Busy Xmas Season

Hailey Shooting in a Game

I've been gone the past two weekends with Austen for club soccer games in Arizona and in Kansas City so the weeks have flown by and my to do list has grown. 

I did get to see Peyton cheer on Friday night at a basketball game before I had to leave but I missed two of Hailey's travel basketball games. Excited to see her play in 2025. She traded her three times a week soccer practices for three times a week basketball practices and really seems to be enjoying playing as well as learning the game better. 

Hailey has also been my busiest right now with Girl Scout Meetings (cookie sales coming soon!) and her school's Battle of the Books program - which she is doing for the second straight year. In fact, on Tuesdays she stays after school for Battle of the Books, then I pick her up at 4pm to go to Religious Ed and then at 5:15pm, I run her straight to basketball practice so she can catch the last 50 minutes of it. Then she's home by 7pm. Good thing these 5th graders don't have a ton of homework! 

Peyton's cheer has been very manageable as they don't practice every day after school. She has added 1-2 tumbling classes a week to her schedule so she can get better faster too. She has shown a lot of improvement and will start getting more serious in early 2025 as spring cheer tryouts approach. Right now she is focused on her freshman year, first semester finals. It's been an experience for her but one I'm sure she'll learn from. I told her they aren't going away - you will have them in college too so get used to them and make sure your grades are solid beforehand so you don't need to rely on a final to bring up your grade or if you do poorly, it doesn't affect your grade. 

Austen is on a two to three week break from soccer right now which is good timing so he can focus on finals and securing solid first semester grades Senior year. He decided to take so many AP/Honors classes this first semester and it's been anything but easy for him with a full high school and then club soccer schedule. But there's one thing about that kid - he really tries and puts in the effort. My other two, I'm willing to bet if they took an IQ test are much smarter than he is but the effort he puts in is bar none to those two. He just wants to do well in everything. 

Anyway, we all are really looking forward to having some time off during this holiday break with our whole family to just connect and enjoy each other's company.  Maybe throw a little sunshine in there too (wink, wink). 

Austen's All State Game and Honors Ceremony

My last post on Austen's high school soccer season (well, really his high school soccer career). It's been a very long high school season this time around (grateful!) but today marks the end with a private ceremony for the program since Varsity went so late in the season and the banquet was literally the day after the state championship/3rd place game (see below video of coach talking about Austen). 

First, Austen was honored in mid November at the Illinois High School Athletic Association ceremony for being an All State player this year. What an honor - and it was also very special that Uncle Mark was there too (as a coach he goes every year). 

Then Austen got to play in the All State game for high school players (although this was more of a recruiting thing and he wasn't happy with me that I signed him up) and thought it would be fun to end his high school soccer career with this game. Turns out it was a total bust - kids were not very talented and Austen's team ended up getting walloped like 7-1. Of course, Austen didn't care who was in the stands since he wasn't playing college soccer so he volunteered to play outside back - which I don't think I've seen him play since he was a little kid. 

But today was the day when the high school soccer program gave out the individual awards and released its storied 52-year book of statistics which chronicles all the player data since soccer began at their school. 

He came home with an armful of awards and accolades. Austen clearly left his mark on the program and his name in the record books. Not only was he named MVP by his coaches/teammates, he was: 

- only the 21st player in the history of HCHS to be named an All State Player in 2024

- selected as an all conference player in 2024

- top scorer for 2024 season

- 8th all time in career points (goals and assists) for the Red Devils with 61

- 10th all time for most points (goals and assists) for the Red Devils in a season with 37

- 10th all time for most goals in a season with 13 (remember he's a midfielder too - not a forward whose job is to score the goals)

- 4th all time for most career (2022-2024) assists for the Red Devils with 20 

- 5th all time for most assists in a season with 11

Not even mentioning his athletic academic accomplishments and honors here (which he received too) but just feeling grateful that he chose to play high school soccer and got to have an amazing Senior Year (even after a rough start to the season) where he was recognized for his leadership and his soccer skills. 

Beyond proud of him. I told him that he can add his MVP plaque next to mine from my Senior Year in high school. He said, "Okay, but I was a better player than you, right?" "Yes, for sure," I said. And he is. A way better player than me - except when he plays the "6" (defense) then I can still take him! 

Peyton Working Hard on Her Tumbling

I've been so impressed with Peyton's desire to be a better cheerleader and her dedication to improving all of her skills from basing, jumps and then to tumbling. Once we signed her up in a semi-private session with a recommended instructor by the Varsity cheer coach, she learned how to do a back handspring in like two weeks. And while still not as perfect as she would want, she ended up performing this in a halftime routine during the last football game after only learning how to do it the week before. Impressive. 

