12 Days - Day 12: Christmas Lights!

12 Days done! I'm sorry if you are Facebook friends with me, you've seen most of these pictures before. 

We went to look at Christmas lights last night. We went to some neighborhoods we hadn't been to before and had a great time. I know it helped the kids get even  more excited for Christmas. So here are aome phone pictures with a phone post. 

These are some "3D" glasses for looking at Christmas lights. Carley's turnes the lights into anowmen and Josh's changes them into reindeer. 

Merry Christmas! 

12 Days - Day 11: Random Pictures

I'm so close to completing the 12 Days of posts but I'm running out of things to catch up on without going back to 2013! Speaking of, I've had this sense of just starting to slack on the blog for the past year or two. While I've been creating these 12 Days posts, I've often tried to link back to posts from, say, Halloween 2012 or our advent activity calender last year. It turns out I was only posting weekly early on in Thiel Family Happenings. You have probably listened to me whine and complain about never posting for several years now. My solution for you? Join Facebook! I post lots of pictures there. Either that or be patient with me. :)

This post is a bunch of pictures selected from my phone photos.

Josh took his hunter safety course and got his hunting license this year. He and Walt went dove hunting on opening day of the season. They got a few birds. They have also gone deer hunting a handful of times but unfortunately didn't bring a deer home. We stocked our freezer (actually Wendy's freezer) with beef instead. 

Josh's room has been this bright orange since he got his own room. Walt and I painted the room yellow and ragged red over it. Not only is Josh a teenager now but we are planning on selling our house in 2015 so it definitely was time for a change.

Walt and Josh were hunting all day and I took on the project. I've actually had the paint, which I purchased with birthday money, since February. For those of you that know Walt, you may realize what a BIG STEP it was for him to let me paint the room from start to finish. After 18 years of painting experience, he is a bit particular and very good at painting. I have learned so much from him over 15 years of home ownership that I have to pat myself on the back. I even got Walt's seal of approval; he never touched anything up!

Talking of house projects and selling next year, this is pretty much the state of our fireplace currently. All year I have been saying that if we are going to complete a fireplace makeover, we should have it done by Christmas so I can, for once, hang our stockings on a beautiful mantle. As it turns out, starting in mid-November was not quite early enough to get the project finished. We are slow movers when it comes to projects and I sometimes forget that. Good news is we have a hearth and stone veneer picked out and purchased!

In August, Walt and I escaped to the Bay area for 24 hours to attend a Jack Johnson concert. We had such a great time for so little time!

We had some fun with the hotel room closet door while in Reno for the black belt testing. 

Carley and Josh each broke a brick in Taekwondo after they had received their black belts. It is a real-life, heavy, concrete brink. My girl broke that, watch out!

Knox is Carley's third cousin. His mom and I share great-grandparents. These two were the youngest at the Christmas family gathering on Saturday. He sure loved her! She even took him for a ride in his new police car. 

We had a scare with Smokey recently. I came home from work on a Friday a couple weeks ago and he couldn't walk and there was vomit on his bed. Short story is Smokey had (has?) vestibular disease, and the symptoms are similar to vertigo in humans. The doctor hydrated him, gave him nausea medication and sent us home with antibiotics and ear drops to clear up a middle-ear infection. Over the course of the weekend, I got little sleep. Smokey would need help to move about the house and get outside to relieve himself. Ultimately, after several days, he started improving. He is pretty much back to normal but it seems he has lost the rest of his hearing. This picture of him was right as he was starting to turn the corner. He is wearing booties to help him have grip on our wood and tile floors. Smokey is about 13.5 years old. There is a day soon when he won't be able to get better, but for now we are happy to have more time with him. 

Buddy always has to sleep on someone's bed, otherwise he acts like he's freezing to death.

12 Days - Day 10: The No-Picture Post

I'm back dating this post so it looks like I've posted every day. Why not? Latecomers may not even notice I missed a day! 

Well, I did it. I forgot one day on the 12 Days of posts. I've been sick with a cold, it's close to Christmas, I worked a full day and had plans that evening, and I ran out of things to "catch-up" post about. Pick an excuse!

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, Christmas is two days away and this year, for me, just doesn't have the Christmas season spirit. A couple nights ago, Josh was telling me it doesn't feel like Christmas and I have to agree with him. I guess we just haven't done much to make it feel like Christmas.

We do have our tree up. After Christmas last year, we got rid of our artificial tree. We had that thing for probably 12 years and were ready for a change. This year we bought our tree at Costco, not an artificial one but a cut tree. We just couldn't beat the price! Other than the lights, the kids decorated it themselves. I hardly even took any photos.

We went to a family Christmas get-together at my mom's cousin's house on Saturday. Unfortunately, Walt had picked up an extra shift and wasn't able to go with the me and the kids. We still had a good time visiting with family and eating delicious food.

We baked some cookies, breads and brownies. Carley and I delivered a couple plates to a couple friends but some of the baked goods turned out terrible looking. They were ugly but delicious so we ate most of the goodies ourselves.

