Birthday Love

My Love had a birthday, and we decided to ended up stretching it out over the whole weekend, to accommodate all of the other weekend scheduling fullness a large family like ours typically encounters. Celebrating became a very nice, prolonged, yet relaxing affair, including, among other delights, breakfast at our favorite Cafe Hon's, dinner and a great movie, a special trip a week ago, a cheery video message from Job, and a couple of specifically requested practical presents. The lingering celebration was greatly enjoyed by all involved...we might just make this a new tradition.

Craig's birthday came to a fun head on Sunday evening, just as the Ravens (bay-beeeee!) game was getting started, hence all the purple attire above...well...

...except for the Gommy Girl, who generally believes princess attire is entirely appropriate for all situations.

I'd baked brownie cake layers on Friday and Maia and Gommy had done a wonderful job of frosting, stacking and decorating them on Saturday, and we actually candled, sang and ate it all a la mode on Sunday.

Yummm....

Gommy busied herself making a card for Craig, a task she relishes on any and all occasions.

Love, joy and blessings, My Love...and here's to at least 45 (or is that 54?) more wonder-filled years!

Much Love. Take Care.

 

Game Day

Craig really loves Sunday afternoons in the fall.

After church service he cooks up a veritable smorgasbord, dons his purple attire, and 

settles in to watch the BALTIMORE RAVENS kick some football butt!

CAW! CAW!

Today he even made a purple cake...

...which Gommy was only too happy to help him decorate...

...in her own special Gommy-Girl way...

...tutu required, of course.

And of course, we didn't have any difficulty finding homes for all those slices of purple cake!

And by the way, it was the Ravens all the way today, babeee...37 to 7!

 

Take Care. Much Love.

  

Billiard Boys

Josiah went to play pool today with his buddy Emmett...in a real pool hall.

Emmett's been wanting to play for awhile and his mom Karen scoped out a nearby non-seedy, non-smoky, non-early-afternoon-drinking, and non-other-undesirable-stuff establishment to which to take the boys.

They had a great time and want to play again soon.

Karen sent me this photo she snapped on the fly with her camera phone.

Can you almost feel the years melt away right through the photo image, 

and see these guys enjoying a friendly round of pool in their young adulthood?

I can...and it makes me happy...and just a little bit sad...all at the same time.

Much Love. Take Care.

 

Visiting Job at the Robotics Lab

Every year throughout high school, Job has delighted in his school's F.I.R.S.T. robotics team and their winter build season and spring competition.

His school's robotics team began his freshman year with only seven members (that's small for a F.I.R.S.T. team) and has moved from a home garage through a loaned unheated, unwatered, rodent-visited parking lot shed, to a roomy attached full-fledged robotics lab/shop with excellent storage rooms...right on campus! And the team is something like 30+ members this year. And Job served as co-captain this year too!

It has been a remarkable journey for him, one which we never could have envisioned while choosing a school for him back in sixth grade. We feel confident that God (awesomely) placed him in the exact right school for him because He knew Job's interests and intellect and abilities so much better than we did and laid the path for him to have opportunity to explore and grow in those areas. There was another school we had considered for Job, but the beauty of hindsight vision shows us clearly that Job's advancement in mathematics and robotics would not have occurred at that school...that he has been in the exact right educational environment for him to maximize his potential. I love God and how He loves us (not just us, per say, but how he loves people, and helps us faithfully even when we are often not aware we are being helped).

So, back to the robotics lab specifically. F.I.R.S.T. robotics teams spend exactly six weeks (from mid-January to late-February) building a robot of a specific size (limit) that can accomplish specific tasks to play a very specific game of competition. The teams must each design, build, program and test their robots, before shipping them to the regional competition site on a specified day. Each team has exactly the same amount of time to build, so during the build season, high school team members and mentors and coaches spend something like 30+ hours per week in the robotics shop working on their team bot...and this is in addition to the regular school day...and sports teams...and homework...and work...and everything else going on in the rest of the kids' lives. I am regularly amazed at how they do it, but for them it is mostly love of this "mind sport" and enjoyment of the camaraderie...and they live and breathe this stuff...and we rarely see them (and never in daylight) during the build season. But they are so enriched and fulfilled and we all celebrate the successful completion of the robot with them and just know they are engaged in such a worthwhile endeavor that has built life strength and enriched their characters, far beyond the nuts and bolts and wires and programming code.

