Kayda's first high school volleyball season

Kayda started the season playing JV.  They had her playing as an outside hitter.  She played all the way around the court.  With a small school comes a relatively small program.  We had just enough girls for Varsity, JV and C team.  

This year ended up being a hot mess of injuries, particularly for Varsity.  Two girls had to take a time out for injuries shortly into the season.  They pulled Kayda up to Varsity as a defensive specialist.  She was assigned to Sam as her back court player.  She did well.  She loves the speed of the varsity games vs the JV games.  She was probably their second best defensive player.  She was playing back court full time for a few games.  Then we played the hardest team in our league (who ended up taking third in state) and the team was not doing well.  Part way through the match, Kayda's front court player landed on someone's foot after jumping for a block.  We found out later that she fractured her ankle.  Coach had Kayda play all the way around the court.  I thought it was hilarious.  Our little 5'4" girl playing varsity front court.  When she jumps she can get her fingers about an inch (2 on a good day) above the net.  After that, for whatever reason, Kayda got pulled.  From there on out she didn't get much play time on varsity.  The coach started doing some things that really confused me (and were unsuccessful).  Things like keeping some front court players on the court for the full rotation, despite the fact that they were slow and unsuccessful in the back court.  It became a very frustrating season.  I want my kid to play because I KNOW she's good.  If she wasn't going to get to play on varsity, then put her back on JV!  I don't care what team.  Just let her play!  The problem was a player is limited to how much they can play per week.  So she would get one game with JV to preserve the rest of time for Varsity, in case she was needed.

"Tiny" in the front court. 

The team went to Spokane to play.  Kayda didn't get much court time but she had a blast anyway. 

At the end of the season we ended up being a "wild card" at districts.  We won the first match.  The second was a disaster.  Kayda got in for a very brief time window.  The girls that were playing had been played almost the entire match before and played the entire match despite being visibly exhausted and quickly getting worse.  You could literally see all the energy go out of them.  Despite this, no changes were made.  Like I said, a very frustrating season to watch. Even if it's not my kid, be responsive to what is happening on the court!  Be flexible and ready to make changes as needed. 

Overall, Kayda was great and grew a lot.  She was getting better and better in the back court and has decided that's what she enjoys most.  She is really interested in the libero position.  This position is an entirely defensive position.  They play back court for two different people, though they can only serve one rotation.  This means, if used to their maximum capacity, they are actively playing all but one serving rotation the entire set.  

The booster club paid for the team to go watch a Huskies game.  The girls had a great time and it was really cool to watch that level of play in person. 

Carson's 2021 soccer season

Carson loves this game....and he's good at it.  Carson's team, once again, was flooded with newbies.  Daddy and Coach Austin are able to do a really good job of "hiding" them (as they like to call it) and coaching them up to being able to play soccer.  They are able to use the more skilled players to offset the struggling players and once again, were able to pull off third place in the league despite the overwhelming number of inexperienced players.  This was the first year EVER that their team was actually the correct age with the exception of the three the coaches chose to pull up (Carson, Ty, and Maddox).  Carson was captain with Tucker and Ty.  Carson was excellent with assists.  This team had beautiful passing skills and worked really well as a TEAM.  Coach Austin constantly said you would never see a team with more perfect crosses and corners.  They are the ONLY team that had to play all of the top teams.  Others only played at most two of them so this team's "line up" was more difficult than any of the other teams.  Carson is so fun to watch of the field!  When Carson was playing well, the team played well.  He was the biggest "motor" this year.  He took playing the entire field to a new level from attacking to goal defense.   He often was able to run back and stop goal after goal, after goal.  He had seven goals over the course of the season and over double that in assists.  

He and Tucker spent a lot of time together at their brothers' soccer games.  

Being goofy at Dillon's game.  

Halloween and its activities

We actually were able to do fun stuff for Halloween this year!  We started with a trip to the pumpkin patch with friends.  We love this particular farm because there are SO many fun activities.

The main reason we went though was to experience a haunted corn maze.  Dillon wanted to do something scary last year but it just didn't work out.  So I made an extra effort to make it happen this year.  It ended up being really cool.  It was expensive so I was worried it wouldn't be worth it.  It actually was though.  It was really long and had a lot of different scenes with TONS of characters.  Dillon went ahead with his friends. Carson stayed nearby.  He was nervous at first but he quickly warmed up to it.  He and his friend Avry quickly started being "look outs" to see if they could find the people trying to scare them.  Made it kind of dull for the rest of us though.  

We found the $1 pumpkins again!  The kids didn't want as many pumpkins as usual but we went and got some.  They had a great time carving them.  I'm very grateful for the shop since it makes cleanup so much easier now.  We just turn on a propane heater and it works great.  

On actual Halloween I ended up not feeling well.  Kayda and I stayed home. Dad took the boys to meet their friends at CJ's house and they trick or treated around there.  Kind of nice not having to deal with trick or treaters at the new house, even if our kids have to go elsewhere to be able to participate.  

