We got an e-mail from Carmen today letting us know about everything that is going on. This past weekend, she ran in the Spain National Track and Field Championships in Barcelona. She said she didn’t do as well as she had hoped, but in her division, she placed 20th in the entire country! Sounds awesome to us! GREAT job Carmen! We don’t have any pictures, but may soon!
Today was a busy day also. We started off with Zach’s soccer game. They lost, but the kids played great and they are getting better and better every week. I love the fact that the most important thing is just to have fun and that the score really doesn’t matter. We got some good pictures, but the day before at Brittany’s cross country meet, Benjamin got a really sticky, gooey finger right in the center of the lens of the camera, so all the pictures came out blurry.
After the game, we did some house cleaning and then got ready to go to our ward’s Trunk-or-Treat activity. Unlike normal, the back of our van was decorated for Halloween! Sarah spent all afternoon pulling something together so we wouldn’t be one of the “undecorated and boring” vehicles in the parking lot. Everyone got dressed up in their costumes and we went to have dinner, a Halloween parade, and then the trick-or-treating out of the cars in the parking lot. We all had a lot of fun. Benjamin was an elephant, Zach dressed up in a karate outfit, Kirstyn was a girl from the 50’s with a poodle skirt and my letter jacket from high school, Brittany was a country farm girl, complete with denim, red and white plaid, piggy tails, and freckles, Sarah was a fairy princess wearing beautiful wings, and Angela was a medieval princess. As for me, I was 1 of two things: A warewolf on a non-full moon night, or I was dressed as a mean dad who never lets his kids do anything. 🙂 There were some other great costumes there as well.
Ghostbusters!
After walking around to all the cars and getting their candy, the kids had fun eating a bunch of it! As you can tell from the picture below, Benjamin was probably 150 degrees in his elephant suit but he didn’t care! He had his sucker to keep him happy!
WOW! It’s hard to believe it! Sarah turned 16 today! It’s amazing how fast time flies! It was just yesterday that we were poor, struggling, college students bathing our little Sarah in our kitchen sink when she was only 3 months old! 🙂
Brittany planned a GREAT surprise party for Sarah! She invited a bunch of Sarah’s friends and planned everything. She even called them all on the phone, extended the invitation, cleaned up the basement, decorated, got all the kids situated, and led the surprise when Sarah got home from a “shopping” trip with mom! 🙂 Sarah had no clue and was VERY surprised!
We really love Sarah’s choice of friends. They are great people and Sarah is lucky to have them. they are supportive of her and we know that when she is with them, she is in good places.
Brittany had some games planned which they did, after introducing each other, saying one word that described Sarah to them, and then their favorite food. After the games, we ate cake and ice cream and hung out and had a great time!
After the games, we got a group picture of everyone that came (sorry to the couple that had to slip out before and we didn’t get you in the pictures)! 🙁
After everyone left, we cleaned up all the popcorn, pretzels, and other miscellaneous items all over the basement floor, and then had our little family celebration. We were so full of cake, ice cream, and junk food, that we didn’t really have a proper dinner. 🙂 Most of us just ate a few small bites of leftovers or had a bowl of cereal.
Sarah spent the next half-hour responding to all the happy birthday wishes on Facebook and e-mail. 🙂 Carmen and Marta even saw on Tuenti that it was Sarah’s birthday and sent her well wishes from Spain. 🙂
Many had asked if Sarah was getting a car for her birthday and the answer is (and has always been) no. 🙂 She has about 15 more hours of driving left before she can get her license, and we will probably look into getting some kind of car soon, but we’re not sure. What scares us even more than Sarah driving is that now she’s old enough to date! 😐 YIKES! We’ll cross those bridges when we get there, but until then, I’ll be at home polishing up my gun! 🙂
Happy Sweet 16 Sarah!
Today was Zachary’s first full soccer game. The last 3 weeks have been spent in clinics and scrimmages for the Kindergarten-age kids. The team has become MUCH better since the first week they practiced! 🙂 Zachary’s team won 5-2 and ZACHARY SCORED A GOAL!!! 🙂 He was playing fullback and got the ball. There wasn’t anyone on his team in front of him to pass it to (not like he would have known to do that) 🙂 so he took the ball all the way down past the defenders and scored! It was awesome! He was SO happy and we couldn’t believe it! He talked about it all the way home. It’s really fun to coach these little kids. There’s no pressure and the whole thing is all about having fun! Go Zach!
