The Crazy Mixed Up Life of Coach Sam

I know Ive been posting very irregularly the past few weeks. But I just can't seem to get into a routine at the moment. I have too much stuff going on...! The need for an assistant pro is growing ever increasing. At the very least need to hire some help in the tennis shop. And I've got to do that very soon.

I've been praying that the right candidate for an assistant pro would present themselves to me. I think that once Monica and I sell our house in Houston that we will have enough extra income to get an assistant pro started off well, and the position will quickly grow into a full time livelyhood for someone...

We're hoping to sell our house before the summer gets here. Hopefully it will sell much sooner than that. We're going to go to Houston this weekend and work on it a little bit... I've got a good feeling that it won't be on the market much longer....!

Here's a quick update of the Chadwell Family:

• We have been visiting First Baptist Church in West Columbia and think that might become our new church home.
• Connor is doing very well in his tennis. He played his second tournament this past weekend and won his first match but lost the next one in 3 sets.
• Elijah is still the smiley-est baby in the world... He's doing great!
• Monica was very sick last week but she's doing great this week and thank God that no one else got sick...!
• I got a promotion and a raise at my job recently. The tennis program is thriving at Columbia Lakes.
• Monica and I are continuing to lose weight... I've gone from 242 to 224 in a little under two months. We're both very pleased with that!
• Connor had straight 'A's' his last grading period.
• Monica has joined a women's group bible study on Mondays and I'm going to start volunteering with the child care during her study...

There's probably more, but those are the highlights... I'll try to post again before the end of the week!

Coach Sam

Taking a Breath...

Hello... I'm taking a little time this morning to catch up on blogging... I've been running ragged lately. And just can't seem to get caught up on everything. I push things back and reprioritize all the time... Sigh...

My business has grown tremendously this year. I'm very seriously thinking about hiring an assistant pro soon... I'll be keeping my eyes open and praying for the right candidate.

Between running the Houston Pro Tennis Association, Managing the Columbia Lakes Tennis Center, and keeping up with my lessons programs in the Clear Lake area, I'm always attending to some deadline or following up with someone. And I'm trying to carve out some quality family time in my schedule, too.... Coach Sam's work is never done.

My routine of getting up early and blogging was disrupted last week by getting the Bay Oaks Junior Gran Prix tournament ready for publication. -I'm helping with that tournament this weekend too, serving as the Referee. And we're supposed to get a lot of rain on Saturday. That will make it difficult. Oh well.... We'll deal with it...

On a quick side note: This morning I was reading a commentary by George Barna and he reviewed Anne Rice's latest book: Out of Africa. It is the life story of Jesus. That's right, Jesus. Apparently the noted author of the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches has 'rediscovered' her faith and has rededicated the rest of her life to writing about Jesus. That's pretty cool, isn't it...? here's a link to George's commentary: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Review&ReviewID=17

I'll be writing some more about this topic in my online prayer journal later this morning.

Today I have to string a few racquets, and then I have lessons from 3 to 8:30 PM, plus I have babysitting duty since tonight is Monica's Tennis night...!

That's my day... I'd better close here... I'll try to publish some photos soon...



Coach Sam

The Chadwell Family Update

Wow... It's been a good deal of time since I've last posted... Thus entire week I've had double duty with the house and Elijah while Monica's been sick... But praise the Lord Monica's feeling better now and we're sort of resuming a normal routine.... (Except that we're still trying to define 'normal'...)

It's been a great Sunday... We got up early and listened to an awesome sermon from Dr Charles Stanley. Then we went to church here at First Baptist West Columbia and heard another great sermon.

It looks like it will rain all day so we're just hanging at home playing with the baby. I'm grilling some beef tenderloin for lunch and we're just going to enjoy a nice relaxing day here at the house...

Kife has been busy lately. Too Busy...! And I'm very grateful for a slow day. Well, I've got to close for now and finish lunch. More later... Coach Sam

Catching up...!

Hello... It's been an incredibly busy past few days... I have been teaching lessons, taking kids to tournaments, changing diapers, and generally chasing my tail 24 hours a day lately.

Tournament report: Everyone had some good matches, but no one made it too far past the second round. Connor competed very well, but lost in main draw and consolation. Still, it was a very good showing for his first big tournament. He took Sunday off but was back practicing hard yesterday.

Monica's been sick since yesterday. She's feeling terrible. We're going to the doctor later this morning. I'm going to try to get a bunch of things done today here at home in between taking care of Elijah. In fact, Elijah's getting fussy now so I'd better close here.

More later...

Coach Sam

Need an Extra Day...

Sigh... Things are starting to pile up on me... I have work to do here at the house, work to do for HPTA... There's racquets to string.... There's the marketing of my lessons programs, there's helping Monica with the baby... There's returning phone calls and email.... There's trying to carve out some quiet time and just sort things out.

Sigh... I'm away this weekend at a tournament with Connor and my other students. Hopefully I'll be able to get caught up on things over the next 72 hours....

Today I have lessons in Clear Lake all day from 1:30 PM to 8:00 PM.... And I'm proceeding full steam ahead for the next 4 hours before I have to leave at 12 Noon.

Gotta Run... A tennis coaches day is never done...!

Happy Healthy New Year

Here's Monica at a tennis workout this past weekend. My Family has Tennis Fever...! Both Connor and Monica are playing pretty much every day and sometimes twice a day. Both Monica and I are committed to getting in better shape this year and we started more healthy eating habits before the holidays. We've both been exercizing more and are really starting to drop some weight. Plus, Monica's tennis is looking better and better with each passing day. She's going to play some leagues and tournaments this year, and we hope to start playing mixed doubles together more too...!

