Belatedly 18 and the end of school

Things have been a bit chaotic recently and despite meaning to sit down and write something, life has been in the way. But I have some time and so it’s worthy of spending a couple of those minutes putting a marker in the ground.

Thomas has turned 18. Not only that, he’s finished school as well. Thomas turning 18 filled me with a little more trepidation than his brothers, probably because he was so obviously keen for the event and the fact that it marked his entry into adulthood. And legal access to alcohol. Given the proximity of that event to the commencement of his final school exams. The planning for the 18^th party kicked of pretty early and certainly seemed to be attracting more attention than some of the school work.

The party went off without a hitch, a good time was had and no police were called and Thomas even remembers it. Mission accomplished.

Thomas had come along way in the last two years. It seems that since moving schools at the start of Year 10 he’s really come into his own and found himself and has a great group of friends. He’s continued with his refereeing and this year was named in the talent development squad which was a nice piece of recognition. At lease being able to drive himself to games has meant that our taxi duties have been significantly reduced. It’s put some good cash in his pocket, but also really helped him to mature as he deals with all the different personalities one encounters during a football season. You know that he’s embraced the role when he tells you how many red cards he’s issued not to mention coaches that he has ejected from games!

The passion for computer games remains while the juggling and card tricks have taken a back seat. There were times when I lamented the fact that I never seemed to be able to bust him studying no matter what surprise tactics I employed, but he assures me that the study really did happen and we just have to hope now that the evidence is borne out when the results come through.

Rather than doing schoolies he’s heading off to a rented shack with a group of friends from school and then eagerly awaiting his first Temby new years event where he will be legally allowed to partake of the grog without fear of repercussions from the parentals. We’ll have to see if he manages to make it to midnight or whether misplaced enthusiasm does him in early. Hopefully it will be the former.

So as we sit and wait for the results and Uni offers we look forward to Christmas, the New Year and a celebratory trip to Japan to indulge in some skiing. We’re extremely proud of Thomas and the young man that he’s becoming and wish him the very best for the next stage beyond school.

2016

2016

Given the lack of updates over the course of the year and the simple fact that I am on holidays and its raining, I thought I’d take a moment to put together a quick summary of our year. (though I didn’t get too far with it and am finishing it off in January!)

Waaay back in January, our year started with the excitement of a trip to Bali with the Rowlands. It was the 20th wedding anniversary and Jason planned a beach side re-commitment ceremony to surprise Bel. We were lucky enough to tag along. We had an awesome time and the fact that it wasn’t documented in my blog probably comes down to two things: How busy we were and the fact that I managed to spend at least part of the holiday turning myself inside out and couldn’t be bothered sitting down to write. 

The kids had a great time. We went white water rafting, rode bikes down the mountain, saw the monkeys, temples, snorkelled and even ate and drank a bit along the way. Michael took full advantage of the resort’s swim up bar and took on the role of drinking buddy for Bel, going cocktail for cocktail all thanks to my generosity!

The only thing that took the edge off the holiday was spending a couple of days turning my insides into my outsides. That and Cam deciding to get sick to the point of having to go to hospital on the last day and nearly missing the flight home. Alls well that ends well though.

February saw us return to work with no sign of holiday relief on the horizon. So knuckle down it was. 

We all had a good year and the biggest challenge that we collectively faced was probably adjusting to Caroline working full time at the same time that I spent much of the year travelling for work. 

Emily decided to follow in Sam’s footsteps somewhat. With Sam playing what seemed to be almost every sport that was offered, he usually had to be at school either early or late. As he was able to drive, Emily opted to go with him rather than get up almost as early to catch a bus that would get her there just in time for school. So instead she opted for getting involved in more sport herself. She did well at school for the year and all the extra curricular activities earned her her Mercedes Gold colours at the end of the year, something that not a lot of people manage to achieve. She also started playing softball with Sturt Falcons toward the end of the year just so that we don’t get to spend our Saturday afternoons relaxing (not the real reason, but certainly one of the consequences). So far it’s been good with mostly positive results, though she’s going to miss the start of the second half of the season due to other holiday commitments.