She's working hard on her running round off into a back handspring (which she just did at the first basketball game of the season on the hard wood floor) and then also doing the two back handsprings in a row as well as a back tuck. She's semi annoying with how obsessive she is with going to these semi private sessions and then wants to start group classes again too so she can get it all much faster. Slow down, I told her, it takes time and she has time before the next cheer tryouts in May. But she really wants to make Varsity next year as a sophomore so thinks she really needs to get that tumbling down. I told her it's still awesome if she makes JV as a sophomore and gets to cheer for the guys in her grade at games. 

But, honestly, it is nice to see her want to work hard at something - anything. Remember, this was the girl who wanted to quit cheer going into 8th grade and I wouldn't let her. Now she's obsessed. Hoping this hard work and dedication starts to show in other areas of her life too like cleaning her room and getting all As! Ha! 

Anyway, take a look at her working hard! We couldn't be prouder of how far she's come....

Working with her tumbling coach - round off double back handspring

She actually did a running round off back handspring in her first basketball game on the hard floor. You can see her in the middle right side of the screen (and hear Hailey's comments that she can't land that! Ha! but she did!)

Working on that back tuck!

Thanksgiving 2024

Thanksgiving started early this year with the generous offer of four skybox tickets to the Blackhawks game on Wednesday night from one of Tom's vendors. So the kids all went with Tom and I stayed home and got things done. 

We hosted 10 family members for Thanksgiving which is pretty easy given the fact that we are used to hosting entire weekends at our beach house and have that down to a science. Hosting holiday dinners is easy in comparison. So easy in fact that we volunteered to host Xmas this year too! (All for the Szurgot side - my mom still refuses to relinquish a holiday but I'm going to tell all my kids that they are more than welcome to do all the work when they are ready!). 

Tom made a great turkey (made even easier by the ready to cook prep that our club did) and insisted on making his own stuffing and some special carrots (of varying colors which the kids did not like). His pumpkin pie was very good too even though he kept going to the store and buying evaporated milk when I kept telling him it was sweetened condensed milk he needed. But he pulled it out and whipped up a great pie. 

The day after Thanksgiving we headed to Michigan later in preparation for our annual cutting down of our Xmas tree on Saturday. After some debate last year, we decided to choose a new place this year. I was pretty adamant that we switch after two years of really poor options for our tree. I mean it was very difficult to even find a tree that looked healthy and was tall enough without getting a type that you really didn't even want. I found a place a bit closer to our house (Tall Timbers Tree Farm) in Michigan (but further from our friends in IL) but everyone was in agreement that we needed to switch and we weren't disappointed. The place was less crowded, had a great gift shop and free hot chocolate! Plus, their trees were outstanding and there were too many good ones to pick from - win! We enjoyed our time with friends and then all went to The Strand (owners of Firewater Barbecue and our friends) in Dowagiac, MI, for a late lunch and some drinks. 

On Sunday, we participated in our club's annual gingerbread decorating lunch. The food is great and usually Tom and I team up with one of the kids to create a house. This year, Hailey and I were partners and after some online research decided to do an IU Gingerbread House in honor of IU's historic football season. Tom and Peyton's house didn't have a theme but looked pretty until Peyton just started randomly adding things to Tom's creation! (Austen never participates in this tradition and is more than happy to stay home and sleep in.)

It was a very full but fun weekend and we were reminded of all things that we have to be grateful for this holiday season - starting with family and then good friends, our health and good fortune. Lucky. And grateful. 

Skybox at Blackhawks game - first skybox for the kids

Thanksgiving dinner (w/ Sadie)

Sadie keeping warm at the tree farm

The gang!

IU House!

Tom and Peyton's house

Our tree - very skinny this year so Sadie has lots of room to walk around it!

Austen Ends High School Soccer Career 3rd in State

Never in a million years did I think that Austen's soccer team would make it to the state playoffs (final four in the state). I told Austen to aim for the conference championship but clearly they were destined for more. 

Headed to State!

They knock off their first playoff contender - Jones College Prep 4-0 and then go on to win the Regional Championship by beating Mt. Carmel 3-2. They move on to the Sectional Semi Final and play Downers Grove South - a team they lost to when the coach was playing the underclassmen. This time, they win 3-1. It's now the Sectional Final Game and they must beat the #1 seed, a very tough Morton team. 

