The House at Columbia Lakes

Here's a photo of our house at Columbia Lakes. As of today we're supposed to close on the deal October 31... But we're hoping to hear back today if we can possibly close earlier. Of course, we still have to get the home inspected but I feel confident that will go ok...

We'll need to trim the tree in the front a bit, and the yard hasn't been mowed in 3 months... You can see from the photo that The grass is up to Connor's knees. But it is all good and healthy grass. The back yard has a big pecan tree and an awesome patio... We'll be doing a whole lot of entertaining at this house...!

Today I'm working out of my office at home until about 12:30 PM then I head to Clear Lake for my afternoon lessons. I've got ton's of HPTA work to get taken care of... And there's still a few minor home improvements to take care of here, but we're mostly done with the bulk of our fixing up. Now we're just trying to keep things neat and de-cluttered in case we have a surprise viewing from a realtor.

That's about it... I don't have a whole lot more to report. More tomorrow...

Bye for now... Coach Sam

Baby Kitty Next to the Baby Bouncer

Gabriel is fascinated with the baby equipment. All the kitty's are. I think they are a little jealous of Elijah because he gets so much attention. But I think they love him too. Especially Peepers. Yes, we're all one big happy family.

Although tempers were a little shorter yesterday as we faced a big deadline to get out house ready for viewing by perspective buyers, things are going pretty well. This is a busy, hectic Month. We'll be closing on the house at Columbia Lakes on October 31...! That's just about 3 weeks away...!

I'm working feverishly to get caught up on all my work. When we finally get moved I'll have a much more manageable schedule...! But until then It's going to be crazy!

Well, I have to get on the road... I'm at Columbia Lakes all day. By for now...

Coach Sam

Set To Move in Early November...!

Here's a good photo of Connor and Peepers watching television

We signed the paperwork today on the contract for the house we're buying at Columbia Lakes. Our closing date is set for October 31...! Woohoo...! I'm excited...

We're all exhausted from getting our house ready for viewings today. It looks like there a couple of interested parties. Perhaps we'll get an offer soon on our house as well. That would be great if we did.

Monica and the baby are sleeping right now... Connor is watching TV and I'm just blogging this evening. I'm too worn out myself to start any new project so I'll probably go to bed early myself and try to rest up for a full day tomorrow.

That's about it... Until tomorrow, Bye for now...

Coach Sam

While We Killed Ourselves Getting the House Ready...

Let's face it... Hobbes is just not a 'Team-Player'...! We're going crazy cleaning and straightening up the house and Hobbes only cares if his food and water bowl are filled. He sleeps all day and wants to stay out all night... He sounds like a spoiled teen ager, doesn't he...? And when I want to pet him he runs away. It has to be his idea... Sigh... He's too old to ship off to kitty-obedience school...!

Today we are up early placing the final touches on our house for the Open House our realtor has scheduled this afternoon. We know of at least one interested party that will view it today so we're trying to do everything we can to make a good impresion...!

We also go to sign the contract on the property at Columbia Lakes we're planning to purchase... Then I'm heading to Columbia Lakes for the afternoon to work on remodeling the tennis shop...!

That's our day today...! Wow...! We're enjoying this cool front. The temps were in the mid 50's last night! More later...

Coach Sam

Fixing Up The House

Here's Monica painting the cabinets to our bathroom. She finished that project a few days ago and our bathroom looks awesome now...!

We've been working feverishly the past few days getting all our home improvement projects completed. It's been non stop for Monica and I. But the place is really starting to shape up nicely, now. We have an open house this weekend for buyers and an open next week for realtors.

It sure would be nice to sell our house quickly, or at least have a contract on this house before we move into the new one in West Columbia. Only time will tell...!

I've been up late every night this week and up early on top of that. And it looks like more of the same for the next few weeks right up until the end of the month if we close on the other house as planned. That's ok... I'll get caught up on my sleep next month!

We're busy, but it's a very good busy...! I've got dinner in the oven right now and am about to go outside and start another painting project. I'm refinishing about 8 or 9 doors tonight. I'll take a break in another hour when dinner's ready. I definitely want to get the painting done tonight so the house has an entire day tomorrow to air out before the open house on Sunday.

Later tonight I have to work on more HPTA stuff. And maybe blog a little more. But that's it for now... I'll make a Connor and the Kitties Report this evening if I have time... SC

My New Web Page...!

I'm constructing a new website for Chadwell Tennis.com. It will have a lot more functionality than the present one.

Check it out at http://chadwelltennis.com

I've spent much of the morning working on it because I've recently done a lot of advertising for my home school programs and people will be clicking that link and the message they would have received is that this site is unavailable. Now at least it points to the old site.

I've got to get to work on HPTA business now...

By the way, we still haven't heard any thing definite from our realtor regarding the Columbia Lakes Property. But it looks like we might have an interested buyer for our house here in Houston. Please keep our house sitation in your prayers!

I must get back to work now... Until Next Time... Coach Sam

Today is Ask a Stupid Question Day

That's what the headline of my yahoo sbcglobal home page read this morning. That brings to mind some funny, stupid questions I've heard over the years... I'm going to be pondering the stupidest question I ever heard this morning and get back to you as little later...

This will be undoubtedly the busiest month of my life...! I don't even have time to go into great detail here because time of the essence. But let's just say that I'll be ready to take a day off sometime in November...!

Today we will find out if we got the house at Columbia Lakes we put an offer in for. And we have an open house on our house this weekend and already have a perspective buyer...! That's exciting...!

Well, it's 7:03 and I have to take Connor to school and then stop by the bank and make a deposit before I do anything else.

So... I gotta Run. By for now... I'll try to post some pictures later this morning or tonight for sure...!

Coach Sam

Back From Newks

I had a long weekend at John Newcombe's Tennis Ranch. I left at 1 PM Friday and returned this evening at 7 PM and was 100% busy the entire time in between. Oh it was fun, but I am pretty worn out now that it's over. For those of you not up to speed on the purpose of my trip, I was coaching a team of 20 junior players at the Texas State Junior Gran Prix Team Tennis Singles Championships. I'm happy to report that my team placed second over-all in their flight that consisted of San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and Wichita Falls. And we only lost by a margin of 16 games....! It definitely could have gone either way.

The Houston players were great competitors and it was a pleasure to coach them...! And it was noce to go back to Newks for a visit. I used to be employed by Newk's way back in the 1980's... Yes, I worked at Newks back in 87 and 88. I found some old photos of me back when I worked there and I weighed between 140 and 150 lbs. I weigh around 230 lbs now, 20 years later.... My God what will I look like 20 more years from now...? Will I be in the 300's...?

I've actually been a little depressed about my weight lately. But the fact is, I have lost 6 pounds in the past 2 and a half weeks... So hopefully I can keep that trend going. I know now that this state competition is done I can breathe a little easier. Although I do still have some major projects I'm working on, I'm glad to have State behind me.

I'm going to have to close here because the lack of sleep has definitely caught up with me. And I need to get up early in the morning and blog a little before I leave for West Columbia.

More later... Bye for now...

Coach Sam

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