And then there were eight

From 2001-2003, we lived in a town called Franklin, Kentucky. I was a high school English and Newspaper there and was the head volleyball coach and an assistant basketball coach. JB coached soccer, ran his graphic design business, and was going to back to school to get his undergraduate degree pre-med. My cousin, Josh, was trying to get into Christian music and decided that living 45 minutes from Nashville was a good option. So he and his wife Sarah joined us in Franklin for two years. They actually, at the very last minute, moved into a duplex right across the street from us.

Those were two of my very favorite years. It was the four of us, and we spent nearly every day together. They were our best friends, and we all got along SO well. It was wonderful. We ate meals together, watched sporting events and mindless TV, ran a 10K, and just hung out easily!

In 2003, we moved to Minnesota for medical school. I'll never forget how ECSTATIC Josh and Sarah were when they found out JB got into one of the best medical schools in the world: Mayo Clinic. I'm sure deep down they were very sad, but they celebrated with us at this incredible accomplishment, and Sarah and I jumped around the living room. A few weeks later we jumped around again when we found out they were expecting. Sarah was pregnant with their first son when our big moving truck pulled away from our neighborhood in Franklin. (He's 12 now!)

They ended up moving to the Chicago area for a few years before returning to middle Tennessee where Josh is now a pastor at a wonderful church. We have stayed close, and today, hard to believe, but there are EIGHT children between us -- two boys and two girls each.

Josh and Sarah started having children when our infertility woes first began so they have two boys in middle school! That's how old my kids would be if I started having kids when I wanted them.

Anyways, just a few fun moments from our time there. The picture up above isn't great, but it is of my boys playing video games with Jordan who is in the fifth grade. We don't have video games at our house. Mainly because so much of our schoolwork is done on the computer/iPad and we just decided to avoid them. But whenever they go over to someone's house that has them they get a bit one-track-minded about the whole thing.

And then the video below is of the kids playing Bean Boozled. Isaac is obsessed with this jelly bean game. You spin a spinner and then have to eat a colored jelly bean. It is either a wonderful flavor: peach? or a terrible flavor: vomit? Who would want to participate in this? Isaac can't find people to play with him easily. He can sometimes talk Abigail and Hannah and Grampa into it. So he was pumped that their three oldest children willingly jumped in and did a whole box with him. He buys these boxes with his own money. It is so fun for him.

Anyways, here is the video: