We Are The Champions!!!!!!

What a weekend! Amy's team were playing in a soccer tournament in North Western Maryland and we spent Saturday and Sunday up there in awful weather! But, awful weather seems to suit us as WE WON!!!!!!! It was fantastic. The girls played so well and ran their little hearts out and they truly deserved the victory when all was said and done. Here is the story of how everything unfolded - I submitted this to our local newspaper in the hopes it will be published on Friday.

CSA Select Sharks (Gold) – Girls U9 Bethesda Thanksgiving Tournament Champions 2008

They came from far and wide – from as far as Georgia in the south to New York in the north but the ones to watch in the Girls U9 Chesapeake division were from that little known county of Calvert. The CSA Select Sharks (Gold) are a Select travel team who were formed in October 2007 and who currently play competitively in the Central Maryland Short Sided League (CMSSL). After a slightly frustrating Fall season they set their sights on the Bethesda Thanksgiving Tournament playing teams from the likes of Alexandria, Arlington and Damascus who currently compete in the Washington Area Girls Soccer (WAGS) league.

Sharks (Gold) were to play Damascus Sparks in the first game. After training hard all week, participating in Technical Training, Speed & Agility training and regular tactical training with Coaches Shaun Nicholson and Rick Quade, the girls were fired up and ready to put every piece of soccer knowledge and experience into practice. From kick off everything fell into place. Passing was crisp and clean, first touches on the ball were golden, defense was solid and steady and the goalies were frozen as they barely had a thing to do – everyone else on the field was making sure of that. The Sharks took the lead quickly with 2 goals from guest player Jôn Glass followed up with a striking volley from Amy Nicholson. Keaton Neal, another guest player also got on the score sheet twice and made her presence in the team felt by everyone. Delaney Tedtsen who plays sweeper was able to break free in defense and charge up the field striking two goals home and truly showing what this team is made of. Jôn Glass kept up her attack and managed a total of 5 goals after terrorizing the defense. Every player stepped up their game.

And then came the rain! Afternoon games at the Muldoons Farms site in Poolesville MD were cancelled due to severe weather and a Tornado Watch which had been posted for the area. Make up games were rescheduled for the following morning which meant that the Sharks could potentially have 3 games the following day. Another early start on Sunday morning took the team back to Poolesville. The weather had turned bitterly cold and windy and this posed a challenge to the 8 and 9 year old girls let alone the parents, grandparents and siblings shivering on the sidelines. The early morning game against Alexandria United was a hard, physical game. Alexandria won the toss and chose to run down hill in the first half which gave them the advantage and helped them to a 4-0 lead by half time. In the second half the Sharks came back fighting and grinding out every possible chance on goal and they managed to pull the score back to 4-3. One of those goals was scored by Sarah Mazzella after a great break through the defensive line. Defense was solid once again with Emily Gibson and Tessa Quade giving everything they had and not missing a beat. Goalie Alyssa Wilson even saved a penalty kick with a phenomenal save to keep CSA in the game. The game ended 4-3 and with league play over both the CSA Select Sharks and Alexandria were through to the semi finals.

The Sharks met Arlington TSA Chaos in the semi final. The weather had turned even colder and the winds were rising but the girls were ready to enter into battle one more time to secure their place in the finals. They started strong with everyone pushing up at every opportunity. Hannah Cleary was elbowed in the face and left the field with a suspected broken nose but this did not rattle their confidence and their defensive line held the fort and allowed the goalies an easy game. Jôn Glass scored all 3 goals after great touches on the ball from the midfield and winger Annabella Ferrante. Arlington managed to grab a goal back but they couldn’t get back in the game enough to deny the Sharks their spot in the final.

At 2.30pm on a freezing cold Sunday afternoon the CSA Select Sharks took center stage in the Championship game and once again they faced Arlington Chaos. The Sharks knew exactly what they had to do to win this game and this time Coaches Shaun and Rick came with a slightly different game plan. The starting whistle blew and The Sharks were out of the starting blocks. Little Brooke Bogaczyk was off like a fire cracker running the wing and firing in a shot with her left foot to take the lead! After gathering composure the girls held it together and some phenomenal passing and trick play took over. Everyone played hard and when Delaney Tedtsen saw an opportunity to sweep the ball through the midfield she did exactly that and took a shot 20yds from goal to score the second of the game. Now it was time to hang tight and close up shop with a defensive line of 4 girls. Morgan Lennon played goalie in the second half and she gave an inspiring performance saving shots left, right and center. Alexandria pulled a goal back with only 5 minutes of normal time remaining. The Sharks had injuries again as these girls were fighting hard for every ball that came their way but every player got a chance to play their part in a spectacular and gritty display of passionate soccer. With parents and coaches on both sides of the field holding their breath and nervously counting down the seconds, the final whistle blew and the victory went to the underdogs, CSA Select Sharks (Gold)! Coach Shaun Nicholson said after the final game “I think my heart stopped at least 3 times during the last 5 minutes of the game. The girls were phenomenal this weekend and they really took everything they had learned onto the field and showed that CSA Select is a force to be reckoned with. We are all thrilled and very proud of their achievement!”

Wednesday

I just couldn't think of another title for today so Wednesday will have to do!!! Nothing terribly exciting today but I thought it was time for an update. This week has been pretty routine so far. I've been to the gym the last 2 mornings and had really good work outs. Yesterday I was a little frustrated because when I got weighed in the morning I'd gained a pound back. After talking to Melissa I decided it was time to change my workout and not just do the same thing every day. Instead of getting on the elliptical I decided to get on the treadmill (which I hate!) and do some running. I managed to do 40 minutes of running and walking which really tired me out but then I headed to the floor to do crunches before moving to the weight machines to work on my upper body. I felt good afterwards! And, when I got up this morning and onto the scales I'd lost the pound I'd regained yesterday plus an extra one which brings my total to 7lbs :)

Today I was volunteering in both kids' classes at school as I do every Wednesday so I don't go to the gym. I was in Joe's class first and I got a lot done for his teacher. I photocopied, made up booklets and then I had a choice of either working in groups with the kids at a center or boring filing of their journal papers. Surprisingly I chose the filing!!!! I like getting to look through the work that they do and the really cute things they write with funny spelling. And, I was starting to get a sinus headache so I thought it was safer to work on my own quietly. Oh, Joe's name was chosen this morning out of the container to be the "Special Person" for the day. He was extremely pleased especially as I was there to see him. The SP gets to be the line leader for the whole day, take the attendance down to the office in the mornings and also take the lunch list and monies to the cafeteria.

