First day of school

Still can't believe we have a freshman now in high school.  Graham and I went for the walkthrough and gosh, I probably walked just over a mile trying to find all of his classrooms!

And that probably took about an hour as well, although I think we spent a good 10 minutes just trying to find his locker AND figuring out how to open it!

Here is Graham - always in his jeans for school:

Ps, Graham is as tall as I am now and weighing more than me!

And here's our Charlie - 8th Grade this year! And still playing the clarinet.

Off he goes! 

Charlie takes a separate bus from Graham and gets to sleep in a bit more compared to Graham.  

I woke up to take these photos on Day 1 of school and so far have not been back up since to see these 2 boys out the door. LOL!  Thankfully Daddy is an early bird :-)

Peaches!

I couldn't believe the number of peaches we ended up with from our tree this season.  Woah!

I wonder if this was from the fertilizer spikes that I put in the ground last year.  I'm just glad that the branch that's blooming now recovered nicely after breaking off a couple of years ago:

Funny looking one. Ha!

Lots of weird dots on this one, but thankfully only surface level:

Most of the peaches were not quite ripe yet, so into the brown bag it goes to continue ripening:

And looks like we have a lot to go through!

The first thing the boys were asking is, "Where's the peach cobbler?!"

Well, after a week or so, I finally had a chance to cut everything up. Well, thankfully we had given quite a few away to the neighbors as well.  Otherwise, there would be even more than the 2.6lbs that we have in this bowl!

And an hour or so later, we have cobbler!  These 2 were a bit different as I ran out of batter and had to make a fresh batch:

As you can tell,  the top two obviously rose much more than the previous four:

I may have put too much nutmeg and/or ground ginger, but all still pretty yummy!

I'm not a fan of cornstarch either so the cobbler was a touch watery at the bottom. 

We have a few more peaches on the tree, so maybe just a few more cobblers for some friends (or us!) :-P

Charlie's Birthday (July)

O. M. G.... we have another teenager in the house!  And now the chaos truly begins.  Ha ha!

I had a late night at work (too many kids' summer camps at the golf academy!) and so I caught up with the boys with a late dinner:

And then, some birthday unboxing.  Yeah, we don't deal with birthday wrapping paper anymore with these boys.  Ha ha!

Charlie has been wanting these Legos since last Christmas:

Didn't take him too long to get into it!

I also bought him like a little music looper kind of thing, but so far I haven't heard any new music.  I try so hard to get these boys off their phones and computer games!

We did also go to a Korean hot pot restaurant, which also had a BBQ hotplate.  Charlie invited a couple of friends and everyone brought their appetite as it was an All-You-Can-Eat spot:

Bobby was there too but somehow I couldn't get him in the photo above.  But you can see his spicy soup in front of this empty plate as we are just getting started to chow down.

All with happy bellies now :-)

Been buying more golf shirts for Charlie as he is starting to play more golf:

Charlie actually made the middle school golf team!  There was a 10-hole tryout (a short 5-hole golf course, played twice) a couple of weeks ago.  Followed by 2 9-hole rounds.  He wasn't the best or the worst - just hanging around in the middle!

It's too bad this little 5-hole golf course is in such bad shape. It would be so great with a little maintenance from the park district!

Graham, on other other hand, is happy just flying his drone around the golf course :-D

And I was quizzing Charlie if he knew how to mark his golf ball:

This boy is too cheeky :-)

And he loves his sweets!

Graham and Charlie are growing up too fast!

Recent happenings (July/Aug)

Just some random photos of the recent happenings.  First one is a big bowl of ramen from a restaurant that's not too far from work. The broth was a lot thicker than expected:

I wish I could have dumped some of those fresh garlic in my soup, but I had more private lessons after. I don't think my students would have been appreciative of the garlic breath. Ha!

Double rainbow! 

I sent that photo to the family chatgroup and the first thing Charlie said was "Wow", followed by "Are you going to get food?".  That Charlie, I tell you! He's definitely filled in a lot this summer!

Speaking of filling in, these boys' feet are now bigger than mine!  Seems like we are constantly buying new shoes:

Charlie figured that he was going to try out some high heels.  LOL!!

