The Richardsons

Emmanuel has been a bit of a challenge lately. OK that is one of the biggest understatements I've ever made. Let me start over, in the past week E-man has peed on the church lawn in front of two priests, punched, scratched, and pushed numerous kids, spit on me, and given me cleat marks all over my shins. And that's just what I'm capable of remembering. After coming home from CCD last Sunday and telling Scott about the latest incident he commented, "maybe you let this one be Methodist, they'd take him." To which I quickly said they can have him. But now I will relive my kindergarten CCD days and go with E-man to religion class to keep him in it. This is only until I rationalize that Emmanuel will never feel the guilt a good catholic should and decide its more trouble than its worth. Anyway, I decided God helps those who help themselves and I would do yoga at Scott's gym to maintain some of my sanity. I asked my sister to go to last night's clas...

Last Thursday Abegail's soccer team was having a special coach come and work with them. He allowed Emmanuel and the coach's son to participate at the very beginning in the drills section. But then he needed to work with the girls and Emmanuel was encouraged to go kick the ball with a little boy his age. E-man would not hear of it. He immediately started to have a BIG MAD. I tried everything, "E-man if you don't settle down you won't get to play at all." "OK, I'm going to count to ten and if you haven't stopped crying then we are going to the car." I tried to get him to the car but it was down two flights of stairs and he held onto the railing so tight I couldn't get him off. He was kicking and screaming. I finally wrestled him to the ground but he only hit me and ran away toward Abegail's coaches and stood there crying. I ran after him. He was pulling on my shirt so hard it was stretching and giving people a view no one ...

We headed to Rochester this weekend. My Dad and I ran the Rochester Half Marathon. My Dad joined a special training group and trained for this for weeks. My training consisted of eating a lot of carbs . My Dad did awesome and even seemed to get stronger as the race progressed. He finished in 2:27:24. There was also a full marathon. The leader of that race finished the same time we did. You can imagine the cheers and the television cameras all around us. Wow, we are awesome and so is the guy who did the half marathon twice. Not to be outdone by Grandpa Chuck, Grandma Marian participated in a mile walk on Saturday for a group called Heritage Christian who serves people with disabilities. The entire family got in on the action that day, but the kids particularly enjoyed the bouncy houses and using their balloons as swords.

Abegail helps Annie change to tap shoes By all accounts the second day of school went well. Both Annie and Abegail are making new friends, although Annie is having trouble remembering the name of her new friend and is right now just known as "my new friend." Everybody seems to like their teachers so far. Annie had her first ballet and tap class last night and loved it. Things I never thought I'd hear myself say: E-man, please stop playing with the holy water. Get down from the Holy Mary statue! E-man, why are you trying to put a tree branch into the car?? E-man, please stop doing flips on the couch. E-man please stop climbing up the wall. E-man please don't water the plants with dish soap...oh OK...please don't clean the cement slab with dish soap..oh never mind, go ahead...I grade on a curve, OK now you are using the dish soap to wash my car...uh ..ok, thanks for your help? E-man please don't use the picture frame as a step ladder. E-man for the last time y...

The Boys (that's the official name for our cousins) go to school too! From left to right, Cameron (2nd grade) Chase (Kindergarten-2022 will be a big year in our family) and Owen (4th grade)

Obviously these are bad pictures with our video camera, but you get the idea. The kids had their school open house at Ravensworth Elementary today. Annie and E-man are in the same class (they are going to try E-man in a regular class, best of luck to them) in morning Kindergarten. Their teacher is Mrs. Ramage and she has an assistant Ms. Turner (that should be hard for everyone to remember). Abegail's teacher is Ms. Smith. Funny thing, my third grade teacher's name was also Mrs. Smith. Annie will sit next to Daesha who is in the last picture with her. She lives three houses from us and the kids have played together before so that should be fun.

Abegail with Tarry and Maima in NJ Can you believe it is September? It's a beautiful day here in DC, the humidity has broken, the sun is out, temperature in the mid 70's, a perfect running day. E-man has soccer practice at 5:30 tonight. But at 8:00 this morning he was up, dressed in his soccer uniform and cleats, looking for his shinguards . He is insisting we can't go anywhere today because we will miss soccer. "E-man it's 6 hours until we have to leave, we are not just going to watch the clock." Abegail does seem to like her soccer team, she is starting to be more social with the girls. Soccer seems bigger here, it doesn't compete with ice hockey. Abegail practices twice a week with Sat. games and E-man once a week with a Sat. game. It's all good, the kids need the practice and instruction time. Last night at Abegail's soccer practice, the girls had just been to our neighbor's birthday party where they received pocket mirrors as ...