Glasses

The boys had their yearly check up at the doctor yesterday. Overall, they are very healthy (and skinny) boys. However, Brenden's eye exam left the doctor wanting him to see a pediatric ophthalmologist. According to their eye chart test he is 20/70 in one eye and 20/50 in the other. So I made an appointment at the U of M Kellogg eye center for Tuesday and I will keep you all posted if it turns out he needs glasses.

We will be off to Cleveland for Easter weekend. The kids are going to stay with Pete and Ginger and Chris and I are going to stay downtown to enjoy two nights of quiet - Yay for Grandparents! Have a happy and safe holiday, everyone!

Soccer for the Boys and Reading for the Little Lady

I signed the boys up for Soccer through Dexter Community Recreation last month and Saturday was their first day of practice/games. Chris took the boys and I had to stay home with Rylan for her nap so I missed out, but they told me all about it when they got home.

Brenden is in the preschool league. They have practice for about 30 minutes where they work on various skills. There are two coaches that are parent volunteers. After they practice they have a 30 minute game. The game is 4 on 4 with no goalie. According to Chris, there is absolutely no organization to the game, just a bunch of 4 years olds chasing after a ball in hopes of getting a chance to kick it. Brenden was very sad that he only got to kick the ball once, but Chris let me know it was because he didn't want to chase after it, he was content hanging back from the mob. Brenden did say he got to kick the ball a lot in the practice and took some shots on goal.

Jake is in the K-1 league with Kindergarteners and 1st graders. There was no one signed up to be the coach for his team so Chris and another dad agreed to be co-coaches. Jake's league has a 40 minute practice followed by a 40 minute game of 5 on 5 with a goalie. I didn't get to hear much about how the practice went because Jake was the star of the game and super excited to tell me about it. He scored the only two goals of the game! Chris said he was super fast and running non-stop trying to get the ball. Jake was so proud of himself - as he should be!

They both seemed to have a great time. We will be gone for their next game because we are going to Cleveland for Easter weekend, but the following week their games are at 9am so hopefully I'll be able to take Rylan and see some of the game.

The boys showing off their new soccer gear

While I did a few things in Rylan's room tonight before bed I put Rylan down on the full size bed in her room with a book to keep her occupied. She sat and played and "read" her book the entire time (about 15 minutes). She was having lots of fun turning the pages and trying to get the lady bugs on the page, it was very cute to watch :-)

Spring is here!

Spring is in the air...Finally! It is a beautiful day today, sunny and somewhere around 60 degrees. With this glorious weather I thought I would take Rylan outside to enjoy it. She only lasted about 10-15 minutes before we headed back inside. She was fine when I had her on the brick patio. She crawled around a bit to explore and stood up at my leg while I sat in a chair for a while. When I put her in the grass she seemed interested until something really bugged her and she started crying. I'm not sure if she didn't like the texture or maybe the ground was cold, its still a little cool and wet where as the patio was nice and warm from the sunshine, in any event she didn't like it. I'm sure as we spend more time outside she'll warm up to it and start exploring the yard.

I also got a good video of my chatty girl. She's been a lot more "talkative" lately and its been pretty fun to chat with her :-) I have to enjoy as much of it now as I can before she starts talking back ;-)

One last note, Jake lost another tooth! He lost his top right middle tooth. It had been loose for quite a while and he had been trying to pull it out for about a week. On Wednesday last week while he was eating it loosened up some more and finally fell out. He looks pretty cute with his giant gaping hole in the front.

Babies!

I've reached the time in my life where everyone I know is starting to have babies - YAY! One of my friends, Lindsay, is expecting twins this summer so me and two of our other friends, Molly and Lisa, had a baby shower for her this past weekend.

The shower was on Saturday at my house in the early afternoon. Lindsay is a very popular girl, this was her first shower of five! But seriously, because she didn't want to be overwhelmed and really wanted to enjoy the time with her friends she decided it would be better to have several small showers, so our shower consisted of friends from grade school. We had about 20 adults at the party and 3 babies.

