We interrupt this blog...

...to vent, rant, whatever you may want to call it. I prefer to call it "educate." If you don't watch basketball, you can stop reading here. :o)

It probably isn't a surprise that I spend a lot of time watching basketball, especially this time of year, with 3 PeeWee teams, a junior high team, and a men's church team.  And more often than not, I am cheering for the tallest person on the team. (Shocker huh?) I also end up "discussing" or rehashing said games for a fair amount of time. I am use to seeing the tall person be fouled with no call, and calls made against the tall person that really should have been the other way. I'm usually pretty good about not yelling at refs, and we have taught our kids not to argue calls - "some calls will go your way, some won't - just play the best ball you can" has always been our motto. And I have rarely, if ever seen Kevin argue a call either as a player or a coach (although I can usually tell when he doesn't agree with the call).  But repeatedly over the years, I often hear other fans at peewee to pro games yelling "Over the back!!" There have been a ref or two who actually make this call as a foul - usually volunteers with little or no training. And it is regularly called in church ball - against Kevin. At least once a game. He has come to expect it, although I wouldn't say he accepts it. I'm not sure I've ever seen him as upset as when he fouled out of a game because he was called on "over the back" 3 or 4 times. Again, he didn't really argue the calls with the ref at the time (he has approached refs after games), but I certainly heard about it. 

Here's the thing. "Over the back" is NOT a foul. There has to be actual contact between players for there to be a foul - so if a person is able to grab a rebound or pass over the top of another player without touching the other player - it is not a foul. Now if, as the tall player is reaching for the ball, they lean into and "push" the player if front of them, than yes that is a foul. Or if the player in front backs into the tall player in attempting to get the ball - that is a foul as well - but not on the player in back - on the player in front that moved. If you want/need more information on "over the back" check out this article.

I will readily admit that being tall does give you an advantage in basketball - that is the nature of the game.  When Kevin has discussed this call with refs, he has actually been told "you are so tall - we just have to even things out a little." Really? Part of the job of a ref is to even the playing field? Since when? And, come on, the advantage in basketball is one of the few advantages there are to being extremely tall. Sure, he can change a light bulb without a stool, paint ceilings easily, and reach the top shelf in the grocery store. 

But being tall has a lot of disadvantages - clothes are more expensive and hard to find and rarely go on sale, your legs don't fit in a lot of places - airplanes, theaters, buses, school desks, etc. You hit your head getting into or out of a lot of things, or even just going down stairs (ask Lyndsey) or, in Kevin's case, just walking through doorways. There are a lot of places that you can't quite stand up straight (we actually had a Realtor show us houses that Kevin wouldn't have been able to go downstairs in.) There are a lot of amusement park rides that you can't ride because your legs are too long. There are far more cars that you can't fit in than you can. (Kevin actually got stuck in one when a salesman insisted that it "had more leg room than you think" and once Kevin folded himself into the drivers' seat, shut to door - wedging Kevin's knee between the steering wheel and the door. The door handle and lock were located just right that Kevin's knee triggered the door locks.)  Unlike any other kind of physical attribute, it seems to be ok to walk up to tall people and say "so how tall are you?" Most people would never walk up to a really short person and say "so how short are you?" or even an extremely overweight person and say "I just have to ask - how much do you actually weigh?"  We get stopped almost every time we go out, and if we aren't stopped, there is a lot of pointing and double takes and obvious talking about it.  And this is mostly what we have dealt with with Kevin - now that we have 6'2" daughters there is a whole new set of things to deal with - being taller than all the boys (as parents we don't really mind this one although I understand how awkward it must be to have to dance with boys that are shorter) and never finding dresses/skirts/pants that are long enough are just a couple.  The list of disadvantages and awkward moments go on and on. And usually we don't mind. It is just the way our life is. Most of the time we just laugh. 

So just let them enjoy the advantage being tall gives them in basketball. It is one thing to be called for fouls that you may or may not have committed in the heat of the game.  But it is totally different to be called on a foul that isn't even a foul in any set of official rules, just because you are taller than the other players. And those of you who are just spectators - maybe think twice before yelling "over the back!" at a basketball game. 