After finishing up in Joe's class at 11.30am I headed to Amy's class. There wasn't much for me to do today other than stuff all of the Wednesday folders with this weeks fliers and newsletters. That was pretty much it. It was short and sweet but Amy was happy to see me which is what matters the most :) I then headed home to catch up on emails, pay some bills online and call my Mam and Dad. My Mam had her first round of Chemo today and I was thinking about her all of last night and from the minute I woke up this morning. I know she is doing ok but it would be nice to just pop over for a cuppa and give her a quick hug so she's knows I'm thinking about her. Her appt went well and so far she is feeling pretty good. They gave her a strong dose of anti sickness medication and they gave her anti sickness pills to take home so hopefully she won't be too nauseous. If she as much as sneezes she has to call the hospital immediately. Hopefully things will go to plan and there won't be any drama. It may be hard trying to get through flu season without catching anything when her body does not have any immunity but we must keep our fingers crossed.

Tomorrow I'll be at the gym in the morning and then home for the afternoon I think. I may have to run and get some food supplies in between but that will be about it. We have Amy's soccer practice tomorrow night and then on Friday the kids have a day off school as it's the Maryland Teachers Conference. The kids want to come to the gym with me in the morning and we've arranged to meet some other friends there. After that we may do something else but I'm not quite sure what it will be as yet. We do have Joe's last practice on Friday night and we are having a scrimmage of parents v kids so that should be fun. The kids always really enjoy playing against the grown ups - hopefully there won't be any injuries!!! Joe's last game of the season is on Saturday morning and then we have to head straight to Amy's game which is almost 2hrs away! Can't say I'm looking forward to that commute. She has a birthday party to go to that evening too so hopefully we can get back in time for that. It is a sleepover but she's not staying the night because she also has a game on Sunday. It's a busy weekend!

Well, that's it from me. Hope you made it this far! LOL Have a good rest of the week whatever you are up to.

Julie

Back to normal

Life has been pretty much back to normal since Monday. Joe was sick right through until Sunday afternoon and was still spiking a fever but on Monday he woke up feeling good, no fever and he was ready to head back to school - yippee!!!!!! I felt like I'd been let out of my cage and I headed straight to the gym once the kids had been dropped off at school. It was good to be back and I felt like I had some catching up to do after not being there for almost a week. I soon got back into the swing of things and I felt good after a hard workout. I was back in there yesterday and worked out even harder and that felt good too.

Today has been a little manic once again. Wednesday is my day to volunteer in school. I help out in Joe's class from 9-11.30am. This morning I made up little booklets to start with and then we split the class into three groups and myself and the two teachers took our groups outside to look and find different colored things outside. The kids had to draw or write about what they saw. After that we came back inside and got ready to start our morning centers. I had the craft center (as I usually do!) and I worked with everyone coloring, cutting and making a picture story board for a story the teacher had just read. It was fun and the kids are so cute!

Once Joe's class head off to lunch at 11.30am it's my time to go and help out in Amy's class. I start with putting together the Wednesday folders - this is the folder that's used each week to bring home all of the generic school flyer's, newsletters etc. After that Amy's teacher gave me lots of photocopying to do for the whole of 3rd Grade. Well, needless to say the copier decided to act itself today and not play nice. I got everything done eventually but it was a pain. I did meet a nice lady while doing all of that though. She is the mother in law of another 3rd grade teacher and she is a Brit! We got chatting about "home" and what we miss etc. She had been here since the 60s and has a lot of family over here now so she is more than settled.

I finally left school at 1.40pm and I was starving!!!!! I headed straight home to eat lunch and I stayed there only for half an hour or so when I decided I should go to the Drs office and get my allergy shot as it was overdue and I also needed to run to Walmart for milk and cereal. After that it was straight off to school and time wise I was cutting it fine! Amy had her first night of Drama club tonight so she wasn't getting out until 5.05pm. I picked up Joe, went home, made dinner, ran back up to school to get Amy, came home, ate dinner and said goodbye to Shaun as he left for his soccer game. Phew! Things have been a little more laid back since then which is good. I like that we get to stay at home on Wednesday nights and not have to go out to soccer as we do every other school night of the week although we only have 2 more weeks of Joe's practices and then his team is done. Amy's last game isn't until the first week of November and then we move to indoor soccer for which we only practice once a week so our schedule does calm down a bit.

Tomorrow morning I have to wait in for the DirecTV guy coming sometime between 8-12. No doubt he'll get here at 11.55am! I usually go to the gym on Thursday mornings but I'll just get my stuff in the house done early and head to the gym once the guy has been. He is just swapping out 2 receivers with newer models so it shouldn't take too long once he gets here.

Ok, well the kids have just gone off to bed so I am going to put my feet up and watching some meaningless TV for a little while. Hope you had a good day!

Julie

Sick, sick, sick!

Joe has been sick since he woke up on Thursday which means that I have been stuck at home since Joe woke up on Thursday!!!! I really hoped he would be ok this morning so we could at least have a normal weekend but he woke up and came into my room and threw up on my bed!!! Gross! Poor little guy has really been wiped out by this virus and it's taking its time passing through. Like I said yesterday, hopefully tomorrow he'll feel better. I was supposed to be doing my Orientation for Substitute teaching at the school board on Thursday so I had to cancel it. Now I'm going to do it next month.

So, that means an odd weekend for us. Shaun is at Joe's game right now coaching them and then he'll come home for a few minutes before heading to Amy's game with her. I'm gutted I won't get to see it but I need to stay with Joe. Knowing my luck I'll miss a great game and Amy scoring. Such are the cruelties of life.

