First Day of School 2015 - 2016

Summer Lovin'

We feel pretty lucky to have some great people that we call friends. With the - somewhat - hard summer we've had, it has been nice to kick back and relax a bit. 

Relaxing on the Wilson's boat.

Panoramic view of Morse Lake.

Emma and Sydney having some fun on the tube!

Sydney: 8 yrs, Emma: 8 yrs. Just a bit of a size difference there!

We love the Indy Indians!

AYBS 8U All Stars

Andy and Eddie were asked to coach the 8U AYBS All Star team.

I know Andy loves coaching. It's one of the things he misses most. He loves working with kids, whether that be teaching them in the classroom or coaching them on the field.

I know Emma loves softball. And I know she loves being an "All Star." 

And guess what?

She got a grand slam (kinda, it was due to player errors, but hey...it happened, and her team was psyched). 

Mission accomplished!

Back Row: Sydney, Emma, Josie, Catherine, Ava S.  Front Row: Maura, Mariana, Grace, Ava P.

The GREAT Flood of 2015

So that previous post, saying I was over it?

Yeah, that was an understatement.

Two weeks after getting flooded, we - yet again - had another flood. This one was the worst flood we've ever experienced.

THREE FEET of water came into our house. 

And the city won't do a damn thing about it.

I have no more words to use to express my frustration, my heartache, my broken spirit. I'm beyond sick by the situation that we have - that we LIVE in - that I just have no more words.

Here it comes....

Trying to stop the water. Pretty pathetic, huh?

Our backyard. Normally, you'd be looking at beautiful green grass.

We had to keep moving our cars further and further up the driveway. Eventually, we had to park them in our neighbor's driveway for safe-keeping.

And here it is. The aftermath.

Water came up so high, it went into our dryer. Broke our washer, actually. And zapped our internet, as our router was on a table that got washed away by water. Oh, and our air conditioning got zapped. So we had to replace that as well.

Here, you can see the water line. Came up 3" in our house.

Water line on our garage.

Flood of 2015

We experienced our 6th or 7th flood this summer.

What more can I say?

I'm so over this.

Water line. Came up about 12".

Water came up into our Accord. Beautiful, huh?

Ripping up the carpet. Again.

Camp Invention

Created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Camp Invention is a summer program focused on creativity, innovation, real-world problem solving and the spirit of invention.

At Camp Invention, Emma and Drew focused on programming in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 

Emma posing with her certificate and invention

Drew posing with his certificate and invention

The double-decker invention!

OBX 2015

Backyard Camping

What says "Summertime" more than Backyard Camping?!?

AYBS: The Orioles

Against my initial hesitation, we chose to put Drew in the Minors league this year. (And by "we," I mean Andy.) With him being younger for his grade, coupled with the fact that Minors is technically for 1st/2nd graders, I was less-than-thrilled to learn that Andy had registered him in this group.

But that quickly changed.

Yes, he was still one of the younger ones. But he learned so much.

And had so much fun.

His team was a younger team, with 4 total kindergartners....so needless to say, they weren't gunning for a spot in the championship. 

But that matter to him. He knew no difference. He just loved playing!

AYBS: The Thunder (2.0)

Emma had another fantastic year of softball at AYBS. Last year, she wore a royal blue shirt so the team named themselves "The Thunder." And, if you'll recall, they won the championship game last year. So when they were given light blue shirts, they decided to keep with a winning name.

Hence, The Thunder 2.0.

It turned out to be a smart move too, as The Thunder were the season champs in the Minors league. They were a fantastic team, and Emma really became a force. She's so powerful, compared to her peers, so she naturally excelled in this league. It's still coach's pitch in this league, so she would nail them out to the field almost every time!

Her ultimate goal was to hit it over the fence. And while she wasn't able to do it during a game, she did it during a practice, just before a game!

It was pretty incredible to see her confidence grow this year. It was pretty cool to see the smile on her face as she would come up to bat, when the opposing coaches would say, "Back up guys. It's a big hitter!"

Nothing is more cool in life, than seeing your child beam in excitement, doing something they love. My heart just explodes with the amount of pride I have in that girl.