STATE CHAMPS!!!!

What an exciting week-end! My mixed doubles team won the state tournament!!! We were undefeated (5-0) this week-end to capture the championship! I played in all five matches and my partner & I won all 5 matches!!! A couple of them were close, but we managed to pull them out. It was some good tennis and I really enjoyed it! I couldn't have done it without my wonderful husband's help! Robert took care of the girls while I traveled back & forth to the tournament this week-end.

Here's a picture of the state champions!!! Next we'll head to the sectional tournament in New Orleans.

Sunday Morning Pictures

More Tennis

Last week-end Robert & I both played singles in a local tennis tournament. It was a good tennis week-end for us because we both won our divisions! The girls are always excited when we win because they think it's so cool to win a trophy!!! Anytime we get home from playing tennis, the first question Katelyn will ask us is "Did you win?" and then the second question is "Did you get a trophy?" If we win but don't get a trophy, then according to the girls, it must not have been a very good win!!!

This week-end is the state mixed doubles tournament. So far, my team is 3-0! We play in the morning and if we win that match, then we'll be playing for the finals tomorrow afternoon!!! I've played all three matches and my partner & I have won all 3! I played two yesterday and one today and I'm scheduled to play both matches tomorrow, so wish me luck!!! It's been hot on the courts! Yesterday we played at 10:00 and 2:00, and when we got off the court and headed back home, then temp was over 100!! I was nice & sweaty!

I'll give an update after we win tomorrow!!!!! (How's that for positive thinking!!)

Mixed Doubles Champions Picture

Last week, I blogged about my mixed doubles team winning our league. (Click here to read that post.) Here's our team picture that was taken after our last match. Not everyone was present for the picture, but this is most of the people.

That's me on the front row - the shortest as usual!!! My normal partner is Lanny, who is standing directly behind me with the sunglasses on. However, for our last match, I played with Nick, who is standing behind me to the left with his hat on backwards. Both guys are a lot of fun to play with and super nice! Next up is the state tournament!!!

Sleeping Beauty

I took this picture one day last week while Katelyn was napping. Isn't she sweet!!

Silly Girl

As I posted earlier this week, Katelyn had a playdate with her friend Chloe on Monday. After Rachel got home from school, Katelyn told her about playing with Chloe and what all they did. Evidently Rachel decided that playing dress-up sounded like fun, so she went and got the dress-up stuff out and came up with this outfit. Don't you just love the sunglasses?!?!?!

A "Real" Tennis Tournament

Robert had the opportunity earlier this week to go to Cincinnati and watch part of the men's professional tennis tournament going on up there. He went with 5 other guys. They would watch some tennis and then get inspired and go out and play tennis! All of the big names were there - Nadal, Federer, Roddick, Blake, Djokovic, etc. On Monday & Tuesday they walked around and saw parts of a lot of different matches. But on Wednesday for the 11:00 session, they were able to get front row tickets to Centre Court! They were a little disappointed that Federer wasn't playing that session, but it was still going to be 3 good matches with Nadal playing in one and Blake playing in one. Who could've guessed that 2 of the 3 matches would end early due to a player retiring from the match due to injury?!?! Regardless, they still had a great time. I did watch part of the matches on TV and actually saw Robert! I taped it too so I could show the girls!! I think Robert was a little reluctant about going, but he is glad he went. He got to watch lots of good tennis and play lots of tennis. He's already talking about going back next year!! He deserved a little vacation too since he's been playing Mr. Mom the past 4 week-ends because I've had so many tennis matches going on!


Robert forgot to take the camera, but he did get a few pictures on his phone. They're not the best quality, but at least he has proof he was there!!! The first picture is of Nadal, and then the rest are of Blake.

Look What Showed Up at Our House!!

