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 1: Flash Back to Homecoming

Alright. I'm a huge slacker. 

I think I'll make it up to you by posting for twelve days straight. I'll just call it 12 Days of Christmas. It is, of sorts. There won't be any gold rings or a partridge in a tree but you can stop by this blog for twelve days in a row and find a new post. 

Maybe? You think I can pull this off? I'm going to give it a try! 

Josh is a freshman in high school this year, which means school dances! Josh and his girlfriend, Maddy, went to homecoming with a group of friends. 

All six went to dinner, rode a Ferris wheel and hung out at the dance together. His friend's mom even took them to play laser tag afterwards. All of this happened after Josh played three games in a water polo tournament earlier that day. See his sunburned face?  

Funny face photos are a must. Even if I try to take a nice photo of Josh, I have to get him through several weird faces before he'll smile nice. 

Okay, that's it, short and simple. Come back tomorrow for another one. Unless, of course, you are out of the habit of checking. Then you may see them all at once. 

JV Water Polo

Josh is playing water polo this year for the first time and is goalie on the JV boys team. He does really well, especially for being pretty new to the sport. His only experience before going out for the team was 4-hour per week clinic over summer. 

He was super nervous starting out at high school but has enjoyed playing on his team and getting to know the girls and guys of water polo. Boys JV team is so small that there is only one substitute on the bench. Josh plays the full game but doesn't get as exhausted as the other boys who are swimming back and forth the length of the pool. In the shallow end, goalies are allowed to stand and the rest of the players are not. 

We, as a family, knew nothing about water polo at the beginning of the season. Walt and I are starting to pick up on the plays and calls after watching so many games. Josh is planning on playing again next year and will hopefully be in more clinics during off season. 

First Day of School Pictures

The first day of school was August 14th so we are finally getting used to the new school year routine. In a blink of an eye it will be the holidays. 

  Carley started middle school this year. Not too many of her elementary school friends are attending the middle school she is attending. I bet she has a new group of friends in no time at all. She loves being in 6th grade. Her favorite class right now is art, which isn't much of a surprise. Her art teacher is also the wrestling coach and she wants to be on the wrestling team this fall. Stay tuned for that!

 Josh is a freshman in high school! That fact still blows my mind. If you ask him how his school day was he'll say "it was school." He doesn't enjoy it but he doesn't hate it either. He's such a smarty pants in math that he's taking Algebra 2 his first block. (A block is half the school year but counts for a full year of credits.)  He is also on the JV water polo team and practices five days a week. Their first game is next week. Stay tuned for more on that! 

My focus was off in this picture but I had to post this anyway. We took Josh's friend to school the first day too. These two became friends in their kindergarten class and here they are starting high school together. Crazy.  

Before and After

This year, because of a trend I saw on Facebook, I took a "last day of school" picture of the kids. I'm glad I did this; it's great to see how the kids have changed over the course of the school year. Seeing the side-by-side of Josh was shocking. He's grown and matured so much this year. This is a new tradition I hope to carry on, at least for as long as the kids will let me take "first day of school" photos. 

First day and last day of 5th grade.

First day and last day of 8th grade. 

School's Out For Summer!

Well. It's official. We no longer have an elementary student in our family. Both Josh and Carley attended all six years of elementary school (K-5th) at one single school. In other words, for the past nine years I have been taking a child or two to and from Coyle Avenue Elementary every single school day. Elementary school never felt quick when we were in the middle of it but now that it's over, those years feel like they went by in a flash.

Carley had her promotion ceremony a couple days before school ended. The principal put together a really great slideshow of photos, which culminated with a kindergarten photo of each child immediately followed by a current photo of the same child. She even added some of teachers' elementary school photos. The 5th graders were each called up to receive a certificate and the ceremony was followed by a buffet of breakfast pastries and fruit. 

Carley is front row, 4th from the right

Mrs. De La Torre was Carley's 4th and 5th grade teacher. She also taught Josh in 4th grade.

As Carley heads to middle school, Josh is moving up to high school. I'm still having a hard time grasping that concept. 

Josh's 8th grade recognition ceremony was on the last day of school. They also were called up for awards and provided a continental breakfast buffet. 

Josh is 14, which means sometimes he does not like me to take photos or "embarrass" him when others are around. He also didn't want to stay at school any longer than necessary. Because school was out at 11:00 am, 8th graders were allowed to leave with parents as soon as the ceremony was concluded and he didn't waste much time saying good-bye to anyone, including teachers, before we headed to the car. Just like that, he's a high schooler.

