Girls Soccer Schedules - Aug/Sept.

Here is where we will be for soccer in case 'ya want to stop by - and people wonder where I am in the fall. Course this year will be tough on some weekends since Alex has a bunch of tournaments schedule - woohoo!

For Kelsey, most weeknight HS games for Varsity start at 7pm - but check with me occasionally they change the start time , for Alex's game - send me an e-mail and I will let you know times!

August 23 - Kelsey, Home against North Central
August 25- 26 - Alex, PikeFest Tournament
August 25 - Kelsey, Away, Lake Central/Penn (Northern Ind)
August 30 - Kelsey, Home against Roncalli
Sept 2-4 - Alex, Bloomington Tournament
Sept 6 - Kelsey, Away, Lawrence North
Sept 9 - Alex, Away, Seymour, IN
Sept 11 - Kelsey, Home, Hamiltion SE
Sept 16 - Kelsey, Away, Terre Haute, IN
Sept 16 - Alex, Away, Tipton, IN
Sept 17 - Alex, Away, Seymour, IN
Sept 17 - Alex Home Game
Sept 20 - Kelsey, Away, Warren Central
Sept 23 - Kelsey, Home against Brebuf
Sept 24 - Alex, Home Game
Sept 27 - Kelsey, Away, Carmel
Sept 29 - Kelsey, Home - East Central
Sept 29 - Oct. 1 - Alex, Champaign, ILL Tournament

Ahhh, the fall, sun and soccer fields!

School has Started!!!

Summer is Over-It's back to Studies!

This week started with the kiddies returning to school! Which for me means being 'on-time' getting out the house in the morning, making sure both girls are up and moving - have money, supplies, signed whatever and dealing with the traffic around the schools. Kelsey drives to school now, so she isn't much a worry. I take Alex which does cause for headaches. There are 3 schools in the same vicinitity that use 1 main intersection with stop signs. If I don't time my departure just right, I can be caught behind the busses leaving the HS and going over to the MS to drop off the kids there, if I am running real late, I catch them all returning to the bus garage. This wouldn't be a problem but there are a lot of busses and the school district has people stopping traffic on both ends to ensure they arrive on-time, it can be frustrating. When you do finally arrive at the MS, your first challenge is to make the left-hand turn into the parking lot, with the HS on your right and TONS of new teen drivers trying to make left-hand turns onto the road - it gets quite hairy, I have survived many near misses when they attempt to turn left after I have made my left - almost catching the butt end of my car. Finally I make my way to the 'drop-off' lane at the MS where we have been instructed to patiently await until we get close to the door and drop our children off. The outside lane is for people 'just driving through' as we have been told. As in all places, there are those that think they are special and must not follow the rules, they pull up in the outside lane, their child jumps into traffic from the 'drop-off' lane and proceeds to unload the entire contents of their house from the back causing all the rest of us in both lanes to wait - I am awaiting the day someone gets all over these people - I will let ya know. And after all this joyous start to the day, I get to battle construction and traffic for 32 miles up the road to my job. Don't 'ya all wish you started your day this way, I know 'ya do.

Alex so far likes all her classes, she for one of the first times has 2 of Kelsey's old teachers (who loved Kelsey) and when they past out books in Social Studies class she discovered she had gotten Kelsey's old book - maybe Kelsey made good notes for her. Kelsey doesn't like many of her classes, not for the subjects she is taking, well a couple, mainly because none of her friends are in her classes this year. I said that should be a good thing to allow her to pay attention better - for which I was told "she learns better when she has friends in the class", with straight A's last year, I couldn't really argue the point so we will see.

Soccer is now in full swing. Alex has practices Tues - Thurs with games on the weekends, Kelsey has practice after school everyday with most games during the week. Of course, the few games Kelsey will have on Saturday I have to be out of town with Alex, doesn't it always work that way. Kelsey played her first HS Varsity game last night, they beat them 1-0, which is always a good start to the season.

Whew! Made it through the summer, let's see what school season brings!

A Hermit Crab joins the Family

Alex spent the week with grandma & grandpa in Chicago, meaning she had them all to herself. We scheduled her to attend a UK International Soccer camp while there as a nice end of summer trip. Kelsey had tryouts, practices and work so was not able to go.

Alex enjoyed the week at camp, loved that she got to go back to school shopping with grandma all by herself - my mother has more patience for Alex's shopping techniques than I, Alex is just like my sister with exception Alex knows every designer label and what the hottest things now. For the un-informed, 8th grade girls are now into Abercrombie and Hollister.

