spring soccer

The last two years John & Andrew have played spring soccer. They really enjoy doing it! John is a little disappointed that this will be his last year. Into Jr. High soccer is only played in the fall & John already has plans to run cross country and/or play football.

This year has been a little different. I was asked to coach Andrew's k-1 team. I wasn't planning to do this, but since there was a need and I was given an assistant coach then I agreed to take this on. Both Jim & I have coached in the past, back when John and Brianna played in the k-1 league.

I have a full roaster of 15 kids. 15, 5 & 6 years olds. Yeah, it's interesting. Even for this mom of "lots" of kids and a high tolerance and great ability to handle it all with apparent ease....it's a lot! The kids are great though. I've had a great time so far.

Since I am busy coaching I haven't been able to be there at John's games as much. We often are playing within close proximity of each other, but at the same time. Or his game is right before mine, so I get to see a little bit then take off to meet up with my team, etc. Finally today, our schedules allowed me to actually sit and watch John's whole game. I made up for my lack of absence the first few games by snapping 40 some pictures. I won't post them all, just a few good ones. John is a great, natural players and shines on the field. John is wearing blue, take a look:

Andrew's game was much later in the morning so I headed home & told Brianna I wanted her to come and take pictures during Andrew's game.  One of the downfalls of being coach is that I don't get the luxury of sitting down & watching at all.  In the mean time a nice line of rain & storms rolled into our area.  We still dressed and got ready to go.  The lightening & thunder had stopped, but it was pouring rain.    I didn't mind being out there, I'm not made of sugar & I won't melt.  Most of our team was there, but the other team only had 4 players and the coach hastily replied "I do not want to be out there!"  I had to work hard to not judge the woman, I'm sure she's nice & a good coach.  But she was dressed in jeans & a shirt, hair & make up done to the max.  Even on a nice sunny day she wasn't dressed for the situation.   At least not in my opinion, which, that is all this is....just my opinion.  My team was very disappointed that we didn't have anyone to play.  Just for fun we did a lap around the field in the pouring down rain with a bunch of whoops & hollers.

Once back home I had Nina take a picture of us.  You can't tell, other than the wet ground, but it was still raining, although it had let up quite a bit.  I had chosen to wear my Joy Bondi Band mostly because the color matched best with what I was wearing.  As we were standing in the rain, waiting for the official call of the game a parent turned to me, read my band and said "that is a nice sentiment considering the situation".  It made me realize that even amidst the pouring rain and less than ideal conditions one can really have a sense of joy about the situation.

I promise to get pictures of Andrew's game next week.  Andrew is quite the natural player himself.

Dr. Paralikar

Carmen and Andrew had to go to the doctor last weekend. It wasn't anything too serious. They woke up feeling icky and I knew it was enough to warrant an office visit. One thing I love about the office we visit is that we don't have a hard time seeing the doctor.  Of course, it helps that we are very established patients and we have given them A LOT of business over the years.

16, almost 17 years ago, when we were expecting Angel we had no idea who to go to for a doctor.  We didn't even know if we should go with a family doctor or a pediatrician.  Neither one of us grew up in this area, so we relied on word of mouth of who to go to.  We never regretting going to the Children's Clinic and choosing Dr. Paralikar for our children's care.

I feel so blessed that we have been able to stick with the same doctor for all of our children.  He has welcomed each one into this world and has seen us through just about everything imaginable.  Lately he was having a lot of medical issues himself.  He was gone out of the office for several months and then came back on a limited basis.  It really made me appreciate how much we love and value his services.  He is by far, one of, if not the most experienced pediatricians in our town.  He can be a little old school from time to time, but his knowledge is priceless.

I know it's completely selfish, but I really hope he stays in practice for a really long time.  Never mind that he's already been practicing for 30+ years.  I actually have a friend who had him as a doctor when she was born and he's still practicing now and she takes her children to him.  I know it's inevitable, but I just want to hang onto him for a few more years.

