August always seems to be the month when summer and real life collide, and this year was definitely no exception. It felt like we went from enjoying the last few weeks of summer to volleyball, ONU, birthdays and school in about five minutes. Throw in the Ohio State Fair, another flooded basement, some lake time, Cedar Point, baseball games and a wedding, and August definitely kept all of us moving!
We kicked off August with high school volleyball tryouts, which always makes for a couple of long and stressful days. After two days of evaluations, we ended up keeping 24 athletes for the season. This year, I brought in a few college coaches (Katie and Lynsey) to help evaluate the girls during the volleyball skills portion of tryouts. I really liked having some unbiased eyes in the gym who didn't know the girls or have any preconceived ideas about where anyone should fall. The girls were evaluated on more than just their volleyball skills, too. They completed a mile run, did weightlifting maxes and took a volleyball IQ quiz as part of the overall process. We tried to look at the whole athlete and everything she could bring to the program. The evening we posted the final results also happened to be National Night Out, so we had that going on before finally posting the teams later that night. After an entire summer of open gyms, lifting, summer league and preparing, it was exciting to finally have our 2026 Elida volleyball teams set and officially begin the season.
There wasn't much downtime after tryouts because the very next morning we were up early and headed to the Ohio State Fair for Isaac and Olivia's cooking projects. Isaac had already been there Aug. 1 with Maw and Paw for his feelings matter project. Isaac took a grilling project this year, while Olivia had a quick meals project. Thankfully, they both had 10 a.m. judging times, which made the day much easier for us. We headed down early, got both of them through judging and then had some time to walk around and enjoy the fair. State Fair days are always long, but it has become one of those 4-H experiences that we enjoy and look forward to each year. Of course, we couldn't make an entire day of it this time because volleyball was waiting for me back home! We left the fair, headed back to Elida and then I was in the gym for our first official volleyball practice at 7 p.m. that evening. Going from cooking projects and fair food to whistles, volleyballs and practice plans all in the same day pretty much sums up what August looks like around our house!
On Aug. 8, August decided we didn't have quite enough going on, so we woke up to ANOTHER flooded basement. Technically, Jeremy discovered it because he was still awake around 1 a.m. when he noticed the water coming in. From that point on, neither one of us was getting much sleep. We immediately started trying to combat the water, move things and get everything dried out. It was a long night and an even longer next few days, but we ended up doing the cleanup ourselves. We pulled up all of the carpet, tore out and threw away the wet padding and worked on getting the basement completely dry. Once we knew everything was good and dry, we ordered new padding. They came back and installed the new padding and then were able to put our original carpet, which we had dried and saved, back over the top. The neighbors across the street had ServiceMaster at their house dealing with water, too, so I guess we weren't the only lucky ones in the neighborhood!
By the middle of August, we were more than ready to escape to the lake for a long weekend. After the craziness of volleyball tryouts, the State Fair and the basement flood, it felt good to have a few days where the agenda mostly consisted of fishing, boating, relaxing and spending time together. We got to hang out with Uncle Carl and Diane and spend time with our parents, which is really what our lake weekends are all about. Saturday was a little bit of a divide-and-conquer day. I left the lake to attend Emily Brock and Chris Cranston's wedding, while the boys headed toward Cleveland for a baseball game. Even though we all went different directions for part of the weekend, we still got plenty of time together at the lake. Those slower weekends become even more appreciated once August hits because we know our free weekends are about to become few and far between!
The next week was another big transition week for our family. We had our first VB game at Elida, and Jeremy and I both headed back to ONU for another academic year. Suddenly, the slower summer schedule was officially gone, and our calendars were once again filled with practices, games, meetings, classes, work and everything else that comes with the school year.
We also had a pretty major milestone to celebrate because Isaac turned SIXTEEN! Since his actual birthday landed in the middle of the week, we celebrated a little early with the family. Sixteen seems like one of those birthdays that should still be years away, yet somehow here we are. It is hard to believe how quickly we went from little-kid birthday parties to celebrating a 16-year-old. We enjoyed having everyone together to celebrate him before the craziness of the school year completely took over. Between driving, umpiring, sports and everything else he has going on, he definitely keeps busy, and we are so proud of the young man he is becoming. Still, I'm not quite sure I'm ready to admit that I officially have a 16-year-old!
Our varsity volleyball season didn't exactly get off to the start we had hoped for in August. We played three varsity matches during the month against Miller City, Lincolnview and Van Wert, and unfortunately finished August 0-3. There were definitely moments where we could see what this team was capable of doing, but we also had plenty of areas that needed work. With a younger and less experienced group, we knew there would be some growing pains, but that doesn't make losing any easier. Coaching is always interesting because you spend so much time trying to figure out the right combination of pushing, teaching, encouraging and holding athletes accountable. August gave us plenty to work on, but fortunately, the season is a long one and there was still a lot of volleyball ahead of us. Before school officially started, I wanted the girls to have a chance to spend some time together outside of the gym, so I hosted a team bonding pool party at our house. All of the girls came over and got to hang out, swim and enjoy the backyard and pool. Olivia made reserve but dresses JV too.
Then somehow we reached the final day of August and the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! This one felt especially strange because I now officially have a freshman AND a sophomore. I honestly don't know how that happened. It seems impossible that both kids are now walking the halls of the high school. Of course, I still wanted my traditional first-day-of-school pictures, which meant I also insisted that they ride the bus on the first day. Let's just say neither child was particularly pleased with their mother's decision! I wanted the classic pictures of them leaving for school, and I wasn't quite ready to give up that tradition just because they are teenagers now. Naturally, the bus ended up being about 20 minutes late, which gave them even more time to stand around and appreciate my brilliant plan. 😂 Sorry, kids. You can grow up, but your mother still gets her first-day-of-school pictures!
August was busy, exhausting and definitely didn't go exactly according to plan, but when I look back through all the pictures, that's not really what I'll remember. I'll remember the milestones, the family time, the celebrations, the people we got to spend time with and all those ordinary moments that somehow end up becoming the memories we want to keep.
Bring on September!
No comments:
Post a Comment