Archive for Sports
Life’s happenings
Posted by: | CommentsLife has been a little crazy around here lately. I already mentioned the other day the problem I was having with my neck and back. I’m still trying to recover from that. Yesterday was the first day I really got out of bed and did anything. It kind of put some stress on me and made it flare up again a little. Today I’m taking it easy around the house again but hoping to be able to get up and do more without aggravating it. I have to say that this is the weirdest thing because I have no idea how it happened!
Since I’ve kind of been stuck in bed for the last few days I’ve been able to enjoy watching a couple of TV shows I have on DVD. I have the whole set of Reba (that’s been released to this point) and the first two seasons of Little House on the Prairie. Obviously those are two very different shows but they both are great to watch for different reasons. I love the humor and jokes about everyday life in Reba and I love the setting and atmosphere that’s created in Little House.
Soccer has started back up again. It’s really nice because it’s indoor soccer too. It’s WAY too hot to be outside right now unless you’re in a pool! We had a really nice, long spring this year (which was very surprising because the heat usually slams us in May!) so we’ve had nice temperatures up until about a week ago and then they rocketed into the upper 90′s and the 100′s. UGH! I think the lowest temp on our 7 day forecast is 99! Oh well! Anyway, back to soccer – I sure did get sidetracked didn’t I! Our season is going great so far! We had our third game last night and we’ve won the last two. The first one we only lost by one goal and it was in the last 4 seconds of the game. 
It was against a team in a higher division than we are though so that’s saying a lot! It’s really exciting because we have been working on building this team and trying to get a homeschool soccer team going since 2005. We’ve had a team off and on and sometimes we do well but most of the time we have such a mix of inexperienced players and experienced players that we just don’t seem to do well. Well, this season we were able to get quite a few kids to join us who have played soccer for years and it’s making all the difference. They look like a different team out there! (I guess in some ways they are! haha) It’s been so nice to see them do well and come off the field happy and proud of what they’ve just accomplished. And I must say our goalie is amazing! He saves so many goals and does a fantastic job. And it just so happens that he’s my son too. 
It pays to have a dad who was a goalie and who has coached for years and years who can teach you all the goalie skills you need! I’m pretty proud of my hubby too – can you tell? 
He’s done a great job coaching this team!
In other news, my daughter has been competing in a competition called American Kids. She competed in two different local competitions and made it to state with both of her songs. She competed in the state competition this month and made it to nationals! Woohoo! So, we are heading to Branson, Missouri, next month for her to compete with both of her songs (she sings one with a cd track and the other she plays the piano and sings) . It should be an amazing week and we are very excited to go.
Well, I guess that’s enough rambling for today. Hope everyone is having a great week!
My son the soccer star!
Posted by: | CommentsWe just got back from a soccer game a little while ago and I’m very proud to announce that my son scored 3 goals!!! And all in the second half. You see, he’s our goalie and played the whole first half in that position (and did quite well there if I may say so!) but he really wants to be able to play forward so my husband (the coach of the team) switched him out for the second half and let him play forward. He did not disappoint and played extremely well. Unfortunately, the kid that filled in for him at goalie, while he did his best and did a fairly good job, let quite a few by and we ended up losing. All in all it was a GREAT game and very exciting!
What a busy time of year!
Posted by: | CommentsIsn’t summer supposed to be the time when things slow down? Aren’t we supposed to be able to just take it easy and lie next to the pool? I wish! We’ve been keeping really busy this summer. Softball has kept us really busy. Thankfully there are only two more weeks after this week. The week after next is our National tournament and we are pretty excited about that. Hopefully we’ll do really well there!
We’ve also been keeping busy by going to basketball games, soccer games, and baseball games that the kids’ friends are playing in. That’s been a lot of fun for them.
Our town has a movie theater that has been running kids movies for free 3 days a week so we’ve gone to the movies almost every week for the last month or so. That’s been fun – except for when all the moms and kids that don’t believe in discipline decided to go at the same time we were there. That wasn’t fun at all. 
We’ve also gone to the lake, visited family that lives a little ways out of town, had our niece staying with us, had parties with our co-op families, and thankfully enough – we’ve been able to hang out in the pool.
