Picture of the Week - 2/25/2021

 Let's talk about the weather

First - believe me I *know* that we have it SO much better in the weather department than many, many people.  I know this!  It's not a contest.  I am grateful that we weren't in Texas this past week dealing with no electricity and below freezing temps for days.  I'm grateful that we have no need for a snow blower (or even a shovel) like our friends in Ohio.  

But it's been gross down here for weeks.  Grey and rainy and just BLAH.  One of the things I've always liked about winter in Georgia - and actually probably a big reason we never moved back north - isn't the temperatures, but the sun.  It's true, I hate being cold.  I hate it more and more the older I get, but I can handle cold and sunny.  The dark and dreary got really old.

This week though...  out the other side and POOF it's spring.  As I type this the door to our porch behind me is wide open.  We are in that sweet spot before the pollen count goes crazy and the temps start to get crazy nice.  I think it's like 73 or something today.  I love it.  The birds in the backyard love it.  The trees are starting to think about blooming too.  Here's a picture of some version of a magnolia native to the area.  Bob and I bought this teeny tiny bush like 15 years ago that has somehow grown to be like 20 feet tall.  It's a weird plant.  It is always the first thing to bloom in the yard - often when it's too cold to really enjoy.  It blooms even before the forsythia.  It's just getting going this year and brought me a lot of joy to notice it today.  

This weekend Zane and Beck are off to a wrestling tournament.  There are 2 main wrestling organizations here - this is the State version for one of them.  "State" for the other is next weekend.  That'll wrap up folkstyle season down here.  They decided not to play lacrosse this year, so we will be continuing on with the wrestling practices - they will move into freestyle and greco - and some tourneys through the spring and summer, but it'll be a pretty relaxed spring!  Plenty of time to enjoy the flowers.

Picture of the Week - 2/18/2021

 Bob looked at me yesterday, just before dinner, and asked me if I wanted to go out and grab a beer later.  Like a date.  On a Wednesday!

Of course I said yes!

Our schedule, with the high school wrestling season mostly in the rear view mirror now, changed some and in a nice way!  Quinn has started working out down at our wrestling club and it just so happens that 1) his session is at the same time as Zane and Beck's and 2) he can drive.  SO that frees up Bob from driving down there, sitting in the car for 2 hours and driving back.  Free weeknights?  Yes please!

Many of you who follow me on Facebook already know that Spencer's wrestling season didn't end the way we wanted it to.  He got knocked out of the tournament, losing a very close 6-5 match, by the eventual winner.  Sad that it's over.  Grateful that we got the season in and all the other amazing accomplishments he had this year.  It was a fun year.  Spence is also transitioning into "wrap up high school" mode - which at the moment means a LOT of catch up work from his self-quarantine over the last 6 weeks.  I figure he has about 2 months of "real" school left (maybe) before the senior slide goes into full effect.  I think it will be nice to have him around a little more before he takes off for college this summer.  

Stay warm and dry everyone.  The weather this week has been BLAH, but we have high 60s in the forecast for next week...  so the end of another winter is near!

Cheers!

Picture of the Week - 2/11/2021

 High school wasn't, how do I put this, my favorite.  There were definitely highlights!  I made some great friends - and I met my soulmate.  It wasn't ALL bad - not even close.  But I don't look back at high school as my peak.  I don't consider the things I did in those 4 years as my biggest accomplishments.  High school was something I had to get through and had fun doing so.  I knew pretty early that it was meant to prepare me for the future ahead and wasn't, by a long stretch, the ultimate goal.

That's my background and feelings about high school.  It colors the way I have looked at high school for my boys.  It's preparatory.  It's lessons and learning - both academically and socially.  It's part of the maturation process.  I've never looked at the things my boys have/will accomplish as the peak of their life experiences.  My expectations are higher.  

(I'm a joy to live with...)

All of the above makes it particularly surprising to me that I am repeatedly and genuinely weepy over the fact that Spencer's last high school wrestling tournament starts tomorrow.  This sport (which I will be the first to say is preparation and lessons and part of a bigger journey) has meant so much to Spencer - and to us through him and Quinn - that it is painful to know that it's over.  I am so proud of all that he's accomplished.  I am so grateful for all that this experience has given him.  And I am so sad that it's nearly over.

And yet, Spencer is not.  He is so much more pragmatic about all of this than I am.  He knows this is part of the journey, just as I knew my high school accomplishments were only a chapter in my book when I was his age.  He's not done yet.  He has bigger things to go do.  He has college and a career and a life to go live.   Maybe wrestling will be a part of his future.  Maybe it won't.  Either way the best is yet to come for him - and the lessons learned through wrestling these years have prepared him well.  He is ready to move forward.  He's ready to tackle this crazy world of ours and create an amazing life.  

Tomorrow Spencer and his team will wrestle in the Georgia State Wrestling Championship tournament.  Spencer won the tournament last weekend and has a good chance of placing again this year at State - but he's got work to do.  It won't be easy.  Nothing worth doing is easy.  His dedication to this sport and his mindset and focus to be his best are some of the most impressive things I have ever seen.  He is ready.  He is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul.

(Wrestling starts tomorrow at 1.  Watch for updates on FB and if you are interested in following along, check out the tournament on trackwrestling.com)

Picture of the Week - 2/4/2021

 Are you sick of hearing about wrestling yet?  If so, too bad.  :)  Check back in a few weeks...  until Feb 13th, wrestling is pretty much at the top of our minds nearly all the time.

Last weekend the West team went to State Duals (the team competition) and made it into the championship Dual for the first time ever in school history at 7A.  Huge accomplishment - and so much fun getting there!  They were beaten (soundly) by a team from South Georgia who has won the State Dual championship for the last 7 years running.  They are at a different level than all the other teams in the state...  and our kids got rattled early - and often during the dual.

It's hard to end the tournament like that, but in some ways I think it was better to lose the way we did than for it to be close.  At least in a Dual like that one it never came down to one wrestler's performance.  They got there as a team and they ended it together.  Runner up is NO SMALL FEAT and we are so proud of how far this group has come in the 4 short years under this head coach.  It's been a wild, and really fun, ride.

This weekend is Individual regions.  We are back to our county/local schools and it should be a fun couple of days.  Quinn is wrestling in the JV tournament at 132 lbs and Spencer is back at 195 for varsity.  This is the last event for JV until the summer.  For our varsity guys, the top 3 placers in each weight class will move onto State Individual tournament in Macon the following weekend.  

Attached are a couple of pictures of Spencer from his championship match.  He got a bloody nose (bad one) in the first period and it really messed up his game plan.  They taped him the second time they had to stop action.  He bled through the tape.  For anyone curious, no...  you can't breathe when taped like that.  When they took him over to the trainer's table to tape him the second time he was very near the opponent's bench.  When they took the white tape off, blood went everywhere - in his eyes, down his front, poured into the garbage can - and the look on the Camden's wrestlers faces may have been worth the hassle of getting re-taped.  Spencer got pinned in that match, but it was because he was down on points and had to take some risks.  It will be a different match if they run into each other again in Macon.

I hope everyone is staying warm and safe.  I hate the cold weather!  And this is the first year in 9 years that we haven't had a February cruise to look forward to as a reward for surviving winter wrestling season.  Boo!