Patriots Play-off game

Cade's second football season ended in the first round of the playoffs loosing to the Bengals, but overall the season was a huge success.  The team won more games than the previous year and consisted of a strong group of young men who seem excited about playing football. While the season did not end the way the team would have hoped, Cade showed fight until the very end. All season long he practiced hard in the attempt to make himself a better player for himself and for his team. As a coach that is one of the things I was most proud to see from Cade. He truly began to recognize that the way he prepared had an impact on not just his play, but on the play of those around him. He took pride in the work that he was doing. As I had the privilege of spending time with him and the team as a coach we were able to have conversations about how he thought he could help improve himself and the team. This led to him doing individual skill practices on his own outside of the scheduled practices. For example, he wanted to improve his shotgun snaps and so he began to snap at least 100 snaps a day. It was tiring and frustrating at times, but he kept going. His competitive spirit began to really show as the season progressed. Leading up to the playoff game the team had 2 weeks of practices to prepare. During this time, Cade had his best practices as a football player which quite nicely carried over into the playoff game. As a center he began to use his hands and arms more while blocking. However, he showed the most improvement on the defensive side of the ball. Again he was using his hands and arms to get rid of blockers and disrupt plays.  In fact, after starting at center all season long, he had not played much defense. This was not the case for the playoff game though. He again started at center, but also played the entire second half of the ball game on offense and defense. He took on the offensive line while many times being double teamed. He was able to get pressure behind the line of scrimmage and help make several key tackles. He was especially proud of one tackle after which he stood up and flexed his muscles for all to see when the announcer called his name! We are all proud of Cade and the hard work he has put in this past season.  Next season with the Patriots should be another great one as Cade and his teammates will surely continue to see the benefits of all the time they have invested.

Bear's Update

Bear has been doing good lately.  Our main problems have been all of the skin and ear infections and trying to get him all cleared up with the right combo of medicines.  Having UDS makes him susceptible to infections and is one of the things that will always be a battle for us.  In the last few months we noticed the skin patches getting significantly worse and infecting his belly, nose, pads of feet genital areas and tail.  We have upted the Atopica to 4x's/week again and have had him on 3 different types of antibiotics for the skin infection.  We have also tried Mometamax (7 weeks) and then Posatex (8 weeks) to help with ear infections.  For topical areas we use a special shampoo weekly, a diluted bleach rinse weekly, and Gentacalm Spray daily.  Needless to say, our baby gets lots of attention to try and keep him healthy.  His eyes have been stable these last 4 months which is a HUGE blessing and he has stayed on his 4 different drops consistently (Latanoprost, Demecarium, Flurbiprofin, and Dorzolomide).  Dr. Griggs gave him an A+ on his last visit.  We do watch his right eye to be sure the pressure does not increase too much daily, but we have special drops if that happens.  His right eye is still blind, but he does well navigating around places and does not seem bothered much at all.  We are so blessed that his left eye has been stable and seeing well at this point.  Bear continues to love on us daily with his smiles, snuggling nightly when we watch TV, following us everywhere, barking at anything outside, and making us laugh when he chases his "babies".  We sure do love our precious Bear and he brings us so much JOY daily!   

License to Carry

One of my birthday gifts from Charles was getting my LTC (used to be called Concealed Handgun License).  I was excited for this mainly because of the 5 hr education class and practice that it comes with.  I do feel if you have weapons in your home you should feel comfortable operating them, handling them, and know the safety guidelines.  I am proud of myself for taking time out to do this.  It is one thing to have fun at a gun range shooting and Charles just handing me the weapon loaded.  It is another thing to have confidence in myself and not be scared loading my own clips and preparing the weapon.  Now that the 5 hour course is complete, I will do my online application ($40), fingerprints ($10), and then wait for my license in the mail.  Woot woot!   

Wrapping up a great season with Inter Milan

What a great season with Coach Rodrigo again!  Caelin loved having some of the same teammates on board.  The team really started to gel and it was fun to watch them call each other's names and start to look ahead for each other down the field.  Caelin worked hard on her dribbling skills and is fantastic at tic tocks.  We worked all season long on being aggressive and attacking the ball rather than waiting for the opponent to get to you.  We were so proud to watch her start to come alive, especially in the last few games.  Coach had her playing Defender most of the season, but she did get a few chances and was so close to scoring as a Forward.  My favorite part was watching her have fun on Thursday night practices with the team when playing games and practicing skills in a fun way.  Her favorite part of the season was the fact that every cousin, Aunt Heather/Uncle Christopher, Aunt Mendy/Uncle Chris, Gamee, Grampee & Nana got to see her play at some point during the season.  Hearing her loved ones cheer her on helped her come out of her shyness a bit.  Caelin's next favorite memory was scrimmaging against Coach Rod on Thursday nights.  The team would all gang up together against Coach Rod and try to score goals.  We were sad as the season closed out and Coach Rod announced that he was leaving as a Coach to pursue his career.  We are so happy for him, but it is a great loss to us as he was one of the best Coaches we have ever had.  We look forward to Spring soccer starting back up in February and seeing Inter Milan rock the field again!    

                                    

40 years!

I have to be honest.  I was not looking forward to this birthday.  I think a part of me recognizes that it is another milestone without Daddy and another part of me feels like life is just rushing by too quickly.  When I look back on my 30's, there was a LOT of great moments and milestones.  There was also heartache and some really tough mountains.  At the heart of it all, I am grateful for God's blessing, a strong family unit, and the health of my family and friends.  I was reminded of the love around me in so many ways as my birthday came around.  The "framily" made it such a special weekend starting with Bunco at Lisa's where they surprised me afterward with a basket of love and all my favorites.  These girls have surrounded me with love since the day we met and I am forever grateful for them.  They make me laugh when needed, they hold me when I cry, they know what I need before I do, and they tolerate me on my worst days.  I pray everyone has a group of friends like I have been blessed with.  On Saturday morning, I had breakfast and coffee with the fam and then Charles and the kids left to go "get" my birthday surprise in the neighborhood.  I was so confused, but played along.  Shortly after, I realized they had planned a car parade to celebrate.  The best was the end of the line when the last car was Nana and Mendy, Chris, Mackenzie, and Jax!  I had one big ugly cry for sure!  We spent the rest of our day with family time, watching Caelin wrap up her Inter Milan Soccer season, and dinner with both sides of the family with some fajitas from Lupe Tortilla.  It was such a fun day with so many memories.  I cannot believe I am starting a new decade, but I look forward to what God has in store these next 10 years.  In 10 years from now, my hopes are: Charles and I are still enjoying our careers and feel that we make a difference in the lives of students, Cade has a direction for his life from God and is happily on his way at the age of 21, that Caelin is enjoying her first semester out of High School with new school adventures and trusting God's direction at the age of 19, and that Bear is still smiling at me when I walk in the door each day and wanting to snuggle with me each night at the age of 13.  Cheers to another decade!