The STORM is over...

 

After being together for four years with most and six years with some, tonight the seniors of the NLC Storm Baseball team turned in their jerseys for the very last time.

Lots of tears tonight, from parents, friends, players and coaches.  I'd never seen Coach Posey tear-up like he did giving Lance the Leadership and Offensive player of the year awards tonight.  It's been such a fun run, everyone had a hard time leaving tonight after the awards, people lingered for a long time.

For Lance, their last game tonight could not have ended more perfectly, not only did they win but first Luke hit a homerun and then Lance too hit a homerun at his last at bat of his high school career.  His friend Matt waited on 3rd, refusing to score on passed ball, knowing Lance would hit him home and wanting to be that last RBI.  The stands went absolutely wild as did the players.  Its hard to see in the video below but the ball hit high in the trees in left field, and Lances' biggest fan couldn't have been more excited if he'd hit it himself.  (Click here to watch Video)

The season certainly had its ups and downs but they really brought it together at the end.  Earlier in the season they participated in an invitational tournament at Grace Sanford.  Lance's team placed third, Lance hit the walk-off run and was a given the the MVP award  That was all awesome but the best part was the players from the other teams (like Grace whom they didn't end up playing, they just watched) coming up to congratulate Lance after the game.

Then last week at the North Carolina Homeschool World Series, the team made their highest placing ever in STORM history coming in 2nd.  It was a tough tournament personally for Lance he had to overcome some serious physical and emotional challenges, but Lance did.  He's always the professional and God really showed him that it was all worth it.  With each team he played that weekend, when he got on first, the player from the other team randomly felt the need to tell him how much their whole team respected Lance.  Then the coaches from the other teams showed further respect by coming over to shake his hand or give a hug and wish him well in the future.  Even two of the umpires inquired about his future and one even offered help.  All those random acts of kindness had an incredible healing power.  Titus had a blast being one of the bat boys all weekend with his friend Matthew.

It has been quite a journey with these wonderful families and so thankful for all their love and support over the years, it will be a gap in our life without them. 

A Little Bit Older

 

How did another manage to pass?  Denial isn't just a river in Africa.  March is a super busy time of the year in Ottoland with both Lance and Titus playing baseball, Amber riding, Jared Archery, that a big celebration was hard to arrange and frankly Lance just wanted to chill with family.  However, we did still manage a few surprises.  First, Jared arranged for his friend Sakell to make a surprise visit.  Then when we were out running errands I spontaneously stopped at the Baseball Store and told him we had decided a new 1st Baseman mitt was our gift to him.  He was so thankful.  The guy in the shop even threw a couple balls for him so he could choose between two different mitts.  He said the new mitt is a huge difference, as the throws were getting harder his old mitt just didn't have the padding it needed anymore.

I still find it ironic how much Lance has come to love dancing.  He and Jared meet up a couple times a month with friends to dance the old English country dances.  When they're babies you have no idea what they'll be like and when their young adults you just pray they get to be all they want to be.

Archery Indoor Nationals 2022

(Written by Jared)

USA Archery Indoor Nationals was back in Virginia this year. Last year (due to you-know-what) the Indoor Championships were shot at the State tournaments. Dad and I drove up early Friday morning, and arrived at the hotel around 2 hours before we had to report to the shooting range.

The first shoot was for the JOAD Championships, which consisted of 2 rounds (60 arrows). I ended up shooting a 536 out of a possible 600 and ranking 76th in the nation!

Saturday and Sunday were both apart of the 53rd USA Archery Indoor National Championships, consisting of 4 rounds (120 arrows) across the 2 days. I was beginning to grow tired, and scored a 1049 out of a possible 1200 and ranking 96th in the nation. Although, that score did mean I ranked 4th in USA Sectionals! My highest ranking in this class (U18 aka Cadet, which consists of 14-17 year old archers).

