Sadie Hawkins

I have an amazing amount of catching up to do with you all.  You would think that a 3-4 month hiatus just wouldn't be that big of a deal.  Alas, you would be wrong.  Remember when your kids were 5 or 6 months old?  That started a period that lasted years where it seemed there was something new every day.  First smile and from there they turned into little people saying the most adorable things.  From there a lull seemed to take over.  Don't get me wrong, not a boring or inactive lull....just the pace of change became much more moderate.

Well, welcome to the teenage years and high school.

We decided in the late (very late) spring that James would go to school.  He started 9th grade at Providence Christian Academy in August.  There was all the expected anxiety, but he was so excited.

About three weeks after school started, there was a Sadie Hawkins dance.  Talk about anxiety.  Fortunately for us, the students at the school were so open and welcoming.  James didn't have a "date", but it seemed everyone was a part of a group.  ("Date" is in quotes because, as he reminds me from time-to-time, he's not allowed to date.)  We all met at a church near the school so all the moms could take pictures and then they were carpooled off to dinner and the dance.

As you can tell from the pictures, Mr. Todd is quite particular about how he looks.  He has always cared about whether he had the matching shorts for his tractor or truck shirt.  Dress for Sadie Hawkins was no exception.

He made quite the fashion statement.  I understand he even had a dance or two.  I'm not really sure where the time goes, but assuming I stick to this one New Year's Resolution, you will see we've had quite a busy fall.

The best part of all, though, is that he will still give his mother a hug - even in front of brand new friends.

Happy Birthday, James

No....you're not crazy. You have read a birthday post already. I found the one that had somehow disappeared. Now, you can read the "mushy" birthday post.

I have always liked this picture. My two guys....Christopher at one of James's seemingly endless events, cheering him on and not complaining so much. James competing impressively. This was his first taste of athletic accomplishment without depending on someone else. When I see this picture, it reminds me how much alike my boys are.....and how different. I've been at home in total quiet (ok, except for tobymac jamming in the background) for a few hours this afternoon so I've had time to contemplate that I have a 12-year-old.

He's growing up and not just in size. Watching him race lately, I realize he races differently. I think maybe it's confidence, maybe it's hormones. As he comes blazing across that line, actually competing and holding his own with some much bigger boys, I can't help but reflect on that very first day with the bat and ball on our deck after church. He was determined to hit that ball. And, at three years old, he did. I think about this first triathlon. We had no idea what that was going to lead to. God has blessed him so richly. Even more, He has blessed me with him. With both of them. I have learned so much in the past 12 years. Seen sin I had never seen before. Found impatience that was buried much deeper than my usual brand of impatience. Even pride in them that is beyond godly. Yes, indeed, God has blessed me richly by giving me new ways to see my sin.

Happy Birthday, James. You bring us such joy and teach us so much. May God mark you as His own and use you mightily. We love you.

Cycling for Parkinsons

Every year our team helps sponsor the Cycling for Parkinsons races.  (Did you know there was a study for people with Parkinsons where they road tandem with someone to see if cycling affected their symptoms.  I don't remember the details, but generally that did help.)

This weekend are the races.  Today was the road race and tomorrow is the criterium.  At the road race, the "little" juniors had a pretty big field.  

When they came around after the first lap (of a two lap race), James was still with the older kids.  (They often race only 10-12 year-olds.  This race all the "little" juniors, including the 13-14 year-olds, were racing.)

When they came around at the end of the second lap, I heard the parents that were up the hill yelling "Go James!  Go James!"  When I could make out the riders, I could see that James was leading the entire field.

He was the first one across the line of the 10-14 year-olds.  The team worked together so well.  I heard from his coach that he had a beautiful attack and that his teammates helped block and slowdown the field so he could get away.

Very exciting.  Tomorrow will be another hot day...stay tuned.  Maybe he will get to help someone else win.

State Crit

James had hopes of winning the state crit even though he is an 11-year-old racing in the 10-12 year old age group.

  

It was a hot day and we hadn't exactly been focused on race diet and rest because we were having way too much fun with cousins who were visiting.  (Six Flags was a lot of fun.)

It was a tough race and James ended up riding alone for a good bit of the race.  That'll use up a lot of energy fast.  He still came in 2nd.  He'll get 'em next year.  

I'm going to get you caught up on baseball...I'll leave you with a teaser.  Pee wee games are 5 innings.  The game today went to 7 - a nail biter!

