meal you are served for dinner.

The boys' coach has decided all parents will participate in the team's pre-game stretches and warm up so that further injuries to spectators on the sidelines will be eliminated. I am expected to lead the first lap around the complex as soon as I can walk again. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to admit to my co-workers that I tore my calf muscle cheering for my sons on the sidelines of the soccer field? I had to tell the truth because no one believed my original story: "I was just standing on the sidelines, took a step, and then I felt it pop."

SOAR Student

Keagan got SOAR student this month. A few years ago, when he was in pre-school, I would have never believed you if you told me that he would come home from elementary school with green smiley faces and excellent reports. He has always been the "funny" son, and he constantly entertains us at home with dances moves, impersonations, and his quick wit. He has also been known for a brazen act or two. Take last night for an example. He skipped through the parking lot of Food Lion yelling, "I have a rash on my butt." Evan and I ran to the car to hide because we were so embarrassed, but Keagan LOVED that we were so mortified. He couldn't have cared less that half of Hinesville was staring at him. Before he started school, I had visions of his constant talking and attempts to get every students' eyes on him with his break dancing moves or his impersonations of bad American Idol auditions.

But quite the opposite has actually occurred. He has become the model student and nothing like the preacher's kid that I had previously envisioned. With a criminal investigator as a dad and a mom as a teacher, though, I don't know that he ever stood a chance at being bad at school.