The Kassel Family Project Life 365

John will be playing competitive baseball with the Withrow Electric Shockers next year.  While I am not big on the idea of specializing in one sport so young and John will continue to play basketball, it was the logical next step because John has really outgrown the recreational leagues.  We already know the coaches and most of the team as he has played with them before.  It will be league play in the Spring and a few tournaments in the summer.  This will be a new experience for all of us and John is definitely nervous.  Wish us luck!

Today was John’s Parent-Teacher-Student Conference at Ridgeway Elementary.  It was as Andy and I expected.  John needs to focus more and concentrate especially when reading.  When he focuses, he reads well and retention is great, but focusing is not consistent.  Both Mrs. Dempsey and Ms. Newkirk, his Reading Specialist, did say that they have noticed some maturing on John’s part, so he is starting to get there.  John is doing very well in other areas, specifically Math and Science, and is right where he should be.  Now, if we could just get our social student to stop talking to other students, he would be really rocking!

We saw this as we were leaving the school.  I still have a hard time believing that Laura is no longer at Ridgeway Elementary.

I didn’t realize just how big the new smoker was when we were in Home Depot. Watching John help Andy put this thing together makes me think that we are going to have to share the love whenever he makes something…

Someone was a little tired and fell asleep by 7:30 while watching television with Daddy…

Our frustration with AT&T finally boiled over.  After six months of overage fees, we switched wireless carriers today.  I called a month ago to find out why we were going over each month and I was informed that our data was being handled differently.  Basically, we were using nearly double the data for the same amount of actual usage.  I was told that we could upgrade our plan to avoid the overages.  Yeah, right.  Thanks for treating customers of 10+ years so well.

Because of that and the fact that my phone was three years old and having battery issues, we switched to Verizon Wireless and Andy and I now have Google Pixel 2 smartphones.  Ironically, we will be saving money even with adding a third phone line.  We switched from a 3 GB plan to an unlimited plan and we will only be paying $5 more per month.  Andy and I were paying $145 per month for just the two of us.  Now, our plan is $150 per month for three.  I’ll take it!  And, yes, I cannot wait until a certain Wee Ginger gets a call on Christmas morning.  She is going to flip!

And, so it begins…  John will be playing competitive baseball next year.  Given that, we had him go to a baseball camp this evening to begin preparing him for these types of things.  The camp was given by Logan Moon, a Kansas City Royals minor league player.  John learned some new things and had a good time.  I think it was a successful, first baseball camp!

We spent our last day of vacation in Hermann, MO.  Our first stop was Robller Vineyard.  We discovered them last year and they have great wines!  We enjoyed a bottle of wine, appropriately named Kasselfest, while there and then bought two cases of wine to take home.  From there, we went to Vintage Restaurant at Stone Hill Winery for a late lunch.  Vintage never disappoints!

We finished the day with a trip to Martin Brothers Winery, which is really a meadery.  They produce four types of honey wines.  Andy discovered them at a tasting here in town and we were happy to see that they were open while we were in Hermann.  Of course, we purchased wine from there too!  Did I mention that we are restocking our wine at home?!?

We finished the day at the Big Tree Cycling Awards Banquet.  It was a fun, silly evening full of laughing with teammates and friends.  It was a great way to end our vacation!