I've never done this before (shocking, I know), but I took some pictures while we were waiting in the office.  What prompted this was I realized how big Carmen looked while sitting on the exam table.  *sniff....sniff*  It just blew my mind how big she looked and has lost so much of her baby-ness.  First we got the cheesy smile out of the way:

Then we got the silly face done:

That is all the time I had then Dr. Paralikar walked in.  One of the many great thing about him, there is often little to no wait time.  Since I still had my camera in hand I continued to take pictures with his permission.  I'm glad I got some shots of him in action.

I plan to hang onto Dr. Paralikar as long as possible.  Yes, we have other great doctors in our town, but Dr. Paralikar is absolutely the best!!!!

Illinois Marathon

Last year Jim & I ran our first marathon.  We survived and crossed the finish line together, which was the main goal of the day.  Jim swore he was NEVER going to run a marathon again.  Of course, I was hooked.  I knew I was going to love it.  I did things backwards and had already run an ultra that was farther than a marathon so, of course, I loved the 26.2 distance and knew it would do it again and again.  I was proud of Jim for doing what he wanted to accomplish.  If he was no fan of the distance that is ok with me.

Months passed and Jim decided he was going to do another marathon.  Not only that, but he was going to improve on his time and whole marathon experience as well.  We raced the same marathon that we had completed last year.  I love this race.  It's nice and flat.  They have a great organization, shirts, swag, people out cheering on the course, etc. etc.  I highly recommend this race and hope to make it an annual tradition.

Last Saturday was the marathon.  The weather started out pretty freaky.  Howling wind and pouring down rain before we even left the hotel was not what we were looking forward to.  Luckily the weather passed through rather quickly.  While it was still cool and overcast it turned out to be fairly ideal running weather.  This year our plan of attack was different.  Yes, we both wanted to improve our time.  If we stayed together, great.  If not then we were each on our own.  We had no doubt that one would do just fine without the other.

Carmen finished in 3:54, which was a 1:25 improvement over last year.  Jim finished in 4:30, which was a 45 minute improvement over last year.  Even more so Jim handled the running and after effects so much better.  He's becoming a pro!  Although he is back to stating that he will not run another marathon.  We'll see....

Here is a picture of us after the race:

If you want a much deeper detailed race report from my aspect, you can check out my personal blog. 

I already booked a hotel for next years race.  I plan to race.  The big question is: will Jim?

Hair....hair...hair....

Angel decided it was time to change up her hair.  Can't let the baby sister have all the glory with the cute new do.  For the first time ever, I sent Angel off on her own to go get her hair done.  Yes, I know I need to slowly start cutting those apron strings.  My baby will be a legal adult in about 18 months.  Sniff....sniff....

Here she is before she left:

This is how she looked when she came home:

Not much difference in the length, just a slight trim.  Otherwise there is the obvious big chunky bangs.  I knew this is what she wanted to do so I wasn't too shocked.  It's going to take some getting used to, but I think it  looks super cute on her.  She reminds me of a certain teenage girl who back in the 90's did the exactly same thing with her hair.  Hmmmm....wonder who that could be????

Baby Carmen's pre-school has been having spirit week.  A different theme each day. On Monday they had backwards day.  With the exception of her shoes & socks, everything went on backwards.  Tuesday was hat day.  She had intended to wear a princess crown/hat, but we forgot until we saw the bus coming down the street.  I ran real quickly and grabbed this pink with flowers sunhat.  It made her look like a brunette Strawberry Shortcake.  Wednesday was class color day.  Carmen is in the purple room.  We had purple shoes, purple socks, purple pants....yes, even purple underware (not so hard to achieve when you are 4).  We didn't have a purple shirt which led to a slight melt down.  We did find a white shirt with little purple flowers on it and that was just enough to talk her down from her ledge of boycotting going to school all together.  Tomorrow is pajama day.  What mom does not like that?!?!?!  You don't have to dress them for the day AND when they get home they are all ready for bed!  Score one for mom!!!! 

