A Year of Change

Today Jag has basketball tryouts for Club which runs for the next three months. There is some overlap with baseball as for example, Jag is supposed to be in Carbondale this morning for a game but will be playing basketball from 9am until 3pm. Meanwhile Ty will be doing a bunch of homework and then getting ready for his last performance tonight. After the play, the kids have a wrap party from 9 until 11:30! That makes for a late night.

Speaking of late night, last night Warner arrived around 10:45. I was already sleeping but Lori was up with the boys. I was really tired from getting up early and rushing down to Denver and back and then driving the boys here and there for what seemed like hours. I’ll bet I drove 250 miles yesterday. It’s a little cooler outside but not snowing. I did buy a new printer yesterday and need to hook up our new computer, printer and set up today.

Lori had a long day at work but did go to Ty’s 2nd performance last night. We’ll all go tonight. She said the kids had even more energy last night as they were more comfortable with their roles. It’s a really good play, I wish you all could see it. I think someone is taking video of the show as I said we’d take 4 discs. If we get them, we’ll send you all one.

Everyone was tired and a bit snappy with each other yesterday. The things that can come out of 13 and 15 year old kids mouths are unbelievable. It then doesn’t help when we as parents react. I told Lori the great thing about life is everyday you wake up you get a fresh start or a do over! So, we all have good days and not so good days, but everyday is thankfully a new day!

In May I’m off to France, Slovenia and Italy. We’re taking the whole sales force which is like 14 of us. We fly into Marseille France, spend a few days there and then go to Slovenia, and then into Italy before flying home. All in all, I’m gone like 9 days including the 3 travel days. I was trying to upgrade to Business but they couldn’t guarantee me a seat so after working all the magic and angles I could, I ended up just buying my Business seat for around $4000, which is actually pretty darn cheap. A Coach ticket was a bit over $2000, and it would have been $2800 and 40,000 miles to get on the waitlist to upgrade. The best thing is my return, after I get from Florence to Munich, is a non-stop straight into Denver. It’s a 10 hour flight on Lufthansa but it sure will be nice not having to change planes once I get into the U.S.

Before then, I have a trip to Miami and probably one to Texas once again. Might end up in Arizona for a 3 or 4 day work/play weekend too. Then I think I’m here until the first of June when we have the Kapalua Wine Festival on Maui. I might end up back in Italy in September and also maybe Chile and Argentina, but won’t know for a few months.

Time to get Jag up for basketball as we need to leave in an hour. Hope everyone is doing well. I saw my Mom yesterday for a few minutes and she seems to be doing fine. I heard Grandma Dixie on the phone with Lori too and she sounds good. I hope Annette that you’re doing well also. Enjoy the weekend and God Bless.

The first performance of three was last night from 6:30 until about 8:45. The name of the play is Dear John as it’s comprised of a bunch of John Hugh’s movies. He was the Director for such famous movies as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Vacation and a few more. It was all centered around Ferris Bueller and Ty plays Cameron, Ferris’s best friend. The kids all sang and danced and acted their way through the whole play which was written by our school theater teacher. It was really really good. We hope to have dvd’s of the performance we can send you all.

Meanwhile Jag left at 11am and was home at 10pm. They lost 10 to 2 but it was the first game of the season. Saturday is another game but Jag has Club basketball tryouts so he’ll have to skip this upcoming game.

I’m off to Denver around 7am this morning and hope to be back up by 1. I have a meeting at 9 and 9:45. Warner, Ty’s friend who moved to Washington D.C., arrives tonight around 11pm and is staying till Sunday. He and his Mom are flying out for the play. Warner is staying with us and his Mom somewhere else. So, we’re busy, we also need to clean as the house cleaners come this morning, and we’re totally not ready! GB

I finally did the blog around dinner yesterday, sorry I forgot. The main points were Jag made Varsity baseball and Ty’s play starts tonight. You can click on the top left of the page to go back a day.

Jag has his first game today and the team leaves for Mead at 11am. I think they’ll be home around 8pm tonight. Quite the road trip. Ty’s play starts tonight but first he has two tests today. Both Lori and I didn’t sleep well and our necks hurt. Must be from working out. Speaking of which, after working out twice yesterday, I have a scheduled workout at 9:30 this morning but will need to leave a bit early to pick up Jag and get him to Battle Mountain to catch the bus.

Oh I almost forgot, yesterday Jag went to the orthodontist and he’ll have the clear type braces in a few weeks. We could have bought a nice used car for what that costs! Something has to give or else we need to both get second jobs. Time to go as it’s 5:30 and I think Lori wants to go to the gym. God Bless.