They are clearly a more skilled team than us and easily pass around us but somehow we hang on after they score on us pretty early. We come back and put one away in the second half and then with 5 minutes to go Austen scores an amazing header goal and we are up 2-1. All we need to do is hang on for five minutes. But we can't. They score in that time and we go into overtime and then when no one scores we go to PKs. We make all 4 of ours and they miss two of theirs. We win. We beat Morton and we move on to the Super Sectional against Lockport. 

Turns out Austen's club coach's kid plays for that team and we learn he's just recruited a bunch of kids from that team to play on Austen's club team and he must compete with those kids now for his spot on the field for the winter/spring season. He is not happy. He finds this out the night before the game. He says, "Now, it's personal." And, I know that Austen is going to do everything in his power to secure a win. And he does. The other team scores early under some crazy weather occurrences - rain blowing sideways in the first half. The second half they come out and start working. They score. Then Austen waits until there's just over a minute left to play and he sees a cross coming in - times his run and gently one touches the ball past the goalie and into the corner of the goal to give them a 2-1 lead. We all go crazy. But we know we must hang on for a minute. Miraculously, we do and the boys advance to the State Semi Final Game. 

These boys who started 1-6-1 are going to the State Final. No one except the boys and these parents will ever know the real truth behind that 1-6-1 start but I guess it doesn't matter now anyway. What they'll remember is that they ended 3rd in State (after losing 1-0 to the eventual state champions and then winning that consolation game 3-1 for 3rd place in State). 

Never did he, we, they think they'd get there. Some say they didn't deserve to be there because they weren't as skilled and they had an easy sectional. I say that it's still difficult to get to that Final Four in State and you still need a little luck for things to go your way. They played with heart, with grit and for each other and that's what got them there - that and a little bit of luck. 

Congrats to Austen and his teammates!

- Conference Champs

- Regional Champs

- Sectional Champs

- Super Sectional Champs

- 3rd Place in State

Receiving his state medal

Helping secure a goal

Taking a corner kick

3rd Place Red Devils

Hailey's Mouth Surgery

My lunch date!

 The day before my birthday on Nov. 1, Hailey had to have surgery to uncover two teeth buried deep in the roof of her mouth. We had planned this surgery for about a month now and while she could have had it sooner, it interfered with her birthday and then Halloween. So Nov. 1 seemed like a good date and one that  gave her a few days off after to be home and recover. It also gave me more time to prepare her that she was going to have to be put out/get an IV. 

She actually handled all that pretty well. It was the aftermath that has been very difficult. While her healing is going well, she is very, very sore. The oral surgeon said that she was a difficult case and that her recovery time will likely be one week longer due to how deep the teeth were in her mouth and how her front teeth are inverted. 

So I've been her nurse for the past two weeks - trying to keep her medicated so the pain isn't so severe as well as find soft things for her to eat and ones that aren't too cold or too hot. Drinking is hard for her. Taking medicine is hard for her. She pretty much is eating Campbell's Double Noodle Soup and pudding (all varieties although her favorites are double chocolate and tapioca!). 

I've been picking her up from school at lunch so I can dose her with even more medicine so she can get through the day and so she can eat what she wants at home. 

I'm hoping she turns the corner real quick on this recovery time because it has not been a fun few weeks for her at all. 

One of her friends dropped off a stuffed Fox and a "Get Better Soon" card 

Happy Birthdays!

HBD to me!

Tom and I both celebrated birthdays recently (on two consecutive Saturdays). We now are both on the other side of a half of a century. 

My favorite time to celebrate my birthday is not on the weekends (surprisingly). I'm not sure why but it just feels like you need to do something more because it is the weekend. Well, we certainly didn't do anything more for either of our birthdays this year as we were knee deep in our kids' activities/plans. But, I think both Tom and I were happy to let them do their own thing. 

Hailey had just had surgery on her mouth the day before my birthday so she wasn't in any shape to do anything special the next morning. Austen was still coming off a high from winning a big soccer playoff game the night before and had practice that day (and then went out and celebrated with a late lunch with his teammates). I did play paddle tennis in the morning and then ran home to take Peyton and her friend to their tumbling class. The afternoon was kind of quiet. We had all the kids home to open presents and then Peyton was off to a Halloween party and the rest of us went to dinner (Hailey did not eat). 

On Tom's birthday, Austen had an early playoff game up north so it was up early and then off to watch more soccer. The afternoon was much like mine and pretty low key. We had everyone home to open presents and then we all headed out to an early dinner (Hailey still did not eat) so Austen could go to a party that we dropped him off at on our way home. 

Pretty low key birthdays during a crazy few weeks of sports and activities for us but Tom and I both agreed that we wouldn't want it any other way. Happy Birthday to us!