Track season is here! Spring is around the corner!

Rubix's school soccer season is already over. He had his last soccer game, League of Champions, this past Wednesday. We received the soccer photos last week of the 4th grade Intramural team and individual pictures. I think he is starting to look older. He has been having an absolute blast playing and has been wanting to play more and more. Because of this, Dad and him are considering putting together another soccer team for the fall, despite them both saying last year would be the last time. 

Rubix is in the back row, 4th from the right. 

Here is the leader board for the League of Champions for most goals and assists. I was surprised to see Rubix close to the top considering the teams are combined with 5th graders, but, of course, Rubix is making goals and helping his teammates make goals. 

Phoenix had a Japanese party at school, Setsubun, a bean throwing party. Here is her class after their bean throwing fun. She is 2nd to the left in the back row. There are only a few times per year that teachers share pictures of class activities. I enjoy being able to see her in her element. :)

Axel is really good at capturing both Rubix and Phoenix with silly poses. He sent me this one after making Rubix laugh. I love how well the kids get along and how much they enjoy each others company. Today Phoenix told me on her ride home from swim that Axel is her best friend. How sweet!

Phoenix continues to do her nails and create. Here is one that she blended that I thought was an interesting new technique. 

Phoenix also continues to draw. She has done probably 50 or more since I last posted a picture of one of her drawings. The problem is, she doesn't want to share them with me anymore. She has some really cool ones that are noteworthy, but I will have to be okay with her wanting to keep some private. 

She has been venturing out to including more body parts, including hands, which has been a difficult task for her, but she has not given up and makes iteration after iteration when necessary. 

When Axel and I got back from Cal Tech, Phoenix had a Senior Champs meet that was prelims and finals. The weather held out for the most part and it was just cold Saturday and Sunday. I was also somewhat pleased that Phoenix didn't make finals, so we thought, on Saturday, which was Valentine's day. This meant we had the entire afternoon to do something else! I was hopeful that Keith and I could go out to eat, but after lifting together and running a couple of errands, we both were really tired. He had another bad night of sleep or lack of sleep I should say which meant I was operating on about 4 hours and he was operating on a couple of hours. I was pleasantly surprised to see these nice flowers when Phoenix and I returned home from the meet. We found out the next day that Phoenix was called up for the 50 back and that she was an alternate. I had asked her to check before we left, but she was very clear and said, we aren't coming back for a 50, even if I made it. Yay, for me and having free time!

Phoenix hung out with Cielo for the three day swim meet. She was happy to make the 200 back final on Sunday, which allowed Keith to come along and officiate. It was almost like a date.....

On Monday, President's day, it rained. Phoenix was a trooper and went despite the weather. She ended up making the 100 back final, and most likely would have been able to do the 200 IM final, because everyone was scratching. Most people felt the 3 day prelim/final meet was long enough, especially with the cold wet weather. We also felt the same way, and besides, Phoenix was able to go directly to a friends house and spend the entire afternoon hanging out with her new crew, Millie, Jeanie, Aly and Prishi. 

Rubix volunteered to bring in his Challah bread for the cultural cookbook for History class. I had to come home from work and essentially prepare the dough for a couple of hours before getting him from school. We had just enough time to have him learn how to roll out the dough and then braid it. I let it rise for another hour and then baked it for him while he was at practice. He was able to bring it in on Friday, Feb. 20th without incident. 

Here he is braiding his bread. This did not come instinctively for him. 

Done with the braiding!

Fresh out of the oven!

On Feb. 21st Rubix had the 10 and under champs. It ended up being a very long day because the pool it was suppose to be at was down. They moved it to another local pool, but had to push back the start time to 10 am in order to set up all of the equipment.  The day is already long enough because all 11 events are offered and every swimmer does 4 events and up to 2 relays. I left about 3:30pm after Rubix's 4th event and one relay. He still had the 200 Medley relay, but Keith was there officiating and he was all settled with his teammates. They got home about 4:15pm! What a long day!!!