(There I feel better. Not that anyone who actually needs to see this post will read it, but maybe there will be one less fan that I roll my eyes at while sitting in the stands routing for my tall player. Although most of you will be routing for the same tall player so I wouldn't roll my eyes at you anyway.)

Orlando trip day 2

So we flew into Tampa, so on Christmas Morning we woke up here...

We had breakfast at a restaurant called "Crabby Bills"

We then picked up our rental car - unfortunately the "8-passenger SVU" we reserved only had 7 seat-belts. "Luckily", they had a 12 passenger van we could upgrade too. (the lady felt bad about the misleading reservation so she gave us the "mini-van" deal which was less than it would have been to reserve the 12 passenger van in the first place)  A brand new van* with 5 miles on it. Made me a little extra nervous driving, good thing I have lots of practice. :o) In the end, we were glad we had the larger vehicle - but we got listen to the kids complain about the "funky smell". When we told them that people pay good money to get the "new car" smell, they thought we were joking. 

The kids were fascinated to see real palm trees. I was surprised at all the different varieties.

So surreal that it was Christmas day. Right after this we loaded up in the van with the Jessee's for the hour drive to Orlando. That was an adventure in itself. Luckily there was a 2nd set of parents to help answer and deal with all the "I'm hungry", "I'm bored" and "are we there yet" coming from the back. 

In Orlando, we meet up with the rest of the family, we ate, visited, sang some carols....

And what would Christmas be without some presents. My awesome parents had a few tricks packed in their package (which explained why my dad got stopped by airport security - 33 autograph books with metal binding with pens stuck in the binding.) There was water bottles, t-shirts, an ornament, an awesome bag, the autograph books that my mom made that had puzzles to do while in line, journal pages, and autograph pages, and some other awesome things...Think of Oprah's Favorite Things on a family reunion level - they even had an presentation that kept us all cheering. I have the best parents. (somehow Kenzie became the "model" which she loved)

*Oh and in case you are wondering - although the extra storage compartments were nice, and the back-up cam and blind spot mirrors were really nice, I really like my Chevrolet way better than the Ford 12-passenger. Mine handles better, has less noise, and has heater settings between freezing and roasting.

Orlando trip day 1

*Ok - so I'm obviously not the most consistent blogger - but we have had some awesome adventures lately that I really should share. But it will probably be pretty haphazard in the way I share so "you get what you get" (you can throw a fit - but I won't listen - ask my kids. You have you heard the "you get what you get and don't throw a fit" saying haven't you? It is very popular with preschool teachers)*

Ok - so did you hear we went to Orlando for Christmas?
We flew out on Christmas Eve. Several of us were a little nervous about flying (mostly me and Tyler) but everything went very smoothly. My kids did awesome on the 8+ hours of flying. The only two hitches came when our checked luggage didn't show up in Florida (no clean clothes for the adults and no toiletries for anyone) and when Kevin and Wendy Kay took a 45 minute detour on the way to the hotel that was 7 minutes from the Tampa Airport all at 11:30 pm (Florida time - only 8:00pm our time -but we had been traveling since 8:30am). Wendy had the fun job of shuttling all of 17 of us to the hotel in her rental car since the hotel's shuttle driver left early.

There aren't many pics from the traveling, but this was one of the funniest moments of the whole trip.

Since we were flying out on Christmas Eve, we got to the airport a good 2 1/2 hours before our flight to make sure we all got through security and made it to our gate. But the crowds/lines were surprisingly small, and we were at our gate waiting for our flight with about 2 hours and 15 minutes to spare. To our surprise, Santa and one of his elves were making the rounds of the airport. Some of the kids were a little shy to go talk to him, but not Mackenzie. She went right up. Santa asked her what she wanted him to bring her for Christmas. Kenzie gets this "what are you talking about" look on her face and says "You already came to my house! You brought my presents yesterday!" The look on Santa's face was hilarious. And then he blamed it on the elves for sneaking out to deliver presents early and not telling him.

