St. Nick Party at church

Each year our church has a St. Nicholas Party.  (Knights of Columbus)

There were crafts and snacks and dinner (which we skipped to eat fajitas at home.)

Long ago there were four - now there is but one participant.

However - you can tell she enjoyed it!  The joy is spread all over her face!

Freedom (for me)

So the day finally came when the pros outweighed the cons for buying a second car. (Ken's car is a company car....so we don't own that and only employee and spouse can drive.)

Ken searched and searched and finally found CHARLIE (aka Mitt).  Matthew named him Charlie (for no real reason), but I think Mitt is much more clever because it is a Mitsubishi Outlander.

Here the kids are showing their enthusiasm.  (Except for Carolyn, because she was cold.)

The best news of the day is that after we bought this vehicle, my dad wrote us a huge check that covered the majority of it.  I told him it wasn't necessary, but he said they wanted to do it and that they had given other kids cars, instead of trading them in.   So I get a bunch of freedom (not having to drive Matthew here there and everywhere) and I am  not even feeling it much in the wallet!

I don't think it will make it until Anna gets through high school - but hopefully most of the rest of the years!  It will only be driven a few miles at a time.  (The high school is under 2 miles and HyVee is under 2 and church is under 2....all our hotspots!)

THANKS GRANDPA AND GRANDMA!

Look What I am Making for Christmas

Anna and Joel have joined the Harry Potter band wagon, so I thought it would be fun to have some Harry Potter treats at Christmas.  Then I decided to make a Harry Potter treat for Christmas!

First I made some cards with some of my favorite characters (I am making 8 - 2 for each kid....duplicates for a few cousins who are fans.)  (Lupin, McGonagall, Hermonie, Harry, Ginny and Neville....the top has a quote for each.)

The frogs were easy...melt, pour, refrigerate.

I was going to go to the dollar store for boxes, but couldn't get out of my street due to construction.  I tried to make Harry Potter "type" boxes, without luck.  Then I googled "paper box" and came upon a good tutorial that I could follow after re-watching certain spots 3-5 times!

Tah Dah.  I think the kids will love them.  I must quickly get rid of the evidence before Anna gets home.

College Trip with friends and family to sweeten the deal!

Ok - here was the first reason for our visit!

Great university, but to be honest it is too far from home and in too large of a city (if you ask me).

Super extra reasons to visit St. Louis

My niece Emily, a professor at Washington University (WashU).  We had dinner at a restaurant called Pi (imagine the symbol for 3.1415).

Great friends from Newburgh (who now live near St. Louis)

Here is my voice of reason and great support since even before Anna was born and ever since!  Nina!

Back to school 2015

Iowa started school late this year!  Ok - not this late :0)  8-26-15

Matthew - Centennial High School - 11th Grade - new challenge Calculus and Veteran's Day Parade in NYC

 The gang is all here- obviously facing the sun.

 Anna - Northeast Elementary 3rd grade - new challenge - oldest McCleary at NE - no sibling to share the journey!

 Carolyn- Northview Middle School - 8th Grade - new challenge - Show Choir

 Joel - Prairie Ridge Middle School - 6th Grade - challenge - changing classes/ RUSH soccer!

It is amazing the things you find when you clean out your storage room.  Below is a card Matthew received from his buddy 7 years ago.  I am going to give him the original, but I wanted to keep a copy.  The bad part is it makes me sad that he lost such a great friend.

What I am doing with my summer vacation -2015

I am so blessed to have a job where I can work more during the school year and cut back (to the hours I committed to work when I started this job) during the summer.

Mostly I am working 2 days 7-2:30 and one day 6:30-10:30.  It is awesome because I have a 3 day weekend most weeks and am home a bunch.

We hired a new audiologist, so I may even work less this coming school year than I did last year.  I will cross that bridge in the fall.

Carolyn and Joel both spent a week at camp (Catholic Youth Camp for C. and Mitigwa Scout Camp for J.).  Matthew skipped scout camp this year, but vowed to return next year.  His scout money went to Driver's Ed, so I was ok to have the savings.  This week Carolyn is at "Christ's Hands" missionary program at church.  She is working at a food bank during the day and doing fun Youth Ministry things in the evening.  I am sure she is having a great time.  This is the first year for a middle school version of this program.  (Matthew did "Faith In Action" - the high school version - during Spring Break the last 2 years.)

