The "Finnster, et al."

We got a cat!  After two years of being cat free, Nana and Papa talked us into taking a stray that was living at their house. They were crafty, those two.  They introduced the cat to Finn during one of his weekend stays.  Finn and the cat grew very attached to the point where Finn was asking to bring home the cat.  Michael was deadset against it.  But after much persuasion, Michael agreed and we are now proud pet owners.  Getting the cat home was a challenge though.  She hates to ride in her cat carrier.  On the hour and half ride home from mom's house the cat broke out of her carrier.  She then begins terrorizing Sam and Will.  Sam doesn't want the cat to touch him at all and Will was screaming on the top of his lungs because he wanted the cat to sit in his lap.  The cat wants nothing to do with Will (imagine that) and decides to have a great big bowel movement in her litter box that was lying in the floorboard.  It smelle...

As per tradition, Halloween begun this year with the annual carving of the pumpkins - followed shortly by Michael putting out the Halloween decorations - or as Will calls them "scary."  He loves looking at the decorations.  They scare him so badly, but he just can't look away.  This year we also walked him up the street to look at Mr. Englar's decorations.  He decorates in a big way. Halloween at work.  The Clerks were Crayons.  They even made Judge a Captain America crayon tip and made me a Harry Potter crayon tip. This year we went to Dustin and Elena's for Trick-R-Treating. Michael and I dressed as Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant from the original Jurassic Park.  Finn and Sam were characters from Black Panther and Will was Spiderman. Finn and Sam ran all over the neighborhood collecting candy.  Will was a bit more cautious.  He didn't want to go door to door.  Instead, he would rather that I go to the door and get him a ...

I am here to say that I really like the internet, but the internet can cause a high level panic when it comes to self-diagnosing your children. This Fall Michael and I began to notice that Sam was always, and I mean always thirsty; that he would drink his entire water before touching his food, and that he was always needing to use the bathroom.  After a while we had convinced ourselves that Sam was diabetic. Not wanting to wait too long, I asked a friend is she would test Sam's sugar.   I met her at my office on a Saturday morning where she reported that Sam's blood sugar was perfect. Since Sam did such a great job getting his finger pricked, I took him to Govan's for Ice Cream.

Homecoming is a big deal at DA, particularly when your football team is really good.  On the Friday of homecoming the kids were allowed to dress wacky. I love how much kids love to look terrible. That night we all went to the watch the game.  Finn and Sam spent the first half playing touch football with their friends behind the bleachers.  Will sat with us and ate cupcakes.  DA's homecoming opponent was Nashville Christian, which meant we got to hang out with Josh and Rex for a few minutes. It was rainy that night so Will and I left at halftime. But we waited for the boys to get home so that Will could get some snuggles in.

On Sunday, October 7th we met Gran and Pa for brunch at Star Ranch on the square.  I am typically leary of taking Will to restaurants, but this was great because we got a private room all to ourselves.  They must have taken one look at our three hoodlums and decided to spare the other guests. Later that evening, I walk in to my bedroom to find Will reading our F-260 book. He looked so sincere.

Part of my job as the Juvenile Court Magistrate is to preside over truancy cases.  The Sumner County Truancy office is working really hard to encourage children to go to school.  October is School Attendance Awareness month in Tennessee. Of the multiple high schools in Sumner County, Hendersonville High School had the best attendance in the month of September.  Callie and I, along with Melanie Webster and Kecia Ray from the Truancy Department presented the principal with the Attendance Cup at the HHS v. GHS football game. As it happens, this game was broadcast on MyTV 30. Finn, Sam and Will watched it live from home.  Sam was amazed.  He stood in front of the TV and waved at me.