Home, Sweet Homecoming

For some Royal fans, the excitement of homecoming is highlighted by the burning of the Assumption letter A. For this Royal fan, it is the meaning of the word homecoming, as in coming home!

Yup, a month of empty nesting was long enough! My baby is back home. Granted, for less than 48 hours, but still home.

The 3 AHS grads at UW-P traveled together from Platteville today, arriving in Rapids a little after 4 p.m. When I got home from work, I thought I beat the boy home so I could welcome him. Jim never said anything to the contrary. All of a sudden, I come out of my office, about to yell something about today's mail, and here comes Mr. Handsome down the hallway!

I hugged him and squeezed him and hugged him and squeezed him some more!

Oh and of course, forced him to take a selfie with me...

Yeah, I guess I was just a LITTLE excited to have him home. Couldn't stop smiling – or hugging and squeezing him. Ha. How did I think I was going to manage until November?!

He took off pretty much right away. "I haven't driven in ages!" And I figured we wouldn't be seeing him much this weekend. It's his homecoming, after all, and it's a bonus visit since we weren't expecting him this month. But still, it's hard to have him so close, yet not.

I guess this is the part where he's growing up and I need to, too. Hopefully some time tomorrow amidst all the homecoming festivities, we can sit down and catch up beyond our recent texts and brief phone calls. We'll take what we can get!

Jim and I went to the Oktoberfest brat fry at the school and the pep rally / bonfire after. Carter stopped at the school to meet up with a few friends and is heading over to someone's house tonight. At least I managed to sneak another hug!

This weekend is going to fly. I'll just keep collecting hugs when I can and store them in a safe place until I need them again.

For now, I'm just grateful he is home, sweet home.

FOUR-ward March :: Royal Sendoff

Assumption held a pep rally this evening to send our girls hoops team off to state for the fourth year in a row! What an amazing accomplishment!

So glad to be a close part of this as Carter and his classmates – some who played varsity as freshman – have enjoyed this feat since 9th grade. After a gold ball (first) and two silvers (second), you'd think the pressure is on. But we are just proud they could make the return trip one more time! There are 8 seniors on the team so this is special for them – and all of us senior parents – as their last hurrah.

Nice crowd at the Pep Rally. The band did not play. Carter had to work and apparently plenty of others were unable to make it.

They played a pre-recorded version of the school fight song and one of the senior girls NOT on the team sang the National Anthem.

Had a few cheers and games and an appearance by our fierce mascot!

Also fortunate to have D3 college coaching standout Jack Bennett back for a motivational talk. Look at his shirt. We have converted him to a Royals fan! Always a good speaker, reminding the girls to go out "ignited" and play to the best of their ability so they can be pleased with that, no matter what the final score is.

Our head coach, Joe Birkhauser, also had some kind words of appreciation for the players, parents, fellow coaches, fans, band, you name it. As he pointed out, we are all part of the Assumption family and all in this together.

What an honor to share that privilege with these fine young women.



Itch and Famous

The video above shows the news coverage of yesterday's Torch Run and Carter's interview. Some friends even saw it on another CBS network in Toledo, Ohio! Our son is so famous he couldn't even go to school today for fear of the paparazzi.

Or perhaps it was fear of spreading germs.

We interrupt this Homecoming Week to bring you an infectious disease. Eww. Yes. It is as bad as it sounds. After on and off coughing and congestion over the past week, he woke up with pink eye!

So I took him to the walk-in clinic the minute it opened at 7 a.m. The doctor put him on medication for his eye (antibiotic and drops) and for his cough. So, no, he didn't go to school today. And no, he was unable to run in the cross country meet at Athens, where the team took first place!

Of all the weeks!

I suppose the important thing is getting healthy enough he can return to school tomorrow, perform with the marching band at the game tomorrow night and not be contagious when he escorts his date to the dance on Saturday.

And on a positive note, I have more pictures... thanks to some other mothers.

Senior class boys take off in one of the class vs class competitions this week.

Carter and buddy Macyn hangin' out. Yes, she's as sweet as she is cute!

