Category Archives: Family and Friends

Eleven!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

This boy has no chance for a normal life! He has charmed us…all of us… and we baby him shamelessly. Let me apologize in advance to his future wife…SO SORRY!

We were in the mountains over Memorial Day weekend. Mark’s baseball team was having a practice and a picnic late in the afternoon on Sunday and we weren’t planning to be back that early. A couple of my brothers joined us for the day on Saturday and one agreed to drive Mark home and he stayed with my mom in her new apartment.

Seriously, I felt like I was missing a limb. I never like when part of the family is away. I miss Hannah terribly when she visits my aunt in the summer. When half the family traveled to a tennis tournament earlier in the spring, that was weird and I missed them. When Luke has gone away with his buddy on trips, I couldn’t wait until he got back. I don’t think Kate’s ever been away but I’d miss her too. But when Mark’s gone, the whole energy in the house changes. It’s just sort of more dull for all of us. He brings a light and lightness to the house and keeps us all entertained but not necessarily on purpose.

He sings or hums almost constantly. I’ll be in one part of the house and hear him singing some pop song at the other end. He’s singing for an audience of one. He routinely walks around the house using one of his “walks”. Irish dance walk, futuristic walk, glide walk or “my legs don’t work” walk. He very naturally makes us all laugh. One day, I hear him from the kitchen “Oh Mercy! My oh my! Lordy, Lordy!” as he ran to get a kleenex. His nose was dripping and when he got the tissue to his nose, he sighed dramatically and kept sighing each time he wiped his nose. You just can’t help but laugh.

He’s having so much fun on his baseball team this year. He’s the youngest on a team full of good athletes. At first I worried that he would be bored if he didn’t play one of the key infield positions but that isn’t the case. He loves the coaches and enjoys just being with this group of boys. Most of them age up into Pony league next year but for now, he’s loving the team.

He might have a future in writing self-help manuals. Yesterday at lunch Kate was talking about how terrible the new Miley Cyrus song was and Mark mentioned that she and her fiancee broke up. He added that it seems like celebrities break up right before or after they are married. Then he proclaims, “Marry someone you like, man.” Brilliant!

As much as I wish Mark a happy birthday, I am not happy that these years are flying by. Growing up…..boo that!

 

Thirteen!

Contrary to popular opinion, I love this age! I love the actual beginning of the teens. 
Kate still thinks of the funniest things to say. The way her brain works cracks me up. 
She gets more creative as time goes by….it amazes me.
 
She makes up all kinds of fairy fun, including original books for my nieces. I’ll have to scan one sometime. 
 
She recently used the word “hobo”during a conversation. No offense to hoboes, but I’m not sure that term has been used in casual conversation since the depression.
 
I LOVE YOU, KATE!

 

Junior Tennis

Frick Park Tournament

Frick Park Tournament

I haven’t written about our family’s experience (or lack thereof) with organized sports. As a former athlete who’s married to a former athlete (and Hall of Famer at his alma mater), expectations are high that our children will play SOMETHING, right?

Since Mark teaches tennis for a living, all of the kids had a racket in their hand at a very early age.

Luke and Hannah began playing on a more regular, predictable, scheduled basis at the respective ages of 4 and 5. I thought it was too early then and I still think it’s too early for any organized activity.

To be fair, Mark organized a clinic once a week with their cousins. That was fun and they did that for about a year, then started playing with other kids at the club.

They both played tournaments when they were 8 and 9 for a few years. They also played baseball and basketball (Luke played basketball for 2 years, Hannah just tried a summer league once). Hannah played tennis competitively until she was about 13 then lost interest for a while but since she played #1 for our local high school team, she has taken it up again. Kate and Mark have always enjoyed hitting with Mark but have not played competitively.

Luke plays at a fairly high level of tennis. He’s enjoying it and has a great temperament for it right now. (He put a little too much pressure on himself when he was younger and had to take a break). Hannah has ALWAYS had a perfect temperament for tennis. Once after a match where she was playing off for 3rd and 4th, she came home and I asked how she did. With a spring in her step and a huge smile on her face she said, “I came in 4th!” and she was truly happy about it. Yay her!

I’ve noticed some things about tennis that don’t happen in my experience with other sports.

1. Since kids tend to play the same tournaments, all the kids get to know each other, as well as the parents. This is more of a positive thing than a negative. Luke’s playing more regional tournaments now so he usually plays different kids. When they were younger, they tended to play the same kids over and over. Imagine a baseball or basketball team playing the same 2 teams week after week. All of the kids they’ve met have been really great, for the most part.

2. Tennis can be superficially polite and proper. Spectators rarely cheer for one side or another and in most settings, excessive cheering is prohibited. This is fine by me as I usually like to watch most sports without cheering. I’ll say something occasionally, but you won’t hear a play-by-play from me. So, generally, I like this rule. Sometimes, though, people feel compelled-especially when their kid is beating the tar out of your kid to over-do the compliments. Sometimes this happens throughout the match and I think it’s a little fake. It’s like people want to be known as exceptionally gracious when it’s not necessary. It’s a game, people.

