JV or Varsity, an update on the teenagers

How can I summarize fall sports this year?  We had some surprises, some good and some not so good.  The best surprise has been our schedule.  Typically fall is our most challenging time from a schedule perspective as we have two children involved in different fall sports.  This year the practice times of these sports line up nicely so I do not feel like I am living in my van.


Sports have proven to be a surprise this year.  Savannah moved up to the freshman field hockey team because the school did not have enough 8th graders to make a team.  I always thought Savannah was a decent field hockey player and really loved the sport, in part, because it brought her friends from elementary school together.  She loves hanging out with them.  However, the last few weeks have proven that Savannah has fallen in love with field hockey for the game.  She worries that if they cut players in the future, she won't make the cut and has considered trying another school where I guess she thinks cuts won't happen.  So, when the opportunity to continue to play with the JV team after the freshman season ends arose, Savannah jumped at the chance.  In a rare Savannah occurrence, she inquired of the coaches regarding this opportunity before inquiring of her parents.  The freshman team did not practice yesterday, so she practiced with the JV team and impressed the coach.  Savannah is surprising herself with this.  She was so encouraged that the freshman coach did not discourage her from continuing with the JV team, and now she has been complimented by the JV coach.  Today, she will play in both the freshman game and the JV game after school.  Who knew my sweet Savannah had this in her? Now did you catch the news here? My 8th grader will play field hockey with the JV team today!  Way to go, Girl!


Zach started the football season playing both JV and varsity football.  Now that is a challenging schedule!  Two games a week for that boy and his parents.  He was exhausted.  Andy volunteered to write the e-news articles for the JV team and to announce the games, and after just three games, Zach was moved to the varsity team.  So Andy still attends the JV games to fulfill his duty, but Zach is strictly varsity.  Zach may move back to JV before the end of the season as he is starting varsity to cover for an injured player. However, even if he returns to some JV action, he will continue with varsity action as well.  He just won't be a starter.  Now Zach is doing all this while he is injured himself.  He battles shin splints and is now limping full time.  I feel bad for asking him to help around the house because he is clearly in pain, but we all have to do our part to make this household run.  


How about that?!  Two kids excelling in sports, and we didn't expect this.  Don't get me wrong.  We have some talented athletes in the family, and Zach and Savannah have never been bad at their chosen sports.  However, for both of them, their strength has been obedience to the coaches over raw talent.  Clearly, that has paid off, and I am proud of my kids.


I know this is a long post, but I must end it with a note about Julia and her sports.  I think she has a bit of longing to return to gymnastics.  She had Andy lift her the other day so that she could try a leg lift and found that she could only do one.  Julia told me that she needs to stretch more because she used to be able to do those with no problem.  I explained to her that tumbling works different muscles than gymnastics and that she could do those before because she was spending hours every week working those muscles.  Stretching probably won't be enough to restore that skill.  Julia was confused about how this can be that tumbling and gymnastics would develop her muscles so differently, but I reminded her that her coach told us that if she left for tumbling, returning to gymnastics would be hard for that very reason.  She stated that level 2 gymnastics was the hardest year of her life but that she would like to do it over. I do not see that happening.


With a big family having kids play different sports is a challenge.  I know families where they try to stick with one sport for the kids, such as swimming.  Different sports challenge us, but it works.  We meet such great people because we get to hang out with the other parents...something hard to do when both parents work, and the kids have moved beyond elementary school.  In my opinion, everyone wins when the kids get to do what they love, and the parents get to love watching them while hanging out with friends.  Even Wyatt and Julia have made friends to hang out with at the games.  It's all good.

Chinese Moon Festival

We enjoyed a beautiful day at a farm today celebrating the Chinese moon festival. We started with some meltdowns but ended up with a very nice family day.  This story will be told in pictures.

Is there some brotherly love, after all?

We found our pumpkin!

hay ride

I wish I could manage horseback lessons for Julia.  She can't get enough of them, and they seem to love her right back.

Wyatt wouldn't want lessons, but he is fine with feeding a horse.

