Wrestling Life

Wrestling has been so good this year.  And also so hard.  For the Norton girls, it's most been fantastic.  Sarah has made some huge improvements.  Her official record in Track is 9-9, but she's won at least 3 more than that, 2 at the Edmonds Woodway scramble which never made it into Track, and 1 at NW Duals that was an exhibition.  Libby is 19-3, losing to 2 state champs (one a Utah State Champ and one a WA state champ at Gut check, and one to Winter West, a freshman stud that is thankfully 4A.) 

Our girls team overall, though, has been gutted by illness, injury, mental illness, and grade issues.  So our numbers are down to the point that we can't be competitive as a team.  That's been hard--as we went into this season with VERY high expectations for our individual wrestlers and our team overall. 

 I guess life is about adjusting expectations, right? 

I am so excited to be spending so much time with these girls and the crew though.

We created a really aggressive competition schedule this year--because it was going to be our year.  And now we are taking a skeleton crew.  But it's still worth it...right? 

Sarah's choir also had an aggressive Christmas concert season--3 concerts in one weekend. (Of course also a weekend with a wrestling tournament).  It was worth it--she sang beautifully. And the collaborative concerts with the Evergreen Ensemble were especially amazing.  (I went to 2 out of 3 concerts.)  The wrestling tournament that day was thankfully perfectly timed so I could see Libby take first and then still make it to see Sarah sing! 

 

Christmas Decor & December 1st--a New Tradition?

I usually spend the day after Thanksgiving decorating.  This year I had to spend it cooking 2 turkeys for a Thanksgiving thing at church (Derek was supposed to do it but called in to work), picking up Ben, and at wrestling practice.  Then on the Saturday I took Ben to the only wrestling tournament he could compete in (the rest are on Sundays).  So getting the decor up took WAY longer than usual.  It was very frustrating for me.  But by Dec. 1 it was all done. (This was honestly made more frustrating because I wanted to do some new fun things inspired by watching too many holiday decor facebook reels.  I had to abandon these ideas and focus on getting the decor up and done.) 

New Tradition: 

The girls (especially Libby) wanted new headphones for wrestling season.  They were on sale early in the shopping season.  Ben really wanted a Lego advent calendar.  I decided to combine their desires with a new little gift event.  December 1st we had a special holiday family dinner (it's hard to even have a regular family dinner these days).  We gave them each headphones and an advent calendar (which they have really enjoyed.) 

I guess it's too late to start a new tradition when one of our kids will likely be out of the house next year...but I can send an advent calendar and another gift wherever she is, right? 

For our special family dinner, we had holiday pizza and spaghetti (one of my coping mechanisms for this insane time is to make 2 dinners on Sunday so we can have leftovers throughout the week.) 

Sarah requested this salad. 

The new headphones! They have gotten a lot of use! 

Thanksgiving 2024

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Maren's house in Woodinville.  It was a full and fun day.  I got in on the Rummikub action, but did not win A SINGLE GAME.  Sarah was on fire, winning 1/2 the games.  Veronica Fehlberg took the other 3.  We had a great time eating and hanging out. 

I made a veggie tray to snack on while I was cooking.  Haha.  Not exactly like the example.  But it was yummy. 

My pies were really pretty.  And they all timed out perfectly in the baking.  But somehow the coconut cream reliquified.  Weird.  The flavor was delicious, but the texture was all wrong.  The chocolate mousse was the biggest hit.  I promised to send someone from Woodinville the recipe. But I haven't done it yet.  (One of the many dropped balls lately.) 

Libby played all the games with us this year too.  That was super fun. :)

 It was a hard day for Geneva without Brion.  But she made it through.  It's been interesting watching her go through this grief, knowing that it is a part of life and the plan.  I'm glad she decided to do Christmas in Arizona with the Great Grands to mix it up.  

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I'm thankful to be living this full and rich life (even when at times it seems overwhelming): seminary, wrestling, teaching, parenting, serving in nursery, all the things.  

No Post Record Yikes!