Today, however is crazy hair day.  This is also a favorite day of mine.  Who better to know crazy than ME?!?!?!?  Carmen loved the idea of green hair in addition to her wild ponytails all over.  However once I got the hair half way sprayed she didn't like the fumes.  To help with her sudden apprehension I joined her in the venture and she enjoyed coloring my hair green too.  The things I do for my kids.....

Kisses from Germany

I received a package in the mail yesterday. It was from my German sister, Britta. She was our first full year exchange student my parents hosted when I was still living at home. It happened to also be my senior year of high school. Such a profound time in a person's life. While I never had any problems with Britta we weren't particularly close either. None the less we bonded on a deep level, for I have always considered her a sister and think of her often. I've only seen her once in the last 18 years since she went back home to Germany. I miss her. I had actually received an email from Britta a few weeks ago. Although I don't believe in coincidences it seems odd that the morning we bid farewell to Merle, our German daughter, I came home and found an email awaiting me from Britta. It was so good to hear from her. We don't keep in touch like we should so it had been awhile. She had told me she had sent a package. She has been ever faithful at sending them through out the years. I had still forgotten about the package so was delighted when the kids brought it in from the mail box. These are the goodies she sent us:

Before I even opened the package I was fairly certain that a specific treat would be included. Typically I have to wait a year or longer to even have my favorite German treat. Although, thanks to Merle, I did have some recently. I'll be honest. I'm totally 100% selfish when it comes to this treat. I like to hide the box and selectively treat myself over the course of time. Sometimes though, I have no restraint and eat them all rather quickly. Depends on my mood. I did share and now have the box in hiding. My secret : ) It gets me so excited though, I just love them. I call them chocolate strawberry yogurt sticks. They are the BEST!

Of course, all of this got me to thinking about Merle. I miss her! I miss hearing her talk and laugh. Seeing her smile. It's only been a few weeks since she left and she was here for only a short time, but I miss her so much! It feels like a lifetime since she left, yet I can still so vividly imagine her like I just saw her yesterday. I am so thankful for our time we had with her. No doubtedly I'm also so thankful for all the times I had with Britta, as well.  Such rich blessings I have been given in my life!

Cutie Patootie

I was having a complete love hate relationship with baby Carmen's hair.  I love it long.  I love to fix it all cute with braids & pony tails.  Carmen being Carmen though tended to not keep her hair fixed.  I'd take the time to make it all cute and pretty and then send her off to school and she'd come home looking like Cousin It.  I'd ask her...why did you take your hair out.  I'd get the usual shrug of the shoulders and "I don't know".  Not to mention, like a lot of typical 4 years old getting the hair brushed and fixed often a lot of tears, drama and end of the world cries of mercy.

I decided it was time for a change.  I was hoping to hold off until June.  With the warmer than usual temps, the time seemed better to get it done now.  Not to worry though, even though she is only 4 we have already cut her hair short like this and it grows out rather quickly.  For now this is the hair cut she's be sporting.  She's really cute no matter what anyway : )

Happy Birthday Jim & Lincoln Presidential half marathon

You might think that I am trying to double up and combine two posts into one.  No.  Jim & I ran the Lincoln Presidential half marathon ON his birthday.  What a way to celebrate.

Here we are before the race:

Showing off my fashionable running style : )

After we were done:

We did not finish together this year. We stuck together for about the first 3 miles. My foot had been bothering me a lot lately so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run real good. Adrenaline must have kicked in cause my foot felt fine and I took off. Even though we weren't together for the whole race it was still fun & great to race "with" each other. I finished in 1:49:19 and Jim finished in 2:02:27. That time was a drastic cut from last years race. Jim really improved on his time!!!!

Later in the day I had planned a cookout with some of Jim's friends & their families.  The weather was chilly and we ended up inside later on due to some rain, but we still had a great time celebrating this wonderful man.

My dad & Angel

Blowing out the candles.  I wasn't going to put 42 of them on there.  We had a number 4 and then I stuck two individual ones on there for some creative interpretation.