Homecoming!

Our football schedule was super weird.  We ended up having homecoming as our last game and the cross town rivalry game rolled into one.

Ben Norton got in for the last couple plays, helping to keep the score closer by getting a tackle near the goal line to stop Shorecrest from scoring in the last seconds of the game.  He now has 2.5 varsity tackles on the season. Love that as the shortest on the roster, he still gets a little playing time.

Sarah went to the game with friends (her new boyfriend Tommy is on the team).  But ended up sitting with the row of Nortons.  (How did I not get a pic of the Nortons?!)

Ben opted to stay home on Saturday (which was good because Derek decided to move ahead with the new shed project--so we had to clean out the old shed).  Sarah had fun at the dance. 

Love #29

Buddy wanted in on the photos.  

This is the first time I've actually seen Tommy and Sarah together and they were cute.  The last picture is the big hug he gave her after the photos.  They both like reading.  He got her flowers to make it official that they were dating.  And he got her shark slippers for her birthday.  What what?  Adorable.  (She's a big shark fan if you didn't know.) 

Senior Swim/Dive Celebration

 What a sweet celebration of the seniors.  I got a little misty at the beginning of the meet.  Honestly, I won't miss watching diving.  It stresses me out! But I'm super sad to be leaving the swim & dive community. They've been wonderful and encouraging.  Love this girl of mine and the coaches that have helped her shine! (Also love Kristi Lin's photos! Thank you!) 

99% sure that's Sarah. 

Coach Keela is awesome.  So lucky to have her! 

Happy Birthday Sarah!

 We have another adult in the house.  Well, it's official now.  But she's been so grown up and responsible she's felt like an adult for a long time now.  She got to have two parties (one was just yesterday--hence not posting for so long.)

She got to be with her birthday twin Uncle Leroy (all the way up from New Zealand) for the family party. 

So many goodies.  USU garb (since she's made it official!) and a car cleanout from mom (including a detailing kit).  Her photo book came on her actual birthday and she opened it when she was home without me (in fact I'm not sure I saw her on actual her birthday at all.) 

For her friend party, she wanted to have a sip and paint Sarah. See their final pics below.  Not bad, really. 

The painting

I made an awesome charcuterie board (my first real one). 

They did karaoke (of course, choir friends). 

The final art gallery.  Kinda creepy cute? 

Then they killed each other off in Family Business

I'm so excited for her to be getting ready to launch into the world...but also so glad we have most of the  year left before she goes! 

Fall Sports & Getting Ready for Winter

 You know that saying, the early bird gets the worm?  Well sometimes it's true.  And sometimes you do a bunch of work and then you have to redo it because if you would have waited, you would have had all the info and it would have been better, or more clear or whatever.  I feel like trying to get ready for wrestling has been like that.  But we're getting there.  I just need to figure out the sweet spot. When will all the info be in, but it won't be too late to get things lined up.  Still unclear.

I've been going to around 2 or 3 football games a week (yes, he's been playing in JV, C and then Varsity).  I skipped the Friday night game this last week.  Too cold.  Too rainy.  I was just too done.  Then one swim meet a week.  (Thankfully all indoor :)

So I haven't had much time for writing. But finally yesterday was clear, and my mom had given me notes on the 2nd manuscript that I really wanted to get to.  So I got in several hours yesterday.  I hope to keep writing and do a few more queries before wrestling season starts.  I'll need to finish book two (working title Stand Up) and get some more beta readers.  Let me know if you want in?  Book one (working title Reversal) is ready to query for real, and I have 3 names of agents from WIFYR.  Why not?  I'll see if they might want it.  Maybe tomorrow morning.

We're celebrating Sarah today--she turns 18 this week.  Crazy.  She had a great time at the Shorecrest Homecoming last night with her choir friends.  More on her birthday next week.

Number 9 on C team.  29 on JV and Varsity

Mimi & Papa Visit Sept 2026

 I didn't get enough Randall time this summer.  I spent the first week of summer (which was actually my last week of school) in Utah at the WIFYR conference with my mom.  It was so fun.  But then I never went back to Utah, never got to hang out with them again.  I got the great idea to have them come visit us here during the fall sports season. They've never seen Ben play football or seen Sarah swim or dive.  

I hunted down a week where Sarah could swim and dive at the same meet AND Ben had a JV game (since he doesn't really get varsity playing time this year).  (Sarah can only dive at about 1/2 of their meets because not all of the pools have dive tanks.  For those meets they dive the day before at practice.) Anyway, we found the perfect week.  Ben had a JV game on Monday, Sarah had a swim/dive meet at Kamiak on Tuesday.  We had a mostly free Saturday and Sunday to spend time together.  Perfect.

Well, it never turns out quite as expected.  I was just getting over a cold and Ben came down with something serious while they were here.  He sequestered to his room, but had fever, body aches, even some vomiting.  Poor guy.  So he wasn't really up to playing football, which was good.  Because his game was cancelled.  Shorecrest couldn't field a JV team.  

Sarah did get to swim and dive.  It was really fun to watch her do a great job.  (She felt like she could have done better, but still--she hit all 6 dives.) 

We ate all the Seattle mandatory foods (teryaki, Ivars) and they did a downtown tour with Derek on Monday while I was at school.  They got piroshki from Piroshki Piroshki.  SO SO good. We went to the Ballard locks to see the salmon running.  Unfortunately a sea lion was blocking the locks, so we saw them running from the sea lion instead of going through the locks.  

We also completed a fun puzzle.  I seriously have the BEST parents.  It was hard to see them go. 

Sarah with Coach Keela (wearing the shirt we made her last year!) 

Finished puzzle!  They worked on it a lot while I was at school and my long range facility planning meeting.  

It is hard to get good pics of dives!

Ivars

My mom won the Scrabble game. 

Derek was not happy about the Scrabble loss. 

Beautiful day at the Ballard locks

  

Fall Sports Update

We're having a fun fall sports season.  It's kinda fun to have a season where we are about playing and having fun doing sports that aren't our real family sport.  Sarah is doing both swim and dive this year (last year the swim & dive practices were at the same time, so she chose dive).   She's pretty tired at the end of the day (and hungry!) but having a good time.  She's doing captainy things like helping plan a team party and picking fan gear for the team shop.  She did her first 6 dive meet and helped score some points for the team.  (It was during practice, since they don't have a dive tank at the pool where they had the meet, and I couldn't get there.). I did get to time for the swim meet and saw her getting it done in the pool.  No PRs so far, but she's got time. I told her she should swim each meet like she might have stitches preventing her from swimming in the next meet (like happened last year.) 

Grammy got to go see her at the jamboree too--so I got a picture from her of that day.  

Seniors get pink caps! 

Ben goes back and forth about whether or not he should do football next year.  Depends on the day (or even on the hour).  But he's loves being part of the team.  He likes it when he gets in the games, and he could still grow, right? 

There will be some JV games.  So he'll probably get more playing time in those games.  Let's hope.  Especially the one my parents are coming up to see! Let's go #29.