Watching Laura Cook

There was a huge crowd for this crosstown showdown with Papillion-LaVista South.

The best laid plans...

Remember my recent trip to Mercy High School to watch one of my former St. Mary's of Bellevue basketball players, Emma Duman?

Posing with Laura outside the lockerroom.

Tonight, Julia and Olivia and me (just like last time) drove up 84th street to Papillion-LaVista High School to watch the only other player still active, Laura Cook.

We arrived early enough to look for Laura in warm-ups. While I was searching for her uniform number (22), Julia had no problem spotting her. "She's the one in the black T-shirt, Dad," Julia told me.

Um, yeah. She was in a black T-shirt. And black pants. Not warm-up gear. It was immediately – and painfully – obvious she was not suited up to play.

We would later learn Laura suffered her fourth(!) concussion recently at the Westside game. (One that we almost went to last weekend.) So she's out for now. In speaking with her after the game, I learned she will be going to Iowa Western to play soccer. I told her parents that this marked the first time I had been to a game where she hadn't played. She was our best player and helped us win quite a few games.

Team Photo

We took our team picture before today's game.
Before today, only two games remained in the regular season for my 7th/8th grade girls basketball team. We have been working all season to peak for the tournament, so it's been a focused week at practice. We even brought in the 7th grade boys team to scrimmage against us two nights.

Today's game was against St. Benedict, which has been up-and-down this season. Our game plan was two-fold: 1) stop them in transition; and 2) crush their spirits with a strong start. We did both, running out to a 14-0 lead on the way to a 39-10 win.

It was Neil's birthday. So we had cupcakes afterwards.

Telling Sarah to catch, turn and look before shooting.

There's a lot of questions I could ask looking at this photo.

Lauren caught me in a "coaching moment."

Spelling Bee

Lauren advanced to the St. Mary's 6th/7th/8th grade spelling bee after winning the 3rd/4th/5th grade spelling bee a couple years back. She was pretty confident heading into the contest and even had the say-the-word, spell-the-word, say-the-word drill down.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as well this time around. After smoothly making it through her first two words (see the video), she stumbled on ravioli. In a bizarre coincidence, that was the same thing she had for lunch. If she's anything like her dad (who was runner-up in the school spelling bee as an eighth-grader), she won't soon forget that she missed that word.

Check out the "Murderer's Row" for the finalists.

Lauren receives her certificate.

And now she knows how to spell, "ravioli."

All About The Brain

Lauren tells you everything you ever needed to know
about the power of the human brain.

St. Mary's Science Fair

Emily (center) at her demonstrative booth.
The St. Mary's science fair was bustling with activity tonight and Lauren and Emily were smack dab in the middle of it. Both girls had informative and educational presentations to the parents and children who showed up to learn about all kinds of things. Here's a recap, in photos.

Jon poses with Lauren as Bridget captures the moment.

Lauren shows off her exhibit.

Jon and Lauren – again.

There were more people than Jon who visited Lauren. Really.

Veronica got some face time with Bridget.

Latest Standings

Heading into a tough game today against Sacred Heart.

Where Things Stand

How Emily's basketball team is doing (BSM) in the standings.

'Celebratory Dinner'

Emily (left) and Julia got goofy over the malts.

The girls asked me all day what we were going to do after Emily's basketball game. I told them, "eat a celebratory dinner."

"What's a celebratory dinner," Julia asked.

Well, the girls found out tonight after our 25-23 win over St. Philip Neri. We feasted at Petrow's, a family-owned restaurant not far from my apartment. Emily, Julia and I each ordered cheeseburgers (which were huge) while Olivia, Veronica and Lauren had pancakes. Of course there were malts, too – chocolate and cookies and cream.

After St. Mary's beats St. Peter & Paul to end the regular season next month, I think we should do this again.

Speaking of goofy, check out Olivia.

Veronica had a plate full of pancakes.

Veronica (left) and Olivia (who still is being goofy.)

Lauren can't hide her satisfaction with her chocolate malt.

Swish For The Win

Drawing things up during a timeout. Not everyone is listening.
The smallest player on the court hit the biggest shot of the night.

That would be the lead on my story if I had to write one about tonight's basketball game. The expected mega showdown with St. Philip Neri was as good as advertised. St. Mary's of Bellevue got out of the gate fast – just like I wanted – and was ahead 8-0 at one point. But the Spartans went two quarters without a field goal and trailed 13-8 and then 23-19 heading into the final minutes.

Free throw shooting kept it close (thanks, Laura!) before Natalie took a pass from Laura and launched a shot from just inside the three-point line on the left wing that swished through with less than 40 seconds to go. Final score: 25-23.

Bridget took some nice photos, too.

From Sean YD Cafe

I love this shot. Look at the intensity on Emily's face (in blue T-shirt).

