What a WEEK!!!

Dude...I don't even know where to begin!

Good gracious...it has been KA-razy lately. And oddly enough, in a good way. I mean, I've been CRAZY busy just doing...STUFF. But I'll take this over being bored to tears.

But don't ya'll worry...I'm not gonna do a day-by-day breakdown of what I've been doing since my last post. I'll just say that I have spent an AMAZING amount of time volunteering at Jayla's school, running errands for the household, taking my MIL where ever she needs/wants to go, etc. I've also been doing my share of shopping on-line too. But I'll share more about that at another time. And what's been so interesting about that is, I found that it's just as difficult to shop on-line as it is in a store when you don't have any money! lol

Let me just go on record and say that, having a husband that coaches THREE soccer teams, is quite...um, interesting! I mean, don't get me wrong, I LOVE youth soccer and love watching the games. As well as being involved with the teams. But it makes for an exhausting weekend! A couple Fridays ago, one of our teams had a 6pm game. No problem, right? Well, do you know how hard it is to play/watch soccer in the dark? LOL The county was a little lax in getting the park lights turned on that evening. So we had to call the game at 1/2 time because the boys couldn't even see their own hands in front of their faces. It was fun though :-).

Speaking of soccer, Jayla and the Lil' Stingrays are doing great! One of Coach M's classmates from high school came to watch Jayla play. Her daughter is in high school and also plays soccer. They were very impressed with how well the girls play; and at such a young age. Wonder if high school soccer is in Jayla's future? :-)

Take a look at Jayla's most recent soccer pictures:

Our U14 Stingrays are currently undefeated! Those boys ROCK!!! Not much else to say about them. They are just really good. And Barcelona, our U16 team has only lost 1 game, I think. So basically, they ROCK too! :-)

Alrighty, I'm sure there's a ton more I want to share with you guys. But I'm kinda at a loss right now. Like I said, this week has been very busy. But I was able to squeeze in some time to get my hair done...YAY!!! We're meeting up with some of Mister M's high school classmates for dinner tomorrow night. And if the weather isn't terrible, we'll spend the day on the soccer fields. My back up plan (if it does rain), is to sit and finish catching up on everyones blogs...I'm such a slacker :-). But I love ya'll!

So, what do you guys have planned for the weekend?

Well, before I sign off, how bout I leave you with a few flower fixes (I'm trying to redeem myself). lol

Ya'll have a great weekend!!!

TGIF!!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all have had a nice week. As I mentioned in my last post, this week has been kinda crazy for us. But we're all getting through it. Sad that it takes something like the death or minor tragedy of a friend or family member, to make us look at our day to day lives with more appreciation. I'm totally guilty of that. But thankfully, not in a "for granted" type of way. Every single day, I say a word of thanks for my friends and family and for my health. But sometimes, when things happen that make you remember that tomorrow is promised to NO ONE...it just makes me a little more thankful and appreciative of what my life holds.

Having said all that, I'm so thankful for all of you...my BLOG friends. I would love to be able to meet all of you IRL. But for now, my life is a little more complete because of those of you that I have been blessed with meeting. Hopefully the day will come for the rest of us to meet.

Alrighty, before I get even MORE sappy :-), I want to thank those of you who have checked up on me...because I haven't been to YOUR blogs in a while. Did I mention things have been CRAZY lately? I know, that's no excuse for not checking in on my friends. But right now, that's all I've got :-). I WILL get back to my normal reading routine...in fact, I NEED to. Because I really miss you guys.

And thank you too, Cheryl. I received the package on Wednesday.

OH...I almost forgot. Remember several posts back I told you about a fun 80's night that I had with my scrapping/crafting buddies? Well, I finally got the pictures back from that fun filled event. Wanna see??? Good...here they are: (can you figure out, where's Dawn? LOL)

We had so much fun! You know what's funny about this? I didn't even dress this way in the 80's/high school...LOL. There's talk now about doing a 70's or 50's night next time. But I'll have to see about that one :-).