We have watched Christmas movies and played Christmas music.

All of that is regular Christmas stuff at our house but for some reason this year just feels different. Maybe it's because I bought most of the Christmas gifts online and didn't go out in the hustle and bustle of the crowds. Maybe it's because we did not make an advent calendar of activities. Maybe it's because we haven't made gingerbread houses or paper snowflakes. Or maybe it's just because this is the first Christmas season I'm working. I do not know.

What I do know is, even if it doesn't feel like Christmas, we are still enjoying Christmas. We are hoping to look at Christmas lights tonight with hot cocoa in hand. Walt and I both have Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after off giving us more time to play board games and watch Christmas movies with the kids. Christmas Day we will be going to our niece's house to visit with more family. These are small things I love about Christmas.

Maybe next year we'll be back in the hustle and bustle but this year my favorite thing about Christmas is having low-key visiting time with the family I love.

12 Days - Day 9: Aerospace Museum

When the kids were young, I took them to pretty much every museum in Sacramento that could interest a kid. One we never went to is the Aerospace Museum. I really thought they would be bored to death looking at big planes, especially if they were too young to read the signs to learn about the planes. 

12 Days - Day 8: Taekwondo Again

Josh competed in another Taekwondo tournament earlier this month. This was the first tournament where we had only one child competing, which meant we didn't have to go early for Carley's division and wait around for Josh's division. Technically we had a shorter tournament day but we were inadvertently given the wrong check-in time for Josh and were at the venue two hours early. Oops. 

The tournament in October was a national UWTA competition and drew a lot more competitors. It is also the end of the UWTA year so there is a top-four competition in each age division for sparring and forms (black belts only). Josh is actually working towards top-four in sparring for October 2015 and is the reason he competed against 15-17 year old black belts at these recent tournaments. Top-four is based on competitors' points which are earned by competing in and placing in UWTA tournaments. 

The December tournament was a smaller, local tournament so Josh did not have the stiff competition that he did in October. He also had not been practicing water polo five days a week for at least six weeks and did not have the endurance he had in October. 

Ultimately, he took first place in sparring. This kid, I swear. 

He is pretty darn cool in that black belt.

12 Days - Day 7: Black Belts!

I started to post about a Taekwondo tournament from this month when I realized I still have not posted about the black belt testing and tournament from October! Here is October. Bet you can guess what tomorrow's post is! 

Josh and Carley started Taekwondo in 2011. Three years, many tests, hardwork and much determination later, they tested for and earned their 1st-degree black belts!

Black belt testing was held on Friday night, the tournament was Saturday during the day and Saturday night was the belt ceremony. We spent the weekend in Reno. 

The black belt testing was fairly quick moving once it got started. The students had to perform their forms, free-sparring and break boards to pass, although in August was a pre-test which really determined if the students would pass or not in October. 

Carley set the goal to reach black belt and then she wanted to move on to something else in order to learn something new. Since this was her last tournament, she decided to only compete in forms. Unfortunately she did not place but she had a great attitude about it. She was there for her black belt and that she did earn!

Josh competed in both forms and sparring. He was bumped up an age division to 15-17 year olds even though he is only 14. Here's the short version: 

1.  Josh is continuing in Taekwondo
2. UWTA (United World Taekwondo Association) year runs October to September 
3. Black belts can earn points toward a top-four competition the following October

I may repeat some of this stuff in tomorrow's post. 

In order for Josh to shoot for top-four, he had to compete as a black belt and in the age division in which he'll compete in October 2015, which is 15-17 year olds.

Josh was close to placing in forms. He was in a 3-way tie for 4th place, there was a rematch and he took 6th. Sparring is what he loves to compete in though. He was up against some big guys and had not practiced sparring in 4-6 months! Walt and I even talked about how that might be the first time Josh "got schooled" in sparring.

What little faith we have in him. Josh went out there, competed against 1st, 2nd and 3rd-degree black belts and HE TOOK THIRD PLACE! I was floored. I seriously was and still am completely floored. He has so much natural ability. If he really honed that and practiced, he could probably go somewhere! 

Right now he's going for top-four. I think that's pretty great. 

 When a competitor is hurt, the one who caused the injury is supposed to kneel facing away until the match is ready to begin again. 

After a long day of tournament competition, we grabbed some dinner, got dressed up and headed back to the venue for the black belt ceremony.

It was so impressive to see my kids sitting there in their black belt, tea ceremony with their black belts and certificates in front of them. I start to whell up with tears just thinking about it.

The students are sat in rank, age order so neither Josh or Carley got to sit by friends.

The tea ceremony went on and on and on. I felt back for the kids having to sit for so long on the floor in tight, cross-legged position. They were definitely happy when the ceremony was over.

This is not a good picture but it's the group of kids from Josh and Carley's Taekwondo school who tested and recived their black belts. So stinkin' cool. 

