Winning Counties!!!!!..3-6,6-0,6-3

My son won Counties yesterday!!!! He plays #1 singles for his HS Tennis team. He has since he was a freshman. He's now a sophmore.

The boy he played took 2 matches off him.With the 2nd match they had split sets , were 4-all, (meaning they were tied -for you non-tennis bloggers), and Serge had to retire due to a horribly cramping hand, the same hand that cramped that had lost him the 1st match with this opponent.

A match or 2 before that one, he won a thrilling 3 setter w/another school, but had fallen on his arm, injuring it. That's when he then played this opponent, losing w/his cramped hand from the injury. Then the 2nd time he played him it cramped so badly that he couldn't hold his racket, and had to retire. He felt so badly.

The opponent's coach kept cheering my son's faults/errors. This is a big NO-NO in tennis etiquette. She was loud and constant. I had complained to the coaches at the 1st match. Then at the 2nd match, Serge had had enough and complained to a teammate of the opponent who was doing the same thing at that match. The coach was right there and did the same cheering along with her student! So the coach 'corrected' her student, with a faulter in her words. "Yeah, that's not really the, uh, right thing to do, uh..."

So at this final match for the counties in boys singles, the coach was not too voiced thank goodness. And guess who the boy's coach was? HIS MOTHER!!!! So unprofessional. My son grew up with tennis, and is very self contained on the tennis court, unlike other players who show a great deal of frustration, like McEnroe used to do. That's why Mac got fined all the time.

So when Serge won, it was a very sweet victory. He dedicated it to his Dad, who passed away last year. His dad, my hubby, was a tennis pro his whole adult life. He was not a bad player himself, having been ranked internationally once, and ranked nationally, #1 in his age bracket in the Mid-Atlantic in the past ,.....He's surely smiling down from heaven.

It was really great to have Ken's good friend, Jeff , there supporting Serge. Jeff is the Tennis Director at the club where hubby taught. Hubby was Director of Junior Tennis. The program run at the club is a superb one in the area.

Next week Regionals!

Greenfest in the Park

Greenfest show in the Park ,and more...





"The right side of the brain is the more creative part and therefore shows us things we may not see when we try to look at things logically."

"When we laugh through our tears , we are being given a powerful gift."

"Proverbs 17:22 tells us "A Merry heart doeth good like medicine."

"If you had chickens you wouldn't go around picking up their droppings, you would pick up the eggs -Right?"

(The Healing Power of Humor, by Allen Klein)

My wonderful friend Patty, who I've known since the mid nineties, and who I met through an article that I wrote in DOLL WORLD Magazine on the Russian-American connection with dolls, also lost her husband last year.

She just sent me 2 "book reports" totaling 18 pages of humor , positive reinforcement thoughts, and words of inspiration that she wrote from 2 books that she recently read.

I am glad that you were born, my dear friend Patricia. Her husband called her Patricia, friends call her Pat or Patti, and very good friends call her Patty with a "y". I remember the day that she wrote me and told me I could call her Patty with a "y". She makes me laugh every time I talk with her! She called me last week and left a message,"Do you know where your friend is? Call me!"

I'm from NY and she's from Staten Island. She contacted me when she read that article that I wrote. I was pregnant with my youngest who is now 15. We have been friends ever since. We had a doll club with some other women. We felted wool in my driveway with my car. We made totally different dolls, but had the same love of creating.

She now has gone back to painting watercolors, and has been getting into collage with the painting. Since I have known her, her house has always been gorgeous, with flowers asplash inside and out. She is highly focused and prolific , no matter what she does. She cannot stop creating. She joins guilds, gets her paintings into hospitals and galleries, she teaches, and she also used to teach belly dancing years ago when raising her 2 boys. She's grandmother to gorgeous and smart grandchildren, and is one of the most giving and 'generous of soul' individuals that I know. She has a love for happiness in her heart that goes beyond the average person.

The 2 things that stand out to me more than anything are her flowers and her humor. She brings flowers with her wherever she goes, whether it be in a garden bed that surrounds the entire house, her paintings,(she even painted my family in flowers when Ken died), the fresh flowers upon her dining room table, or the flowers in her heart that burst open with laughter, even in the darkest hours. And of the latter, she is no novice.

So, I celebrate my dear friend Patty with a "y", and I am ever so blessed to call her my friend. I am so thankful that she was born, as she never lets me forget that about me. Ever.

Love youPatty. xoxoxo

Lydia

PS- The pictures are random and recent: Poppy flower in our garden bed, Alex trying to take a picture with the ever elusive Serge on Easter morning, a Visual Thinking art assignment from a classmate of my daughter's at her university, made out of Saran wrap. It looks to be life size in total-this is just a portion of the piece), an Easter chick, and my nephew Jason's funny Easter poses,(he being a big prankster, another one who can't stop making people laugh).