...ummm so...an early summer update.

Wow, where did June go?

Seriously, it is almost the middle of July and I totally missed June. I suppose its not really my fault, the weather has been extremely un-summer-like. I honestly can't believe that it is summer.

A quick update then:

The kids finished school. Mackendra had a very good report card. She has really improved in the reading department. I am happy that she is getting a new teacher next year. She has had the same teacher for 2 year now and I have to say that I am not a fan. She is a vegan and a Christian, and somehow some of her views would always come up at home..."we should not drink cow's milk, Mom. Its not healthy for us, we should drink soy milk." Or, "my teacher says that eating animals is bad." Or, "we should go to church so God loves us." That prompted some interesting discussions. Which, I guess isn't a bad thing...but come on! I wonder if she ever thought about what would happen if a family was...I don't know, Muslim, or Hindu, or atheists. Or maybe the mother grew up on a beef farm, like me. I hope that she was prefacing her views with "there are a lot of other beliefs out there, I just happen to believe that..."

Aislinn also did much better this term. I have been giving her a really hard time about getting a better grade in math. She had a C her first term, a C+ the next term and she finally pulled out a B this last term. Her nickname for a long time was "C-Plus". I owe her a spa day for that B. I'm pretty proud of her for that mark. She got one C+, in French, but managed to get A's and B's in everything else. We both know that she can do better, and once she understands that getting good grades is just about time management and handing in homework on time, she will be fine.

Mackendra finished up her soccer season. She has really improved this last few months. We have been spending some time working on footwork and one-on-one moves and light touches at the park, and it showed in her practices. She is also showing a lot more interest in basketball. She has to come to the majority of our practices, and we go to the courts a lot, and she has decided that she is going to learn how to play. She is actually a pretty good shooter, and my favorite part is that she practices so hard.

Aislinn is doing awesome at basketball. She is starting to be noticed by other coaches. She was invited to play for a team based out of Portland, Oregon last weekend. The head coach saw her play with our team in Vancouver, Washington and asked if she would like to play for his Gr. 7 team. We jumped at the chance. Turns out, his senior team is one of the top ranked AAU teams in the Nation. He turned out to be a big-time coach. He's coached NCAA Div I for about 15 years, had a stint in the WNBA as an assistant, and is married to a professional sport agent who specializes in Women's basketball. Not a bad contact to have. So, we spent a weekend in Portland, and Aislinn played for the team, and she totally rocked! Other coaches asked about her. She has invitations to play for other teams next season. And yesterday, she went to SFU to see if she could play with the women's team. I didn't go, but Frank stayed to play a bit and watch and he said she fit right in, was the second leading scorer for her team. The girls on the team said Aislinn could come and play with them anytime, and they even got her cell phone number so they can call her up. So, she will now be practicing with a NCAA Div II team during the rest of the summer. Not bad for a grade 7, huh?

We purchased a rebounding machine. It is pretty cool. You can get about 100 shots in 6 minutes. We also purchased some weighted basketball and Aislinn strength has improved in just 4 days. She shoots a 3 really easy now.

I think she will improve a ton this summer. We are thinking of sending her to a couple high-quality camps in August. Frank did some research and found what we hope to be, better camps.

Frank was hired as an assistant coach for the men's basketball team, up at SFU. He is totally stoked about that. It means that I will be taking on more coaching duties for Next Level, but that is fine. It also means that he will not be coaching at the high school that we are planning on sending Aislinn to. Which sucks, because they need him. They don't have a good program. We will have to discuss different options for Aislinn's high school now.

Mackendra had a really bad ear infection last weekend. She was in a lot of pain and had a bad fever. The amoxicillin seems to be taking care of it, but she still can't hear very well. Its kinda funny how we have to keep repeating ourselves.

We still haven't finished moving in. We've been here since May and we still have boxes here and there. But we like the new place.

I'm working hard to complete all the things I need to do before I start school. I have a CPR course next weekend and I have to get a criminal record check and my immunization record completed. I'm looking forward to finally starting.

We are heading to San Francisco tomorrow for one last tournament. We will be driving down and staying with Uncle Alec and Auntie Ceci. It should be a lot of fun. I hope Aislinn has a good weekend and kicks butt. We only have 7 girls going, so she will be playing the entire time. Maybe we'll find summer down there.

Okay, until next time...