It’s been a little while since our last post, but everyone has been quite busy with work, school and of course, life in general over the last couple of months. Sam however has probably been the most busy of all of us. Below is just a little taste of what it’s like to be the socialite Sam Payne…. these are probably not posted in chronological order though. Alex has been just as busy, but nothing quite as fun. Alex finished up another semester at PCCC and has been working quite a few hours at Best Buy each week. Since Alex will be taking a pretty heavy workload next semester he has been working quite a few shifts this holiday season so that he can bank some money for next year. He has already told him that he wants to cut down to 15-20 hours (he’s been working over 30 hours almost every week since starting.
Sam and a bunch of his friends from JPII went to the local senior center to sing Christmas carols.Sam and the JPII swim team have had 2 Swim Meets over the last month. Unfortunately, they have lost both meets as most of the swim team is new to competition, including Sam. They seem to be having a lot of fun though and of course, it’s great exercise. The only drawback…. 5:30am practice on Monday and Wednesday morningsJPII had a Ugly Sweater day at school – Sam actually looked pretty good in his ugly sweater. 😊JPII participated in the Annual Greenville Christmas Parade. You can see Sam here in his trademark Trapper Hat.Sam and Madison attending the Sadie Hawkins dance at JPII. Traditionally the girl is supposed to ask the boy to the dance, but since Madison doesn’t attend JPII, Sam asked her to the dance. We did try to get Sam to wear a tie, but to no avail. 😢
Sam racked up 2 Participation Awards today at the Fall Sports Banquet for Cross Country and for Soccer. Of course every student athlete received a participation award, so it wasn’t so much that he received the award but what the coaches had to say about him at the event…. see the videos below. 😄 Each year Sam continues to improve and we are very proud of him for giving his all every day both on and off the field.
Sam and the Cross Country team – the whole team ran Cross Country and played Soccer.This is the soccer team – they had 16 players this year, the most ever and the first time they made the playoffs. The coaches and the athletic director all have high hopes for next year, especially with the new athletic complex opening later this year.A closeup of Sam with the soccer team – one of his good friends and this year’s team Captain is Blaze on his right hand side. Blaze awarded Sam the team Captain for next year.
Halloween a few days early as Sam tries on his new costume. Sam originally wanted to be Bumble Bee from the Transformers movies… there is a new solo Bumble Bee movie coming out next month, but most of the costumes were for much smaller tikes than Sam’s size. We did find a couple for adults on Amazon, but way out of our price range. Luckily Dad found this at Sam’s Club today for half price. Sam was upset there wasn’t a T-Rex but he’ll just have to make do – some boys still love their dinosaurs. Sam’s big plans are just to go to ‘Trunk or Treat’ at the church to help give out candy to the little kids, so we thought we better snap a couple of quick photos while we had time.
JPII Soccer suffered a couple more tough defeats this week. Originally they were supposed to play their last 2 games this week, but due to a rainout they scheduled another game on Wednesday. They lost both their games on Tuesday and Wednesday to the same team, by the same score 9-0… actually it was a mercy rule for both days. The last game is scheduled on Thursday, but due to Hurricane Michael it is has already been cancelled and we are assuming they won’t bother to make it up because it won’t change the outcome of the season. They didn’t qualify for the tournament so tonights game was probably their last of the season.
In other news, Tuesday night was senior night for JPII and this year we only had 1 senior and that was Sam’s friend, Blaze. Blaze is also on the cross country team with Sam and he was nice enough to take Sam to practice during the summer before he got his car. Well anyway, part of Senior night is that the Seniors get to pick the following year’s Captain. So can you guess what happened next? Yup – that’s right Blaze picked Sam to be next year’s Captain of the Soccer team! Sam got to wear the Captain’s armband for tonight’s game and he was pretty excited. Unfortunately it didn’t change the outcome of tonight’s game, but we have a whole year to get ready for next season.