Thomas spent the year at a new school, having decided that he’d like to try a different path. He was accepted into the Australian Science and Maths School late in 2015 and so this year has been enjoying a completely different approach to learning. He has certainly revelled in the fact that there isn’t a uniform to wear. His results were pleasing and hopefully have set him up for his next 2 big years as he takes on years 11 and 12. Sport wise, having committed to a school where sport seems to be something of a distraction rather than any sort of priority, he opted to go back to playing club soccer. He went out to Adelaide University and played in their U16 side. The results were challenging, but from a personal perspective it was pleasing to see him improve significantly throughout the season. 

In addition to playing, Thomas continued with his refereeing and spent a lot of his Saturday afternoons assisting at U18 and Premier League reserves games. He enjoyed it enough that he’s planning on only refereeing in 2017 which will no doubt result in us transporting him all over the place (though much of that work load was taken up by Sam.). One more year to go of that as he managed to get his learner’s permit and by the end of 2017 should be onto his P plates. Scary stuff indeed

Sam had a big year with it being his last year of school. He approached it in typical Sam fashion: Organised, dedicated and self-driven. Given some of the horror stories that you hear from some people about how much stress there is around the family when someone is going through year 12, I can only think that we were very blessed indeed. As noted previously, he took on a lot more than just the final hear of IB. He went through the year with a significant sports commitment as well. He did give up his job at KFC so that he could focus on his studies, but other than that, there were few concessions, just a whole of lot of effort. And given that I’m finishing this off in January, I can happily report that the results are in and he has done very well. Sam also turned 18 late in the year, so you can read more about him in the post that I put up for that occasion. 

Michael has spent the year at Uni working towards his double degree (at least when he’s not sleeping or playing a computer game) The biggest change for him was probably taking up hockey. After being prodded and poked to do something physical so that he’d be at least a little bit active he came home from orientation week to announce that he was going to play, much to his mother’s delight. It added another fixture to our winter weekends and we managed to get out to a number of his games. He certainly improved a lot over the course of the season and appeared to enjoy it as well. He’s continued to be employed at Donut King for the year which has resulted in us consuming more donuts than one family really should eat, but I suspect that he’ll be looking for a change sometime soon if for no other reason than the opportunity to earn more money than one shift a week brings in.

Caroline’s biggest challenge for the year was her knees. Having had an arthroscopy during the year before she was torn as to how much involvement she should have in hockey. In the end she opted to coach and play for Uni’s Div 5 team, dropping down in the hope that the demands to run wouldn’t be quite the same and that it might preserve the knee. Sadly it seems that it didn’t pay off quite as much as she hoped and it may prove to be the last year of her career (though there’s talk of filling in occasionally in 2017 just to stay involved). 

Work wise Caroline was made permanent during the year and then later took on a step-up role replacing someone on maternity leave. She continues to enjoy what she’s doing which is always positive. About the only change that she’d really like to make in the work scene is to cut a couple of hours back to see a bit more done around the home front, especially with me travelling as much as I have been.

As for me, it could be said that 2016 was the year that I ran. I decided that if I was going to be away from home I was going to keep fit rather than sit in hotel rooms eating and drinking. I think I’ve resolved not to assault everyone with my running on Facebook this year, I’ll just leave it on Strava for those that are interested 

I decided at the end of the previous soccer season that I’d enjoyed things enough that with the team dropping back to division 3 I’d have another tilt in the reserves. After all, I fully expected that we’d take out the Reserves title and that proved to be true. We even had another run deep into the cup competition, falling in the semi-finals to the eventual winner. I was even asked to play first team a couple of times and only missed being best and fairest by one vote. Not bad for an old fart and so 2017 will see me fronting up again. 

Work has been challenging, but seems to be headed in mostly the right direction. It certainly beats being unemployed and I’ve appreciated having the full 12 months behind me 

That’s about it for us over the last year. We managed most of our traditional camping trips as well, Easter and Port Hughes and October in Mannum and will look forward to them again in 2017. Hopefully the year behind was kind to you and 2017 brings you good things as well. 

Sixteen

Sixteen. 

As with so many kid-based milestones, its hard to believe that Thomas has just turned 16. Yet another one on the road. The prankster has his learner's permit. What could there possibly be to be scared about? Maybe the fact that he's the only one of the three boys that has expressed overtly keen interest in driving the Porsche?