Annika is one of Julia's classmates.  They loved the corn maze.

As part of the celebration, the kids wrote letters to loved ones and sent them sailing to the sky attached to balloons.  The helium tank broke, so there were not enough balloons for everyone.  I told Wyatt and Julia that we would send theirs from home.  Julia wrote to God and her birth mother telling her birth mother that she loves her and thinks about her everyday.  When I asked if that was true, she said that she does think of her at school and on the playground.

 beautiful children

a great view over the water ended our day

It's all busy, but good

Right now as I type, I have four kids running through my house chasing each other.  Julia and Wyatt are thrilled to each have a friend over.  Andy has dropped Zach off to meet friends for dinner before they head to their homecoming dance and a bonfire. The only downside is that Savannah has not felt well today.  

Our week has been a plethora of activity culminating in fun but tiring events.

On Thursday Wyatt, Julia, and I enjoyed a bedtime reading bash at Wyatt's school.  We loved the guest readers, and the books they chose.

On Friday, we headed to the high school for the homecoming parade and game.  We got awesome free hoodies (except for Julia who chose not to get one which I think she may regret later).  These are courtesy of our friend and favorite orthodontist.

This group of kids is growing up together.  In fact, Lucy is one of the kids at my house right now.
from the left: Christopher, Wyatt, Julia, and Avery (who jumped in the picture and announced that he is the star...good thing self-confidence runs strong in this group).

This is the float put together by Zach's class.  We were trying to figure it out.  The other classes had city themes such as New York and Paris, and Honolulu.  We have no idea why this choice of a corn/pumpkin patch.

The team warms up.

We were thrilled to enjoy a homecoming victory!

Our day started today with a soccer victory for Julia's team.  I would have taken pictures, but it was drizzly day, so I left my camera in the van.  Shortly after the game, friends showed up because I decided to treat the kids and some friends to a movie.  Specifically, we wanted to see A Dolphin Tale because we actually saw Winter, the dolphin when we were in Florida in 2007.  We had no idea that her story would become so famous.

The following pictures are of Winter at 18 months old.  She was and is a special dolphin.

Life has been busy, but fun.  The fun continues tonight as I plan to sneak a peek at Zach and his buddies at the dance.  Tomorrow is another packed day with the Families with Children from China moon festival.  We enjoy this as an opportunity to visit a farm and pumpkin patch without big crowds.  Pictures will be forthcoming.

I want to end this post with the funny kid quotes of the week.

During a discussion about black mascara, Julia turned to Andy and stated, "It would look good on you, Dude."  

"Can I have some chopsticks?  Can I eat with my culture?" -Wyatt (when I handed him a spoon to eat Ramen)

After last night's game, Wyatt was giving another parent (our friend Rob) his laundry list of complaints about Zach.  Rob asked Wyatt what he likes about Zach to which Wyatt responded, "He's big, and he is leaving for college soon."

Family History

Savannah is working on a genealogy project for her social studies class.  She is required to list the birth dates and anniversaries of each generation from her great-grandparents down to herself.  For reasons unbeknownst to me, she is not required to have the death dates.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find anniversary dates?  I remember when I was planning my wedding, my grandma (aka Grandma by the Lake) told me that I had chosen a bad date because it fell right in between Andy's birthday and my birthday.  Since our birthdays are only a month apart, she argued that no one would remember our anniversary.  Well, it seems that no one would have remembered anyway.  I told her then that I didn't think it mattered if anyone but Andy and I remembered.  Anyway, I digress.  Part of Savannah's project involves finding a funny or interesting family story, and as we tried to come up with interesting and funny things about our relatives, it occurred to me that I should blog what I know of my grandparents for the sake of my children (who never actually read this blog as I have already established, but maybe someday...)

This first picture is of my maternal grandparents.  This is what I know of the two of them.  I think they met at some military place during World War II.  I think my grandma was working there in some civilian role, and my grandpa was a soldier.  My grandma was a single mom when they met. She left an abusive husband with her daughter and moved on with her life.  At a time when single moms did not make up more than 50% of the population, she was very fortunate to have family support and that my grandpa's family welcomed her whole-heartily.  

