Current Life

Here are a few pics from the weekend. Our good camera lens is in for repair so I don't have any good action shots. Hopefully we'll have it back before his season ends. Again is was a great time!



Here is the latest Austin funnies. He's gone from being a potty mouth to everything "stinks." Many mornings he'll wake up grouchy complaining "I don't want to go to Mrs. T's" and I'll ask why and he'll say, "because her stinks!" Ask if he wants cheerios for breakfast and he'll say "no" why? Because "they stink!" We will get ready to leave and get in the van and he'll complain, "I don't want to take the van, its stinky (which he may have a point there but that is a another story)! Tomorrow is our family's turn to help in his classroom. Grandma is going, do you think he wants her to go? No...why? Because her stinks! This game stinks, Tommy stinks, TV stinks, everyone and everything stinks according to Austin! I don't know how he gets on these little kicks but man it's hard not to laugh. Terrible I know! I love him to pieces but I know he is going to give me more than a few gray hairs through the years.

I've started up the new volleyball season. I hadn't planned on coaching this year but here I go again. Now that we've started I'm excited to do it. I enjoy it and hopefully the kids will do well. The 5/6 team will be coed this year, the last time we had a coed team we absolutely killed everyone. We won every game of every match until the championship and then absolutely choked and got 2nd place. That same group of 5th graders ended up winning it all during their 7th & 8th grade seasons and are now freshman in high school. They were awesome! We'll see how this year goes.

I haven't played any GH3 in weeks so I busted it out tonight. I was stuck on the last 3 songs of hard almost a month now. I finally beat two of them tonight. Only one to go and then the battle with Lou and I will have conquered hard! Yeah!

It's hard to believe that March is days away which means that spring is right around the corner. I still haven't gone skiing but am hoping to schedule a class trip for the 13th. Scary thing with that is the snow could very well be gone. We'll just have to hope not. After the 13th, spring can arrive.

Hope all is well in your realm.

Championship Game

Well all good things must come to an end. We lost this afternoon 8-1. We were doing pretty well and were only down 3-1 going into the 3rd but a quick 4th goal seemed to deflate us and it all went downhill from there. The boys played their little hearts out and Tommy did ok. You have to credit the Canadian team, they were awesome! Tommy finally looked like the younger player that he is and got beat a couple times. The team was just faster and had a great goalie when we did get our chances to score.

I'm not disappointed at all. The team got a nice trophy and the kids got medals. 2nd place out of 16 teams is great. Tommy is a little bummed but he'll get over it. I know after yet another breakaway from the other team he was hanging his head pretty low during the game. He's so competitive. His team hasn't lost except for one game in October so he definitely hasn't tasted defeat in a while.

Only 2 weeks left of our season, I will definitely miss this team. 9 of his teammates have to move up to Squirts. We had a fabulous time hanging out with everyone at the hotel and we only got one complaint about noise the whole weekend so kudos to us. ;) I do think I need a snow day this week to help recover. An email from my principal states that may happen Tuesday. Cross your fingers. ;)

Thanks to everyone for following our tournament fun! I bet you are all about sick of hearing about hockey. Is it baseball season yet?

Semi-Final Game

And what a great game it was! The other team played really well and we were down by one goal for most of the game. We tied it up with about 3 minutes to go and then got a penalty with 2:12 to go so we were down a man. Our superstar Reid scored the game winner with 6 seconds to go! YAHOO!! It was a 3-2 victory and we now play a Canadian team in the finals at 1:45! Wish us luck!

Game 3

It was a major romping 7-1. The 1 goal for the other team though would be assisted by Tommy. Oops. He was skating with it and pretty much passed it to the other team. That was the first goal of the game but the team absolutely shut them down after that early goal. Our boys just play so awesome together. I actually felt bad for the other team, the poor goalie faced 29 shots while our goalie only saw 3 shots. Wild!

Semi-finals tomorrow at 8:00! Another early bedtime tonight.

Game 2

Another victory! We won 7-2 and Tommy got the game MVP trophy for another great defensive effort. This was our "do or die" game. Both teams were 1-0 and now that we are 2-0 the best we can do is tie for points even if we lose this afternoon. With the tie-breaker head to head rules we will come out ahead. So we have this afternoon's game which will be no pressure now and tomorrow morning we have the semi-finals at 8:00! I hope that wasn't too confusing. Too much fun!

Here is a pic of him with his trophy.

Hockey Tournament

Tommy's team won their first game today 4-0. The team looked great and we are especially proud of our defense for the big shutout. I hope that they can do well tomorrow. The teams they play tomorrow are big and fast! But we are small and fast.

We're having a great time just being out of town. It's good to get away! We will keep everyone updated with how the tourney goes.

Another great weekend!

Busy but great! Friday night Tommy got to spend the night at a hockey friend's house. They went to the Spirit game and he got to ride on the Zamboni, then he was picked in the crowd as the "Kid of the Game." He got a Spirit prize pack which included a warm-up jersey so that was cool. He said it was the best day of his life. Joe, Austin, and I had a great dinner at Genji's and then went shopping for outfits for the $100 dinner fund raiser for school last night.

Speaking of which it was a tropical theme and everyone wore Hawaiian garb. There was a live band and they have a few 50/50 drawings and lots of giveaways and such. Joe & I won about $360 in two 50/50's and the regular drawing they have. They sell 125 tickets and then draw balls, the last ball drawn wins $3000. We were number 115 winning us $50, so close. It was a late night as we closed The Rocket after the dance, which brings us to today.

Tommy had his fastest skater finals this morning and HE WON!!! He cut his time by over 1/2 a second which is a lot in skating terms. He got to skate during the 1st intermission showing off his skills and then during the 2nd intermission all the finalists got to go on the ice and get their medals. We are so proud of him! Tony & Shane also did great both getting silver medals in their events. Our good camera lens is in for repair so I didn't get any action shots. Here is a nice pic of the kids with Steagle Colbeagle the eagle.