Thomas has had a big year these last 12 months. For a start he changed schools. In the process of looking at what measures we might have to take back when I was unemployed, schooling was one of the things that we thought might have to be sacrificed, what with it being one of our significant expenses. In considering what we might do if it came to such drastic measures Caroline unearthed the Australian Science and Maths School at Flinders University. We explored the place and Thomas decided that it presented and exciting and interesting opportunity for him. If nothing else, it presented him with the chance to escape French! So at the start of the year, after getting through the application process he embarked on his new challenge. Its been good for him. He's enjoyed it and so far, he's doing very well there. 

Thomas is the family clown, always quick with a joke and looking for the funny in life. There are times when it feels like he needs to be reminded that there is a serious side to life, but at the same time, why quash that spirit. There'll be plenty of time for serious as he goes through life and hanging onto the fun is important.

He's picked up a couple of hobbies that haven't been too hard to spot over the last 12 months. Juggling, Rubik's cubes and card tricks being the main focus. Where possible, he likes to combine the three, though that's mostly been confined to juggling the rubik's cubes and attempting to solve them whilst doing so. He hasn't mastered it to the point of being able to juggle and solve three completely mixed cubes at once, but the fact that he can even manage to rotate a targeted face of even one cube whilst juggling far exceeds any talent I ever nurtured in the area. Threats have been made of course, because the process of learning to juggle often results in the objects being juggled clattering across the floor. Less of a problem for the wannabe juggler than the other occupants of the room. The juggling seems to have gone by the wayside for now, with cards having taken more of a central role in Thomas' hobbies lately. Its generally a quieter learning process, though at times no less annoying as we're forced to sit through endless riffling of cards. It could, of course, be far worse.

Thomas picked up club soccer again this year, playing U16s for Adelaide University. It wasn't the greatest season, but he improved noticeably through the season and gave us plenty of moments in which to be proud parents. At this point he's decided to focus on refereeing next year rather than playing. Through the course of this year he generally assisted at premier league reserves and U18 games and enjoyed the experience almost as much as the money that it put in his pocket. I think he's keen to back that up next year and increase the funds coming in by being available two days a weekend instead of one. I'm sure its also driving his desire to get through the license process so that he can reach the point where he is able to get to games off his own back rather having to rely on being transported by semi-reliable family members (we only forgot him a couple of times, honest!)

I've really enjoyed Thomas' growth over the last 12 months (though perhaps not the literal growth that has relegated me to the shortest male in the house) and appreciate the fact that of everyone, he seems to enjoy my terrible humour the most.  I know he was expecting me to put something terrible on facebook on his birthday, but hey knowing he was anticipating it was enough fun without having to really embarrass him. I've written this instead. 

And I didn't even mention the girlfriend ;)

Happy 16th Birthday Thomas.

Belatedly 13 and 15

Life has, as seems to be the norm around here, been busy. In the meantime Sam and Thomas have both managed to have had birthdays and have respectively turned 13 and 15. Yes, we now have three teenagers in the house. Huzzah?! The mind boggles and perhaps that’s why it’s taken me so long to get my head into a space to capture this. Let's just go with life has been rather busy.

Tom achieved his milestone first so I’ll start there.

Tom at 13

Every time I sit down to write one of these little birthday pieces I worry to some extent that I’m going to be repeating what I said the year before. I guess it’s not my fault if they don’t change their personalities too much in a year.

Tom remains the house clown, always on the lookout for the next joke. He’s definitely a thinker, an ideas man. I’ve lost count of the times that Tom starts a conversation with something along the lines of “Just imagine right that …” and off he goes on a fanciful journey of the mind. I can’t say that I can always keep track of exactly where it’s going, but I always enjoy the fact that he’s so actively using his imagination.

Tom played a lot of soccer again this year. School went well and he really enjoyed that portion of the football experience but unfortunately the club experience didn’t quite match up. The club went from one team to two this year, which whilst it meant that he got to play regularly, it didn’t provide last year’s fringe players with a lot of positives. They had some success, but unfortunately the coaching was sub-par (you have to be thankful for someone that’s prepared to volunteer to do the job) and I don’t think the boys learnt a whole lot. I had been asked to coach but with work commitments and everything else that was going on in my life I wasn’t willing to commit. That’s changed for next year and I’ve been silly enough to say yes. It should be a very interesting and bloody busy year.

