A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 40 Recap

I believe I've mentioned prior that I am coaching the 5th grade volleyball team at Elida. I thought back to my younger years and remember going to an OSU game and sitting in the locker room with them on game day. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and couldn't wait until one day when I played college volleyball.  With my connections with ONU and also the coach, I thought it might be amazing to come have a little practice and tour the locker room and see the life of a college volleyball player. Coach Kuhn agreed to host us on Monday and both 5th grade teams met at ONU. It was as cool as I thought it up in my head!  The ONU girls warmed up with our players and played some games and worked on skills with them. Then one team at a time got to go see their locker rooms and the girls let our littles try on their jersey's. CUTEST THING EVER. 

On Tuesday, Kathie was passing through Ada, and we decided to meet at the Cask room. Being so close to her birthday, we were able to have drinks and celebrate her! We took a selfie lol

So up until this point, Elida fifth grade team is 0-4.  Probably my coaching! But I'm going to say they must have been inspired by Monday's practice at ONU because they came out winning! Our first wins of the season! Olivia is doing pretty well for 4th grade. She is one of the smallest and she struggles to get the ball over on her serves, but she did amazing today.  So proud of her in serve receive too. She's fearless and not afraid of the ball.  Makes this mommas heart proud. 

Friday night was ONU's Athletic Hall of Fame banquet. I was inducted back in 2013, but I love to go when I know the athletes being inducted. Well this year my volleyball coach, Kate Witte, was one of the five being inducted! But every year the athletic director Tom Simmons asks a past HOF person to welcome the new class. He asked me this year. It took me a few days to perfect the speech, but I ended up going with a theme of the Royal Flush and how these athletes/coaches being inducted were the greatest- similar to the Royal Flush in the game of poker. Andy and Kristi also joined Jeremy and I at the inductions because their cousin Liz was one of the inductee's this year too! It was such a beautiful night that I'll never forget. 

After playing Elida volleyball Saturday morning, we took the kiddos back to Ada for the ONU Homecoming Parade, festivities and football game. We really had a great time. We spent some time letting both kids explore the activities tent. Both Isaac and Olivia liked crushing the concrete canoe. From the loads of candy collected at the parade, to the tour of the engineering building, to the inflatables on the tundra, the activities tent, and the golf cart ride out to the football game, we had a really nice time telling the kiddos about all our memories on campus when we were students. This is our classes 20th reunion year- yikes. Doesn't seem possible! 

After we left Ada, we went back to Lima where my mom meet us to head to Olivia's Dance convention in Cincinnati. Since it was an early start, mom agreed to get a hotel the night before so we didn't have to drive in the morning. When we arrived, we had no idea what to expect.  Well the answer was, expect to sit around a lot watching Olivia and 100 other dancers learn technique and dances to grow in their knowledge. It was a LONG day.  Olivia was mad she didn't get any special call out or award, but I think it was eye-opening for her since she had never been to anything like this before. It was good for her to see all the potential she has to be an amazing dancer! Plus she got to do this convention with two dear friends from her team, so she loved that too! 

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 37 Recap

How many people get to spend their Labor Day celebrating one of their most favorite people in the world turning 88?! This girl! Sylvia (my mom's mom) AKA Granny has circled the sun 88 times in her life and she's still living on her own, gardening and feeding the cats. I simply adore her and don't get to see her as much as I'd like and I should because she's one of my biggest fans. As the first grandchild on that side, it's no secret I'm the favorite (LOL- sorry to bust your bubble Megan!). There are plenty of girl grandchildren - actually 5 of us and then my brother. So us girls always joke we're all the favorite. At any rate, for Granny's birthday we all met at Sue's to celebrate. We sat around talking while our kids swam (or those who weren't old enough crawled around) and we just enjoyed each other's company.  It was amazingly perfect in every way. Oh, and Tom's sweet corn is AMAZING! Olivia and I had at least three ears each!

I could have stayed at Aunt Sue's for days, but my kiddos had their first day of school Tuesday, Sept. 7.  Isaac is entering 5th grade and Olivia 4th.  Both were so excited to get going, as they did have four months off and all the area schools have been back for several weeks.  In our typical traditional style, we got first day pictures of both kids before seeing them off. I'm so happy that Jeremy goes into work late in order to see them off too.  Maw also comes over wish them well!  

Ok, so we are trying out a new gym this fall for tumbling. Infinity Gym in Ottawa is where Olivia will now be taking tumbling. Our old gym seemed to not be helping her progress as quickly as we'd hoped. In fact, she was doing back handsprings and still in with other girls who couldn't do cartwheels. It was time to either quit the gym or get somewhere where instructors would push her and have her progress. This week was our first night. Olivia said they did lots of things to see where their skill levels were so next week they could appropriately place them.  

Monday and Wednesdays every week we have volleyball.  This week practice was moved due to team/individual pictures. Oh my goodness this group is a hoot! I grabbed my phone and snapped a few of the 4th graders who are on my team. Brandy, Sophia, Lia and Olivia!

Thursday is always a crazy day of teaching and then PRSSA in the evening. But this week was pretty anticipated as Chris Nelson was coming to speak. Chris worked at Ketchum when I interned there and he had Steve Iseman (my prof and late in life colleague) as a professor at Ohio State. At any rate, he's one of the best in the field concerning crisis PR and always still makes the trip to ONU to speak to the group.  Steve was able to come enjoy the evening with us too, so all and all it was outstanding reunion!

This last picture is just the kids getting on the bus on Friday.  I think it's funny that they alway open up the back hatch of the vehicle and sit in there waiting for the bus. I've really never thought too much about it, but wanted to capture this moment as it's just something they do throughout the year and wanted to be sure to include it in the blog!