Then Santa noticed Sierra's shirt. It says "Love your Elf" and he pointed it out to his elf and said she definitely needed an elf-hug. They started asking her if she wanted to be an elf when she grew up. Since she was already 3 inches taller than the elf, she said she thought she'd be too tall to be an elf. There were also old fashion carolers, a one-man band playing Christmas songs, and some one passing out Hanukkah gifts.  All the kids got coloring books and crayons, most of the grown ups got lip balm, and a few in the group got decks of cards. In case you were wondering - Christmas Eve isn't a bad day to fly. 

I know I'm terrible about blogging - so for those of you who didn't get a Holiday Letter from us this year - here you go:

December 17, 2011

So, here I am a week a before Christmas, and time is running short while my list seems to keep growing.  Life here in the Richmond house is ever changing, yet still seems to be the same. 

Morgan turned 17 last month, and is a junior at Central Kitsap High. She is extra busy with 4 AP classes – but for the most part she seems to enjoy the challenge. She has been very glad that Dad was a math and physics major in college, as there have been several tutoring sessions – especially in physics, which has been quite challenging for her.  She is in her second year of Sports Med classes, and loves it. She often stays after school to tape athletes before their practice. This fall she could be found on the sidelines of the football field, doing anything from passing out water bottles to donning rubber gloves to treat “blood” injuries.  She is now traveling quite a bit with the girls’ basketball team and actually got to treat her first couple of bloody noses last week (which was exciting – for her). Our mail is also full of college flyers these days, which is a little daunting to mom and dad. She has been doing a lot of research and is looking for a school with a good Sports Med program, although scholarship opportunities will play into her decision too.

Kaylee turned 15 in September, and just finished up driver’s ed. She took it early as we had to fit it in between all her sports and other activities. She played on the Central Kitsap Junior High JV basketball team last winter, and is hoping to make it on the team again next month. Since she is now just over 6’1”, she has a pretty good shot. She just finished her last year of rec soccer, as she wants to join the marching band next year. She is still really enjoying her music – although I was laughing at her because in one 24 hour period she preformed Carol of the Bells on the piccolo, flute and guitar. This summer she also played around with learning the clarinet, and has mentioned that it would be nice to know at least a little piano.  I told her there isn’t enough time in the day for her to learn another instrument.  She is also doing really well in her classes at school – math being her favorite subject and English her least favorite.  The only thing she doesn’t like about school is that she doesn’t have lunch with her best friends.

Lyndsey, now 12, is a 7^th grader and moved up to the Junior High this year. And, although she was a little nervous about it, is enjoying her classes and teachers (except keyboarding – but nobody ever likes that class). She is playing the violin in the orchestra, but she is already talking about dropping that next year so she can return to singing, and join the choir. She just finished up rec soccer as well – her team won the district championship.  She just started her last year of peewee basketball.  She is thinking about trying out for the junior high team next month. It is pretty funny to see her with her teams as she is as tall or taller than most of her coaches. She passed the 6’ mark a couple of months ago and is closing in on Kaylee. Since she is still only 12, and has a couple more years of growing to do, she will have no problem passing Kaylee up. She got her braces off at the beginning of December and is excited to be able to eat popcorn and sticky things again.

Tyler is now 9 and in the 4^th grade. He loves math (he is at the top of his 5^th grade math class) but really, really dislikes writing, especially narratives.  His class will be switching to expository writing soon, and he should enjoy that a little better. He is just such a literal-everything-is-black-and-white kind of kid that he has a hard time making up stories to go with prompts like “You wake up in the morning and you are only 10 inches tall. What happens next?”  In September he earned his Bear badge in Cub Scouts (in our church program, the dens are by age, not grade). He will receive his Religious Knot this week. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was his Bear Den leader, and although I didn’t particularly enjoy working in the Scouting program, I did enjoy spending time with Tyler at our weekly meetings.  He also played soccer this fall, and it was fun to see how much growth and improvement he has had. He is getting fast, and is handling the ball very well. He started basketball a couple of weeks ago and his coach (Dad) says the new found speed is helping on the court and that his dribbling and ball control has improved.

