The most hectic Christmas Eve EVER!!!

First thing in the morning the kids reminded me that we didn't make Christmas cookies yet; as if I wasn't up 1/2 the night worrying about the things we didn't get done.
So we spent most of the day making 4 different kinds of cookies.
In between all the batches I kept running upstairs to wrap presents, trying to get the house clean and do laundry from my trip.

This didn't work out as well as I hoped. The kids are used to us spending Christmas eve day "hanging out" and enjoying each other and I had too much to do. December is Kirk's busiest month at work so we don't see him much until Christmas Eve but this year Riley had hockey practice so they weren't home most of the day and Kirk wasn't able to help keep the kids busy so I could get everything else done.

Eventually, we got all the cookies made (but not before Hayley & Connor were fully coated in flour:) and most of the presents wrapped and when Kirk & Riley got home around 6pm we finally gave into to the all day request of "can we open presents now?"

When we first got married we always spent Christmas Eve at Kirk's Dad's with his family and then Christmas Day at our house with my family but since we moved to North Carolina in 1999 it has been tradition to open gifts from our out of town Lorkowski family on Christmas Eve.
Over the years things have changed... we moved back to New York but much of our family has moved away so we have kept with this tradition.

I always put these presents from Grandma & Grandpa Lorkowski, Grandma Kathleen and Aunt Krystin & Uncle Darrin under the tree early for me to enjoy how decorative it is and the kids are always anxious to find out what is inside and ask me constantly if I know; Of course I do not ;)

This is also the time we let them exchange the gifts they bought for each other since we don't want that to get lost in the commotion of Christmas Morning excitement. It is so nice to sit back and watch what they buy each other each year. So much thought goes into it and they really enjoy shopping and wrapping themselves.

After opening presents and playing we put on our new Christmas PJ's (even Daddy got a new pair) and check out the whereabouts of Santa. When we see him in Canada we know it's time to get to bed and asleep quickly!

A million and one things to do

After the long drive I couldn't wait to get to bed last night; especially knowing I had a million things to do before Christmas.

I got the kids off to school and left right away for the store to get Christmas dinner and cookie making supplies, then Sammie and I went running around and finish buying presents.

Time for the kids to get off the bus and we were off to see Santa; Connor & Riley were very worried he wouldn't know what they wanted if they didn't visit him. While at the mall Sammie & I split up with the kids so they could finish shopping for each other and us. By the time everything was done it was time to go home and go to bed. So much for that cookie baking we were going to do. Not to mention the present wrapping!

Nothing to do but wait

Since it took us 2 1/2 days to get to Texas we really need to leave by Saturday in order to get home and get some things done and ready for Christmas.

I am very torn as I don't think I should leave before my mom is better but the Doctors are telling us there is nothing we can do but wait and that it could take a month or more for her to wake up. Plus, having 4 kids waiting at home I know I need to go be with them for Christmas.

I compromised with myself and decided we would go to the hospital first right at 10am when visiting hours start and then leave from there.

About 4 hours after we left Dick called us to tell us they decided to do another surgery on my mom to move the rod in her back and change the drainage port in her head. I thought we should turn around but the 20 year old "voice of reason" that was with me convinced me we couldn't. Sammie said I had 4 kids at home who were expecting Christmas with their mom and that our mom would never forgive me if I went back instead of being with them. So on we went.

We had great weather and made great time all through Texas, Louisianna, Mississippi and Kentucky which is where we stopped on Sunday night. We checking into the hotel and 15 minutes later had a knock on the door.... it was a Police Officer, who informed me someone had just hit my van. The back hatch and bumper are a complete mess but luckily no lights were damaged so we would be able to make it home without repairs.

We woke early Monday and were on the road by 6 am only being about 5 hours from home (in good weather) but were quickly met with the awful snow that the northeast was getting. Several times during the day we weren't able to go more than 25 mph.
We didn't make it to Gram Z's house until 5pm so much for 5 hours from home!!!