I'm not sure what else we'll do this weekend. I'm hoping I can get to the gym at some point as I haven't been able to get there since Tuesday. I at least want to go early tomorrow morning like I did last week but we'll see how things go. Other than that the grass desperately needs cutting so I have that to do which will take a while. With all of the rain we've had it's grown a lot. Hopefully we're coming to the end of the growing season so it doesn't need doing much more before the winter.

Not a lot else going on here really. I haven't been feeling too good myself for the last week. Hopefully that won't last much longer either. Maybe we all need a good holiday somewhere? Now that would be nice!

Ok, off to do more laundry! Have a good weekend :)

Julie

Time Flies

Wow, it's been a while once again. Things have just been so busy as they always are at this time of year with school back in session and fall sports in full swing. The only night of the week where we don't have anything going on is Wednesday so roll on tomorrow! My days have been busy as well as my evenings. I have been consistently going to the gym and I can honestly say I'm loving it! Not only do I get to work out with my good friends bu I generally just feel so much better for exercising and I feel stronger.

Each morning I drop the kids off at school and then head straight to the gym which is only a few minutes from my house. I work out from 9-10.30am and then I usually run errands etc before heading home. By the time I get showered and eat some lunch it's often going on for 1pm! Needless to say I've been neglecting things around the house a little. Tomorrow I am going to come straight home after dropping the kids off so I can mow the grass. I figured it's still a good workout as I'll use the push mower and we have 1.3 acres so it takes a good while. We also have the pool company coming out in the morning and I need to be here for them so that's another reason for staying at home. If I get a lot done I may go to the gym for an hour before picking up the kids in the afternoon but we'll see.

On Thursday I have orientation at the school board so I can complete my application for substitute teaching. The class lasts from 8.30am - 4pm but someone I know did hers today and she said they were done by 12.30pm so that isn't too bad. Hopefully I have time to substitute if I get called - one more thing to try and fit into my day!

Well, it's a quick update for now. Hopefully the next post will be a bit more exciting!

Julie

Body aches!

Well since I last blogged I have been working out hard at the gym. I am really enjoying going in the mornings as soon as I've dropped the kids at school and I meet up with friends there to work out with. Last week I eased into it by walking on the treadmill a couple of miles and using the leg and upper arms machines and the aches the next morning told me I was giving my muscles a good work out. On Tuesday this week 4 of us paid a personal trainer and we had a group session for 1hr. Can I just say "Oh My God!!!!" What a huge difference it made having someone tell us what to do and push us to do the absolute best we could before giving up. We were all dying by the end but at the same time I felt really great and the workout was fun. The guy we worked with has a great personality and he is really funny so it helped to have that rather than some of the more serious trainers. I was seriously hurting when I woke up yesterday morning.

Yesterday I volunteered at school and didn't get home until 1pm so I did not get to the gym. I got my exercise instead by mowing at the front of the house on the steep hill. This morning I met Gina and Melissa at the gym again. After a quick warm up on the treadmill we moved to the floor and began trying to remember what the trainer had done with us on Tuesday. Luckily for us he was there and had no clients at the time so he ended up coming over and working with us again. It was another fabulous workout and I was there for a full 2hrs. By the time I left I was totally exhausted and HUNGRY!!!! Not a good time to hit the grocery store but I was careful about what I bought not wanting to ruin all of my hard work so I had a Kashi bar to calm my hunger and then for lunch I ate a spinach salad with fresh chicken breast and a low fat yogurt to follow. The only problem is that now I'm home I can't be bothered to do anything!!! LOL

We have soccer practice tonight and then at 7pm I am going to the school for Joe's kindergarten Open House. I have to leave there no later than 8pm to get back home as Shaun then has to head out to a soccer meeting at 8.30pm. Busy, busy, busy.

All in all life is good and I am feeling really positive. Funny how exercising and taking time out for myself can really do that. I should've done it a long time ago but I suppose it's better late than never. I'm determined to be a hot Momma by Christmas!!!!!

Have a great day!

Julie

A New Leaf

Just in time for fall I thought it was time to turn over a new leaf! lol What have I done I hear you ask - I've joined the gym! Yes, you heard right - me, at the gym :) I haven't been a member of the gym since I was pregnant with Amy!!!! I had to stop going 10 weeks before she was born when I was put on bed rest and I think I only made it back there a few times after she arrived. Since then I've just tried to do my own thing - walking outside, walking in front of the TV with Leslie Sansone, hitting the treadmill and then of course there's always the "sitting in front of the TV just flicking the remote ":) Now that Joe is in school full time it was time to get my butt in gear (literally) and really make the effort to get in shape. It's fine to admire people's figures and think how lucky some people are to be so thin but then I realize that these are the same people who workout regularly and take care of themselves.

Our soccer club has made a deal with World Gym to work on Speed and Agility training and as a result of that they have offered parents of players the chance to join the gym at a reduced fee. So, it was a really good opportunity to join at a great price - only $19.99 a month - and have that price locked in for life. I joined yesterday with a couple of friends and I took part in my first workout. First off Julie and I just mosied around and took a look at everything and when she had to leave to get to an appointment Melissa turned up and dragged me along to a spinning and abs class. Needless to say my butt hurts a lot today and I'm not sure I can sit on the bike again tomorrow!!!! In the morning I'm meeting Gina there to have our orientation with a trainer and figure out what we are doing. I may go back to the spinning class too. I plan on being a goddess by Christmas. If all goes well I will post my progress. Fingers crossed!

Not a lot else is happening at the moment. We've been running from soccer practice to soccer practice as usual and it's getting tiring and we only just started the season. Shaun has been very busy with work and I have been coaching Joe's practices but hopefully over the next few days things will calm down a little and not be so crazy.