Sierra turned 8 last month, and we are very happy that she decided to be baptized. She is such a sweet, loving girl. She is also doing really well in school, and loves her teacher. She is really good at being a friend, and I have seen her be extra nice to a couple of “new” girls at school and church – making sure that they are included and have someone to sit with.  Sierra continues to love sports. Her favorite sport is whichever one she happens to be playing at the time – softball, soccer, or basketball.  She just finished soccer, and had an awesome year. This was the first year her team has played with goalies, and she spent a lot of time in the goal. I always get a little nervous when one of my kids is playing goalie – it is so much pressure. But Sierra was a natural. There was one game that I lost count of how many balls she stopped, not letting one past her. Then her coach subbed her out, and let her go play on the field for the last few minutes of the game. She scored twice.  Yeah, she is that kid. I had a dad from the other team stop me as we were leaving. We knew him from Scouts, but he didn’t realize we had a daughter that age. He said the whole team was questioning Sierra’s age because of her size and skill. He said their team was used to scoring several times a game, and couldn’t believe an 8 year-old, first year goalie could make even half of the stops she did. Another game she took a hard ball to the face. When I asked her on the way back to the car if she would want to play goalie again, she looked at me like I was crazy and said “yeah- getting hurt is just part of the game. It is still way fun.” She is just so much fun to watch, and I hope she keeps such a great attitude in sports and life.

That brings us to Mackenzie. She turned 5 this summer and started kindergarten this fall. She is really enjoying being one of the “big” kids – riding the bus to school and having homework. But I think she also still enjoys that she gets to come home for lunch and spend the afternoon with just mom. She is doing really good in school – her teacher telling me at conferences “she has passed all the kindergarten benchmarks, but I think I’ll keep her for the rest of the year anyway.”  I help out in the classroom every Wednesday, having kids read their “take home” book to me. If they can read it fluently, they get a new one. The kids move up through the levels to harder and harder books. Kenzie has made it all the way from “A” to the “G” books, and got to move up to “blue dot” books this past week.  That means she gets to go to the library and pick out an extra book as her “take home” practice reading book. She was pretty excited, and has read the book about 7 times each to Dad and I. She had her first soccer season this fall, and got to have Dad as her coach. She really loved it, although at this age it is a lot of chasing whoever has the ball from one end of the field to another. She also enjoyed swim lessons this summer and is asking when she gets to go back to those. Since they are included with our Y membership, I will probably look at putting her back in them after the first of the year.

So what have I been doing with my “extra” couple of hours with no children? I try to get to the Y to work out, catch up on things around the house, and run errands. Although my “extra” hours seem to disappear a lot when kids stay home sick, have appointments, or I help out at the school. Besides helping in the kindergarten class, I’m also the chairperson over the PTSA ice cream/popcorn sales every Friday during lunch. Although I don’t have to sell every week since I have volunteers I schedule to work, it still seems like I’m at the school a lot. As I mentioned before, up until a couple of weeks ago, I was working as the Bear Den leader, but now I’m working as the 1^st counselor in the primary – helping run and oversee the Sunday School classes and church programs for children from 18 months to 12 years old. So far, I really love it. I also enjoy sewing and reading - when I have time between all the practices, games, performances, lessons, and appointments that go with being mom to these six kids.

Kevin is still working at the Shipyard – and I think for the most part he enjoys it. There have certainly been some frustrations to deal with – but all jobs have those.  He is an amazing help around the house, pitching in a lot (although I sometimes feel like he does the lion’s share and I’m the one pitching into help). He loves to be involved with his kids’ sports whether he is the team coach, a spectator, a referee, or a post game analyst. He played church ball last spring, and although he wasn’t sure he’d go back this year after being told by a ref “I have to make up something to call you on – you are just so tall it isn’t fair for all the normal guys.”  Now that the new season is approaching, he is reconsidering - I think he’d miss it too much. He has also become the main homework helper for the older girls – and I laugh as he and Kaylee have conversations that go something like this:

 “I don’t know how to do this problem.” After reading the problem he says “have you tried-” which she interrupts with “yeah, but-” to which he says “how about-” and she goes “oh, I know, I need to-“ and he says “yeah, that should work” and she says “thanks for the help.”

I’m always thinking “Wait. What help? Neither of you even finished a sentence!”

Although the ages and heights of our kids have changed, and the activities change depending on the time of the year, things are pretty much the same around here – a lot of coordinating to get everyone where they need to be, a lot of helping each other out, lots of laughs and giggles, a few tears, and a lot of just enjoying the time we get to spend together.

