Picture of the Week - 12/28/2020

 Well, I'm all off schedule this week!  Holidays on Thursdays and time off and getting unplugged from this computer have all thrown my Thursday POTW schedule for a loop.  

I considered just skipping last week altogether, but that didn't seem right since we have had such a fun week.  So I just decided to send it late and catch up.  Plus, who knows what will happen with this week and New Year's!  LOL

Last Wednesday was the boys' first day of break.  I think that's the latest they have gone to school before Christmas in years.  They all agreed that it was weird and made the time before Christmas go really fast.

Christmas Eve we went to Tricia's house for our annual Christmas Eve brunch/lunch.  It was fun to hang out at their new house and the kids always have a blast together.  After that we headed to The Melting Pot for a fancy Christmas Eve fondue dinner.  Believe it or not, we don't go out to eat as a family all together very often.  We eat out plenty, but it's pretty rare that everyone is free at the same time.  And even at 9 and 11 it's sometimes a hassle to take everyone and listen to the complaints from Zane and Beck about where/when/what we are eating.  Basically, it's just hard to make them all happy.  So we save the money and eat home - or feed them and then go out.  LOL

Anyway, dinner with the boys that night was SO NICE.  Everyone was excited.  They all ate.  Bob and I drank wine - thanks designated drivers - and we had both melted cheese and chocolate in the same meal.  Hard to find fault there!  It was a really fun time.

We headed home, opened up our matching PJs and everyone headed to bed.  Pictures attached are all from Christmas Eve.  I don't think I took a single picture on Christmas day.  

Christmas morning was so nice and calm.  I woke up first and we had time for coffee and to make the Monkey Bread before the boys woke up.  We dove into presents around 8 and really just had a great time together.  That afternoon we headed over to my parent's house with the biggest cheese and meat spread I've ever put together.  (Seriously I could have fed 40 people...) and celebrated Christmas again!  :)  

The weekend was full of rest and lazy.  It was awesome!

This week Bob and I are back to work for a few days and then another nice long weekend awaits.  We have no plans for New Year's.  We never really have celebrated New Year's Eve, so this is nothing new.  The boys are all back to wrestling practice now.  We have a tournament on Saturday and then quickly get into the heart of the wrestling season.  Believe it or not, there are only 2 more tournaments before we get into Regions, Quads, and State Duals - the wrestling equivalent of playoffs.  Still crossing all fingers and saying regular prayers that we can get through this season!!!  

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and have plans to do something you love for New Year's.  Stay safe and healthy!

Picture of the Week - 12/17/2020

 Before I get into family news, can I just vent for a second about all the messages out "there" saying how happy everyone is that 2020 is almost over because it's been such a train-wreck of a year?  I hate these messages.  They irritate me for lots of reasons.  One - do NOT fall into the trap of thinking that 2020 was only bad.  It wasn't.  Even if you have suffered hugely - and I know lots of people have - there are undoubtedly things that happened in 2020 that weren't all bad.  If you happen to be reading this, the fact that you woke up today is one of them.  Two - there is no magic that will happen at midnight on 12/31/2020 that will cause all the pain and suffering in the world to go away.  Covid will still be here on 1/1/2021.  So it's non-sense to think that all the sudden the bad crap can be thrown out with the old calendar.

Am I in favor of looking forward to the future and hoping for the best - heck yeah!  Do I think people tend to want to climb into/onto the "whoa is me train" far too often - also yes.  

2020 has been a hard year.  I anticipate that 2021 will also be a hard year.  2019 was a hard year.  2022 will be hard.  Get it?  

OK - rant over.  (PS - I could also go on and on about people who wait for New Years day to make a resolution to make themselves better, but I'll let you imagine how that would go...)

*******************

All is well here.  The high schools all went virtual for the remainder of the year, so that's "fun", but the elementary schools are still face-to-face.  

