Two of our babies are getting "Dolled Up" this month. Friday, Rachel (baby #1) and Liza spent 20 hours getting ready for the 4 hours of the event that was the Soph Hop at the HS. It was the sophomore formal.
Saturday, the 8 (baby #4 behind Aaron and Dakota) was delivered to Jim Russell at Chorman to finally get painted! It's been over 2 years since first flight and almost that long since the day I called him and asked when I could get in. It's a 16 month wait! I had some awesome help from Mike Parry, John Leslie and Rich Zeidman. It took us 3 hours to disassemble what needed to come off. It's going to be 2 full days getting it back together when I pick it up in 2 weeks. Notice I don't call it a her or a him or have some goofy ass name for it? Well, I figure you either are or aren't the type that does that sort of thing, nothing in between. I am not and it seemed dorky when picking out the paint scheme to even consider going that route and getting some nose art along those lines. It's an 8. I provide the soul when we fly and I like it that way.
Aaron's freshman tennis experience is an eye opener. He is playing #3 dubs. He was thrown in with the JV ranks the first week of practice while the varsity went to a different complex. It took a week to rise to the top of of the JV scene and get moved up to varsity but by then the coach, who according the couple of kids I talked with pretty much had his mind made up before the season began who was going to play what from last year, didn't give the 2 or 3 kids that moved up with Aaron much of a chance to vie for the top dubs in direct real 2 out 3 set challenge matches and no chance at singles. They didn't get to challenge anyone at singles, which is where he, like most, plays better. The first school match was after the second week of practice so he had one week at the varsity level and then the show started. He and his dubs partner did pretty good the first couple of weeks but then became beatable in close matches, along with other dubs teams and the coach felt he needed to rotate players around in the dubs world halfway through the short season. At practice, one day after his one match at # 2 dubs with a new partner where they won against Marple Newtown 1,2, they lost a challenge match to the new #3 dubs and got shellacked. So he's back down to #3 dubs again and won't play in the playoffs as only 3 singles and 2 dubs play. Hopefully it will motivate him to play more tournaments and get his ranking up where it should be since that's what the coach seems to care about before the season begins next year so the coach will consider him seriously for singles. It seems the coach has his mind made up mostly well ahead of time and the very few challenge matches are for confirmation more than for open mindedness when it comes to singles even though in Aaron's case the coach has never seen him ever play before, probably doesn't know who his private coach is, doesn't know his year around tennis schedule, who he plays, what the results are or how much he plays weekly etc. 2 of the singles players are seniors so he'll have a real chance next year now that he won't have to waste the first week in JV tennis and he'll be able to get in on the singles challenge matches right after the bat. Like I said, it was a real eye opener but I think he's stayed pretty positive and for sure he really likes being on the team and likes that camaraderie. It's been good for overall for him for sure. We'll have to take some pictures next week at a match. The school took some but I don't know where they are.
