stacya

Happy April! My luger and I are back in the swing of things since coming back from Salt Lake City last month. Kendall's second race there was the Norton Jr. National Championships, for sliders age 14 to 21. Kendall is one of the youngest on the team (she is currently 15), and raced against her teammates, as well as the athletes on the next level up, the Jr. National Team, where they are more experienced sliders, in addition to being older and bigger. Kendall managed a 6th place finish out of 17 athletes. The athletes ahead of her, except for 1, were all on the next level team, so out of those on her team, she placed 2nd. She finished 3rd overall for the season, so when she returns to Lake Placid for the summer (she will be training with the next level team for the entire summer), she has another medal waiting for her. The official team list gets released on May 1, though we already know what her placement will be, but we aren't allowed to discuss it openly until the list comes out. Today's video is of Kendall sliding into the finish on the 2002 (and 2034) Olympic track! VID_20250414_200821.mp4

Hard to believe we are almost halfway through March already! I am currently sitting in my hotel room in Salt Lake City, while my luger is here for training and racing. Kendall raced in the Norton USA Luge Youth National Championships on Friday and Saturday for athletes age 14 to 17 (Kendall is 15), where she placed 5th in the nation. Aside from one, all of the girls ahead of her were 17 and are either on the next level up, or are her direct teammates, but have been sliding longer and had many more opportunities to train on this track. Her final race for the season, the Norton USA Luge Jr. National Championships are Thursday and Friday, where Kendall will be competing against athletes up to the age of 21. The first training sessions they had in preparation for this race took place Saturday night, where Kendall's time on her first run was the fastest out of all of the athletes training that night, and her second run was third fastest, so this will be a very exciting race! The video below is her first training run from Saturday night, which is almost a minute long - rather too long to make sure I don't miss her, than scramble at the last minute, lol 20250308_190618.mp4

Happy February!! It's been a busy month since my last post here. My luger had.a training camp in Lake Placid for 2 weeks, culminating in the second USA Luge North American Continental Cup race, in which Kendall redeemed herself after missing a bronze in the first part of that race in Salt Lake City by 0.025 seconds. She won bronze in the Lake Placid race, besting the Canadian that beat her in Salt Lake City by a large margin. Next up is Kendall's final training camp of the season for 3 weeks in Salt Lake City, with Youth National Championships (for ages 12 to 17) taking place over the course of 2 days the second weekend of March, Jr. National Championships (ages 14 to 21), taking place on March 14th. Kendall has a very good chance of bringing home a medal in at least Youth Nationals, but will have stiff competition in Jr. Nationals, though barring anything unforeseen, she should still do very well. A few days before she heads to SLC, she will be flying to Wisconsin to spend the weekend with her bestie teammate, and they will fly on to SLC together for camp. I'm heading out to SLC in March to watch both races, and to fly back with Kendall. I'm excited to.be in Utah again, since it's been 3 years, though with all of these recent air travel events, and me already being a nervous flyer, I'm not thrilled about flying anytime soon, nor with sending my child flying on her own. With Kendall being a Team USA athlete, this one accident hits way too close to home, as we have likely seen some of these ice skaters during Empire State Winter Games of years past. Surreal. Anyway, here is a pic of Kendall with her "bronze" wooden medal, lol

Happy New Year! My luger, Kendall, returned home a few days before Christmas from a 2 week training camp and race in Utah, and just left yesterday for another 2 week training camp in Lake Placid, culminating in another race on Saturday, January 18. In the Utah race, she placed 4th, after being edged out by just 0.025 seconds. Not the result we wanted, and she was pretty upset to be edged out of the medals again, especially since she was 3rd after her first run, but the athlete who edged her out is also 2 years older than her, and has spent much more time on that track, where this was only Kendall's second training camp there. These athletes will meet again next weekend, on what is Kendall's home track, and we are hoping for a better outcome for her. Looking forward to being there to watch her race this time. We bring her home on the 19th, and she will spend about a month home before heading back to Utah for the final training camp of the season, where she will compete in 2 levels of National Championships in that time. In the meantime, she had an awesome article written about her that appeared on the front page of our local newspaper, and will have a third article written for our local area weekly Merchandiser in the next week or two. Today's photos include the pic from the front page of the newspaper article, and a pic from race day.