January 9, 2006:
We're off to a good start this week. First of all, we had a fantastic, relaxing day yesterday enjoying a morning church service, then a nice lunch out and shopping in he afternoon. We concluded the evening with a fun tennis match with some dear friends. I capped off the evening with Monica watching a Dr Stanley sermon we recorded on the tivo. Then, I went to bed about 9:30 PM. Monica stayed up late working in the office and was up most of the night...!

I'm watching the baby for her right now. Elijah and I are watching the Kids Sprout channel. It's pretty good. Elijah loves it. But we're about to go out for a stroll in a few minutes.

Today I have a full day as usual. I'm on court for an hour and a half this morning, then I'm back on this afternoon from 3 to 8:30 PM. In between I'll be marketing for the HPTA and returning email messages. That's it. If I can I'll blog again this evening...

Bye for now... Coach Sam

Mimi and Elijah at Christmas Time...!

Elijah's Great-Grandmother Mimi really enjoyed Elijah's Christmas visit. (yes, I still have a few Christmas photos to publish...)We need to go to Bay City again soon. It's kinda cool when we have both the youngest and the oldest members of our family present in the same room.


January 8, 2006 Yesterday was a good day. I started off with a big Saturday morning drill which had 12 participants. Then I had three more private lessons. Monica came up at the end of my last lesson and we enjoyed a nice stroll with Elijah back home. Later last night I had a tennis social for junior players. There were only a few participants but we had a good time. It's always good to play tennis, eat pizza and hang out with friends...!

Today will be just a family day... No high pressure anything. I may try to get one home improvement project done and Monica might spend a little time in the office catching up, but over all we're going to chill out, try to do some things together as a family, and refresh ourselves. And that's just what Sunday should be about. I'm going to post a bunch of photos on Elijah's Blog , Connor's Blog and my Tennis Photo Blog today so be sure to check them out if you get a chance...

That's it for now... Thanks for reading my journal.... -Coach Sam

Some of My Favorite People

From l to r: Dolfina and Joe Nagle, Dr Earl Brown, My Sweet Wife Monica, and Baby Elijah is hidden in the stroller.

This was a photo taken on December 24 at my Saturday morning drill. It was a little cool and windy but we has a good workout none the less... I told everyon in attendance that they could have an extra piece of pie at Christmas dinner for working out so hard...!

Saturday, January 7 (2006) I can't believe that tyhe first week of 2006 is almost passed. The weather has continued to be unbelievable and I have been on the court 6-8 hours a day for I can't remember how long... All I can say is that business is good....!

I've been busy juggling work and helping with the baby and there's been absolutely no time for anything else. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to cut back on blogging a little until we get some bad weather and my business slows down a bit.

I'll still try to keep up this blog at least every other day, and of course I'll try to remain daily with my prayer journal, but Connor's and Elijah's may drop down to once or twice a week... But when I do publish I'll include lots of photos instead of just one or two.

• We are still looking for a church home and plan to visit a few other churches in the community but we really enjoyed our visit to FBC West Columbia.
• I bought a 12 foot church pew at an anrique store recently to furnish the pro shop. It's an awesome piece of wood work and lookd great in there.
• Monica and I have really changed our eating habits and have both started to lose weight steadily...
• Our Kitties have found a way to get out of our house.. We're not sure but we think they are climbing up the chimney to escape...!
• I'm loving my new schedule of only driving to Clear Lake twice a week now. And our gasoline consumption is way down!
• Elijah just turned five months old on Dec 28... He's doing very well. Just a happy, smiley, healthy baby!
• Connor is doing great in school and had straight 'A's for the semester. He's focused intently on his tennis game and improving every day.

That's the quick update... More later... Coach Sam

Columbia Lakes: I Love this Place...!

Here are a few photos of the lovely area where my wife and I bought a house recently. These are photos of the golf course near the tennis center and the cottages that the property books out for over night guests.

It is peaceful and quiet here... It's a great place to live, work, and raise kids.

This area is just across the street from our house..

Here are some of the cottages surrounded by tall beautiful trees

This is a view of the lagoon that surrounds the tennis and golf facility

This area is just behind the tennis center and the path leads through the cottages to the main club house.

Monica and Elijah are about to walk home after a tennis workout. It's about a 15 minute walk if you take the long way home through the cottages. It's under 10 minutes if you walk along the golf cart path along the fairway.

Family Christmas Photos

I've still got a few Christmas photos to publish, but I'm almost done...! This photo was taken at Mimi's house. Monica, Elijah and I had a quiet Christmas. Connor was gone to visit relatives on his father's side of the family. Monica's relatives were just down for a few weeks right before Thanksgiving so they didn't come down again... And my family... Well... My sis lives n New York... That's a bit of a commute for her. My brothers live close, but I couldn't get them to participate in any family activity.

We did go visit my 91 year old grand mother and she simply adores Elijah so that was a nice visit...!

Well, the new year is here...! I still weigh a little over 230 lbs, but I'm down from my all-time high of 242.2 lbs at the beginning of October. Monica has lost considerable weight, too and is helping us out tremdously by planning and preparing nutritious meals. I really feel that living here at Columbia Lakes is really going to help me lose weight because I am not eating out nearly as much as I once was. And walking to work most days is a little more exercise for my regular routine.

We're still hoping to sell our house in Houston soon. And we're still looking for a local church although we really enjoyed our visit to First Baptist West Columbia yesterday.

I am swamped with business right now... It's been difficult to keep up with everything including helping Monica with the baby and picking up around the house.

All in all it was a nice Christmas and New Year's. (We stayed at home for New Year's)

I think we have started a tradition of snacking on appetisers and hosting a Star Trek marathon for New Year's Eve. (That was really fun and very nice to be able to just hang woth the family for the holiday!)

That's about it... I need to close here... I've got a very busy day today! Talk to you later...

Coach Sam