We had another Oh La La moment that I forgot to post. The girls did my coiffure, my makeup, and selected my outfit for my birthday date. Don't I look lovely? 
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Crazy Crazy Fun Week
This week was a week I wasn't sure I would survive. But I made it. Here are some highlights. The big events were the Bodypump launch class, the Zumbathon, and the Wrestling Rhino tournament (This was all day on Saturday). Each event could be a blog post unto itself, but I am short on time today, so they all come in one post.
The Rhino tournament was by far the most work. Derek spent several hours picking up mats from the nearby schools. I did all the signage and prepared the hospitality room and registration signs. I was amazed at the dedication of these wrestling families who got up as early as 5 on a Saturday morning to be there for registration and weigh in by 7 am. (I had some horrible moments thinking about how that will probably be me in the future). After registration I went and taught my classes, then I came back and helped run a scoring table for one mat. I couldn't believe how much crying there is in wrestling. After almost every match where the kids were 10 or younger someone cried. It was gut wrenching, adorable, painful, and wonderful all at once. It made me realize how much wrestling is so individual and personal. If you lose, there is really no one else to blame. I was close to tears several times watching throughout the day. But I loved to see the kids who were developing strength, flexibility, mental strength, and more...It is going to be a journey as Ben starts to wrestle. The tournament finished by about 2:30, but clean up and returning the mats took another 3 hours or so. I wasn't sure it was worth it...but then I realized that we had 50+ Rhinos wrestle in the tournament, and for 20 of them, it was their first tournament. My goal in helping with the Rhinos is to build the wrestling culture in our area. I think we took some big strides in this direction. Want to wrestle?
Check out the freestyle registration form that I made on our website. www.wrestlingrhinos.org
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| Bodypump 84 launch on Tuesday evening. Look at my amazing team! I have the best job in the world! |
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| 3rd annual Zumbathon to support Shorewood Wrestling. We had a great group come to support the team...and they did a great job dancing the night away. We actually could have gone more than 2 hours I think. It was a blast! |
Check out the freestyle registration form that I made on our website. www.wrestlingrhinos.org
Monday, January 21, 2013
Happy Birthday to ME!
Several years ago I decided that if I want a rockin' birthday, I should just plan a rockin' birthday. This year I went all out! We celebrated the 90th release of Bodystep and my birthday at the gym in the morning. Then in the evening Derek and I went to dinner, then stake conference, then had dessert with some friends from church. It was a blast (literally since Derek gave me new Nerf Darts for his nerf gun (oh yeah, and they work in mine too :)
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| The birthday crew--minus a few who didn't make it into the picture |
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| Mary, my fabulous bodystep teammate |
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| Jen surprised me by coming when her snowshoeing plans fell through. It was super fun to have her there! |
Crazy Hair Day
Libby was super excited for the Crazy Hair spirit day at school this week. I let her go pink!
She still has a bit of a love/hate relationship with school. She does enjoy going, most days. She has a tough time with homework...it can take her HOURS, unless it is coloring homework. She loves to color. Most of the homework is math though. Not her favorite. Wonder where she got that from?
Ben's Stats
Ben had his 18 month well-child check this week. About a month late. Oops. I forgot to schedule one on time. Oh well. Anyway, he is doing just fine--if you are into tiny children. Here are his stats:
Weight: 21 lbs. 4 oz. 3rd%
Height: 31" 10th%
Head: 19" 55%
Big brain, little body...that is just fine with me. That little body sure can produce lots of sound! He loves cheering at wrestling matches and hollering in church.
He is getting good at saying please, sometimes even unsolicited. His vocabulary is growing since I decided one of my NY resolutions would be to take away his binkie except when he is in bed. He was really unhappy for a couple of days, but he is doing great now. Usually he offers it to me to put into the drawer before I even get him out of bed.
Weight: 21 lbs. 4 oz. 3rd%
Height: 31" 10th%
Head: 19" 55%
Big brain, little body...that is just fine with me. That little body sure can produce lots of sound! He loves cheering at wrestling matches and hollering in church.
He is getting good at saying please, sometimes even unsolicited. His vocabulary is growing since I decided one of my NY resolutions would be to take away his binkie except when he is in bed. He was really unhappy for a couple of days, but he is doing great now. Usually he offers it to me to put into the drawer before I even get him out of bed.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Libbyisms
Libby's quote of the week, (while sobbing) "You ruined my life!" Seriously I heard this about anything and everything this week. From suggesting she wear a leggings under her dress (in the 25 degree weather), to making macaroni and cheese instead of peanut butter and jelly for lunch. It was a very emotional week for her. I think it was just hard to start getting up for school again.