We had a lovely time of food, games, and conversation. There were lots of laughs and plenty of ooohs and ahhhs over the gifts - everyone was very generous and found lots of cute clothes and other necessities for the babies! All in all it was a wonderful afternoon. I was so happy to be able to do this for my good friend and was grateful for all the help from my other friends to make the day special.

Some of the decorations

The girls!


Rylan (7 months), Penelope (5 months), and Marcel (3 1/2 months)
One of the funniest "photo shoots" I've ever been a part of :-)

Sports Blog

So I've been debating for awhile now on whether or not to start my own sports blog. For those of you that don't know - and most likely if you don't know, then you don't know me well - I watch sports, sport shows, sports talk shows, sports news shows, etc. everyday almost all day. I have one of the ESPN channels on at my house nearly 24 hours a day - currently ESPN2 with Sports Nation is on in the background. We have two TVs in our family room so that we can watch multiple sporting events. I am a coach, I was an athlete, and I will always be an avid fan of sports. And I'm not just talking about the major sports - football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. I will watch just about any sport that is on. I get mad for the 2 days in July after the MLB all-star game when there are no sports on. I love sports, its that simple.

I have been told that I am as knowledgeable as most Sports Center anchors. I have been told I should be a bookie because I can call a game with the best of them - btw, my dad is the one who told be to be a bookie. I have lots of opinions about sports, sports media, and the business behind most sports. I am comfortable talking with just about anyone willing to listen if the topic is sports. And sometimes there's no one to listen to me rant and rave about whatever sports topic is on my mind and so I thought maybe a blog would be the way to go.

So anyway, I'm just curious to know what other people think of this idea. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it, but I'd like to know what you think!

The Most Amazing 8 years of my life

In June of 2003 I went back to my old high school for an interview to become the Dive coach for one of the most renowned High School Swim/Dive programs in the country. And believe it or not they gave me the job. Here we are 8 years later and its time to say goodbye.

In those eight years I have gotten married and had three amazing kids, two of them practically on deck ;) As my own family grew, I also became reconnected with a family I had nearly forgotten about. To be part of the Pioneer Swimming and diving team is to become part of their family. And its not just when you are on the team, coach the team, or have a child on the team, its forever. I can't believe that I had forgotten just what a wonderful family it is, but I know that I won't ever forget again.

I was fortunate to have wonderful athletes and even better coaches along side of me. I was able to be part of 2 National Championship teams, numerous State Championships, 1 State Champion Diver, 2 MISCA Coach of the Year awards, and 4 All-American divers. I also was extremely grateful for the wonderful support from outstanding parents of both divers and swimmers.

I know my coaching career will go on, but I doubt I will ever be a part of a team as special as Ann Arbor Pioneer!

Tag Team Parenting

So its been nearly a month since my last post/update....needless to say, its been a little busy around here!

I have often referred to our parenting style as "tag team". What I mean by this is that most of the time I have the kids during the day while Chris works and then Chris comes home from work and takes over in the evening/night while I go to coach. It has been this way pretty much since Jake was born. Well, for the past month it seemed like we went to a whole new level of tag team parenting. Over the past 3 weeks or so it has been one of us has had to leave town leaving the other home with all of the kids and then switching. I was out of town two weekends in a row with Chris gone on business before, after, and in between. It has been insane, but somehow we have all managed to survive and the boys have decided its fun to have mom gone because that means more games with dad! And Rylan just seems to go with flow, she's just happy to have her mom or dad there to make her smile and carry her around :-)

As busy as it has been, there really isn't a lot to report. The boys are ready for winter to be over so they can play outside more, Rylan is getting a lot better at crawling and would really like to walk, Chris has been working tons, and I have been a coaching machine - pretty boring stuff. We do have some fun stuff coming up soon though. I have finished up my high school season so since I have more free time we have signed the boys up for swim lessons again for this month and soccer next month. I'm planning to manage AACC again this summer and will soon be busy trying to prepare the pool and staff for the summer. We are still planning to try to move late summer/early fall so we'll start trying to prepare the house to put on the market. Chris will always be busy with work and traveling. And Rylan seems insistent on growing like a weed and moving as much as possible ;) Some fun stuff for sure!