Catching up on all Things Sports

 Preston has been insanely busy with school track and club soccer.  His body is truly taking a beating . . . but he is loving being part of both teams.  Most days he leaves for school at 6:30am for school, has track practice right after school, and then heads to club practice before coming home to do homework.  

Track meet at Marvin

Soccer in Holly Springs, 2.5 hours away!

So much running and activity means there has to be muscle recovery in the icebath weekly!  I'm just praying we make it to summer with this sports and school schedule!

More House Issues . . .

 

Preston woke me up at 1am and said we had no water pressure and that he heard a loud bang.  Long story short, a water connector piece busted to the main, so water literally flooded the street for 12 hours before the city finally had a crew out to repair the damage.  You can see the massive hole they had to dig.  It was no fun being without water for a day!  But when the water did come back on, apparently some sediment was stuck in several faucets, so the city had to send a plumber to repair those and totally replace Savannah's faucet . . which was another 10 days before that could be done.  THEN, the pressure was off, so they came back out and jacked it up to an unsafe level, but assured me it was "fine".  I went to Lowe's and bought a gauge to test it myself; it was over 90psi, but it should have been less than 70psi!  So, guess what, the plumber had to come back out!  And now you can see the beauty of our yard.  Unfortunately, this wasn't the burnt part that they dug up, so now we have black, brown, yellow, orange, and some green in our front lawn. UGH!

Just a Kid Doing What He Loves . . .

With Preston's insanely busy schedule, it's super rare that he can find time to fly AND that the weather is cooperative . . but today was a perfect afternoon for flight!  He left for the airport right after school and had a blast getting some hours in today.  These pictures of the sun setting are pretty amazing too. :)

He was able to maneuver both the take-off and landing by himself, which he was quite proud of.   Unfortunately, there was a major accident on 485 when he was heading home, so the return trip back home took over 90 minutes, but he didn't seem to mind after such a great flight.  Just thankful our kid has found a passion and has something to look forward to!

Let It Snow!!!

Well . . . we finally got a massive snow that the kids will remember!  It snowed at least 10" at our house Saturday night, but the official Charlotte measurement was 11"!  It was so beautiful to see, and especially nice that we didn't have to worry so much about losing power this weekend.  Preston enjoyed some sledding, making snow angels, and even tried to make a 3D print of a snowball maker, but unfortunately, this wasn't the best snow for snowballs.  It was super light and fluffy so he tried to use the blower to clean the sidewalk off too.  Thankfully, our driveway gets direct sun and melted pretty quickly, but school was still out for three entire days!  Needless to say, we were all getting a bit antsy . . . I think now that we've seen good snow, we're ALL ready for Spring!

 

Ice Day!!

Well, it's been an interesting week weather-wise for sure!  The weather forecast has fluctuated from several inches of snow to a cripling ice storm with .75 inches of ice expected . . .  so we prepared for the worst!  We finally got the gas logs working, had our house extra warm, packed an inside cooler filled with daily food items we might need, had the flashlights and sleeping bags ready, and had an outside cooler stacked with ice just in case we didn't have power for an extended period of time.  Oh, and we left water dripping so we wouldn't end up with frozen pipes!  

We went to bed and woke up with power (hallelujah) and a layer of ice, but nothing as serious as they predicted.  Preston wasted no time heading out for sledding with his friends.  It was a nice, warm, cozy day spent inside for me.  We played some games as a family, I did LOTS of cleaning out, and worked on getting documents ready for tax season.  The forecast was still predicting another band of freezing rain and ice to come through around dinner, but thankfully, we avoided any drama with that too!  We were able to have our regular Sunday night pizza while watching football playoffs.  School was canceled for Monday so it was a joyful day!!  Now we just need this mess to melt and go away so we can get back to normal!!

Clemson Basketball

Savannah came home this weekend for Martin Luther King Day.  She doesn't have Friday classes, so it is nice to have her for a long weekend, even if she did have to go back early for work.  But it just happened to be the same time that Dave and Preston had tickets to a Clemson basketball game.  Saturday was a crazy morning because Preston had flight school in Rock Hill until lunch and then met Dave somewhere down 85 to head to the Clemson game.  Savannah and I opted for a low-key evening after getting pedicures!

The boys met up with the Weningers at the game!

Sadly, Savannah had to leave super early this morning to get to her internship by 12. When she went out to leave, we found her car completely frozen shut!!!  We couldn't even get the doors open.  It took quite a bit of work, manpower, and time to get her ready to hit the highway, but we finally had her on the road by 8:50am! 

Christmas Break Adventures ~ Closing out 2025

A few more holiday bucket list items . . . holiday light shows and Cookout milkshakes!  I had an awful headache today and went to bed early, but the kids and Dave loved getting Cookout milkshakes.  We did venture out to a new light display, which was super cool.  It just happened to be near the one wal-mart in Charlotte that had this crazy Santa Stitch animal, so Savannah was thrilled to use a gift card to bring him home with us.

Preston is still working on cleaning his car, like every day he has time!

We also made a trip to WinterFest at Carowinds.  It was quite disappointing for us girls, as most of our low-thrill rides were not operating. BUT, we did enjoy hot chocolate from Preston's drink pass a few times. :)  We are closing out a crazy year and ready for a new start in 2026!  Here's to a happy, healthy, memory-filled, year!!!