Freezing Rain

A couple days ago we had freezing rain followed by snow. It was beautiful. The temperatures dropped really low, so even when the sun was out the next day, the ice didn't melt. Instead it glittered on the trees like diamonds. You could hear the branches clinking together like windchines every time the wind blew. It was so pretty.

 

Um, Mom?

A couple weeks ago the kids were involved in an accident on their way home from school. I was leaving the vet with Clara when Danielle called. "Um, Mom? We were just in an accident." Kind of a crummy phone call to get.

The kids were ok. A car a few cars in front of the kids stopped quickly to turn. Tyler and the cars in front of him all stopped in time; however, the car right behind Tyler couldn't. She veered off the road, completely missing Tyler, but the car right behind her rear-ended him. Several more cars had to veer off to the left or right behind them, but Tyler was the only one who was hit. It was mostly a line of cars who had just left the high school, and the kids are always so close to each other when they pull out. It could have been much worse.



Tyler did a great job handling everything. It was a very good learning experience for him, and it was nice as a parent to know your kid can handle things under pressure. I'm sure the other kid's parents didn't feel the same. Turns out he had just gotten his license back from a previous accident. The kid's dad reached out to Ron right away to let him know he would be happy to make things right (in other words, please please don't file a claim with your insurance company). There was just a little cosmetic damage to the bumper, so there really wasn't anything to report anyway.

A couple days later the mail started rolling in. It came to both the kids and to "the parents of". Danielle was a little creeped out that their information was so easy to access. Tyler was entertained.

This ended up being a good learning experience for the kids. It was a huge reminder to me to never be lax in praying for your children's safety.

Building Planes and Memories

Tyler had to construct a balsa wood plane from a kit for his college physics course. He and Ron spent the past week working on that. Of course, in usual Tyler fashion, he procrastinated until the last possible second to start it, so their goal was simply to finish it and not to make it look pretty. The plane was "guaranteed to fly as long as the directions are followed". The plane was too delicate to try flying before class, so it was anyone's guess as to if it would really fly or not. Tyler said his grade was dependent on whether or not it actually flied, but we weren't sure if the professor was joking (or Tyler was exaggerating).

 

 

They flew the planes in class on Friday. They went into the mezzanine in the gym, wound the rubberbands, and tossed the planes across the gym. They could try multiples times, but not all the planes survived the first flight to try again. Some planes went straight down and crashed, some didn't. Tyler ended up trying to fly his plane 6 times. On his 6th attempt it went 62', which put him in 2nd place. (The video is posted on FB.) The winning plane flew 69'. He ended up getting 100% on the plane and a bonus for winning 2nd place. I think Tyler & Ron were pleased with their accomplishment.

Personally, I enjoyed listening to the boys work together. Tyler is at the age where he's positive he's smarter than us, so I wasn't sure he would listen to Ron's advice. Sometimes Ron is a little bristly about that, so sometimes he doesn't listen to Tyler. None of that was a problem, though. They joked around and laughed and for the most part really seemed to enjoy working together, and Tyler was genuinely thankful for Ron's help. I think it ended up being a good experience for everyone.

Interestingly, Facebook reminded me that during this same week 10 years ago, the boys were working together on another project. That was a pretty good experience, too.

I'm so thankful Tyler and Danielle have Ron for their dad. They don't realize how lucky they are...which is exactly as it should be at this point in their lives.

Run Fast!

Our high school offers indoor track as a club sport (meaning it's recognized but not sanctioned). Since regular track & field season overlaps school softball season, Danielle has been looking forward to being able to participate in track in this way. She loves to run, but she also looks at this as a way to get faster for softball. Practices and lifting started at the end of November/first of December. She had her first meet this past weekend.

On the way in to the meet.

Indoor track is typically for the very serious competitors. At most of the competitions, D1, D2, & D3 schools are all competing against each other. And, all grade levels compete against each other. Some of those juniors and seniors looked like full grown adults! And boy, were they fast!! Danielle has always welcomed competition to help her improve her own skills, so it's the perfect environment for her.