Emotional Rollercoaster

It has been 5 days now since my mom's 2nd surgery and there is no change. She is heavily sedated and they try a few times a day to get her off. The nurses call it "a sedation vacation" but when the lessen the sedatives she become agitated and is gasping for air and her chest is heaving. Since they need to keep her brain level down they cannot have her aggitated so they have to sedate her again.

It has become very frustrating because every nurse or doctor you talk to here says something different and it doesn't make sense.
This is the last day I can go so I need to get some answers!

In order for us to get home for Christmas we need to leave tomorrow (Saturday). It is snowing badly in the north and we are planning on it taking 3 days (no crazy ideas of 2 anymore).

I am dealing with so much guilt right now... I don't want to leave her like this but I have 4 kids at home who need Christmas; they are scared and worried too.

There is so much I didn't do with them yet... We still haven't made Christmas cookies, I didn't get the kids out to finish their christmas shopping, I didnt' take them to see Santa.
But then I feel guilty that my mom is like she is and I am worried about these things, but I feel like the kids are little and need these things because they are worried about their Grandma too.

Kirk says they understand but he is a man and these things aren't as important to him. He actually said "if they miss one year of doing these things that's ok" but to me it's not ok!

I am really beginning to wonder why Christmas time is my favorite time of the year.. Every year something bad happens... I had surgery in December in 2004, in 2006 I found out I had Cancer and needed surgery, in 2007 I had another surgery from my cancer, in 2008 this oh and in 1993 my father died in December.

Oh my gosh I am on such an emotional roller coaster I feel like my head is going to explode.

Bad News Leads to a Crazy Road Trip and More Bad News!

My mom had surgery on Friday December 12, 2008 to have rods put into her back to help her with her chronic pain. It was an outpatient procedure and all seemed to go well. Until Saturday when she began behaving strangely. Doing things like counting to 50 and then backwards. Dick, my stepfather, called the doctor who said it was probably the after effects of the anesthesia and to wait a day and see how she is.

On Sunday things were worse so Dick took her to the hospital where they did a scan and found that one of the rods was up too high and had ruptured the membrane in her head causing a brain hemorrhage.

This touches me very deeply because my father died from a brain hemorrhage 15 years ago on December 3rd!

They rushed her in for surgery to drain the fluid off her brain and she was in a coma. As the evening went on I tried to figure out what to do. I went online to see about getting a plane ticket. There are 2 airports in the area they live in Texas and there are only 2 airlines that fly into the area. Continental Airlines had tickets available for $968 each! (We needed 2 because Sammie was going too). Southwest Airlines flies into Harligen, TX but not from Buffalo, NY. They do fly from Ohio so I thought we could drive to OH then fly to TX. Great! But then I realized we couldn't get a flight back out of Texas to OH!

I went to Amtrak but that would be $800 per person. It's 11 days before Christmas there was no way we could do this.

After talking it over with Sammie we decided we would drive. According to Mapquest it is 1900 miles and will take 30 hours. Crazy me talking to a crazier Sammie thought "oh we can do that in 2 days!"

Then we thought we should do the "right thing" and call Gram Z (My mom's mom) and see if she wanted to go be with her daughter in her time of need. She decided after some prodding she would also go.

OK we can do this. We set off at 7am on Monday. First stop Gram Z's house. She cannot leave until 8 after she gets Norbert on the bus. When we get there his aid is there to put him on the bus and Ray stayed home from work to put him on the bus. That is 3 adults to put 1 man on the bus. Then Gram says we can't leave until 9 so she can go to the bank. We tell her she doesn't need to and we can stop at a bank on the way. This causes an argument that lasts until 8:45. At that point we should just wait and go to the bank but I am frustrated and want to get on our way. This was not a good way to start this trip.

So off we go. The first day weather was fine but we stopped for bathroom breaks and gas and didn't make very good time. I went to bed that night thinking there is no way we are getting there in 2 days.