This cat showed up a couple weeks ago at our house while we were playing in the backyard. It's a very friendly cat and a very sweet cat. The girls were so excited about the cat visiting us and were sad the next day when it wasn't here. We didn't see it again until Monday, and it just appeared at our back door! It was here pretty much all day Monday, and when we were eating breakfast Tuesday morning, it was at the front door looking at us through the windows beside the door! When Katelyn & I got home from running our errands yesterday, the cat was gone. Katelyn was upset, and even cried when she got up from her nap and said "I want the kitty cat to come back!" Well, it did come back again this morning and the girls were very excited! It hung around here most of the day, but was gone again when we got home from church. I have set out a bowl of water for it because I can't stand for it to be out in this heat without water. But I haven't put any food out yet! The girls want it to stay here with us! I don't think Robert would approve!! Here are some pictures of the girls with the cat this morning. It's a cute cat - looks like a mix of a siamese and a tiger striped cat.

Katelyn's 1st Day

Today was Katelyn's first day back to "school." She goes to a mother's day out program 2 days a week. She went there last year, so she was pretty excited to be going back. This year she's in the big kid class - the pre-k class!!! It's hard to believe that next year she'll be headed to kindergarten!!! Anyway, she had a wonderful day (even if I did forget her pillow and cover for rest time!). She has a really sweet teacher. I'm so glad that both girls like school!

What a difference a year makes! Look how young Katelyn looks in the picture below! It was her first day of preschool last year. She has grown!!!

Fun in the Pool

My Math-Brained Girl

Many of you probably know that Robert & I are both math people. In college, I got my bachelor's degree in Math, and Robert got his in secondary education - math. So we're very numbers oriented people. So it's not surprising that Rachel and Katelyn would be pretty good in math. The other day, Rachel was asking Katelyn some easy addition problems, such as "What's 2+2, or what's 5+5?" Then Rachel asked Katelyn "What's 5+8?" I leaned over to Rachel and asked her if she knew the answer. She whispered in my ear "It's 13." I knew she could figure it out using her hands to count on, but I was surprised that she was able to give me that answer so quickly. I asked her how she knew that. She then launched into her explanation of "I know that 8 is really 5 + 3, and I know that 5+5 is 10, so 5+8 is really 5+5+3 which is 10+3 which is 13!" It obviously took her more time to explain it to me than for her to actually figure it out, but I thought it was neat how her math mind was at work!! Looks like she takes after her parents in the math area!!!

Play Date

Today Katelyn & I had a play date with Chloe and Carrie! Chloe was Katelyn's playmate and Carrie was my adult conversation for the day!! Katelyn & Chloe are good buddies! We go to church together so they're in all the same classes together - Sunday School, choir, Awana, etc. They'll be starting kindergarten together next year at the same school. They're both going to play soccer this fall too! I hope they get on the same team!!

We started out our play date by playing outside in the backyard before it got too unbearably hot! We stayed out there for a little bit while the girls played on the playset, blew bubbles, and played with a cat that just showed up at our door! After we got too hot, we headed inside and the girls played dress-up for a while. They played that for awhile, along with playing mommy & baby. I'm pretty sure Chloe was the mommy because we heard Katelyn say "but I don't want to go to sleep!" They worked it out and played both upstairs & downstairs for a while before we all decided we were hungry! We headed to Burger King for lunch and then let the girls play on the indoor playground there.

I had a good time visiting with Carrie, and I know Katelyn had a fun time with Chloe! Thanks for coming over guys! It was fun!!!

Mixed Doubles Champions

This week-end was the last week-end of our mixed doubles league. My team ended up with a 10-0 record!!! The next best team came in at 6-4. We have a great team and I've really enjoyed playing mixed doubles this year. My partner & I lost our 1st match of the season on Saturday to a really good doubles team 7-5, 6-4. It was tough - I wish we could've pulled it out. But thanks to our teammates, we still won the team match 2-1. You see, you play 3 courts of mixed doubles and whichever team wins the most courts wins the match. Sunday afternoon I played with a different partner and we won 6-0, 6-2! It was a fun match and I felt like I played well. It was nice to end the season on such a high note! Actually, the season isn't over. Since we won our local league, we'll now be headed to the state tournament! It's in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how we do in that tournament. They took a team picture, so once I get it, I'll post it.