Happy December!! After her rough start at the first training camp of the season in Lake Placid, my luger rebounded and qualified to race in the Park City North American Continental Cup in Park City, Utah on December 14. She leaves for SLC a week from today. She will be away for 2 weeks, returning a few days before Christmas, before she is off to Lake Placid again on January 5, to race in the Lake Placid North American Continental Cup on January 18. Kendall will also be sliding doubles with her partner, Lilly, while in Park City, and they are the only women's doubles team at this level. Today's video is of our doubles team, Kendall and Lilly. Kendall is the top slider, as the smaller slider is always on the bottom. Messenger_creation_61984992-6505-4E67-860E-FDC5888F6D0B.mp4

Happy November! My luger, Kendall, is at her first training camp of the season in Lake Placid as of yesterday. She had her first runs on the track this afternoon on a new sled, with less than ideal track conditions. She crashed out pretty good right in front of the finish line, and will be headed back to sports med tomorrow to see how she's doing, and determine how long she will potentially be sitting out due to a concussion and a back injury. This is her first more significant injury in her 5 years on the team, and I'm hoping this is not setting the tone for the season. If she doesn't have to come home early due to injury, I will be up in 2 weeks to watch race offs to qualify for the North American Continental Cup race being held on the Salt Lake City track next month. Fingers crossed that her injuries are deemed to not be all that significant, and that she's allowed back on the track in a few days! This sport is not for the faint of heart, for sure.

Any thoughts on this? We do a lot of traveling, many trips in the winter to Lake Placid, which is a 7.5 hour drive each way, and the last 2 hours of the ride become increasingly more desolate, so if something were to happen, we could definitely be in trouble. I've been wanting to get something that will jumpstart our vehicle without needing to have another vehicle present, but I like that it can inflate tires, too.

So excited to see the snow globes making a comeback. My 15 year old daughter will be doing BF with me this year, and when she was a baby, I would get them for her to collect, and then they stopped doing them. But she is excited to get one this year!

We bought a mattress from Amazon last year, during Prime Day. Our old mattress had gotten to the point where I'd wake up in agony every day, with my back hurting, but we didn't have a ton of money to buy a Tempurpedic, and I didn't want it to take a lot of running around and trying out different mattresses. We considered memory foam, but I didn't want to have to buy a platform for it, so I decided I wanted something that we could still use our box spring with. That meant we needed to buy a hybrid, which is still much cheaper than a regular mattress and box spring set. I looked at several on Amazon, read the reviews, and knew I needed something at least semi firm, because the softer the mattress, the more my back hurts in the morning. And I knew I wanted a thicker mattress. We ended up with a 14" zelovtress, and I LOVE it! My husband says it's a little too firm for him, but I never wake up with my back hurting anymore, and I think it's SO comfy! The only thing I can be critical of is that the 14" mattress is a bit too high. I'm about 5'6" and I can't just sit on it, I have to hoist myself onto it, lol. But for the comfort of it, I'll deal with it.

So, when my now college junior was home over the summer, we found out he has absolutely no idea how to use the stove. He is an Eagle Scout, so he had to earn a cooking badge, but somehow this kid couldn't cook anything without using an air fryer or microwave. I haven't done him any favors in that regard, apparently. So, I've already gotten this for him, as well as a couple of others, to help him, as it won't be long before he truly needs to fend for himself. Plus, it has some nice meals that he could even make for his girlfriend. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1639384545?ref=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_ZETQN7KHKDKKETVPV3S4&ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_ZETQN7KHKDKKETVPV3S4&social_share=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_ZETQN7KHKDKKETVPV3S4&starsLeft=1&skipTwisterOG=1

Happy October! It's my birthday month, but I hate thinking of turning another year older. The sand in the hourglass is definitely running faster now. *sigh* Anyway, Kendall's first training camp in Lake Placid begins on November 3. I will have some pictures later in the month, when I go up to stay for a few days before picking her up. She will have a race off while I'm there, which will determine whether or not she competes in the North American Continental Cup race on the Salt Lake City track in December, as only the top 5 women and top 5 men sliders will qualify to compete. Based on her previous racing history, she should easily qualify, but she will be racing on a new sled this season, and we never know what that will mean for her performance. Send some good vibes her way, and I'll hopefully have some good news to share before Black Friday! Thanks for your support! And Brad, thanks for the gift! Not sure what it all does, but I'm sure when I show my son, he'll know!

Thank you! She *is* a pretty cool kid!

Happy September! And just like that, summer is done. Almost time for luge season, the only good thing about the cold and snow. Kendall makes 2 trips to Salt Lake City this upcoming season, to train on the 2034 Winter Olympic track. She has been on this track before, in 2022, when she was on the Development Team, and much smaller than she is now. Excited to see her train on this track again! This month's pic is from her training on that track.

Happy August! We took our oldest back to Temple last Thursday (he is an RA, so he needs to be on campus before students), for his junior year. My most recent high school grad is taking a gap year while he tries again to get into a watchmaking school, which is extremely competitive. He will apply to a program in Seattle again this fall. And my daughter, the luger, just got back from her last summer training camp last week. She had two great camps, and this upcom8ng season, she will be sliding in both singles and doubles. This month's pics are flat ice training, practicing their paddling, with her coach (and former Olympian), photobombing to let me know that Kendall and her doubles partner are doing well for just starting out, and Kendall taking 2nd place in a starts race against her fellow Candidate team level teammates, as well as the next level team (Jr. National Team), of athletes aged 17 and up (Kendall just turned 15 in June).