Today was an incredibly busy day! This morning Zachary had soccer practice, and he is doing a little better. The team at least didn’t bunch together like bees around honey, so that is good! 🙂 The head coach wasn’t there, so it fell upon me as assistant coach to get the team practicing the drills. We only had 4 show today, so when we scrimmaged against another team, we had to borrow a player. I hope it’s not like that come game day our first game next week! 😐
After soccer practice, we went and watched Sarah in the marching band before and during the homecoming football game. As usual, the band did a GREAT job! Right before halftime, it started pouring rain and everyone got soaked! The poor marching band was out on the field doing their show in a downpour but had a wonderful, wet time! We ended up leaving right after that. Benjamin was soaked to the bone, but was having a fun time catching raindrops in his mouth!
When we got home, we all dried off, had hot chocolate to warm us up, and then worked to get ready to get Sarah off to the Homecoming Dance! She and some friends decided to go together like they did last year. They all met over at one of Sarah’s friends homes, had dinner, and then got ready and went. They had a great time! Sarah brought a bottle of sparkling grape juice to the dinner and one of the girls thought it was wine! 🙂 Crazy that they would think that we, who don’t drink, would send alcohol to a group of underage kids! 🙂
The commons area in the high school was decorated up nicely and it wasn’t overcrowded like last year (due to the fact that there are only two grades in the school this year. Sarah came home happy!
Zachary with two of his teammates waiting for team pictures.
Zach had soccer practice this morning and then team pictures this afternoon. It’s really fun being their coach, and it is quite humorous too! During the clinic and practice, the expert leader teaches them some things and then we go back and practice. It’s funny to watch them. During the scrimmage part of the clinic, they forget everything they learned and bunch up together like bees on huney and move around the field, kicking anything that moves! 🙂 It drives the leader of the clinic nuts, but they’re just in kindergarten. They’ll learn.
Soccer pictures were really quite cute. Only 5 of the 7 kids showed up so the pictures were very small. While they were waiting, they couldn’t help jumping in the water, running all over, and pulling all the loose threads off their socks! 🙂
Tonight we had a church activity (HP Group) going to a Chicago White Sox game! A friend of ours in our ward works for Waste Management and they have a box suite at the park. We hung out, ate food, watched the game, and had a great time! The Sox won 2-0. It wasn’t close to the game you went to see, Carmen (the famous no-hitter), and even though they don’t have a chance to go to the post-season, it was great to see! 🙂
Today was quite the day. Zachary had his first day of soccer! He was SOOOO excited to go this morning! Angela volunteered me to be the assistant coach so I was involved today as well! 🙂 It’s been a LONG time since I played soccer but it really doesn’t matter that much with kids in Kindergarten. He looked so cute in his new socks, shin guards, jersey, black shorts kicking his ball around! 🙂
The first three weeks of soccer for them are actually clinics where experts come and teach the kids what to do. The coaches then take their teams to a designated area and practice with them. It’s really funny to see how much they listen. There are many daydreamers in the groups. 🙂 Our team has 8 kids and one of Zachary’s friends is on the team with him and she is excited. They practiced side foot kicks, shoelace kicks, trapping the ball, and dribbling it. We need to practice a LOT! 🙂 After the clinic, the kids play against other teams there and it is absolutely hilarious to watch. They swarm around the field like a bunch of bees kicking at anything that moves (including each other). Some kids reach in and grab the ball and run with it becuase they want to have “their turn” to kick the ball. 🙂
Although we need to practice a bunch, Zach is still very excited and can’t wait until next week so he can play again! Go Zach!
Today turned out very well! At work, as part of the Grant Thornton Leadership Program that I am taking part in, one of the areas of the program is to take on a leadership role to give back to the firm. I was asked to co-chair the IT Leadership Council, a group of my peers and the IT Senior Leadership Team. It is the responsibility of the group to successfully execute the strategic initiatives that are part of the Fiscal Year 2010 Strategic Plan. I was pretty stressed about the kick-off meeting that we had today becuase we didn’t have a lot of time to pull together the necessary information and I didn’t know how I was going to present it, but things came together in the end, and the meeting went very well. WHEW!
On a funner note, today was Brittany’s first Cross Country meet of the season. She was very excited but a little tentative becuase her knee was hurting her a little bit yesterday and she wasn’t sure how well she would do under these circumstances. The 8th graders run 2 miles which is an adjustment for her 1.5 mile races she ran last year. In the end, her knee was fine, but her foot started hurting and she didn’t have the kind of race she wanted, but did well for the first race of the year. They ran against Fischer which is the middle school that many of her friends who went to Still last year are going now. Great job, Brittany! Keep up the GREAT work!
In other notes, Brittany had her first day of Honors Chorus today, and Kirstyn had her first day of chorus as well. Both are very excited to be singing. Angela actually walked over to the middle school today to see Brittany run! It was slow and a little painful, but she is becoming more mobile and her back, although still in a lot of pain, is getting a little better. We keep up our prayers for her!