There you have it; school is out for summer. In two months, I'll be taking one to his first day of high school and the other to her first day of middle school. I tear up if I think too much about it. 

What Happened in May? A Lot of Things!

Carley took five days of spring swim lessons. She ended up taking eight more days in June, as well, to strengthen her strokes. She wants to try out for swim team next year.

Carley played in her very last elementary band concert. She starts middle school in August and did not choose band as her elective. She'll be taking art and performance in school, which is still falls in "visual and performing arts" so not too bad. She is looking forward to expanding her experiences.

Mother's Day was in May. Carley made me breakfast in bed.

Josh went to his 8th grade dance. I cannot believe he's finished with middle school! He's in the back row.

My Girls on the Run team ran their 5k! I started co-coaching a Girls on the Run team at Carley's school back in February.  It's a really great program for 3rd-5th grade girls that not only incorporates exercise and goal setting but the lessons also cover important topics such as self-esteem and celebrating individual
qualities. The team met after school twice a week. All teams in the area ran the Girls on the Run 5k in May. I was so incredibly proud of Carley and all the other girls on our team for accomplishing their goal.

The girls needed an adult "running buddy" to run the 5K with them. Since I was a coach and needed to be at the finish line, my friend, Christy, ran with Carley. Thanks Christy!

 Carley received an award from her teacher for improving her reading over the course of the year. Carley really did work hard and through individual tutoring and help at school, she brought up her reading a couple of grade levels.

Carley's Winter Band Concert

Carley is playing flute in band for the second year. Unfortunately there are only six students in her elementary school intermediate band. Thankfully her band teacher now combines 2-3 elementary schools for the concerts, which makes the concerts more enjoyable to the families of the six students. Here is a little preview for you. 

Carley's First Band Concert

Carley started playing the flute back in September. Her first concert was the week before school let out for Christmas break. I think she was pretty proud, and she should be. She loved that it was her brother's turn to come watch her at her school event.











Not bad for their first time.

Back to School. Already.

This summer flew by. The kids are back to school already.

This was the first year that I forgot to take photos in the morning on the first day of school. Just completely forgot.  I took Carley's photo after school on the first day.  Josh's photo wasn't taken until after school a week after school started. I am out of the photography habit.

First Day of School

It's official! Summer vacation is over and the kids are back in school. They started today.



Josh is very nervous to be at a new school with a "changing classes" schedule.

Carley is so excited to have the same teacher that Josh had in 3rd grade.

I'm grateful to have a little kid-free down time before I start back at school next week.

Forget Me Not

In 8 days, I take my first final. In 10 days, I take my last final. In 11 days, I will officially be on summer break!

I will (or should) be studying like a mad woman over the next week and half. Like before, once I'm out of school I'll post every day for seven days to celebrate my freedom from classes and to thank you for being patient while I'm not posting.

See you back here on May 22nd for the first of seven daily posts.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Finals

It's that time of year again.... time for the dreaded finals. This semester is more brutal than most. I have five finals in a 24-hour period. FIVE. Starting Monday night at 8:00 pm and ending Tuesday night at 7:30 pm. I hope I survive.

Because of endless studying and at least a week of detoxing from school, I won't be posting much until after Christmas.

To celebrate the end of the semester and the end of the holidays, I will post every single day for a week starting January 2nd. You heard me right! Seven days of new posts from January 2nd to January 8th.

So come back then and check it out.

My Girl is a Genius!

According to Carley, she started kindergarten at two years old!



Carley did this work on her own, obviously. She definitely gave it a good try but some of the items weren't exactly correct. After I checked her homework, we erased all but #1 and listed some accurate but important events from her life.

Whoa!

The school year has started with FULL force.

I started back at Sac State last Tuesday. That's a week after the kids started. And about 12 weeks after the last exam back in spring semester.


Just because Wendy reminded me here is a picture from my first day of school. I'm a dork. But I've got to keep with tradition. The kids get "first day of school" pictures, why not me? After all, I'm a kid at heart.

Okay, back to the topic at hand... the craziness of the school year.

I'm taking the same number of classes I did last semester but I feel so overwhelmed already! I guess it's because of summer break that had no deadlines or bedtimes. Summer loosened me up. Let me run free and stretch my legs.

That is NOT the case now. I'm 1 1/2 weeks into the semester and I feel like I'm 3 weeks behind on lectures and study time.

I just thought I'd let you know I'm trying to settle into a school routine. I'll get into it. Just about the time that the semester is finishing up I'm sure.

Go Hornets!