Okay, I loaded these videos of Josh's sparring matches to YouTube back in October. If you are interested in watching them, I think they're pretty great. Watch below or check them out on my YouTube channel. 

Here's a few notes:

The 2nd match was against Michael, who goes to the same Taekwondo school as Josh. In fact, they went to the same elementary school for a year or two, as well. Josh and Michael often have to compete against each other in sparring since they're the same age. Josh always wins but Michael is such a great sport and just laughs about it. It's become somewhat of a running joke.

The 3rd match is the only match Josh lost. The opposing guy is a 3rd-degree black belt and took 1st place in this competition.

Josh may have kicked the guy from the 1st match and the guy from the 4th match in the nuts.

12 Days - Day 6: Carley Wrestles!

I sort of cheated on this post. I had the post mostly put together but not quite finished so I never scheduled a time for it to post. Then I got busy with other things. Now it's Friday morning and I'm posting it as if I did it Thursday night. Still. Now I'm officially halfway through the 12 days! 

Carley is in middle school and gets to choose one elective for the whole year. Just like Josh, she chose one called "Exploration" where she is in art class for one semester and performance class for one semester. Unlike Josh, she loves the art teacher who is also the wrestling coach. The first day of school Carley came home and said she wanted to join the wrestling team. Walt and I agreed that she could but I honestly thought as time went on that she would change her mind. She stayed steadfast in her decision.

Wrestling started in mid-October with occasionally practices. Starting in November, practices were four days a week. December 13th was her first wrestling meet.

Carley is one of two or three girls on the wrestling team so yes, she does wrestle boys in her weight class. I've never actually been to a wrestling meet before, or watched wrestling for that matter, so the first tournament was a learning experience for both, me and Carley. (Walt was with Josh at his water polo tournament the same day.)

Carley got noticably better and smarter in her matches as the day went on. The first match, she was pinned fairly quickly in the first period. She was pinned in the second period during her second match. In her third match, she wasn't pinned at all! She did lose the third match by points, though.

Does this make any sense to you? It didn't to me at first either but I learned as the day went on.
Here is a quick run down on the structure of wrestling matches, if you are interested:

Structure of a Wrestling Match

• One wrestler will be given the green ankle bracelet (Home Team) and the other will be give the red ankle bracelet (Away Team). This will determine the line they stand on when starting in the center of the mat as well as which score is theirs on the scoreboard
• There are 3 periods
• First Period (2 min): Both wrestlers start in the "neutral" position, meaning both wrestlers start in the center of the circle on their feet. 
• Second Period (2 min): The Ref will flip a red/green coin. Whichever wrestler wins the toss gets to choose Neutral (on their feet), Top position, bottom position, or to defer 
• Third Period (2 min): Same as the second period, only the second wrestler gets to choose top, down, or neutral.

Wrestlers earn points by getting a take-down or getting away from the opponent.

Anyway, Carley did fantastic for it being her first wrestling meet and being up against only boys. I am so very proud of her, especially for sticking with something that isn't very popular with girls.

She was pretty sore the next day!

Below is video of her second match or watch it here on YouTube.

12 Days - Day 5: Josh's Water Polo Season

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....

I may repeat myself a little in this post because I already posted about Josh playing water polo. That was before the season was over though. 

Josh did not really want to play a new sport, or any sport, in high school. Thankfully he didn't put up too much of a fight and joined the water polo team. 

After the first day of practice, which was a week before school started, he came home and was adamant that he absolutely did not want to play. Thankfully, again, he decided to stick with it for the whole season. 

Josh played goal keeper, probably because he was the tallest boy on the JV team, and he picked it up quick. And he became friends with his teammates and really grew into a proud player. 

Of course, he has this memory block thing that happens when he blocks goals... he actually doesn't remember many, if any, of his blocks. He remembers every goal he let through though! All in all, I think he did really good. His coach said he did really good. And his teammates said he did good. 

 At the end of the season, his coach threw him into the field for a quarter of one game. Josh made two goals!  He said he doesn't want to play field ever again. I think he enjoys the comfort of being in the cage. At the end-of-season potluck, his coach awarded him the defensive MVP for the team and said a whole bunch of great things about him. I couldn't be more proud! 

Coach Pierce and Josh - This was her first year coaching boys. She coached all four teams!

Playing phone games between water polo games at their tournament. 

With two different fund raisers, the coach pitted boys teams against girls teams to see who could raise the most money. In one competition, the losers had to perform a synchronized swim routine at between their Breast Cancer Awareness games in October. As you can see, the boys lost.

 Josh is the farthest right, back row. 

The routine was surprisingly well thought out for being a punishment. They would only practice the routine if the coach was locked up in her office and none of the girl teammates were practicing with them that day; they wanted to keep the routine a secret. It's much more fun when everyone is a good sport!

If you would like to see the actual routine check out the video here or below. 




Josh is continuing to play water polo and is currently playing in a winter polo club. I really look forward to watching him grow as a player over the next few years.