A Quarter Through 2022

 Sorry I've been quiet as of late. But I'm back now and ready to catch you up on the first quarter of 2022. 

The thing that got us out of the house the most was Iris's swim stuff. She participated in several meets this winter, making steady improvement on her times. She focused more of the second half of the swim season on the backstroke, freestyle and individual medley. She didn't qualify for the YMCA state meet, but she did well trying. She won herself a few ribbons, for which she was pretty proud. She always wants to be faster, though. 

Ribbons!

In addition to swim practice, we had a few indoor softball practices. It made for a nice change to think about a summer sport in the dead of winter. :D I also taught Iris how to do a bit of crocheting. She started to make a blanket for the cats to sleep on, but she may have lost interest in it...

Felix continues to play video games loudly and swear when he thinks we're not listening. We signed him up to play baseball at his middle school so that he does at least one extracurricular activity this year. He's unenthusiastic.

Nick and I have been eagerly anticipating the return of Mystery Science Theater 3000's 13th season. We've gotten some fun behind-the-scenes looks at production, and I can often be found giving my 2 cents on the Forum.

I went up to meet our friend's newest addition, Benji, while having a lovely chat with mom Heidi. Teddy was adorable as usual. 

The kids just had spring break last week. Because we did the "big" trip in the fall, we planned a surprise trip for the end of the week (more on that in a sec). I did take some time off with them early in the (cold) week, and we did a hike at Roche-a-Cri in Adams County. 

The view from below...

and above!

Back to the trip... We didn't give the kids any indication where we were going, other than to say we were going within a day's drive away and we'd be gone for 3 nights. Our destination ended up being Milwaukee. I bought tickets to a Bucks game, a Brewers game (which was cancelled because of the lockout - GRRR!), and a Wave game instead. We dealt with unseasonably cold, snowy/rainy weather, but had fun eating at the Safe House and going to Discovery World. The kids enjoyed the trip overall. More details available here.

Awesome things: MST3K, Ghosts (the British version), Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Gilded Age, and Bridgerton

Adios 2021

 Since mid-November, we've had a nice end to 2021 and hope you have, too. 

Cheers to 2021!

We took our trip to Orlando (originally scheduled for March 2020) with Cara's parents over Thanksgiving. Read all about that here.

Mother Nature has been all over the place, giving us 5 inches of snow one day and a 60° day the following week. We dealt with thick fog that day, and had severe wind storms roll though, knocking out our power for a few hours that night. Thankfully, no major damage at our house.

Nick and I have seen a few live shows this fall (which is infinitely greater than the amount we saw in a year pre-covid): Charlie Berens, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and MST3K Live!

All dressed up with a place to go!

Iris got her second vaccine dose, while Nick and I got boosted. We're hopefully prepared for when the omicron variant heads our way. Cara also got her first haircut in 26 months. A whopping 4 inches cut off, but it had grown 13 inches over that period, so... :D We also watched the UW-Madison Volleyball team have an amazing season and win the NCAA Championship! Wooooo!

We've been dealing with some trust issues with Felix. We found he'd been playing a game banned in our house for several weeks with friends; he didn't ask because he assumed we'd say no. We're trying to work on reestablishing trust and communication with him. It's a process, and there's always something... Meanwhile, Iris has been (overall) acting more mature lately, so it's been a pleasant change from her immediately whining when asked to do something. It still happens occasionally (most often after swimming when she's tired), but overall, it's an improvement.

We had three family holiday celebrations this year. We continued the tradition our family started last year by celebrating Yule instead of Christmas, giving the kids presents and having a nice dinner on the solstice. Each kid got a new sled, an Oodie, a sweatshirt, slippers, fuzzy socks, an art kit and an Amazon gift card from us.

We spent Christmas Eve in Green Bay with Nick's parents and had a nice time there. It was wonderful to have Nick's remaining grandparents there to celebrate with us. 

We usually celebrate Christmas Eve with my family, but my sister's work schedule shifted our getting together to the 26th. We had a lovely afternoon/evening together. 

Now I've got the week off while the kids are home on their winter break. We plan on trying out their new sleds on the snow we're getting (a little too late to have a true White Christmas, but better now than after the kids go back).

Awesome things: Generous people, healthcare workers, Wisconsin Badger Volleyball, The Great British Baking Show, gift cards, Season 3 of What We Do In The Shadows, my King Arthur Baker's Companion.

