WHEW!!! What a weekend!

Hey ya'll! Happy VETERANS DAY!!

SOOOO, how was ya'lls weekends? I'm sure some of you have already updated your blogs with the answer to this question. But obviously, I haven't read them yet :-). But I'm gettin to it.

Anyhoo, I've got quite a bit to share with ya'll. So grab a snack, a Dr. Pepper (get one for me too, wouldja?) and get comfy. Cuz this could be a long one.

Ok, you comfy?

Good! Let's get started, shall we?

Well, we left for Fayetteville on Friday evening around 5:30 or so....along with half the people on the NW side of Georgia. So needless to say, we got into a little traffic. We finally made it to the hotel...which was brand spankin new. VERY nice and clean. Gotta love that. I checked us in then we headed right back out to meet up with everyone else for dinner. Of course we get there and they're all just about done. So we got ours to go...nuthin like eating buffalo wings in a nice clean hotel room :-). And before we go any further, here's the first of many photo's I'll be sharing. These are for you, Cheryl!

This little girl could not get to the hotel fast enough. She had a HORRIBLE case of the AWTY's (Are We There YET's!) And this hotel being only 1 month old made for SUPERB jumping beds. She's seriously enjoying this new "tradition".

Everyone is all settled in their rooms and the head coach advises us that one of the rooms of boys doesn't have adult supervision. So who do they call on? The assistant coach, of course. ARGH!!! So it wasn't bad enough that I had to sleep alone the first night in a nice big comfy bed. But my poor husband had to sleep with 4 teenaged boys. Not sure who got the worst of that deal...me or Marque :-). Me and Jayla spent some nice mother/daughter time though. She watched a movie on one of the flat panel TV's that were in the room (SWEET!!) and I read my new scrapbook magazine. Life is good!!!

The next day, we had to get up around 7:15 and get all the boys together so they could eat a light breakfast before their 1st game. It is SO much fun to round up and keep quiet, 16 soccer players...SO MUCH FUN!!! Anyhoo...we made our 13 mile trek to the fields so now, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

The boys played really well in their first game. However, we didn't take away the "W". BUT...we didn't take the "L" either. We tied our first game 2 - 2. Not bad. So at this point, we are in first place in our division with the team we just played, hmmm. The next game wasn't until 2:30pm so after eating a light lunch, this is how the boys spent their time:

Playing keep away with the soccer ball. And this is how Coach Juan and Coach Marque spent THEIR time between games...

Running their mouths...errr, I mean discussing how the boys played in the first game and how they NEED to play in the next one.

And this is how Coach Juan's daughter, Ashlee spent some of her time between games...

Now SHE's got the right idea. :-)


Ok, let's take a break for a minute...must be picture of Ashlee that's got me thinking about a nap :-). But check this picture out...

This is the kind of day we were blessed with for the tournaments. Actually, it was like this both days. The sky was a BEAUTIFUL shade of blue with gorgeous, wispy, feather like clouds. AND...not one, but TWO rainbows! Not sure if you can see them here...but they're there....


See, our good friend Mr. Rick and the girls see it... lol!


Ok, back to our regularly schedule soccer games :-). You guys, the 2nd game was SO exciting!!! I can't even explain it to you! I have to say, this has got to be the most exciting game I've ever seen the boys play.

Just look at that...doesn't that game look exciting??? LOL I know, this is a terrible shot. But I was trying to show what a great view of the field we had. We sat up on this hill and the view was perfect. Anyway. we won this game 2 - 0! YAY, Stingrays!!! BUT...isn't there always a "BUT!"? Remember, the team we were tied with for first place? Well, they won their 2nd game too! Guess what the score was? NO...GUESS!!! That's right, 2 -0! ARGH!!!


Oh, I forgot to mention, just before the 2nd game, the man who the soccer complex was named after came to watch us play. Not only is he the owner of the land, but he's the great uncle of one of our players. So the boys took a picture with him and gave him their winning game ball.


Ok, now where was I?


Oh yeah, we are still neck 'n neck with this other team. So, that's not a terrible thing, is it? Tell ya what, let's go celebrate!!! You want Mexican? SWEET...me too! So off we go to LaFrontera. Table for 40 please!!! Oh and we need the bill to be split up too. Thanks a bunch!!! :-)


Don'tcha just love live (Mexican) entertainment? I don't! But who am I? There was a guy there that sang and played the guitar for us and I must say, he was really good. So much so that the boys decided they wanted to dance...
:-)...like I said, we had a small party of only FORTY people. We had such a good time and the food was so yummy. I guess it's safe to say now that I DO like Mexican food. I have yet to meet a Jajita that I don't like :-).

It took us FOREVER to get out this restaurant. For some ODD reason, they had a hard time "cipherin" the bill. But we got it worked out. Fortunately, the hotel we stayed in was walking distance from the restaurant. So some of the parents walked the boys back so they could partake in the indoor pool.

We get back to the hotel after dinner and our room key doesn't work. Marque takes the keys down to the desk to see if they can reprogram them. Still, not working. After about 6 - 8 trips back and forth to re-key the keys, the desk person decides to just give us the master key so we can get in our room. You should've seen me and Jayla sitting in the hallway outside our room. NOPE, didn't get a picture of that...my camera was in the ROOM!!! I know we sat out there for about 20 minutes. Anyway, to make this part of the story short...we constantly had issues with our room key...to the tune of having them re-key it (to no avail) about 10 - 12 times.

Ok, back to the story. We finally get into our room and I'm about to give Jayla a bath. I run her water then I sit at the desk to check my email while she splashes around for a bit. When she got in the tub, the water was about waist high to her sitting down. A few minutes later, I go in to wash her and ALL but about 1.5 inches of the water is GONE!!! LOL That chick didn't even tell me that the water was draining...she said she didn't notice (insert rolling eyes here). After her bath, this is how Jayla and her daddy spent the evening...
Reading her Backyardigans book. I think we were both glad to have daddy back in our room with us.

Ok, ok...I'm almost done. NOW, going into Sunday's game, we were still neck and neck with the team we played first on Saturday. We both played at the same time on Sunday, so it was hard to keep up with how they were doing. Anyway, attempting to make a long story even shorter...we lost :-(. It was SO sad. But again, those boys played their BUTTS off! Our tournament is now over. But check out what the coaches presented the boys with for having such a great season:

However, our league, Cobb FC was very well represented at these games. There were 7 Cobb FC teams playing and of those 7, 5 of them won in their bracket. So all in all...we did very well. We even hung around the fields to watch 2 of our other teams play and in turn, receive their trophies.

Ok, I think that's all I've got for now. Oh, look at how Jayla and the other girls spent their time after the 2nd game:

These girls know how to have fun :-). And speaking of fun, how bout we end this post with one more fun photo? This is a "special edition" for you, Cheryl. :-)
I think Jayla and I have started a REAL tradition. Gracie and Ashlee couldn't believe, that not only did I let them jump on our bed...I took a picture of them doing it :-).

Well, there you have it. What a weekend, huh? And I didn't even mention us going to dinner last night on the way home and having totally CRAPPY service, did I? And I'm not gonna either....

Ya'll have a great day and I'm sure I'll be talkin to ya later this week. Thanks for all your support of the Stingrays! TOODLES!!