West Virginia Synchro Nov2010

On November 2oth our ice arena hosted the Mountain State Synchronized Skate. They had teams for all over the region, Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, etc. The group form Maryland had 50 skaters on 4 teams. We were glad to have them. Lexy's team skated in the Beginner 1 Class against two other teams. The skated to a tiki, hula girl song and dress like they belong on the beach somewhere.

After months of practice, they won first place, gold metals. All the little girls were soooo happy.

Two of these girls have only skated with the team for about 6 weeks. The minimum number of skaters to have on the team is 8, they had just enough. Not they take this routine to 2 Christmas shows and an intermission at the big WVU vs Pitt hockey game in January. There is a small chance that they may travel to another synchro competition.

One of the highlights for the competition is to have the University of Ohio's Synchro team perform. They are pretty good. It's great to show the little girls what opportunities are out there if they want to continue.

Best Buy in Charleston

The new Best Buy just opened up across the parking lot from the Ice Arena. We have been watching it close in anticipation. Can't buy anything from them, but we have been watching close. Isaac and I saw people in plain cloths walking in and out on Wednesday as we were driving away from the Ice Arena. Sooo... we stopped by. I guess that it was the 'soft opening' for friends and family of the workers. We had a bunch of fun in there getting our sneak peek.

Then on Friday, it was officially open. So we all went.

Lexy is excited and Isaac has the sun in his eyes. Two totally different emotions and facial expressions, all captured in one shot.

They have a lot of interactive stations in this Best Buy. Isaac loves it. It's like going to the arcade without having to pay for any of the games. Here is a picture of Isaac playing the Xbox 360 Kinect and Lexy is playing the Playstation Move. The Playstation one is a step below the Wii, but the Xbox Kinect is sooo cool... No wires, no controllers, no problem. This thing recognizes when someone steps into the playing area, scans them and adds them. If someone needs to leave, once they walk away the game recognizes that they have left and switches back to single player mode, mid-game. The kids have played it at Best Buy about 3 hours so far. I'm kinda starting to feel guilty.

Here is another cool bit with all of the interactive stations they have adds some nice little perks. This is a picture of the charging octopus at one of the stations with a computer, Wii, Playstation, and Xbox360.

No picture, but we all listened to the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.

W O W... Very cool, very expensive.

Car Wanted

Isaac would like this car. If you are able to find one for him he would be very thankful.

Books a Million

The kids and Amy are off today because of Veteran's Day. It's nice that they get a day together. Amy likes that days that she gets to be 'a mommy'. With her working 5 days a week in clinicals it's hard for her to spend time with the kids like we are all used to. I don't have the full story behind this picture, but it's great.

They are at Books a Million or "BAM!" as I say it. It's a nice bookstore close to the house. It appears to me that that kids are enjoying reading books there. I know that Isaac has been wanting to get the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. That might be what he is reading. And as I look close at the picture, it looks like Lexy has one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books too. This is sooooo much better that them watching TV all day.

Web Broadcasting...

I have been playing with UStream.com to try to figure out a way to broadcast some of the kids stuff. I have it figured out and will be showing some of the Syncro Competition on Saturday the 20th. I will also be adding posts, FaceBook, emails,etc on some of the hockey games that I can broadcast. Keep your eyes open, I'll let ya know when we are planning a broadcast. It's kinda fun to film that stuff knowing that it is going straight up on the web.

Here is the link. Book mark it so you can check back with us.

Isaac Playing Goalie

Isaac got to play goalie last night during hockey practice. He has been wanting to ever since the coach said that he would give them the chance to try it. He's knees are very sore today because the pads would slip to the side when he dropped to his knees to block the puck.

Amy said that he had a lot of fun. He said that he stopped a lot of shots from the other kids.

Chef Isaac

Isaac is on a cooking kick. He has been wanting to help cook dinner, or cook it him self. Two weeks ago he wanted me to teach him how to make spaghetti sauce and spaghetti. Well, he remembered it well enough that on Tuesday night he made it again nearly by himself. I was in Ohio and didn't get home until super late. Amy turned Isaac loose in the kitchen. He used hamburger and sausage both in the sauce, pick his own spices from the cabinet, and only used his mom to handle the hot noodle pot. I had some warmed up later, it was good. The boy makes me proud.

So, on Sunday morning there was frost on the ground and the air was brisk. Looked like good walking weather. So after I left Isaac decided that he would have some toast and jam. As he pulled out the Blackberry jam (Thanks again Amanda and Trisha) he said that he thought to himself, "Biscuits would be better than toast." She he got out the recipe box and look for the recipe to make biscuits. He found it and thought it looked like too much to do. In the search he found the 'Raisin Pudding' recipe and thought, "Mmmmm, that sounds good, I'll give that a try." So to work he went. Amy heard him in the kitchen and thought that I had come back from my walk.

He had not found that big container of raisins, so he used the lunch size boxes to get enough. Once he got the 'soda' he wasn't sure which 'soda' it meant, so he woke up Amy to get some help. He had things a little out of order but every think seemed to be right and in the bowl. I helped him finish off the batter and warm up the sauce. We through it in the over and the box was super excited. I told them that this was one of Grandpa Walbeck's favorites, so he call, texted, and picture messages Grandpa to let him know that he had cook Raisin Pudding.

Looks good.

Tastes good..!!

He keeps saying that he wants to learn how to cook more things, with a attitude like that he can cook about anything.

Principal's List

Grades just came out... Our little Lexy made the Principal's List with straight A's.

Great Job Lexy Jo...!!!

Bonus for Lunch

It has taken us some time to figure out how to live like college students again. I still don't think that we have figured it out completely. It's hard to provide the opportunities for the kids that we want to and are used to without the funding that we are used to. One of that thinks that we have done is cut eating out down to a rare occurrence. Amy and I still date once or twice a month and eat out then. But the kids don't get to much and we don't go as a family. The other day one of our day to day favorite West Virginia's asked me to step into his office. He gave me an Applebee's gift card and said, "Take those kids out to lunch." It was fun for all of us to go out. The kids were great.

Lexy ordered a corndog, ate most of the fries, and still got some dessert. Isaac got is FAVORITE... RIBS...!! A full rack, Applebee's doesn't sell a half rack. He even had enough to finish for dinner later that night.

Thank You Mr B...!!!

I better mention that Applebee's has a great Veteran's program for Veteran's Day.

Ferrari on Corridor G

We saw another Ferrari on Corridor G the other day. Isaac was able to snap a couple of pictures. It looks like it was a Ferrari 430. This little car has 483 hp and a top speed of 196 MPH. Ferrari 430
Isaac sure enjoys seeing cars like this, so do I. This one has a price tag of $150k to $200k.