Apart from the Archery, Dad and I had some fun times when we were at the hotel. It is a tradition that we bring my favorite game, Memoir '44, with us when we travel to the shoot. I won all 3 games we played (Dad's excuse was the dice were rigged). What was new this year was Dad brought his computer so we could watch 2 war movies we'd wanted to see for a while. The first one was Midway, the true story of the Battle of Midway. This was by far the best movie I had ever watched! Dad and I can't wait to watch it on a bigger screen. The second movie we watched was Pentagon Wars, based on the true story of the development of the M3 Bradly Fighting Vehicle. The movie was written as a sick comedy, since all the stupidity of the members of the Pentagon actually happened. It was another movie worth watching!

Even the drive up and back are enjoyable...mostly because I get to play MY music (*cough* Sabaton *cough*). The entire trip was a great time! I am very thankful to Coach John and Coach Lesley for all their help in preparing me for this competition, and I can't wait to go back!

NFAA State and Sectionals were at the range again this year, so Amber and Titus came to this tournament. Unfortionately, NFAA decided to schedule this 3 day tournament only 1 week after USA Nationals! Due to the fact I was still exhausted from Nationals, I didn't perform very well, posting some less-then-admirable scores.

BUT! Titus and Amber did amazing in their first ever tournament! Titus ended up winning State Champion and Amber got 2nd in their respective classes! I'm glad they had great success at their first competition.

Ready, Aim, FIRE!

We have made it a regular habit to hang out weekly with the M-Clan ever since Amber started her riding lessons around the corner. 

Amber rides while Vanessa and I talk and boys stay at their house to play with their boys.  It's a very therapeutic time for everyone.  This week there was the extra bonus of it being Alexander's birthday and he decided he wanted an airsoft party.  It had been so long since the boys had a good old fashion full day of fighting, everyone was so excited.  Amber and I stuck around a bit to help with the making of cupcakes inside of oranges to be cooked in the bonfire (so incredibly unique), then we left the boys to come home much, much later.

Needless to say they had a blast....and maybe a little too much ginger beer (LOL)!

Happy Birthday to....

 

Today we celebrated the birthday of our surrogate/"adopted" daughter Holly.  Holly is technically our next-door neighbor but over the last few years she has become very integrated into our family.  She vacations with our family and has even lived here from time to time.  She balances off our family dynamics well, getting along with everyone.  We pray this year is her best ever!

USA Archery State Championships

     It was the time of year where my Mom and I go up to Winston-Salem for me to compete in The NC State USA Archery Championship.

    This year we got to go up in our new 2022 Honda Odyssey, which took away all the stress of getting there. Compared to last year in our old 2002 GMC Yukon XL, where we had to draft behind a semi-truck to get there safely...

    Once we got there, a friend of mine from First Flight Archery (my archery range) parked next to us, and we were able to walk in together. At the door though, we were met with the Water Bottle Nazis! They told us I had to dump out my full water bottle (they didn't know it had BodyArmor energy drinks inside) and refill it with either the gross water fountains or their WAAAYYY overpriced bottled water. My mom "went along" and "brought them back to the car," but I knew they would "just so happen" to find their way in. I mean, it's not the first time my Mom has dealt with this type of persons😉.

    That said, the Water Bottle Nazis were much appreciated over Mask Nazis, which even though the location said you had to wear one, nobody there cared if you did or not. So we were able to take them off for the whole day!

    After bow inspections, I found my bale and we got situated. Then we waited for the previous line to end. Once it ended, I hung my target. A nice surprise was the two other people on my bale were from First Flight, so I knew scoring would go seamlessly (except for when the computer cleared all our scores for the first 30 arrows so we had to type them in again...but no big deal).

    The shoot itself went by as usual, I had a lot of fun talking with other shooters! A funny point was the stand holding our round bale was very crooked. It was so crooked that while it didn't harm our shooting, I was worried it would tip over and knock down the other 18 bales next to it😬. Thankfully a judge had power tools on hand and was able to fix it.