After their marriage, they settled in Mississippi near my grandpa's family.  Grandma had been born and raised in Kentucky, one of six girls.  Together, my grandparents had my Uncle Jack and my mom. Overwhelmed with the work of raising the children, my grandma got some household support with a hired lady.  When my mom was two years old, my grandpa was killed in a construction accident at work.  My mom went to the door to look for him at 5:00 every day for a month after his death.  With broken hearts my grandma and the lady my grandpa had hired to help her with the household parted ways.  Grandma took her children back home to be close to her side of the family.  She waited tables to support herself and the children, and she ended up putting herself through nursing school.  She later married the only man that I ever new as "Grandpa" and was widowed again when he died in 1991.

My favorite story about my grandma is the one where she dropped out of school in 4th grade.  This is where I really wish she could talk and tell me this story again.  I know she didn't get along with the teacher, and they had an altercation one day that caused her to run home.  Her teacher sent an eighth grade boy after her.  That may have been the teacher's biggest mistake.  My great-grandpa was at home and working outside when my grandma arrived with an eighth grade boy hot on her trail.  I believe that boy probably got an ear full, but the teacher got it worse. My great-grandpa marched right over to that school and let the teacher know in no uncertain terms that she was never to send an eighth grade boy after any of his girls and that my grandma would not be returning to school.  She did return the following year when a new teacher took over, but she never caught up on math.  Years later when she was in nursing school, one of Mom's teachers tutored her so that she could handle the math work.

I am fairly certain that my grandma was a daddy's girl.  I never heard her express any love for her mother.  My great-grandfather died when my grandma was twelve years old.  The oldest three of their girls remained with my great-grandmother taking care of her because she was always "ill."  Her oldest daughter took care of her for the rest of her life and died before my great-grandma.  The younger three girls were sent to an orphanage.  There was jealousy on both sides with the thought that the grass was greener on the other side.

Grandma by the Lake was always feisty, and I think that is why she is still with us today.  We saw her Labor Day weekend.  I don't know if she knows who we are, but her face just lights up when we visit.  She can speak two words clearly, and the rest just gets jumbled up.  Grandma by the Lake became Grandma by the Lake when Zachary and Savannah were little.  They were fortunate enough in their early years to have every one of their great-grandmas alive.  There were too many who wanted to be called "Grandma" to keep them all straight, and Grandma by the Lake lived in an apartment complex with a big pond where she would take them to feed the fish, so she became Grandma by the Lake.

She was a great cook.  I still miss her green beans, fried chicken, and goulash. Other than her cooking, I remember that when we were little Grandma's house reeked of smoke.  She was quite the chain smoker and smoked for a few decades before she quit.  Grandma also loved to shop, especially yard sales and bargain stores.  I know it would be the right thing to do to shop yard sales and consignment for my family, but Tiffany and I were just discussing how Grandma turned us off to yard sales.  She would buy garbage bags full of clothes for us, and I honestly believe that she would go to the end of the sale and take whatever was left because I cannot remember a single time that we could use anything she sent our way.  If we tried to refuse her purchases, she got really hurt, so we had to thank her, take them and then deal with getting rid of the much too worn and stained clothing she sent us.

This is another fun fact about my grandma.  My grandma's name is Thelma, and her name along with those of her sisters in order of birth are fun to say out loud.  Give it a try:

Alma, Thelma, Mabel, Marie, Ann, Leigh

I know very little about my biological grandpa.  A few years ago, Mom came across his Bible and some letters he had written to my grandma during the war.  Mom did not keep up with his side of the family, but my uncle did.  I know that as of about a decade ago, all of his siblings had Alzheimer's Disease.  

I think all three of my grandpa's served in World War II.  My step-grandpa was on one of the first special forces teams.  Somewhere there is a book about his team, and he is mentioned in it.  He nicknamed me Sukoshi when I was a baby.  It is pronounced "Scoshee" and means "little one" in Japanese.