Sunny King Crit

Today was the Sunny King Crit.  It was supposed to be raining at 7am, clearing at 9 and mostly sunny and 10 and 11.  James and I got to Anniston (after riding through some rain) to find it very cloudy.  It just wasn't clearing up.  As a matter of fact, the clouds looked a lot like these...which were at my house when we got home.  Apparently, it rained at this race last year.  Clearly it was called Sunny King after a dealership and not the weather.  

But, alas, I am getting ahead of myself.  His race started without rain.  He looked really good and strong and even attacked here (as shown below) just at he passed with 1 lap to go.  His teammate, Phillip O'Donnell attacked and stayed out for many, many laps.  He eventually won.  James's goal was to stay in the main pack (with the 13- and 14-year olds).  He almost got away from them (them, the pack but them not including Phillip because he was long gone), but in the end stayed with them (the pack) and finished 3rd in his age group.    I was very proud of him.

My cousin Lisa's son was racing the next race with the older juniors.  I wanted to get some pictures so I walked to the other side of the course.  Next thing I know, one of the officials said, "Here it comes."  Oblivious, I was thinking "here what comes?"  Then I knew.  The absolute bottom fell out of the sky.  Immediately, I am running and my camera and trying to cover it with my body.  That was not a pretty picture.  Did I mention I was wearing flip flops and the water was flowing over my foot?  A very nice man and his wife let me stand under their tent during the worst of it.  The poor guys on the course.  (By the way, Lisa, I did get a couple of decent shots.)  The cousin's son had a great race.  Of course, I am thinking anyone that didn't crash had a great race.  He didn't crash and he finished near the front.  As I as standing under the tent I kept thinking about about poor James, who didn't have a way to get into the van.

By the time we hooked up, I was soaked, he was soaked and it was still raining.  We rushed to the van because one of us had a dry change of clothes.  While James was changing, I got in the front seat to talk to him for a minute.  As I got out, I told him to be sure to lock the van.   Maybe I would dry out some now that it had stopped raining.

Well, he locked it and even double checked it.  Later, when we were visiting with the  aforementioned cousin, I realized my van keys weren't in my pocket.  This is not a good thing.  I found a very, very nice Anniston policeman who called the PD a.k.a the Police Department (I have the lingo down now) and asked them to send someone.  (James pointed out to me a couple of times how embarrassing it was for your mom to look her keys in the van, especially as I stood there with the policeman.  I pointed out to him it really wasn't my fault - we could tell from where they were sitting, they fell out of my pocket.)

But, back to the story.  The PD (they also called the people PD) stood there with me for a long time.  He eventually said he needed to get back, but would check on me in a bit.  After a grand total of about 30 minutes he came back....with ice cream....to tell me someone was just minutes away.  Little did he know the new PD was bringing him the tool with some comment about how busy they were.  I think it may have had more to do with the fact that the bottom had just fallen out again.  Literally, as we got to the van from the awning we were hiding under, these huge drops started falling.  (You would think someone up there could hold on to that bottom better.)  So, the two of us are standing there in the downpour.  I am holding his almost totally eaten cup of ice cream and he's trying to break into my van.  He commented a couple of times about how hard it was for this van.  At one point I started to wonder why I am holding this couple since it now had about twice as much rain water as it did ice cream.

In the end, he was my hero, but he did get the van open.  I almost hugged his neck, but did I mention I was absolutely sopping wet?  I won't tell you about sitting in the van and taking off my shirt to put on my dry fleece.  Or, how frustrating it was to have an umbrella in sight during all this and not be able to get it.  Or, what I wanted to say to the guy at the Taco Bell drivethrough when he said, "You look like you got wet."  I was probably just on edge since we sat in line for 10 minutes actually at the order thingy waiting on him and his brilliant comments.

Fortunately, we made it back, but not after driving about 40 mph on the interstate past dozens of cars that stopped on the side of the road.  I was so glad to get home and get dry.  And, James, if you're reading this, I hope one day you lock your keys in your car so you understand that it's not just embarrassing when your mom does it :)

Shout Out to CBT!!

Yesterday was the Athens Twilight Criterium.  It is a really big deal every year in Athens.  There are bouncy things, food, running races, bike races....all kinds of things.  They also had an "underage" race.  I am sure there's an official name for these races, but I call them underage because they're for kids who aren't old enough to hold a bike license.  (You can get a bike license on January 1st of the year you turn 10.)

