Reunited, and It Feels So Good

Holy cow. The blog. Where do I begin? It has been such a neglected part of the Rutledge life, frankly for the last six months.

Life got busy. Really busy. And it remains really busy. Kiddos and sports, two working parents, a new demanding job, trying to serve in a leadership role at Covenant, and doing our best to find time for ourselves and each other, it can be pretty difficult to find a few minutes here and there for anything.

Then there was that contrived one-night stand with Facebook. Oh Facebook -- where do I begin with you? In reality Facebook is fun. It's voyeuristic and visceral. But it can also be laboring and pointless. I mean, I do enjoy getting a friend invite from someone that I forgot that I went to middle school with. But frankly I don't care what their high score is on Farmville.

So it's good to be back. For however long this lasts. Maybe just today, but I'll try to throw up some pictures every now and then. I think our readership dwindled down to single digits. We'll build it back up eventually.

Cheers everyone!



This photo was taken to show that I do have a daughter, despite the fact that she wipes off my kisses and cries by the minute for "Mama!" Tessa Lou is a mama's girl for sure. (She'll come around.) ;-)


The boys play soccer now. They are in a 5-6 year-old league where it's very low key with no pressure for winning -- or positions really. The kids all rotate from defense to offense, and in Owen's case "gazelle" as he hops and prances all over the field. When he's the goalie, Owen stands there with his hands up in front of his body ready to pounce as his coach once told him to get his tiger paws up. Obviously that stuck. He even had a game where ran after some poor little girl on the other team growling at her.

Gus is a little more competitive but still is learning the game. Today he was the most aggressive he has been, and we're hoping he gets a goal before the season is up in a couple of weeks. He still doesn't like his picture taken though.

Amy's annual Mother's Day picture where she begs the kids to sit still for 3 milliseconds so I can snap a picture without a finger in the nose or an elbow to a sibling's head. Note the contrast to Tess's happiness from the picture above! (Her dating age just got moved from 23 to 28.)