Thanks to my brother Tom, here’s the blog. I rarely forget but today was one of those days. Jag had a orthodontist appointment and as a result, we’re now $6000 poorer! It is what it is as he needs his teeth fixed. He’ll get Invisalign which is like a clear retainer and he’ll be all done in like a year.

He also made the Varsity Team on the Battle Mountain High School baseball team, quite an accomplishment. That’s it for the day, Ty’s play starts tomorrow and runs for 3 nights and Jag has his first baseball game, GB

I dropped the boys at school and by the time I made it to the on ramp to the highway, they had just closed it. I had to sit for an hour and 15 minutes until the road opened which put me late to pick up Lori. We decided she should take a cab ($106, ugh) to my Mom’s as it’d save about 90 minutes off our day. We finally left Dever around 11 and had Lori to work by 1. The roads coming back up were nothing like going down. It wasn’t so much the snow but the wind that caused all the problems. A few times you couldn’t see in front of you due to the blowing snow. This morning I need to go back to Denver to drop some samples at the warehouse, drop Lori’s car to get fixed and then have lunch with my Mom.

Tonight Jag has baseball practice and then a banquet for basketball. Ty has some make-up tests and then theater practice again tonight. Last night he didn’t get out until 6:55!

Not sure what we’re doing for Spring Break, we’ll know soon after Grandma Dixie finds out if she can fly. Time to run, no rest for the weary or whatever they say. Hope all’s well, God Bless.

It’s 5am and while that may seem early, what I mean by “up early” is that Lori is up early. She should be getting in her rental car right about now and driving to the airport. You see it’s 4am in California and she had to get up at 3 to be ready to leave now. Of course I woke up at 4:23 to make sure she woke up!

Both boys did clean a bit yesterday. They could have done better but then again, they could have done much worse. I suppose I should be thankful for what they did do. Ty had theater practice from 12 until 5pm yesterday while Jag hung out at home with me.

It’s going to be really windy today and hopefully Lori’s flight arrives on time. I have a couple of stops and then should be up the hill by about noon if we’re lucky. Jag has baseball after school and Ty has theater all week as his performances start this Thursday. That’s it, time to load wine, feed Mojo, shower and get the boys moving, GB

Today the boys and I are cleaning up around here. I’ve got a little bit of work to do but both boys have a lot to do! We need to get back on track for the coming week and cleaning the house and their rooms is a big part of that.

Yesterday I took Jag to baseball as the coach scheduled an impromptu practice to take advantage of the nice weather which was about 28 degrees at 9am. Jag of course, as well as the other kids, were not thrilled as they all can sleep until noon on Saturdays. The coach said most were asleep on their feet for the first 30 minutes of practice. In any case, most showed up for the 2 hour 45 minute practice. I managed to get there with about 40 minutes remaining. Jag was in the outfield as he’s one of 3 freshman on the team which is made up of a couple sophomores and mostly seniors. Seeing the seniors pitch is quite different from 7th grade when Jag last played ball. Anyhow finally a ball was hit to Jag and it bounced 20 yards or so in front of him. He charged on the ball, bare handed it and threw into the shortstop who then relayed it to the 2nd baseman to get the hitter out. Next up was his first at bat. On the first pitch he made contact but fouled it off. Then after a couple of balls, Jag connected with a pitch and absolutely smashed it! It went over the coach’s head who was playing center field into right center field and he had a triple! It would have been a home run if it was to straight away right field. I could tell Jag felt good about it. After practice the coach said how all the guys welcomed Jag to the team right away and how he crushed that ball. He should know as he was the one chasing it! The other coach introduced himself to me and said how glad they were that Jag came out for the team. Now I’m sure he’ll play a lot of outfield with all the older kids ahead of him but you have to give him credit for joining a team at a different school with a bunch of kids he had never met.

Meanwhile Ty was studying and after we arrived home, both boys went to the mountain. Jag and his two friends took Ty with them as Ty didn’t have anyone to go with. Ty is quite the snowboarder going off cliffs and is probably the more aggressive one on the mountain. With the U.S. Open going on, the town and mountain was packed. We though, from living here, knew right where to go to drop them off and pick them up to avoid the crowds. After I dropped them off, I ran to Costco and then picked Ty up a little after 4. Jag went to Zach’s house to change and then they went back into town for the free concert and award ceremony. Shaun White won the thing which was pretty spectacular. I caught some of it on tv. Finally at 9:30pm, I went to pick Jag up in town. We then had to drive to Zach’s to get his computer and ski clothes along with 2 giant signs from the event. These are like 6 feet by 4 feet and lined the course and the boys snatched them after the event was over. They’re like sponsorship signs that they just throw away. Not sure what we’re doing with them other than putting them in the garage with some other signs that have been accumulated over the past two years.