3. There is a BIZARRE ritual unique to tennis in which I refuse to participate. After the match, the entourage of both kids hovers around the exit point from the courts and barrages both players with compliments. For a long time, I just did it because everyone else did it. I realized right away how awkward it is for the LOSER and finally decided to opt out. I know when Luke loses a close match or a total blowout, the last thing he wants to do is look his opponent’s parent in the face and hear what a nice match it was….(yeah, nice for you). Don’t get me wrong, I think everyone means well. I never get nervous or anxious or even really care who wins or loses. I do try to congratulate the winner-even if he did beat the tar out of my kid but when someone else’s kid lost a painfully close or not close match, I say something nice to the parents and give the kid some space. Trust me, that boy (or girl) is not going to lose any sleep because I didn’t rush over and pat him on the back.

4. In case you don’t already know this, tennis is EXPENSIVE and we don’t even pay for equipment, lessons, clinics or most court time. I know other sports at high levels are expensive and honestly, I don’t know how most people do it. Even for families in which money is not an issue, I don’t know how they make it work logistically. I am constantly trying to balance privilege with responsibility but this is hard to do even in our family where resources are limited. Just sayin’.

5. Tennis is such a fun sport to watch and play. It’s amazing how good really young kids can be even if they aren’t headed for the pro tour. It takes so much more skill than people realize and it’s so impressive to watch the better players. It is athleticism in its most challenging form. Tennis takes skill, precision, endurance, strategy, more mental and emotional toughness than any sport I’ve played and excellent sportsmanship at its best. As Mark always says, there are no clocks, scorekeepers, coaches or referees at the lower level.

What are your experiences with competitive sports. Anyone involved in junior tennis?

WELCOME 2013!

2012 was a hard year but a lot of good things happened, too.I’m never ready to start the new year fresh on January 1. It takes me about a month to decide what I might want to work on or toward. I also like to clear some clutter and organize. I hope to write more in the new year but never at the expense of living in the moment. I hope to post about my mom’s big move, becoming rental property owners, my experience with designing an IKEA kitchen and some other things that happened in 2012. But for now, I wanted to get my Christmas post off the top of the home screen.

For the 2nd year, we rang in the new year with friends whose son played basketball and baseball with Luke. Even though they don’t have other children the same age as mine, everyone loves their company. They are fun and laid back and bring the most genius game ever invented based on NCAA basketball. It takes concentration, luck and the tiniest bit of strategy. Chris (the mom) won it all with her favorite team, Penn State, on Dec 30. I never thought I’d witness a person win the championship. I won it all with Holy Cross on Dec 31! Winning the Championship is rare so it was fun for both of us to do it in the same weekend.

Here are some images from our snowy few days there…..

Our neighbor cleared our lane so we could get up the driveway but by Sunday morning, the drifts covered it again. He ended up clearing it 2 more times.
Games all weekend
 
We also brought my niece who was great company, too
 
Mark and Adam bundled up to play. The temp was 5 degrees plus the wind
Kate and Mae practiced ping-pong all weekend. They decided they didn’t like to vs each other.
 
Ok, this is just a view from the kitchen table into the living room. We have moved and purged furniture a few times to open up the space and to make it as functional as possible. We talked about building a breakfast bar where this table is but I think this works better. Mark’s dad built this little table which doubles as a super uncomfortable high, straight-backed bench.
 
Our neighbor really made it possible for us to get up there. 
 
Before the draft. I think this was the game I won. I had a good feeling about this game when I picked Holy Cross (randomly out of the bag). My dad wanted me to go there and loved the school. He used to play them when he played for Duquesne. I just missed a scholarship when a recruit who had initially turned one down changed her mind at the last minute-at least that’s what the coach told my dad but I really wasn’t good enough to play D1. It would have been hard for me to go there-even with a scholarship, so things worked out. As a side note, I played Duquesne as a non-conference game in my schedule-so I was feeling good about winning it all.
 
 
 
Adam is like a polar bear cub in the snow
 
 
 
Hannah
Sorry about the goofy look on Luke’s face someone’s eyes were closed in all the other photos
 
Happy New Year…I HOPE!
 
 

“Spaghetti Wednesday”~Our Family’s Thanksgiving Tradition

I love Thanksgiving and our family’s tradition of having my family over the night before Thanksgiving for a spaghetti dinner. We call it “Spaghetti Wednesday” and everyone’s available. Nobody looked forward to this day more than my dad. I miss him. So, grateful and sad at the same time.