Today I volunteered at school. Firstly I worked in Joe's class for 2 1/2 hours helping with centers which is always fun. The kids are so funny and cute. I don't think I could manage a full day as a kindergarten teacher - they wear you out as they have to be micro managed. After finishing up in kindergarten I went off to help in Amy's 3rd grade class. There wasn't a lot to do there other than file papers and then sort out the Wednesday folders with this weeks flyer's and graded papers. There was nothing else for me to do so I left there and headed to Prince Frederick. I stopped at Panera bread first to have some lunch - yumm :) From there I ran to Wal-mart and GNC and then headed back home to quickly clean up. Melissa then called to say she had her days mixed up and was at school ready to volunteer though she forgot it was Wednesday and not Thursday. So, she came by my house and we had coffee and cookies before heading into school to pick up the kids.

We had a lot of homework to get through tonight including studying with Amy for a math and spelling test tomorrow. She did good so hopefully her tests will go well. Other than that we've just been hanging out and catching up on Tivo'd TV shows. Shaun has been in VA all day and he left before 6am this morning so we have not seen him. He is playing soccer tonight - his first game of the season in his over 30s league and he went straight there from work. He will be home around 9pm and I'm sure he'll be exhausted. Tomorrow he should be working from home so it will be good to actually see him!

Ok, well I think I've rambled enough and I had only planned on making a quick post! Hope you all had a great day.

Julie

Soaking Saturday

Tropical Storm Hanna arrived in our region last night and it's been raining cats and dogs ever since. It was pretty light rain last night and early this morning but now it's pouring. At least we haven't got the high winds they were predicting - unless of course they are still to come. It's forecast to rain most of the day but be nice tomorrow.

Amy was supposed to play her first game of the season today but needless to say it was rained off. She also has a game tomorrow afternoon so we are waiting to hear the status of that one. Hopefully it will still be on so we won't have to make up 2 games already. Joe's first game isn't until next week so he hasn't missed anything yet.

So, what will we do today? We are planning to just stay home and keep dry. It's is the perfect day to be lazy and just hang out. Luckily for me I have my new laptop to play with :)

Shaun is back from CA. He got back around 6pm yesterday and stopped by the park for the last half hour of Joe's team practice. We were all very pleased to see him and he was very happy to be home again.

Not really an exciting post for today but it's a post all the same.

Happy Birthday Amy!!!!!

Today my baby girl turns 8 and I can't believe the time has flown that quickly. There are times I look at her and still see my little 2yr old who was so dependent on me and so mischievous and now I see a 3rd Grader who is pretty independent and her own person.

Ok, enough drama!!! lol This week has been pretty dramatic in itself. Firstly we had Amy's birthday party on Sunday afternoon and invited 14 kids, both boys and girls from school and from her soccer team. This years theme was "Amy's Olympic Games." She's so into sports and with it being Olympic year I thought it would suit her down to the ground and she thought it was a great idea. I usually try and think of something original for the invitations and after watching the first couple of days of Olympic action I suddenly had my idea - to make security passes as the invitations. Here is what we came up with.

I made the cards, laminated them and then bought some lanyards from Office Depot and attached them for the finishing touch. Each person was required to wear theirs to gain access into the Olympic Village on the big day. We started off with Track and Field at Birds Nest Stadium. I was so busy I forgot to take pictures of the first couple of events but I managed to remember by the time the Long Jump cake around. Look at these kids go!

Next came the hammer throw - and no we didn't use the real thing. Instead we used Spud's Kong toy that we have tied to a piece of rope so you can give it a good swing and then release it. The kids loved this event and Joe was winning until Christa knocked him off the top spot.

Once track and field was finished the kids were ready to hit The Water Cube! It was very hot and humid and they were really ready to cool off in the water. They chose not to do any races and just have fun playing instead which was fine with me - I was tired too!!!!!

Does my have 6 pack Abs???

And the overall winner was..........Amy and not just because it was her birthday either. My competitive little over achiever just put everything into her running etc and she is fast! I had ordered proper medals from a trophy store online and they were pretty nice. We awarded one gold to the winner, a silver to the runner up, Christa and then everyone else got bronze.

Oh, I almost forgot about the most important part - the cake!!! We went with the Olympic torch and podium theme and I made the torch flames from boiled sugar which the kids were dying to eat. It was a lot of cake but thankfully the neighbors are always willing to accept donations of leftovers.

So, we relaxed the rest of the night away, Shaun and I stayed at the pool for a while and Amy and Joe went inside and started rummaging through Amy's gifts.

On Monday morning Amy came into our room around 6am and said she wasn't feeling so well. I went and lay down with her and immediately noticed that she was burning up and her temp was over 101F. I got her some Tylenol and a drink of water and got her settled back down. She didn't get back to sleep and came in to our bed a little while later than had to run to the bathroom to throw up. Thankfully it was just the water she'd drank but by now she was feeling really grotty. The fever spiked and dropped all day long which was sad because we had agreed to do her "pretend" birthday on this day because Shaun was leaving on a business trip to CA on Tuesday. She got up and opened her presents and was genuinely happy and excited but as soon as the Tylenol started to wear off again she wasn't so good. This went on all day long and her fever eventually got up to 103.7 which was worrying. She wasn't even able to keep ice chips down but by the afternoon we had started allowing her just one ice chip every 5 minutes and it stayed down doing it that way. She didn't throw up anymore but the fever still came and went. The next morning she still had the fever so I kept her home from school. Both her and Joe were really upset when Daddy left and it didn't help Joe that he had to go to school while Amy got to stay at home with me all day :( He survived though :) I ended up taking Amy to the Drs just to get checked out as she winced when I was taking her temp in her ear. Sure enough she had a small ear infection and because of that mixed with the fever we got a Rx for an antibiotic which was has made a huge difference. She still had a low grade fever at bedtime last night but woke up feeling good and healthy this morning for her "real" birthday. She went to school very happy.

I worked at the school this morning in Joe's classroom helping out with one of the reading and writing centers which is always fun. After I finished in Joe's class around 11.30am I then went to Amy's class to help out there. I didn't have much to do and I was finished just in time to go to lunch with the class. It was fun to sit with them and hear their chit-chat and the chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes were pretty good!!! Amy shared the decorated cookies I'd made (and forgot to take a picture of but they were gold medals with each child's name on).