His teammate, Aurey was runner up and Rubix easily won the high point award again. 

Here he is with Stephen who won the high point for 10 year old boys. I think we have gotten a picture of these two together for years now.

Rubix had the San Francisco Exploratorium Field trip earlier in the week, on the 18th. Here are a couple of pictures his parent chaperone shared on the WhatsApp. 

I thought it was a little funny that he was put with three girls. He had fun exploring the hands on science. 

The temperatures plummeted with the rain, which meant it snowed all the way down to 1200 feet. That resulted in beautiful white capped mountains for a few days. This was looking out from the road around the corner from our house. 

With the colder weather came more of the pools being down for some reason or other. This resulted in the National group going to Mary Gomez to mentor the Yellow Bell group Rubix swims with to work on turns and underwaters. Rubix was paired up with Shareef Elaydi, which was really fun! I think this is only the second time that this has happened, although, Kevin, the head coach says he wants to do more of this. 

After the really cold spell came a heat streak with Friday the 27th hitting 80 degrees, after multiple days in the 70's. This meant a wonderful week of bike rides for me and a change in vibe from the entire Szolusha family and most people we interacted with. Everyone enjoyed the warm weather and the feeling that Spring was in the air!

We had another swim meet for Rubix last weekend. After a pretty flat season, except for breast stroke a couple of weeks ago, he finally dropped in a few events. These drops were mostly fractions of a second, except for the 500 free where he dropped to a 5:41 from a 5:45. He says this gives him some confidence going into Age group Champs which start on March 20th.  

I ended up having a crazy gastritis flare on Saturday night last weekend which resulted in me staying home on Sunday for most of the day. I was able to spend some time with these two kiddos. They happen to be both putting on their socks and Phoenix thought it would be funny to mirror Axel. 

They both had a good laugh after their socks were on.

Axel had a workout last Saturday and he didn't have any teammates available to run with him, so Daddy decided to ride his bike next to him, or should I say, ride my bike next to him. Keith hasn't had a working bike in more than a year, but he was happy to ride alongside Axel to West Valley and then alongside him on the track as he did his workout. It was a warm day for the end of February. 

Axel greatly appreciated the company. I am too lazy to turn the picture around, so I apologize for the side ways picture. 

We had a rare night together and had an impromptu family game night. Phoenix did her normal, make a face, for the picture. 

When she saw it, even she couldn't help but laugh!

So funny!

Rubix had his last soccer game and soccer party on Wednesday (March 4th). I do have to say, I am glad it is over, because it took a lot out of him physically and emotionally. 

He really does love soccer, so much so, that he did not do as well in school during the second trimester and now has to make some changes going forward, especially since track starts on Monday!

Speaking of track, Axel had his first track meet for the school season. He did the 1600 at the K-Bell Invitational and finished in 4:42.31. He went out really strong with a 1:06 first lap, and finished strong with a similar pace. The second and third laps were a little tougher, but he knows what he has to work on and he was happy with his effort and the first race of the year. Next week he will compete in the 3200 meter. 

Here he is all cued up and ready to go. I was so proud of him for going out and racing hard. You can watch his race below. 

Axel 1600 meter

The next time I post, we will have a 10 year old and 17 year old in the house. Rubix will be going to a friend's party on his birthday and Axel will be in Boston visiting colleges for his birthday with Keith. 

Oh, before I forget, the big news is that Axel got a 36 on his ACT, Keith got cleared for any cancer and is back to himself, and Axel is getting through his Anki app with the hopes of being as fluent as possible in Japanese before he leaves in 2.5 months. Check back in early April to see all things Szolusha!
 

CMU/ Caltech campus visits

Axel finally sent me a few photos from the Winter Ball. Here he is with two of his friends, Christine and Cynthia. 

I love how close he is with his friend group and how much fun they have with each other, regardless of how many members of the group are together. 