It's Official - Yesterday was a Great Day!

Just as I suspected, Rachel had a wonderful day yesterday in 1st grade!!! She talked the whole way home about her day. She was just so excited about it! She had to show me her work that she brought home and explain it all to me. I learned that there are 10 girls and 11 boys in her class, and she sits between Aydin and Jacob. She thinks it's cool that she has her own desk that you can put stuff in!!

Tonight we have the meet & greet at Katelyn's preschool, so we'll get to see whose class Katelyn is in. Rachel went to pre-k here 2 years ago, and then Katelyn was in the 3-yr. old class last year, so we're fairly familiar with the folks there. It's a really nice place and it's right beside Rachel's elementary school, which makes it very convenient for me!!!

Pictures from 1st Day of 1st Grade

Here are a few pictures I took this morning before Rachel headed off to school. Of course, I had to include one of Katelyn too! She'll start her pre-k class at mother's day out next week.

I went back and looked at the picture I took of Rachel last year on her 1st day of kindergarten. Wow - she has grown up since last year!! See for yourself....


1st Day of 1st Grade:

1st Day of Kindergarten:

1st Day of 1st Grade

It's that time of year again - back to school time. Today Rachel will start 1st grade! I can't believe she's that old! I asked her if she wanted me to walk her into her class or if she wanted me to just pull up and drop her off. She thought for a minute, then said "I know where my class is and I know what to do since I was in kindergarten last year, so you can just drop me off." What? I was secretly wanting to walk her in on her first day - partly just to talk to her teacher again. But, I'm also glad that she wants me to drop her off. That's much better than her kicking and screaming and crying for me not to leave her. I'm glad she likes school and is excited to be going back. And I'm glad she's mature enough and independent enough to tackle the first day of school by herself. So I guess the only 1st day of 1st grade pictures I'll have are pictures I take here at home. Rachel's growing up! I'll post later to update how the first day of 1st grade has gone.

Tennis Anyone?

Tennis, tennis, and more tennis - that sums up my past 3 week-ends pretty well. Three week-ends ago I played in a doubles tennis tournament that I previously posted about. Two week-ends ago our mixed doubles league started up and we had 3 matches. Then this past week-end we continued with our mixed doubles league with 4 more matches! So over the past 3 week-ends I've played 13 matches!!! And get this - my record is 12-1! Pretty good if I do say so myself! In our mixed doubles league, we are currently 7-0 with 3 matches left to play this week-end. The 2nd place team is 5-2, and then after them the next teams have 4 losses. So, we're sitting pretty good with just 3 matches left. We play the 2nd place team on Saturday, so hopefully after that match they'll have 3 losses and we'll have clinched 1st place! It would be an upset if we lost our lead. So hopefully, come Sunday afternoon we'll be crowned the champs!!! Stay tuned for more tennis updates after this week-end!

Dollywood Fun

Last Tuesday the girls & I went to Dollywood with Mamaw & Papaw (my parents). We wanted to get in one last time before school started. The girls had a lot of fun! They were able to ride lots of rides and see 4+ shows! We went to the VeggieTales show, which the girls really liked! We're fans of VeggieTales here at our house! We also went to three other shows that were basically children's books that were acted out with real characters. They were really good and the girls absolutely loved those! If there had been more than just three of those, I'm sure we would've had to see the others too! We saw "The Little Engine that Could," "Hank the Cowdog," and "The Gruffalo." We also saw part of the country music show. Rachel, Papaw, & I were busy waiting in line for a ride for part of that show, but when we got finished, that was where we were supposed to meet Mamaw & Katelyn. Well Rachel didn't want to leave until that show was over! She just stood there watching the performers intently. She loves music - her body cannot be still when music is playing!! We had a great day there at Dollywood! Here are some pictures from our day.