Austin's 15th birthday

Austin turned 15 a couple weeks ago and we celebrated with a family lunch at our house. As you can see...he's ready for baseball season! Of course turning 15 means he's just weeks away from getting his white slip--which is very scary!--and all he talks about now is car shopping. Ugh!! He's got a good start on his savings toward (his share of) buying a car, but I am putting that off as long as I can! lol!!

Basketball wrap-up

The basketball season is just a couple weeks away from coming to a close which you would think would mean things are beginning to slow down--but no. Austin has been dressing JV and that means twice as many games. I say "dressing" because although he plays almost the whole game as a freshman, he spends more time on the bench as a JV player, but he is perfectly okay with that. He was just excited to be placed on the JV team as a freshman! He does get a little bit of game time which is good experience for him. Tonight we'll be traveling to Decatur to play against St. Teresa, tomorrow will be a triple-header Hoops for Haiti Night at home against Argenta-Oreana, and Friday we'll be playing Central A&M. I don't have any stats or win-loss info (haven't been keeping track myself :)) because there has just been too much to keep track of (I'm sure Austin has all this info!). It's been a busy, busy season, but it's almost over.

Which means...track will be just around the corner...

(My new camera is ordered and will hopefully be here soon so I can post more pics!)

Blues vs. Blackhawks

We spent this past weekend in St. Louis at our first pro-hockey game. After going to several Rivermen and Thunder games, the pace of a pro-hockey game was quite a bit quicker. Ten of us (almost the whole family) all met in the city to see the Blackhawks play the Blues. As it turned out, I think there were more Blackhawk fans there than Blues fans (our hotel was nothing but Hawks fans)! (Maybe because the Blues don't have a very good record?)

Aside from losing my camera (yes...being a glass-is-half-full kinda person I'm choosing the word "lost" even though my aunt insists it was stolen since I knew exactly where it was, then exactly where it wasn't...), we all had a lot of fun. Pics are courtesy of my cousin. :)

The first fight of the night

Freshman b-ball

The freshman basketball season is in full swing and keeping us VERY busy. Beyond busy actually with practices every evening (and some early mornings!), games at least once or twice a week and pretty much every Saturday. They don't have the best record, but they've already won just as many games this year as they did all year last year, and are only half way through. Austin has been starting about half the games (maybe more actually) and has been having his best season ever! They played in the Okaw Valley Tournament in Niantic this past Saturday which was one game after the other and somewhat exhausting (and that was as a spectator! lol!! Can't imagine how the boys felt!). Here are a few pics from that tournament.

Playing guard

Shooting free throws after being fouled while trying to shoot a 3 (and, yes...that means 3 free throws! He made 2 of his 3 free throws this time).

Taking a much needed rest in the 4th quarter. And look at that mop on his head!! lol! After this game he decided he needed a haircut. Too funny...

Game night!

New Year's Eve at our house means GAME NIGHT! The last several years we've skipped all the parties, the clubs, and other traditional New Year Eve activites for a night of games at home with our friends. It's always a good time and no one wakes up hungover the next day (usually! lol). This year Austin actually stayed home with us rather than doing his usual (going to a friend's house), and played with us. It's always girls against guys and this year...the girls dominated!!

This is Austin and I in a head to head competition (look at the concentration! lol!!), and oh yeah... I got the win! He was so sure he would take his mom out which made the win that much sweeter!! (Not that we're competitive or anything...lol!)

We wrapped the evening up by watching the ball drop (wouldn't be New Year's without that, right?), and called it a night. It was a good time (and I'd say that even if the girls hadn't won!). It's New Year's Day now and we're spending the day taking the Christmas decorations down, clearing clutter and organizing. A nice clean start to the new year. And, who knows...maybe I'll be a little better about updating my blog in 2010. (But, don't hold your breath! lol!!)

Blogger bug

Not sure if I've been bitten by the blogger bug again or just boredom, but two posts in a 7-day period is certainly rare for me!

So, another Christmas has past and another year about to come to an end. As they say...time flies! Everyone had a fabulous holiday as usual. In keeping with tradition we spent Christmas Eve at my Aunt Bev's house eating too much, opening gifts, and playing games.

Austin helping his grandma with one of her gifts.

