Vince's Journey

Last night at Landmark Auditorium, Aaron joined his brother, Judd, as a graduate of Moeller High School...we now have two down and one to go! As I'm sure I've mentioned throughout the year, Aaron has had a severe case of 'senioritis' and while he assured us all along he would get the work required to graduate completed, we had our doubts at times. At any rate, we checked the diploma and it clearly states that 'Aaron Maxwell Hopkins has successfully completed the required courses for graduation fromArchbishop Moeller High School' so I guess in the the end, he was right. Aaron's lacrosse team will now be in the state tournament starting tomorrow at Indian Hill high School, with one loss his high school experience will be over. I really think the boys have a good shot at winning a few games in the tournament - they've lost a lot of close games and if they can just get over the hump in the Indian Hill game I think they might be able to gain some momentum. Aaron hasn't seen much action this year - he didn't even play lacrosse last year - but we were very happy that he decided to rejoin the team and I think he's built some friendships from lacrosse that have been very good for him. In August, he'll be heading off to college - to St. Louis University; he's going to be a Billiken! We'd really like to see him a little closer to home but St. Louis has an excellent engineering department and that's what he wants to study. I actually think he has the ability to be an engineer if he applys himself and it would be a good profession for him. I'm not looking forward to him leaving - I'll miss him so much - but I also think it will be great for him to get out on his own and grow-up a bit. So I'm hoping to really take advantage of the next several months and make sure that we spend some quality time together; hard to believe that our little boy will soon be heading off to college. I know it's going to be a sad drive home from St. Louis when we leave him behind in August.

Tomorrow is the final, long training ride for my Team in Training event in North Carolina next month. We'll be riding 80 miles tomorrow and due to Aaron's game, we'll be heading out at 6:30 am. I'm not a morning person so I'm sure I'll be a bit sluggish at the start. Hopefully we can get the ride in by noon - I'll need at least 30 minutes to get over to Indian Hill High School for the game. I feel a lot stronger this year than I did last year. I've actually lost almost 20 pounds over the last 4.5 weeks so I'm sure that's made a difference in my stamina, etc. (I know my clothes fit a lot better now!) Once I get loosened up, I'm usually able to keep my cadence at a very comfortable pace - the only hitch would be if its windy outside, it is no fun riding into a strong headwind!

It's going to be a wild summer! We have three cars, the kids all have jobs and it's going to be hectic getting everyone where they need to be. Fortunately Judd and Abbey have jobs pretty close to home; Judd's at the Kings Island Golf Course, Abbey is a life guard at The Beach. Aaron will be making 3-ways at the Skyline by River's Bend Golf Course. Hopefully they'll all get plenty of hours so they can support their expensive habits like eating out at Chipotle, going to the movies and keeping the gas tank in their car full.

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! I'll keep you posted on the exploits of the Moeller lacrosse team. And once again, congrats to our newest Moeller graduate - we love you, Aaron!!