Rubix started school soccer and has been having intramural games between two 4th grade teams as well as games made up of teams that are a mix of 4th and 5th graders, called the league of Champions. He appears to have one game a week. We are allowed to attend only the intramural game between the 4th graders. This was his first game and Keith and I were both surprised at how big the field was. They were using a field equivalent to the U12 field which is quite a bit bigger than the U10 field that the boys are used to. Rubix did A LOT of running! On top of the field being bigger they had two 25 minute halves that happen to go to nearly 30 minutes, so the game was nearly an hour, rather than 40 minutes! We haven't really seen Rubix get tired, but he has been so tired he hasn't wanted to always attend the harder, Gold 3 (11/12 year old) swim practice that is 2 hours long afterwards and even decided to skip swim one night. 

Rubix has been playing multiple sports for nearly 5 years and has never really complained about being tired and this has been a common theme we have been hearing from him for the past month. I think that he happens to be going through a growth spurt at the same time as his training is becoming harder, which is taking a toll on his body. He is also getting to bed at 9:30pm or sometimes later because his swim practice goes until 8:30pm and he doesn't get home until close to 9 pm. 

If you ask him if he wants to give anything up, he quickly responds, "no". He absolutely still loves to play basketball and soccer and run and swim. He has actually been asking to skip swim at times in order to not skip out on the other sports. I am really proud of him for making hard decisions like this because this will become more and more important as he gets older to figure out what makes him happy. 

He is also still learning how to not win and have fun. He often gets frustrated and loses focus when his team is not winning or the score is tied. We continue to work with him on focusing on what he can control and that is his effort and his attitude. He was able to apply this for the first time at a swim meet last weekend, which I will get to in a moment. 

Before I jump to this past weekend and week, I will quickly share on Phoenix's first prelim/ final senior meet she had a couple of weeks ago. The big change, now that she is 13 years old, is she can wear an official tech suit. Phoenix and I were both surprised that the difficulty in getting this on is how tight it is around the hips and waist, rather than on the shoulders like her other 12 and under tech suits are designed. It took her about 20 minutes to get her suit on and it takes about 10 minutes, with my help, to get the suit off. 

Phoenix and I spent the weekend in Pleasanton because Superleague was a prelim and finals meet that was poorly attended. They also had 3 heats of finals. Phoenix had a great attitude and despite not swimming her best times she was able to drop 4 seconds from prelims to finals in the 500 free and more than a second in the 200 back. On Sunday she dropped in the 50 free during prelims, finally breaking 27 seconds, not in a relay. She made finals for the 200 free and 50 free, but decided to scratch to go home and study for her math test! She is very focused on trying to cross grade and she needs to maintain a 95% in the class to do so. Before we left for home she competed in the 1000 free, having a nice drop of 16 seconds, achieving the AAAA time and feeling like sectionals is within reach with just 25 seconds to go!

Here she is getting ready for the 200 back final. 

Last weekend, Rubix had a meet as well. I took this picture that captured Keith officiating and Rubix getting ready to get on the blocks. Rubix had a much better meet, relaxing and learning to have fun, despite not dropping in most of his events. He did have a nice drop in the 100 breast, dropping to a 1:19.19, which is very close to a AAAA time. 

Rubix 100 Breast

Rubix felt playing with his friend, Tatsu, helped him relax. Tatsu and Rubix played Shogi, which is a chess like Japanese game. Tatsu was very excited to beat Rubix since Rubix always "beats" him in swim. Tatsu just turned 9 and is in 3rd grade. He is from Japan and will be here for another 6 months to a year before heading back home. His dad's work assignment was supposed to end, but has been extended. His mom was telling me that they will get a 6 months notice. They are hoping it will correlate to Tatsu going back in April of 2027 when the Japanese school year starts. 

On Sunday, Axel and I got up early to make a 7 am flight to Pittsburgh. We had a 2 hour lay over in Dallas, so it made for a long day. We captured a picture with the chicken for Phoenix, since she is still obsessed with chickens. 