I’ve got to start thinking about school though. I need to get the rest of our books ordered and I still have to write the syllabus for the class I’m teaching at co-op! I’m running out of time! 
What about you? What have you guys been up to this summer?
Life so far this summer
Posted by: | CommentsI don’t know if anyone has even noticed ( ) but I realize that I haven’t written much lately so I thought I’d just write about what we’ve been up to around here.
Summer has been pretty enjoyable so far. It’s been really hot so we’re in the process of opening our pool for the summer. We have a couple of parts we have to get before we can actually pull the tarp off and start nuking it with chemicals. Hopefully by the end of this week we’ll be swimming in it!
I’ve been able to see some really good softball games recently! I was able to volunteer at the Softball Hall of Fame stadium and work part of the Big 12 championship series, game 2 of the National Championship (which was the deciding game) between Arizona State and Texas A & M, and the exhibition game that the USA Olympic team played against China. Fun times!!
I’ve been doing some new stuff in the kitchen – making homemade wheat bread (which is so easy and so yummy!), making more things from scratch, but most importantly – having my kids do a lot of the cooking. Yippee! When I was a teenager I really had no desire to be in the kitchen doing anything but eating and my daughter is pretty much just like me. I checked out the Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook
I was asked to be on the leadership team for our co-op back in March or April and I’ve really enjoyed working with the group of women in leadership to prepare for next year’s school year.
My daughter got the rest of her braces put on her top teeth. She had a tough couple of days as far as eating goes but now she’s doing great with them! She’ll get the bottom ones started at the end of July. I have no idea why they spread it out so much but I suppose it’s a good thing since it cuts down on how much pain she has at one time.
The softball team that my daughter plays on and that I help coach had a great game last week. We played a team that we’ve played twice previously but did not play our best either time. The first time was in our round robin tournament for our league and they beat us by quite a few. The second time was in a tournament and they pretty much killed us. We didn’t have our catcher there at all and we couldn’t pitch our regular pitcher so that had a lot to do with it but we just didn’t play our game. They beat us something like 18-0. Well, we played them last week for the first time in regular league play and we beat them 1-0. The coolest part about it is that they were undefeated until that game and they were in first place in our league. Not to mention the head coach is pretty much a jerk – very arrogant, unsportsman-like conduct, and just not a nice guy. You should have seen their faces when we beat them! I think they thought they’d have an easy win again.
Well, I think that’s enough random news for one day. I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!
Attention all softball fans!
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are a softball player, softball coach, or a softball fan you’ve got to watch this!! I saw this on TV the other night and it was so awesome! It’s several minutes long but it’s so worth it. Let me know what you think.
Today's thoughts
Posted by: | CommentsI haven’t really had the time (or the desire for some reason) to sit down and blog the last few days. Just to let you know I’m still alive though here are a few thoughts.
I can’t believe Carly and Seyesha were in the bottom two last night on American Idol. I especially can’t believe Carly went home. She was one of my favorites. I really think it’s going to come down to the Davids though. Both of them are amazing!!
I’m sad that Biggest Loser won’t be back on until October.
Speaking of October, we have a new Target and JCPenny going in and it’s supposed to open in October! YEA!
At the complex where I coach softball and my daughter plays, I think we have the worst umps in the world. Sometimes I get so mad I just want to scream in their faces. (And sometimes worse.) I can totally see why some of those MLB coaches do that sometimes! It totally frustrates me to see the umps take it away from the girls by making really bad calls.
We’ve had some lovely spring weather recently. All my flowers and plants are coming in really well and I have lots of really pretty flowers blooming.
My daughter got braces this week and it wasn’t too bad at first but her mouth got really swollen on the second evening and she’s having a hard time eating and talking because of it. She only got the first 6 brackets put on her top teeth. Now she has to have four teeth pulled and then every 6 weeks get some more put on. Eventually she’ll have them all. If you think of her please pray for her though. She’s doing pretty well but it’s really rubbing on the inside of her top lip and bothering her.
My son is in a football camp this week and is having a really good time. He’s never played football before so it’s new to him but he’s doing great. They are working them pretty hard so he’s pretty sore. Every time he gets up he kind of moans about it. It’s kind of funny to watch. (Don’t worry, he’s laughing too. )
Used book sales for homeschoolers in our area start this week!! I’m so excited! I LOVE going to these. I never know what kind of awesome deal I’ll find there.
