Anniversary Present

This blog is well overdue. Our anniversary is June 12th! The morning of our anniversary Jenna and Isaac came over before work and gave us a present. It was a family decal for our car. I had been saying for awhile that I wanted one for my car.

So Jenna found a site and custom designed one for us. It looks so great!

She created a tandem picture for Abram and I.

Don't you love Abram's hair! She tried to give him a goatee, but it looked like he had a duck's beak. :)

She also created the kids:

Tobin is running, Sarai is dribbling the basketball, Carmen is heading the soccer ball and Rachel is punting the soccer ball.

The site Jenna used allowed you to customize hair, sports and size of person.

The decal came as one long picture. In reading the instructions we were concerned that our back wiper would hit and rub off the decal over time. After debating for a day we decided to cut the picture. This decision created great controversy. I agreed that I didn't want to split the family up, but I also wanted to make sure that it stayed on too. We came up with a humorous decision. The back window of the minivan has the kids on the left side (driver's side) and us on the right (passenger side). We decided that it would be funny to have the parents chasing down the kids!

Most people instantly recognize my car now. I do believe I am the only one in town with a tandem decal on my minivan! We love it!

Hiking Mt. Wachusetts

Monday, October 12th was Columbus day. In Mass, Columbus day is a federal holiday. Everyone in our family had the day off. We decided to hike Mt. Wachusetts. It was a beautiful fall day. It was also Aidan's 1st birthday. Isaac, Jenna and Aidan joined us for the hike.

Up we go!

Some of us climbed up rock "stairs" at one point.

Here's the family at the summit.

Rachel paused at a trail sign as we began our descent down the mountain.

Snack time! Aidan's drink on the go.

I love this picture of my two older "chickens".

I always find it interesting that even though the kids resist going hiking they look back and talk about the fun times we had during the hike.

Running, Stiches, Rest and Winning

Tobin's cross country season has been a time of learning. In the last cross country post I shared how he had exercise induced asthma. He had to learn how to work with that and he was successful in doing so. He ran a race the next week and won. Later he ran in an invitationals race held at Franklin Park in Boston. He ran in this invitationals last year. as a freshman he did well and finished 12th in the freshman race, I believe. This year he was placed in the varsity category. He placed 39th out of over 200 and his time was 17:28. This is amazing. In the words of his coach "Tobin has his legs back and has shown he can run with the big dogs!"

On Thurs. Sept 24th Tobin encountered another lesson: don't jump over guard rails. He was running with the team for practice. They exited the woods in a spot that didn't have a safe exit route. The guys decided to jump the guard rail. Well, Tobin didn't make it over correctly. He missed and tore open his left shin. He had attempted to jump over the rail from the sharp side and where the woods were at a steep angle. We took him to the ER and he got 9 stitches in his shin. He was told he couldn't run for 5-7 days.

If you ask him what happened, he'll tell you that he was attacked by a bear. It seems more manly than misjudging the guard rail. We also joke that he has a celestial theme for his scars. He has a zig-zag scar on his forehead from when he was two. He looks like Harry Potter. His shin scar is in the shape of a crescent moon. Hopefully, he doesn't get a star somewhere in 13 years!

The ban on running meant that he couldn't race against one of the team's toughest and most important opponents, Wachusett. He received a number of negative comments from teammates about not being able to run. It also added vinegar to the wound when the team lost the meet. Some say they lost because Tobin didn't run. Tobin is learning that when teammates are injured everyone should step up and try harder, not look for someone to blame. I am hoping that these experiences will aid him in being a good leader for the team.

Now, for some good news. He got his stitches out on October 6th. The wound is healing well.

He also ran a race on October 6th.

Here he is in the lead after the first mile, running under 5 minutes!

His lead gets larger around the 2+ mile point. Coach was yelling "low 18's, low 18's". He was motivating Tobin to keep the pace up and he'd finish with a time in the low 18:00.

He won! He also got his PR (personal record) of 18:10 on this home course.

We have a very hard 5K course. Last year his best time on our course was 19:24. He's shaved off over a minute from last year's PR! Wow! Again, his legs are back. He's looking to race with the top guys in the state on October 17th and place right with the fastest on our team!

Cross Country Season Has Begun

Tobin's cross country racing season has begun. He ran close to 500 miles over this summer in preparation for this season. Tues, Sept. 8th was the first race of the season. He was racing against two of the fastest guys in the the state. Needless to say, the pressure to perform well was huge.

The race began strong and fast.

He stayed with thefront pack for the first 2 miles.

After that he couldn't breathe well and felt as if his legs wouldn't move and that he may pass out. He decided to drop out of the race. I believe he had an asthma attack; exercise induced asthma.

Over the next few days, I got a new persciption for an inhaler and extender tube. He is using it and feels like his lungs are a bit better.

Monday, the 14th, he had his second race. Shrewsbury was running against a team that didn't have much competition. Coach Smith decided to rest the top 6 runners. Since Tobin didn't finish the first race he was to run this race. If things were going well with his lungs he was predicted to win the race.

Everything went well for the race. He began strong and in the lead.

Tobin won the race! He finished 40 seconds before the next runner.

I'm not sure how long the race really was. It was around a 2.6 or 2.8 mile course. He finished in 16+ minutes. Shrewsbury also swept the race having the first 7 runners finish the race. This is the lowest score a team could get at a meet. It was also a triple meet, so these scores count double for us!

Let's hope for more of these races. He is going to an invitational race in Franklin Park this Saturday. The coach has only invited the top 7 from the team. I'll keep you informed as to how he does.

School's Begun

School began for everyone Sept. 1st. I began work on August 31st. I work as a kindergarten teacher's assistant in our school system. It was very difficult to transition back into work/school mode after a wonderful summer and beach vacation in North Carolina.


I took these pictures in order of bus arrival.


Tobin is now a sophmore at Shrewsbury High.






Sarai and Carmen share a bus even though they go to two different schools. the schools share a back parking lot they are that close to each other! Sarai is in 8th grade at Oak middle. Carmen is in 6th at Sherwood Middle.



Notice Sarai's new hair color. She got it re-dyed before school. She has streaks of blue and purple in it. We also re-dyed the red/orange hair back to her normal color. I am amazed how dark her hair looks with these new colors.







Some how, Zori got into the picture:) She loves Sarai's attention in the morning.


Rachel is in 3rd grade at Spring Street.

Song and Dance

The end of school usually involves many concerts and musical "shows". Thursday, May 21st, had two. Rachel's school had a "Sing and Swing" concert and Carmen had her first oboe recital.

It was hottest day of the week. All students in Spring Street Elementary participated in a "Sing and Swing" show for parents to view. The whole show lasted close to an hour and a half. (I only saw 45 minutes because I had to take time off from work to go.) The music teacher had taught and choreographed dances for each grade. It is impressive to think that she works with each class individually and somehow all the kids look great together. The second grade had three dances to perform. I will only show you one of them.

Later that evening, we drove to Natick for Carmen's oboe recital. Carmen's oboe teacher invites all of his students to participate in this recital. It was very impressive. The program had 40 oboeists, each with their own piece. We were impressed hearing some of the more experienced seniors play. The whole recital took two hours!

Carmen enjoys playing the oboe and plans to continue it over the summer and through next year.

Thanks to Jenna for letting me borrow her camera so I could get these great pictures without needing a flash!

Jenna and Isaac also helped us that night by getting Tobin after his districts race. Tobin runs the 2 mile and sometimes the 1 mile. His best time is 10:54 in the 2 mile. This time qualified him for Districts but unfortunately not States. He did make varsity for Cross Country, Winter Track and Spring Track and Field! Nice Job Tobin!