Last Post For A Few Days

Today I have lessons from 7:30 to 11 AM, then I come home for a few minutes and then head back out on the road for a weekend at John Newcombe's Tennis Ranch. I haven't been to Newk's in a while but I'm pretty sure they don't have high-speed internet in the rooms and I doubt I'll have time to use the computer anyway since I'll be keeping an eye on 20 kids for the next 3 days!

Yesterday was a full and busy day. And I finally got to see Connor play football. He played very well, but his team lost a close game 16-14.

The temperatures are cooling down...! Yea...! That's the best news.

Well, there's a lot more I could write about but I'm out of time... I'll check back sometime on Sunday! Take Care... Bye for now...

A Couple of Notable Announcements

Today marks 27 months of marriage for Monica and I.

And Elijah is celebrating his 2 month Birthday today...!

Back in the Routine

Today is another regular day. I'm taking Connor to school, helping out at the hose as best I can and I need to leave for lessons in West Columbia around 1 or 2 PM today. I've got lots of HPTA work to do, too. Sigh... More when I'm back from Connor's commute to school. SC (6:56 AM)


...Elijah is feeling sick and has been a little under the weather since before the Hurricane. Monica is taking him to the doctor this morning. I'm staying here to straighten the house in case we have some realtors show it today. Then I've got to get ready to leave for Columbia Lakes. It will be a busy full day today.

Last night Monica and I listened to Max Maclean's The Bible on CD. We started in Genesis and got through the first 12 chapters. It was excellent. We're going to make that a new Chadwell Family Routine...!

I'm working on websites right now... I just purchased some new web packages that include e-commerce so people can pay accounts and order online. Pretty 'techy' for a tennis pro from the country, huh...! I'll even be able to stream videos online. I'm looking forward to that...!

Well... I gotta go. Bye for now... Coach Sam (8:56 AM)

Still working on the House

Here's the other half of the Hurricane Rita ping pong match I published a few days ago. We really haven't played ping pong in awhile, maybe after we get a few cool fronts and the temperatures are more pleasant we'll get back in the swing of things.


I spent the entire day yesterday working in the yard, garage, and cleaning out one of my closets. It was a fairly productive day but there's still much for me to do. But I can just stay busy and knock out the little projects one at a time, right...?

Today I'm going to teach lessons this afternoon. I need to step up my lessons program a little. Between taking personal days, being sick, and bad weather I really haven't tught very much this month. But we've still had our regular bills. (sigh)

I have a dentist appointment at 9 AM. I kinda dread that becuae I haven't been to the dentist in years. I'm not having any oral problems but it's only a matter of time if I don't have my teach cleaned regularly.

My lessons today start at 2:30 PM. I'll probably leave from the house around 1 or 1:15 PM. Then I have lessons the rest of the afternoon until 8 PM. How much I get done this morning depends upon how long the dentist takes...

That's about it for my day. I'd like to take some time to just write. I need to pour out some emotion but there's not really time this morning. Perhaps this evening I'll bare my soul. ( a little)

Until next time, thanks for reading my journal...!

Coach Sam

Passing the Time...

Can You believe that Monica and Connor insisted on playing ping-pong on our back patio through out the hurricane...? We lost 17 ping pong balls when they bounced out into the back yard and were caught up in 50 mile an hour gusts of wind and were wisked away....

OK... I'm kidding... We didn't play ping pong... This is an older photo taken about 4 months ago... I just thought everyone would like to read something a little lite and kinda off the wall for a change of pace.

We're doing fine here in North Houston. We have had some severe wind, but so far no power loss. There are a lot of limbs blown and pine needles everywhere... Flooding in my neighborhood has not been an issue. We can't find our digital camera or I would publish some storm photos but there's really not much of a storm story here... Thank God...! And Thanks to everyone for all the prayers and well-wishes...! More later... Coach Sam

We're As Ready As We Can Be...

We've picked up our yard... Boarded our windows... We have about 25 gallons of drinking water and about 40 gallons of tap water that we could drink if we had to... We have enough food to last a couple of weeks...

We've got plenty of baby supplies... We've got candles, matches... Our house is located one of the highest points in the neighborhood. And right at this moment it doesn't look like we'll have to face the brunt of the storm...

We've misplaced our digital camera so I can't publish any current photos... More information later...

Bye for now.

We Didn't Make It Out...!

We left at about 5 AM Thursday and after 12 hours on the road we had only made it 44.5 miles away from our house. We never even made it as far north as Kingwood. Because of our slow progress we turned East along FM 1960 and planned to make our way up the back roads figuring traffic would be moving better and there would be more access to gasoline. Those turned out to be a wrong assumptions.

With only a half a tank of gas left and reports of no gas anywhere, coupled with the fact that we were only averaging about 1 mile or less an hour, and the fact that the storm had changed direction and was now headed straight toward our position, I made the decision to turn around and head back home. We drove much of the 12 hour trip without the air conditioner because when we ran the A/C the car started to over-heat, and we wanted to conserve our gasoline usage as well.

Given the circumstance and my choices I'd much rather face down the storm from my brick home in Northwest Houston than from the side of the road somewhere in the country in our Jeep Cherokee.