We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and a blessed New Year.


Love,

And, like normal around here, it is onto the next adventure – the big Wells Family Reunion in Orlando! We fly out on Christmas Eve, and will be spending a little over a week playing with family, visiting parks, and having way too much fun!

wordless wednesday

Ok - so I'm a total slacker of a blogger - just hasn't fit into my busy life lately. But over labor day we went camping with my sister Nichole and her family in Ilwaco - right by Long Beach. We were in long beach about 3 years ago - and that is where the picture in my header comes from. We retook the picture so I thought I share. Since Nichole was with us, we also got in the picture.
There are about 500 pictures from the weekend between Nichole and I - maybe I'll get some more up here soon.

almost wordless Wednesday - Motherhood...

Why I do what I do...six amazing "little" people who make me who I am.

some of the best women around - Happy Mother's Day Ladies!!!
(yes even you Wendy - the best aunt/sister we could all ask for - making all us other aunts look bad!!!)

wordless wednesday - how many shoots will it take to get a good one?

Happy Easter...a day late

It has been quite a month here. There was a visit from cousins, a couple of Aunts,an Uncle, and  a Great-Grandma during the first week (unfortunately the week after our spring break, so we didn't get to visit quite as much as we would have liked. But it was great to see them as much as we did.
The next week was what will be referred to as Richmond Stomach Flu 2011 - as we all had the stomach flu. You know it is bad when the entire family was home sick on Wednesday - Tyler's birthday.  Nice birthday full of popcicles, ginger ale, and apple sauce. Not a present or candle in sight. He was a trooper and he finally got his presents this weekend. (more later).
So once we were all better, the older girls have been working like crazy to catch up on homework - the added pressure of all the make-up work needing to be in for the quarter ending last Thursday. We also have Sierra playing softball, and Morgan and Kaylee doing track at their schools (Morgan is a thrower - shot put, discus, and javelin. Kaylee is mostly a jumper - long jump and high jump - and also added discus this year). There is also scouts and mutual activities to throw in which have become quite a family affair with me being the bear leader, and Kevin the committee chair for scouts, and the 3 oldest being in Young Women's.

So I decided to add in some sewing projects. I wanted to make Easter/spring dresses or skirts for all the girls. I should have been a little concerned on what that would involve when I bought over 25 yards of fabric (14 of it was muslin for the linings - that was on sale 2 yds for $3 - so I over estimated how much I'd need because I knew I could use the extras for other projects).  I did get a little intimidated after I had pre-washed it all and then had to iron all 25 yards. All in all, though I enjoyed the process, I just wish I had given myself a little more time. But I started on Tuesday, and made 2 dresses and 3 skirts by Saturday night, as well as alter Morgan's formal from last year so that she could wear it to Mormon Prom Saturday night (the sleeves didn't fit right). I had bought fabric to make me a skirt that didn't get done, but I will get it made this week. Here is a picture of my efforts - more pictures up on Just Showing Off.

And a group shot just so you know that I have a son :o) I feel a little bad that I don't sew him anything, but then I will probably spend as much time as it took me to make the skirts, sewing patches on his scout shirt this week, since he just earned his Wolf, a gold and 2 silver arrow points, as well as some segments that I haven't sewn on yet. And since when I'm focused on projects like this, I tend to not ride him as hard about how much time he is spending playing video games, he is probably totally fine with me sewing for the girls and wishes I'd do it more often.

our normal...

So a couple of days ago my sister Annie posted about the "normal" table conversations at her house. It included a large floating giraffe named "Big", and alligator (who is now dead but Big is really sorry), and a pretend princess and a green umbrella - for those of you who don't read her blog (it is private or I'd give you a link). That night at dinner, Kenzie was doing this...


She was singing this "song" for a couple of  minutes while we were eating before any of us really noticed what she was doing - and then there was several questions of "where did that song come from?" (she made it up) and "what is she saying?" (I want to kiss you, I really do-do. I want to kiss you, I really do-do...) and "is she singing that to her cup?" (yes - her monkey cup). She just kept singing it...so we pulled out the camera because otherwise you just wouldn't understand our normal.

 And, yeah, sorry - if the song is stuck in your head for hours....