What we are up to......

I have been playing catch up on the blog and thought I could do one post that brings us current to what the Zyrieks are up to these days now that we are winding down summer officially with Labor Day just around the corner.

Gary - Gary is training his heart and legs out for the 24- hour St. Jude ride.  It is September 21st-22nd and he is very prepared and ready for his solo effort. His goal is to ride 325 miles and raise $3,250! If you would like to donate, here is his fundraising page.  Gary has been so dedicated to this training and I am very proud of all that he has accomplished. The girls and I are excited about watching him in a few weeks.

Lisa - I am deep in the Memphis Runners Road Race Series preparing ultimately for the St. Jude Half Marathon in early December. So far we have done the 2 5k's, 2 5-milers and the first 10-k is just around the corner on September 9th. I have made progress in my times and was excited to see 9:01/mile paces for the 5k's. I was slower for the 5-milers but feel that I am improving and my endurance is becoming longer. I have a hard time really pushing myself and am working on not only becoming stronger physically, but mentally as well. I am starting a bible study in September on Lysa TerKeurst's newest book, "Unglued". I am looking forward to this fellowship and exploring how to make progress in this area.

Anna- Anna is training for the Memphis Thunder Kids Triathlon which is September 23rd. Looks like we will have a busy weekend with Gary's ride and the triathlon and a race for me as well. She has really been working on her bike and run and I know that she will have improved over last year. She is playing soccer for Harding this fall on the 3rd/4th grade girls team. She is doing well in school and is adjusting the increased number of tests to study for and books to read. She is a smart girl and does well in school.....just need to stay motivated.

Caroline - Caroline decided to take a break from soccer this fall. Of course once she heard a few friends were playing she started having second thoughts. She stayed put and said she wants to try basketball in the winter and soccer in the spring. She is taking a drama class after school again like she did in the spring. She is adjusting well to kindergarten and loves to be the class reporter each night telling us exactly what happened during the day. She will be 6 in September and reminds us of that daily! We will have her birthday party in October after fall break since it falls on the weekend of Gary's ride and fall break starts the following weekend. She is still deciding on the oh-so perfect place.

We are adjusting to the school season. We all seem to be tired but who would not be between our work, school and training. Gary and I have tried to be purposeful in what we place on our calendars and are reminded in the sermon series currently at church on living a sane life and not in insanity. We are mindful that we don't have to say  yes to everything and that our time with the girls is more important than some other things that may pop up for us to commit to. We are not perfect and often over-extend ourselves and collapse at the end of the day, but are working on it!

Fantasy Football, year 3

The time has come for Fantasy Football to start.....I am always hopeful at the beginning of a new season. The draft is fun, until rounds 12-14 when you don't even recognize the players names anymore and you find yourself just picking someone because their name is cool. This year's draft took place on Saturday night at Jamie's house. We were going high-tech with our draft selections immediately input into the league website. We still had our cool draft board where we place the stickers representing the players we have chosen. I was LUCKY (insert sarcasm) to be #11 out 12 players in the draft order. We do a snake order so that means I get 2 selections right together. This then leaves me plenty of time to chat, show Rachel photos from Facebook and kid the other girls about their selections.

I drafted a pretty good team. I chose RGIII as my QB which was a risk because he is a rookie, but I knew based on the lack of talent on the Redskins team, he would start. He had a good pre-season and I was hopeful he would have a great rookie season, like another Heisman trophy winner I know that had an awesome first year (Cam Newton!).

Had a great time with the girls in our league and teasing everyone about their selections. Hopefully I will fare well. I placed 1st and 2nd in the past two seasons. Not hoping for 3rd this year, but rather a rebound back to 1st.

my team...for now....until i start trading and moving folks around!

the ladies in the league....great fun!!

Super Hero Day

In conjunction with the fundraisers at school, the girls dressed up for Super Hero day on Friday to promote being a "super fundraiser" for Harding. The girls of course jump at any chance at being out of uniform at school. Caroline wanted to go all out and she ended up being Batgirl. Party City did not even have their costumes out yet and the stockperson was less than thrilled at all the Harding moms coming in asking to bring out selections from the stock room. Anna, being the 4th grader that she is, was unsure about going all out in costume, so she settled for a super man cape. She liked it and felt good about her choice. Both girls had a great time at school and the kids in both classes really participated, especially the boys who all seem to have a spiderman, batman or superman costume readily available. I guess if it was princess day, that would be easy for all the girls!

bat girl and super anna ready to go!

caroline was in love with this outfit...wore it all day long at school!

Welcome to the family, Ruthie!

Gary and I have a new neice and my girls are thrilled to have a new cousin in town. Ruthie was born on August 8th in Montana weighing 8lbs 13 oz. Blair and Kim arrived in Montana the next evening and were thrilled to meet their new daughter Friday morning. Blair and Kim were linked with the birth mom through a friend in Montana and were excited about the opportunity to adopt a daughter and bring her home to join their family. Blair was able to fly home on the following Wednesday after a brief court hearing granting custodial rights to Blair and Kim and Kim returned the following day to Memphis after the courts agreed to let Ruthie leave the state. The adoption process will not be final for another 6 months as they work through everything between the two states. Ruthie's big brothers seem excited as well to welcome a new member to the Perry family!

anna was first to hold sweet ruthie!

caroline thought she was adorable!