We also have some additional limitations on sporting events, but so far nothing cancelled.  Spectators are limited to "family only", but at least they are still wrestling.  And I pray every day that they will get this season in.  The West team looks amazing.  They have a legitimate shot at winning a state title this year.  They are solid and the bench is deep.  The bench is so deep that Quinn, who has had a varsity spot for the last 2 years, is having a hard time cracking the line-up.  This is a great "problem" for the coach to have.  Maybe not so great for Quinn.  He's got another wrestle-off today.  This is essentially an intra-squad match to set the depth chart at his weight class.  It will determine whether he gets to wrestle in this weekend's Dual tournament or not.  

Spencer has not had trouble keeping his spot and is wrestling better than he ever has before.  He's lean, fast, strong, and motivated.  He's one of a number of guys on the team good enough to make a run at individual state titles.  If we get through this season without covid messing things up, it's going to be a really fun first 6 weeks of 2021!  

Spencer went to the Takedown Sportswear Invitational last weekend and made his big debut at 195 pounds.  He won first place and did so leaving no questions on the mat.  He won his match last night at our Senior celebration Dual as well.  He looks great - feels great.  Attached is a picture from last night and a link to his highlights from last weekend.  

It's fun to watch this team.  It's fun to watch Spencer having so much success.  It's 2020 and it doesn't suck.

https://youtu.be/iPpQYOceOzk

Picture of the Week - 12/10/2020

Christmas is only 15 days away!  Crazy!!  Exciting!!  Festive!!

It's time for our annual Christmas hat picture.  I will make them do this forever...  future spouses beware!

I hope you are all having a great, holiday-prep kind of week!  I'm excited.  Our shopping is pretty much done, wrapping will be underway tomorrow, gifts are made, baking on the agenda for Sunday.  

And to top off all that fun, festivity - we are also wrestling!  The West team beat North in a Dual last night and Spencer looked great.  It was, hopefully, his last 220 match as he's dropping to the 195 slot for Saturday's individual tournament.  It's a tough invitational, so we are all excited to see how he will do against kids his own size!  Quinn's wrestling with the JV team up in Lumpkin County this weekend, so Bob and I are doing a little divide-and-conquer action on his birthday.  I promised him we could meet up for post-wrestling drinks somewhere to (hopefully) celebrate both a birthday and a successful day on the mats.

Have a great week - and don't hesitate to wear the Santa hat in public!  Ho ho ho!!!

Picture of the Week - 12/3/2020

 Turns out the only pictures I've taken in the last week are of food and my dogs.  Read into that information what you'd like... LOL

It's cold here - which I hate - and we are busy with wrestling and work and prepping for Christmas.  It's all good stuff, but between the loss of daylight and the early morning wrestling practices and the freezing temps - I mostly just want to curl in a blanket and watch TV!  So that's what we've done :)

Last weekend we took Zane and Beck to a tournament where they both had a rough time.  Wrestling is one of those 2-year per age group sports and they both bumped up an age group this year.  I expect it will be more losses than wins, but will prepare them for next year!  Zane is in particularly dire straights as there are a fair number of 12 year old 6th graders who are well into puberty and there's a VAST difference between pre and post puberty on a wrestling mat!

This weekend Spencer and Quinn are heading to a dual with the varsity team.  Spencer is likely wrestling the 220 spot, but may get bumped to heavyweight if the team needs him there.  He's in a rough spot right now too because he's the biggest senior on the team until the football kids get back (they are still in playoffs) so he's kind of covering both the 220 and heavyweight spots even though he's dropping weight like crazy so he can get to 195 for the rest of the season.  Wrestling is funny like that...  there's a whole lotta sacrificing early in the season to set up where you want to be in regional competition.  

Here are some sleepy pictures of the dogs chilling with me...  the first one is on the new couches in the living room.  The second may have been during a work break when I may have been laying on the floor with them. LOL  Shhhh - work from home has privileges!!