Mommy's Home

Cayle and I were excited to welcome Natalie home from Denver today! He had a big smile on his face when she picked him up today! It went smooth with her gone, but everything is just much easier when Mommy's home!

No Clue

Natalie is out of town for a couple days for a conference in Denver. I get to stay home with Cayle! It hasn't been bad at all, there is just a lot of things to do when you consider, riding, getting him home, and playing with him, dinner for him, dinner for me, clean up his stuff from the day, put my stuff away, get his stuff ready for tomorrow, get my stuff ready for tomorrow, get mine and his lunches packed, play with him when he wants, among other things.... Luckily, thanks to my wonderful wife, who keeps our family functioning on a regular basis, everything is pretty easy to take care of based on the routines she has worked out for us. It's just at these times that I wonder how single moms with multiple kids get everything done, and still get time for themselves..... not sure how that happens......

Evening of the Stars Recap

Evening of the stars was a great time! We got to the hotel early afternoon, to spend some quality time in the hot tub. It was snowing while we were sitting in the hot tub. It was fantastic! After hot tub time, it was time to get all dolled up for the evening's celebrations.
The girls enjoying the evening!My wife looked so lovely in her new dress, and got many compliments on it as well!The boys posing for a photo op in the hotel room before heading to the award ceremony.
It was dumping snow, really coming down while we walked from the hotel to the Vilar Center for the ceremonies. It was really cool! Spring in the Rockies. (It ended up snowing 7"....and the mountain closes next weekend!)

One of the coolest parts of the night was being able to cheer for our principal (above, who is retiring this year) when he got announced for his retirement, and for leading our school to one of the Colorado Schools to Watch. Our little group of teachers was pretty raucous and loud! I thought it was pretty awesome! Then later, we got to welcome our new principal into the fold (pictured below in the white shirt) He seems like he will fit in nicely with our school. He currently works at the high school here in town, but seems really excited to join our staff and help continue the tradition of excellence which our school has become known for.

EOS

Tomorrow is Evening of the Stars. One of the few times that we get to pamper ourselves. We get to spend the night at the Park-Hyatt Beaver Creek at a super discounted rate. After the award ceremony for teachers, then we have dinner and dancing. Before all of it, we plan to spend some time in the hot tub at the base of the slopes. Cayle will be staying home with a sitter for the night. He will do great, and we will get some much needed relax time!

Tennis Star!

Good article from the WIU website about Natalie's brother Patrick. Good thing she taught him how to play tennis. I believe she takes full credit for his success.... :-)

ELMHURST, Ill. – Western Illinois sophomore Patrick Hammers (Peru/LaSalle-Peru) has been named as The Summit League Men's Tennis "Player of the Week" after helping the Fighting Leathernecks to a 3-0 start in league play.

Hammers finished last week's action with a record of 4-0 while playing at No. 3 singles and was 2-1 with fellow Leatherneck Ben Yue at No. 3 doubles.

He helped the Leathernecks secure wins over Centenary, IPFW and South Dakota State over the weekend. Hammers dropped just one set in four matches last week, including a non-league match at Bradley.

Western Illinois currently sits along atop The Summit League standings and is off to its best start in league play since the 2008 season, when the Leathernecks finished a perfect 6-0 and won the league's regular-season title.

Hammers is currently riding a five-match winning streak at No. 3 singles and has won four of his last five doubles matches while playing at No. 3 with Yue.

His performance over the weekend improved his overall record to 6-11 in singles and 9-7 in doubles play. The "Player of the Week" honors mark the second time that Hammers has won the award in his two seasons at Western.

Sad Face :(

I wasn't cheering for Butler the whole tournament, but I definitely was that last game. It's unfortunate that they made back to back championship games and didn't come away with a win. Gotta love the underdog....it's what makes sports so exciting (although you won't find me cheering for the top underdog of all time...cubbies....)
With that being said, I guess it's a good year in college basketball when North Carolina, Kansas, or Kentucky don't win the championship!

ILL in 2011-12!!!!

Spring

Is on the way! 70 and sunny here today! Forecast high of 45 and 10-16" of snow tomorrow... :( Spring in the rockies = unpredictable! I doubt we will get that much snow if any, just on how the season has gone so far, but I kinda like this nice sunny weather!

On a health note, everyone is feeling better! That was a nasty little bug that made it thru all our bodies, leaving destruction and lots of sickness in it's path... hopefully it's gone for a while now!

I think it's crazy and cool watching the differences in the talent levels between the lower level teams (Butler and VCU) and the major conference teams (UCONN and Kentucky.) The lower conference teams are able to be successful with stellar defense, rebounding, and teamwork. The bigger teams have superior athletes and talent. Not to say the big conference teams don't play hard and have to use teamwork, cause they do, but just saying the talent level is pretty noticeable and it's cool to see the smaller schools succeed!

Cayle has started throwing these little hissy fits, and it's pretty annoying... Got to find a way to let him know that he's not going to get what he wants, just by pouting. A friend told us the other day, that it's cute when he does it....... maybe it is, to an outsider, but when it's your own kid, it's not so cute... :) Not sure where he picked that up from, or if every kid goes through it?