Since we had already done birthday etc on Sunday and to make up for Dad not being here I told the kids I'd take them to Maggie Moos for dessert once we'd eaten dinner. We took a candle and lighter and sang happy birthday - hey it's like another Olympic torch!!!! It was a fun day all in all and Amy said it was a great birthday.

Back to School

Today was the first day of the new school year and also my little guy's first day of kindergarten!!!!! What an exciting day. The kids were up before their alarm clocks went off and they were dressed and raring to go. After a lot of waiting around it was time to get out the camera for some photos and then head off to the school.

There was a lot of excitement outside of school and a lot of parents and the local news photographer were taking photos of their little munchkins before they headed to their classrooms. This is Joe telling me to quit taking pictures. Do you think I was cramping his style???

All of the kindergartners were herded into the cafeteria until they were all there and then each teacher took their own group down to their classroom. Joe was quite happy to sit with his new friends as I said goodbye to him. I then saw Amy off as she joined the 3rd graders (it doesn't seem long since she had her first day at kindergarten) and I left to head home without any tears:) It's hard to be sad when your child is so excited to be there. When I got home it was so strange being in a house so quiet! Shaun is in VA all week so I don't even have his noise to distract me.

So what did I do with all of my new found freedom? I baked and decorated Back to School cookies ready for the kids coming home of course. I went back to the school at 11.25am to help out with kindergarten lunches which is always chaotic the first week or so. Joe said he was having a great time and really liked his teacher. He was settled next to his classmates and had a good time eating his lunch and watching all of the comings of goings. After that it was a quick run to Walmart for me and then back home to decorate the cookies. I just got them finished in time for picking the kids up. Phew!

Their verdict on the day was that it was great. Joe said it was the best day ever! He loves his teacher, Mrs Morrow and liked having so many kids his age around him. His favorite thing of course was recess - who would've thought??? Amy loves her new teacher too. She has Mrs Ellis and she said she is a lot of fun and really, really nice. She said a lot of today was boring as they were going over the rules for everything with each teacher they visited - hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more exciting. She also said she spent a lot of the day feeling nervous about whether or not Joe was okay or whether he might be hurt or upset or whatever. We told her not to worry herself about that - if anything is wrong they will call us - not her!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some time to get the house in better shape. I have a ton of laundry (does it ever end?) and I need to take a lot of stuff to Goodwill and to the dump. Sounds like fun don't you think? Tomorrow night we have soccer practice with Amy's team and I hope everyone is not too tired now that school has started up. It usually takes a few weeks for everyone to get adjusted to their new routines.

Well that's about it from me. What a crazy day!!!!! How was yours?

Wacky Wednesday

Another busy day ahead and I guess it's just giving us a taste of things to come with soccer season and school almost upon us. Amy has practice again tonight and they are doing goalie training. I have to go back to ref training tonight for the second night this week. I have another class on Friday night and then all day Saturday from 9-4pm. By that time hopefully I'll have passed the test and will be a qualified Referee.

Amy's team scrimmaged a boys U9 team last night and although we didn't win we were really happy with how they played and how they battled on until the game was over. We scored a great goal and had a couple of really close calls. We have another scrimmage tomorrow night against the other U9 girls team. We will hopefully win that one - they are a newly formed team and haven't had much time to practice.

This morning the kids and I will run along to the school and drop in Joe's medical forms with his shot records so that he can start kindergarten. He had his appointment at the Drs yesterday and had to get three shots in his leg. He was really brave and did great. As a reward I took him to Kmart and let him pick out a small toy. This was more a lesson for Amy on how to behave at the Drs instead of freaking out and not letting anyone near her. Hopefully she's learned that good behavior = a reward. Time will tell :) We also need to run to the grocery store this morning and get a few supplies for dinner and then later this afternoon Amy has a dentist appointment. We will hopefully get time to swim between all of that.

My Mam had her surgery yesterday and everything went very well. So well in fact that she is already home :) She goes back on Aug 18th to get the results of the lymph node biopsy and then she will start her radiotherapy but all in all, prognosis is good.

Ok, we are off to get moving on our list of things to do. Have a great day!

Back to Reality

Our vacation is over already and it's back into the swing of things this week which I'm not quite ready for to be honest. I love being in vacation mode and even though the kids are still on summer break it's back to the routine of laundry, cooking dinner every night, bills etc etc.

We had a great time at the beach and although Shaun and I weren't expecting much we had a really good time. The kids were in their element playing in the ocean waves every day and they really had a lot of fun and they are already asking to go back next year! As tacky as the beach is it's really a perfect place for families as it's really easy entertainment and there's so much to do.

We arrived there last Sunday afternoon and the first big surprise for the kids was that their bedroom had bunk beds - how exciting is that? The top bunk was twin size and the bottom was a full size bed. Joe told Amy she could sleep on the top the first night and then they'd take turns and switch every day which worked out perfectly.

We were staying at a friends condo in a really nice part of Ocean City (at the Delaware end) overlooking North Side Park and Assawoman Bay. The view from the balcony was perfect. The first thing we had noticed when getting out of the car was the cool ocean breeze and it felt so good having come from sweltering humidity back home. Once we were unpacked and organized we headed straight for the beach! The waves were pretty strong and it was surprising how easily the kids were wiped out! They thought it was great fun though and they enjoyed just jumping waves, digging in the sand and all of that good stuff.

After a couple of hours we headed back to the condo but not before taking a quick dip in the pool to wash off all of the sand. After getting showered we then headed out to Nick's Ribs for dinner and had an hour long wait. We were so hungry by the time we finally got a table and we devoured the bread! Dinner was good and we headed back home to relax before bed.

Monday was another day at the beach for us and what a great time we had once again. Amy enjoyed being buried up to her neck in sand and Joe found a friend to boss around! Shaun took to Boogie Boarding and I sat and watched and photographed everything while baking on the sand. Once we made it back to the apartment Shaun took the kids over to the park and I snapped a picture of them walking back after playing at the playground. We then sat and watched the sunset - how beautiful it was.