Dance Squad strikes a pose. Still amazed with all their moves! Gotta love creativity paired with self-confidence! I believe this senior class will be missed.

Even the ones with the infectious... smiles.

Royal Tradition

Following  a 45-year tradition of carrying a torch from the school of our homecoming opponent to Assumption High School, Carter and 17 other seniors began taking turns at 1 a.m. running with a torch to cover the distance of 118 miles.

In one day. Good thing they got to take turns. The cross country runners, who have a meet tomorrow, were limited to a total of 8 miles for the day so they wouldn't be too worn out or tired for competition! After rotating through the runners continuously, the Torch Run concluded at the high school to launch the 7 p.m. Pep Rally.

Here is a video of them entering the gymnasium: https://www.facebook.com/robyn.austin.39/videos/10153223605877569/

Pretty cool for them all.

After that it was performances by the Pep Band, introduction of  fall sports teams, games between classes and a special dance by 10 or so senior boys, including Carter, who I dare say got his moves from me. Ha. That means they were GOOD. Right.

The gym was dark so I didn't get any really good pictures, but take my word for it, they did awesome.

From Justin Timberlake's Suit and Tie to some Whip Nae-Nae, they had quite the choreography. Nice job.

At the conclusion, the Torch Run team lit the A and there was a brief bonfire.

Then it was home to watch the Channel 7 news to see Carter give insight about the neat bonding experience and tradition surrounding the Torch Run. He sounded so grown up. That was pretty cool.

Now it's bedtime for all since the Royal festivities continue another 3 days!

Tricks and Treats

Halloween appropriately represented itself today with tricks AND treats around here...

TRICK

Leave it to Mother Nature to opt for a trick over a treat this year. What a witch! I really thought the forecasts for snow were going to hit much farther north. Imagine my surprise – and Mr. Deck Chair's too – when we woke up to this! There was still some left this afternoon. And with wind gusts, it looked and felt like one of those wicked winter days in December. B-r-r-r. Frightening.


TREAT

Our statebound boys have been getting a lot of much-deserved publicity this week leading up to tomorrow's championship run. Here is a picture from the newspaper today. They also were featured on a few local sports websites, too, and won the top Central Wisconsin Athletes of the Week poll. Great job!


TRICK

I worked from home today so I could attend the Pep Rally sendoff this afternoon at 2:30. Around noon, Carter called and ended up coming home from school because he had a severe headache and didn't feel too good. He had mentioned this last night, too, but still went to school this morning, hoping it would pass. So he came home and laid down and slept hard for 3+ hours. The bad news is that he missed his own Pep Rally. We still attended to support the team, though. The good news is that after that much-needed rest, he felt a lot better, his headache was gone and he was able to join the team later for their spaghetti dinner.


TREAT

Hubby and I enjoyed dinner out, too. We had fish fries at The Ridges, where this sign has been displayed the last few days. Love that they are supporting their two favorite cross-country runners (aka favorite dishwashers). That's awesome. Always cool to see your kid's name in lights! It would be nice if working there meant they had home-field advantage tomorrow. But that's just not how it works.


TRICK AND TREAT

As a last-minute thought, I bought some bags of candy today in case we got trick-or-treaters. Typically we can count them on one hand, but you never know. I guess we do know. We got one group of 4 kids from around the bend. That was it. The treat, of course, is that we have leftover Kit-Kats and Butterfingers for US!


Happy Halloween! Hope you had more treats than tricks!

Pepped Up

The week leading up to the Homecoming football game is like a 5-day Pep Rally, culminating the night before with the actual pep festival.

Since I have been out of town so much, I am a bit behind on the details of Homecoming. I knew Carter has a date – his friend Macyn – but that was about it. On Thursday I finally learned of the details of where pictures and dinner were going to be on Saturday. But there was another detail we overlooked.

I was at school by 2 this afternoon setting up for the German Club's annual Oktoberfest fundraiser. Great opportunity to enjoy polka music while eating brats, German potato salad and apple strudel. A successful event each year. Since Carter had cross country practice, he couldn't help with the setup. Since he had to work tonight, he couldn't play with the band or participate in any of the games at the Pep Rally.