We are planning a trip to Chicago at the end of July.  During the rest of the summer, we are hanging out, spending time at the pool, having fun with friends, reading, biking (this is mostly Anna and Matthew), going on walks (mostly me, Carolyn as well).  The boys have scouts, Matthew has Marching Band and work, the kids are cooking more.

Cascade Falls (our cool water park)

This summer, I am walking a ton, thanks in part to my Fit-bit.  Anna's bike and my walking partner, Joelle, make this much easier than solo-walking would be.

I have been cleaning my house!  The clutter has to go!  This book and the author's blog have really motivated me!

 The 2 youngest and I created a special place under the stairs today after pulling everything out from underneath.  Here is the back of the closet (too dark to see well) - all the scout/camping stuff will now have a place of it's own.

Here is the front of the closet - a special fort-like play area.

In cleaning out this space we found a Birthday Card from Ken's folks - for Anna's FIFTH birthday.  Not sure how it got in the basement closet - but Anna was excited to have $20 to spend!  (She doesn't know how lucky she really is, because "back in the day" most of her birthday money went into her college fund.  Now she enjoys having some money to spend, although she said that she is going to save 1/2.)

In addition to cleaning - I am trying to get back into a budget.  I took $50 to the grocery store and was so happy to spend $46.37!  I was a little less proud when I returned 2 days letter and spent $65!  Still way less than normal and I  made 7 main dishes after the first shopping trip, which will hopefully prevent us from going out to eat in July.  Hoping to stay out of the grocery store this week.  Let's just say there was less preparation in June....and a bit of budget-busting!

In addition to cleaning and cooking a bunch, I read:

 This was a recommendation from Gretchen Rubin, the author of "Better than Before".  She has a blog where she recommends books and this was one that I actually bought from DEALOZ.com, since it wasn't at our library.  Joel is reading it now.  I will recommend it to all 4 kids.

Anna and I read:

 Now we are working through the other 4 books in the quintet.  I know I read the first book when I was a kid, not sure if I read all 5.

There you have it!  We are about 1/2 way through the summer.  (This summer is especially long for Iowa children due to the governor's insistence that schools start later this year.)

Pictures from Chicago to follow in a couple of weeks.

Reptiles and Salamanders Merit badge - take 2

Last year we had 6 chorus frogs living in our fish bowl, this year we have a big toad and a little toad.  Last year it was Matthew's merit badge, this year Joel's.  Anna is just along for the ride.  (a phrase she just learned yesterday)

Boulder trip

Memorial Day Weekend I flew to Colorado to celebrate the wedding of my nephew.  I forgot my camera, so below please find my brother's excellent photos!

The day of the wedding we traveled into the mountains for a long hike.  It was wonderful and it made me understand why people loved Colorado so much.  I still don't understand why the people climb the face of a mountain, but that was fun to watch too.

 Above Betsy, Mike, Paul and Joe.  (Mary's son was the groom, so she didn't hike the morning of the wedding, nor did my brother Steve.)

All of the hikers - awesome.  I also learned that my brother Joe almost became a biology teacher before deciding to become a mechanical engineer and that he would have been great at it.

  Fitbit report  >18,000 steps that day - one of my 2 highest days.

Little League Update, my offer of services

Dear S*, P* and R*,

I thank all of the volunteers, both board members and coaches for their time and love of the game.

My complaints about the lack of equality among the teams in A.L.L. mean nothing if I am unwilling to help create a solution.   What I know about baseball comes from watching 11 years of little league and 3 years of softball.  This translates to “very little”.  That said, I did research and data analysis for 18 years on federally funded R01 grants before returning to pediatric audiology 4 years ago.  I know how to collect data, fact check and create spread-sheets.

I offer you these services so that the skill level of the A.L.L. players will be easier for new coaches to recognize.  I will research the players and create a column on your players list for all coaches to see.  I do believe you need to provide a "Helpful hints card" so that the new coaches know how to do more homework.  (I don’t want to provide hitting stats for example.)

(Optional)  If you would like to make this information easier to gather and much more complete, you could add one question to the Little League application.  “At what skill level does your child currently play baseball?” 