We had no line at the security check in, which meant we had nearly an hour of waiting before our scheduled departure time. 

Here we are sitting and waiting at 6 am!

Yay! Now we are on the plane! Axel was very excited to check out Carnegie Mellon. 

Another view of the excited Duo. Our first leg of the day was just over 3 hours. Keith was having trouble sleeping again, so I was up since 2 am trying to calm him from all of his work stress. I slept off and on, but managed to do some reading. Axel finally gave in to his short night of sleep with a solid nap the last hour and a half of the flight. 

During our layover I started feeling a migraine come on. It hit really hard when we took off from Dallas to Pittsburgh. I quickly took a Nurtec, but struggled with nausea and pain the rest of the day. Axel was very sweet and walked slowly with me and allowed me to go to bed as soon as we checked into the hotel. I asked him to text his dad since Keith was texting me and I couldn't do much. Apparently, he snapped this picture to show dad that I wasn't in a good place. I was very grateful to go right to bed just before 7 pm East coast time (which is 4 pm our time!). I managed to get enough sleep to allow me to function the next day for our big CMU day. Axel managed to get dinner, run on the treadmill and get himself to bed by 10/11pm. 

Axel found himself a Ramen house .1 miles away. He sent Keith and I a picture of his dinner and the empty bowl that pursued.

I was extremely proud of how bold and confident he was in exploring and taking care of himself. I felt very lucky to have a son I could trust and who was very understanding of my current state. 

We both had the privilege of sleeping in . I brought protein waffles for Axel and oatmeal and fruit for myself that we ate in the room before heading to CMU for our 10 am information session and tour. We left at 9:15 am not knowing how long the mile walk would take with all of of the stop lights. It was about 6 degrees, but both Axel and I were dressed well and quite comfortable. We were both surprised at how beautiful the University of Pittsburgh was on the way to CMU. There are three universities on Forbes Ave. starting with the University of Carlo, then Pittsburgh, then CMU. There were students everywhere!

We had a grad student lead our information session that was an hour long. We then had a second year student lead our tour that ended up being 2 hours long!

We were able to see first year dorms, along with several labs, lecture halls and buildings. Axel and I were both impressed with the tunnel and bridge system that connected many of the buildings. This allows the students to not have to walk in the elements very often. There are several buildings that are not connected, but many of the buildings with the majority of their classes are all interconnected. The last building we visited was designated for the college of performing arts. It was absolutely beautiful. 

I had to take a few photos of the "lobby" with the sculptures and beautifully painted ceiling. 

The mascot for CMU is the "kilt" which depicts the interwoven nature of the different colleges and the collaboration that CMU promotes. Along with the kilt is the "scotty dog". Axel rubbed the scotty dogs nose for good luck, which is one of CMU's traditions.  

After our tour, Axel and I rushed across campus to the athletic building to meet the cross country coach. We finally picked up some lunch at 1:40pm and then quickly headed back to the hotel. We had plans to meet Veyd, a Harker alum, that Axel use to run with at 3:30pm which meant that Axel would have to do his run and meet me (and Veyd) back at campus. Axel managed to squeeze in a nice 5 + mile run and I walked back to campus with his second layer of clothes and parka. 

Veyd was really nice to spend the next 2 hours with us, bringing us into the labs and answering all of our questions. It was an extremely informative and useful day spending nearly the entire day ( 10 am-5pm) (minus an hour)) at CMU. We stopped by a "farm fresh" restaurant for dinner, on the way back to the hotel, where Axel was able to get pasta and I was able to get a grain bowl with veggies!

The next morning our flight to LAX didn't depart until 12:15pm which meant we both had time to exercise. I woke up and made myself get on the treadmill at 8 am. Axel called me around 8:37 am asking my advice at what he should do. He managed to get out for his run at 8:55 am which made the morning a little stressful for me because he didn't return until 9:54 and we needed to leave by 10 am, both to make our flight and because that was check out time. He took a very quick shower and we managed to be driving by 10:08 am and luckily traffic was not bad, which allowed us to arrive on time and make our flight. 