I must say that Elijah, Connor and Monica handled the situation quite well. In fact, through it all Elijah was particularly well behaved...! Everyone was a little scared not knowing what was going to happen. We did a lot of praying as a family.

We have been watching the news this morning and observed hundreds of stranded motorists. I just could not allow that to happen to my family. I know now that I made the correct decision to return home. So now we're preparing to hunker down here at home. Perhaps before all this is over we'll have an opportunity to reach out and help someone less fortunate than us. We'll see. Until then we'll be planning to weather the storm here on Arncliffe Drive.

I've had many email messages from my friends and family all over the country in the past 24 hours. All I can say is thank you all for the well-wishes and prayers...

I'll try to post again this afternoon...

More later... Bye for now.

Coach Sam

Coach Sam's Hurricane Evacuation

At first I was planning to stay here in Houston. After all, I live in Northwest Houston. Only those people living on the coast were supposed to really get hammered... I'm a good 60+ miles from the coast. But look at the size of that Monster...! It's one of the biggest ever recorded...!

My neighborhood does flood toward the back of the sub-division but we're near the front and our house sits on the highest point in the neighborhood and has never flooded. (So says my neighbor who has lived next door since our house was built.)

As the weather reports grew more intense this morning Monica started getting a little nervous and I must say that I've never been in a hurricane this big before so I don't know exactly what to expect. Therefore we boarded up our windows on the south side of the house and have packed up and we're heading out of town early in the morning. I mean early. Maybe 3 or 4 AM... But certainly no later than 6 AM...

If we didn't have kids I'd almost be willing to stick it out here and see what happens, but I don't want to jeopardize Connor or Elijah's safety. And there's no way We could make Elijah put up with no air conditioning and the possibility of loss of electricity for some period of time is almost certain...!

My brothers are staying in the Bay City area to weather the storm. I think they are absolutely nuts...!

Oh well... By the way... We're headed to Arkansas to visit Monica's Aunt and Uncle. That's a long trip with a baby and a 13 year old. We may take two days to get there... Stay there a day and then head back. I don't know... We'll see.

The next 48 to 72 hours should be very interesting... My next blog entry will be on the road to Arkansas. Bye for now...

Coach Sam

Long Busy Day

Someone recently questioned as to what ever happened to our Cookie Jar that scared Peepers...? It's still on the kitchen table. And Peepers seems to be okay with everything now...

Oh Boy... Have I got a full and busy day today. I've been up off and on since 4 AM blogging and watching Tropical Storm Rita updates... It looks like we might be in for some bad weather this weekend... That stinks...

Toady I have to take Connor to school, Stop by Home Depot for some supplies, Go to a dentist appointment, then I have lessons all afternoon and evening, then I get to come home and work on the house a bit and try to take care of some HPTA business, too.

There will be no free or spare time for a long, long time...

Poor Monica is just as busy. And she's got the unpredictability of baby Elijah on top of all that...

Expect short, quick posts for awhile...

Bye for now...

Coach Sam

The Kitties...!

Hobbes is hiding from Gabriel in a paper shopping bag in this photo

Peepers is enjoying her second favorite past time: sleeping...! (Eating is of course her number one past time...)

What's up Today...

Today we're working on some home improvement rennovations because we hope to sell our house soon. We put down a contract on a home in Columbia Lakes yesterday.... In 30 days or so I could kiss my commuting days good bye...!

Lessons went well yesterday. It was a good day. More later...

Coach Sam

Some Football Photos

Here are some much anticipated football photos from a game a couple of weeks ago. I haven't been able to see any of Connor's games yet because I've been teaching a session of tennis lessons on Thursday evening in League City the past six weeks but we just finished that session and I'm taking next week off to go see Connor Play. I'm pumped and excited...

Monica took these photos I've posted below. I'll get more next week including some close ups of Connor in his Uniform...! Stay tuned...

Here's Connor during a time out on the field. Connor is number 63...!

Connor normally plays the tackle or guard position. And he's worked his way onto the 1st string of starters although he's shown here on the sidelines...

Here's Connor and his team as the coach leads them in a prayer before a game.

These are the Warrior Cheerleaders. The one on the far right in the back row is named Courtney and she used to take tennis lessons from me when I worked at Lost Forest Racquet Club.

Ladies Room Stalker

I took this photo last weekend at Columbia Lakes Country Club when my classes were getting rained out. I didn't know how to tell the gender of this bug. It looks kinda like a preying mantis, but it's not. We used to call them Walking Sticks when I was a kid. I haven't seen one in a long time. You Know, That's one of the things I like about Columbia Lakes... There's a whole lot more nature here than inside the city limits of Houston...!

Today I'm teaching in Nassau Bay all morning... Then I have a break, and then a few hours this afternoon in Clear Lake. I'll try to post some more and catch up this afternoon!

Bye for now...

Coach Sam

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

Fred Koenig of Columbia Lakes proudly displays his catch of the day. He caught it just behind the baseline on court 9 last Saturday when it rained the entire morning... Fishing was about the only activity you could participate in on Sept 10...! All tennis classes were rained out last weekend...