1.       Majors (travel team), 2. Triple A (travel team), 3. Double A (travel team), 4. Single A (travel team), 5. Little League All Star 2014 or 2015 (but no travel team), 6. Average (or slightly above) Little League player, 7. Little League player, but still learning to bat and catch, 8. Never played on a team. 

Collectively, this one question will save hours of our volunteer coaches’ time.

In the middle of our email discussion last week I wished I had not introduced my boys to Little League.  Then I found this picture - check out that smile.

I offer my services because I love my son Joel.  I also offer my services because I care for the boys below and all those not pictured.

Johnston’s Little League [a neighboring city] draft method includes the statement:  “The goal of the draft is to balance the teams as closely as possible.”  Isn’t that what we all want for these kids?

It would be my pleasure to start this process immediately.  I will update this year’s lists to reflect all the data, so that next year, it only needs to be updated.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth McCleary

------------------------------------

In the end the league responded favorably and they will meet in August to discuss changes to be put in place.  I likely will be gathering the travel team data to provide the coaches in the Little League, so that team stacking will stop!  I will let you know next summer if it had any effect in the team fairness.

This guy makes me proud.....and motivates me to write letters.

I guess this all started years ago, when rumor in the Little League stands indicated that one of the teams was just a travel team in Little League uniforms.  No one probably would have even discussed the issue, if this team wasn’t beating up on the other teams on a regular basis.   I questioned why the League allowed this to happen.  Wasn’t Little League supposed to be the place where coaches wanted teams of equal skill competing against one another?  After all, didn’t USAAA travel teams exist for the coaches and players who wanted to create super teams and travel the mid-west playing tournaments?

I decided to be optimistic and hope that the next year when kids tried out for teams, the league would try to create teams of equal skill.  I was sadly mistaken.  In two of the past three years, one team has dominated the league and in the other year there were 2 teams that rose above the rest.

I wrote my first letter to the board when I heard that the dominate team of the 2015 had 3 players who played for that team’s coach before and who “sat out, instead of tried out” before the draft.  I couldn’t believe that kids were allowed to skip try-outs and be drafted by their tournament team coach (especially one who had 2 All Stars (coaches kids) before the draft).  After the draft was said and done, this elite team had 5 Major league (the most advance level) travel team players and 3 additional players who played on last year’s ruling team (same coach 2014 and 2015).

  

When I approached the Little League board I was informed:  “There are specific checks and balances put in place … to ensure that every manager has the opportunity to get as much info about any player as they want, and can draft any player they want.”   Things began to become much clearer.  The goal of Ankeny Little League was not to have 10 teams of equal skill level, which would allow for a great playing season for all the kids.  Rather, the goal was that any coach could draft any player they wanted, as long as someone didn’t beat them to it first.  Coaches before kids.

Coaches who were new to the league this year, or who were asked to coach 2 days before the draft were not given any special help in learning this system.  The league asked for an additional volunteer at a time close to the draft, and this coach was provided with the player list as he walked into Try-Outs.  What happened to him this year won’t happen to him again, as he realizes that he will need to do extensive work before the draft.  This is because the league does not have the expectation that kids will actually try out.  The kids who play travel team baseball or were previous All-Stars are the least likely to show-up according to a different coach. 

So in a nutshell – what I learned this week is at least two people on the Ankeny Little League board were not surprised that the coach who dominated the 2014 season had 5 elite level travel team players placed on his team without a single try-out in 2015 (2 coaches kids would have no reason to try out).  The league feels this is fair, because any coach COULD have chosen 3 of top tier travel kids had they wanted to do so, and done enough home-work to scout travel teams (in person or on the Internet).  

The expectation that the coaches pick their teams based on try-outs was a ridiculous assumption.  Additionally the idea that the try-out list would accurately represent last year’s players was unrealistic.  (Despite the fact that many 2014 All-Stars were given this designation on this form, 5 were not.)  Good luck to the new coach to know about these extra skills because, as I mentioned above – the All Star kids often skip the Try-out.  My children have tried out each year as asked by any league.  Perhaps I was naive to think we were all expected to make this effort to help the league's attempt at fairness in the draft.  I am not sure why tournament/All star kids who do not demonstrate their skills to all the coaches are not randomly placed across ALL the teams for some equality.  I bet more would feel like they had a reason to show-up for the try-out if they weren't thinking that their tournament team would pick them up if they sat out.  Obviously the “checks and balances” that the league feels that they have in place are there for a different reason than to create 10 equally skilled teams.  Stacking a team is not only acceptable, but expected – as long as the other coaches let you get away with it!

