Goodbye, 2025

The last half of 2025 included some new beginnings and adventures for us. 

Felix passed his driver's test and began racking up experience as a Licensed Driver. So far, so good (knocking on all the wood)... He finished up his Legion baseball season shortly after my last post. And then broke off a piece of his femur while sprinting the following week. 😬 Ibuprofen took care of the pain, his body took care of rebuilding the bone, and PT this fall has helped get him back to full strength and usage. He did very well in his first term of Junior-year classes; he joined DECA, and has recently joined Mock Trail and has been doing weightlifting at school. His current goal is to study business at UW-Madison and get a law degree to become an attorney like Nick. 

Iris has been busy, as usual. At the end of July, her softball team competed in a national tournament in Peoria, IL. The weather was hot, and so were the girls, finishing 2nd in their division! Their team went to three fall tournaments, finishing 1st in two of them. In the first of these tournaments, Iris consecutively pitched the semifinal (no-hitter) and championship games. So proud of her for that accomplishment! She also turned 13, played libero for her school volleyball team (while developing a wicked jump serve), and started taking French. 

Nick's firm finally moved into their new office space in October. He's very happy with how it turned out, though he's so busy he doesn't have much time to admire it. Cara's been keeping on with her job and juggling the family's schedule. That schedule included trips back to GB to see Nick's sister and grandparents.

We decided to take a much-needed vacation over Thanksgiving (one of the few times we all were free). Iris requested going somewhere with teal water where she could snorkel. We ended up in Riviera Maya, and you can read about our trip here. 

We hope you and yours have a prosperous 2026!

First Half of 2025

We're just about midway through summer, so it's time for an update.

Our winter was pretty quiet. No big trips, no big events. Both kids prepared for their spring ball season. And suddenly, things were not quiet at all. 

Felix had his baseball tryouts over spring break, so we stayed home for that. He made the JV team this year, and the team had a good amount of success. Felix pitched a five-inning no-hitter during the season, which was fantastic! He's now over halfway through his Legion baseball season.

Iris had a difficult season of school softball. Too many players, too few innings to go around, too big talent differential made it challenging. The nice thing was playing against her tournament teammates. She was very happy to have a few tournaments this spring. Her tournament team has been very good in their four tournaments so far, finishing 1st, 4th (out of 9, playing up against 14U teams), 2nd and 1st. She also played with the 14U team for two tournaments.

Both kids did well overall in their classes and finished the year strong. Iris received a few awards from WRAMS, such as "most improved musician" in her band class. 

Felix just turned 16 on Saturday, and we had the grandparents over for a nice dinner. I waited until now to publish this post: he passed his road test today! He can officially drive the car all by himself. And he'll be running Iris around where she needs to go. (The downside of having a car at his disposal is it's also at our disposal. ;D )

That's all I have for now. We'll catch up again later this year.

Awesome things: Time Team episodes, Ologies podcasts

Goodbye, 2024

As we come up on the end of the year and the first anniversary of my mom's passing, I'm filled with mixed emotions. Compared to this time last year, I'm not filled with overwhelming sadness. It's tapered into a dull ache, but I miss her every day. We learned we can get through golf and football seasons without her. We learned she has no pull in the afterlife (yet), since none of the teams she would cheer on hardest won any championships. We are constantly reminded of how much she did for us now that she's gone. And we're still shocked cancer took her so fast. I don't think we'll ever come to terms with that.

As for the second half of our year, July saw both kids have sports success. Felix's baseball team went pretty deep in the Legion regional tournament. Iris's club softball team went to Indiana for a world series tournament and made it to Saturday play. She tried out and made the team again for next year (no surprises there). Iris also got to play 7th grade volleyball at school this fall. Her team had mixed success (hard to win when they didn't run an offense like other schools and had equal playing time for all), but she enjoyed it overall. 

Felix got his temps in July and has worked on his hours of practice behind the wheel. So far, he's a pretty conscientious driver. He's also just about Nick's height. He's done well so far in 9th grade and has been working out to make himself a better athlete for the next baseball season. 

Iris has been crushing it in 7th grade. She still plays trombone and had a band concert in December. 

The bright spot of the last six months was the family trip we took to Italy. We found a week to get away between the summer activities and school starting, and made plans to spend five days in northeastern Italy. It was Iris' first trip out of the country and Felix's second this year. I wrote about our adventure here.

Nick's firm bought a new building for their WR office and hope to move in after renovations are complete this spring. I continue to work on work zones at WisDOT.

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving without Mom. We went to GB for Nick's side, and had four generations there with Nick's grandparents in attendance. My side got together for a subdued dinner that weekend.

We hope you have a safe, happy, and healthy 2025!

First half of 2024

Life and other distractions have gotten in the way of regular updates here. I will endeavor to try on two updates per year.

So. Here we are at the end of June. The beginning of the year was tough emotionally as we learned to live without my mom. I've been helping my dad as much as I'm able, and my sister is too.

Felix went to Germany with a school group for ten days at the end of March and had a great time. Iris, Nick and I took an unexpectedly snowy brief spring break trip to Minneapolis at that same time.