Tom continued with his cricket and has steadily improved, though not as much as he could have if either of his brothers was interested enough to get off their backsides and play some of the backyard variety of the game. It makes you wonder where the next generation will come from if all the kids get addicted to their computers and X-boxes. I think the highlight of the first part of the season had to be the reverse hook that he played, much to the amusement of several of the parents (and me!). It wasn’t so much a pre-mediated thing as just an effort to hit a ball that was outside off stump. He’s nothing if not unconventional! If only I could find some of that elusive free time to get around the nets with him, we might be able to improve things even further. He’s looking to play on next year, so hopefully he continues to improve. His batting is getting there as he makes some runs most weeks, though a tendency to try and hit across the line of middle stump has seen him come unstuck once or twice.

Academically Tom continues to progress, working hard (most of the time) to achieve his results. It’s certainly a challenge off the back of the dyspraxia and dyslexia, but he’s holding his own so far.  There was an interesting conversation around the dinner table the other night in which Sam and Michael were telling Thomas which teachers would have high expectations of him because of the bar that they set and which ones might not be looking forward to ‘another Temby’. I think the reality is that Tom will carve his own path!

Sam version 2013 aka Sam at 15

I always think of Sam as the kid that marches to the beat of his own drum, the one that likes to take up sports that none of the other kids play. This last year hasn't been any different.

Over the course of the year since his last birthday Sam has continued to quietly succeed. In terms of sports, he's continued on with his Tennis. Having managed to get himself to a point where he's confident of his ability, he played competition tennis for the first term of the year. He did rather well, making it to the finals and then winning! He and his mates were playing division 13 and with the start of the new season in term 4 he's catapulted up to division 8 where he is continuing to win more games than he loses. I don't think he's actually lost a singles game so far this season.

In addition to the tennis and sticking to something of a theme, Sam has also been playing table tennis. Last year his team not only won, they smashed it., going through the entire season undefeated. That earned them all an MVP award which was a nice bit of recognition. This season Sam did well again, though I don't think there's actually any finals but at the end of the season Sam was presented with a 'Services to Table Tennis Award.' We're not exactly sure what the criteria are, but it sounds good, even if it is, as rumoured, for showing up to every game and practice.

In Winter Sam played soccer and Volleyball, the soccer being the only cross-over with anything the  other kids play or in fact with anything that I played when I went through school (even if I did flirt with tennis for a single term).

Academically Sam has continued to succeed, not quite managing an academic award this last time around, but at least managing a commendation. Oh, and he picked up another Mercy Key at the end of last year which was an accomplishment to be proud of given they only hand out 10 across the year level. To have managed it twice in two years was quite spectacular.

Then there's the other bits. Sam tends to have spent a fair bit of time on You Tube over the last year or so, teaching himself a variety of things. He's become something of an accomplished amateur card trick magician. You have to watch out for his new sneaky shuffling and dealing skills as he works toward palming cards and generally looking to leave you astounded with what is going on. He's also something of an origami whiz. Apparently for one of their art subjects this last term the topic was origami. When the teacher asked if anyone in the class was any good at it, the entire class turned and pointed to him. Oh and he's assembled his first computer too. He used the proceeds from his birthday to buy all the components and then one night at the kitchen table put the whole thing together. Now we just have to drag him away from it every now and then.

Overall, we're very proud of our Sam and his accomplishments, even if he has that teenage tendency to be extremely literal in picking faults out of what you're telling him (especially if you happen to be his younger sister!)

Happy Birthday Boys ... even if they were back in October!

12 the third

Thomas is 12; the last of the boys in his last year before becoming a teenager. There is only one more year until we have three of them in the house. In four more years we’ll have to survive a year of four teenagers. Heaven forbid.

Thomas continues to be very much Thomas. I know that sounds kind of lame, but like all kids, he really does have his own personality and it means something to me. Thomas is the child in the family I would deem most likely to be the class clown.

