Some more catch up later...

We interrupt "catching up" with a little Emily sunshine. Since it is SO cold here today. Hard to believe it is the middle of summer and I need a sweatshirt on just to keep from freezing.

"They are my movies little man. Don't even think about going around me."



"I love me a big pillow!"

"Where did my plate go?"


"Grandma please get better soon. Look how this crazy family dresses me. Save me!"



Enjoy your day!
If you are in Michigan... bundle up.
Smiles!

Wow has it really been that long?

I knew it had been a while since I posted but I didn't realize it had been that long. We have had a busy start to the summer. I was going to do one post and catch up on everything but when I went to pull pictures I realized that would be very overwhelming, so I will try to do a couple post in the next couple weeks to catch up on everything that has been happening.

Up first, Midwest Meet of Champions. (Saturday June 13)

This is a meet that is by invite only and you have to be a senior. It is a meet between Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. It is quite an honor to be asked to represent your state at this meet. Zachary was selected to compete in both shot put and discus for team Michigan. It took place in Jackson, MI this year which was a real bonus to us to have it a couple hours away versus in a different state.

I drove Zachary to Jackson on Friday and dropped him off. He stayed at a local community college in dorms with the rest of his Michigan team mates. They were given team uniforms and a nice backpack that was all theirs to keep. The meet is put on by the coaches association and there is no cost to the kids, their food and lodging is all taken care of for them.

It was a bit weird dropping him off at a college (tug on heartstrings). He even mentioned that this was a little peek into what is going to happen later this summer when we drop him off at MSU. (insert mixed emotions for mom here)

On Saturday Mark, myself and Zachary's HS throws coach all drove back to Jackson to watch the meet. The weather was supposed to be rain and yuck so we left the girls home. It ended up being a perfect day for a track meet. Slightly overcast and we never had rain.

The meet was the best ran HS meet we have ever been at. They had more than enough volunteers and things ran very smoothly.

The Michigan boys team picked Zachary as the team captain so he is carrying the flag during the opening parade.

Here is Zachary showing his determination to take a first place for team Michigan in shot put.

He succeeded! 1st place in shot put and he broke the record at this stadium for the furthest throw here.
Why can't the boys smile? LOL!

He took 2nd place in discus with his team mate taking 1st. He is happy with his performance even though you can't tell it from the picture.

Then he got a nice surprise. They pick one boy and one girl from the 3 states as the field athlete of the meet and he was selected this year.
I need to ask him what the young lady said to him because I love the way he is smiling in this picture. Wink!


Then the cherry on the top... Michigan boys took 1st place! What a great day.

Answer to prayers...

If you remember this post "They got "HIM"!". We got a letter about it on Saturday from the court house. He has pleaded guilty or no contest and is awaiting sentencing mid June. That was a wonderful letter to receive! He had originally plead not guilty and my prayers have been that he will acknowledge what he did so that he can get help.

Praise God!

Smiles!

It's official!

Zack and his principle Steve Scholten. This is Mr. Scholten's last year after being our HS principle for the last 19 years.

Zack with mom and dad.

Zack with Grandpa and Grandma.

Happy Birthday!

Emily Rose is 1 year old today!

Where did that year go?

The Perfect Throwing Machine

Life is busy

I have so much to blog about and so little time to do it.

Zack's track is keeping us busy you can also keep up to date with that at his blog Zack's Journey.

Anna had an excellent soccer game last night and scored 3 goals which she tells me is called a "hat trick". We weren't able to be at her game because we were at an awards dinner at school for her and Zack were she got an award for being a scholar athlete. She also got pulled up to varsity for a game on Monday night. She has been a very busy girl also.

Kaylyn will have her last track meet tonight if the weather allows. She is throwing 29' 9" and pole vaulting 5'9". Her goal for the year is 30' and 6' so hopefully tonight won't be canceled and she will have a great night.

Libby has not had hives since Saturday so we are hopeful that we have seen the last of them for this bout of them. Once she has been hive free for 2 weeks we will start weening her off her medicine again. Hopefully we can get her off them for a month and tested before another episode of hives. Maybe I should enforce a rule of no eating new food for awhile. Not a bad thought...

I got a new camera out of necessity for a Mother's Day/Birthday/Anniversary gift. Mine died right after Zack's regional meet. It was already having some issues so it was only a matter of time before we would have to replace it but with Prom and State track meets coming up there was no waiting.

So here are some random pictures from me playing with my new toy and then I had to include one Prom picture. When exactly did he grow up?

Zack and Tricia

Zack

Anna

Kaylyn

Libby
(Little explanation... my new camera has a feature that it can detect when someone smiles and then snaps the picture on it's own so I told Libby to smile and I guess she thought it had to be a really exaggerated smile. LOL!)

Last but not least here is a picture that is getting a lot of feedback of Zack and his friend Stephen taken before Prom. They are in track and choir together. Funny picture! Mark took it with his camera. Thank goodness because I missed it wile trying to figure out the new camera. There is a bit of a learning curve with it. Wink!

They're back

We thought we were going to get answers to the mystery hives soon. They have been gone for a long time and she has been off all medication for a month or so and then last night they decided to make an uninvited visit.

I sent her to school today medicated. She took more medicine right before leaving school and I got a call from the bus driver asking me to meet her because the hives were getting worse quickly. I called the allergist and they have put her back on allergy medication and told me to double the Benadryl. If we aren't seeing an improvement by Thursday I need to call them. And if, heaven forbid, she gets worse tonight instead of better on the stronger medicine we need to take her to the ER. Just so happens Kaylyn needs to get allergy shots at the allergists office Thursday so Libby is coming along this time. That why I can let them see her and decide if they are comfortable with how she is doing.



Please pray for her. She is very uncomfortable right now. If you can see in the picture half of her top lip is swollen. The hives are always random on her as far as where all they show up.

I am sure you are wondering what caused it this time... so are we. As far as I can tell it might be another powder mix. The allergist felt with the seasoning packet the first time that it might be a preservative and since Libby had a drink made from a powdered mix last night right before she broke out it makes sense that it might be just that.

It must be track season at the Hill house....

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!