Happy 16th Gotcha Day Kay Kay

This week marked 16 years of Kay in our family and we love her more each day. She's fierce, frightening, determined, funny, kind, creative, gorgeous, a risk taker and talented. She's also frustrating, self sabotogizing, emotional, volatile and can hold a mean grudge. Its hard to tell how much is personality, anxiety, teenage angst or something else.  But, I guess it doesnt matter, the whole combination is Kay and she wouldn't be herself without each part.

The start of the school year has been rough with Kay pushing boundaries and not feeling engaged in school.  Yet, she also got a job with the school teaching "littles" gymnastics and passed her drivers permit. She's actually a really good driver, much better than Jimmy at her stage. Tom has even ventured out on the highway with her, something Tracy is not quite ready for. She's determined to get her license by spring and at the rate she's going, she'll do so with flying colors.

Thankfully gymnastics has started up again and thats always a good outlet for her energy.  She picked super spunky floor music (as always) and seems to be excited to be back with the girls. The 1st meet is next week and ... while we aren't invited... its always good to get the 1st meet out of the way.

She continues to have good friends at both Hopkins and Armstrong.  We do worry that they all might be more of risk takers than we'd like but...they also do seem to be good kids at the core.

Tom taught her to mow the lawn and it was a HUGE help this summer as well as this fall when the leaves turned. And, it was a great way for her to earn a bit of money for her endless supply (need) for makeup and nail care.   She recently asked if she could go to cosmetology school and we all think it would be right up her alley.

Here's the year in pictures. XOXOX

She actually purged her room

Kay with Dora and Maui, and why does Nikki have her head in Dora's skirt?!

Kara and Georgia cousins

Silly bday gifts

Being 16 is exhausting

Learner permit!

Sadie Hawkins dance

Maui's 1st day home with us!

Girls state gymnasts

Spring break with Ella

Ahh...

State dinner banquet 

Tubing for her birthday 

Season to date TKD update

TKD season has started off irregular.

Ace is no longer doing TKD due to a knee injury and his dad moving too far away so all of our carpooling sharing has ended. We miss him! He and Billy are such good friends and I miss seeing him everyday.  But, it sounds like he's healing up for basketball season, his 1st love.

Billy home dojang is Twin Cities Taekwondo, they split from WTA in July and that's were he does his  black belt training, kick boxing, jr leadership and works the family class. Its awesome that he's getting real work experience at a place he loves (and they love him!)

He on the MN Star Martial Arts sparring team (they split from WTA last March) and while its a smaller dojang and team, Master Franklin is great and funny (which is a nice change of pace).  The team is becoming pretty tight knit and its fun to see the kids getting close.

We've only had 2 tournaments this fall, which is fairly typical. The MN Hamandang was in Spring Lake Park and Billy competed in weapons (bostaff) and pomsea. He beat Adam in weapons and it was fun to see since they are always neck and neck. It was also super fun to catch up with the Rogers team/family and others in WTA.  When Billy was "up" all his former teammates were cheering for him. I love the sportsmanship of his friends. They are amazing.

We traveled to Sioux Falls and knew it would be a small tournament since it was their 1st year.  Again, we missed having Ace along and the comaratory of a big team. Billy and I had a great meal at Chevys and watched all our favorite science alien shows in the hotel room.  Billy competed in pomsea and sparring. He actually beat Ross in pomsea for the gold. Ross is a year older and has always been on the competition pomsea AND sparring team so Billy has always been a little intimidated by him.. He was over the moon to have beaten Ross. A huge confidence boost which was fun to see.  Unfortunately, there werent any other kids in his sparring division so they had him doing an expedition match with Ross. But, GML decided that his kids werent going to do any expedition matches so... it was back to square 1 to find Billy a match. They had him spar in 12-14 since there were some kids and he is still technically 14 (even though in sanctioned matches he needs to fight 15-17 since he'll be 15 by the end of December). He fought a former teammate and got beat. I'm not sure his head and heart were in at as there was so much uncertainty leading up to the match but...it was good to get him on the matt and for Master Franklin to coach him for the 1st time.

We blasted out of there and found an amazing greek place for lunch. Its a wonder neither of us fell asleep the way home.

It'll be slow now until after the holidays when it'll take off.. state tournaments, the US Open, camp in Florida...of course, this is also the time where Jimmy will be doing any final college visits. Nothing like january road trips in the upper midwest...

Billy continues to love TKD and we love watching him.  Check him out!!

Sioux Falls Pomsea Gold 

Sioux Falls Sparring final round

Weapons Hanmadang 

Pomsea Hanmadang 

Football Update-End of an Era

This Years Hopkins Royals team posted a 6-2 final record the best in the school since 2007. They played great had a ton of fun and the boys of fall are ready for the play offs.