Tuesday we woke up at 4am and got on the road early only to be met with an ice storm in Tennessee which carried through most of Arkansas.

Arkansas is officially the "death trap" state as far and Sam & I are concerned. I have never in my life seen so many accidents. They were everywhere thought the entire state. We watched some happen right if front of us. We were brought to a complete stop 4 times which turned into a slow crawl while they cleaned the highway in front of us up. Even after it warmed up enough that the roads were not ice people were still crashing their cars. I really am not sure the weather had anything to do with it; they may just be crazy drivers! We couldn't get out of Arkansas fast enough.

As if the crazyness wasn't enough... I recieved a phone call around Noon from my friend Dorene. She says I have an strange question to ask you. "what is the name of Alden's Litte Loop cheer coordinator? I said her name and Dorene just said OH MY GOD! Her husband killer her last night!! WHAT? that can't be right. I made some calls & after some research it was verified that her husband had actually shot her and then shot himself. How right before christmas and with two children at home; ages 11 & 13, who now have no parents. Lisa was a great person; she was always smiling and friendly and the first one to do anything for any of us. She only became a cheer coordiantor earlier this year but we had become friends and the whole thing was so sad. I just cannot stop thinking about it. I am sure Sam & Gram are tired of hearing me say "I can't beleive it and why would he do this" but it's all I can say. It is just awful!

We made it to Texas on Tuesday and a few hours in; my parents live in Brownsville; which is right in the bottom tip of Texas; right on the Mexican border. Our drive through TX was a good 9 hours.

It got to be 10pm and I was becoming very emotional and was questioning everything. I felt bad that my mom was still in a coma & I wasn't' there, I felt guilty for leaving my kids without being ready for Christmas and the drive was really taking it's toll on me.
I just couldn't go any further and we needed to get a hotel.

We finally made it to the hospital around Noon Wednesday, but I was not ready for what I would see.
My mom is one of the strongest women I know and she looks so weak and fragile. There are machines everywhere and it makes me so sad.
All we can do is pray and hope for this to be over soon.

Look who's all grown up...

WOW Sammie is 20 years old! Now I am starting to feel ancient. It doesn't seem that long ago I was in high school toting this little sister who felt she needed to go everywhere with me. Now look at her.

She stopped by on her birthday for presents I am sure and was instead greeted with us decorating the Christmas tree! Lucky for her the kids had left all of her ornaments on the side for her to put on herself.

It has always been a tradition for us that each year we go as a family and the kids each pick out an ornament of their choice; Sammie has been included in this tradition since she came to live with us. Since she has been at college her ornaments have been in the form of a gift. So on her birthday we gave her the ornament we had picked out for her....it is a smore snowman with penguins. (the Sponge Bob ornament in the picture is just an extra Riley wanted her to hold for her picture).

The tree decorating turned into Family Christmas picture time, which of course took at least 20 shots to finally get a picture we "might" use!

I will post pictures of that after our cards have been sent

The update on Sammie's life ...
College keeps her busy, she works at Briarwood Country Club as a banquet server; her boss really seems to like her and she makes a decent wage for her age and length of time at her job.
She has become a bit of a shop-a-holic
She tried a new hair color a few months ago (see picture) - Everyone really likes it... it looks good on her; I am pretty sure she chose that color so she can look like the most amazing person in the world...her sister :)
My kids are all still driving her mad, but now she has her own car and can leave when she has had enough!

She really has grown into quite a great young lady who never does anything wrong and stays out of trouble ! (OK I'm living in denial I know but I like it!)

Hayley Gets New Eyes

We just got back from picking up Hayley's first pair of glasses.
She was ok with getting them when we went to the doctor last week but since then she has begun to panic about how they will look and being made fun of.

Of course it doesn't help having brothers who do nothing but pick on her. As if Zack has any room to talk since he also wears glasses.