Meanwhile Lori was visiting Grandma Dixie’s friends and then went to Marie Callender’s for dinner. She then visited a friend from school before watching tv with her Mom around 9:30 California time to wind up the night. We might all go to Hawaii for Spring Break if Grandma Dixie is strong enough. It’d be a great trip where I’m sure the boys and Grandma would have fun for Spring Break. We’ll have to make sure she’s up for it but she looks great in the picture from yesterday. We’ll need to decide on Hawaii quick though as tickets will be tough to get. That’s it, time to feed Mojo, shower and get cleaning. Lori lands at 9am tomorrow morning so she’ll be getting up early. There’s a surfer movie on tv right now which makes you miss Hawaii. Have a great day and God Bless.

We made it out of the house, barely on time, and managed to pick up Jag’s skis at the locker and drop him at school by 7:11am. We were so early, he was locked out for a few minutes while we were speeding up the pass to get Lori to the airport. We arrived there at a little after 9am and then Ty and I sprinted across town for my sales meeting. After loading 15 cases of wine, I went in and spoke to the team for about 20 minutes. Then it was off to the mall for 2 pair of pants, 4 shirts, a sweatshirt, a new belt, some socks and a new pair of shoes for Ty. Now we don’t shop at Nordstroms or anything but this load for Ty was still about $700! He too now is in grown up sizes so no more youth clothes for him, which means, they’re not cheap anymore! We then grabbed a quick bite to eat as we were exhausted and then had to rush up the hill to pick up Jag at the mountain and get him to baseball.

When we arrived in Vail we had to stop by school and get Jag’s computer and backpack at school and then drove to the transit center to pick him up. The town was packed more than we’ve ever seen it. Cars were parked on the frontage road without a spot to spare, all for the U.S. Open, which is still going on.

We rushed home and Jag quickly changed for baseball. His coach wants to have another practice this morning from 9 to 11 which Jag is not too excited about but we’ll get him there. After baseball last night, he was tired. Ty had slept in the car on the way back up from Denver. I too was tired and was laying down reading a book by 7pm. Lori called around 8 and she was also beat from grocery shopping and getting up so early. So, there you have it, a busy long day for all of us. Today will be more of the same I’m sure. I’ll be in Denver Monday (picking Lori up) and again on Wednesday dropping samples at the distributor. I’m a bit sore today, all over, from my workout. But it’s a good sore. Ty might snowboard today and I think both boys are going to town this afternoon for the free concert. Time to run, GB.

It’s 5:34 and we need to leave in an hour and 11 minutes. We need to stop in town and get Jags ski gear before we drop him at school. Ty had a great hut trip and was tired when he arrived back at school. Jag had his first baseball practice yesterday and will be back at it today after skiing. Ty and most of the other kids who were on the hut trip, are staying home today so he’s going to Denver with me. He needs to get his computer fixed so we’ll see if we can squeeze that in. So lots going on.

I had a full body, glute and hamstring workout yesterday that was grueling. Almost every muscle on my body from my neck to my calves are sore. There’s so much involved with proper posture and stretching it’s remarkable. Oh well, I know no one cares much about this but as you get older, balance and full body movement and strength are key to an active older life.

Lori was flying home Monday at 10am but now has to fly home at 5:40am. The airlines suggested moving the flight up as we’re expecting big winds Monday that will be up to 80 miles an hour. If she kept her original flight she probably wouldn’t have been able to get in. Of course, they still want us to pay the $200 change fee, ugh.

Ty needs new clothes too so we’ll try to handle that today as he’s grown so much his pants are all about 6 inches above his ankles. It was nice and warm up here yesterday and is supposed to be so through tomorrow. Hope everyone is well, lots more going on but too much to write in the little time we have left this morning. GB

Well we both need a break around here, but alas, that’s not going to happen. Lori is off to Sacramento tomorrow for like 4 days and I’ll be hanging with the boys. Ty should be waking up soon in a hut at about 12,000 feet and Jag has his first baseball practice today after school. Oh yea, I have a sales meeting tomorrow morning in Denver after dropping Lori at the airport. I’m driving her down and then picking her up Monday as the shuttle van was $194 round trip! Throw in her rental car and every time she goes to California, it’s a $1000!

Jag’s sleeping still and Lori wants to go the the gym in 5 minutes. It’s 5:55 right now so I’d better get moving. I also need to go to the storage unit today to get Jag’s other baseball gear. I did get him a new bat and shoes and other assorted gear yesterday( as he’s grown so much) so he can play starting today. First though, I do need to go by the high school and pay the registration fee too, it’s always something.

Time to go, have a great day, GB