First Down memory lane we go...
Third grade was the beginning of Jimmy's love for football. He could not wait to play it also makes the first time he slept with his cleats and helmet, he would continue that ,"tradition" everytime he got new cleats or a new helmet. It also makes the beginning of his black stripe era. That means that the kids that were over a certain weight could not advance the ball and had to wear a black stripe on their helmets so the refs would know.

4th grade the black stripe was still in place and Jimmy's enthusiasm for the game continued to grow, so much so that he would need to be talked off the ledge after each loss by the coaches, a neighbor or another friend because he was so into the game. This year he won his first of many most enthusiastic player awards!

5th/6th- This marked the international portion of Jimmy's football career. When we moved to Canada Jimmy had to skip 5th grade do to the Canadian school laws and went right into 6th grade. The Canadian football experience really changed Jimmy's football skills. He had to play against kids bigger and older then him however he had great coaches who taught him the fundamentals of football that he still uses today. In that  year his team won the city championship and Jimmy was thrilled.

7th Grade was the final year of the Canadian Football league. Jimmy made an all city team and went to a super cool combine kind of thing and had a blast. His team came in second place looking a tough game in overtime!

8th Grade we were back at Hopkins and Jimmy for the first time cut weight and was able to play  both ways and loved it. He was back playing with his grade school buddies his old coaches and the first thing everyone said was, wow how tall are you.

9th grade was a short year for Jimmy as he got injured for the first time with a hamstring, he hated sitting out and hated even more if you asked him about it. The team finished 3-5 and the season was a just sort of the one year where things weren't as amped up as they usually were.

Sophomore year found Jimmy on both the Varsity and Jv team. It was a bit confusing as we were to find out as the coaches are a bit unorganized and non-communicative. Jimmy played tight end as well as left defensive end, which would be the two places he would play the rest of his High School career. The team played their one and only playoff game in the bitter cold, driving snow and of course who was out there in short sleeves with a big smile on his face, Jimmy.

Junior year had Jimmy starting on Varsity playing second string tight end and second string left d-line and as you can imagine he was not happy. This was the real insight year for him as to his coaches short comings and inability to solve conflict, we will leave it at that. Jimmy had more points, better stats, was bigger and faster then the starting tight end the difference was the other kid was a Senior. I give Jimmy credit when he found out that was the reason he wasn't starting and he went to the coach and said -  If you knew that your were going to start the Seniors, I still would have worked as hard as I did, no matter what, you should be more honest with your players.

Senior Year was all that he could have expected and more. The team Captain and at 6-2 220 pounds the starting Tight End and the starting D-Line was awesome for Tracy and I to watch him play. In all his years his enthusiasm, drive, commitment and love for his team never wavered, when he wasn't playing as much as he thought he should instead of complaining he would say"it's not about me it 's about the team. " He would talk before each game how they were a family and how instead of complaining about a missed kick or dropped ball he would have then help their teammate up and tell them we'll get next time, LETS GO!  Feed the Family was their moto, led by Jimmy.

So back to how the Senior year ended, ranking system here is to say in the best way I can is flawed. Jimmy has been on the Varsity team since his Sophomore year, that year the team finished 1-8 ( which is way Jimmy is number18, to remind him every day how hard he needs to work). They were ranked last in their section, the dreaded 8th seed and lost the first round of the play-offs. The next year they ream finished 4-4, a 500 recorded and once again received the 8th seed and played Lakeville North the #1 seed who eventually won the state tournament. This year it happened again, with a 6-2 record we got the 8th seed, seeded behind teams with an 0-8 record, 2-6 record, maddening. So we again played Lakeville North the #1 seed and lost. Currently two teams we beat are going to play next weekend for the section Championship.
Jimmy is not happy but he stated " Well Dad now we are done with this political  game of football where records, wins, and stats don"t matter and now we can go play real football, where the coaches know the players ability and push them to do better, where your record dictates where you can go and where hard work and commitment payoff"- college Football here he comes!

So to sum it up 11 years, two countries, hundreds of protein shakes, countless hours at the gym, at practice and more tears than a waterfall we now move on to the next chapter in the football and we will see where Jimmy takes us!

Senior picture on the field

Last game as a Grizzlie in Canada

The boys of 4th grade

Grizzlies banquet

Section champs!