2021 Holiday Card

 

2021 saw some return to the old normal amidst the new normal. Cara continued to be home overseeing the kids' virtual school year until early June. They did a great job overall, but were very happy to go back to Y Camp for the summer. We also saw the return of summer ball, which kept us very busy with many league and tournament baseball and softball games. We're looking forward to more in the coming year!

We made some baby steps leaving our little home bubble, taking a spring break trip to Superior/Duluth to see waterfalls and spending some weekends away with tournaments. We felt comfortable enough to reschedule our cancelled 2020 spring break trip, taking a short vacation to Orlando over Thanksgiving.

Nick's business has flourished over its first year (yay!) while Cara has had to return to the office part-time (boo!). The kids have returned to full-time in-person school, and both have done exceptionally well transitioning back. Iris is again doing swim team and is happy to be competing in some meets this winter.

We're also healthy and happy to report that we are all fully vaccinated and (in the adults' cases) boosted. Yay, science!

We're looking forward to things continuing to be bright in 2022. For next year, we hope your wishes are fulfilled, your fears are assuaged, and that we'll all get though this together. 

With love,

The Abts Family

Fall 2021

We're now halfway through November, and it's time for an update.

The kids have been back to in-person school since September. While having the kids home doing virtual school last year was overall a good experience for us, it's been equally good having the kids back in school. Felix got thrown into the deep end of middle school, learning a new building and new routine (and much earlier hours!). Iris has been doing well in 4th grade as well. We had parent-teacher conferences last month, and we heard nothing but praise from their teachers, which makes us very proud of them.

We decided on teal for this year.

My folks went traveling, so we went to the season-opening Badger football game in their place. It wasn't the greatest game (losses rarely are...), but Iris and I got our picture with the amazing UW Volleyball team.

Go Badger Volleyball!

We went to our first wedding in a few years, with the nuptials of my cousin Beth the following week. My aunt hired a face painter, and Iris convinced me to get mine painted, too. :D

The kids had a day off at the end of September, so the three of us had an Adventure Day in Marathon County. We hiked around the Dells of the Eau Claire, ate our lunch at the RiverLife Park, and took on Rib Mountain's trails, all for the first time.

We had the Dells of the Eau Claire all to ourselves!

We returned to "normal" for Halloween. We passed out candy and it was (un)seasonably cold. The kids both decided they wanted the same costume, which made a wonderfully creepy impression. This is how they greeted my folks:

As I said in the last post, Felix played fall baseball in Plover for the first time. That was a new experience - Sunday doubleheaders. It was nice to have a chance to play more baseball before it got to be too cold. Iris, naturally, made the 10U tournament team, and I've been assistant coaching. We had several practices this fall, and a scrimmage which made our weaknesses glaringly obvious. Now that ball season has wrapped up, it's swimming season for Iris. She competed in her first real meet this past weekend. All four 10 & under Rapids girls won a heat, which was awesome, especially because there was usually one of the others in the same heat. Iris got hers in the 50m backstroke, but she also competed in the 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke.

Nick's been keeping very busy, with business during his first year of operation exceeding his projections, which is fantastic! Not much has changed for me except my hours. I have to be in the office for a percentage of the week, so I now take Felix to school, go in to my nearby office, work a few hours there, then telecommute the rest of the work day.

Awesome things: Pediatric covid vaccine availability (Iris got her first shot on the first day she could!), Season 3 of What We Do in the Shadows, the MST3K forum, Great British Baking Show eps

Be warned: Iris has decreed that anything pink, purple, rainbow, or bedecked with unicorns is banished from her room. She's no longer a little kid and has no tolerance for such childish things.

Summer 2021

Since it's the last day of August and school starts for the kids tomorrow, I thought now would be a good time to wrap up the summer.

My last post in mid-June was all about ball. That theme continued for the rest of the summer. 

Felix played in three more tournaments; they should consistent improvement, and even came back to win the consolation bracket in one tournament. Felix also worked hard and once again made the more desirable team for next year. Nick and I are proud of him; he's developing into a solid, consistent player with the ability to play just about any position. Nick's been working with Felix on playing catcher and pitching skills especially. 

