Nolan Family

Good Bye By Bandit Since Jean Luc was the one who introduced me to this blog, mom decided that I should be the one to write the goodbye to my brother.  I joined the family 3 years ago and during that time we became good buddies.  At first, I do not think that Jean Luc was very fond of me, but in the end, we could often be found sleeping side by side.  I would also run and wake him up if he did not wake up when the family came home, so that he would not miss out on our family time.   Jean Luc's was much older than me, in fact, he would have been 17 years old on July 7th. My mom and dad joked that he was their first child, at least that is what it felt like when they first brought him home and he woke them up at night.  When you look back on it the fact that Jean Luc and Dave and Laura found each other is a miracle from God in the first place.   It was Labor Day 1999, and Dave and Laura decided to use the long weekend to visit Dave's mom, Ro...

The day started with excitement.  The boys helped to pack the car in anticipation of our possibly picking them up early from school.  Josh repeatedly asked what time we would pick him up, using every ounce of his persuasive skills to convince us that the sooner we came the better.  Ryan was torn between the excitement of a movie at school and leaving for our trip. Everyone loaded into the car.  Ryan did not even notice that we had not brought his backpack.  Josh being ever responsible had his.  I told him he would not need it and took it from him.  He adamantly argued that he still had several classes he would need his books for.  I informed him, that he would not need it for such a short day.  And we were off. "I knew it," Josh exclaimed as we drove passed the turn for the school.  "What?" Ryan stated.  "We aren't going to school today!" Josh said.  Ryan joined in on the cheers and our trip to Minneapolis was officially starte...

After many years of not being interested in any sport, Ryan decided this would be the year to play soccer.  He signed up for the Green Bay Strikers.  He even prayed that God would put him on his good friend Joey’s team, but that was not God’s plan.  Instead he ended up on the Grey Wolves team.   At first we were worried on how the year would turn out.  We waited and waited to find out the soccer schedule and finally started practicing the week before games started.  While communication was weak on our team, the talents for coaching was very strong.  The team coaches took a group of 14 boys that were 8 and 9 and taught them to play together.  It was a team goal to work together and to not let any one player be the star.  It was about being good sports and teamwork.  This lesson was very important and together they played very well.  In fact, so well that they won every one of their games including the three this weekend at ...