Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Gotcha Day Kay!

In one of those rare occurrences, Kays' Gotcha Day fell exactly on Thanksgiving and she took full advantage of the holiday and extra family around.

Tracy's sister (Tammy) and family make the trek from Michigan and arrived in time for dinner on Wednesday. Aunt Sue timed her trip perfectly as well and joined us in time for the 1st night of festivities!  We got unpacked, caught up and had a great time as Jimmy, Kay and Billy made their way home from sports practices.  Tom had smoked a pork and the BBQ pork sandwiches were amazing. The kids were SO excited to see their cousins and start their 4 day sleep over. Georgia was in Kay's room, Herbie and Joey in Billy's room, Sue in the guest room, Tammy and Jeff in Jimmy's room and Jimmy on the couch downstairs, everyone with a place and everyone in a place.

The 1st order of business was betting on the Viking/Lion game followed by a vigorous debate on if the MN/WI game was worth betting on (it wasnt).  With 2 Lions fans, 4 Packer fans and 2 Vikings fans, we had the weekend covered!  Throw in Michigan, Clemson, MN and WI fans and it was all football all the time.

Thursday was planned around the game and Kay's Gotcha Day. As tradition dictates, you get to choose your dessert on your Gotcha Day.  Well, being a baker, Kay chose to make 4 different kinds of  pies; apple crumble, apple pie, pecan and pumpkin. It was quite the feat.  Once the Vikings won (in a nail biter finish and a VERY loud house) we sent the kids outside to run off some steam and the 1st of many backyard football games with Jimmy as all time quarterback and Joey vs Billy and Herbie.  Tracy got seriously sick with a head cold/fever and was down for the count.  She hasn't gotten that sick in 10 years and it took us all by surprise. She rallied for dinner and a hazy recollection of football.

Friday was meant to be a volunteer project for the family through Tracy's work, unfortunately, none of the clients showed up:(  BUT...the kids werent deterred. they had contests on the in ground trampoline and climbing racings on the swing set.  These kids are nothing if not competitive. We forgot to take pictures but they were having a gas. Then it was a basketball game (Jimmy/Herbie vs Billy/Joey) and more football.  Tracy felt a ton better and sort of wondered what happened the day before.  Weird.  It was MN High School Football playoffs that night so Tom, Jeff, Joey and Jimmy headed to US Bank stadium to see Minnetonka play Eden Prairie, it was a good game and a great way to see the Super Bowl Stadium on a reasonable ticket.  Tammy, Georgia, Herbie, Kay and Billy went to see Wonder. Tracy and Sue stayed home to catch up on The Middle and Modern Family as they both have an aversion to crying in public.

Saturday was more football (MI vs OH) and Sue catching Tracys cold and being down for the count.  Tracy felt TERRIBLE that Sue caught it. Poor Sue.  The kids played more football and dinner was make your own pizza's followed by Elf and The Sound of Music. Strangely no one besides us had seen either in their entirety.  Elf is one of our favorite holiday movies and it sets the tone for the whole season (I like smiling, its my favorite. Francisco, thats fun to say. Santa, I KNOW him! What did I sing you on your birthday?!)

Unfortunately, despite staying up late Saturday night, Sunday finally came and everyone had to leave. Luckily Sue was feeling way better and was able to drive home.  Tammy's family faced the murderous 9 + hour trip home but managed to get home in time for the Packer game (damn that last field goal!).

It was TOO much fun, the kids love each other and get along great, its easy, relaxed and exactly what a holiday should be. Can't wait to repeat in 1 month at Tammy's house. The bonus there will be our parents and Julie and the boys will be there too! Yeah!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Day 1 of football

The real thing

Covering some distance

The gang, Jimmy, Tammy, Jeff, Tracy, Tom, Sue, Herbie, Kay, Georgia, Billy and Joey

Kay getting help from Georgia and Herbie on the pie making

pumpkin, pecan, apple and apple

basketball!

make your own pizzas! a big hit

Happy pizza kids

The hills are alive!!

chilling and cuddling

under the rug to take full advantage of the heated floor, 3 bugs in a rug

an empty house;(

Taekwondo (aka Billy) Update

Ok, who knew that taekwondo season was in the fall? Not us! In fact, if we had we may have reconsidered having a kid in football and one in tkd.  Its been NUTS!

Now that Billy is competing at the black belt level, we've "graduated" to a travel meet schedule. This fall has already taken us to Chicago, Florida and South Dakota.  January is Vegas and that doesnt include the local meets which happen about every 6 weeks. Tracy has handled all the travel tournaments and is exhausted.  Nothing like sitting on a bleacher for 8+ hours waiting to see your kid compete for 4 1/2 minutes.  Riveting balanced with complete boredom.  Good thing the tkd families are super fun and everyone gets along famously (we HAVE to, we'd go crazy otherwise!)