Last year CBT signed up for one in Roswell, but it turns out that it really wasn't a race.  They just opened the course and let kids ride on it.  After waiting for hours and going through some pre-skills "testing" that was quite a disappointment.  (Especially for certain grandparents who had come from days and days away - not really, just a few hours.  They had come to see CBT and James, but James broke his arm the weekend before.  Sorry, I'm digressing again.)

We decided to risk it with the Athens race because CBT really wanted to do a race.  Thank goodness it turned out to be a real race.  They divided the kids by girls and boys by age and then by whether they had training wheels or not.

Let me just say for the record that the girls definitely race with more style.  This little girl who ended up winning the 5-year-old with training wheels race, rode with her baby doll riding with her.  Priceless.

The boys - 5-year-old with training wheels - well, they were boys.  There were adults at the turn on the course telling them to slow down.  It was just like the pros...the guy in the front took the turn too sharp and fast and took out this entire field.  But just like the pros, they jumped right up.  Or course, the pros don't have to deal with sharp turns on training wheels.  I would love to see how they would do with training wheels.

Then came the 8-year-olds with no training wheels.  (Well, not right then.  We had go through all the 6- and 7-year olds.)  While the emcee was burning time, he walked up to a kid and asked him his name.  I was way down the course and all of a sudden I heard "Christopher."  Oh, boy, I thought.  "Christopher, are you going to win this race?"  I heard a very loud yes over the very loud sound system that covered all downtown Athens.  He goes over to the child next to him and asked him if Christopher were going to win, the boy confidently said, "No."  The emcee, of course, loved that and went on and on about how the gauntlet had been thrown down by Christopher and this child had answered the call.  "Now," he said, "it is time to find out if Christopher can deliver."

It was quite an exciting race (on the pro course).  It was two laps that went down a hill, turned and then came back up a hill.  The other boy had a heavier bike and got ahead of CBT on the downhills.  Both times, Christopher caught him on the uphill and would have a decent lead.  The uphill was a long, tough one, but CBT had an amazing race and left it all on the course.  He won.  The emcee was quick to declare that Christopher threw down the gauntlet and then delivered.  It was so exciting (and, honking hot....and probably dangerous given the loose murderer, but who cares?  CBT won his first real race).  He was very happy and very tired.

By the time James raced, it was ridiculously hot.  When I went to check on him just before the start, he told me he had thrown up.  Did he want to sit out?  What kind of question is that?!  Of course not.

He racing kids 10-14.  As of yesterday he is 11 so it was a tough race.  We don't know the results, but I am really proud of him.  The big kids didn't lap him and he stayed up with them until about middle of the race.  He is getting so strong.  He did another a race this morning, but you'll just have to be teased until I get the pictures.  

Is That Mr. Lincoln?

One of James's assignments this year was a 5 paragraph research "paper" on a historical figure.  He chose Abraham Lincoln.

After re-writing, refining and polishing those paragraphs, the kids had the "opportunity" to present their writings to the group and to their parents.  It was a very big deal and James was quite nervous.

We didn't start on his costume until the last minute.  We quickly learned he had such particular expectations.  After a few visits/calls to local Party Citys, we successfully located the perfect costume.

All the kids looked great.  

The best was seeing him with black hair.  He looked totally different - no one recognized him.  (The hairspray was thanks to his brother, who is the king of dress up and costumes.)

I think the best for him was when it was all over - what a relief.

Where's Baseball?

Today I learned what I love about baseball.  When it rains, the fields close.

When the fields close, they let you know ahead of time so you don't have to drive an hour for no reason.

For baseball, you don't have bake sales to pay for Nationals when you are positive no one but your team is showing up because it's going to be absolutely raining down cats and dogs and be in the low 50s (and you were right).  That said, we still made $90 somehow.  Locating the sale table under the only cover was pretty smart.

I never left a baseball game totally drenched.  Not even once.

But then he never stood on a podium and got a medal in baseball.  He never had to make a decision on his own about whether to risk a wreck sprinting out over a slick reflector and go for the win or just be content with second and let a teammate have the win (and not crash).  Personally, I think it was the right call, but love that he went through the process of making it.  Most of all?  I am also glad his dad has cycling duty tomorrow when the forecast call for 30s and possible snow.     