Tuesday started off drizzly in OC but when I checked the weather radar it was clear up in Rehoboth so we took a drive up there and checked out the Outlets. Shaun was after a pair of Crocks as his feet were hurting and I got my self a nice pair of Nike flip flops. We drove back through Bethany Beach which seemed nice and we stopped at Delaware State Park for the beach as there were bathrooms and concessions here and we all needed to get changed. The beach here was nice and still fairly busy for a week day. The best part - the dolphins that were swimming really close to shore and they were jumping out and people on the beach were clapping and cheering. And guess what I did? - I cried!!!!! I've never seen dolphins just swimming like that in their natural habitat and it made me so happy to finally see them. Of course, this was the only day I didn't have my camera but I did manage to see them again the next day at our regular beach. On the way home we also stopped at a fishing tackle shop and got some crabbing nets and supplies as Amy and Joe were dying to catch some crabs off our pier.

So Wednesday started early with Shaun walking the kids to the park for their first crabbing experience. They absolutely loved doing this and Joe could not stop talking! They caught a number of Blue Crabs and kept the biggest ones bringing 3 decent sized ones home. I had the pleasure of cooking the smelly things (gross!) and Shaun and Joe sat on the balcony and ate them. Joe was keen to try it but quickly stated he didn't like the meat at all so Shaun was left to devour the stash himself. We went to play mini golf and bumped into some friends from home which was quite the surprise and then we headed back to the beach again for a few hours of sandy fun and then out to dinner to refuel.

Thursday was our last full day. The kids went crabbing again and caught 6 crabs fairly quickly. They had already decided before going that they wouldn't keep their catch today but they still stored them in their bucket until we were ready to pack up and then they set them free. We decided to go back to the boardwalk (I forgot to mention that we'd already been one day earlier in the week) to get some things we wanted to take home with us. This time we rode the train along 2 miles of the boardwalk before getting off and then making our way back stopping at the stores. Shaun had told the kids earlier in the week that they could buy hermit crabs as pets and it was what the had talked about the whole week. The day had finally come thank goodness and they got to pick out their prized possessions. Here are what they chose.

I had wanted to go to the souvenir store as they had lots of really nice beach decor that I wanted to get for Amy's room. We decided while we were on vacation that a beach theme would be really nice for her bedroom. I got quite a lot of goodies but haven't shown them to her yet. Considering how much I spent we're thinking of keeping it all for her birthday which is in a months time. We had our last trip to the beach once again and we were all sad when it was time to leave. Dinner that night was at Hooters!

On Friday morning we basically packed up and cleaned the condo and then set off for home around 10am or so. We had an easy drive back and although none of us were ready to come back we were all very happy to be in our own beds again! Since we got home we have spent most of our time at Hallowing Point Park in Prince Frederick watching soccer. The Trinidad and Tobago U17 & U19 southern national team are here playing exhibition games which our club had organized. The kids have enjoyed helping out and being flag bearers at the opening ceremonies. The Calvert Recorder photographer and reporter were there on Saturday so the kids may even have their picture in the paper later this week.

This week I am taking a referee class! Our club has a rule that every team has to have at least one qualified referee and as we don't have one as yet I organized a class so myself and other team reps could take it. I have class on M,W,F from 6-9pm and then on Sat from 9-4pm. I'll be glad when it's done! Shaun has goalkeeper training tonight with Amy's team and again on Wednesday night and then Tuesday and Thursday we have organized scrimmages against the other U9 teams. We have a busy week ahead.

This week is also a very important one for my Mam and family. She is going into hospital today to have a lumpectomy tomorrow. Today there are injecting the radioactive dye and tomorrow she will have the surgery. I'm praying all goes well and she gets a clean bill of health once this is all over with. She will have to have radiotherapy for about a month just to make sure every last cancer cell gets killed off. Please keep her and my family in your thoughts.

Well, this is quite the novel. I certainly didn't intend to blog so much today but at least you know exactly what we've been up to! Take care and enjoy your day:)

What To Do????

My kids are in soccer camp this week and yesterday was their first day. It was so quiet in my house and I am so not used to not having them around that I had no idea what to do with myself. I dropped them off at camp just before 8.30am and I went back up there at lunch to check they were ok and to take more drinks. The heat index was something like 105F yesterday and they drank a ton. They were happily eating lunch when I got there and they said they were having a great time. Amy was soaked through and wanted me to run home again and get her a dry shirt but I told her she'd be fine.

When I got home to eat lunch for myself it was still deathly quiet, just me and Spud and he doesn't say much ;-) Normally Shaun would be working at home but yesterday he was in the office in VA all day. I did some laundry, put it away, cleaned up the kitchen, prepared dinner etc and finally Shaun got home around 3pm and I talked non stop! Finally it was time to go back to camp and when I got there the kids looked so hot and worn out but they were still somehow running around and didn't want to go home. I guess that means they had a great time. When they got home they immediately demonstrated to Shaun the tricks they had learned and it was impressive. They were sleepy this morning but still excited to get up and get ready to go again. I think by Friday afternoon they'll be thoroughly exhausted and definitely ready to go on vacation!

When we got home we ate dinner as they were STARVING and then we headed out to the pool to cool off. The water was 93F so it wasn't exactly refreshing but still it felt nice to be in the water. We swam for an hour or so and then headed in to shower and relax. There were no arguments at bedtime as they were both really tired. Amy had a bad headache and I think it was from dehydration. She went to bed with the heat pack on her head and a bottle of iced water. She felt so much better this morning and I packed a big cooler for them this morning with lots of ice. When I dropped them off this morning I headed straight to Walmart to buy 2 crates of water and 24 bottles of gatorade. I'm going to take some replenishments up at lunchtime.

We are heading to the beach on Sunday for a few days. Shaun's friend has a house up there that we are staying in and it's on a nice stretch of the beach at the Delaware end of Ocean City. The kids are so incredibly excited. Thankfully soccer camp is distracting them from counting down the days this week. Amy has had her bag packed for over 2 weeks. We found out yesterday that the kids bedroom has bunk beds - how exciting will that be? We haven't told them - we're keeping that as a surprise for when we get there although I'm sure it will then end up in tears for whoever does't get to sleep on top. Maybe they can take turns.

