An Olympic Year

     I have a slight obsession with noticing patterns or finding connections in certain things. I mean, it is interesting that my sister and I are 1 year and 13 days apart. My birthday is the 31st and hers in the 13th. Who wouldn't find that interesting? What about my past 3 zip codes? When I was in college, my zip was 77801, our apartment is 77081, and the new house is 77018. Cool, right?

      Every Olympics, with the exception of 1988 when I was 2... and we'll let that slide, something significant in my life has happened. It is very bizarre, and only someone like me might notice these trends.

• Olympics 1992- In 1992, my little brother, Christian, was born. In fact, he was born on July 27th, so he was a newborn in the midst of the Olympics. My grandma lived with us at the time, and I remember sitting on her bed, holding Christian, feeding him his bottle, and watching Shannon Miller compete.
• Olympics 1996- I was going in to 5th grade. While 5th grade shouldn't be a monumental year, it was huge for me. Our family moved from the house we had grown up in, and I started going to public school. For someone who has gone to private school until that point, this was a huge deal! I also met my lifelong friend, Sarah. And of course, we all remember Kerri Strug.
• Olympics 2000- I started 9th grade in 2000. I never imagined that high school would be such a big change, but transitioning into high school really stressed me out. I actually had to study, and I started competitive cheerleading. Well, with this stress, my hair started to fall out, and I got horrible acne. Great! Every 14-year-old's dream- thin hair and a pimply forehead! 
• Olympics 2004- I started school at Texas A&M in 2004. I was actually at Fish Camp while the Olympics were on and watched the closing ceremonies in my dorm. Starting college was a lot like starting high school minus the hair loss. I was so home sick that I didn't have an appetite for weeks, and I cried... a lot.
• Olympics 2008- 2008 was a pretty big year that doesn't need too much explaining. I graduated college, started teaching, and got engaged. That was a good year... and I'm a pretty big Nastia Liukin fan.
• Olympics 2012- I am in the middle of the big to-do! We close on our first home on Friday. Our apartment is slight chaos at the moment. I have piles of school stuff in one room and boxes of house stuff in another. I know we will always remember watching the Olympics and packing up at the same time.

If I had to make predictions for Olympics 2016 for the Schielacks, I would imagine that it would be perfect timing for a ...