I decided to get some new shoes as well. Yes, quite the color, but it was on sale - and the other ones were bright yellow ;-P

We have a new resident!  I guess Momma Bird thought it was a good idea to build a nest in the wreath of our front doors??!

Here's a quick video:

Unfortunately, the baby bird didn't survive.  Makes me so sad! I probably should have moved the wreath elsewhere.  Well, hopefully it won't happen again next nesting season!

Glad there are Monarch butterflies flying in our yard. Yay!

Figured I'd try and get this part of the yard cleaned up a bit.  I haven't had much time to do a lot of yard work this past summer. It's such a mess!

Perhaps a tad better??

I've planted a few more bees balm to attract hummingbirds. I hope these perennials will survive!

More on the garden, we have peaches - a lot of them!

This was a funny looking one. Ha!

Not looking so great, but thankfully it's just surface level.  The peaches are so juicy!

Bobby is already how all of this is going to turn into peach cobbler.  LOL!

I'm not sure how this happened, but my side mirror broke!

I thought that it might have been from the car wash, that probably would have been something I would have noticed while drying the car after.  So perhaps another car knocked it in the parking lot at work??

Well, in any case, not risking any water getting into during the next car wash.  Looks like a plastic bag is going to be a quick fix for now:

Ahhh, boys and their fix for milk tea with boba!

And their phones.  What did we do when we were their age way back when??!

Summer Golf Tournaments - May & July

This past summer, I was able to take some time off from work to play in a couple of competitive rounds.  First event was the US Women's Open qualifier.  It was at Elgin Country Club (May 12). 

Wow, what a golf course!  The undulation and those false fronts at the front of some of those greens were vicious!

The US Women's Open qualifier is a 36-hole event - 18 holes in the morning, a quick lunch, and then back out on the golf course again for the next 18 holes. Well, it wasn't very pretty:

Here are the overall stats:

Round 1:  9 Fairways hit, 10 GIR, 2/7 Up-and-down, 35 putts

Round 2: 10 Fairways hit, 8 GIR, 2/3 Up-and-down, 32 putts

In any case, it was a great experience to be able to play again.  I remember playing terribly 2 years ago when I tried and I definitely redeemed myself a little bit more this time.

Plus, I was very happy with the way I felt after.  I wasn't too tired at all - and I think this has something to do with the GolfForever Swing trainer that I've been using (for the past 8 months now!).

The owner at X-Golf caddied for me, and so I bought him dinner after.  Lobster roll for me!

Although I think I had higher expectation with this meal.  Need to head back to NJ or MD for a good one!

Well, if anything, I ended up with this expensive souvenir belt. My capri pants were sort of falling off during my play and so I ended up buying one after the first 18 holes.  Ha!

The other event was in July - the Illinois Women's Open.  I ended up having Graham caddy for me. We went through some training (9 holes).  And the first thing Graham complained about was my heavy golf bag.  And showing me how much he walked.  LOL!

The IL Women's Open is a 2-day event, played at Mistwood Golf Club, in Romeoville (July 21 & 22).  We figured it was best for Graham to use the push-cart:

Looking very official! 

Great Mother-Son bonding time :-)

There was definitely a learning curve for Graham but we made it! And actually, I played my first bogey-free round in my entire life!  -1 (71) for the first round. Woo hoo!!

The 2nd day was not as great. I was not hitting my drives as well and that created a whole lot of other problems on the golf course.  It was a tough 78 on Day 2. But still managed to finish T-12 overall (T4 professional).  

The winner finished at -8. Looks like I have my work cut out for me for next year's prep!

In any case, managed to make a bit of money and some more. It was helpful especially when I have to feed my caddy. Ha!

This kid is growing up too fast for sure:

And he loves his desserts!

I might play in one more event before the weather turns.  Kids' summer camps are finally done so I should have a bit more time to practice. Although, focusing on Charlie at the moment as he made the middle-school golf team. He has Sectionals in about 2 weeks!!  Will update about that in a bit :-D

Ps, I'm now an LPGA Apprentice.  Yay!!