Angela still is in a LOT of pain and couldn’t even get up to go to church today. I took all the kids and she was able to get about 4 hours of undisturbed rest. By the end of the day today, however, she was able to get up by herself (still very slowly) and was able sit for a little while without dying of pain. Things may be looking up! 🙂
Today was a great day for Sarah! After getting home from the hospital and getting about 2 hours of sleep, we got up with Sarah and took her to the high school at 5am for a trip to participate with the Northwestern University Wildcat band for pre-game and halftime shows for the football game!
She had a blast! There were about 15 other bands from around the area that went to the game, and played with the university marching band. She was exhausted when they got home!
BYU is now 2-0 as they totally walked over Tulane for a final score of 54-3! This moved them up to #7 in the AP Poll and #9 in the Coaches Poll! Max Hall looked GREAT and the team is very healthy! This coming Saturday they play Florida State at home in Provo! Go Cougars!
Unfortunately, the day wasn’t totally perfect as Angela is still in a LOT of pain. Zachary and I picked up her prescriptions this morning for pain killers and muscle relaxants and she has been very faithful taking these. She is still in tears every time her back cramps up. We have been trying very hard to keep her down and do what we can to make her comfortable. We continue to keep her in our prayers.
On a more positive note, Kirstyn and I went to PM Music Center and picked up her new Clarinet she will be playing in band! She is SOOOO excited! Our wallets are excited too! She was deciding between the clarinet for band or the bass for orchestra. It costs $17 a month to rent a clarinet and costs about $600 to buy new. For a good bass, it costs $40 a month to rent and as much as a car ($20,000) to buy new! Yikes! We said she could play anything she wanted, but are kind-of glad she chose the clarinet! Go Kirstyn! 🙂
Today was a GREAT day! I got out of work early for an Oakbrook IT picnic at a nearby park. We had a great time and had lots of food to eat and games to play. I was there for a couple of hours and then had to leave to see Sarah play in the marching band for the Metea Valley High School home opener football game.
I was going to go over straight from work to meet the family at the stadium, but Angela wasn’t feeling well (back pain – more on that later) and so I drove home, picked up Kirstyn, Zachary, and Ben (Brittany was still at Cross Country practice) and took them to the game with me while Angela stayed at home. The game was GREAT and Sarah and the Marching Band looked very professional!
T
he halftime show went very well! They went out on the field and started it with the Metea Valley fight song (shown above) and then performed their halftime show, the “Magical Mystery Tour” featuring selections from the Beatles. They looked very professional out there and very crisp. Sarah really loves performing in the band this year. The band director is absolutely wonderful. She enjoyed the experience last year, but this year is a whole new thing. The director is much more relaxed, LOVES to have fun, and is great to be around. All the kids REALLY enjoy him. She also loves being a marching leader which is giving her some leadership experience. It’s great to see her out there leading the kids she is responsible for. 🙂
The football game also went wonderfully well. The Mustangs looked GREAT, especially for a team of just freshmen and sophomores! The Mustangs beat the De La Salle Meteors by a score of 28-13! Zachary was very excited at the end of the game. The starting quarterback and team captain (Jarrett House) is a buddy of his from Seminary carpooling last year. Every day when Angela would drive, Zach would come with and Jarrett would hop in the back and have great conversations with him. At the end of the game, Zach ran over and waved to Jarrett as he was coming off the field. Jarrett waved back and then ran out of his way to give Zach a high five and talk to him. Zach was thinking he was pretty cool because the star football player paid him some attention! 🙂
Brittany also found out some GREAT news today as well! Last week she tried out for 4 musical things: 1) Chamber Orchestra, 2) Honors Chorus, 3) IMEA (Illinois Music Education Association) participation, and 4) Solo and Ensemble participation. She made ALL 4! 🙂 She was soooooo excited! Last year she didn’t make Chamber or Honors Chorus and was very disappointed, but not this year! She will be a very busy girl before school most days of the week, as these groups don’t practice during school hours. She will participate in the Solo and Ensemble festival later this year.
When we got home from the game, Angela was in so much pain she couldn’t even stand. She was in tears it was so bad. Every time she would move, her back would cramp up and the muscles in the lower right side of her back would spasm. 🙁 She said it was worse than labor pains, and she has a VERY high tolerance for pain. After all, she has had 5 babies and has put up with me for almost 19 years! 🙂 We ended up going to the emergency room at the hospital at about 11pm and were there until around 2am. They put her on and IV and gave her some pretty strong pain killers and muscle relaxants. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep tonight! 🙁 Hopefully with the prescriptions she was given, things will start looking up and she will feel better soon! It’s very interesting (and frustrating) for her that up until last November, she had never been in the hospital herself for anything other than births, and now she has been there 3 times in less than a year! 😐