Felix's 11U team

Iris's team rounded out their season by winning a 10U tournament (despite being mostly 8U with the help of a few big sisters), playing a waterlogged day only to have the tournament canceled, and finishing 2nd to their archrivals, Plover, at their last tournament. Iris definitely made huge contributions to all of those finishes, and she's very pleased with her growing collection of medals and trophies. Iris also tried out for next year's tournament team, and to no one's surprise, made it. She'll be playing with many of the same girls, plus a few that are a year older than her. Iris has also been getting some private pitching and hitting lessons from the high school daughter of acquaintances. It's helped to refine her skills and set up her up for more success.

We made some changes at home to help the kids train over the winter - I cleared out all the toys from the main part of the basement (so. many. legos.) and put a bow net there instead. Now the kids have a place where they can work on their hitting and pitching mechanics. And of course, within a week of having it up, Iris broke the basement window with an errant softball. Sigh. 

See the broken window?

Once the summer ball season ended, we intended to just hunker down and enjoy having no plans, but, naturally, the best laid non-plans go out the window. Nick and Felix went up to Green Bay to celebrate Grandpa's birthday by golfing; Iris and I caught a ride to Madison with my folks and spent the day with my sister. A good time was had by all. This was my first time in a crowded bar in god knows how long (but it was in highly vaccinated Madison, so the risk was low and nothing came of it). Iris got to send three people into the dunk tank that was set up outside for a fundraiser.

Bull's eye!

The kids spent a week at resident Y camp in mid-August. Both enjoyed it a lot, except I had to pick up Felix midweek to check out a sore throat/laryngitis situation he had going on (not covid or strep, thankfully!). Sent him back to camp with lozenges and ibuprofen. (Nick and I enjoyed the week being child-free and had friends over to dine with us one night. So nice.) Y camp ended last week, and overall, it was a good experience to get them out of the house after spending so much time within our walls during last school year.

Felix turned 12 in July (celebrated his golden birthday with teammates at a tournament; he got a new ball bag and a laptop for presents) and Iris turned 9 yesterday. We celebrated with grandparents at the ball fields in Plover on Sunday and with friends at home yesterday. (She coveted Felix's new bag, so we got her one, too, and a hoverboard that's coming today.) We also checked another item off the unofficial summer bucket list by going to the new Aquatic Center for a few hours (thunderstorms interfered with our timing - grrr).

The upcoming school year has a bunch of new things for us. Felix will be 2 weeks past his 2nd covid shot on Friday, which relieves one of the myriad stressors for him going into 7th grade at a new school, with new teachers and having to go between multiple classrooms. Masks are mandatory at his school, Iris's school, and on the buses. Iris is excited to start 4th grade with the same teacher Felix had. We get to drop off her stuff this afternoon. I have to spend 40% of my time in the office now, so I've changed my schedule to 4-10s. I'll be dropping Felix off at school in the mornings, working in the office 4 hours, then telecommuting the rest of the time at home, allowing both kids to take the bus home. We'll see how it works in practice, but it's ideal in theory.

Looking forward, we have some social events for the first time in over a year and a half - a Badger game and a wedding. We signed Felix up to play fall baseball in Plover and enjoyed the first Sunday doubleheader of four last weekend. Iris will be joining swim team again, which is great for her strength and stamina. She wants to go up a level, to practicing for 1.5 hours three days a week. Don't try to slow her down... (If only she could put as much energy into keeping her room clean!)

Awesome things: the kids getting back to in-person school, the Bucks' championship, how the Brewers are doing, people who wear their masks and get the shot.

Ball

 Catching up from my last post: The kids finished their virtual school year at the beginning of June (both getting As in all subjects :o). Honestly, that's been it other than the subject of this post: Ball.

After not having any organized sports for the kids last year except golf lessons, it's been quite a change of pace to have so much ball this summer. Both kids are on baseball/softball league and tournament teams. Naturally, they play their league nights on opposite days, and have their tournament team practices when the other is playing league games. Nick and I are both assistant coaching the league teams, so there's an additional level of effort out there. It's my first time with any coaching, and it's been fun getting to know Iris's 10U teammates and cheering them on. She plays on the 8U tournament team, so she's getting higher-level experience that she's able to use in her tournament play.

This past weekend was our first time with overlapping tournaments. Felix had a tournament in Menasha, with his first game on Saturday morning. We stayed overnight, so it was an easy up and drive for us to the fields. We've had a streak of hot (90s), dry weather, and this weekend continued that trend. Yay for canopies! It would have been brutal otherwise. 