Friday we went to the eye doctor (which--again--no surprises here -ruined her life because she had to miss school) because I had caught her taking off her glasses and moving them in and out over somethings as she tried to get words to focus. I have seen this behavior with adults who have to move books father and closer to try and get things into focus, so I knew something wasn't right with her prescription. Sure enough, it is going to be bifocals.
I hope they help because I feel like her inability to see text clearly is really hindering her ability and interest in reading.
Friday we went to the eye doctor (which--again--no surprises here -ruined her life because she had to miss school) because I had caught her taking off her glasses and moving them in and out over somethings as she tried to get words to focus. I have seen this behavior with adults who have to move books father and closer to try and get things into focus, so I knew something wasn't right with her prescription. Sure enough, it is going to be bifocals.
I hope they help because I feel like her inability to see text clearly is really hindering her ability and interest in reading.
Sarah the Hairdresser
While she was doing my hair she kept having me turn to look at the shower, then the towels, then the door, etc. (This is precisely what I have her do while I blow dry her hair.) One of the times that she had me turn my head she said, "That's a good mommy!" It is so funny to hear things you say come back to you.
She is starting to write! I am very proud of her because it isn't easy for her, and she doesn't like doing it, but she can write her name! "That's a good Sarah!"
Wrestling Preparation...
We are priming Ben to be a wrestler...we went to the Shorewood vs. Mountlake Terrace match on Thursday night, then the Highline CC match on Friday night. He had a blast tearing around the schools, but he didn't watch much wrestling. All in good time. And, both events were a good time. Shorewood won, but it came down to the last match. Highline lost, but it was close. And, Highline won their most important match, the one that we went to see--the former Shorewood Thunderbird, Brandon Leach.
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| Ben with Clark--Ben actually says Clark. He still doesn't say Libby or Sarah, but he has Clark down. |
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| The profiles of father and son |
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| I loved this pic of Ben and Derek walking. |
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| Brandon getting ready to wrestle. |
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| Brandon solidly controlling his opponent. |
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Awesome Seattle Times Article--Go Shorewood!
January 8, 2013 at 4:00 AM
'Weighing In': A look at Shorewood's strong-willed Matthew Floresca and the latest wrestling news
In this edition of "Weighing In," we'll look at Shorewood's top wrestler, junior Matthew Floresca and his bid to become the school's second state champion.
Also, we'll take a look at Marquee matches upcoming, Top targets, Big performances and links to state rankings individually and team.
Derek Norton has not seen too many wrestlers with the drive of Shorewood High School junior Matthew Floresca.
Floresca would run through a brick wall to win. He's that determined.
Strong-minded and strong-willed, the 126-pound Floresca is looking to make school history and become the school's first state champion since Tim Hester won the 189-pound class in 2008.
Hester was the school's first state champion. Floresca looks ready to join the club.
Norton figures it will be difficult to deny the ever-improving Floresca, who opened the 2012-13 season with a 15-0 start mixed between 126 and 132 to hike his high-school record to 73-7.
"He's tough and he's good, but some of those 132-pounders can be pretty big, so he's going at 126 the rest of the season," said Norton, the fifth-year Shorewood head wrestling coach. "It's kind of the same group of kids he faced the last couple years, and they have all moved up together. He's put in a ton work and he's really hungry.
"He's been on varsity the day he walked onto the wrestling mat at Shorewood. Matthew thinks he can beat anybody. He's worked hard enough, he knows he can win."
Floresca has downed some of the state's top competition already en route to his perfect start and No. 1 ranking for all state classifications at 126 by www.washingtonwrestlingreport.net.
The Thunderbirds leader took fourth at 120 to finish 29-3 as a sophomore after nailing down seventh at 112 as freshman to finish 29-4.
"He was really disappointed with fourth place last year," Norton said. "He thinks he should have won it."
Floresca lost a heart-breaking 1-0 decision in the quarterfinal round of state last season to eventual 120-pound champion Andrew Cunningham, who was a senior last season. That loss particularly drives Floresca, along with two other losses to Cunningham.
Floresca has already beaten Bonney Lake junior Colton Tracy, a two-time state runner-up including a second at 3A 113 last season, this season. He also has knocked off Glacier Peak's John Kim, ranked No. 6 at 126 in 3A.
Kelso senior Josh Newberg, a two-time state champion, likely awaits later in the season at 126 in 3A.
Floresca also topped Logan Pine of Olympia twice this season in tournaments.