And, the three-day regional competitions remind you of a combination of giant-pep-rally/high-school-sports-championship-game/large-arena-concert all rolled up together...HIGH energy...very LOUD...super EXCITING! I highly recommend attending one, or at least checking it out on line here http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/default.aspx?id=966 ...amazingly interesting experience...and I guarantee not at all what you expect when you think of robotics!

So, I think I'm finished gushing about F.I.R.S.T. robotics and will move back to my original topic of visiting Job at the lab.

After my initial involvement in the charter year of the small fledgling robotics team start-up, I played a much-less hands-on role while Craig threw himself into mentoring and coaching the team. He is one of a core group of about six mentors who guide and mold the team through the intense build process and competitions. They are wonderful. Not to say that there is no friction...there is...and sometimes quite a bit of it...but respect and appreciation for each other (and learning how to function competently and collaboratively in a working engineering team environment) has always been the end result when the project is finished for the year, and the team banners and medals have been hung, and the kids get back to the full swing of their regular high school lives.

So, this year, Job's senior and last one (sniff, sniff...no, actually a full blown boo hoo) I had rarely (read hardly ever) stopped by to visit the lab, because I knew Craig was there so much of the time...and because I was herding the rest of the flock while he was. I loved hearing the nightly updates on how the build was going, challenges the team ran into with design and programming, and successful approaches that worked them through...and what the guys had for dinner each night thanks to a highly organized and majorly successful rotating parent dinner schedule (and I mean these kids ate some-kind-of GREAT every day!).

So, one day Job casually wondered why I hadn't been by the lab...and I realized I really hadn't been there...like hardly at all...and I thought about it and recognized that because the robotics team had become such a well-oiled-highly-functioning operation, I had subconsciously checked it off my list as not really needing my involvement. But...when my wonderful little boy (sorry Job...just can't help it...for the rest of your life too...might as well get used to it) asks his mother about visiting his robotics shop, well, you know I am there.

So, one fine day, in late February, after I picked up Johngideon from school, we headed over to the robotics lab to visit Job before the vast majority of his team was scheduled to arrive. It was a very nice visit and we were so impressed with how they had turned concept into reality...being not technically minded myself, that never ceases to amaze me...and had this functioning robot that could do the very specific tasks of this year's competition...picking up and placing inner tubes on hooks of varying heights and then deploying a mini-bot up a pole...all driven by a little video-game-controller-thing. These kids are just too bright.

Johngideon and I just didn't have enough time, so after we left the robotics shop to rush and grab Montgomery from her after-school choir practice, we also picked up Josiah and two of his friends and hustled back to the lab for another demonstration (complete with safety goggles). It was a great visit, and the littles and myself were very impressed with the robot and the lab and the team and the mentors and the power tools and the snacks...and most especially how wonderfully Job and the other team members there at the time welcomed the younger kids and showed them how things worked and caused them to think hmmmm, maybe me too someday.

It was just a great visit. F.I.R.S.T. Robotics is great. The Boys' Latin School of Maryland is great. Anne Kellerman (the school's awesome technology head) is great. Craig (and all of the other mentors and coaches and parents) are great. And of course...my baby Job...who has grown so much and contributed so much through this process...is just awesomely...wonderfully...amazingly...great!

[contented sigh].......................................................[contented sigh again]

I'll post more on their spring competition experiences when they're all said and done...if the blurry-eyed tears will allow.    :o)

Much Love. Take Care.

Karate Class

Johngideon started karate classes recently. He goes twice per week and is very excited...and very bouncy during class. He looks so adorable in his white outfit...I am sure there is a more accurate word for the karate uniform, but I am quite ignorant of it. (update: Auntie Joanne enlightened me a few days ago...but I've forgotten!). I snapped a few (rather blurry) photos of his first day of class...

Johngideon is a child who just loves to learn new things; his mind is always moving on to the next topic of interest. I think karate will be good for him and help him focus a bit more in the moment. One thing I have learned about him, and love knowing, is that he is happiest when he is engaged in learning that really challenges him and makes him think, especially really fresh and new thoughts. I think he is so very bright...it's going to be hard for Craig and I to keep up with his thirst for knowledge. But, we are trying.

When the class does push-ups, they yell "I LOVE!" on the way down and "PUSH UPS!" on the way up. It is very interesting and heart-warming to watch...and not do!