Warming up

She did really well for her first meet and especially for being a freshman! She ran the 60m dash and the 200m dash. She was supposed to run the anchor leg of the 4x200 relay, but our first runner was accidentally tripped by another runner and our team ended up being disqualified because she dropped the baton. That was quite a bummer. Out of all the divisions and grades at the meet, Danielle finished 36 out of 101 in the 60m dash. She won her heat in the 200m dash and finished 45 out of 94.

Here is video from her 200m dash.

Danielle and Uncle Ron.

Indoor track state rankings are posted weekly. It's very early in the season, but Danielle is currently ranked 22nd in D2/D3 for the state in the 60m and 24th in the state for the 200m. Not bad for a new freshman!! If she can stay in the top 24, she'll be invited to compete at the state level at the beginning of March. Everyone will be improving as the season progresses, so it's hard to tell what will happen by then. I know she had a lot of fun and is feeling the excitement of actually being competitive in a sport that isn't her primary one. Her next meet is in 2 weeks. We're all looking forward to it!

Goodbye to 2018

2018 was a very good year for us. Ron and I started some lifestyle changes and lost around 200lbs between the two of us. We had a wonderful vacation. We got to watch a lot of softball and band performances. We spent time with our families, who all finished 2018 healthy despite some ups and downs along the way. The four of us spent a lot of quality time together this year, too. We finished out 2018 doing my very favorite thing - spending time together. The 2 weeks around Christmas and New Year are perfect for slowing down and remembering what matters the most, which is exactly what we did.

We all have different highlights for 2018, but here are mine.

2019 has it's job cut out for it. 2018 will be a tough act to follow. Happy New Year!

A Fun "Run"

I decided several months ago that I wanted to do a 5k. Before I had hip surgery I asked the dr if I would ever be able to run a 5k, thinking maybe someday I could do one with Danielle. He grimaced and told me I probably could do one, but only if I didn't run to train for it. Well, I don't know how you train for a run without running if you've never run that far...plus it does hurt if I run for any distance. So, I am destined to be a walker. That's ok. Before my hip surgery, I could hardly walk around the house. Even now there are times, especially when I'm walking at the park and enjoying the sites and sounds and breezes, when I remember how bad it was, and I'm so incredibly thankful just to be able to walk without pain. Running isn't really necessary.

I thought it would be fun to do a 5k together as a family. Ron and Danielle thought it would be fun and agreed to do it. Tyler took a little more convincing. When he finally stopped saying "absolutely not" and instead said "whatever", I took that as consent and signed us up.

We walked The Christmas Story Run 5k/10k on Saturday and we had a lot of fun. We stayed with Ron's parents before the race and had a great visit with them. The race was a lot of fun, and I think we're all glad we did it. Even our reluctant walker enjoyed himself. It was a fun atmosphere. My brother runs in this race every year, so we were excited to be able to see him and hoped we'd get to watch him collect a prize afterward. This year he had his sights set on winning the Masters Division - the over 40 age group.

You can certainly tell which one of us was in it to win it.

We hoped to finish in an hour, but actually finished in just a little over 45 minutes. Tyler and Danielle walked just far enough ahead of us that they could say they beat us. It was funny watching them turn around to look for us so they could be sure they were still far enough ahead. A couple times they slowed down and we almost caught up to them.  One time Ron was about 4' behind them when they turned around. They laughed and quickly picked up the pace.

It was a fun time and I'm glad we all did it together.

My brother did a great job and did win the Master's Division. Unfortunately his chip malfunctioned so they didn't have a record of his time. It was so sad watching the award that should have been his be given to someone who was at least 30 seconds slower. He did receive an email today that said they reviewed the videos and see that he was the winner. He will probably receive his major award in the mail. Hopefully it will be marked FRAGILE. It's not the same as getting it right after you've earned it with your family all there cheering for you, but it's something.

Our Thanksgiving

For some reason, I was really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year! We only had 2 days of school last week and had 5 days off. I'm sure that was part of the anticipation. It was so nice to have a little break. Thankfully the long holiday weekend was just as relaxing and enjoyable as I had hoped!