I haven't posted any pics for a while so here are a few taken at the pool over the last few days. I will try and get some from soccer camp this week also to post in a few days (I promise!)

Fresh Start

Another week begins and I have no idea what this week will bring for us. We don't have any real plans other than swimming and seeing some friends. Today the kids want m e to take them to play tennis at the park but it's really hot and muggy. We were supposed to get a big storm last night that would clear the air but it didn't happen so it's still really humid. Apparently there's a big storm system moving across from Ohio today and that should bring cooler air tomorrow. Maybe I can persuade the kids to wait until tomorrow.

One thing I do need to do today is cut the grass out the front event though it's not really the weather to do it. It's looking messy so I really should get out there and at least it's good hill walking exercise for me. The best thing about having the pool too is that you can jump right in when you finish mowing and it's a great way to cool off. Tonight Amy has Technical Training and I think it will be miserable in the heat (unless it ends up getting rained off!)

I got the Eat Clean Diet book from the library a few weeks ago and I sat down and read it cover to cover last night and this morning. It's really a common sense book about eating foods in their closest original form as possible and staying away from the highly processed stuff. Things we all know for sure but need to be reminded of now and again. I'm gonna try and introduce as many "clean foods" into my diet as I can and hopefully I won't go off the rails too quickly. This morning for breakfast I had a bowl of good old fashioned oatmeal sprinkled with fresh blueberries. I was going to go with the instant oatmeal until I read the ingredient list. It didn't seem clean enough and when I read my tub of old fashioned oats it simply had oats as the ingredients and that seemed exactly what I was looking for. It takes a little longer in the microwave but we're only talking a couple of minutes here. It was good and I was surprised at just how much there was but with the contrast of the fresh, almost crunchy blueberries it was really good. I'm not sure what is for dinner tonight but it will be something simple along the lines of grilled chicken and salad seeing as we have to be at soccer by 6pm.

I think that's about all I have for you today. I'm actually struggling to blog this morning. To finish, here's a pic I took of Amy on Friday after she'd had a haircut :)

Meet Alice

Meet Alice, my Mam and Dad's new puppy. Isn't she adorable? She's an English setter and they just got her last weekend.

Amy and Joe can't wait to meet her in October but of course by then, she'll be much bigger than she is now.

We had a fun day yesterday at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomon's. We have been here plenty of times before but each visit seems to turn up something a little different. This time we went along with Sarah from Amy's soccer team, her Mom and baby brother. Although they are natives of this area they had never been to the museum before! We started off at the ray and skate tank and the kids all had the guy working there earning his $$$ by asking him lots of questions. The Crocodile Hunter always comes up in this conversation :(

From there we headed into the Children's Discovery Room where there is lots of hands on stuff for the kids to do. First they looked in the sand box for shark teeth and they all found a favorite one to bring home. Our area beaches are teeming with shark teeth and lots of people go down there with that specific task in mind. Anyway, the kids played in this room for a good while, dressing up in the boat, in period clothing, doing puzzles, playing in a toy lighthouse etc.

There is also a big open tank in this room with different sea creatures in. The lady from the museum got some of the creatures out for the kids to see and touch. The first was a horseshoe crab - I hate these things! I was on the beach at North Beach one day and was sitting by the waters edge when one suddenly came up through the sand and scared the living daylights out of me.

Next we went over to the lighthouse for a quick tour. It was very crowded and there isn't a lot of room on those teeny cramped stairs so we didn't stay in there too long. We came back to the otters and then went back inside and looked around the rest of the museum. As we were walking by the fossil room we saw a lady scraping away at a big rock and removing turritella shells. She then surprised us by asking the kids if they'd like to come into the room and have a try! Wow, we've never been invited to do that before and the kids were VERY excited!

We left not long after this and went to Burger King for some lunch - the kids had really been looking forward to this. We then headed back North and on the way home stopped at the recycled playground at Calvert Cliffs. There was a lot of fun stuff here and Joe particularly liked the Tarzan swing though he told me it was more like an Indiana Jones swing! It was so hot and humid by now that we really didn't stay here too long - considering the girls had soccer practice last night we didn't want to wear them out too much. We eventually made it home and headed straight to the pool to cool off. It was so refreshing! Next came soccer practice and as soon as we got home from that we all headed straight for the pool once again. What a great way to end a great day!

Today we're heading to a friends house after lunch and we'll play there for a few hours. Before heading there Amy is getting a hair cut and I'm also hoping I can get my butt in great and mow some grass this morning as it's getting really long again with all of the storms we keep having. I'm not sure what we're doing this weekend. Shaun wants to get some of the retaining wall done out front so I can help with that however it's going to be really humid so we'll have to wait and see. I would like to take the kids to the movies tomorrow and see The Incredible Hulk and then maybe go out for dinner. Whatever it is I'm sure it will be fun (and hot!). I hope you have a fun weekend too!

Stupid Blogger!

I was so mad yesterday morning. I typed up a huge post and when I went to upload it "poof" it was gone! Not a problem I thought it auto saved every few minutes as I'm typing but when I went into the entry only the first few sentences were there. I was too peed off to start again ;-)

So, to back track to where I last left off. Thursday last week was a quiet day and we just hung out at home and didn't really do anything. On Friday morning we kicked it up a notch and headed to Watkins Regional Park about 25 minutes from here. I used to visit this park fairly regularly at one time but haven't been for a few years. It was so long in fact that the kids had no idea where we were going. Once we got there Amy remembered some bits of it but Joe didn't recall any of it as he was just a toddler back then. I went to take our first photo when we hopped onto the mini train only to find that there was no memory card in the camera! After a few deep breaths I got over it and just challenged myself to enjoy it and store the memories in my empty head! lol The train was cool - the kids loved it and we rode through the woods around the park and down to the petting farm area and then back again. After that we ventured to the carousel where the kids rode and I watched. Amy hopped onto a kangaroo and Joe rode on a reindeer. They were so happy and had huge smiles on their faces that t was just really nice to watch them. The simplest things in life are often the sweetest :)

From there we were off to Old Maryland Farm which is the petting farm. We saw the cows, horses, donkey (so cute!), llamas (yuck!), ducks, pigs, peacocks, chickens and rabbits. Phew! It was actually pretty smelly so we didn't hang around there too long. Next we played mini golf and Joe was declared the winner. After that was the part the kids were excited about most - the cool playground and a picnic! We ate lunch and Amy and Joe played for about 40 mins in the playground before we headed out. It was a really fun trip and we'll certainly go back there before the summer is over - WITH A CAMERA!