 So wrestling has started.  Haha.  And I've been buried under a mountain of things to do.  But today is a catch up day.  Christmas is over.  Our first two big tournaments are over (2 day travel tournaments have taken up a lot of time and mental space!).  And now I have a few pockets of time to get things done this week before our next 2 day tournament on Fri/Sat.  Thank goodness it's close enough we can sleep at home this weekend.

So, how has it been going? I'm going to do a few different posts to catch up.  

The In-Between Week

 We had a week with no sports practices.  What!?  We had 2 wrestling coaches meetings, and a fundraising dine out night, but it was a pretty nice week. (|Also Ben started his work as a basketball manager--but that sort of doesn't count, does it?)

The girls went on a YW Retreat to a cabin.  They had a blast. 

We celebrated Clark's birthday! 

We "rended" the veil of unbelief at seminary. 

Ben had his birthday outing with Grammy, a few months late, but who's counting?  And realized he's TALLER! 

More work on his hair.  We really needed a Ray Ray assist on this one. 

Ben and I also went to the temple yesterday.  It was so great to be in the temple with him.  (Derek was at home waiting for the vanity countertop to be delivered--it never was.  And the girls didn't get home in time from their retreat.)

Tomorrow wrestling starts!  It's getting REAL! 

Libby's Senior Pics!

I can't believe this girl is a senior.  Crazy.  She's having a pretty good year overall.  She's still struggling with her breakup with Andrew.  It's hard that she sees him around and it triggers the loss all over again--especially since she's been seeing him with another girl.  I'm not sure how to help her through this--but she's turning to friends and mostly keeping busy.  When she's home she's working out, or eating popcorn and watching shows in her bed.  She does run errands with her siblings.  She's Ben's official hair color expert (this last dye job needs a redo).  She's taking 2 classes at SW and 2 running start classes.  She's tardy to her SW classes every day.  How?  No idea.  She's attending seminary and mostly participates and has fun, unless she's feeling sick.  Then she puts her head down and sleeps.  (Ugh.)  Btu she's forcing a boy in our ward to start coming because she's heard he's getting into trouble and seminary will help him stay out of trouble.  Love it.  

She's working on her future.  She's put in two college applications, Western Washington University and UW Tacoma (she and Izzy worked on these--I didn't help at all!).  She's going to meet with a Coast Guard recruiter soon?  She's practicing being independent by making all her own food (mostly) and rarely eating with the family.  She's got places to be! Anyway, I love being her mom.  She makes me proud.  

Huge thanks to Kim Barlow for the awesome photos! 

 

School Pics for 2024-25

 Haha.  Okay, this is a Halloween pic of Libby.  She missed the ASB card picture day the first time around.  Not sure if she remembered to get retakes (running start kinda messes with her ability to do the normal HS things).  But I'll do a separate post with her senior pics.  

Ben, love this kid.  He's got a new history teacher this week--my former teacher partner at MP.  I'm going to miss her so much, but she'll love being back at Einstein.  Ben is a WEB leader, a friend to so many.  He's a member of the football team, will be a basketball manager again, a wrestler and a member of the track team.  He's a fortnite player, a weight lifter, deacon's quorum president, and a fun brother.  I'm lucky to be his mom.    

5th grade teacher and Wrestling coach.  Mom & Super Sport Spectator.  Member of the social committee this year at school (gave up the Building Leadership Team.)  Is enjoying planning Staff Spirit Days instead of arguing about class placement processes, etc.  She's helping a new teacher partner get rolling.  She's planning a new math curriculum this year that is taking a lot of time.  Ouch.  She's got a class of 31.  She's in her 8th year of teaching 5th grade--and feeling it.  A little tired of some of her favorite projects.  Some more overhauls needed next year once the math is settled.  (But is always tinkering with her projects...so will it ever be settled?)  She's running the Park Post with an awesome partner.  First issue comes out this week.  She's also got SW access and is getting  building key.  This coaching thing is getting real.  

Sarah spent a lot of time giving me a run down of all her classes this year.  She's loving school.  (She especially loves AP World History--which makes this mama heart sing!)  She's taking accounting and DECA.  She likes being able to drive, but doesn't like going to stores by herself.  So I still get to run errands with this girl (4 or 5 stores--and lunch--yesterday!)  I'm super proud of Miss Sarah.