Thomas decided this year that he’d like to play club soccer and so we took him out to Plympton Bulldogs where he played in their under 12 team. It has been great for him. He’s come a long way in terms of his confidence on the field and played some really good games of football, even if it was something of a task to make sure that he got to training and games each week!

Thomas still retains his capacity for deep thought, surprising me every now and then with a question about the more serious side of life. He’s a thinker, even if most of the thought is consumed in coming up with ways in which to be funny.

Thomas’ speech has come a long way from the early days of his development and its rare now that I feel the need to stop and get him to repeat what he’s said. I am so proud of how hard he’s worked through his whole life to date to get to where he is with it that I just can’t put it into words any better than that.

Thomas is also perhaps the child most likely to compromise, sometimes caught between being in the younger pairing with Emily or wanting to be one of the boys. He generally retains his sense of humour though occasionally, just every now and then decides he’s had enough and that someone else should have a turn at taking one for the team!

I dearly enjoy the time that I get to spend with Thomas and am as proud of him as I am of all the kids.

Happy Birthday Thomas.

Real or Fake?

Get your minds out of the gutter, it’s got nothing to do with boobs.

The other night I went to say goodnight to Emily and Thomas who had been shipped off on a mission to the land of nod. First I went to Emily’s room to find her curled on her side. It was the perfect angelic picture of a sleeping cherub. 

The thing is, I know Emily so I quietly crossed the room and gave her a kiss, telling her that I loved her. Then I quietly said to her, “Now stop faking and go to sleep properly.” This brought an immediate smile as her eyes popped open, knowing that she’d been busted. I gave her a stern talking to and moved on. 

I entered Thomas’ room wondering what I’d find. Talk about contrast. There he was, flat on his back, one arm thrown above his head, mouth wide open, blissfully sleeping away. There was simply no question as to whether he was faking it or not.

There’s possibly a lesson there for the youngsters that want to pretend to be asleep, but hey, I probably shouldn’t spell it out any more than that, should I?

13 and 11

Somewhere back in time I started to write posts for each of the kid’s birthdays. This year I’ve been somewhat slack and for some time haven’t written anything at all. It’s one of those odd things where sometimes things happen and scream at you to be written about and other times, life quite simply takes over and you’re too busy enjoying it to stop and write about it.

So what was once almost a weekly endeavour on my part has slipped to be something less than that. I don’t want to stop, it’s probably more about not writing just for the sake of filling space, but continuing to do so when there’s something I want to write about.

The other influencing factor is a widening audience. When I started this thing up in its original form back in about 2001 or so I had no audience in mind. It was somewhat random, full of whatever happened to appeal to me at the time and it was probably only ready by about 3 people. Hell, I don’t even know how many people still read when I post now. The fact is though, that with the advent of facebook there’s a new avenue for keeping in touch with people. It has supplanted a small piece of what this started out as. Casual observation in short form fits very well in the facebook space even though I find myself doing less of that as well. The fact that I now advise of updates via that medium as well as through the list of ‘subscribers’ that I collated before we left for Canada means that all sorts of people have access to what I write – kids, friends of kids, extended family, work colleagues … the list goes on. Being aware of that audience and quite possibly a more mature approach to what I write certainly has limited me some times when I’ve felt like bashing out an expletive laden rant about something that has riled me.

Anyway, none of that was actually the point of why I put fingers to keys. What I realised was that both Sam and Thomas had birthdays back in October and some sad neglecting parent didn’t even mark the occasion. Well not here at least.

So Sam has turned 13, entering the teenage years whilst Tom turned 11 and begins to navigate those in between times, not yet a teenager, but working through double figures.

Sam continues to be himself, pursuing interests that he chooses and not really being influenced by others as to what he should or should not be interested in. He’s mostly a generous spirit, though he seems to reserve a special little criticism for the little sister that knows just how to push his buttons. He’s popular with his peers and more often than not when the phone rings its someone asking Sam over for a play. Despite dropping money on his ‘own PS3’ after the influx of wealth that followed his birthday, he’s not become obsessed with it to the extent that his older brother has. His personal obsession at this time appears to be mine craft. If you don’t find him in his bedroom with a book, he’s likely behind the computer exploring the world that is mine craft and experimenting with what can be done. He’s continued to play tennis this summer, though again, not on a competitive basis. He enjoys it if the two of us can get around to the park and have a hit, especially if no one else decides to come and he doesn’t have to share the court. I think it’s still something of a not wanting to be seen to fail thing that keeps him from playing competitively and perhaps with some coaching we can get him to a point of competence that will see him participate at another level.

