Friday Fun Day

This week the kids didn't have school on Friday.  You'll potentially be hearing that from me several times over the school year.  This year our district got rid of early release Wednesday and replaced them with select Mondays and Fridays off throughout the year.  Let me say, I'm a fan.

This past Friday was a work day for me.  However, I had a recruiting event on Thursday evening after working a full day and ended up working 12 hours that day so I felt justified in flexing my time a bit on Friday.

Merrick started his day at the gym at the church working on his hoops, something he does pretty much everyday.  Eventually, the girls and I joined him.  I still worked, but the girls roller skated around the gym and Merrick finished up his practicing.

The afternoon is where the real fun began.  Merrick went to up the middle school to meet a friend and hang out.  No pictures because teenage boys are not likely to take pictures and share them with their moms.

Carrigan left as well and went to the mall with a couple friends.  The walked around, window shopped, ate mall treats, and bought random things that they truly didn't need.  It brought back lots of memories for me.  All the was missing was the pay phone call home when it was time to be picked up.  One friend's mom took them and stayed with them so I did get a few pictures, yay!

That just left Elsie and I, something I imagine will be said more and more in the coming years.  She really wanted to try out a new park so we headed to the next town over, Tualatin, to try a park that we have never tried before.  It had a river theme with a pretend river running through the ground and obstacles around.  She had a blast creating an obstacle course and running it while I timed her.  They also had a rock climbing wall that she enjoyed and never really got the hang of.

All in all it was a fun day and a big improvement over a couple of hours on a random Wednesday that ultimately gets wasted.

How tall is he?!?!

How tall is he?!?! That's a question I get asked A LOT about Merrick.  This week was extremely busy, but also a slow news week so I think I will take the moment to address this question formally on this blog for future reference.

As of now, Merrick stands at 6'6".  We had his 15 year well check this week and talked at length about his height with the doctor.  I wanted to formally document what the doctor said so in the future I can look back to it.  Otherwise, I will never remember with my Swiss cheese brain. 

Merrick's doctor said that while he continues to be way off the chart in terms of his height, he grew 2.5 inches in the last year, he has not started showing any signs of slowing down.  He said that we should anticipate that he will likely grow at least another 2.5 inches before he is done, which would put him at around 6'9".  I truly can't wrap my head around that.  

So there you have it.  Will he end up 6'9" or 7'0" or 6'6.5"?  Time will tell and now we have this to refer back to.

Full Swing

 This week I felt the shift and it feels like we are in the full swing of the school year.  It's always a soft start in the beginning as things get rolling, but we have arrived at the main event.  The sports have started, homework has started, and the "back to school" events might do me in.  This past week I attended two curriculum nights (one for Merrick and one for work).  We have at least two more curriculum nights to go and we'll see if I end up squeezing in any more for work.

On the sports front, Elsie has started soccer.  She had her first practice and first game this week.  Unfortunately, I couldn't make either.  I may have mentioned it, but Jeremy is coaching and Merrick is assistant coaching (as his sports schedule permits).  Since he has to be there, if C.C.'s volleyball conflicts, I am on C.C. duty by default.  I'll hopefully be able to make it to something sooner or later and report back with some pictures.

Carrigan is still doing horseback riding lessons and has started volleyball.  She has practice twice a week and games every Saturday.  Despite only having one practice so far, one got cancelled due to curriculum night, I have already notice big improvements.  Her serving has started to improve.  There is a lot of pressure to serve overhand.  This has been a challenge for her tiny self, but yesterday she made it over the net and scored a point in two of her three chances to serve.  She also returned a volley and has started diving after the ball.  I'm excited to see where the season takes her.

Merrick has been staying plenty busy, despite the fact that his sports are still ramping up.  He's helping with Elsie's team, as I mentioned, cleaning horse stalls, and tackling lots of homework for a challenging academic schedule. Basketball should start this week, but in the meantime, he picked up a baseball game this weekend just for fun.  Fall ball is an interesting beast.  It's less competitive than spring baseball and they encourage coaches to play kids at different positions. While that's the plan, we have never seen that play out for Merrick.  He always ends up camped at first base.  Today, he started at first base as usual.  I will a little surprised to see that they next put him at right field, but the next inning I nearly fell off the bleachers when they put him at shortstop.  He played two innings at shortstop and did a decent job.  He jumped and almost  caught a ball hit above his head, probably 11 feet in the air.  He then made up for it by tagging that kid out as he later tried to steal second.  It was an unusual game to say the least, but it was great to see him in his element again today.

These kids keep me unbelievably busy.  Most days I feel like I have a very tenuis grasp on all that needs to be done, but mostly we get there.  As if we don't have enough on our plates, today they girls decided it was time to start decorating for Halloween.  Things are getting spooky around here.

Merrick's 15th Birthday

 As the title of this week's blog indicates, the highlight of the week was celebrating Merrick's 15th birthday.  I would be remiss, however, if I first didn't mention our family Labor Day adventures. The kids got a bee in their collective bonnets over the weekend that they really wanted to go to the beach on Labor Day.  It had been really hot over the weekend and we had spent some time at the river, so I think they were envisioning a similar experience, but I knew that we were headed for a major cool down and the weather could be a little dicey.