Felix made the JV2 baseball team and spent the spring playing (when it wasn't rainy and/or cold). Iris improved her volleyball skills until it was time to focus on softball instead. She's already played with three different teams this summer (subbing on one) in six different tournaments and currently has a 0.596 batting average and 1.369 OPS. :D Her teams have two 2nd place and one 3rd place finish so far.

Nick continues to grow his business, while looking for more hours in a day to get his workload done. Cara just had her 10-year anniversary in her present job.

And that's where we are so far.

Goodbye, 2023

I'm not going to bury the lede: my mom died unexpectedly just after Christmas. We had less than 18 hours from cancer diagnosis to when she was gone. It's going to take some time to process our loss. Here's her obituary.

Goodbye, Mom. I love you and miss you so much.

As for the latter half of 2023...

The kids finished up their summer ball seasons. Iris's softball team finished no worse than 4th, and won a total of two tournaments. She tried out for and made a club softball team that played in three fall tournaments, winning the last one. She's also been hard at work with extra hitting and pitching lessons. Felix has been working on his pitching and took up weight lifting with Nick to build his strength.

Both kids started at new schools: Felix in high school and Iris at the middle school. Both have been doing well in their classes. Iris also participated in volleyball through the school, which was practices-only for her grade, much to her chagrin.

Nick's business keeps growing and things are looking good. Now if only they could find their next office space. My work and job have continued without any changes, which is just fine with me. I continue to telework most of the time, which is my preference.

Nick's grandparents celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary, and the entire Abts clan got together for it.

We did get to celebrate one last Christmas with Mom. And I'm thankful for that.

Halfway Through 2023

I just realized a few minutes ago that I haven't been doing a very good job keeping up on this blog. Whoops. Let's get caught up.

Iris finished her swimming season strong, qualifying to swim at the State YMCA meet in the 50y backstroke and 50y breaststroke. The grandparents joined us in Brown Deer to cheers her on.

Iris was also in volleyball from January through April. I helped coach and we had a lot of fun at our second tournament.

We took a trip to San Francisco with Steve and Vicky over Spring Break. It was the kids' first trip to California. We had two rainy days and two clear days, and we made the most of them.

In March, after months of putting things into motion, Nick joined up with two other attorneys in town to form a new law firm. It's been a bit of a roller coaster starting it up, but business keeps rolling.

The kids finished off their school years and experiences at their respective schools. Both will be attending new schools next year. I still can't quite believe Felix will be going to high school next year. Iris is excited to make the jump to middle school.

Once the weather finally got nicer, the whole family has been occupied with baseball and softball. The kids are each on two teams, and Nick and I have been helping coach them. Both kids' tournament teams have had success already this season. Iris's team has earned 1st and 2nd place tournament finishes in our two tournaments so far. Felix's team placed 3rd in our home tournament, but sadly went winless over the past weekend (though the rest of the time up north was fun).

Cara's job hasn't changed much, though the kids are home for the summer. It's almost like our virtual year all over again. 

Iris is very much into Harry Potter now, having read and reread the entire series over the last year. She will be starting the trombone next year. Felix plays baseball on the Xbox and yells at the game. 

Awesome things: the US version of Ghosts, being married for 15 years.

Goodbye, 2022

As we're mere hours from the start of 2023, I thought it time to catch up on our lives since the beginning of September.

We took our biannual family pictures with some gorgeous fall colors. The kids were being a little goofy at the end. :o)

Felix started 8th grade and Iris started 5th. Felix has been struggling to turn in assignments on time in some classes (we're working on that...), but he started taking German and is looking forward to his trimester with Art. He was also in Engineering Club this fall, building a neat miniature catapult with a friend. He spends most of his free time playing computer games (loudly) with friends. Iris has been having a good year so far, and is a captain on the school safety patrol. She's been working hard on the Y swim team again. In the two meets she's attended so far this year, she shaved seven seconds off her 50-yard freestyle time, which is impressive. She's already planning on doing volleyball, swimming and softball next year in 6th grade. She has also gotten hooked on reading the Harry Potter series. I've been making her wait to watch the last movies until she reads the books first.

Nick and Cara took a trip to Porto, Portugal, for a week, and enjoyed the atmosphere, the countryside, and, of course, the port wine. After we came back, Nick finalized the purchase of a second office building in Black River Falls, where he spends one day a week now working with the two staff there. Cara continues to be the region's work zone engineer and sees no reason why that should change anytime soon.

Much closer to home, we took a trip up to Merrill to see the "star" of our favorite bad movie - Giant Spider Invasion, showcased on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The kids went a little low-key for Halloween. Iris was a banana and Felix was Aaron Rodgers at a charity event (maybe?).

Our friends had their annual holiday party after a two-year COVID pause, so we got all dressed up and had a nice time there. My sister found that dress at Goodwill in the late 90s, and it got a lot of well-deserved compliments at the party.

We continued our tradition of themed Christmas pictures. This year, we went with Caddyshack. 

We took a trip to Madison yesterday to eat at an Indian buffet for the first time in years, and took a walk through the zoo. It turns out, we aren't very big birds.

We hope your 2023 brings you much happiness! Cheers!

Awesome things: MST3K's season 13 (and upcoming season 14!), What We Do in the Shadows, all the birds in my backyard