Happy July! My luge athlete just got home from her first training camp of the summer, and leaves in 2 weeks for another 2 week camp. My oldest just wrecked our third vehicle, that he and his brother share, so it's shaping up to be an expensive month. Most importantly, he's fine. Just 4 people with 4 jobs and 2 cars will be a challenge. First world problems.

Happy June! My youngest boy graduated on Thursday, and he is right now on a plane headed to Berlin for a 10 day whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe. My daughter, Kendall, turns 15 in 8 days, and then heads up to Lake Placid for her first 2 week training camp of the summer. Then she's home for 2 weeks, away for another 2 weeks, and a few days after she comes back from her second summer training camp, my oldest returns to Temple for his junior year, and summer is basically over. Unbelievable! I feel like summer is over as quickly as it started!

Happy May!! It is May 1, which is when USA Luge team announcements are released, and I'm proud to announce that Kendall has been reselected for the USA Luge Jr. National Candidate Team! This is year 5! We are so proud of her hard work!

Happy April! My daughter's 2023/24 luge season wrapped up on Saturday, with USA Luge Youth National Championships, in which she placed 4th out of 18 athletes. The three athletes that placed ahead of her are each at least 2 years older than her (Kendall is 14), and have all been on the Candidate Team for 1-3 years longer than her. Several athletes Kendall placed in front of are also athletes who are older and more experienced than she. Kendall has had a great season, and we are super proud of the progress she's made in her first year on this higher level team. The new team selection list comes out on May 1, and summer training will begin in June. You can find her on FB, Kendall Achen, USA Luge, or her group page that I handle, Kendall Achen, USA Luge Jr. National Candidate Team, if you'd like to follow along as she moves forward toward her goal of becoming an Olympian! https://www.facebook.com/share/v/2xeCoAr2JsbAnD6E/?mibextid=oFDknk

Happy March! Last weekend, my luger participated in her first ever Jr. National Championships. She is 14, racing in a group of athletes ages 14 -21. Out of 12 sliders, she came in 6th, and was the highest placing athlete out of the first year athletes on the Candidate Team. She has one training camp left the first week of April, culminating in Youth National Championships (for the younger age athletes), on April 6, and then she's done til summer training camps, starting in June. Probably the coolest thing she did this last camp was when she and the team got to slide from the very top of the track because it had been so warm, the track was slow enough for this to be safe for them. She and her female teammates were the first women to slide from the very top of the track in about 10 years, and who knows if it will ever happen again. img_7554-2.mov

Happy February! My luge athlete is back in Lake Placid for the next three weeks, gearing up for Jr. Nationals the first weekend of March. Then there's just one week of training left for this season, right after Easter, leading up to Youth National Championships - that is if it's still cold enough by then to actually race. When we met a teammate in Albany yesterday to carpool the remaining distance to LP, we were remarking how there was already no snow and warmer temps. What a crazy season it's been weather-wise! Anyway, here's a pic and video of my daughter taken by a fellow luge mom today. Oh, and she travels through here at around 75 mph. VID_20240212_183919.3gp

Happy New Year! My luger is back in Lake Placid this week. I've made more trips this season than I care to count, lol. It's a 7-7.5 hour ride in good weather. Last week's trip back home was crappy weather and was 8.5 hours long. My daughter, Kendall, is on the left, with her BFF teammate

An early Merry Christmas! I am in the northeast, and we have had a ton of rain since last night. My daughter, the luge athlete, is currently at a training camp in Lake Placid, and it is even worse there. I'm supposed to travel up there Wednesday evening to bring her home on Friday, and there are road closures and damage to roads as well, which will make it a bit of an ordeal to get there if unresolved before then. On the upside, it has been cold enough that she's been able to get on the track this camp, and she is sporting her new jacket for this season. My daughter is on the left, with her teammate bestie, walking through Lake Placid last night. received_754432626504508.mp4

Hi there! I'm comparing these 2 tablets for my 14 yo daughter. I bought the Lenovo because it has a bigger screen and the OS is Android 12. Now the Samsung is only $10 more than I paid for the Lenovo, but it has a 10.5" screen instead of 11.5", and runs Android 11. Did I make the better choice, or should I go with the Samsung, especially since the price dropped another $20 since I looked at it last? I'm not techy in the least, so I don't know what else to compare that's worth comparing. Memory was my biggest concern, because her previous tablet didn't have much. Thank you!!

Happy November!! My daughter, Kendall, just returned from her first two week training camp of luge season in Lake Placid, but unfortunately it was too warm to keep ice on the track, so there was no sliding. Just lots of conditioning and starts training, as well as team bonding, and even a day of hiking - in shorts, in the Adirondacks, in late October!! She goes back to Lake Placid on December 11 for two weeks, comes home for Christmas, and then goes back for another week starting on New Year's Day. This is her first year on this higher level team, so this season will be much busier than in the past. VID_20231102_102230171.mp4

And still try to give gifts from the heart!