24 hour ride = new bike

Gary has been training for the 24 hour St. Jude bike ride that is being held in downtown Memphis on September 21st-22nd since early July. He did this event last year as a relay team and really was excited about the chance to ride solo and potentially win the event. He has had it on his mind ever since last fall. He has been agonizing over his current bike for a while and finally got a proper bike fit. Turns out his bike was 2 sizes too small and causing him all sorts of pain. The bike shop, of course, promptly started searching for a replacement bicycle for him. He found a great choice at a good (not so good to those of us that just run for exercise and have very little costs involved!!) price and it was ordered. It was shipping from Spain, so it could take a while but Gary was hoping to have it around the beginning of August. When we left for the beach it still had not shipped from Spain, so he was getting very anxious. Luckily it arrived, he was fit on it the next day and was riding it by the weekend. He really loves it and it is so much more comfortable than his previous bike. His 8-9 hour long rides have suddenly become more bearable for him. With his training peaking, he is enjoying the new bike a lot and breaking it in very quickly! Will return with a full report from the ride after the event!

Zyriek Family Olympics recap

We had a great time watching the Olympics and tracking our events to see who was going to come out on top in the Zyriek Family Olympics. We have learned some lessons on our rookie venture into family games. First, we need to pick more swimming events! USA does very well in swimming and you were almost guaranteed a medal each and every time they swam. Second, make sure the girls have some "gimmies" for their events. This time they had a few and it really mattered in the end with the scores ending up so close. Third, don't bank on Men's gymnastics!! We did well with women's but the men's events were terribles and losers for whomever had those events. Finally, figure out what events Auburn athletes are going to be in and make sure plenty of them are represented.

It was fun to keep score....somedays not so fun (when Caroline was losing or the end result was that no one medaled!) and in the end Anna was our winner edging out the rest of us. Her pick for a fun family night out is to return to Sky Zone the trampoline park for a night together. Caroline was in second place and her idea was Chuck E. Cheese. Good thing Anna won!!!

Bring on the winter Olympics!!

First day of kindergarten

Caroline started senior kindergarten today and she was so excited. At Harding they phase in the junior and senior kindergarten students over 3 days to give the students and the teachers a chance to get to know each other with fewer students in the class. With our Z last name we always end up with the last phase in day. That works well for us because once the girls start going they just keep on going. Caroline got to hang out at home and with a friend on Monday and Tuesday and so Wednesday was get down to business. She was excited and thrilled to have several friends with her on phase in day. She was excited to see Miss Claire but shy as well. She had a great first day and got a great first day report. Caroline is most excited about having homework a few days a week so she can be like her big sister. We will see how long it takes the excitement concerning homework to wear off! Looking forward to a great year in Sr. K!

the happy kindergartener!

so proud of caroline!

caroline with miss claire

ready to start her first day!

 

great first day for caroline!

First day of 4th grade!!

Anna starts 4th grade this year and I cannot believe how grown up she is becoming. At her school the 4th graders are on a different hallway from 1st-3rd graders, so she is the youngest on her hall. We went to Meet the Teacher on Friday night to meet Mrs. Reasons and see who was in her class. Slight debacle with the teacher assignment letters this year, but luckily I called the school and found out her teacher plus a few friends, so she was good to go. She was super shy on Friday night but hopefully that will change once she is in the classroom. First day of school was a good morning. She got right up and got dressed and was ready to go very early. We dropped off Caroline with my mom for the day since she does not start until Wednesday. Much to Anna's horror, we followed her to her classroom, had her pose for pictures with the principal (so glad to have Mrs. Stafford leading the school this year!!) and her teacher. She did not have much to unload and was ready to go. She is really growing up fast!!

ready to start 4th grade!

she is getting so grown up!

anna with mrs. stafford, the principal

anna with mrs. reasons

Art & Soul

Finally got around to using my 2 for 1 groupon at Art and Soul.....about 3 days before it expired with Lauren. We were in the "Going to the Chapel" class and it was a lot of fun. This one was not as difficult as the Cross that I painted last time, but still a lot of different steps. Pretty proud of my effort....don't look too close up and best to squint when you view in person!!

lauren's first paint night...she did so well!!

my finished product

fun night catching up with great paintings to take home!

The Beach!!!

By far what our family looks forward to the most every year is our annual trip to the beach. Gary longs to return to where he grew up and the girls love to be there and play and swim and enjoy the waves. I long to have some time off work, relax, sleep in and have fun away from home. This trip did not disappoint anyone. We had a great time. The weather cooperated every day except Monday afternoon. We took that opportunity to head into Foley and shop and see a movie and by then the rain had moved out so we enjoyed some time at the Track with mini golf and go-karts. It was nice to not have a schedule, get ice cream at the on-site ice cream parlor each night, sleep in, enjoy the Olympics as a family and have very few things to think about. Great trip!!

first day at the beach and caroline is ready!

my big girls!

relaxing and enjoying the waves

my athletic family

the zyriek girls

some pool time in the afternoon

thanks to gary's cousin ned for a ride on the boat on sunday morning

searching for shells and fish with those goggles on

our family...need to crop it, but looks good!

this is why we went shopping and to the movies!!