Thomas remains the joker. It’s hard to see that changing as he really does like a good laugh. This year he’s been diagnosed with dyslexia, which whilst disappointing, is at least something that can be worked with. When I consider all the problems that people go through in life, this is one that many people have overcome, lived with, conquered etc and I know that Thomas will do the same. He retains his hard work ethic in that regard which is something I’ll always be proud of him for. It means that he works longer and harder to achieve less of an outcome than perhaps his older brothers, but he retains pride in his accomplishments and we’re certainly very proud of them ourselves. He’s played soccer through the winter and is now the last Temby to be playing cricket this summer. I hope that he continues to do so. He’s not been the star of the team, but he continues to improve. He’s bowling less wides (down to about one an over now) and he’s really taken to fielding which has been great to see. Maintaining enthusiasm for that part of the game can be tough, but he seems to love nothing more than an excuse to sling himself across the ground in a slide to stop the ball. Now we just need to teach him that he doesn’t need to slide every time he gets near it. His batting needs work, but mainly on the run-scoring front. He’s been not out in two innings so far, so it will be interesting to see if he can maintain the trend!

Hoping for a musical gift

This year, as the kids prepare to embark on their scholastic journey once more, we find two of the tribe learning instruments as part of the school curriculum. On the plus side, its Thomas and Emily, who both spent some time learning the piano over the last year that we were in Canada. It should at least give them a little bit to work from with regards to reading the music etc.

Now I used to learn the guitar. It was a long time ago and I like to think that after 6 years of lessons, what I worked out was that I was rubbish. Well maybe not complete rubbish, but I learned to play one note at a time and with little to no artistic flair. I play the guitar like an engineer. Well, when I say I play it like that, I used to. I think I remember one chord and couldn't read a sheet of music to save my life.

So I am hoping that from somewhere within the genetic mix, Thomas and Emily will find themselves with some of that non-tone deaf magic that good musicians have.

After all, Thomas is learning the Trombone and Emily is Learning the Violin.

Can we say cruel and unusual punishment?

(I might have to insist that all practice is done straight after school)

Father of the Year

Last weekend was pretty busy. We’d just had two days of having all of our stuff from Canada land in our house in boxes and having to arrange and unpack everything. On top of that there was the apartment that we had to clear of all the stuff that we’d been surviving with.

As all of this is happening the kids were oscillating between helping, un-helping and generally ignoring the fact that beyond their own possessions, there were other things that needed to be loaded and unloaded from cars. Kids are like that. Sam and Thomas I must say won the prize for most consistent application of the help factor out of the four of them, whilst Michael was being a little more inventive, deciding that it was quicker to rip-stick the goods from the apartment to the car.

The rip-sticks even made it out into the church car park whilst the kids waited for us to finish gas-bagging.

As we went to leave the church, Thomas went for one last run down the slope of the carpark to jump in and stash the rip-stick. As he did so, the additional speed undid him and he fell backwards, to land solidly upon his rump, his hands out behind him in an effort to take a little of the sting out. He shrugged off the embarrassment and sheepishly boarded the van.

When we were then at the apartment, he complained that his wrist was sore and that he wouldn’t really be able to help to carry very much. Caroline suggested that we’d need to take him to the hospital in amongst everything else that was going on for the day. To say that I was excited about going to the Women’s and Children’s to spend a couple of hour waiting to be seen would have quite simply been a big fat lie.

So I did what any good father would do. Told him to suck it up, see how it went and carry on.

As the day proceeded, he seemed to favour it less and I was happy that the right decision had been made (having convinced Thomas that it was likely just a bit sprained and that it would come good over the next couple of days).

During the week, the pain continued and Caroline decided (like good Mothers do) that it would be worth getting him checked out by the doctor after all. This resulted in a trip to the radiologist. When he came home last night, there was no sign of a cast, but Thomas was happy enough to let me know with one of those little Thomas smirks that he had a fracture. I played it up and let him know that at least with no cast, he wouldn’t be too restricted.