One of the weekend's highlights was having family over on Thanksgiving day. Ron smoked a turkey, my mom made a meatloaf, and we filled in the side dishes with a little something for everyone. And of course there was plenty of dessert. Oh, I almost forgot one of my favorites - my breakfast! I have been hungry for a gooey cinnamon roll for weeks. We enjoyed Cinnabon rolls for breakfast and they were every bit as wonderful as I remembered them being!!

 

 

This sign was by the register at the place I got our pies.

Jack was in the hospital right after Tyler's birthday and then we were busy, so we also celebrated Tyler's birthday on Thanksgiving. He wanted a strawberry cake with strawberry icing again, so that's what he got. Danielle bought me some decorator tips for Christmas last year. I haven't used them because we've been avoiding the sweets but we decided to try them out on Tyler's cake. Danielle had fun attempting to use them. The flowers turned out more like Smurf cowpies, but you can't be unhappy about more icing on a cake!

This is how we spent the afternoon - watching tv, eating dessert, talking, putting together legos, eating more dessert. It was just about perfect.

We have so much to be thankful for - high on that list for me is Jack's recovery after being so sick. It was so nice to spend the day enjoying each other's company...and eating desserts (did I mention that part?).

Ron and I got to spend a lot of time together over the long weekend, and we had some good family time, too. It was a very nice Thanksgiving break.

Honor Band Weekend

Tyler was nominated by his band director to attend Capital University's Honor Band. He has been nominated to participate in Ohio State's Honor Band the past two years, but after being nominated, participants are selected by a lottery system. For this honor band, nominations were actually reviewed and then some students received invitations based on their qualifications and submissions from their band directors. Tyler and one other student from our school were invited to attend.

He missed school yesterday to attend. His day started early, though, with chair auditions. Earlier this week he received an email with audition music attached. He also had to play a difficult scale and sight read a piece. He has auditioned for chairs in his own band, but never in front of strangers in a formal environment, and I don't think he had to sight read a piece then. I'm sure he was nervous, but what a great experience! Something like that can only make you better.

After auditions their day was filled with practices, master classes, campus tours, lunch & dinner, and concerts by a local high school band and the college's concert band. His day ended around 11pm last night. He reported at 8am again today and did more of the same. The weekend culminated with a concert this afternoon. All said, they had around 6 hours of actual playing time together. Keep that in mind when you listen to the pieces they performed. It was amazing!

Tyler had a great time! He said it was so neat to be surrounded by so many talented people. Even their first time through, the music sounded decent because they all knew what they're doing. The conductor was a famous composer/arranger who has written a lot of the music they've played in band. He thought that was neat. This was a super experience for Tyler and I am so very thankful he had the opportunity to be a part of it!!

The first piece is my favorite. The last piece is Tyler's favorite. My cell phone recording does not do the sound justice. The first piece is long, 5 minutes. The rest are shorter. The 3rd song is Indian and has a droning sound through the whole thing that my phone doesn't really pick up. The 2nd song has a guest performer who is playing the flugelhorn. (Sorry it's a little shaky at first.) We have joked with Tyler for awhile about getting him a flugelhorn because it's cool to say and looks kind of like a big trumpet. It was neat to listen to someone play one. 3 of the 4 songs were composed by James Swearingen, the gentleman conducting.

 

 

We went to dinner afterward. Doesn't everyone dress up for Chipotle? I know he had a good time because he chose to talk to me about his weekend during most of dinner rather than texting or surfing on his phone. Danielle had a college softball showcase out of town today so she and Ron couldn't go. We scheduled it at the end of summer and couldn't get a refund. Sounds like she had a great day, too. One of the college coaches remembered her from a previous tournament and commented several times on her speed. It's fun to watch the kids excel at what they love, but it doesn't just happen. They both work very hard.

Smile!

Danielle's big, beautiful smile got a little shinier today.

She is sore tonight but making the best of it. She will have to have rubberbands, so that is sure to be an adventure. If everything goes as planned, she will only be in braces for 12-15 months. I'm counting on the 15, but hoping for the 12. She's always had such a beautiful smile. Now it's even more dazzling. :)

Here are a couple more pictures of that beautiful smile from this weekend.