He stopped to see me between school and practice and that is when I learned that other important detail: Carter has outgrown his black dress pants and needs new ones to wear for the dance... which is tomorrow, if I didn't mention that earlier. There are 2 other area schools with Homecoming dances then, too. Would there even be any black dress pants in stock anywhere in town at this point?

I had about half an hour between doing the setup and decorating before I had to sell food tickets. So I raced over to the JcPenney store, the only thing local really, and managed to find pants his size (whew), a new black shirt he also needed and, of course, a $40 tie to match his date's outfit.

No typos there, folks. Ugh.

Back to school, I learned another detail. Carter has been battling a old for two weeks an feels so crappy, he doesn't want to work, run cross country or stay at that dance tomorrow night beyond the Grand March. Am I bad mother for not knowing this sooner? Not really. It's not my fault he gets home at night and pretty much heads to his room to do homework.

I'm going to have to whip together some magic potion from my essential oils and hope that does the trick! Keep your fingers crossed.

Even though he had to work, we still went to the Pep Rally and had some fun.

The football team is introduced. They called attention to all the fall sports, which is cool. Carter missed his chance to stand with the cross country team. So no need to sneak any photos this year.

Immediately following the Pep Rally is the traditional lighting of the Assumption "A". That did not generate heat for two long in the chilly weather, but it was cool to look at for the 5 minutes it burns.

Here is the banner for Carter's class. It's always interesting that Homecoming Week often is more a competition between classes than a battle against our football opponent. Since this year we face our nemesis, Wausau Newman, that has changed.

This weeks, it's cardinal season. Can't wait to see how that pans out tomorrow.

Hopefully Carter is as pepped up (and healthy) as everyone else!

Silver Belles

Our Assumption girls basketball team's back-to-back bid for a state championship came full circle today. But not in a good way.

Last year we beat the team from Barneveld by 4 points to claim the Division 5 title.

This year, unfortunately, they beat us by that same slim margin. Dang. It was close the whole game. We had a 2- to 4-point lead most of the time but they tied it in the fourth quarter and our girls just couldn't capture the lead again.

They played their hearts out and were extremely disappointed to be the silver belles of the ball, rather than the golden ones again.

(Photo courtesy Katie Mancl)

We were all very proud of them, though! When their bus arrived back in Rapids, it was escorted through town by the fire department, ending at the high school, where we had a welcome-back pep rally of sorts. I'm pretty sure Carter has never played his baritone this many hours in one week before! Wow, busy for everyone.

After that event, most of us headed over to The Ridges for food, refreshments and reruns. Well, they did re-watch the game and then it was all about NCAA basketball. Since I got up early to get Carter to school for the band bus at 7:30 a.m., I bailed and came home.

Needed cough syrup and, frankly, just needed to be home. Between Vegas and two days in Green Bay, I really, really just want to be home.

But, like we tell our state runner-up hoops team, there is always tomorrow...

What Happens...

I'm beginning to understand the slogan: "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas." Not because I am doing anything wild and crazy while I help out at a conference, but because there are things you wouldn't believe unless you saw them for yourself.

Or unless someone took pictures.

Here's me trying something new...

Sushi!! I have to admit I did try it last year and could only gulp down one mouthful. I just couldn't get past the words "eel juice" listed as an ingredient on the menu. This year, though, I tried one that had no eel (sounds like a Christmas carol) and was more citrus-y with some cream cheese. Pretty tasty. I had not one, but two!

And I am obviously becoming a master with the chopsticks. I've learned that if I can't pick something up with them in two tries, just stab the food and pick it up that way! Anything goes in Vegas.

To prove my point...

When was the last time you saw cup holders in a bathroom stall? Had to laugh right out loud at the fact it was there. And the apparent design for a two-fisted drinker. Yup, anything goes in Vegas.

Including me staying up past my bedtime every night. Most of my conference is wrapped up now and it will only go 'til noon tomorrow. Then it will be time to say goodbye, hop on a plane and land back in Wisconsin before midnight.