Then today the phone rang at work. It was Caroline to inform me that Thomas would have to go back to the doctor tomorrow ... yes, for a cast of course.

“Just a sprain,” he said. Father of the year for sure.

*(As a side note, those toys have been a huge hit - I think the fact that they received them at Christmas last year when the world was doused in snow was a bit of a let down for them initially)

Ten

The 2nd of October was Thomas’ tenth birthday and the first one that he’s managed to have in Australia since we left in 2007. He was pretty happy about that, as were all of his siblings (and possibly those of us that make up the rest of the family as well).

A year on, Thomas has achieved a lot. He’s competed in ski-racing at Jasper, he scored honour roll at school and he continues to develop into the sort of delightful young man that a proud Dad likes to boast about.

One of the things that has stood out lately is what I like to refer to as Thomas’ smug grin. It appears every now and then and always brings a smile to my face.

It comes out when he knows that he’s said or is doing ‘the right thing’. He’ll announce some little tidbit of wisdom, knowing that he’s saying exactly what a parent would expect their good son to say and then it appears, the little self satisfied, smug grin. I do adore it. It shows the intelligence lurking behind his sparkly eyes. It probably means that we’re in for trouble, because its that sort of intelligence that shows he knows full well what is expected whether that happens to be the path that he’s chosen to take or not.

It also means that he shows enough forethought (at times) to know that if you say the right thing, you might just escape the consequences that go with saying the wrong thing on the back of having done the wrong thing. I hope that makes sense in translation. I know it does to me, it was one of the lessons I managed to learn fairly early on in life!

Thomas retains his sense of humour and his willingness to persevere to succeed. As he embarks on the journey back into the Australian school system (not to mention finally getting a chance to start to play cricket) it will be critical for him to maintain both of these and hopefully with some extra support, he’ll continue on the hard earned path to success that he’s begun on so far.

Jasper Juniors

This year, rather than spend our winters freezing our butts off at, and shuttling back and forth between ice rinks, we managed to keep the kids out of any ice sports and pursue other options. 

The boys all played indoor soccer and Emily and Thomas joined the Nancy Greene Ski Program. Emily would have loved to have played indoor soccer but unfortunately her games would have been on Saturday which simply wasn't conducive to the lifestyle that we wanted this year. At least when the kids are skiing we get to indulge as well.

One of the things that the Nancy Greene program enables the kids to do is participate in ski races, something which Caroline and I were certainly excited about, regardless of  whether Emily and Thomas thought it would be particularly special or not. 

With our other commitments and fun (like holidaying in the Caribbean) we didn’t actually get to as many of these events as we’d have liked, but we did make the one that we considered most important - the Jasper Junior Olympics.

It was held the week after we arrived back from our cruise, so we went from the sand to the snow in a very short space of time. Caroline and the kids went on the bus on the Thursday, whilst I worked through Friday. Then I caught the plane to Edmonton and drove out in a little Hyundai to meet them in Jasper.

It almost uneventful except for the bit where I was driving along at the permitted 110kms/hour and looked up to see the back end of what I think was an Elk wandering off the road to my right. I hit the skids, veered into the left lane and set the heart racing to about a billion beats a minute. I slowed down and considered just how bloody lucky i was that there hadn’t been anyone in the lane along side me, not to mention that it hadn’t been the front end of the animal that I’d seen! Otherwise it would have been a very very messy experience.

Eventually I controlled the heart and made it the rest of the way and by the time that I’d managed to make it to the Rockies proper, I was in a suitable frame of mind to admire the absolutely stunning view as the bright, silvery light of a very full moon cast its ethereal glow across the snow-capped mountains. It was truly wonderful and I would have given a lot to have had a camera handy (not to mention some decent photography skills) so that I could have captured it to share.

The following day we were up bright and early to pack ourselves onto the team bus so that we could head up to the mountain to do some skiing (oh and um, watch the kids too). The kids were split into age groups and genders for racing and the older kids skied on a tougher course. That meant that Emily would be skiing down a green run near the base of the mountain whilst Thomas would ski at the top on a black run! Caroline was kind enough to do our volunteer duty so that I could fit in some extra skiing (something about having missed most of the Christmas ski adventure).

