Wordless Wednesday - Duckie love

As if life around here wasn't crazy enough...

Meet Puddlez. One of two new pets to the Hill house.

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Monday Sports Recap

Since my life revolves around sports right now I figured I might as well save all the sports related posts for one day of the week and I pick Monday. So here is some of what happened since last week Monday.

Monday-
Anna had a home soccer game. It was horrible weather. In fact every other school sport was cancelled due to the weather but not soccer. Libby and I watched the first half and then at half time I could tell Anna was freezing so I gave her my headband and gloves but that meant I had to watch the rest of the game from the parking lot. It wasn't a terrible view but it was hard to see who was who from that distance. They tied 1-1.

Wednesday-
Anna had a home soccer game and Kaylyn had an away track meet. Kaylyn's track meet was close to Mark's work so he went to watch her and Libby and I watched Anna's game. What a difference in weather from Monday! It felt wonderful to be outside Wednesday. Anna's team won their game and Anna made a goal. I got a picture of it too but it is kinda hard to tell what is going on in the picture.


Kaylyn placed first in pole vault at 5'0". She wasn't sure where she placed in shot put but had a toss of 27' (I think-since she doesn't want to do shot she isn't good about remembering her distance. Coach makes her do shot because she can usually take first in it.)

Thursday-
Zack had a home track meet. It was an amazing day for him! He broke our area record that had been set in 1968. Go here to read more about it. There is also a neat write up about it here.

That is one happy coach!

Friday-

Anna had an away soccer game. The weather was GORGEOUS. The other team didn't have enough JV players to field a team so they had to forfiet (we get the win) but instead of going home without playing they put together a scrimmage using some of their varsity players. Anna scored 2 goals. They won 3-0.

Saturday-
Zack had an away track meet. Again he had an amazing day. It was a relay which means you combine the marks of 2 throwers and use that combined distance. Him and his teammate CJ broke 2 of the meet's records (one set in 1966) for both shot and discus. You can read about it here. There was a 30 minute lightening delay part way through the meet and then the entire meet ended early because of severe weather so not all of the races got to be completed. Bummer.

Here is Zack and CJ after breaking the shot put record. Along with their teammate Anna trying to get in on the picture. LOL!

Now I have to go catch up on laundry. It seems to get put to the back burner around here when life gets busy. I here a lot of "Mom, did my uniform get washed?" and the reply is usually, "Yes dear, it is in one of the laundry baskets of unfolded clean clothes you will just have to look." But at least it is clean right?

Venting to the choir

I pledged to be complaint free this week so hopefully I will be able to complete this post without it being a complaint but instead an attempt to glean some understanding on negative comments.

I have never had a negative or unkind comment on my blog so that is why my title is "venting to the choir" because I am guessing that none of you do this. But maybe you can offer some insight.

Some of you know I keep a blog for Zack and his journey in track. I have comments on there set to be approved before posting. I also upload a lot of Zack's throws on to YouTube so that his coaches can see them and give Zack feed back on ways to improve. I have those videos set so that I have to approve comments first also.

Another site I visit is MLive. The track forum is a great way to find out how other kids have done before results have been put up online anywhere.

Why is it that on such sites where people set up accounts without using their actual name do they feel free to leave such mean and hurtful comments? What do they gain from this and why do they have such anger. I am not naive enough to have thought that this could not happen so that is why I review all comments first because I would NEVER want my kids to see/feel the mean comments that some people feel compelled to leave. I also never reply back to those comments I simply delete them.

Unfortunately MLive is a little different. You can't control what people comment on there. We strongly discourage Zack from going on there. We do pass along the kind things people are saying about him but I don't want the mean comments getting in his head when he is trying to compete or for that matter anytime.

I love constructive criticism. I think it helps us all grow but criticism just to criticize does nothing but tear others down. So I leave you with this...

"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Isn't this elementary teaching?

Sports are officially in full gear here.

We are in our busiest season as far as kids go and Mark at work too because it is spring and he works in a greenhouse which means he is back to working Saturdays. Zack and Kaylyn are both in track and Anna is in soccer. Here are some highlights from last week.

Kaylyn took 2nd in shot put at her track meet on Wednesday. Here she is with Zack looking on. The HS track team works the MS track meets.

Then she went over to pole vault and took first. Way to go Kaylyn! An excellent day.

Anna had a home game against Hamilton Friday. She is #10. They lost this game 0-1 but they won their game earlier in the week 3-0 and Anna scored 2 of the goals. Great job Anna! In the picture it might appear that her socks don't match but actually she is a captain and is wearing a captain's band on her leg.

Zack had a huge week this week in shot put. He re-broke his personal record (which is also the school record) 4 times this week. His biggest throw was Saturday with a toss of 64' 7.5". We are waiting for the listings to be updated but it looks like this will put him 6th in the nation and 1st in the Midwest (OH, IN, MI, IL, WI). To see video of Zack's throw you can check out his blog.

He also took first in the discus with a throw of 174'.

Kaylyn also had a track meet on Saturday but I couldn't be there because I was at Zack's. She took 5th in shot put with a toss of 26'. That was great because the track meet was with a lot of school in bigger districts than what we are in.

We will be back at the soccer fields tonight and hopefully the rain will have stopped by then.

Smiles!

Complaint Free Week...

I'm up for the challenge.
Are you?

Go here to find out more about it.

Sisterhood!

I found a surprise this morning. Lisa from Extravagant Grace nominated me for the Sisterhood Award! Thank you Lisa! Lisa is a 5 whatever gal. Check out what that means here.

This is a special award that should be given to your best bloggy girlfriends. These ladies have become a good dose of encouragement to me and are sisters in Christ. They are real women, living real lives with the courage to be transparent in their walk with the Lord. Stop over and let them know what a blessing they are. Everyone needs a bit of encouragement!