Instead of raining cats and dogs... It was raining catfish and dogs last Saturday when Fred Koenig caught this trophy catfish. He caught it in the lagoons around the property. I was joking when I said he caught it on court 9....

Besides fishing, Fred enjoys tennis and He's also an avid performing musician...!

Tennis Shop Still Under Construction...!

I've been working on this tennis shop building for the better part of this year and I'm finally nearing completion on many projects.


The Club Maintenance Department has repaired the bad parts of the ceiling and the roof no longer leaks. A new air conditioning unit was recently installed. The only thing left to do with the ceiling is a little texturing. I'll probably do that myself.

I've been painting the interior office. That project is almost completed. I still need to strip the concrete floor and stain it. It has a lot of glue on it that I need to remove before I can begin applying stain.

The main body of the shop is messy and cluttered right now, but next week I'll be straightening up. My next big project is to disassemble the big green counter and haul it out of there. This is going to open up the shop tremendously and allow me plenty of room to merchandise and spread out for different functions and events.

I want to make the shop more cozy and friendly. I want it to be a place where people will come to relax and hang out...!

I'm quite anxious to get my tennis shop up and running. Next week I'm going to really make an impact and spend a concentrated amount of time completing some of these projects. My next big event is October 22-23 and I've got to be done by then...!

My Stepson Connor

Connor is doing great in school. His grades are great. He's playing football. Their team won last night and Monica took some photos that I'll try to publish later on. All the US Open lately has got Connor fired up to play tennis again. He hasn't really played any in the past month. That's actually good for him. I always want to hear that he wants to play tennis. Never that he's tired of playing or bored with it.

In this photo he's wearing his Wilson Tennis Back Pack that he converted to a book bag for school. Sadly, it recently exploded under the strain of carrying Connor's books. It was really designed to carry racquest and clothes, any way...

We replaced it with a back pack that also converts into a travel trailer. I'm not kidding. It's a back pack on wheels. Wow... they didn't have that kind of technology when I was a kid...

Today I have lessons all morning in Clear Lake. Then I go to Houston for an HPTA meeting. After that the afternoon is mine to sleep away... And sleep I will... I'm running on little rest these past few days. But I'll get caught up. I'm happy. Things are going well.

Well, that's it for now. I need to get to work on my HPTA meeting later this morning.

Bye for now...

Coach Sam

Hot Air Balloons in Nassau Bay

A few weeks ago the Clear Lake area celebrated the Balunar fest... My Friday morning classes were treated to many balloons practicing lift off and descent techniques. It was a beautiful morning for tennis and hot air balloons.

Today I have lots of lessons. And I still have quite a bit of email correspondence to tend to...

I was going to go for my morning walk this morning but I may skip it to come home and work...

I'm having a terrible time getting Connor up for school this morning. It's 6:43 AM and I've had to go into his room 3 times now. We need to leave at 7 AM... Oh I just finally heard stirring down the hallway. Good. Hmmm.... Well I'd better close here so I can get ready to get on the road as well...

More later... Bye for now.

Coach Sam

Rough Day for Peepers

Here's a photo of our kitty cat cookie jar...!

This Cookie Jar was a present from my sister last Christmas. We recently placed it on the kitchen table during Becky's last visit. After we put it on the table Peepers was a little wary of getting on the table. We figured that she thought it was another cat or something.

Well, one evening at dinner Connor finished his meal first and asked if he could have a cookie for dessert. Up to this point Peepers had been sitting in a chair at the table watching Connor's every move.

When Connor pulled the head off the cookie Jar and stuck his hand down the cat's neck to retrieve a cookie it really spooked Peepers. You should have seen the look of shock that registered on her face...! I do think she was a bit traumatized a bit by the whole affair. She certainly hasn't been hanging out at the dinner table much since then...!

Connor and Peepers

Connor and Peepers. Labor Day Weekend 2005

Labor Day Weekend

I'm taking an easy day today... I'm Watching the US Open and blogging. Earlier today I grilled some burgers. Now I'm just chilling out. I haven't really taken time to relax in weeks...

And I've been particularly busy the past few days. The Baby has taken up any extra time I might have had... Elijah has not been sleeping for very long periods of time lately. As a result, Monica has been up a bunch, and I'm trying as much as I can to help her get some rest every now and then. But now I'm so sleep deprived myself that I have not been able to get up early in the morning and blog for over a week. Maybe I can get caught up today...!

tomorrow is Labor Day and boy am I going to Labor. I'm not giving lessons, but I'm going to work here around the house. We're going to try to take the next two weekends and fix our house up to put up for sale. We're trying to move down to Columbia Lakes or Clear Lake as soon as possible... Hopefully before Gasoline reaches $14 a gallon...!

Any way... That's about it for now... More later...

Sam

Oh that Peepers...

Peepers has climbed into a plastic bag in this photo. We never know where we'll find her. She's a very funny cat... And that reminds me, I'm supposed to tell a funny story about Peepers today. If you'll bear with me, I'm going to wait and tell that story tomorrow.