Mark, holding court during the kids’ dinner
Hannah, the surly teenager
3 of the brothers..so funny
my youngest brother and me….that is totally not my normal hair color…oh well
maybe the funniest brother. Smart as anyone I know-except my other brothers-really.
My mom hosted dessert a few houses down to debut her new apartment. It looked beautiful.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Finally Summer

I didn’t mind opening up my home page and seeing that silly picture of Kate. Nobody reads this blog so I know nobody else minded but I figured it’s time for a fresh start.

Hannah finally finished her first year of public school. Aside from the last full week when they literally DID NOTHING!, she really loved it. In spite of the huge change in every way (having to get up at 6:00 every a.m., long commute, being with lots of people every day, homework, textbooks and did I mention the long commute?), she really handled it like a champ. It was as though she had been going to school 45 miles away her whole life.

For my part, getting her to and from the bus stop was an easy transition but it was great to wake up on Monday morning and be free of it for a while. Academically, I had very little involvement. She was very independent and I would just check to see that her grades were fine. She shared projects with me and would suggest stories that she thought the other kids would like in her Literature textbook. But other than that, I was hands-off. If that makes me a horrible mother, yay me.

The night before her last day I asked her if she could remember how she felt the night before her first day and she simply said, “Ready”. I felt the same way. It may sound cold but I was not emotional when she made the change because I was excited for her. I thought the school was the perfect fit for her and it really was. She rocked it in every way. Her teachers loved her, she excelled in her classes and she got along with EVERYBODY in her class, on her bus and anyone she came in contact with from other classes. In situations when she stepped in to protect kids who were being picked on, the picker-onners backed down. I didn’t get the impression that they were afraid of Hannah (the kid’s thin as a rail) but like and respect her so much that they complied.

So overall, Hannah’s public school experience has been extremely positive. Kate would love to follow in her footsteps and the school will introduce a 7th grade program next year but she’s not quite ready. She’s intending to apply for her 8th grade year.

Way to go, Hannah! Enjoy your summer! I have a feeling the next 4 years will be a blur.

Kate Asks….(Halloween Edition)

Told you she asks these types of questions a lot…..

K: “Mummy, what would you do if a headless horseman came out of our pantry?”

Me: “Would he be on a horse?”

K: “Yes.”

Me:”I guess run and scream.”

K: “The thing I’d be most upset about is that our house would smell like horse.”

Kate Asks……

Kate asks the funniest questions. Most of them are rhetorical or meant only for amusement or sometimes just to fill space. She can be serious but these questions rarely are. To give you an example, I’ll try to feature one or a few of them each week(because she sometimes asks many of these types of questions per day). I wish I had started writing these down a long time ago but didn’t, so this is a good place to record them.
#1. “What would you rather have, a nose shaped like a carrot or a head shaped like a balloon?”
#2. “Mummy, would you help Luke shave if he started to grow a mustache over his nose?” Uh, yeah.
#3. (While eating lobster). “Mummy, what would you do if my lobster stood up on my plate………………
and started doing kung fu?”
You see how the questions largely aren’t designed for an answer or serious discussion?
Hope you got a chuckle….Have a great weekend!

 

14 Years Ago Today

Hannah on her first day of public school

No words and many words. Does that make sense? No words are adequate to describe how much this girl amazes me. But every great word might do it.

I’m sure everyone wants to know how school is going. I don’t want to speak for Hannah (or lump any expectations on her in case she’s secretly miserable and is just waiting to drop the bomb) but it seems to be a perfect fit for her. The transition from homeschool to traveling for an hour on a bus has been as seamless as it could be. I miss her, of course, but am so happy that she likes it. So far, she likes her teachers, tolerates the long bus ride and is meeting lots of kids both in her class and in the other grades. The school seems to have a uniquely positive atmosphere which suits Hannah’s positive outlook on life. (She was born that way-I take no credit). She’s lucky that the 12 or so kids in her arts major are a really good group and get along well. So far, there doesn’t seem to be any of the cattiness and extreme insecurity that seems to plague junior high these days-yay! I think the teachers have high standards for responsibility, behavior and performance which Hannah thrives on. She’s adjusting fine to textbooks and homework, which doesn’t surprise me.

Happy Birthday, Hannah. So glad your birthday fell on a Sunday this year.

April Foolery

I forgot how mini Mark has a somewhat skewed version of “April Fool’s Day” and just spends the day not playing tricks but generally causing mayhem. He grabbed the innards of a red pepper from the compost bowl today and threw it at Hannah….”April Fools!”.  He spent most of the day pelting people or trying to pelt them with some thing or other and then running. Thankfully, he’s the youngest and everyone sort of just knits the eyebrows, shakes the head with a puzzled half-smile and takes it mostly in good stride. I can’t possibly count how many times I said “That’s enough! Mark, you aren’t fooling people, you’re just bullying them!”At lunch, I accidentally scratched Hannah as I was handing her a plate and she said, joking, “Trying to gouge me?” I said “April Fools!” We both cracked up.