Jack was invited to a birthday party. He is so excited. He has been carrying around this invitation for the last 12 hours. He even slept with it. And he has been saying that he wants to take all of his brothers and sisters. It is so refreshing. He is so sweet.
Mom just RSVPed for him. It is official. Jack is going to a party!
Liz is playing exceptionally well at lacrosse for her age. I am really impressed with her. She has stickwork that I am not seeing in other kids her age. And she is a mature player.
She has been to Elite camps at UNC, Northwestern and Syracuse, and a few prospect days at UNC, MD and Johns Hopkins. She is now talking to college coaches. She is getting noticed everywhere she goes. On Tuesday evening, she had a phone call with Tim McCormack from Northwestern. She was nervous, but she handled herself well. Another call on Wednesday night with Johns Hopkins, but the coach did not pick up at the expected time 😦 This happens, but it is disappointing, especially after you prepare.
This weekend, she plays at Johns Hopkins. Regardless of outcomes, I am proud of my girl for taking care of her business.
Marcia took the three boys to Hershey for a lacrosse tournament for Noah. She left me with the three girls as Eden and I have a local tournament
we are in the middle of our tournament, and it is going well. A friend of Lizs is in town from North Carolina. It is fun to see her playing with him and having fun. She watched Maggie today and took her with her to a BBQ. They both were all smiles. At the end of the day they were watching shows in Maggie’s room before falling asleep
Eden is an amazing girl. She and her friends ran a car wash on York Road last night after her games. When we got home, she made us dinner before we watched a movie together, a movie that Uncle Bobby had a hand in making. She watched the credits until she saw his name. Then she paused, took a picture, and sent it to him
Today is the last day of our tournament. Stiff competition. If we win 3 games we win the championship. I am hopeful. Either way I am proud
I have been worried about this weekend. Big presentation at work tomorrow and I anticipated not getting much sleep. I planned to nap on Saturday, study Saturday night and get a good night sleep. Things have not gone as planned …
Forgot my laptop charger. Took a nap on Saturday but woke with a fever. Got sick Saturday night and up most of the night. Needed to sleep in Sunday but chaperones bitching about power outage. Had to get up and go before 6am. Did not get to rest and had to stop on the way home to nap
Exhausted and still sick I have not yet prepared for tomorrow. Beyond my tough work week my father has put an extraordinary amount of pressure on me and Marcia by the failing business. And tonight sick and alone I am missing my sons birthday dinner for the 2nd time
There is no time to rest any longer. Time to man up and take care of business
Noah turned 10 yesterday. I jumped on him in the morning and gave him a big bear hug and woke him up. I knew that I would be at work all day and possibly home late, so I wanted to let him know how much I loved him before I shoved off for work.
I was able to take off at night from the U and we were able to have a nice dinner. Marcia cooked lasagna (in the microwave as the oven is broken). Lasagna by request of the birthday boy. He also got some video games and Legos from us and bike equipment from his grandparents.
After dinner and cake, we went up to his room and played video games. I passed out on the kids’ beds.
It was a great day.
I am very proud of Noah. He does not complain much. He also doesn’t ask for much. He very much goes with the flow. In sports, I think he is a terror, a force to be reckoned with on the field. In soccer, he is lightning quick and can go all day long. In lacrosse, he is as scrappy as can be, getting every loose ball. And he has stickwork!
I talked to him the other day about his hair. I don’t like that he hides his face. I think it is because he is self-conscious. He got a little teary-eyed and told me he wants to hide his ears because they are too big. I told him they aren’t. And who cares if they were. Tonight at dinner, he said he would get a hair cut. Short again, like it used to be.
We also remembered briefly at dinner the story of his birth. Can’t believe that was 10 years ago.
You only switch to double-digits once. Happy 10th Birthday, Noah.
We opened the U over the last few weeks. We are running Signature Chumash, Soft-Hands, and personal training. We are bringing in Jeremy Rualo to run faceoff clinics. And Amy Appelt to run Team Tewaaraton. A lot of it is very exciting. My kids are enjoying themselves. And I am enjoying training and running Chumash.
Working at the U is exhausting though. It is taking all of my energy. More challenging though is dealing with the personalities.
Screens, screens, everywhere screens. Blocking out the scenery, eating all my beans.
We are a family sitting on couches, glued to screens. Fighting over chargers. We just bought ourselves a new TV, 50″, and are putting the old TV in Noah’s room. Noah probably spends to most time on screens. We will see how this plays out.
It is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. We are sitting lazily in bed. And Maggie gets a hold of the computer, and shows me her creativity. In just minutes, she creates these drawings of apples and pies. It is pretty cool. She did it with Jack. He wanted to help with the stars. So, she let him. And then she drew him on the floor. He ate the gross pie on the left and got sick.
I spoke on Tuesday with the Maryvale lacrosse coach. She had come out to watch Liz’s team on Sunday morning. She paid compliments to the team, and to 4 girls in particular. Liz was among those 4 girls. She said that these 4 girls would have an immediate impact on lacrosse at Maryvale. She said she meant that they would play varsity as freshmen or at least as sophomores. We have not heard this kind of commitment or interest from a coach before, and Liz is flattered. For such a humble kid that works hard and does things the right way, I am glad that she is having this kind of opportunity fall in front of her.
This year, Noah, Elizabeth and I ran the Turkey Trot together. Maggie had some interest, and the youngest two boys were interested, but we decided just the three of us would do it. Terribly out of shape, I ran with Noah. What a difference a year has made.
I struggled on a tough course. Noah did not complain once. Nor did he need to. He set the pace, and I tried to keep up. When I stopped to walk, he would realize I wasn’t there and stop and look back. He motivated me to keep going. He finished 4th among his age group, 10 and under. He did awesome.
Liz … cut over 2 minutes off of her time from the previous year. She ran with the top runners, and finished 6 overall female! It was a darn impressive run for a 13 year old. She was less than 2 minutes off of the top female finisher, who won $500. Liz won a $50 gift certificate, as she finished 1st amongst 11-19 year olds.
When Sandra announced the winners, she said that she was hoping to get Liz to the high school. The Roland Park coach was also there, and was talking to Liz about trying to get her to RPCS. It is great to see Liz getting positive attention for her efforts.
When they announced the top 3 finishers, Liz noticed that the 2nd place girl was wearing a shirt from a college running competition. She said, “Mom, did you see her shirt!” It was maybe the first time the thought had crossed Liz’s mind about running in college.
Six With Sticks 