Way Too Long, Way Too Fast

Time and life fly by very fast.

It doesn't seem like it, but the facts don't lie. It has been over a year since the last post.

Since we left off with the final days of the 2008 division II AAU (amateur athletics union) 12 and under championships, I will start off there. The team finished 2nd in the nation to a very good Oklahoma Select team who we went 1-2 against in the tournament. We were the only team to beat them on their championship run. It was a great experience. Think Nadi really enjoyed her time in Bloomington. I know the rest of us sure did.

The next year had Nadi's first middle school season; Kaitlyn's venture into competive dance; Kevin, Kaleb, and Kaitlyn's cross country inagural season; Kyler's talking, walking, running, ... crazy! Let's just say a lot of growing in a short amount of time. The kids are all so much bigger.

Most recently, Kailyn finished 2nd at the 12 and under division I AAU nationals in Kingsport TN.

The first time the family was not in attendance as everyone else spent two weeks in New York with family for big Nana's birthday. I joined the weekend of the actual party and it was very fun. Kai got to go to both, so she had a blast and traveled quite a bit.

Kevin, Kaleb, and Kaitlyn are starting their 2nd season of cross country which I am going to try to help with while I still have some free time. Still coaching with the Miami Valley School (17-5 last year), so get very busy after October. Need to enjoy time with family before then.

Will make a concerted effort to keep you all up to date to keep us connected.

K

AAU 12U D-II Nationals 2008 (Day 5)

Well two more days of fun in Bloomington IN and at least two more to go (but hopefully three).

Monday, the first day of championship bracket play, the team played inspired and went 2-0, including the best game I have seen them play against the White Rose Stars that knocked them out of the Nationals last year. The struggling to score was stopped with a nice 73-57 victory over a good Stars team. All twelve girls played well. It is good to see them be successful as they are a good group that work and have fun together.

Tuesday, we played the Indiana Blizzard and looked slightly off offensively; however, pulled out another good victory by 7 points to move on to the "elite 8".

The highlight of the last two days for the girls was the scary movie on Monday night and the bowling escapade tonight. As I said, the team definitely has lots of fun together on and off the court.

On to the next few days...

AAU 12U D-II Nationals 2008 (Day 3)

Bloomington IN is about 185 miles from Centerville OH and has been a pretty cool place to visit so far...

Given the 11U team did not attend a Nationals this year, Naddiyah was ecstatic to get the opportunity to join the Dayton Lady Hoopstars 12U White team at the D-II championships in Bloomington. It has been a great nationals already and we are not even into the bracket play yet. What makes it so great is the closeness of the girls and the parents on the team.

We came up on the 4th of July (Happy Fourth!!!) and found a way to enjoy the night despite a lack luster opening ceremonies. The cool thing was that the girls were given t-shirts, bags, and traded for other memorabilia on the first night. I don't remember all that at Disney, but maybe I just wasn't taking in each moment as I was this year.

Oh yeah, we are here for basketball. The pool play was up and down. We played the first two games in a shooting slump (I mean bad -- even on layups and free throws), but still found a way to split 1-1. Then at the 6:00p game today, the girls put together a pretty good win that should boost their confidence going into the championship brackets. All the girls seemed to be firing on all cylinders and Naddiyah even got to a play a fair amount which was cool for her as she really enjoys playing with these girls. They are a great group. I am glad this last game was so successful as I think they were mentally beaten in middle game.

Anyway, back to Bloomington. We went to Lake Lemon yesterday, which was very fun. Afterwards, we enjoyed the night some more in the cozy area behind the Quality Inn we are staying at. Speaking of which, we ended up in the Presidential Suite thanks to Zayannab's wisdom (a lot of years put into...ok I'll stop there), which isn't as big of a deal as it sounds in a small hotel; however, it is very nice. We have a jacuzzi in the master bedroom and our own TV, so we actually feel like we are on vacation.

Well, I will have to keep you all posted, but the girls are on their way.

Peace.

Belated Father's Day 2008

With basketball as busy as it was, I opted on Father's Day to take a rain check on my present and gave the boy's a promise that we would have a boy's day out on the same day. It has been a few weeks, but the day of total male domination was here (I would make jokes, but this is a family site, so move on and stop thinking about it).