She has Astigmatism and needs them for both distance and reading; they have the reading built right in the lens like bi-focals and she is afraid people can see them, but you really cannot unless you hold them up and tilt them just right so there is no chance anyone can tell while she is wearing the.

I think she picked a very flattering style for her face.

Thanksgiving 2008

WOW what a wonderful day.

I love Thanksgiving; it is one of my favorite days of the year; mostly because it kicks off the "holiday season". Which is my favorite season.

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year and Gram Z came as well as Uncle Ray, Uncle Norb, Jeff, Dawn & Nick. Oh and all 6 of us... Sammie had to work but she made it home for dessert.

This year Hayley made the Chocolate Pie all by herself (I wish I would have remembered to take pictures). Everything was great.

After dinner I spent some time mapping out my shopping plan for today. I got up at 4am and off I went to get the "great deals". It was pure craziness just as it always is, but it's just so exhilarating too. I waiting in line at Walmart for 2 hours to check out! I had somethings I wasn't willing to give up so I waited! Then on to as many other stores as I could fit in.
I finished up by meeting up with friends for lunch and then home, where I felt like doing nothing so when Kirk & Sammie both left for work and Hayley went to a Slumber Party I curled up on the couch with all my boys and enjoyed Fred Claus which starts up my personal tradition of a Christmas movie every night until Christmas; on school nights we watch a short cartoon type movie like The Grinch and then when the kids go to bed I watch a grown up Christmas movie by myself and Kirk runs to any other tv in the house to avoid this :)

Hopefully tomorrow we can decorate or at least get the tree out.

OH I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!!

I have the best daughter in the world!!!

So I have been complaining for the last few weeks about how my camera doesn't work right anymore. The pictures are all grainy and it just shuts itself off after every picture I take. It has become very frustrating.

His only response was I suppose you need a new one. Well Yeah! Scrapbooking is my thing...what is a scrapbook without pictures?

Last night when I got into bed it was 11:48pm; I turned the TV on and was flipping through the channels and on QVC (which I never watch) they had their Today's Special Value (which apparently is 1 item per day which is super cheap). It was a camera (not nearly as nice as the one I had but a basic point and shoot), not only was it marked down for the day but they were giving you 4 months to pay for it in payments. Now $100 I could not afford but $25/month I could!

So I ran down stairs and turned the computer on and hurried to the website to get this camera I HAD TO HAVE! (After all I only had about 6 minutes left because I took the time to watch the promotion). It was all good my order went through and I was getting a Fuji something or other down from $250 to $100.

Today Kirk & I were sitting there and I thought I should mention this purchase. The one thing with us has always been if it's over $100 we discuss it first and really decide if we need it, but he was at work and I only had 6 minutes left... no time for discussion.

Of course as soon as I said I was watching QVC he expected the worst and was relieved when I finished as he knows a camera is a need for me.

So on to the best daughter part..
Tonight I was taking pictures of stuff to sell on Ebay and Hayley was helping me.
When my camera kept shutting off I said, "ugh I can't wait to get my new camera"
Hayley said "what?!"
I said, "Oh I bought a camera on TV last night"
She looked crushed and I didn't get it
Then she said, "I've been saving all my money so I could buy you a new camera!"
Oh my gosh I knew she was saving up for something but I had no idea. She had saved $125 and was going to spend it on me.
How sweet is that?
Of course I wouldn't want her to spend that much on me but the idea that she would makes me feel wonderful!

Do I have the best daughter in the world or what???

Time for a quick breather...

Last night was our Annual Hamburg Little Loop Football & Cheerleading Banquet.

Hayley & Connor had a wonderful time.

For me it was sad, exciting & exhausting all at the same time.

Even though I knew well in advance when the banquet was, I did what I always do... wait until the last minute to get everything done and then run around like mad right up until the second I walked out the door.

For the banquet it is customary for the President to open the ceremonies with a speech and MC the evening and then the new President for next year gives closing comments and the kids get to dance and have fun.