The funniest story about him is that he babysat me one time while my mom and grandma were out.  Either he thought they left him with no diapers, or they actually did.  I think that was always debated.  In any case they returned to find me wrapped in towels.

On my Dad's side of the family, I knew my grandparents as Jewell and Todd.  I think they thought it would keep them young if they had their kids and grandkids refer to them as everyone else did.  Todd served in the navy and spent his working years as a security guard on a college campus.  Jewell was a home-maker and excellent seamstress.  

Their house was such fun to visit.  I wish I had pictures of it.  The wrap-around porch was big enough for chasing games, and the inside was always roomy.  My great-aunt Evelyn (Todd's sister) lived with them for as long as I can remember, and she kept quite a flower garden. Todd grew tomatoes, and family was always stopping by their house.  It was the place to be.

Jewell made the suit that I wore to interview for my first teaching job in 1993.  I still have the jacket.  She also made Zachary a beautiful baby quilt, and I am doing everything I can to preserve it. She baked bread from a starter that we all still crave today.  My sister-in-law, who never tasted it has tried numerous recipes to try and duplicate it for my brother.  I know that Jewell always baked chocolate cream pies for my dad if she knew he would be visiting.  That stopped when he had bypass surgery in his forties.  Her cooking was not so great, but man she could bake.

I remember that Jewell would walk us out the back door when we were leaving her house, and then go through the house to the front door and wave to us from the porch.  It was always a big deal to us that she wave from the front porch.  She almost always cried when we left.  Jewell used to irritate Mom because just when we would be getting ready to go, she would start cooking something for us that we had to take with us.  Mom always found that to be a bit manipulative.

Todd was apparently a strong man in his younger years.  According to my dad, it is possible that he killed a man with his bare hands.  He defended a woman who was being attacked and left the man without knowing if he was alive or dead when Todd was finished with him.

What I remember about Todd is that he chased us for kisses and that he played Yahtzee every night.  He and Dad argued about politics a lot, and to this day, I pretty much leave the room if politics become the topic of conversation.  We either all agree and moan and gripe, or we don't agree and argue.  Neither is fun in my opinion.

Todd died on my 11th birthday.  Jewell died on Christmas Eve in 2002.

A first Birthday and a Puppy!

We celebrated Regan's first birthday today.  She had a blast, and her favorite gift was a toy vacuum cleaner (hmm, good news for Danielle?).

She was not sure at all about the cake and seemed very anxious to get the icing off of her hands.  Regan does not like to have her hands in anything icky.  However, Jonathan led by example and showed her how to taste the cake.  The mess was not so tough on her after that.

a girl and her clothes, the tissue paper was fun to rip too

We met Bentley today.  Bentley is the 7 week old puppy that Tiffany and the boys adopted last week.  Tiffany has always been anti-pets.  However, I think she has fallen in love, and she admits that this is the best thing that has happened for the boys since Tony's death.

He's a whopping three pounds!  What's not to love?

Bentley and Regan got along just fine.

Regan was just over twice Bentley's weight when we met her last year.

Click here to see Regan upon her arrival in the world last year.

Click here to see Regan meeting the family.

Click here to see Regan at home.

I can't believe it's been a year!  Happy Birthday Regan!

Field hockey pictures, at last

I don't have the fancy camera or skill of our favorite football photographer, but I think these shots will do. Savannah's team is struggling. They are comprised of 8th graders and freshmen.  They are officially a freshman team.  While they have yet to win a game, they are playing better with each battle. Savannah looks more agressive than ever, so I think a win is coming.

10 years here

In our review of the last 10 years, Andy pointed out that these have been the most emotionally charged 10 years of our lives.


We both lost parents - both of whom were outlived by their own mothers.
My grandma died.
Andy lost two of his grandparents.
We adopted Wyatt and Julia.
We lost a brother-in-law.
We faced a complete shift and location change for Andy's job.
We faced complete upheaval with my job.
We were blessed to keep our jobs, but we certainly felt and continue to feel the turmoil of our nation's economy and its impact on our family budget.
We saw Zach from kindergarten to high school and Savannah from preschool to 8th grade.
We moved.