    At the end of the day, my score for Round 1 was 263, and Round 2 was 241, for a total of 504.  Not the best day score wise (though I still put up a respectable score with 3 misses in Round 2), it was the highest I ever placed in States, 6th overall! I also was 2nd in States in my team, just under 20 points behind the highest score from First Flight. And other than the misses and a few bad shots, I was staying all in the yellow...It's just when I missed, I missed BAD😜! But I did improve in some small areas, which will help in future competitions.

    After the tournament, we ate at the BEST Italian restaurant ever! I had my first Calzone, and it was HUGE!!! Mom and I were able to talk about a lot of topics over dinner and on the drive home, which is always enjoyable.

    No medal for the family this time...but getting closer every single time. And we had fun, which is the the whole point of doing anything...right?😉

-Jared Otto

Bowling Over a New Year

We wanted to do something really special for Titus' birthday this year.  After some deliberation we decided to celebrate Titus' 13th birthday with a huge bowling bash and it was the perfect choice.  He had his lane with his homies....

and then we filled 5 other lanes full of friends and family.  

 

We adults even got into the fun, and we all managed not to hurt ourselves.  We were by far the most joyful group at the alley and we were definitely having the best time. There's nothing like an Otto bowling party!  

 

We had friends over for lasagna and finished off the night with the traditional spicecake celebration.  Here's to this year being his best year yet! LOVE YA!

Happy HOLYdays!

Today is Epiphany, the official end of the HOLYday Season.  Traditionally today is the day you burn your Christmas tree (among other traditions) and our church decided to make it a church event, an evening of food, fellowship and bonfires.  It was a nice way to end the HOLYday Season.

This HOLYday Season we kept to our own traditions as well.

Reading a different Christmas book for all 12 days of Christmas and

...my infamous Christmas Holiday Light Drive.  I spent a lot of time planning the stops this year.  I chose 12 stops, mapped them all out in Goggle Maps and it assured me it would only be three hours this year (last year it was a little over four hours and that was a bit long).

Our first stop was the Wendell Lights again....

Everything was going exactly as planned we only had one stop left, the stop we always miss because the line is so long but we were determined to see the lights this year and the line didn't look tooo long....

Well... it was a trick!  Once we went around the corner and were committed, we realized they had the line serpentining through the parking lot of the elementary and middle school. Once you were in the queue there was literally no way out!  So in the end we saw the famous lights checked that off our list and my Three Hour Tour was lengthened to a five hour tour... oops.

We made up for it the next week though with a really groovy sparkler New Year party to ring in the New Year (a few hours early).

Archery Isn't Just for Jared Anymore

Amber and Titus needed something to do.  With Jared's blessing, I suggested they give archery a try.  So back on October 25th Amber and Titus had their first private archery lesson.  They both did amazing, they took too it rather naturally, so they started group classes right away.

They had no trouble shooting enough points to earn their first JOAD pins during November group classes.

December was the same, they scored 185/210 respectively more than enough for their second JOAD pins.

With two pins under their belts we went ahead and got them their own gear.  It's really neat having three of kids in the same sport.  I love archery because it is such a peaceful sport to watch and oh it also involves numbers and I love numbers.

Christmas Visitation

It was on the calendar as simply "Asheboro Pickup" for weeks. The kids (Titus in particular) kept trying to get more clarity about the calendar entry but Chris and I successful kept the secret.  When we were heading out the door and someone started to panic about being late and I said "they can't start without us" and the kids were officially confused.

On our way we saw an incredible Christmas light display in the middle of no where, which was a fun treat.  Chris used the opportunity to joke "That's it, let's go home".

When we got to our destination, Lance immediately sighted Grandma Elaine in the lobby, the rest of the kids piled out after him with joyous exclamations.  Then we all piled into the car to go eat some dinner.

I had found a place it eat in downtown called "Cantina Taco Loco", it had a little something for everyone.  It was a bit small, so they took Chris' number till they had a table for a group our size.  We spent the time catching up and window shopping (It's a cute downtown).

At the table Grandma interviewed the kids about all that was going on in their lives, while we enjoyed a really nice meal.

After dinner we walked around looking at lights a bit, it was a beautiful night but eventually had to head back.  Everyone was sorry to part but also thankful for having the time together.