I begun the day by going off to Hausfeld's to get my full body massage. YEAH! Happy Father's day to me... When I arrived, they were not open yet, so I relaxed watching sports and car shows at Buffalo Wild Wings while eating some delicious nachos. YEAH! Happy Father's day to me... The massage time came and went and was thoroughly awesome. YEAH! Happy Father's day to me...

Following this total indulgence, the boys and I headed off to LaserWeb Tag where we played basketball, soccer bowling, air hockey, dance dance revolution (I watched that one), motor bike racing, pin ball...oh yeah, and laser tag. YEAH! Happy Father's day to us...

That was a lot for three adventurous men to handle on an empty stomach, so we were off to the infamous Flying Pizza and enjoyed delicious New York style pizza and ice cream (I watched that one).

To ensure that we properly burn off all those excess calories, we then ventured over to the Adventure Golf and played 36 holes of amazingly pathetic putt-putt golf. We probably shot double the par course, but it was lots of fun. We took turns completing each hole and we all have some pretty shameful stories of having to take the maximum 6 strokes and moving on. The highlight was probably the two hole in ones by Kevin Jr. on the harder "blue" course which we did shoot pretty well after warming up with an impressive +25 on the "red" course.

We came, we saw, we had fun... YEAH! Happy Father's day to us...

But just to make sure we had the most fun ever, we went back over to LaserWeb Tag for one more round of video games and laser tag. This time, we were alone in the laser tag game so we played the boys versus dad and, in true positive parenting fashion, I annihilated them. We had so much fun in that session, that we forgot all about the game tokens we still had left when they called us in for laser tag session and went home.

Regrouping, bringing along the younger KCs, we ventured back for some more ice cream and one last round of video mania which featured An and Kevin Jr. on dance dance revolution (again I watched that one) and Kyler kicking some soccer ball with fury.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. YEAH! Happy Father's day to me...

Pinkedy Pink Moment

This was a brief interruption of your blah blah day for a little bit of color in your life. If you don't see a lot of color in this picture, then consider yourself pinkedy pinkified!

Visit To The Land of the Frogs

Worked from home today, so I could attend Kaleb's end of year pizza party at lunch time. It was pretty cool. There classroom theme is all about frogs. There were frog pictures, stuffed animals, sayings, stickers, books, ribbit -- oh sorry -- everywhere.



We are NOT sure if the third grade is ready for Kaleb, but he is ready for the third grade. He is gunho for book club, cub scout day camp, and lots of summer fun on the way to graduating from being a tadpole.

Thanks, son.

Love you.

Donuts And Dads

Centerville Primary Village South did a pretty cool celebration for the end of An's Kindergarten year: Donuts And Dads. It was awesome! An was so excited for me to be at her school in the week before hand that she had her outfit all picked out that she changed to an even fancier dress like ensemble in Centerville black and gold spirit.



First there was boredom...



Then there was singing...




Then the hugging started...

Ah, the donuts...I do miss them so.

Thanks, Kaity bear, it was lots of fun and daddy loves you.

New Musical Sensation

Kevin, Jr. at his chorus group's performance at Dayton Dragon's game.

He was so excited and they actually sounded really good singing the national anthem. The Dragons didn't do too well that day, but it was all worth it for the Centerville parents who were in attendance as the kids rocked the house.

The entire Cross clan enjoyed it as they had all sorts of over priced junk from the ball park including the very popular dippin' dots which I have to admit guilt on having myself. Again, money well spent. :)

So lookout world, the musical stylings of Kevin Christopher Cross, Jr. will coming to a stage near you very soon...be afraid...be very afraid!

Love Life - A Poet's Reflection

It is amazing what the laughter of your kids can do to your own happiness. For too long my focus was to work and work, thinking that was what I could provide to best serve those I love. However, as I slowly learn how to take the time to love the little moments with my life, my family, I find that those little moments are the most precious.

Just having Kyler in my hands for a few minutes or talking with An about dancing or simply hugging the boys when I come in the house.

Seeing Kailyn smiling and being care free warms my heart. She will make a difference some day if she is even only a half as beautiful a person as her mother is.

I have realized I need to progress towards these words...

Patience. I need to gain more to not rush past what matters by losing perspective and not giving those I love the chance to be happy.

