All the Boys

The weekend the mats are allowed in the gym everyone hosts a meet.  Little kids and High Schoolers (and sometimes Junior High but we're enjoying a JH free year).

Nicholas came in 2nd at our meet.  He is the least scared to shoot (try to take down the opponent) of all our boys (when they were just starting out) so he can be exciting to watch.  I wasn't sure how he'd be in competition but he's an aggressive competitor.

Philip got 3rd and was a little disappointed because he came in 1st the week before. (The trophy he's holding is actually from that tournament.)  He's been doing well and seems to have gotten better at the mental part of wrestling.  I still can't watch his face while he wrestles because all the emotions show and my heart can't handle it, but he's enjoying himself.

Samuel took 1st at our home meet!  Actually, he's taken 1st at the last three tournaments they've been too.  He's something like 32-13 this season (yes, I did just go consult the local newspaper to find out his record and then added in yesterday's three wins) and hopes to do well enough at districts to make it to state.  Top four from the district in each weight go to state.  He's wrestling at 160.
Thomas placed 6th at the meet.  He's having a good year too.  It's hard to be a 152 lb freshman at a school with no JV team.  It's cool to wrestle varsity but that means he's going up against upperclassmen pretty often.  (Our family doesn't have the 106 lb freshman stage.  Not a lot of juniors and seniors in that weight class.)  He didn't make it in the paper so I don't know his record.  Oh, he's home, he says he's 17-23.

Here's a cool pic of Sam from the local newspaper's FB. It's from the dual at Public, a school that loves its wrestling and does the whole main lights off, spotlight on the mat thing.  Unfortunately it shows the only ten seconds Samuel was in control of this match.   He was wrestling a senior who placed at State last year and it ended up being one of his losses.  He wrestled well though, didn't get pinned and made the kid work for the win.

Getting Real

The sophomores all go as a class to a nearby college fair in January.  So Samuel had to put his name on some list and all the colleges started sending him stuff.  This was the first day.

So far he says he wants to do something STEM related but that's as much as he's got at this point.

Snow Day!

So much more fun when you're a salary teacher than an hourly one!  And we knew a big storm was coming so I brought a bunch of work home and got close to caught up on a lot of school things while the kids played.  Then I joined in on the fun.

March for Life

Thomas went to Washington DC for the national March for Life this year.  We realized (too late for Samuel) last year that for wrestlers the March comes at a bad time...the last few weeks of the season.  As a junior or senior, they aren't going to want to miss Conference or go a week without working out just a few weeks out from districts and state.  Thomas remembered this and asked if he could go this year.  We said yes, because I want my kids to experience the March and see how much bigger the world is than our little corner and how many people are with us in our belief that all life is precious, to stand up for what we believe, not to mention being able to see DC.  And then I freaked out.  My barely 15 year old in DC?!  Out in the big world without me or Jeremy?! A year after those poor kids at Covenington had their names and pictures all over the media for something they didn't do?   But all those other things trump me wanting to keep him in a bubble.  Our diocese has taken groups for years and have plenty of chaperones and plans to keep the kids safe.  So he went and had a marvelous time.

They left at 5 on Tuesday and were home by 9 Sunday morning.  That includes two days of traveling by bus, so they didn't have a huge amount of time to explore DC.  They did a night tour of monuments, had one day mostly for sightseeing, had Mass at the National Basilica, did the March and came home.  Thomas's group chose to go to the Holocaust Museum, the Smithsonian Museum of National History and the National Archives during their sight seeing time.

Our Lady of Guadeloupe, pray for our country and an end to abortion!

Happy 7th and 15th Birthday!

Nicholas turned seven!  We didn't have a family party this year because he wants a friend one.  We'll do that when it's warmer outside!

Seven is the age I always think parenting gets less physical.  Not so much helping with self-care and physically doing things for them and more I don't know how to word it...mentoring?  Sure, there's still lots of physical things to do but now you're doing more guidance type things- talking through situations, giving advice, you can tell them what to do with just words.  Does that make sense?  And so with our last one hitting seven we move into a new stage of life...

Thomas turned 15!  And (mom fail) did not get his picture taken.  Rats.  He didn't really have any gifts to open because he mostly got money for the March for Life trip.  He and Nicholas worked together and chose to go to Honest Abe's for dinner so no birthday cake to take a picture with either.  We had a fun time at dinner though and Thomas loved his burger.  He left for DC just a couple days after his birthday.

We love you both and are grateful God put you in our family!

A Lovely Christmas Break

Christmas break was especially nice this year.  The kids had two full weeks and I had one extra day at the beginning.   I pretended I didn't have a job except for about four hours I spent getting organized for school next week.  It was well worth it not to be flying by the seat of my pants.  I hate teaching like that. 

While pretending I was a stay at home again, I saw Nicholas's special first grade nativity play, got in TWO coffee chats with my friend Jessica (now that I'm full time we've had trouble finding a good time to get together), did all the Christmas visits, Nicholas got a play date, Julia and I enjoyed seeing many of my cousins, I had lunch with my college roomies and Karen, we did some stuff around the house, I made SEVEN freezer meals for future busy days, Julia cleaned her room so we could get her new bed in her room and we even got in a family fun day.  Samuel and Thomas had one wrestling tournament where Samuel got fourth in his bracket and Thomas got fifth.  We were supposed to host a birthday dinner for my mom too but two of my sister's kids got influenza (while her husband was on a work trip) and mom had been helping her so we postponed to keep the flu germs out of our house.

Yardstick nativity.  A St. W Christmas staple.

The cousins had just enough time to eat, catch up on everyone's lives and play a couple games.  Perfect.

Set for the next time I just don't feel like cooking.  Today? No, Lisa.  Not today.

Family fun at Medieval themed indoor mini golf.  It was great!

Julia's refreshed room.  We still need to get her a bookcase.

Tournament Results

And t-minus 10 hours until we go back to school Nicholas started throwing up.  Boo.

New Year's Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with Jeremy's family on New Year's Day.  Everyone had a nice time. 

 The kids were happy with their gifts and played with the cousins.

The adults chatted and ate delicious food.  It was a good end to the celebrating!