• Kat @ Just a Beachkat
• Tonja @ Gatherings
  
• Angie @ The Knightly News
  
• Mari @ My Little Corner of the World
  
• Melissa @ Mel's World
  
• Cheri @ Just Another Day in Paradise
  
• Sue @ Praise and Coffee
  
• Rebekah @ Diagonally Parked in a Parallel Universe
  
• Patty @ Anonymous (Wink!)
  
• and of course Lisa @ Extravagant Grace!

Smiles!

Wordless Wednesday - Boys to watch

Here is a link on an article that came out with this write up.

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Grace

I seen this on Vicki Courtney's site Virtue Alert and thought it was such a great explanation of what only Jesus can do for us.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I wish I had a better picture but as I was searching through pictures I realized that my mother doesn't sit still long enough to get a picture of her. LOL! Guess that is why she is such a wonderful mom. That is also my sister in the picture with her.


Here is one from February while she was visiting her sister in Arizona.

Mom, Dad, Aunt Lois, Randy (Lois's son), Abbi (Laura's daughter), Ashley (Laura's daughter), Randy's wife (Linda? not sure on her name), Gebben (Laura's son), Laura (Lois's daughter)

Here is a picture from last summer from our trip to Haiti. It was so great that my mother was able to go along with us.

I love you Mom! Happy Birthday!

My Redeemer Lives!

"He is not here; He has risen!" - Luke 24:6

Mother Daughter Time

Kaylyn and I finally had our mother daughter get-away. I would have liked to have done it closer to her 13th birthday but our busy lives didn't allow. I did the same with Anna and plan on doing it with Libby when she turns 13. It is a weekend (or in Kaylyn's case, 2 weekdays) where we work through Passport2Purity.
First we went and seen Monsters vs. Aliens at the IMAX theater. That was a lot of fun. Neither of us had seen an IMAX movie before.

Warning: the entire movie makes a laughing stock out of our government. I find that to be distasteful and disrespectful. Probably not a good message to send our kids that our leaders are a bunch of incompetent misfits. That being said I don't know if younger kids would even get that but it isn't any different than so many of today's sitcoms making dad's look like ignorant beasts who need their wives to keep them in line and tell them how to behave. Hmm I wonder why society is breaking down, look at our "role models". Ok I will get off my soapbox now.

Back to our getaway.


Then after lunch at Panera Bread we went to Fredrick Meijer Gardens to see the butterflies.


Thank goodness Kaylyn knows how to take pictures of herself so well. LOL! Look how well she centered that picture without being able to see the view finder.

Kaylyn thought it would have been funny if the fish ate the butterfly. That made me chuckle. Then here is another funny Kaylyn story. We were looking at the flowers and Kaylyn says out loud, "Something smells weird over here." I turn and she is standing with her back to a man who looked shall we say a little un-kept. So I am now embarrassed trying to quietly explain to Kaylyn that she can't say things like that out loud. As I am I over hear another woman saying, "Wow. That really does stink!" To her friend as she is smelling an odd looking plant....


Turns out God designed the plant in the picture above to smell like dead fish to attract flies. Wasn't the man after all. LOL! It still was a good lesson for my dear daughter to think before she speaks though. Kaylyn and I were both laughing about it.


The Passport2Purity program suggests giving your daughter a special gift at the end of the weekend to remember the time you had together. We decided to let the girls get their ears pierced at the end of the weekend. I tie it in with the lesson they have learned about how once you have lost your innocence you can't loose it again. Once you have pierced your ears for the first time you can't pierce them again for the first time and if you decide you didn't want to pierce them you are still left with a small scar.

Kaylyn was so nervous to get them done that she gave herself an upset stomach. She has been wanting them pierced for forever but the thought of possible pain was about all she could handle. Wow was she relieved after the first ear to find out it didn't even hurt. Then she started talking non-stop. Open the flood gates. LOL!


It was a wonderful time. We both really enjoyed ourselves.

Will it ever end?

Will my son's love of a good 'ol PB&J ever end?

I stumbled across this journal entry while cleaning/purging this morning...

Nov. 18, 1994 "Anna's eating more finger foods now ex:bananas, graham crackers, shredded cheese. She is also really motoring around the furniture. Zachary's favorite food is Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. It is all he ever wants morning, noon, and night."

How appropriate that this is what I found in my kitchen this morning after the kids had left for school. I think I put PB away at least 3 times a day.


This is why I hate this habit of his...


Here is a picture of that sweet little man taken near the time that of that journal entry.



One more funny entry that would go well with the above picture but wasn't the same restaurant...

Oct. 24, 1994 "Helped Audrey take her awnings down then went to Russ' w/ her, Mom, and Dad. While Zack was eating his supper he went to set down a fry and fell off his chair and was sleeping by the time he hit the floor. We were all laughing as he continued to sleep."

I guess when you play hard you also sleep hard. He isn't falling asleep at the dinner table anymore but the PB&J habit is still going in full force.

Smiles!

Fine Arts Night

Libby had a Fine Arts Night at school last night. She had this on her desk to show us...

(click on it if you can't read it)

It really touched my heart. I love reading my kids thoughts.

We also got to watch her class perform a song for us in the Cafeteria. I caught something really funny at the beginning of this video. Watch (the first 15 secs) the little boy in the middle row wearing a black sweatshirt. Make sure that your volume is turned up so you can hear what he says. It just cracked me up! Libby is in the back row wearing the black sweater.

Edited to add: Since people are having a hard time figuring out what David said I will tell you. "The suspense is KILLING ME!" Now just try and not laugh when you see how he expresses it. What a riot!