During Ron's (our President) opening speech he introduced the new President... bet you can't guess who that is??? Yep I was crazy enough to accept the nomination and the board of directors was insane enough to vote me in!

Oh yeah and Ron decided he wasn't MCing the night... Oh my gosh! I HATE HATE HATE speaking into a microphone to a room of 500 people. Yes 500 people at a little league party! And with nothing prepared! Let's just say I drank some beer to get through that one!

It all ended up going ok and when it was all said and done I was able to go home at 11:30 pm and say another season is done. Time for a quick breather before we start all over planning for the next season. I'll give myself a few days before I start panicing about the whole I am President thing!!! What was the board of directors thinking? Me President!?!?!? I'll let you know how this works out!

Connor's Report Card

Connor brought home his report card. I am very proud to say that he has 3 A's and 2 B's !!!
He is a very strong student which makes us extremely happy; mostly because he is the class clown and that could easily spell trouble.

Connor has many friends and everyone loves to be around him (except his siblings of course). He is a great reader and I am very excited that the hearing problems he has does not hinder him. He was lucky to have a milder case than Hayley's and only 1 ear is affected on Connor.

Connor is really excelling at reading, math and science. He is a very smooth reader and struggles very little on words and of course he likes science because he can make a mess.

Parent Teacher Conference

Went to Parent Teacher Conference for Hayley today....
She brought home her report card Friday so I already knew her grades. She is struggling in Spelling and Math. I expected the conference to not go great, but the teacher only had good things to say. Of course she did mention that Hayley is quite the Socialite and socialization is certainly her strong suit.... didn't see that coming ;)

Already in Fifth grade school to Hayley is about clothes, shoes, you hair & friends. I was not prepared for this yet... I though I at least had until she was in the Middle School. I am well aware that it is only going to get worse from here!

The teacher said the Math grade was low because they are giving them 4 question quizzes so if you get just 1 wrong you are down to a 75... I don't need to explain what happens if you miss more than one. How crazy is that 4 questions???

Spelling has always been a problem for Hayley and I am sure it always will be. She still doesn't hear sounds normally so she cannot do any sounding out the word skills. She spells the way she hears it and it is not correct. Her only way to learn spelling correctly is strictly memorization and the bigger the words the more difficult it is becoming. Good thing so much is computer work and there is spell check!

She is your average student which the teacher & I are very satisfied with considering all the obstacles she has to overcome. Unfortunately, her hearing problems play a role in many of her classes and that will always cause her to work much harder for average results.

Halloween 2008

Halloween this year was a little difficult with a stubborn 11 year old who is having trouble accepting her broken ankle status!!!

Aside from this obstacle we had fun trick or treating. Zack of course @ 13 could not be bothered to be seen with anyone he is related to so he went off with his friends and got into as much trouble as they could! I know this because he came home with very little candy & we all know how much Zack LOVES candy so something better must have been an option....just not sure what it was and I probably don't really want to know?

The kids were most excited this year because Kirk was out of town; apparently a Michigan State football game was more appealing than Halloween; which according to the kids meant they could trick or treat as long as they wanted to!!! They say Daddy always tells them they have enough candy before they think they do.

Connor was Freddie Kruger ...


Riley was a scary Dinosaur...

Hayley was a dead Bride (whatever that is)

Hayley insisted she could walk all over the neighborhood but I brought the wagon "just in case", low & behold mom knows what she is talking about, can you believe that???

We needed the wagon 5 houses down the street!!

Here is our Trick or Treating Group (minus a few friends)

Connor, Brianna, Taylor, Emily & Hayley

Hayley's friends took turns going to the doors saying "can I have a piece of candy for my friend who broke her ankle"

This story change a lot over the course of the evening... sometimes it was a broken foot, ankle, leg... one time Connor's friend Brett, who was with us even said "our friend is handicapped can she have candy!" Hayley was mortified and yelling "I'm not handicap!"