It was going to be a delicate task once the kids were ready to ski as all we had to go by was the number of their bib as to when they would be coming down the mountain. Michael and Sam and I did some exploration to make sure that we’d be able to get from one to the other in time the waited near Emily’s run for her first race.

It was very cute to see the little kids skiing their hearts out as they weaved in and out of the gates to get the fastest time that they could. On the first day they would each have two timed races to see who could produce the quickest time.

Emily fared very well in her event, coming in 11th in her age group, which was just one place short of getting a ribbon! After her first run we raced to the bottom, caught the lift back to the top and skied across to Thomas’ course. We had to repeat it for the second run in the afternoon.

Thomas skied well on his first run, but unfortunately on his second, lost his edges about 5 gates from the finish. He got up quickly and kept skiing, but hadn’t realized that he’d missed a gate in the process and sadly ended with a DNF (did not finish). That meant that he didn’t get an official time for his runs, but from his first run he was around the middle of the pack. When you see the speed some of the kids that have been skiing (and racing) for many years achieve, middle of the pack is bloody good.

On the second day, the racing was a team event, with the various ski teams competing against each other. This meant that each skier would participate in two tandem slalom races, weaving through the gates side by side against their competitor (based on their time from the previous day). Apparently there’s then some mathematical wizardry around which teams win how many of their races to determine the overall winner.

Again Emily was the first down the mountain and she managed to get over the line first, smiling as she came over the line. I had a little more concern for as although he had put a brave face on the disappointment of the Saturday, I knew that he really wanted to be able to say that he had won something.

In his first race he managed to well and truly beat his opponent over the line. Then we raced off to see Emily again. In the first race they came down one side of the course and then in the second race came down the other, I assume to even out any slight imbalances in the positioning of the various gates. Emily went close, but was just beaten over the line before we scuttled off to the top of the mountain for the last time.

Thomas skied his best and again managed to get himself over the line, coming out with a double victory and happily, a good story to tell about his efforts at the Jasper Junior Olympics.



From there it was just a casual bus ride back to the Mac. All 10 hours or so of it!

Learning

On wednesday of this week, we had a holiday for memorial day (the 11th of November and all the import that that implies). That however, is not the purpose of this post. Michael has had a project looming over him for a while that he wanted my help with as it involved constructing a moving vehicle. Having the day at home gave us some time to tackle it.

Whilst getting ready to do that, I came across Sam in his room who was very upset. Enquiries lead to the revelation that it was because he had some school work to do that involved having to draw some pictures. And he couldn’t draw them (must have inherited my lack of artistic ability). He was attempting to draw planes and birds, from scratch, with nothing to reference to help him.

It was a bit later on that this caused me to pause and think about the two different approaches that I was seeing between Michael and Sam.

Michael was very much in the mind set of getting the least amount of work possible done at the latest possible time so that he could devote his time to more enjoyable pursuits.

Sam on the other hand, unprompted was trying to tackle his homework and was upset because he couldn’t live up to his own exacting standards.

I helped them both, showing Sam a few tricks that would help him produce pictures of a quality he’d be happy with that didn’t involve the internet or a computer and he was happily on his way.

I also helped Michael to get his model constructed and working, as well as showing him a good way to document his design. Of course, once the model was built, Michael was happy to put the whole thing aside and move on to those more enjoyable pursuits. Sam plowed away at his homework (admittedly a less demanding task) until it was complete.

Michael needed some prompting to pull out the assessment guidelines to be sure that he was covering all his bases, but once prompted, at least took some time to look over it (well most of it) and make sure that he’d get a good result. It must be said that his chief concern was that the car that we’d made would go fast!

And then, there’s Tom. I feel for Tom, because Sam is usually coming home from school and telling us that he managed to get very high marks for his various tests. Michael doesn’t announce things in the same way, but he usually does very well. Tom doesn’t do badly, but with the legacy of his speech difficulties, things are significantly more challenging for him, so we build him up with his good results, hoping that he can focus on the fact that he’s doing well, rather than the fact that he can’t quite make it up to the extra-high standard of his brothers.

We’re all learning still.