Catching way up............

This is going to be a long one so get something to drink and a snack before you start reading. I'll start from past to present.

Isaac went to state and finished 8th. It was very disappointing because the loss came as a real shock and of course that is not the way he wanted to end the season, but by now he is finally over the loss. For a while he just kept replaying everything in his head and it wasn't good. Below are some pictures of state at 7am on the first day. By 8am you couldn't even see the mat it was covered with so many kids. I still haven't uploaded Isaac's matches that I was able to record, but I'll let you know when I do.

Since state is over Isaac has still been training for all the summer camps and tournaments he'll be doing. Also, he has been studying for the SAT and ACT tests which he'll take on June 5 & 12. He has received letters/emails of interests from several colleges including Bucknell University in PA, Northwestern College in Iowa, University of Michigan, University of Nebraksa, Millersville in PA, Edinboro, Virginia State, and NC Presbyterian. The most serious schools at this point are Northwestern and Bucknell. Of course everyone is waiting on his test scores and to see how he will do next year, but this is very exciting and we are working very hard to make sure Isaac secures a scholarship for college and that he will be able to continue to wrestle. Isaac wants to be a High School math teacher and wrestling coach.

Mark turned 50 on March 10! He is so hard to shop for and do stuff for because he doesn't like to celebrate his birthday. For me it was especially hard because his birthday is the day before my dad died and my dad never lived to be 51. I think for awhile I was really depressed and didn't even realize why. Combine that with the fact that both Isaac and myself were still trying to get over the loss of state and it was a rough month. Nevertheless we tried to make the day special. We woke him up early since we had to leave for work and school and gave him his special coffee and breakfast.

What we've decided to do is celebrate his birthday all year long. So on the 10th of every month he will receive a special gift from us. For his birthday we got him an MP3 player so he can listen to his music and the radio. In April we got him special earbuds. His ears are so tiny that he had trouble keeping the buds in and he doesn't like anything covering his ears. We found some cool buds that work perfectly for him.

Elyssa started softball and has really become a slugger, literally. She has 5 homeruns on the season already. I don't have my book to give you her stats, but she is really a power player. Most everyone is shocked because she is not one of the big girls on the team. She packs a lot of power and runs like lighting so she is hard to catch. She has been playing catcher all season and is really gotten good. She has thrown out several base runners and picked off a couple at first and third base too. This past weekend she had a tournment and it was really rough. The played an 8:30pm game on Friday night two hours away from home. Then they played 3 games on Saturday in the rain and we did't get finished until 11pm. She was exhausted, banged up and bruised up. She also played a game on Thursday night so she is sore this morning.

When we got home at 1am this morning she was getting ready to get in the shower and it looked like she had already taken one. From playing in so much rain her hair was soaked when she took it down. The tournament was so poorly run that I couldn't believe they made the girls keep playing. I mean paid professionals don't play in the rain like that or play 3 games in a day. Elyssa is the only catcher on her team so she didn't get a break at all. Today she is taking it easy and I promised to give her a massage. She is really looking forward to that.

Also, yesterday was prom for Isaac. He and his girlfriend Kelsey went with 4 other couples and they just looked amazing. He had a good time, but it all went by so fast. I put one picture below, but I plan on putting the other photos I took on Facebook. Kelsey looked very beautiful and she is a really sweet girl. She left this morning to head down to south GA. She is on the golf team and made the state finals which she'll play in this week.

Isaac is currently studying for his ACT and SAT tests. He has really been focusing on his grades. In GA the juniors have to take graduation tests in order to graduate their senior year. If they don't pass their junior year they have to take summer school to take the test again. Isaac was confident on most of his exams, but not on history since he hadn't take any history classes this year. Isaac just got his grades back and he totally aced the tests! He scored 2 points of advanced in English/Literature, he scored advanced in History and Science, and was only 2 points away from a perfect score in Math! Since he achieved such high scores he gets a platinum card at school which is redeemed for privileges like free parking, off campus lunch, early dismissals and things like that.

Well I think I covered everything and I'll try not to let the blog go for so long next time.