NO CHEERLEADING COMPETITION!!!

Guess who this foot belongs to?

Not hard to figure out since I only have 1 child who would choose a pink cast!!

Wednesday 10/29 Hayley woke up and complained that her ankle was bothering her... I asked her what happened and she said "oh I twisted it in chorus last week" Yes she said LAST WEEK... Hello, maybe we could have mentioned this um LAST WEEK!

Figuring she just sprained it we wrapped it up in an ace bandage and sent her off to school.
I personally was upset because since she had chorus Hayley had been to cheerleading practice 4 times, cheered at 1 game and Gymnastics class. Who can help but wonder how she could have done this and never complained not 1 time about any pain. Selfishly I was thinking about her upcoming cheer competitions and I though if it was sprained and she stayed off it for the last week then maybe she could have still participated...

Thursday she woke up in even more pain that the day before. I got her into the doctor @ 9:30 am. Dr. looked at her and Hayley didn't say much hurt and Dr. says "I think it's just a sprain, I don't see any need for an Xray" Then Hayley went to stand up and got a sharp pain and Dr. said "ok maybe an Xray just to be on the safe side". Off to the lab. The Xray Dr. showed us her xray and said, " It's not a clear break but something is not right" OK so what the heck does that mean??? He is a foreign man and hard to understand after some silence he says "we need to xray her good foot". Ok time for more xrays oh yeah and more waiting.

The "good" foot Xray comes back and all the Dr. will say now is "it's just not right, I don't really want to say, you need to go to an Orthopedic". REALLY? now I feel like I am talking to one of the boys when I caught them doing something they shouldn't be. What kind of Dr. says things like that?

We'll back to our Primary Care Dr. so we can get a referral for the Orthopedic. Of course, Hayley is miserable and keeps saying "I should have just stayed in school, I missed lunch, I missed the raffle, this is boring" because obviously I am having the friggen time of my life!!! Did I mention it is now 12:52 pm?

Our Primary Dr. is busy calling anyone they can to try and get her seen today, at this time there is talk of going to the emergency room @ Children's... which I am really hoping for since that won't require any waiting time (Ok total sarcasm there). Finally, the great nurse gets a Dr. in Amherst to see her but in order for us to get there for the time the have available we need to leave immediately.

We get to the Ortho and even though we needed to rush there, we sat in the waiting room for another 70 minutes! Yes more than an hour past our appt. time!!! The appt time I went "a little" over the speed limit to get to! Why exactly do Doctors make appointment times? The funny thing about Doctors is that if you are 15 minutes late for your appointment they reserve the right to reschedule, but they can be as late as they want and they don't even give a discount :(

Finally it's Hayley's turn. She is barely up on the exam table and they announce, "oh this is getting casted, she broke the growth plate!" It was such an obvious declaration!

All of the annoyance & boredom of the day is instantly gone of Hayley's face and now horror has set in. After picking out her cast color she looks at me and says, "I can't compete?" Yeah, Um NO Duh! (only thought that I didn't say it). Cheerleading competition is this Sunday & next Sunday.... she is crushed!!

Less than 1/2 hour later we get to go home... and it's only 3:30!!

How does an 11 year old girl walk around with a broken foot for a week and not complain? Obviously she takes after her mother and has an amazing high tolerance for pain :)

She has come to terms with it all and after less than 24 hours she is becoming an expert crutch worker, although, she keeps stepping on it when she thinks I'm not looking. Apparently the broken finger from April which healed all crooked because she wouldn't stop doing handsprings on it didn't teach her anything! Here's hoping for a normal foot?

Cheerleader Hayley

Hayley has been cheering at Hamburg Little Loop for 5 years now!!! She has grown into quite the young lady! Her and her friends are a little goofy....

Brianna is on the left and Hannah is the one with the yellow leotard on the right... they are 2 of Hayley's closest friends ... they do almost everything together!