I don't have a picture but Dillon and his friends ended up being the seven dwarves.  Dillon was bashful which was super appropriate for him.  

Mom's crazy first week of school

This was an interesting beginning of the school year.  I am helping with volleyball while they look for a third coach.  I won't coach because Kayda's team would have games at the same time as mine and I refuse to miss hers.

The night before school started (Tuesday) I was helping with volleyball.  While waiting for the parent meeting I got a phone call from my principal.  I was a "close contact".  Two of the coworkers I sat with at kick off tested positive for covid.  This turned into "put in for a sub for tomorrow, go do a rapid test, if it's negative come in as soon as possible".  Being super efficient and connected, I was able to get ahold of a rapid test that evening and it came out negative.  So I got to cancel my sub and actually teach the first day.  I feel bad for the teachers that have to miss the first 3-5 days of school.    There actually ended up being 6 teachers out I believe, just at the high school.  I don't know about the other schools.

That wasn't the end of my adventures though... During 6th period of the first day, I was teaching, went to pull down the projector screen and the entire thing came down on my head.  We're talking about 8ft of metal casing and the screen itself.  The entire bracket had come out of the wall.  So now my head and neck hurt.  Yay!  

One of the maintenance staff came in... His response was "I have nothing but bad words".   It's actually one of the heaviest screens they have because it's a wide screen.  The bracket had been put up using the plastic anchors they provide for curtain rods...  This is a good 30+ lbs, plus the force of pulling the screen down.  We checked out the other bracket and it was also half out.  It had been screwed directly into the drywall without even using anchors.  Talk about dangerous!  He came in and fixed it, it would take significant effort to get that thing off the wall again.  He promised that "someone would have to take it down on purpose" and "if it comes down again I'll quit".   Good guy.

  I saw stars, then it was just my neck hurting.  I thought I was fine and would just be sore. Over the next couple of days my head started feeling fuzzy and "full" for lack of a better term, I can't concentrate or think clearly, I am really tired and holy heck my emotions are all over the place.  I finally decided to go to urgent care Friday.  My appointment at my normal one was cancelled because they don't do work related injury. So I went to the one they recommended but because I didn't have record of BOTH of my negative tests from being covid exposed they wouldn't treat me.  I had a picture of one but the other was done at school and they didn't give us our results.  I went home very emotional and frustrated.

Come Saturday I made an appointment for a rapid test so I could go to the urgent care. Just for the urgent care to tell me not to come, to go to the ER instead since they didn't have the diagnostic equipment that night be needed. So I didn't even need the negative test.

So off to the ER I go... Which was almost empty in case you were wondering.  They had me into a room within twenty minutes of walking in.  The doctor came in immediately.  Did some tests, decided imaging wasn't even necessary.  Prescribed me some pain meds for my neck, then walked away.  He didn't listen to all the stuff I was experiencing with my head which was frustrating.   Gave me no suggestions on what I should/shouldn't be doing...I had to ask the nurse that brought me my paperwork if they thought I had a concussion or what was going on.  I have a "mild" concussion since there was no black outs, pupil discrepancies, or vomiting.  

They asked me if I wanted days off.  Wanted, no, being gone as a teacher is miserable.  Hopefully I don't end up needing them.   Now I'll have a couple weeks+ of needing to chill out as much as possible while my brain heals itself.  So irritating.

On top of that, with the governor's vaccination mandate, our calculus teacher and her firefighter husband have decided to leave the state.  This could very well mean they're making HUGE changes to the master schedule and all the students.  Finding a new calculus teacher at this point would be next to impossible.   They need to move things around to get our college certified teacher all the college in the classroom classes.  I'd be really surprised if they chose not to move things around.

On that note... We're seeing estimates as high as 1 in 8 nurses refusing to the vaccination and 1 in 4 emergency responders.  For a state so worried about being able to care for the sick people... They've certainly found a way to make it worse.  Hopefully that is rescinded before we lose a lot of qualified staff in areas that already have shortages.  That applies to education too but the emergency/medical is much more urgent.

First day of school!

 We finally get to be back in the classroom full time!  Kayda's in grade 9, Dillon's grade 8 and Carson is in 5th grade. 

Kayda's first day:

There was nothing exciting about starting at the high school... Except volleyball.  She has friends in a couple of classes and is with her best friend for lunch.  She's going to get a lot of steps walking clear across campus a couple of times a day.

Dillon's first day:

His first day was okay. He wasn't impressed with a couple of his teachers. He's excited about having two PE classes, one with his best friend.  They've split lunch in half so you have 15 minutes to eat and then trade to "recess" since they have to limit the number of kids in the cafeteria.  

Carson's first day:

He likes his teacher and has one good friend in his class.  Unfortunately at recess they aren't allowed to play with other classes.  

We're actually all excited about his placement.  He has the teacher Dillon had for 4th grade and she is co-teaching with Kayda and Dillon's 5th grade teacher.