Anyway, what have you guys got planned for the weekend? Betcha can't guess where I'll be?!?!? Yep...starting tonight, I'll be on the soccer fields. Gotta love it! :-)

Well, that's all I've got for now. But before I go, here's your Flower Fix.

Toodles!!!

The GOOD...The BAD....and the SAD

Hello everyone.

I just happened to notice that I haven't updated in a few days. And believe me, quite a bit has happened. Let's get started, shall we?

The GOOD: The half-time "performance" by Jayla's soccer team at the college went great! The girls had an awesome time. And the few girls that got to the stadium early, even got to walk out, hand in hand, with the players of the college teams...just like in the pros. So needless to say, Jayla really enjoyed that!

Here are a few pictures from the evening. (Jayla has on the red headband)

You can't really see Jayla in the above photo. But this is when the players were walking out on the field before the game.
This shot was taken just before the players were introduced.

Here's a short video of the scrimmage game the Lil Stingrays played during half time. Again, Jayla has on the grey shirt and the red headband. She's the one kinda hanging out on the left side of the video running after the ball when it goes out and jumping around a lot :-). And that's Coach "Daddy" is in the jeans and black shirt :-).


The BAD: As mentioned in my last post our U14 and U16 teams had a tournament this past weekend. Although the boys played REALLY well, they only won a couple of their games. Tied one and lost a couple. But that wasn't what made this my "BAD" selection. The referees for this tournament were AWFUL!!! I mean, they SUCKED!!! One of them in particular. I won't even go into detail as to why I'm making such harsh comments. I'll just say that, even the coaching staff of the opposing teams as well as the parents of the other teams couldn't believe some of the RIDICULOUS calls that this ref made against our boys. It was UNbeliveable! To give you an idea of what I mean...in our last game on Sunday, a kid from the other team made a very dangerous slide for the ball and kicked our goalie square in the chest with his cleats. But the ref didn't call it as a penalty or a foul. He said our guys was "alright" and that's just what happens when you play goalie. Some of that may be so, but NOT when the goalie has a freaking cleat print in the middle of his bare chest! Our goalie even had on 2 or 3 shirts and you could clearly see the red bruising from the other kids cleat on his chest.

It was so bad that our coaches almost pulled our team off the field and forfited the game. Needless to say, we will NOT be participating this a tournament at this location again.

The SAD: It is with a heavy heart that I write this next part of my post. This past Monday, the PE teacher at Jayla's school, suddenly passed away. And I do mean SUDDENLY! Coach J worked in the afternoon carpool line, helping the kids get in their vehicles. And on Monday afternoon, just as he has all school year, he helped Jayla in the van and wished us a nice evening. Not 5 hours later, I get a phone call from one of the mothers, saying that Coach J died in the parking lot of his 5 year old twin daughters dance class. Fortunately, his wife, who is also a teacher at Jayla's school, was with him. They are thinking it was from a sudden heart attack.

I decided not to tell Jayla bout this until yesterday morning. As I didn't want her to be so upset Monday night and not get any sleep. So through my own tears, I told her yesterday morning before I took her to school. She was VERY upset! I wound up walking her to class yesterday as I knew the atmosphere at the school would be a bit much for her, as she'd be wondering why everyone was so sad. And sad it was! There were counselors there for the kids and teachers, as it was very somber. Jayla's teacher told me that Jayla had a few "breakdowns" during the day...as did most of the kids.

Coach J touched the lives of EVERY SINGLE child that walked the halls of that school. As they ALL had PE at some point during the week. Markell even had PE with Coach J when he attended that school from K - 6th grade.

I will be representing our family tonight at the visitation. I spent almost as much time with Mrs. J last year as I did with Jayla's teacher. Their Kindergarten classes are right next door to eachother. So I feel like I need to be there to show my support and sympathy.

WELL...sorry to end this post on a sad note. But I will ask for your thoughts and prayers for, not only the "J" family. But for the school and the students.

That's all I have for now. Enjoy the rest of your week and I'll talk to you in a few days. Toodles!!