We were visited at the field by the Dunkin Donuts Donut Man... I think the girls were smitten with him!!! How can you not love a big ol donut?

Connor Maxx the Footballer

This is Connor Maxx's 2nd year of football. He is doing so much better than last year. He doesn't always want to go to practice (it's 4 days a weeks so that gets tiresome) but he really gets into the game. He is a blocker on the line for offense and on defense he is in the back... He is #80... I circled him in the pictures. He is little but he does a good job tackling....must be all that practice he gets with his siblings.
This is his last year of Pee Wee. He has a moving up game on Thursday and then he goes on to Freshman... that's the "big time" they actually keep score and go to the playoffs!!!
Keep up the good work Connor!!!

Football

Connor at his 2nd game waiting for his turn to get in the game. He is #80 right in front of the 30 yard marker. I will get some more pictures on here when I have enough time at the field to actually take them!!

First Day of School 2008

September 3, 2008

Connor's first day of 3rd grade.

Hayley's first day of 5th grade. She went to get her hair cut the day before and they cut it with such a grown up style...she does not look 10 years old at all!!!

It's scary how grown up she is getting!

First Day of School

Zack on the First Day of 8th Grade September 3, 2008

I can't believe Zack is already in 8th grade. How did this happen so fast. It seems like not that long ago he was just a baby. I know I know everyone says that, but it's so true!

August 2008

Everything in our lives are just crazy busy right now.

Connor is playing football which has been great this year. He has really matured since last year. Last year he complained and cried. this year he runs right out onto the field for practice with no complaints. He gets all of his equipment on all by himself and after practice he takes it all off and puts it in the car so we know where it is.
His first game is on Saturday. I asked him what position he would be playing.. he said fourback... now I only know the football basics so what on earth is a fourback??? 
After watching practice and talking to the coach turns out a "fourback" is the same as a slot receiver. Which involves him getting handoffs. This should be great fun to watch considering how well handoffs usually work out with 7-8 year old children!You will bet we shall have a video camera in use at this time. He also plays on the defensive line but I don't think he is in a set position.
I will post pictures when I have them.

Hayley is cheerleading again this year. She is excited to have a new coach with a lot of new ideas. We will see how it all plays out for her.
She broke her finger at the socket in April and it didn't heal well. Of course it would have healed better had she not been doing handsprings on it while broken. So her hand is permanently crooked. This is causing a problem for her in her gymnastics which she uses for cheerleading too. The girl just doesn't care if it hurts.. she just flips all over anyway.

Riley is at the football field every night running around like he owns the place. He even wears a little pair of Connors old cleats, so he's ready if he needs to get in the game :)

Football/Cheer practice takes up every Monday - Friday evening for us but it's a whole family thing and everyone seems to like it.

Oh and I bet you can't guess what Kirk does at the field???? He is our announcer!!! You can only imagine the dumb things he says... he does leave the parents laughing and shaking their heads.

This year I am again the Cheerleading coordinator but I am also the Vice President of our organization as well as Vice President of Coordinators for our League.
I certainly have to work on how to say no! Sometimes I don't know how I end up doing all this stuff.

Hamburg Central Schools 4th & 5th Grade Track Meet

June 7, 2008 was our annual Hamburg Central School 4th & 5th grade track meet.

It is held on Howe Field.

All the 4th & 5th grades in all 4 Hamburg Elementary schools come to compete against each other.

Hayley participated in the 50 meter dash and the long jump.

Here she is waiting for her turn to long jump.
















This is Hayley's 3rd and best long jump attempt....

The anticipation till the end is terrible...
















Hayley won 1st place for 4th grade girls long jump with a jump of 8' 7"

That is 1st place of all the 4th grade girls in the Hamburg School District!!!!

This is the picture that was published in our local paper The Hamburg Sun

Hayley is proudly showing off her blue ribbon with her best friend Maggie O'Connell who won 2nd place in one of the races.