I ended up having to take another Nurtec and sleep the hour to Midway. After my nap and lunch and another nap the first couple of hours of our 4.5 hour flight to LAX I was finally feeling myself again. I was overjoyed to actually converse with Axel. I was able to listen to his Japanese music and we watched the men's Olympic ice skating short program together. We took a picture, excited to learn what Pasadena and Caltech had to offer. 

It was a beautiful day in the sky. 

Wednesday morning we had the entire morning free. Axel and I walked to breakfast. On the way we passed several beautiful churches. Here is one of the more majestic ones. 

We both enjoyed an amazing breakfast. 

Spinach omelet with salad and a matcha latte! Axel with two pancakes, 2 eggs and bacon!

Afterwards we spoke with Gma Susan who was worried I didn't call her for our weekly 10 minute chat on my way to work and then we went for a run together. After our run and shower we headed to Caltech. It was about a mile away and we managed to get on campus just after 12:00pm. 

We explored for about an hour. 

The turtles are actually a part of the most popular club at Caltech, which is the turtle club where the students take care of and help breed them. 

I love this picture that shows how close the mountains are to campus. 

One of the many labs. 

After our hour of self exploration, we experienced lunch at their main dining hall before we headed over to Braun Athletic center to meet the cross country and track coach. 

Here is Axel in front of the beaver, which is apparently Caltech's and MIT's mascot. We had a great meeting with Coach Kelli. Axel really liked her training philosophy. She spent nearly an hour with us, answering all of our questions and telling us as much as she could think of about her program. She then walked us over to our 3 pm information session. This session was run by one of the admissions officers who was very well spoken and gave a very detailed presentation on academics and life at Caltech. We then had the privilege of meeting a Harker alum, who is a current Senior at Caltech for a guided tour with him, since the tour component was cancelled due to a death of a student a week or two before our arrival. Ishaan showed us his dorm room, explained the housing situation, showed us the other dinning halls, a lecture hall and answered all of our questions. We felt very lucky to spend the nearly 5 hours getting to know all about Caltech. On the way back we stopped by a restaurant for dinner before getting back just before 7pm. Axel and I covered 15.39 miles on our feet, 5.15 of those with our run. It was a great day/week of informative visits, which has propelled Axel into trying to solidify his summer plans. We meet with Tyler, Keith's MIT buddy, tomorrow morning to brainstorm some "research/intern" ideas that he can try to partake in once he returns from Japan on June 27th. Axel is also trying to find time to "study" tonight and tomorrow for his ACT he takes on Saturday. As of now, CMU is Axel's top choice, but he still has his East Coast/New England trip planned for Spring break, so we will have to see where he stands after he visits, MIT and other New England schools. 

Tomorrow will be busy with Tyler's visit, swim lesson, Keith and I lifting together, Costco trip and preparations for Phoenix's 3 day prelim/final swim meet Saturday through Monday. We had a little scare while Axel and I were gone with Keith continuing to have work stress and trouble sleeping, he also peed blood again, but the doctors, and myself, are pretty certain it is due to his change in diet and exercise. He had just finished a 6 mile run when it happened on Wednesday and he has cut down from 6 carbonated waters to just 2 or 3 a day. He has also cut out the 2-4 glasses of juice without necessarily replacing these lost ounces of fluid with water. He is going to start weekly therapy and Zoloft and hopefully, he will have reduction in his stress or a different perspective on his stress which will allow him to find peace in the chaos. He has been reading one of my books called The Sacred Marriage and resonates with what the books says about faith, God and marriage and he wants to do a Weekend to Remember with me, so I am excited to find a weekend that works for us this year. I am very hopeful this year will be a year of growth for all of the Szolushas, where we can find more patience, love and trust in our beautiful Savior and His plan for us. 

Until next time....