What a decade!


He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness the prisoners, to proclaim the year of our Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion -to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair.  Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV)

Where were you?

On this 10th anniversary when we want to honor our nation and the loss suffered on 9/11/01, I remember that day.


It was beautiful outside. I do remember that.  I was at work in the library when an assistant principal called about a school security issue.  He needed a VCR right away to review a security tape.  I immediately went to get a VCR, and our head custodian was on my heels to retrieve it.  I handed him the VCR.  He was in a hurry but said, "A plane just flew into the World Trade Center, turn on the TV."  I was confused because the impact of this situation did not immediately register.  I turned on the TV and can't remember whether I did so just before or just after the second plane hit.  I do know that it was surreal, and I kept waiting for a "War of the Worlds" moment when we would all be informed that this was some crazy movie that went viral as reality.  At the same time as those wistful thoughts ran through my mind, it was clear that I was watching real time TV and seeing an unbelievable attack on my nation.  I wondered what else was planned, when it would stop.  I kept doing my job with stops in the back-room to check on the news.


The other librarian was absent that day, and her sub was annoying me as she carried on and on about the poisonous smoke flowing through NY.  She would dramatically wave her arms around while stating how much danger the people of NY were in.  My college roommate lived there, and I did not want to believe she was in danger.  I knew that the phone lines would be jammed and reaching her would be impossible. I can't remember whether it was a day or two before I learned through another friend that she was okay.  


We had a class in the library, and I informed the teacher of the events unfolding in our nation.  He and I took turns watching the news and working with the kids.  A resource teacher's office was in the back of the library, and when I went by to put away something in a storage room, I made a comment about the day's events.  I realized by her reaction that she did not know.  I think the Pentagon had been hit by that time.  I retraced my steps and asked if she had heard any news.  She responded that she was just searching "breaking news" on her computer because an online journal to which she subscribed had posted that it would not be published that day due to national and world events. I remember stating, "our nation is under attack." Shortly after our conversation, her daughter called from college freaking out.  Her husband was renting a car in a nearby state by the end of the day because the planes had already been grounded, and he wanted to get home.


I remember that it was quiet when the planes left the sky.  


At some point my mom called to check on me and asked if I was okay.  I asked why I wouldn't be, and she said it was the kind of day where you just want assurance that the people you love are okay.


We also faced a tough parenting moment that day.  Zach was in kindergarten. My philosophy was always to be open with the kids even when it was hard.  The school notified us that the kids had been told nothing of the events.  Andy wanted to leave it at that.  I disagreed.  I told Andy that he couldn't be sent to school where it would surely come up if we didn't tell him...so we did.  Zach prayed for our enemies, prayed that they would know Christ.  I remember that Andy almost stopped him, telling him that it was too late for that, but I reminded him that someone was behind this.  They did not all die on those planes, so Zach prayed.  We really have much to learn from our kids.


I stopped watching TV.  It was too devastating to see it replayed.  I knew without a doubt that American life was about to change dramatically and that my kids would grow up in a different world, and it was a lot to absorb.  It did change. I could not watch the families share their stories.  Every one broke my heart.  Andy talked last night about how the terrorists did win to some degree.  The Bin Laden manhunt cost a ton of money.  Our airlines were initially crippled. Nationally, it damaged our economy, and we still struggle to recover.  It impacted our family from an economic stance as well as  companies tightened their belts to stay solvent even when they were bringing in a hefty profit.  Our kids do grow up in a different world.