Alas, my prediction was right and the weather was not great.  It was chilly and windy, as it almost always seems to be out at the Coast, but we made the best of it.  Jeremy found a hole on the beach and right away got to work carving it out and setting it up as a shelter for the day for us away from the wind. It was a tremendous help. We had gone to Pacific City, which is know for a massive sand dune.  The kids have been loving the sand dunes in Astoria so they were really looking forward to it.  We brought sleds, but those were mostly a flop. The sand was just too fluffy and soft to get much of a run going. We still had fun trying.  Everyone but Elsie also climbed to the top of the dune (probably about 1/4 mile straight up in soft, fluffy sand-the kind you slide right back down with every step).  Merrick somehow climbed it three times.  Despite the weather, and thanks to Jeremy's shelter, it was still a great day at the beach.

Now on to the main event, Merrick's birthday.  It was a pretty low key day and he spent the vast majority of it away from us. Since starting seminary this week, he has been leaving the house at 6:30am.  While Seminary doesn't start until 7am, he has been going at 6:30 so he can shoot in the gym everyday prior it starting.  So that's how the story went on his birthday as well.  He stuffed some birthday cinnamon rolls in his mouth before running out the door.  He did have a nice treat at school, his cousin, Quincy, drove him to McDonald's for lunch.

That night we finally got to celebrate Merrick all together as a family.  We invited my parent's over for Merrick's choice dinner and dessert (homemade mac and cheese and cinnamon roll cake). We also opened presents.  Merrick got a new cell phone and case, a new basketball, a bat weight, dribble goggles, some fancy hair product, and money.  He did pretty good for himself.

While I think he had a good day, what he was really looking forward to what happened the next day.  Friday, after school, he, Elsie, and I spent a super fun hour at the DMV so he could test for his learners permit.  He had been taking practice tests for a few weeks, but never really studied the book.  He was super nervous when we arrived, but he came in clutch.  He passed with flying colors and ultimately we left with permit in hand.  Within minutes, we were in the high school parking lot and I was switching places with him so he could drive us the rest of the way home.  A little backstory here, Merrick had already driven with his cousin several times so this was by no means his first time driving.  While he still has a way to go before being a comfortable, proficient driver, he's driven everyday since Friday and he is well on his way.

I could not be more proud of the young man he is becoming.  He is hardworking, dedicated, kind, and ambitious.  He's pretty much loved by all who know him.  I can't wait to see where life takes him and I'm thrilled to be along for the ride.

Back to School 2024

 If you read the blog last week, it won't come as a surprise to you that the highlight of this week was the start of the school year.  I know that the excitement will fade over time, but so far, everyone is really enjoying school.  Elsie, in particular,  likes to wake up well before the required time (5:45 on the first day) and ultimately wake everyone up with her energy and excitement.

Overall, I'm optimistic about the year ahead .  We are going to be very busy, but hopefully in a good way.  Here is a quick rundown of what's ahead for each kiddo and their first day of school photo(s).

Merrick: Merrick started high school this year.  Our high school is extremely large with about 2,000 kids crammed into a building designed to hold about half that.  Merrick's biggest complaint about school so far is that it is extremely crowded and you can hardly walk through the halls from one class to another.  Luckily for him, he can just look over everyone else's heads.  He has a tough schedule ahead with an advanced math class and an AP class.  In addition, he is playing both baseball and basketball.  Between the regular season and off season training, he will pretty much always be playing something and often be playing both.

 Carrigan: Carrigan is off to middle school this year.  She chose to go to Rosemont Ridge instead of Athey Creek.  That means she can walk to and from school and I get back an hour of my day that I used to spend doing middle school pickup (yay!).  She walks everyday with her friend Coco Salo, who lives just a street away from us.  She walks up to Coco's house early every morning so they can primp together and then they walk to school.  She is also going to have a busy year ahead.  Her math teacher has already told them to plan on homework just about every night.  She also is getting ready to start volleyball and is still doing horseback riding lessons.  She would also like to do dance team, if she can fit it into her schedule.

Elsie: Elsie is now my lone elementary school kiddo.  She is beginning first grade with Mrs. Kirkland, but her class is a K-1 blend.  I have to say that I am not thrilled with that, but I'm trying to stay optimistic.  She is already making lots of new friends in her class and I trust her teacher to continue to push her and help her get to where she needs to be academically this year.  She will play soccer and softball this year and starts soccer this week.  Jeremy will be her coach and Merrick will help as an assistant coach as his schedule allows.  Jeremy was able to coach Merrick's team when he was this age, so it's fun to have him coaching Elsie too.  She rides to school with Jeremy every morning and, now that it's just her, she has full music control (not that she didn't anyway). 

And there you have it, a look at the year ahead.  I hope you come along with me for the ride.