Although a new karate student, Johngideon is already perfecting his competition ninja face...

...and his bow of respect...not sure why the rest of the class wasn't bowing in respect...Johngideon must have been the only one listening to the teacher at the time ;o) ...

Johngideon learned so much in his first day of karate class, he decided to try out a self-defense move on Joby when he got home...I don't think it went quite as he had intended....

 

 

Craig is engaging in Johngideon's study of karate to a significantly higher degree than I am...

He's actually taking the class with him! Doesn't Craig look thrilled!  ;o)  ;o)

Go Craig! You win the involved father award...especially because I know just how much you "love" karate...and also how much you truly love Johngideon...hang in there!

Much Love. Take Care.

Off to Learn Squash

Johngideon wanted to learn to play squash.

So Joby took him.

He loved it...and wants to play again...and again...and again.

We'll just have to make that happen.

Much Love. Take Care.

 

Squash Victory!

What a difference a year makes! Sweet victory!

Last Sunday, Job returned from his second trip to the U.S. High School Squash Nationals at Yale University with a huge smile on his face...actually, it was more like a collective huge smile from the whole team.

Last year Job's varsity squash team returned from the Nationals quite dejected. The team had made a Herculean effort that year even to travel to the competition on the immediate heels of a huge Blatimore blizzard. Once there, they were eliminated in the first round of competition, on the first day!

This year, they made it all the way through round after round after round to earn a coveted spot in their division FINALS, on the last day of competition, in the last match-up!

They played hard, but were untimately defeated by the other team. So, even though they just missed bringing back the title of U.S. Nationals Champions, they made the journey back to Baltimore in high spirits, reveling in their success as the U.S. High School Squash Nationals Division III Finalist! (Kudos, Coach Weiner!)

We are so proud of and excited for this young team (they've only been a Varsity Team for the past four years!). The enjoyment of the 4-day trip itself, with no agenda but to hang out with good friends and play the sport you love, and the level of success the team achieved, had Job on a natural high for a few days.

At home, we'd followed the tournament bracket results online as they rolled in that Friday through Sunday, and were high-fiving each other as they progressed round after round until they were one of the last two teams standing in their divisional bracket. We were waiting with baited breath for the results of the Finals, hoping and praying while the game was being played. We were so dissapointed for the team when the final results posted showing the opposing team had won, but we were overjoyed as well, knowing they were all still so delighted with their success. Job was playing in a tough third spot on the seven-member team, and every player he competed against was ranked higher than him. He persevered, suffering through more than his fair share of losses, but playing hard to help the team bring back that beautiful Finalist standing! We are so proud of him, even more for his awesome attitude than for the team's squash victory.

Job loves squash and gets to the courts as often as his busy schedule allows.

He rallies for every point!

Squash is an international sport our family had pretty much never heard of until Job was introduced to it at school and started playing in 7th grade (or was it 8th?). I must admit (and am a bit ashamed to say) I used to call it "glorified raquetball" until I learned more about it. Now, you might think our family invented the sport, as much as we enjoy being involved with it. Job tried out about ten different sports before finding his passion in squash. He enjoys the sport so much, it even has been a primary factor in his decisions on where to apply for college. Several very good schools fell off his list because they lacked on-campus or near-by squash facilities. 

He has even volunteered for a local squash nonprofit organization that teaches the sport to inner-city middle school students (his hope with that effort is that he eventually will begin to see more diversity on the courts!). Job also took the initiative this year to secure a part-time position at his favorite gym, in exchange for membership...

...so he can play as much as he wants throughout the year...

Squash is a winter sport, and unfortunately for Job, heats up at the exact time his FIRST Robotics Team is at its most intense build period. So in January and February, Job goes directly from school to the squash courts for practice and/or a game, and then heads immediately back to the school's robotics lab to work with the team on the robot. He usually gets home near 10 p.m., and then still has his homework to do before getting up the next morning, heading out around 7:30 a.m. -- at least that's the morning goal time anyway  ;-) -- and doing it all over again. We love his commitment, but it goes without saying that we are very glad when this dual-sport season (yes, we consider robotics a brain sport that takes more time and effort than the vast majority of high school varsity athletic sports!) finally reaches its conclusion...later this week...yeah!!

It will be nice to see Job again...in the daylight!  ;o)

Take care. Much love.