If you are familiar with Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report you have probably seen him on his show.

And also, yesterday Tommy's team won their 1st playoff game. It was another come from behind win. We're quite the 3rd period team. Makes me a nervous wreck though.

So as you can see the Papesh's had another successful weekend. I think we should have played the lottery as everything is going in our flavor. I better knock on wood real quick! I hope your weekend was just as great.

Today's the Day!

Yeah sure it's Valentine's Day but more importantly the Tiger's pitchers and catchers report for spring training!!! Yahoo! Let's hope this is the year they win it all!

DOH

After making it the whole month of January I've finally failed my New Year's Resolution. I was late today. Not late for work per se but late by my standards nonetheless. I tell myself I have to leave by 7:30 or I am late. First off Tommy was in slow motion today yet I could have made it. But I had to run back in the house for one last item and that was my undoing. I left the door open and with the van running it quickly sent my gas alarm a screaming! So I had to tear that apart to get it to stop, I was done for. All in all, I must say I'm proud of myself for making it this far and I'll try to right the ship again tomorrow!

22 seconds of fame & video games

The Saginaw Spirit office called yesterday to talk about Tommy qualifying in the fastest skater event in the Shoot, Skate, Score Competition. He gets a jersey with his name on it and we can get all the tickets we want to the game at the discounted price of $7.50. The family is all crazed about this and we'll probably have a huge crowd for him even though it is literally 22 seconds of action for him. Oh well, it's exciting. Tommy's school buddy Tony and his brother Shane who is in my class also qualified for events in their age groups so we will be able to see them compete as well. No big deal as we love the Saginaw Spirit and would enjoy the game without Tommy on the ice anyways.

Tommy made out like a fat rat for his birthday and decided to go buy the PS2 game Rock Band. We got it home last night and it isn't working in our unit. So Joe and Tommy are off to GameStop to buy a new PS2! Apparently we are made of money. I'm perturbed that the PS2 is only 3 years old and won't play it. I have an antique Nintendo that still works and is probably over 20 years old. Ridiculous! I love my Nintendo btw, I'll spend hours on it in the summer months. Mike Tyson's Punchout and Thunder and Lightning are two of my favorites that never get old. I have yet to beat Thunder and Lightning, which is a game like Brickles so I imagine that is why I still play it.

We are still loving the Wii, especially GH3 though I have plateaued in my skills. Austin's favorite Wii Sports actually broke so we went a week without that game. Joe called Nintendo support and they sent us a new Sports game for free. The lady loved Joe's story about Austin being able to play the unit even with his CP. I'm sure that helped our case. Tonight we are having a gaming party with Sherri & her family. I'm sure it will be a good time!

Happy Saturday to you all! :)

Another Snow Day!

And I love them! One great thing about Michigan is the four seasons. Winter used to be my absolute favorite season; though as I age I tend to enjoy the summer warmth a bit more. Maybe I just like my sleeping in on summer vacation. ;)

Yesterday it snowed heavily all day and they released school at 1:00. I've had at least one snow day every week in the last 3. The wind was just howling last night and we have some pretty significant drifts. It is just gorgeous out today. Very mild out to compliment our foot of snow. I think the last time we had snow like this was in Dec. 2000. We were moving into this house. I love this big snow, I'm anxious to take Tommy skiing again. If there is ever a weekend when we are not too busy we'll have to go.

Austin and I went out and cleared the driveway. I then ran him around on the sled for a while. He Loved it! I enjoyed the exercise. Too bad, I didn't last long. I have no endurance for running. I need to work on that.

I hope you are enjoying the weather. I feel somewhat bad bragging about the weather with the tornadoes in the south. My sympathies certainly go out to those people. Unbelievable in February. We had a lightning storm on Monday night. The weather has been "weird." You can't deny nature's power.

Tommy's birthday party was nice. I still can't believe he is 7!

Hope all is well in your realm. Everything is great here except that our cleaning lady couldn't venture out today. Oh Lord No! The agony! Our cleaning lady is the most hard working lady around. We sure do appreciate her and we definitely miss her when she is gone! I will "try" to do a little cleaning myself. Oh the horror! There is nothing OCD with me at all, especially not cleaning. Sorry Jess I really wish I was a bit more like you in that regard.

Lucky 7's

Young Thomas is 7 today! So amazing to me. The years have gone by all too quickly as probably most parents will agree tends to happen.

Here is Tommy right after he was born.

Here is the half-life picture. This was taken in late July of 2004. The last 3 1/2 years seem just like yesterday.


And our big boy these days!


We can't be more proud of Tommy. He is growing up too fast for us, but he is definitely a great kid and we love him so much. He and Austin just make life so fun! I thank the Lord everyday for the wonderful blessings that are those two boys.

I also got to give a shout out to "Uncle Andrew." My younger brother turns Sweet 16 today! That is another "wow" thought for me. The time it is a flying!

Tommy Scored!

It was his first goal of the season and it was so sweet. They were losing 3-0 at the time and somehow he got the puck in the defensive zone and he got by a bunch of kids and shot it beautifully on a breakaway. I was so excited and jumping up and down screaming like a crazy lady. The whole crowd was excited as they know we've waited all season for a goal. He plays defense so his chances are few but he has had a few shots on goal that just haven't gone in. I ended up sitting down right on my nachos as I was in la la land. That was cute too. ;) The team won the game 5-4 too! Woot!

Hopefully Joe got some good video of it and he can post it on his blog since Apple Computers are SO great with video! Bug him until it happens!

**edited to add* Thanks Joe