Not only is this his 1st year competing at the black belt level but he's also in the 12-14 age group (just turning 13 next month) and little (feather weight at 90 lbs and only 4'9").  This means he's constantly competing against kids that are bigger, older and have more experience. Its been a tough year but he's a fighter. Literally.  His size doesnt play much into his pomsea competitions with the exception that he's learning all new forms at the black belt level BUT ... it makes a HUGE difference in sparring where they are now allowed to do head kicks since they are black belts. When your competitor has 4-8 inches on you and 10-15 lbs over you, thats a big advantage (for your competition!).  Billy has stepped up to the challenge and is giving it his all. He never backs down, takes his points where he can get them, is very coachable and open to learning and most of all... a great sport. He always says nice match and figures out what he can learn from the match. His coaches adore him as he's an amazingly smart, technical and strategic fighter. He's precise, thoughtful and has quick reflexes.  In fact, his coach says he's right where he wants him - getting better with every meet, learning new skills, getting more flexible and stronger and resilient. He's "the whole package" and all anyone wants him to do is grow 6 inches.  Thats all.  If only that were in our control:)

Billy continues to love tkd, his team, his coaches, his friends, learning new skills and getting stronger.  He's a true warrior and we are so proud of him!!

Waiting for your next event is the hardest part.

I wish they were talking about tkd strategy but I suspect it was NBA results and video game hacks.

His official black belt certificate

The 1st place winner - Ross - was coaching another team member in their event and couldn't make the photo - love that they have the kids coach each other - great learning!

Joseph photo bombed - Grandma and Grandpa came to see him compete in Chicago. Much appreciated and fun!

Cuties

Billys Buddies - Esa, Isaac, Augie, Joseph, Ian and Jacqueline - Rogers kids

The full TKD crew!

Watching Marvel movies in the hotel with Ian, Isaac and Lori.

Billy coaching against Ace's coaching with 2 of the kids he fought and lost to.  Billys kid won.

Tournament of champions 2nd place weapons

Ace and Billy, bringing home the hardware

At the Million Kicks for Cancer Fundraiser - wearing his pink dolbak in honor of breast cancer warriors

Es and Billy's prom picture

Football- The Year that never was

Jimmy # 86 spent hundreds of hours in the gym from February through June lifting weights, increasing his speed and agility, conditioning all in preparation for this years football season.The one thing he could not train for was not being an upper class-man.

The practises started and the coaches implemented a point system to determine who would be the starters in many of the key positions. Jimmy was bound and determined to be the starting H, or tight-end. He was 12 points ahead of his any other kids in that position and was super excited. He is very aggressive when it comes to football and there was no way he was going to let anyone beat him. So that's when we ran into the first of many problems. He was told because he was only a Sophomore he would not be starting. I give Jimmy credit for saying to his coach " Let me get this straight, even though you had us go through all these tests and goals and even though I won everyone one of them I am not starting because I am a Sophomore?" His position coach said that was the decision the head coach made. To that Jimmy replied then why did you lie to me? I would not have done one thing different in any of these drills even if I new I wasn't going to start" That was how the whole season went.

Jimmy played his heart out in every game, practice and scrimmage. He played only 6 plays of defense the whole year resulting in 3 sacks, 2 rushed passes, and a fumbled recovered for 20 yards, then the coaches decided to not play him on defense any more... it was very frustrating and confusing.
Then the coaches invite him to come to the varsity film session to prepare for the upcoming game which is great. They spend the week practicing Jimmy playing tightened and slot receiver until game day when they tell him they have changed the game plan and he will not be playing and because he didn't go to the JV game he will be benched.... so for the first home game of his varsity career he had to stand on the side lines and watch...he was not happy. Once again he took to his caused and asked the coaches " what should I be doing to get more play time?" They replied go to the JV games.

JV had the best record in the whole Hopkins football program and finished 5 wins 3 losses, prior to this year the JV team had only one 2 games ,where was Jimmy? On defense sacking the QB, plugging up the middle of the line and tacking running backs, in the backfield tacking the fullback for a loss. He was returning kick offs, playing running back, catching passes making first downs and even a 15 yard touchdown run! He had two games where he over 200 all  purpose yards.

Back to Varsity where the coaches took notice and spent the entire team working plays with Jimmy at running back, he was once again coerced over to the dark side. He would come home from practice on cloud 9 ...'I'm going to start at full back' and he did, for 2 plays then the coach freaked out and completely changed the game plan 5 minutes into the game and once again Jimmy was shaking his head. This is how the season went.

Finally it was the play-offs, Hopkins was 1-7 going into the play-off season and Jimmy's view was " well Dad all we need is four straight upsets to make it to the championship!" Positive attitude, great kid. Jimmy did play quite a bit in the playoff game and came away with a great outlook, mindset for next season. The final game was in the snow with 30 mph winds and he got a ton of play time. He came home super excited "I've waited my whole life to play in the snow and I LOVE it!!  I cant wait until next season!" While he was not happy with the way the season went (mainly because of coaching) is looking forward to next season with enthusiasm. This year was 1-8, next year is in the making.

The Football banquet was like all those types of events 3 hours long with lots of inside jokes and pranks. The high lights, Jimmy received a letter award and an award for maintaining a higher than 3.0 grade point during the season, way to go!

Jimmy also made a highlight film which is below and low and behold the High School scouts found his film and were very impressed, especially with his defense and asked him where the rest of his defense film was, and since the coaches decided to not play him after the first couple of games he replied, I spent the remainder of the season focusing on offense. The good news is they have identified him as an athlete, they think he has a ton of potential, they are impressed with his weight lifting strength and speed and will be watching him.


https://www.hudl.com/video/3/6549225/59f4e63e19b06f0c7c529bf9

Hopefully, next year, he'll play positions on both offense and defense. So all in all a pretty decent Sophomore year!

So the day after the banquet where was Jimmy, back in the gym training and getting ready for next season, where else!