From Sean YD Cafe

Laura didn't make a basket, but she hit a ton of free throws.

Basketball Stats Check

Click to enlarge the first stats report
for Sean's 7th/8th grade girls basketball team.

Christmas Program

My view of the Christmas program "from the cheap seats."

Julia (spotlighted), doing the "12 Days of Christmas."

Olivia (spotlighted) sang three songs with her class.

Veronica and me in the back row.

Way To Go, Lauren!

Lauren shows off her First Honors certificate.

Don't Soak In Water

This little creature was made by Lauren (out of sugar).
Tuesday afternoons are a busy place around my apartment. Around 3 p.m., I fire up the glass carriage (actually a mini-van) and head down to St. Mary's of Bellevue to pick up the princesses. Recently, I have not been able to pick up Lauren right after school because she has "Wits Clash" practice. So the routine has been to pick up the other four girls and head over to see Aunt Jean.

The stop to see Aunt Jean is a quick one, as we have to pick up Lauren by 4:15 p.m. Then it's back to my apartment for a snack, the changing of clothes and homework. And it's the latter that really consumes a lot of time and energy. Today it was Veronica whom I spent the most time with, as we made our way through the "Rosary Book" – which shows students how to pray the rosary. Lauren was working on history, Julia was working on a family tree and Emily was doing something that required her to use the computer. Or at least that's what she told me. Olivia only needed her agenda signed (which means her work was completed), so she helped take down the Halloween decorations in the hallway.

Speaking of Halloween, Lauren presented me with the unusual artwork pictured above. It's made entirely out of sugar, but it's not too fragile. When she gave it to me, I told her the first thing I'd do with it was "wash it off" so it was nice and clean. I don't think she picked up on that because any contact with liquid is going to turn that head into a pile of sugary mess.

Bump, Set, Spike, Ohhh.

It doesn't always turn out like you want it to.

Emily's Volleyball Season In The Books

Grandma and Grandpa Weide watched Emily play Thursday.
Emily's season of eighth-grade volleyball has come to a close. Thursday was the regular season finale for St. Mary's and the Spartans came from behind to win in three sets. It was pretty thrilling and Grandpa and Grandma Weide were on hand to see it, along with Aunt Bridget.

Today was the first day of the post-season tournament. Emily's team rolled in straight sets over All Saints to earn the right to play St. Bernadette's Gold squad in the quarterfinals. St. Bernadette was seeded second, while St. Mary's was seeded seventh.

St. Mary's won the first set in a nail-biter, then narrowly lost the second. With no substitutes, they slowly wore down and couldn't come back from a 9-6 deficit in losing the final set 15-8. It was disappointing, but Emily showed incredible improvement from the beginning of the season – particularly in the serving department.

She served underhanded the first two-thirds of the season, but switched to alternating between underhand and overhand and had great success – including four aces in the final two matches.

Lauren Puts Her Practice To The Test

St. Vincent de Paul hosted the Wits Clash competition.
For the past couple weeks, Lauren has been practicing for her Wits Clash competition. I know this because the sessions are on Tuesdays after school – the same day I get to enjoy the company of the five princesses for a few hours.

Today, I got to see all that hard work pay off when St. Mary's School participated in the Wits Clash competition at St. Vincent de Paul School. Lauren's sixth grade glass squared off against other schools for three hours of questions-and-answers about science, math, literature and geography. Unfortunately, St. Mary's struggled at times, losing all five of its matches. But after sitting out the first match, Lauren consistently came up with answers to some pretty hard questions.

It was nice to see Lauren "back in competition" after a few years away (she last did something competitive in extracurricular activities when she played soccer at St. Thomas More). And fortunately, there will be more Wits Clash competitions next spring.

Lauren ... caught sneaking a glance.

One of my all-time favorite photos of Olivia.
Olivia's First Communion fell on my weekend, so it was nice to be able to accompany her to such a special event. Here's the day in pictures.

Aunt Jean couldn't make it, but Olivia was thinking of her.

We stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Weide's house afterwards.

Olivia really liked her First Communion dress.

Veronica wanted to re-enact a photo with tulips
featuring Emily and Lauren when they were young.

This was the "goofy" photo that Emily and Julia requested.

Jelly Bean Fun Night

Lauren helped with one of the games.
"Jelly Bean Fun Night" is an annual event at St. Mary's School that offers students an opportunity to play healthy games, for which they earn jelly beans. When they've successfully completed every game, they earn a prize. And no, Phil Keoghan is not there to eliminate the "last team to check in."

Veronica scoots along, the picture of concentration.

She was also terrific at shooting baskets.

Her form on the ring toss wasn't as great.

Olivia knocked out a bunch of sit-ups...

...while Julia guided a little ball around an obstacle course.