March 2006

Deep Sea Fishing Trip

SKUNKED! That is what happened to us today, on our deep sea fishing trip on the Flying Fish II. This was a Christmas Present trip that we held off on going earlier this year in hopes of really catching some nice snapper and grouper over Spring break. Little did we know...

Actually, Cindy did catch an extremely small Mangrove snapper just before the Captain headed for home, but Natalie, Karl and myself only had nibbles and bites, and got hung up on rocks! A few fish were caught by others, mainly Sand Perch and snapper, but they were somewhat small (3-4 lb). Anyway, it was on the return trip that the kids saw a Dolphin surfing the bow wake of the boat, for almost 10 minutes! I took some photos hanging over the gunwale; take a look!

Looks like we'll stick to fishing from piers and the beach, as we generally do better, and for far less money!

Natalie joins the YMCA Sharks swim team!

Had a chance today to watch Natalie at swim practice, and took some pictures with my new 80-200 high-speed zoom. Because of Spring break, her "novice" team had a combined practice with the "White" squad, and it was apparent to the coach, as well as a couple of mom's of White team members, that she belongs in that group! Other than some breaststroke issues and keeping her head down in the freestyle, she was keeping up with (and besting) many in the group. If she is promoted, we move to 4 day/week practice, with 2-hour Saturday practices prior to meets. She is psyched, to say the least!

Spring Flag Football!

Well, the Spring 2006 Flag Football season is underway, with the first games played today! The Eagles sparred with the Fighting Irish, and prevailed 16-6. We were a bit rusty in the passing game, but our defense helped until the offense got back on track. The Irish took away our deep routes (Karl's), but left themselves vulnerable to the short game (slants, drags). Next week we battle the Vikings, a team that has improved over the past 3 seasons. This year, they have a 12 y.o. that is 6'0, 160lb! He has finally learned to catch the ball, so it will be up to Karl to cover him. You can keep up with the Eagles at our web site here. Pictures from the games are linked from the Results page. Gooooo Eagles!!!

The Picture Says It All!

Here is a shot of Karl guarding the guy that had a nasty habit of throwing his elbows.

On a subsequent play, Karl took a vicious blow to his ribs, and was essentially knocked out of the game. No foul was called.

Spring Fever...

OMG! There hasn't been an entry for quite some time now, so I better do something, or else the blog will die a slow, lingering death.

Let's see, we have survived the dreaded FCAT testing for both Karl and Natalie; 6 and 5 days of exams, respectively. For Karl, the emphasis was on math, while Natalie's was reading and comprehension. Both came home stating, "it was real easy," or "no problem." We shall see...

The basketball season has ended (I'll have a few pictures up this weekend), and for Karl, it was somewhat of a downer. He was beaten around pretty bad by a very aggressive opponent, and left the game in the 2nd half due to a rib injury (elbowed on a screen). We are going to enroll him in a special basketball summer camp run by an ex-college coach (Bill Ivey), that will provide Karl with serious instruction in the art of shooting, dribbling, and defense. Duke here we come!

Natalie has made another career change, but this time we feel it is the right one. She has tried out and made the YMCA "Sharks" swim club, one of the premier teams in the country. Her body is more suited to swimming than gymnastics, and with her competitive drive, she is bound to succeed. Even better; the fees are less than gymnastics, so I am ecstatic!

We are going nowhere for Spring Break, opting instead to take a few short trips to some of Florida's less-known destinations. With Spring Flag Football having started, we are limited to what we can do. After drafting 5 new boys for the team (6 returning starters!), only 1 will miss a game due to "Break." Besides, there are about 50 million "projects" around the house that need to be completed by summer vacation. The major one is to redo the flooring in the house (tile), and plant a new Live Oak in the backyard. Being of sound body and weak mind, I am tackling that one myself...

Hope to hear from everyone soon (and maybe some pictures???).

The Scheiders Live!

Yes, that’s right - believe it or not, this really is correspondence from the Scheider clan in Atlanta!! We are possibly starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel after Emma’s sickness, Henry’s busiest Spring season preparation and my very overwhelming work situation!

First, I have great news to share about Sarah. She was nominated by her teacher for the ‘Yes I Can’ award at her school. This is an award (only 1 per grade level) for children who are dealing with ‘Learning Differences’ and have made exceptional academic and personal achievement. We are SO proud of her! There will be an award ceremony on March 8th (her birthday, no less!) where the teacher will talk about Sarah’s achievements and present her with a trophy. She is so excited. On the side, Sarah is continuing to love karate. Last Saturday, she tested for her orange belt and passed! She has now moved up two levels in karate. Thus, she is having a ‘karate’ birthday party with her friends on the 11th!

Emma is also doing really well in school and has really surprised us with her writing and reading. She loves all things academic but can still be our little drama queen (could be the age!)! J She is keeping busy with ‘Daisies’ (1st year of Brownies) and Gymnastics. This spring she’ll have a gymnastics performance which will come with its own trophy so she’s looking forward to that!

I haven’t seen much of Henry in the last week or so! This past weekend he had to run the Spring baseball drafts for 4 different age groups while dealing with a horrible cold! This past Monday he stopped home from work to grab some dinner and then went back to the office until 11:30p (since I was tying up the home computer doing my own work in the evening!). Again last night (Tuesday) he had to work until 11p running the baseball drafts for the coaches! UGH! I always dread this time of year but hopefully it will be over soon. Although he did let me know recently that he has to work on the Saturday we’re having Sarah’s birthday party. That didn’t go over too well, but he’s assured us that he’ll be at the party when it starts at 4pm on the 11th. He better be! J

I’ve been dealing with a tremendous amount of pressure at work to retain our biggest Client at the same retainer fees that they’ve been paying us since I first negotiated the deal with them when I started here. They are having huge cut-backs throughout their corporation (Tyco) and I’m trying to prevent the repercussions from hitting us too hard. At the same time, we’re managing new Clients and trying to grow them while continually pitching new business. I feel like my head is spinning!

We are counting the days though for Spring Break. Once again, we are headed to Disney World with the girls over the first week of April (we leave April 1st and return the following Friday evening). I didn’t think we’d plan another trip to Disney so soon after the last one, but we’re all really looking forward to forgetting about the ‘real’ world for a while and having a lot of fun!

Lots of love to you all! I may not call much, but I’m certainly always thinking about everyone and sending love!

Jacquie