Super Bowl

We had a little Super Bowl party for James's discipleship group last night, but I think CBT had had the most fun.  He came down with a special Steelers mask.  (Keep in mind he was the only one in our family cheering for the Steelers.)

I wanted to get a picture of the two of them together...in front of the TV, loving brothers between the balloons CBT picked.  No big deal right?

It's just the TV kept being a distraction.  I would get them turned around and...

they would get distracted again.

Next thing I know, it's turned into something way beyond a photo op.  I did get one of them facing the camera with decent faces, but I thought this one was....er.....more descriptive.

It did turn out to be fun - I think we may even make it an annual tradition.

Crimping My Style

This is my bike.  It is a very nice and beautiful bike and it is crimping my style  Well, actually to be fair, my two sons are crimping my style with the aid of this nice and beautiful bike.  I have already shared with you how James had me on a trainer in what seemed like minutes of getting home with it on Friday night. CBT decided Saturday night was his night to work me out.  (He hasn't ridden in months so I'm not sure why this became such a critical mission.)

Last night, CBT decided again that we should ride.  No problem because I definitely need the exercise.  Keith set the timer for the 24 minutes that Christopher decided we needed to ride (not more and not less - exactly 24).  We started getting close to 24 minutes and suddenly we needed to go for 30 sprinting (more or less) the entire last minute after quite a few mini sprints throughout the ride.  Of course, not to be outdone by his brother, James set up his bike and we go for another 30 minutes.  An entire hour on that bike.  I'm sure at some point my bottom will stop being sore.

While all this riding is great, it is keeping me from scrapbooking (yep, falling behind on that schedule for 2007), taking more pictures (so I can get behind on 2009 also), and all my favorite blogs.  Oh well , I guess getting in shape and not having to pay for TWO personal trainers is worth it.

Way to Go, James

It's getting closer....that first race.  About 6 weeks by my count to February 14th.  The Tundra Time Trial always kicks off the season.  I've heard it can be really, really cold sometimes for that race.  Have I ever mentioned that I don't like really, really cold?  It's nice and all just around the holidays and then I'm done.  But, I digress.

On our team we don't worry about rankings or trying to get a higher ranking.  The coaches pick different winners for the different races and the goal is for that kid to win.  That's what success is - knowing team strategy and working together.  Often, it's not the best/strongest racer on the team.  It's kind of cool that way.  Because of that, we are encouraged to not follow the rankings or pay them much attention.  That said, I was on the USA Cycling website tonight making sure they had received the parent waiver (so James could race in said Tundra Time Trial) and I saw this...wait before you look ahead.  Blue Bicycles said they might use this picture of James in the catalog this year.  Hubby took that picture.  I think he was thinking of a Blue ad when he took it.

Ok, it's extra teeny, tiny print because I just learned tonight how to grab a screenprint on my Mac and convert it to a JPEG so you'll just have to trust me.  It says that, at least tonight, James is ranked #3 in the country against all licensed 10-12 year olds.  That very well will may change, but I think it's kind of neat.  Of course, I am his mom.  Guess I'm supposed to think it's neat.  Psst.  Just don't tell coach I peeked, ok?  I don't want to get into trouble.

Significant Progress

Or, was it?  I was up until 1am cropping our first Guatemala trip (and if truth be told a good part of today was spent on this project).  It feels like something significant.  30 12x12 pages.  It's a lot of pages, but then our pictures from our New York trip arrived and it's a big honking stack.  I won't even mention the dozen or so other events from 2007 that still need to be done.  Ok, I'm obsessing now - people at my house will vouch that I tend to do that sometimes.

As I was going through these I was reminded of a very incredible story.  Since this trip was before this blog started, I thought I would share it.

On Thursday (the 5th of 7 days) we loaded up our caravan of Suburbans and headed to Las Cabesas.  It was during the Presidential runoff election, which was to occur the next week so there was lots of activity related to that.  About an hour in we started seeing people line the road and lots of armed people - army, police, you name it.  We were very curious, but decided it must have something to do with the election.  (At least we hoped because we were getting ever closer to the Honduras border.  Military and borders always seem like an interesting combination to me.)

Then we were forced to pull over and a police car passed and then.....some other official looking car.  A candidate's car?  James figured it out first.