Relaxation. The tension of all my worries need to be washed away by the joys that I have been and continue to be blessed with.

Ask. Communicate with those I love to find out how I can help. Tell others when I need help instead of stressing the solitude of all life's burdens.

Yield. Take more time to enjoy what little time I have to love what little time we have.

And in my praise, I hope to come closer to the image of what God intended for me to be. If only I didn't waste so much time worrying, I could be that much more along my journey.

After all, it is the journey that makes us happy and not the destination.

Keep loving life.

Peace.

Thanksgiving 2007

Happy thanksgiving, all.

I hope all enjoyed the holidays and the joys of "Black Friday" if you are an avid shopper like Zay. I think everyone had a great time at Thanksgiving dinner here in OH, except myself who was home sick and in-bed.

At least it gave my knee some time to heal.

Anyway, this one won't be long. Just wanted to get back to keeping in touch...

Peace.

Ramadhan Kareem

Well Ramadhan is here again.

Hopefully it is going well for all. I had my first experience taking a certification exam yesterday after getting not much sleep Tuesday and Wednesday and then having fasted all morning before the 12p test. It was rough, but proved that the fast helps keep focus and you can do more things if you put your spirit into it.

I can now say that I am a Sun Certified Java Programmer and I will use the weaknesses reported to me in results to better myself this Ramadhan and hopefully following this month try for the assignment towards becoming a Certified Java Developer which is the next step up.

Anyway, the point is the fast is here and wish all peace on their journeys to the Eid.

Salaam

Graduation 2007

On Friday, June 22nd, 2007, we set out on a mission to drive the arduous journey from Centerville OH to Masonville NY. After diving through Columbus OH, we detoured in Burbank OH, but we pressed on filled with the nutritious goodness that is McDonald's.

Onward we drove through Erie PA and Jamestown NY until we reach Alleghany where we found - pause for dramatic effect - PIZZA! Never mind the town fair with super cool carousel rides in the background; we were there strictly for resting but still we managed to acquire a black spiderman doll through the hard work of the kids who strained themselves to look ultra cute and saying "oh cool" as the teen who won it at the fair passed by us enjoying, PIZZA.

Alas there was more travel to be done that day, so off we went through Elmira NY and then down to Bainbridge as we drove towards the very familiar blinking red light followed by the unforgettable winding hill. And so we pressed on until we came to the final resting place before our ultimate goal: Umi and Nana's house.

It was a gruelling task, but we were there in Masonville NY awaiting the right moment to go out for out intended purpose in Sidney NY. NO NOT PIZZA. The GRADUATION of Awliya and Atiya and the enormous class of 50+ Sidney seniors on Saturday, June 23rd, 2007 @ 10:15am.

It made us all proud to watch these two walk down the aisles towards a ceremony that represented all the hard work they put forth over 13 years of education. To celebrate, we proceeded from the illustrious bus garage in Sidney back to the land where we played and ate and enjoyed family.

Though the road was treacherous and filled with locations like Oneonta and Guilford which we visited on Sunday, it was well worth the drive and we even brought back two mementos for the summer: the twins...but that is another story for another day.

Until then, keep loving life...

Peace.

Name Suggestions

In case you don't know...baby number five (yep, count 'em - 5) is on the way. We have a name we really love, but not sure if we are definitely going with it yet. It is a BOY, by the way...Figured might be nice if we played let's name that kid as a family (even though Z and I are going to name him what we want and totally disregard everyone else, it is still fun to pretend - lol :)).

Let's see what fun names we can come up with. Post as comments.

Happy Birthday Kaleb-Ali

Kaleb-Ali celebrates his 6th birthday today. Ali is doing well and was up at 12:01 to get his birthday wishes and open his first gives...thank you "Big Nana". He really grew up this year from half-day Kindergarten to Washington Township Recreation Center basketball to now full-day Kindergarten. He keeps busy and is a big boy these days. Just ask his brother who is in constant competition to try and weight as much as his "little" brother.

That's right, you heard me correctly, Ali is bigger than Kevin. And fast too! He is gonna be a line backer or a power forward or a sprinter like his...ok, I'll stop living in the past.

Anyway, this is Ali's big day, so remember to wish him a happy day and bring some more joy to his life.

Love always,
The Blog Management :)