Ten years does not seem that long ago, but Savannah's middle school held a special service on Friday to commemorate this day in our nation's history.  As her principal pointed out, even the eighth graders barely remember that day if they remember it at all.  In conversations with Zach this week, Andy realized that Zach did not get the significance of the points of attack.  Zach was surprised to learn that the White House was a target.  Zach is so cute because he will say, "do you realize that they intended to attack the White House?"  Yeah Zach, we remember that day.  We were adults and knew when it happened, even as we struggled to wrap our brains around it, that this was a well-planned, significant, and scary attack. We knew that the terrorists targeted citizens in their attempt to scare us into a different way of life.  We knew we would never forget where we were, what we were doing.  We knew that the land that we love would fight. We remember.


As a side note, I do have to say that there was some fight in me after that attack.  We had a gas station near our home where I bought gas 25-50% of the time.  They ran their prices up to $2.85 on that day.  Gas was still under $2 at that time.  No other station that I passed on my way to and from work did that.  To this day I have never set foot in that gas station again.  


I had scheduled a flight to Martha's Vineyard for the wedding of my friend from New York.  She got married in November, and I booked my flights through Travelocity.  As the trip approached, I tried to get my flights confirmed online and could not do so.  I called and learned that I had been booked on a flight that did not exist.  Travelocity rerouted my trip and did not get me all the way to my destination, so I had to rent a car in Rhode Island and drive the last leg of my trip.  This actually worked out better for me because I ended up on a flight with one of my friends traveling to the wedding, and four of us shared the car.  However, Travelocity did not refund one penny of my $650 fare and told me that because I changed the itinerary, they could not refund my money.  I argued because the itinerary changed because of them.  They booked me on a flight that did not exist.  They wouldn't budge, so I have told everyone considering booking a trip through such a service about my experience and have never used Travelocity again myself.  I should have fought harder on that one, but I was a busy, young mom and didn't have time to battle it out. I definitely would put up a stink now as you know if you have followed my battle with the dealership over my van.


And we thank you for these hours of prayer. The Enemy sought to bring us to our knees and succeeded. He had no idea, however, that we would kneel before you. And he has no idea what you can do. - Max Lucado

The cool in the chaos

We live in chaos.  I don't deny it.  This is fact.  I can easily get frustrated by the chaos and the cost of it.  I feel frazzled almost all day long.  Sometimes working outside of my home is easier than being home.  I can lament the lack of time I get with my own friends or the time Andy and I don't get to go out on date nights or out with other couples or families or all of that.  


The schedule is undeniably insane. Two field hockey games a week, two football games a week, practice Monday through Thursday (if there isn't a game on any of those given days) for both football and field hockey.  We then have Wednesday tumbling, and I don't even want to go into how insane that is with tumbling at 5:00, football and field hockey pick up at 5:15 (and that is the only day that they get out at the same time), then back to tumbling for pick up.  There is Saturday soccer, and hand chimes on Mondays, and it goes on and on.  Almost every sport or activity comes with some sort of mandatory volunteering requirement (I know mandatory volunteering is an oxymoron) whether providing snacks or hours of service.  Anyway, the point is that our fall schedules are out of this world insane, and the laundry still gets done, and everybody still eats.  As for the rest of the housework, I have no comment other than to say that it would be nice for Andy to take a day off to rest instead of catch up every once in a while. I get by with help from my friends who transport my kids or just stay with them while I race to the pick up.


Just when I think something most stop, we must get off of one of these trains, I find the beauty in the chaos.  In our busy household, every child fights for attention.  Wyatt and Julia easily demand it. They still need help with homework.  I get my moments with my teenagers -in-the-van-driving-home-from-this-practice-or-that.  Did you slow down and read that? They talk, they reveal, and I soak it up.  I learn that my son gets the message his dad teaches when he says to stay pure, to save even his eyes for the bride that he will someday love, to never let her feel like she doesn't measure up to the latest super, skinny model.  I learn what Savannah thinks of her new teacher and that she is considering applying to a public school with rigid entrance requirements in our area for high school. Is this the same kid who said, "I refuse" when I told her that our adoption of Julia may mean that Savannah and Zach would have to leave their Christian school? Savannah was pretty firm about being at a school with chapel every week.  I learn about my kids and know that these years are fleeting, and maybe, just maybe, the cool in the chaos makes the chaos worth it.