On Saturday Amy's team were playing in the McSoccer Fest Tournament in Columbia MD. We headed up there around 11am and met the other team mates there. It was a fun afternoon but very hot. We won 1 game and lost 2 so we didn't advance into the play offs but it was a good experience and it was a fun day out though tiring. We left there around 5.15pm and a group of us all headed to The Greene Turtle as we were starving. You would think if you were going to a tournament sponsored by McD's that you'd at least be able to get a decent burger and some yummy fries but oh no, the food was crappy pretzels and nasty hot dogs. Never mind, we had a good feed for dinner. The kids all sat together and the grown ups had their own space. The kids get along so well and Joe and his friend Ryan had a blast and Joe almost made himself sick from laughing so hard!!!

Sunday was Shaun's birthday and we decided to have an easy day and just hang out and swim. It was a nice hot day and the pool felt good. We did venture out for a short trip to Greenstreet Gardens but it wasn't very exciting and we didn't get much. We swam for a couple of hours and then Shaun headed out to play soccer. While he was there the kids and I ran to the grocery store to pick up an ice cream cake and then we went to pick up Chinese food. As we were driving back home we met a storm and the heavens opened. Shaun called to say he was on his way back home and by the time he got here the storm was in full force. It continued for a few hours and the lightning was quite spectacular. So, all in all a nice day was had by all.

Yesterday we had a fairly lazy day once again and our only trip out was to the library. I had a couple of books on hold and needed to pick them up and Amy wanted to exchange a couple of her books that she'd already read. When we got home we went out to swim and by dinner time another storm was rolling in but not before we had a chance to eat our steaks by the pool.

Hopefully this novel will make it onto my blog this time and then it won' have to be so long next time! What are you up to?

Back to Basics

Today I'm trying to get myself a little more organized and in control in relation to what I'm eating and how I shop/ plan meals. Actually, I don't plan meals which is my biggest problem. I tend to just decide that day what we'll eat for dinner and then if I don't have the ingredients I'll run to the store. I know the kids will get very bored of that so I am going to plan my menu at least for a week and see if I can cut down on the runs to the store. I'm sure it'll be a work in progress but I will at least try.

I'm also going to go back to my breakfast smoothies and see if I can get into that routine again. This morning I'm enjoying a banana, blueberry and strawberry yogurt smoothie and it is delish! I also added a heaped tablespoon of flax seed. Here's a pic - and yes, I'd already drank half when I remembered to take a pic!

I have been battling a horrible sinus infection for the last few days and I finally gave in and went to the Drs office yesterday. I got a 10 day supply of antibiotics and I can tell they are already making a difference after only 2 doses. I'm still really congested and nauseous but not quite as bad as I have been and my throat no longer hurts. Hopefully it will improve some more as the day goes on as I'm ready to be done with it.

Ok, I'm off to plan my menus and get my coupons together and make an attempt at being a savvy shopper. Have any of you tried The Grocery Game before? If you haven't then take a look at the website and if you are in the US then it's definitely worth a shot. You get a free trial for $1 for the first month and then it's $10 for 8 weeks after that. Basically the site monitors the grocery store prices, sales and coupons and tells you when to buy certain items so that you always buy them when they are at their rock bottom price. You need to buy the Sunday paper to get the coupons from the inserts and you need to be prepared to clip coupons but you can save a huge amount and with the way things are going here at the moment, any saving helps. If only they had gas coupons!

Fun with Friends!

Today Amy had some of her school friends over to swim. She was really excited and kept thanking me all morning for having this party for her. It's not unusual for her to be playing with friends but it is unusual for her to have friends outside of our "usual" group. The weather was perfect for a swim date and the girls were all ready to jump in as soon as they got down to the pool. We had Amy and Joe and 5 girls from school plus one of their brothers. Emma, Sophie's Mom, stayed the whole time and Hannah's Mom stayed for an hour or so and then left with Hannah's brother who kept annoying her:) The girls were all great together and there was no arguing, disagreements or anything - they just had plain old fun. Sydney's Mom came to get her at 1pm but we asked if she could stay longer as she was not ready to go home. Everyone ended up leaving around 4pm

Just as everyone was coming and going I got a call from our babysitter next door asking if she could send her brother and his girlfriend over to our house until their Mom got home. She had to go out to work and her brother and girlfriend couldn't be trusted to be left alone in the house together! So, I also had two 16yr olds to watch for a little while - too funny!

A big storm came over and refilled our pool so that was nice and it was later in the afternoon so it didn't spoil our outdoor fun. The rain lasted a few hours but now it looks beautiful and sunny outside once again. My weeds are growing though so I must get out there in the morning and mow them. Temperatures are supposed to be nice tomorrow so it'll be a good day for it.

Tomorrow we are going to the library in the morning. Amy is very excited as books are just her favorite thing. I'll sign them both up for the Summer Reading program and they will have fun with that. There is at least one book I want to get and I've placed it on hold. It's Jodi Picoult "The Tenth Circle". It's on TV next week so I want to try and read it before then - the movies are never quite as good as the book. We also have a few errands to run tomorrow but it will be a fairly relaxing day. We don't have soccer practice tomorrow night either so it will be our first Tuesday night without that for a long time - what will we do with ourselves?

Ok, that's it from me for tonight. Hope you all had a good day!