High School Tennis Match - Second of Season Versus Creekside

 

Thursday was the second match of the tennis season, against Creekside High School. Connor played line four singles and had a very difficult match, losing the first set and then coming back to win. He did an amazing job of digging in and figuring out a way to win it in the tiebreak.

Grandma Alice and Grandpa Rick came to the game on Grandpa's birthday, and we planned to go to dinner with them afterwards, but the match ended up going pretty late by the time all the lines played. Connor played line two doubles and won as well, and his team won the match overall.

Paige was not in the overall lineup, but did a play a practice match. She was feeling awful all day and actually coughed so hard she threw up before her match started. Everyone would have understood if she didn't want to play, but she was determined to compete, and she got out there and did her best. The girl she played against was a solid player and Paige was definitely off. Paige lost the match, but it was great experience for her and good practice.

First High School Tennis Match of the Season

Tuesday was the first tennis match of the season against Clay County for the the varsity tennis teams. Paige was present for the match, but wasn't in the lineup. Connor played one of the singles lines and won it decisively. Both teams actually won overwhelmingly and didn't lose a single game between all the singles, doubles, boys, and girls. 

 

Sick Girls

 
Paige and Andrea were both feeling sick this past week. Lots of coughs and sore throats. Millie snuggled with Paige to help her feel better.

Hanna Park with Andrea, Millie Mae, and Shawn

 

The weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend, so Andrea and I spent the day outdoors with Millie Mae. We ate lunch outside at Mojo's for lunch, and then headed up to Hanna Park. I went with Millie Mae once last year, but Andrea had never been. We enjoyed the ride up in the Jeep and then set off on the hiking trail that took us all around the park. It was a little over two and a half miles, and Millie had fun leading the way and smelling everything around us. We walked briefly on the beach, but it was windy and cold once you crossed the dunes to the sand, and we didn't spend much time there.

When we left, Millie was sleepy and exhausted, and Andrea took a pic of her passed out in her Jeep seat. 

Unfortunately after we left, I found two ticks on Millie in the fur on her face. Fortunately I found them before they dug in and drank her blood. I washed her well when we got home, and we checked ourselves thoroughly, but we still feel like there are bugs crawling all over us.

Assassin Game - Connor and Friends

This past week had lots of excitement at our house because Connor is working with some classmates to win the annual Assassin game at school. The kids divide up into teams and then have to eliminate each other with water guns. There have been some unfortunate incidents in the past, so the kids are not allowed to hunt each other at school, chase each other in their cars, eliminate each other at workplaces, or generally do anything unsafe. 

Connor's been on some teams in the past, but typically just avoided getting hunted down and he never did much with it. This year he's gone all in with his team and they're pretty focused on doing better. This first week, they were matched up against a team of girls, and the boys on Connor's team spent quite a bit of time figuring out schedules of their opponents, the cars that the girls drove, and hunting them down in general. We spotted a few suspicious cars driving slowly by our house, and one girl that had been eliminated actually came up to our door to ask if Connor was home, hoping to gather some information on him. To help him out, we let him park his car in the garage, and we've been keeping an eye out for any assassins around the house.

The boys ended up winning, most likely because they took it much more seriously than the girls. Connor and his friend Austin ambushed one of the girls at her house, Connor staked out one girl's car in a parking lot for two and a half hours and got her, two of the girls got eliminated while trying to stake out the boys' houses, and the last girl gave up and let the boys squirt her so the boys could have a complete victory.

My favorite story from the week was the Airtag incident. Connor borrowed an Apple Airtag tracker from me, and we set it up on his phone. The boys planned to stick it on one of their target's cars, and they told their teammate to stick it under the car. Somehow he didn't understand, and taped it to the door in a completely obvious and ridiculous mass of tape. Thankfully he sent out a picture of his handiwork and the boys aborted that mission and took off the Airtag before it could be found and before the tape could possibly damage the car's paint job.

This next week they are matched up against a new team, and part of me hopes that Connor's team continues to do well, but for all the time it's been taking, I kind of hope he gets knocked out of the game so we can go back to normal.

Counselor Carrie Meeting - Paige

 

This past week we met virtually with the guidance counselor that we work with to help plan out Paige's schedule and high school classes. Carrie always has ideas that are helpful, and I think that although Andrea knows a lot about the process now, somehow it hits differently when Paige hears things from a professional instead of mom.

Paige's Jellycats

 

Paige is cute about making her bed from time to time, and she recently had all of her stuffed animals including her prized Jellycats all lined up. The Jellycats are certainly some of the softest stuffies and I'm glad Andrea snapped a pic of Paige and her stuffed friends.