The Captain’s armband is on his right arm… the black band with the ‘C’
Well the 37th Annual British Shenandoah Valley Car Club show is now officially over and the results have been tallied. Sam entered his old Rover (2003 Freelander SE3) in the competition for the 1st time ever this year. Of course Sam is only 16 years old and this is his first car . 🙂 Fun fact: Sam’s car was first sold on January 24, 2003, just 6 months before Sam was born. Unfortunately though Sam did not bring home any hardware for his group (Open Entry for 1968-On, Sedan – Coupe), but then again he was up against some stiff competition: a Bentley, a Rolls Royce, a Lotus, a Jensen and one other car. We didn’t have too high of hopes going into the competition, it was really just for fun and Sam did seem to have a blast. Not only he did get to show off his car, which he worked very hard to get cleaned up, but he also got to see some other great cars and take a LOT of photos.
All was not lost however as Gung Gung also entered in the competition with his 1934 Riley Racing car. To say it was the hit of the show would be an understatement. We had a hard time even getting some good photos of the car because there always seemed to be a crowd around the car and/or around David. David has been working on this car for 7 years and 11 months if we remember the story correctly, so it was a long time coming but well worth the effort – the car looked stunning.
Overall it was a great weekend and everyone had a lot of fun, plus the weather was beautiful and we got to see Aunt Becky’s new house as well.
Sam’s car with everyone sitting in the shade. David’s car was directly across from Sam’sSome of Sam’s competitionSam and David discussing voting strategies.David and the Riley, with David’s friends Rolls in the background.Pretty tight fit, especially trying to get 2 people inside.
David bringing home the hardwareDavid’s old Riley was in the competition, just a couple of cars away.Sam’s showboard for the show… if nothing else, Sam had the biggest one in the competition. 🙂
Sam attended his first Prom last April at John Paul II High School. Trinity Christian School didn’t allow boys and girls to dance so this was his first chance to attend one. Poor Alex unfortunately never got the chance as he went all 4 years to Trinity. Sam took, Madison, a girl he met from church. Madison didn’t attend JPII but was really excited to go to the dance. She is currently at another high school about an hour away, but taking college courses in coordination with her high school as well. She hopes to be a Occupational Therapist like her Mom.
Due to the hurricane and other recent weather events the JPII Saints Soccer team is having to get caught up on all their matches. Unfortunately that meant that Sam has had 3 matches so far this week and another one coming up on Friday night. Luckily Thursday is open house at the school and they have a reprieve from both matches and from practice and boy do they need it. They lost all 3 matches so far this week and all were by a lopsided margin, by at least 5 points. By tonight’s match you could tell they were mentally and physically exhausted and it showed on the field. The other teams were better teams, but not by the margins they lost by. The team’s problem is passing and communication – there is really none of each, hopefully a days rest will do them some good and they can bounce back on Saturday.
Monday’s match was away in Raleigh. Final score was 6-1?At Monday’s match, Sam takes a shot to the thigh and was slow to get up… a couple of minutes later he asked to come off to get a rest. Sam does generally play the full 90 minutes as they don’t substitute him very often.
Tuesday’s match and Sam is in hot pursuit.
Sam rough housing to get to the ball.
Tuesday’s match and the final score was 7-2? Sam playing the near post on a corner kick and he makes the save… although from this angle it sure looks like a hand ball. 🙂 Wednesday’s match and final score was 7-1?After the match on Wednesday and Sam’s 3rd match in 3 days the players look exhausted. Sam is nursing his knee and getting ready to come home…. lots of homework tonight.
Sam, along with a bunch of his friends from JPII, ran his first 5k race today. The event was held in Greenville and was for a charity to support Pediatric Cancer. A couple of Sam’s friends were pushing jogging buggies with handicapped kids. Sam was just running on his own with some other friends. The BIG news is that Sam earned a 1st place medal in the 16 – 19 year olds range.
Sam’s friends were in the pink, there were 3 kids to each buggy. To the left of Sam is his friend Ethan, there were also quite a few other JPII students in the race as well.
The Payne Chronicles 