Christmas morning started bright and early at our house with Austin tearing through gift after gift (he told me later I went a little overboard--good to know he hasn't lost sight of what the season is all about. And, I thought I was scaling back!). He loved everything he got, was surprised by a few of his gifts, but I think his favorites were some of the least expensive gifts he received (t-shirts from Spencer's he'd asked for--which, by the way, were some of my least favorite to buy! lol)! His tastes are certainly changing! After we opened gifts at our house we went down to the in-laws for more of the same.The rest of the day was nice and relaxing. Austin spent the afternoon at his dad's, coming home just in time for dinner. Only thing left to do now...is take him shopping to spend all his gift cards! lol!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas cards used to be one of my favorite things about the holiday season. I loved everything about them from choosing the perfect cards to send out, to addressing them and sending them out. As my schedule (like so many others) got increasingly busier over the last several years--especially during the holiday season, something had to give and I abandoned this practice. This year I was hoping to bring back that tradition. Once again, however, time has gotten away from me and so another year goes by without addressing one card. I do miss sending out Christmas greetings, so I have decided to use my blog as one big Christmas "card" to everyone.

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you, and best wishes for Happy New Year!!

I've never been one to include a summary of the year's events in my Christmas cards, but since the original purpose of my blog was to keep everyone up to date with our family's happenings I'll run through a quick recap.

Since my last blog (that included anything to actually report on) was about Austin's track season, I'll pick up from there. He graduated from 8th grade in June. Yes...it was a loooong school year!! Snow days held us over until the first week of June, and needless to say, EVERYONE was ready for it to be over!

8th grade graduation.

The following week we had a party for him on the patio.

The summer was full of "firsts" for Austin (and a couple for me!). He attends football and basketball camps every summer, but most of those are day camps and I just transport him back and forth for the duration of the camp. This year he went to his first "away" overnight basketcamp at ISU. He got to stay in the dorms and everything. He thought that was awesome! His team performed really well during the camp, he learned a lot of new drills, and met a lot of new people. He had tons of fun!

Kiki (who is a junior and the brother of one of Austin's good friends) was Austin's roommate at camp.

While the cat's away, mice will play! While Austin was away at camp, Bryan and I plus a big group of us all went up to Chicago for the weekend where I had one of my firsts. My first Cub game at Wrigley Field. I've seen the Cubs play before at other stadiums, but never at Wrigley, and it was everything it's hyped up to be! AND...to make things even better--THE CUBS WON!! The game went into 13 innings! But, was well worth the wait. :)

Another first for Austin was his first trip out of the country. We went on vacation in July to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic (another first for me--Bryan has been before) for a week. I wasn't sure how Austin would do on a "resort" vacation with a lot of laying around the pool and on the beach since he is used to going on more action-packed vacations with us. But... he LOVED it, and can't wait to go back! We took a couple day trips during the week going into "town" (if that's what you want to call it) to do a little shopping, and we went on a boating/snorkeling excursion where we even got to swim with the sharks (we were told they're not the kind of sharks that eat people--hmm) and stringrays (that had their stingers removed of course). Austin met all kinds of other kids from all over the world--Germany, France, Spain. He had a little 13 year old girl from Germany following him around (or was he following her around? lol!) all week, and spent a lot of time hanging out with a boy from France (until Austin realized people in France are a little more "relaxed" than we are in the States and didn't like some of the things the boy was "inviting" him to do--smart kid!). Although his little friend from Germany could understand Austin, she couldn't communicate in English very well so it was quite a learning experience for Austin. He picked up a few German words and also learned how limited we are by only knowing our own language! He was amazed that everyone he met could not only speak their own language, but could also speak ours (if not fluently at least enough to communicate).

Pool volleyball with his new friends.

Austin with his friends from Germany.

With one of the locals.

The rest of the summer was equally busy for Austin between a very intense football camp and his first job! He got a taste of what it's like to actually earn a dollar working for Bryan at BASF pollenating corn. Can't say he loved it as much as he did his other "firsts", but it was a good experience for him.

He's entered the world of high school now and is absolutely loving it! He was a starter for the freshman football team. They ended up with a 500 season--not too bad considering the kind of weather they had to play in this year! It was a WET football season! Austin probably played his best game ever (in the rain!) the last game of the season with several tackles and an interception. Basketball season has started now, and so far his team is 3 and 1. Austin's been leading the team with 3 pt. shots, and has been playing better than I've ever seen him. He starts driver's ed in the 4th quarter and that's all I hear about. (Actually, that's been all I hear about for a while now! Lord help us all when he actually starts driving!! lol!)

OK...so for the amount of time I've spent updating this blog I could've hand delivered Christmas cards to everyone! lol.

Seriously, I do appreciate all the Christmas cards I receive every year so thank you for keeping me on your Christmas card list even though I've neglected to reciprocate lately.

I truly hope everyone has a great holiday season!