It again showed that Felix's team is a bit behind some of the other team who played last season, instead of cancelling everything because of COVID like our organization did. They're just a step behind, a step too slow, a step inexperienced. I'm not sure how or if they're going to make that up... They lost their first game 0-3 and tied their second 3-3 (Felix pitched a couple of innings). That put them 2nd seed in their pool, and they played the last game of the day at 5. They rallied, but couldn't overcome some big hits by the other team and got knocked out of the tournament 7-10. Most of the boys and families were staying at our hotel, and we all had a big unwind after the games. It's fun to get to know the other parents and watch the boys play together. I hope that experience helps them click for their next tournament.

Regardless of what happened in Felix's tournament, I was taking Iris to her first softball tournament in Waupaca early the next morning. We started off the day on the absolute wrong foot when she spilled her hot chocolate on her lap as I was about to pull out of the parking lot. I was more concerned about her skin than the state of my car, and we rushed to assess the situation. She got a bit of a 1st degree burn on her thigh, and I applied cold compresses to it right away. (We did get her some burn ointment and it didn't bother her all day - little damage done overall, thank goodness.)  I also did my best to clean up her (thankfully black) softball pants and the puddle in her car seat. That put us behind in our schedule, so it was a dash to make it to the field in time for warm-ups (especially because Iris was pitching first). Got there just in time at 9 and took a deep breath. Nick and Felix arrived a short while later. Her team lost their very first game together 0-4 (not too shabby), and then won their next two 9-0 and 14-6, which meant they would play in the championship game at 3:30. Alas, they lost 5-9 to the same team (heck of a pitcher to start the game), and took 2nd. The girls showed a lot of spunk to show up at their first tournament in high-80s sun, play a quadruple-header and walk away with silver medals. 

I'm so proud of Iris. In my biased opinion, she was the MVP for her team: she pitched some good innings (most of the balls near the plate), hit the ball every time (even a couple pitched by players and not the coach), and even made caught two fly balls. She also led the team off with a hit to start a 4-run rally after a tough inning in the final game (I could see her getting upset and near tears - she wanted to do more, but many of the girls don't have the play awareness to react to Iris's throw meant to get a tag-out). And she did it all with a hot chocolate burn and her first bad cold in over a year. Such a trooper.

Awesome things: our kids playing well, What We Do In The Shadows (Nick and I now laugh to ourselves with every "Bat!" we hear on the ball fields), 

Spring 2021

The sun is shining (today, anyway), the snow is gone, and things are looking up! I'm cautiously optimistic that we've turned the metaphorical corner. (Granted, in recent years, we've had rogue snowstorms in April, so I'm still holding my breath.)

16 days ago, Nick and I got our one-dose J&J COVID-19 vaccination! I put in a vaccine request on a whim (even though we weren't in any of the priority groups, and I made it clear that we weren't), and we were contacted a few days later to schedule our appointment. Nick wanted the one-dose vaccine, so we left the kids with my folks and drove up to Weston on a Saturday to receive it. Felt so relieved afterward... also achy with chills and a bad headache. That makes me think that I never got COVID over the past year, and would have had a rough time of it had I contracted the virus. 

10 days ago, Nick's folks (now a month past full vaccination) took the kids for the weekend. It was nice for everybody - they got to see the kids, the kids got to be somewhere else, and we got to have two kid-free nights for the first time in 15 months.

5 days ago, we left for a little spring break trip up to Superior and Duluth. It was nice to see different walls for a change of pace. Not only walls, but waterfalls! Spring melt made for some spectacular waterfall viewing at Amnicon Falls and Pattison State Parks in Wisconsin and Tettegouche and Gooseberry State Parks in Minnesota. It also made for copious amounts of mud on our 3-mile hike at Tettegouche... We spent much of the time with my parents, who joined us. We got back yesterday afternoon.

One of the more spectacular views we saw

We're now turning our attention to the future, with summer ball starting up soon (Felix has his first tournament team practice tomorrow night). Soon, we'll get the kids signed up for summer camp. We're just about set for our kids to return to in-person school next year. 

Awesome things: It's baseball season (Go Brewers!), hearing Bob Uecker call ball games (worthy of its own mention), being able to take a vacation, science and vaccines!