Fall Soccer is Here

William began his soccer season this past Saturday. Julie and Claire went to Oklahoma to celebrate Sandra's 30th birthday and it was for the best. William started the game, but 5 minutes in he had a huge collision. He was streaking down the field at full speed with the ball and the last defender came up and tripped him. He flew about 6 feet through the air and landed awkwardly on his arm. He jumped back up and continued playing until the next stoppage of play when he came running over in tears holding his arm. You have to understand that William doesn't leave the field for anything so I was pretty sure he was hurting a lot. We iced it down and he played the 3rd quarter, but was still holding it the whole time.

I was optimistic that it was just bruised and hopeful that it would feel better after a good night's sleep. Sunday morning he woke up and was still in a lot of pain so I took him for X-rays. Nothing broken thankfully.

So what was the real evidence that it was bothering him? This is his 5th season, and that's the second game he's played without scoring a goal. Ironically, it's the second game in a row because our final game of the Spring season we played the best team in the league and got killed :(

He really is a very talented soccer player. I know... I know... I'm the proud dad that can only say positive things about my kids, but he really is very talented so give me just a moment to brag on him a bit. We played in the toughest division last spring and there was probably only 1 or 2 other boys that could match his speed and skill level. He has a ton of fun and just turns into a different person when he gets on the field. He's such a class clown type personality when not on the field, but when he pulls on those cleats he gets so intense and focused and REALLY competitive (I don't know where he got that). Anyway, Julie and I continue to watch him develop and are very proud of his accomplishments.

What about Grant? Well, he decided to play baseball and that starts in 2 days if Ike stays away...

Yep, that means another long post of me doting on one of my children ;)

Pictures from 1st Day of School

Here are a few pictures of the first day of school. As always, you can click on each pic for a larger version. For those of you who aren't sure, William is on the left and Grant on the right in the first 3 pictures.

Grant, William and Mommy stop and pose in the atrium of the school. In the background you can see the equipment that will be used later during the boys' favorite "subject", RECESS!!!!!

William is quite finished with the picture taking at this point and begins to contemplate whether we will actually leave or not :)

Grant has already seen us linger in William's class and gives us his best "polite face" all the while wondering, "Are they going to act like this next year for second grade too?"

Starbucks

Well, the big day is here! It's 6:20 AM right now on the first day of school for 1st grade. Ugghhh!!!!!!!! All I can think right now is, "I don't think I know where a Starbucks is on the way to school." We worked this summer on finding the best route to go to school since it's a 14 mile commute during rush hour. We found several shortcuts, but the route includes mostly roads that are not widely used thus my issue of the moment. I may have to wait until after dropoff to find a Starbucks :( Whose idea was it anyway to start work and school so early in the day? The founding fathers? Surely, a man as intelligent as Thomas Jefferson could have foreseen that lazy sleepyheads such as myself would be much better starting school around noon. I guess this post is just a long way of saying, "I HATE MORNINGS!!!" First day of school pictures to come later :)

Change

Change seems to be the theme of August for our family. Julie and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary at the beginning of this month and we celebrated Julie's 33rd birthday this past week, but the real change is yet to come. Next week the boys start 1st Grade at a new school, Prestonwood Christian Academy, and they will be in separate classes. It will be a huge change to our morning routine since school starts earlier than their kindergarten did and Julie will have a 25-30 minute drive to get there vs. the kindergarten which was 2 blocks away. I accepted a new job this week at Overhead Door Corporation to manage their financial reporting systems. My last day at Citi will be September 5th. Hopefully that's all the change we'll be experiencing for now. Too much more, and my hair might start turning gray ;)

Claire Dancing

Like many girls her age, one of Claire's favorite things to do is dance. Here is a video Julie took a few weeks ago. My favorite part is when she turns around and discovers Julie holding the camera. Does she get shy and bashful? No, she immediately starts throwing down her best moves. Moments like these show how different she is from her brothers. They would have stopped the moment they saw the camera and we all would have been grateful because their "moves" closely resemble mine :)

Easter

I don't have much to say with today's post. I just wanted to get some more pics up of the kids. These are from Easter Sunday at our house. They are always wanting to take "silly" pictures so I included one of those as well.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!

Let it Snow

In my quest to catch you up on the last 8 months of the Bartleys, here are a few pics from the winter. We don't get a lot of snow in Dallas so it was a pretty big deal to get 3 inches or so in early March. We hardly got any snow or ice all winter, but just as we were getting ready to move into Spring we get a snowstorm. If memory serves it happened on a Thursday and we didn't get to play our soccer game that Saturday. We had to reschedule a lot of games (both soccer and baseball) last Spring due to rain-outs, but this was my first snow-out.

Also, if you remember my theme from my last post, I was working a lot. Well, most of the finance staff on our floor panicked at the snowfall predictions when it started shortly after lunch and left early for the day. My department??? We stayed until about 10 PM that evening because obviously moving numbers around on a spreadsheet is much more important than employees arriving at their home safe and sound.

I know for many of you 3 inches of snow is no big deal, but it is out of the ordinary here in Dallas so the kids went out after school and had a great time playing in the snow and made a snowman just their size.