In complete glee and delight, he yelled, "It's a breakaway!  It's a breakaway!"  Somehow at the same time he was yelling out the window, "Work together, people.  Work together, people."  He started watching he watch; timing the distance to the peloton.  Since I was fast becoming a cycling expert at that point, I knew we were talking about a bike race.  I had tears in my eyes.  How neat, I thought, that God would let James see a bike race.

I mean we were this close.  We saw the team cars, water bottle handoffs, the sweat dripping off them.  (That's probably enough detail.)  There were cars from all over - Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela  The director for our group told us it was the Vuelta de Guatemala.  A stage race - the biggest race in Central and South America.  When we arrived, I was talking to my friend Susan about how neat it was.  She smiled and said, "Well, what you don't know is that this morning James was my prayer partner and I asked God to send him something special.  Something just for him.  Next time I'll know to be more specific and ask that it not add 30 minutes to our trip."

How cool is that?

Confession

I have a confession to make.  I have been working quite diligently on catching up on my scrapbooking for 2007.  I have 2005 totally caught up, except three pages that need to be journaled and some random things I've found since I finished.  2006 is in total disarray and a few pages have been done for 2008.  This is probably about the best shape I've been in for scrapbooking in a while, but alas, cycling season is upon us.  

I take a lot of cycling pictures.  I take a lot of every sport, but with cycling there are so many races.  With each race, I can click off 200 photos no problem and that was before I got my new lens, which I am very much looking forward to using.  It won't take long to be in a major hole again.

Any way, this has been a big digression - this is about the confession.  I was working on some winter cycling pictures of the hubby and James from last December.  They are so cute all bundled up - the almost matching pair.  As I was looking at them, I realized the first race of the season is approximately 6 weeks away.  At first there was an "ugh," but then I realized I am actually looking forward to it all starting again.  Seeing the parents, watching the kids improve over the course of the race season and watching James work hard towards a goal.  In spite of the incredible amount of work, coordination and sheer inconvenience, it's kind of neat.  Shhh - don't tell anybody.  I would never want the word to get out.

Traditions

We have a neat Christmas tradition that we have been observing since Christopher was a baby.  We owe it to Aunt Joanna and my mom (but I think mostly to Aunt Joanna).  I was supposed to go to a workshop with them to make a Jesse Tree, but couldn't make it when I was pregnant with CBT.  I was on bedrest and couldn't travel.  So....they made it for me.  It's a precious felt hanging (a tree) to which you add adornments each night for about a month before Christmas.  There's a scripture reading and a short devotional reading to go with it that tell a story about the picture that is being hung.  It finishes on Christmas morning and our boys (and sometimes all four of us when I'm not taking pictures) hang it together.  

It's a neat way to remind us the reason we celebrate.  I would love to hear any favorite traditions you have.  (Come on...it's not too painful to click on Post Comment.  I don't ask often, but I feel sure some of you have some really cool things that others would love to hear.)

He Packs a Punch

James is a competitor.  He was born that way.  I can't wait to see what God is going to do with that, but it should be interesting.  We are now in basketball season so we really get to see that competitive nature come out.  

Just look at that face.  I love to watch him on the defensive side of the ball.  When he was in the younger leagues playing man-on-man, he constantly stole the ball.

He's moved up to a full-size court and zone defense.  It's much harder to score.  He told me yesterday that when he does, it's hard not to smirk.  If you look closely, you can see a small one.

Still basking in the glory of that last shot...

Free throws have been virtually impossible - even with his entire body into it.

Nevertheless, still so fun to watch.

JST and Basketball

Today I had an asset tour with our leasing agent at some industrial properties and guess who showed up...CBT's basketball coach!  What a small world.  So, in honor of those kind of coincidences and JST's lack of exposure yesterday, here are some pix of JST's practice tonight.

He is such a hustler.  I can remember when he was the slowest kid on his baseball team - he was one of the fastest doing suicides.  Boy, was I glad that I wasn't out there doing them!

Even though James is one of the shorter kids on the team, his aggressiveness makes up for it.

We used to laugh about how often he ended up on the ground at baseball - it makes even less sense in basketball!

He's been working on push ups at cycling practice.  Tonight they all had to do two push ups for every shot they missed when they were warming up.  Fortunately, he didn't have to do many.  But for the ones he did, check out that form.  Papa, you've got to be impressed.

And, he's ever that aggressive defender.  In your face.