Over the summer in July, Floresca became an All-American with his fifth-place showing at 120 pounds in the USAW Cadet National Championships in Fargo, ND. Cadet class is ages 14-16.
"That is one of the toughest tournaments in the country," Norton said. "He trained with the Washington national team and went their Cadet dual team and competed in Daytona Beach, Fla. He's competing at a level that's getting him national recognition now."
Powered by six individual champions, Shorewood captured its first Shorewood Invitational team crown in 21 years with its victory on Saturday in the Thunderbirds' gymnasium.
In addition to Floresca taking top honors at 132, the Thunderbirds got titles from Erik Harris-Uldall (138), Dawda Dibba (145), Konnor Carpenter (195), Ben Avilla (220) and Erca Erdenbayer (285).
Shorewood's team total of 215.5 points bested seven other rivals. Granite Falls took second at 177.5 and Roosevelt (106) and Shorecrest (105) were third and fourth, respectively.
"We've hosted that tournament the entire time we've had it [21 years] and come close to winning it, but this year we finally won it," said Norton, an assistant coach for four years at Shorewood before taking over as head coach in 2008-2009. "We've been slowly growing as a program. Two years ago, we sent six wrestlers to state and two last year."
The T-Birds face a new state-qualifying process as the WesCo 3A South Division combines with the Mid-Columbia Conference and Greater Spokane League for regionals at Sunnyside High School on Feb. 8.
"Our path to state is going to be a pretty brutal one, and we should take three or four kids to state," Norton said. "Anybody who makes it to state from our region has a pretty good chance to place. They split up WesCo North and South this year and they are sending us on the other side of the mountains."
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Happy New Year!
We decided to do a little New Year's Eve gathering with our besties. I was blogging the night before and chanced to look at what has become my favorite blog--ourbestbites.com. They had a post about doing a New Year Tree (by stripping off the Christmas ornaments and putting up New Year stuff.) It was awesome! It got the ideas flowing. So, we did a new year tree (see behind Jen and I), we had a New Year toast with apple juice (at about 8 pm). Instead of banging pots we popped balloons that had "lucky coins" inside to give us luck for the New Year. And, since Reid, Gideon and Caleb gave us a helium tank for Christmas (along with some cute balloons) we filled some cheap balloons from the dollar store and let them off with our New Year Wishes.
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| Of course we had the traditional fondue. 4 kids and 4 adults all dipping was a bit insane, but it was super yummy and no one was mortally wounded with a fondue fork. |
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| Who doesn't want to rock these glasses? |
We also used our stage to do some little impromptu performances. The "magic stage" had put some slips of paper in a bag and each person got to draw out what the stage wanted them to perform. (Some examples, tell a joke, sing a song, do an action song, do an animal charade, etc.) You could have anyone help you. It was probably my favorite part of the evening to see the kids enjoying the stage.
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| Love this shot too. |
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| Cheers! Sarah had to take off her fancy dress to do fondue. |
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| I love this shot! |
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| I got a new remote for my camera. If you look by Jen's side, you can see I am not very sneaky with it yet. Also, you can see on the tree my SIMPLE New Year decor. |
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| Happy NEW YEAR! |
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| Auntie Jen led the crew in a rousing rendition of YMCA. Reid wasn't too sure about it. This was the last chorus and we finally got him to do a Y. For Emily--this is the top of the stage. It is a 4 ft. by 4 ft. wooden box. It is 10 inches deep so the Barbie house is inside the box. We stand it up on it's edge for playing with the house. |
A 1st PLACE FINISH!
Shorewood High School has been hosting the Shoreline invitational wrestling tournament for 21 years. THEY FINALLY WON IT! Look at all those happy champs! No one is happier than Derek though, I don't think. It has been a long time coming!
Prep wrestling: Shoreline Invitational
SHORELINE -- Shorewood won their own invite for the first time in 21 years on Saturday behind first-place finishers Matthew Floresca (132), Erik Harris-Uldall (138), Dawda Dibba (145), Konnor Carpenter (195), Ben Avila (220), and Erca Erdenebayer (285).
At Shorewood H.S.
Team scores--Shorewood 215.5, Granite Falls 177.5, Roosevelt 106, Shorecrest 105, Bellevue 102, Nathan Hale 88.5, Blanchet 52.5, O'Dea 19.5.