My son loves sports and baseball is his current favorite.  He has had an EXCELLENT coach every year that he has played Little League and I thank these men.  They love the sport and helped my son become a better player each year.  His coaches helped him learn about good sportsmanship.  Too bad the league sends a different message by allowing stacked teams play in what I thought was a recreational league.

Anna's party

Anna turns 8 soon.  She had her party at a local ceramic store.

I think they had fun, but as always, it was a little chaotic.  (and yes...below is the best group photo I have....remember that chaotic comment earlier!  Carolyn took this shot as I lit the candles.  Ken was at Boy Scout camp with Joel....so I was outnumbered!)

Word of the Year

STRIVE

I know it isn't January 1st, but it took me awhile to come up with my word.  Truth be told, it would have been different 5 months ago had I been forced to choose and I LOVE this word.

Lately I have been reading and listening to Gretchen Rubin and I am changed person.  Ok - I know that sounds dramatic, but it is so true.  More on that later.  My word fits my life right now, because I'll be honest, sometimes the things I strive for are still in the "attempt" stage.  That is why STRIVE is such a good word.  My house might look a mess, but I am STRIVING to make it better.  Had I chosed "clean" for my word, I would always be disappointed because rarely is that the sight I see.  However, when I think STRIVE, I remember that my office is very tidy, both cars are parked in the garage, my storage room has come SOOOOO far and is almost picture ready and my laundry room is a lovely place instead of a "quick close the door" kind of area!  

See why STRIVE is so great?  Even when I only have a minute or two, I can STIVE to be better!

(re: the photo.....the picture is Anna at the last Cub Scout rocket launch last fall....she is striving to catch a rocket!)

Matthew's Confirmation

My sister was Matthew's wonderful Confirmation Sponsor.  In the Des Moines Dioceses this is quite a committment and I think their special bond grew over the many required discussions!  (Mary also was my nephew's sponsor a few weeks earlier and came for Anna's First Communion AND had shoulder surgery 2 weeks ago....so a pretty amazing gal!)

 Grandma and Grandpa made the repeat trip 5 days after Anna's First Communion.

 Here is the family after our First Confirmation...many more of these to come!

It was really special to watch the 16 year olds receive the Holy Spirit.  (again sorry no pics allowed!)  Matthew's face was lit-up!

Anna's First Communion

I love the Sacraments.  I love the beauty of the cermemony (sorry pics not allowed) and the joy of family coming together to celebrate on child's special day!  Our last First Communion was no exception.  My sister, brother, brother-in-law, parents and in-laws, and 2 of Anna's cousins all came for Anna's special day.  Our best pictures were from my sister's phone (thank you Mary!).  This is why she is not in any picture!

 We were blown away by the wind before the entire group could gather...plus Anna and I needed to be very early.

 Anna's GodFather (mine too)

Lovely lovely day!

Joel's Birthday

 Happy Birthday to Joel....a little late.   Let's just say - be glad you don't have a close up of the cake.  It tasted good though but I am giving up on 2 layer cakes....sheet cakes for me from now on!

Joel got a Spiro for his birthday....pooling all of his money including some from Christmas.  It is a remote controlled ball.....I guess you need to see it in person to understand the thrill.  (and be young)  He also bought the latest in a book series he likes, Unleashed.  It is about a bunch of kids and their schemes and their pets.  (The cover has a funny Doberman doing things related to the book theme.)

Here is Joel and his science fair buddy.  The made a solar panel battery charger that can then be used to charge a cell phone or small electronic that has a USB connection.  I don't think they understand the electronics perfectly and I KNOW we could have bought a bunch of electricity for the same price.  That said, they did learn about circuits, etc. as well as team work and project planning etc.

Good news/bad news

The good news is that we watched the movie Annie and so now Anna is no longer endlessly singing Frozen songs.....I bet you can guess the bad news.

Yep.  Now she is singing Annie songs endlessly......

Worst news is that I know all the Annie songs from when I was a kid and once Anna starts singing, I hum them forever.  (Old Anna picture.....we are in spring baby!)