Won't be blogging on Wednesday. You won't miss much as we all will be missing (together) the Pep Rally for the state-bound girls basketball team and a pre-season baseball meeting about a season that may not arrive for awhile.

I'll catch up with you Thursday when I can tell you all about the day in Green Bay, cheering on our Lady Royals... assuming what happens at state doesn't have to stay there!

Pregame Pep

Lots going on to wrap up Assumption Homecoming Week today.

Late this afternoon and early evening, the parents and students who will be hosting a German student in the spring held an Oktoberfest fundraiser dinner with brats, "vee-ners," German potato salad, apple strudel and, most importantly,  live polka music! We don't scrimp on our entertainment around here!

Turned out pretty successful. After that, it was Pep Rally time.

As usual, there were silly games pitting classes against each other, music by the Pep Band, plus some skits and a great entertaining "presentation" by the senior football players. And even though Homecoming Week is about tomorrow's football game, they recognized all the fall sports - volleyball, tennis and yes, your favorite cross country team.

The culmination of the rally is the Torch Run and the lighting of the Assumption "A" by the handful of seniors who ran the torch all the way from Loyal (our opponent tomorrow) to the school.

Rain held off during the bonfire. Sure would be nice if that happened during the game tomorrow!

Otherwise, our pep might get a little soggy and our fingers and toes will turn blue. Hopefully Royal Blue at least!

Candid Camera

I have been on a scrapbooking mission all year to get a photo of Carter playing in Pep Band. And Carter has been on a mission all year to block that mission!

Every time I think I can zoom in on him -- from any angle in the gym -- he sees me and moves to block my view of his face with the big end of his baritone. Last night me and my covert operation really had to step it up a notch.

When Mom can't get a photo, she has to rely on her connections in the media. So I told my old friend Casey, who was there to shoot the pep rally for the newspaper, that I would love a picture of Carter in the band since he won't let me take one.

Dear Casey delivered...

I could never get that close so I could see his face, fingers, instrument and lovely Royal blue Pep Band t-shirt! So I am quite grateful!

But that wasn't the end of his fame.

Oh no. Another friend at the paper caught him earlier in the day... on video, no less! This is like his famous week or something. What I like about the video is that Jim (who helped with t-shirt sales, plus folding and bagging) also has a cameo. Nice.

Here is a link to the video: http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com/videonetwork/2222501544001/A-Royal-sendoff-

On that same website is the photo gallery with the Pep Rally images. Carter's picture above is the second photo and you might recognize this good-looking couple in photo #45. Ha!

I was so excited to let my family know to set their DVRs for the game tomorrow -- in case we become even more famous -- then I remembered we don't get "Wisconsin stations" up there anyway. We only get Minnesota affiliates (thus my growing up a Twins and Vikings fan). So I'll just "tape it" from home and we'll see what shakes out.

If you happen to be tuning in on ABC at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, look for us! Carter will be in front in the band and Jim and I will be the ones in Royal Blue!

Go Royals!!

Getting Pepped Up

Had a Pep Rally tonight to cheer our on our girls basketball team heading to state Thursday.

First order of business was buying the "state shirts" so we can present a mostly united Royal Blue front. Then it was onto special music from Carter and the Pep Band, some cheers from the student section, and a words of thanks from the team captain and the coach.

There were a few touching moments and even a few that brought some tears to eyes or lumps in our throats. They had a #22 jersey draped over the end chair next to the captain. This was the number worn by Kiley, the young woman and mother that I told you about last week who died unexpectedly at age of 32. She was on our last winning state team so we had a moment of silence for her and they said her jersey would be accompanying them to state. Very moving.

We also had a special guest appearance by Jack Bennett, famous in our neck of the woods for his successful coaching career at UW-Stevens Point. (Plus he is brother of Dick Bennett, former Badgers hoops coach.) Jack gave an inspiring pep talk to the girls about the importance of character -- building it, showing it on the court, and maintaining it everywhere else.

Kind of cool to have these special wishes for our girls. And I can say "our" girls since several of our closest friends in the "Assumption family" have daughters on the team.

I hope, for their sake, they are as excited and confident as the rest of us are FOR them! Go Royals!