Jimmys favorite coach ever, Coach Clark - you laugh him so much

Ready to play

Grandma and Grandpa watched one of his senior games

And, there is always the love of the Vikings too

Junior year with Melanie 

1st college football visit at SDSU as a junior

Jr High

Jr year with the flow

3rd grade, let set of equipment - he slept with it all for days

They boys of HFL

Christmas parade in Toronto

California Dreamin'

In the once in a lifetime category, our nephew Cedric, made the Costa Rican national surf team and surfed in the US Open Junior Surf Competition at Huntington Beach. There were 44 countries and each country can only bring 3 kids in each age group. It was truly his dream come true and like being at the Olympics (which surfing will make its debut in 2020!)

Tracy, Tammy, Julie, Solomon, Aunt Sue and Grandma Bunny headed out to see him surf for a long weekend. It was the 1st time the Hickey girls had been together without all the kids an spouses since they were in college. Grandma Bunny was in heaven and it was a really special time.

Ced surged great - He passed his 1st 2 heats and was only off by 2 points in the 3 consolation heat).  Solomon was amazing and figured out how to use the new camera and took some incredible photos.  We all got hooked on Schittz Creek and how "some" of the crew are WAY ahead of others in episodes and its not fair.

We ate yummy Thai and lots of Mexican including some seafood. The weather was gorgeous and we were able to walk and visit and even see Tammy's Aunt Molly (Jeffs aunt)

All in all, an incredible weekend XOXOO

Sue, Tracy and Tammy were all on the same flight to Orange County

Getting some practice in

The big event!

A parade kicked off the competition

Team Costa Rica!

Grandma Ced and Sue

The crew but where's Julie? Missing man formation

So exciting

They are great kids

The girls

Miss Kipling from Jess

Ced

A little colder than Costa Rica

After his 1st win

He even got interviewed 

Julie and her boy

The girls

  

After the 2nd win on the bye day

When you lose you have to dye your hair. so bye bye blondie!!

Ok, we missed October completely

Well, I have no idea what happened but its all of a sudden November and we totally missed October.

I do some miscellaneous updates here then do a blog for California and Football. yikes!

Halloween, Billy went as Beemo (basically a painted box and the best introvert costume ever) and Jimmy went as his favorite teacher Mr U F.

Maui went has killer puppy (actually he just ate a red pen and we freaked out but he was fine)

The grandparents got together on a random Sunday when they were both in town. So blessed!

The Bellis Blast, a fundraiser for Bellis, was truly a Blast. The band - Too Short to be Storm Troopers - were super fun to dance to.

Bling from the Bellis Blast 

Annemeik did a marathon and Tracy ran with her for 2blocks. It was a bucket list item for A and her mom and brother/sister in law and college roommate ran with her. So inspiring! And the perfect fall day

Tracy's team had a 3 day offsite at the gorgeous Charlson Meadows.  Good people and good times

Mt Olivet held its annual gala and CJ (Carol) Grandma Bunny's cousin was a key organizer, she looked gorgeous as always 

Fondue night as a treat

Bitter cold final football games - Hopkins beat Coon Rapids by 1 point - ugh!!

The Halloween party at Tracy's work is always a ton of fun

Mr UF - wait, not thats Jimmy!

Our favorite neighbors

Kay got a job!  She's a district employee and teaches gymnastics to the littles at the High School

In the non blogable type news. We also are struggling with Kay. She dropped 1 of her 4 classes and is failing 2 with a D in the 3rd. We've gotten 3 truancy letters and are 2 letters away from being assigned a truancy officer. We ended up in the ER one Saturday night when a friend of hers called the police for a safety visit, they were concerned Kay was going to hurt herself as she was posting suicidial comments online. We have seen her therapist, our therapist, her social worker and her counselor.  In between all this drama, she still  holds our hearts in her hand.  She is cheeky, charismatic, and charming. She also has 0 motivation and is slowly but surely self destructing. The anxiety issues from last year and the rebellion issues from the summer are magnifying and we are truly at wits end. Yesterday the therapist did a trauma assessment to see what else might be going on since this seems bigger than typical teenage angst.  It was brutal to take your kid to a trauma assessment.  What could have happened to her? How did we not protect her?  What should have done differently? How could we not have noticed? The questions are never ending and I'm not sure there are any answers. But, we'll continue to try and find ways to motivate her to see what a bright future she has and what a strong, independent and amazing person she is.  We are also praying she gets her shit together  and gets out of  her own way since we know the "real" Kay is still in there and just fighting to get out.   Its hard to help someone who won't accept help.  We are pouring all our love into her and its also maddenly frustrating.  The conflicting emotions on a daily basis are exhausting.  All our love to her, everyone surrounding her and everyone out there struggling with these types of issues whether directly or with someone you love. It sucks. Never give up. xoxoxo