At camp, she was made MVP Camper for the week, her coaches from Liverpool and Scotland both heralded her skills and toughness. She also went to the zoo and made a new friend at camp.

And, a grand thanks to my mother who could not resist bringing my daughter into a pet store. The end result was a new hermit crab named squirt has now joined our family. He is pretty quiet, comes out for a bit and then goes back into his shell. So far Alex is taking responsibility to watch his temperature levels, water supply and feeding -

Knowing how much she missed all of us, Alex promptly returned home for a total of 1 hour and was off to a 'end of summer' party sleep-over. Kelsey was working and also had an 'end of summer' party to attend - which left me with nothing to do since I had worked so diligently getting all my 'fall house cleaning' done, so I too went out for the evening. We finally got together Sunday for dinner and a flurry of making sure EVERYTHING was ready for first day of school the next day.

For today, my world is organized and that is all good.

Quote on the World

I watch all that is going on overseas, worry about the world as a whole and try to understand all the issues.
But when this came through my e-mail from a friend, I thought how relevant to today's issues. She was an intelligent woman, to bad we didn't heed these words more closely.

What Israel's Prime Minister said over 20 years ago holds true for today more than even then.

I survived!

By Saturday evening running on 3 hours of sleep, I didn't think I would make it through the day, the 6 hour roundtrip to drop Alex off just about got me (thank goodness for red bull & coffee) - finally got me some sleep and was up Sunday early for the race. It was a hot one, but our tickets were under cover - thank goodness, even walkin' around the track we all got some sun. Found out there were 250 people down at the track for heat - and some people there were really ripe! Since we got to the race early, the girls shopped and finally conceded and bought some Tony stuff - I haven't backed a driver since Dale Sr. passed on, he was my favorite! We consumed lots of liquids which made the coolers easier to carry back to the car. Jimmie Johnson won - Tony made a good effort, Jeff whom my racing partners were cheering for just didn't have it all day. This is a first, me hugging a Gordon fan - lol! A good time was had by all!

Still haven't seen my eldest hardly, well, I did see her when I registered Alex for school - Kelsey had been working the book store, she came home around 10:30 and promptly went to bed. Talked to Alex to give her schedule to her - she has 2 of Kelsey's favorite teachers now she will have the opportunity to experience the 'I really liked your sister syndrome'. She enjoyed her first day of soccer camp but said it was hot, something she should really be used to by now - she had practices all last week in the 90 degree heat.

School starts next week, Kelsey has her first Varsity game this weekend, and somehow I have to get Alex from Chicago! I finally managed to get the house, bills and all that stuff done last night, now I have tonight to try to catch up on the lawn - come on rain - I really don't want to do it yet, would like an evening free for once just to do nuthin!

Work just keeps piling it on and my side clients suddenly got active and decided during this hectic time to send along a ton of update - I truly think this has gotten ridiculous in my dedication to my job, a friend took this recently am I good or what - lol.



Have a good rest of the week all!

Another Race Weekend!

And I will be racing! ;)

This weekend will be a busy one, Alex is headed to Chicago Saturday evening to spend the week with my parents and attend a UK soccer camp. Kelsey made the H.S. Varsity Soccer team and their season begins Saturday morning with kick-off festivies and a Red/White game between the JV and Varsity teams. Right after this I get to jump in the car and do a nice 5 hour roundtrip up to Merrillville, IN to meet my parents for the kids swap -

Then on to Sunday where I was invited to go to the Brickyard 400 - a first for me - I have been to Bristol & Talladega, but never the 400, even after 6 years of living in Indy. Our seats are in the first turn 20 rows up, close enough to kill my ears and get tire pebbles in my face - I am so looking forward to it.

Kelsey made top seller and top tire polish seller at Mike's for the month of July, earned her a little x-tra cash in her check - Alex has been practicing with her new soccer team this past week in the brutal heat, she was a trooper.

I want to take an opportunity to say!
CONGRATS! To Sam & Jillian in Alaska, after a year of being married they are finally holding their wedding reception and their new home is coming along nicely - click on Alaska Friends to see their progress.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
To my daddy - I won't give away his age, but he is still lookin' good and working full time - dad - when are you going to retire - AGAIN? Love 'ya Daddy

To my uncle - Who was there when I came into this world and continues to call me his calico cat - have a good one Uncle Bud! ;)

Stay Cool and Enjoy! For Summer is coming to a close!