Sunday, October 16, 2016

3 birthdays, tennis update, Camporall, and employment

Birthdays this week:

Alex turned 16 on Monday. We celebrated last Sunday.
(notice his new haircut that his sister gave him, though this is not the best view of it)

Henry turned 1 1/2 on Wednesday. He is now old enough to go to nursery on Sunday and that frees Andrew and Heather to attend and be able to pay attention to their classes at church! There aren't any new photos as their camera is MIA, so here are 2 photos from August of the Cutie.




My dad turned 84 on Friday. We had a nice, long talk on the phone. Since his dad only lived to be 75 and his brother 73, we feel so lucky to still have him around. We didn't get to go see him for his 84th, so I am posting a photo of when my sister and I were there for his 80th birthday.

Dad on his 80th (14 October 2012)
Tennis update:

Tennis was a bit crazy this week. The team was already on the road Friday when the word came in that they had to postpone due to weather and smoke from a fire. That meant a change in venue as well as a change in Alex's bracket. On Saturday they headed to Reno to play instead of Truckee and Alex played doubles instead of singles.

Thomas's doubles partner can't play next week when the tournament would now be wrapping up due to the postponement. So, Thomas and Alex were partnered up and they played against N. Tahoe. They didn't get to finish their first match, though, because the tournament was suspended due to very high winds.

They won the first set 6-2 (it was windy, but playable), but were behind in the second set 1-3 (the wind had really kicked up). The wind was so bad (it had been forecast to be 30 mph +) that sometimes they would hit the ball but it couldn't make it over the net. It was insane. Wish I had a video of it.

Tuesday is when they will try again in Truckee. Thomas and Alex should win, which means they will be playing on Wednesday as well. State starts on Thursday.

(a better view of his haircut, I think)



this ball was actually going to Thomas, but in this picture looks like it's going to Alex


Camping:

The fact that the tournament was postponed on Friday allowed Alex and Ben to go on the Fall Camporall with Glen and Alan. Alex and Ben had to leave early on Saturday to make it to tennis, but at least they got to be there for the night. The Camporall was also a victim of the wind and had to close down early on Saturday.

Employment news:

Hannah's subbing license came through so now she is filling out applications to sub in Reno and in Fallon! Good luck, Hannah!

And Ryan is now employed as an early morning custodian (4-7 am shift) in the Spori building on BYU-I's campus (the Spori building is where Eric has all his art classes and it is a stone's throw from the boys' apartment). He is very excited to have finally found a job and is working with a few friends, so he's fine with getting up at 3 am. He goes to bed early, which is putting a bit of a cramp in Eric's life. Eric is actually going to bed earlier now, too. Yea on all accounts!

Neither-here-nor-there news:

It was Homecoming this week and Glen and I went to the first half of the freshmen football game on Thursday. The ending of the first half was crazy. On a fourth down, we kicked off the ball to Spring Creek, but we recovered the ball! Then our quarterback passed the ball, but they intercepted. The guy ran down the field towards our goal. Our quarterback tackled the guy with the ball, who then fumbled. The ball was not called dead before another Spring Creek player picked it up and headed for our goal. He was finally tackled on the 2 to 3 yard line. The clock had run out during the play, so they didn't score at that time. Spring Creek was ahead and stayed ahead, so we lost. But it was a crazy play.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

feeling blessed by safety, belongings, and opportunities

Very long story short (I love details to stories but will forbear): This week we had trouble with both Glen's truck (which is already mended) and Hannah's car (which is now dead in the driveway after dying on I-80 near Fernley). Everyone is safe. We are feeling very blessed.

I forgot to mention the other week that Andrew and Heather are now the proud owners of a piano! They live on the second story of their apartment building. Andrew said it took something like 8 helpers to get the piano up the stairs and into place. Congratulations Andrew and Heather! It looks beautiful.


This past week the Regionals Tennis Tournament started off with team play. The boys traveled to Truckee where, sadly, they lost the match to Truckee 11-7, and so they did not continue on in the tournament. Alex played singles and won 1 of his 3 sets. Thomas and his doubles partner, Myles, won all 3 of their sets. Way to go! The girls' Greenwave team, who are undefeated, fared better than the boys and they won the girls' tournament. Yea!

In Truckee this next Friday, the individual's bracket for Regionals will begin. Alex goes up against the #5 seed, a player from N. Tahoe. Since Alex is not ranked in the top 9 in singles, his slot was picked randomly. Thomas and Myles are ranked 5th in doubles and play against the #12 seed.

The difference I see between regionals for team brackets and for individual brackets--in individual, after the first round, you might wind up with your teammate as your opponent.

Anyway, the top 3 seeds in each category will go on to State. Good luck, Greenwave!

Glen and I got to go to the temple on Saturday to help support our nephew, Joseph, who is getting ready to leave on his mission to Tallahassee, Florida next month. It was a wonderful evening and we're so excited for Joseph in his new path. 

I finally have a smartphone...and getting it turned out to be a very frustrating experience. I spent a total of almost 4 hours on the phone in several phone calls over a few weeks' time span to finally get one up and running (at first they sent me one that didn't work in my area and it took hours for them to figure out why my new cell phone wouldn't activate). Now I just have to learn how to use it.

Hannah has already started giving me lessons...the first lesson being last night at 11:30 pm when we bumped into Hannah and Rusty in Walmart. We had stopped on the way back from the temple so we could buy ice cream to help us celebrate Alex's 16th birthday on Monday (more accurate--the ice cream is for us to celebrate his last day of being 15 today since Hannah will be back in Reno on Monday and won't be here to celebrate his birthday). Anyway, it was funny. I will need many more lessons.

We took the first photo on my new phone:

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Apple Hill and other things

A day in Camino, California was the plan to help celebrate 2 of my friends' birthdays. In Camino we enjoyed what's known as Apple Hill. There are many farms that participate in the fun. It's food (lots of apple choices, of course) and craft booths of all sorts in a beautiful setting.

squatting down (to not get muddy) was tough
checking out other photo options


fun art work

Alex's last home tennis game was Tuesday. Next week is when Regionals start. Alex and Thomas did such a great job. We were playing against S. Tahoe, who are undefeated. Alex and Thomas won their first game, went to a tie-breaker for their second game (where they lost), and then won their 3rd game. We think the final score for the match was 5 to 13, with Alex and Thomas having 2 of the 5 wins. It was great!


Loved these clouds the other day.


And it's General Conference weekend. I know it's not about candy, but the candy part is fun and really helps us to listen.
Our chosen words to listen for this time: scout(ing), trust, snowman, reach, uh-oh, purity, revelation, future, blessing, and Giants. Doubt we'll be hearing a few of those, but you never know. Guess which one is Henry's...

So far my "trust" and Alex's "blessing" seem to be in the lead. So many truly great messages and stories. What a blessing to have this marvelous opportunity to listen to these inspired men and women. And today's sessions are already online to be re-watched: https://www.lds.org/general-conference

Looking forward to more tomorrow!