106--Spencer Coffee (Shorecrest) maj. dec. Eric Moshcatel (R) 10-0; 113--Logan Corbin (GF) maj. dec. Owen Donnelly (Shorecrest) 11-2; 120--Ryan Nash (GF) pinned Marc Moshcatel (R) 1:44; 126--Jacob Sands (R) dec. Tyler Groff (GF) 4-3; 132--Matthew Floresca (Shorewood) inj. def. Rikio Campbell (Shorewood); 138--Erik Harris-Uldall (Shorewood) maj. dec. Josiah Glessner (Shorecrest) 12-2; 145--Dawda Dibba (Shorewood) tech. fall Ricky Morguez (Shorecrest) 4:04; 152--Jasper Bourgette (NH) dec. Braden Kalloway (Shorewood) 5-4; 160--Tommy Eadie (GF) dec. Michael Hodges (NH) 8-5; 170--Gabe Buccino (Bellevue) pinned John Flanagan (Blanchet) 2:20; 195--Konnor Carpenter (Shorewood) pinned Jamey Mange (Bellevue) 2:50; 220--Ben Avila (Shorewood) pinned Wolfgang Olson (Shorecrest) :36; 285--Erca Erdenebayer (Shorewood) pinned Tristian Prout (NH) 2:25.
At Shorewood H.S.
Team scores--Shorewood 215.5, Granite Falls 177.5, Roosevelt 106, Shorecrest 105, Bellevue 102, Nathan Hale 88.5, Blanchet 52.5, O'Dea 19.5.
106--Spencer Coffee (Shorecrest) maj. dec. Eric Moshcatel (R) 10-0; 113--Logan Corbin (GF) maj. dec. Owen Donnelly (Shorecrest) 11-2; 120--Ryan Nash (GF) pinned Marc Moshcatel (R) 1:44; 126--Jacob Sands (R) dec. Tyler Groff (GF) 4-3; 132--Matthew Floresca (Shorewood) inj. def. Rikio Campbell (Shorewood); 138--Erik Harris-Uldall (Shorewood) maj. dec. Josiah Glessner (Shorecrest) 12-2; 145--Dawda Dibba (Shorewood) tech. fall Ricky Morguez (Shorecrest) 4:04; 152--Jasper Bourgette (NH) dec. Braden Kalloway (Shorewood) 5-4; 160--Tommy Eadie (GF) dec. Michael Hodges (NH) 8-5; 170--Gabe Buccino (Bellevue) pinned John Flanagan (Blanchet) 2:20; 195--Konnor Carpenter (Shorewood) pinned Jamey Mange (Bellevue) 2:50; 220--Ben Avila (Shorewood) pinned Wolfgang Olson (Shorecrest) :36; 285--Erca Erdenebayer (Shorewood) pinned Tristian Prout (NH) 2:25.
1000 POSTS!
I feel like I have reached a real historical marker in my life as a historian. No, I didn't publish (or even write) a dissertation. I didn't have my master's seminar paper published. I haven't even taught a history class for 5 long years. But, I have managed to find time to continue chronicling the history of our little family in blog form. I am glad that I have a record of the triumphs and tragedies of my parenting struggles. When I read back through the blog I laugh, I cry, and I am amazed at how the 5+ years since I started this blog have gone by. I am so thankful for my family for giving me delightful and difficult things to write about. I am thankful for the 8 followers who read my posts, and I think there are a few others who check in from time to time. I am so glad to be a mom and a wife at this stage in my life. It certainly isn't easy. Sometimes it isn't fun at all. But I wouldn't trade it for any Phd or teaching job. My time will come.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Kid-isms
I overheard Libby on the couch with Derek the other night:
Libby: Do you know how you can know I am your daughter? Because I like watching football. You know how else? Because I have curly hair like you used to have..."
But Sarah zinged me a good one. She was giving me a "spa treatment" the other night, so I was laying on the couch for my "face massage." She moved down to my belly to give my tummy a massage. All of a sudden she pushed a few times around my belly button and said, "Mom, you have a lot of dough to eat right here....why is it so squishy right here?" Hmmm. Kids.
Libby: Do you know how you can know I am your daughter? Because I like watching football. You know how else? Because I have curly hair like you used to have..."
But Sarah zinged me a good one. She was giving me a "spa treatment" the other night, so I was laying on the couch for my "face massage." She moved down to my belly to give my tummy a massage. All of a sudden she pushed a few times around my belly button and said, "Mom, you have a lot of dough to eat right here....why is it so squishy right here?" Hmmm. Kids.
Playing in the Park
So today it was 34 degrees outside. The ground was iced with a thick sheet of frost. But I have been dying to get my kids outside where I could take some pics of them. And, it was actually sunny instead of raining. So, we went to the park. After about 2 minutes Libby was asking to go home. Her asking got increasingly intense. I didn't get any really good pics of my kids, but I got some great ones of some friends who tagged along to "freeze with us."
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