This is basically our last week of school. YIPPEE!!! We are pretty excited and ready to be finished. My son still has a little bit of math and science to finish but I think other than that we’ll finish by next Tuesday. 
Well, I guess that’s enough thoughts for now. Hope everyone is having a fabulous day!
Homeschooling sports
Posted by: | CommentsCheck out this article on homeschoolers in sports! We, as homeschoolers, have come a long way!!
Super Bowl 2008
Posted by: | CommentsWell, the Super Bowl has come and gone again. All in all it was a pretty boring game. We could’ve watched the first drive of each team and then the last four (or so) minutes of the game and not missed a thing! I didn’t really care who won the game. I was kind of rooting for the Patriots simply because I thought as an athlete it would be really cool to go undefeated for an entire season but in the end when the Giants won I thought how cool it was for them to have defeated the team that had previously been undefeated! Confusing I know – that’s how my mind works though.
There were some really fun commercials during the game though. (Yes, that’s half the fun of watching the Super Bowl!) My favorite was the Diet Pepsi Max commercial:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJEVxfWpm7c]
Part of what was so funny is that anytime my husband and I hear this song we do that little head shake thing so the whole beginning of the commercial we were doing that and then at then end they’re all doing it! We just cracked up laughing! We were at some friends’ house watching and we looked over at them during the commercial and they were doing the same thing – which made it even funnier. 
Our friends made some great food for the party. One of the things was something I’d never had before and it was sooooo good! She got it from Menus 4 Moms. It was:
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Dip
- 1 can white chicken meat (substitute crab for even better flavor)
- 12 oz bottle of Franks Hot Sauce (or whatever type you prefer)
- 2 -8 oz packages cream cheese
- 16 oz bottle Ranch dressing
- 16 oz Monterey Jack or Cheddar Cheese*, grated
Dippers:
- Celery
- Tortilla Chips
- Scoop Chips
Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook until bubbly. Serve with celery sticks, crackers, scoop chips, and/or bagel bits.
So, we had a great Super Bowl Sunday – how about you? What did you do? Did you have a favorite commercial?
Homeschool sports website
Posted by: | CommentsI just found out about an interesting website. It might be helpful for those of you who are interested in homeschool sports but don’t know how to find a team. It’s called Homeschool SportsNet Inc. and it gives information about sports teams in each state. If you know of homeschool sports teams in your area you might check to make sure they’re listed so others can find them!
Sports and homeschooling
Posted by: | CommentsI wanted to write this post several days ago but just didn’t have the time to devote to it. On a previous post of mine a question was asked about sports and how that works for homeschoolers. I thought there might be others wondering about that so I thought it was worth posting about and not just commenting. I’ve added a little to it but here is part of what I wrote in my reply to the question:
Many people worry about sports participation, extra curricular activities, prom and things like that for homeschoolers. A lot of communities have sports teams and other extra curricular activities for homeschoolers to participate in. Our city has sports teams (competitive) available in: football, baseball, softball, track, and basketball that I know of for sure. My husband is a soccer coach and we have been working on getting a soccer club up and running as well. I’m not positive but I think we also have volleyball, swimming, and tennis available to homeschoolers. Some sports even have national competitions and homeschool teams from all over the country come together to compete. The national basketball competition takes place here in my home city in fact. Our boys high school baseball team went to nationals in Florida last year and won it! 
We lived in New York for a little over a year and while we were there my husband coached the homeschool high school soccer team all the way to the state championship for our division. Yeah hubby!!
The best thing to do is research homeschool groups in your city and find out what they have to offer. If you’re not sure how to do that I would love to help you. You can use my ‘contact me’ link and send me an e-mail telling me where you live and I can help you find the information. Because the laws differ from state to state, there will be some homeschooling teams that compete against schools and others who compete only against other homeschool teams or private schools. You can find out by calling local school districts and asking if they will compete against homeschool teams.
The whole world of homeschooling has changed so much in the last 25 years. Every year more and more things are started and become available to homeschoolers and it gives them wonderful opportunities to participate in all kinds of activities.
