Rachel's Soccer Pictures

This is Rachel's third year of playing soccer. This year she had to move up to the 1st & 2nd grade girls league. Since Rachel has a September birthday, she is the youngest on her team, and one of the youngest (and maybe the youngest) in the league. That doesn't stop her though! She gets right in there with the bigger girls. She's a good defender! She has enjoyed playing this year! She hasn't scored yet this year, and may not score since the last game is on Saturday, but that's okay! It's just a big contrast to last year when she scored a bunch in the instructional league. She has learned more about soccer this year and played more "real" soccer. In the instructional league, it tends to be pretty much all the kids huddled around the ball running up and the down the field. Now that she's in the 1st & 2nd grade league, they play a little more "real" soccer. They try to play basic positions and have more rules to follow. It's been good for her, and I think she has the potential to be a pretty good soccer player!

I just had to include last year's soccer picture! (To the right in orange) Rachel is growing up right before our eyes!!

Katelyn's Soccer Pictures

This was Katelyn's first year to play soccer. She has enjoyed it and has scored one goal this season. The league is for pre-k (4 year olds) and kindergartners. On our team,we had 2 kids who are 4, and the other four kids are in kindergarten. I asked my friend Carrie to help coach the team. Her daughter, Chloe, and Katelyn are big buddies, so they've enjoyed being on the team together. Chloe is on the far right of the team picture. Chloe is cute out on the field - she kind of dances around the ball and smiles! She has gotten better about kicking the ball and not just kicking at the air around the ball! It's her first year and she's done well! Our kindergartners are Garrett, Brandon, Maddie Grace, and Alex. All these kids are a bunch of fun! Garrett is a handful, but is also a very sweet kid! He runs up to me at church to give me a great big hug! When we were gone on vacation and missed 2 games, Garrett told me how much he missed me the next time he saw me! Brandon is always smiling (except in the team photo)! He's a great kid and super sweet. He told his mom I was the "boss coach!" Isn't that funny? Maddie Grace is absolutely hilarious! She's very much an extrovert and I'm not sure she knows how to whisper!!! This is her first year playing soccer, but she's picked it up quickly and goes after the ball hard. Alex is also a sweet boy that likes to give me hugs at church! He may be small, but he's pretty good! He gets mad when the other team scores or if we're having a tough time scoring. He's a competitor!!! It's been fun coaching this team this year.

Rachel's School Picture

Here's Rachel's first grade school picture from this year (the picture on the left). Rachel has been growing out her bangs and usually wears them pulled back in a ponytail or a clip. On the morning of her pictures, I told her "Let's leave your hair down for your pictures. I'll put some clips in your backpack, and after pictures you can pull your hair back." Evidently, Rachel heard part of what I said, but not all of what I said. She thought I told her to put her clips in BEFORE her pictures!!! Either way is fine - it's just that her hair was laying so pretty that morning and framing her face so cute. Oh well, it's a pretty good school picture.

I've also included last year's fall kindergarten picture (the picture on the right) for a comparison so you can see how she's changed over the past year.

Picture of the Champions!

Here we are - the 2007 Southern Sectional Mixed Doubles Champions- Adult 8.0 division. Our captain, Tony, is the one squatting down holding our sign. Left to right is me, Kevin, Sue, Steve, Lanny (my partner), Debbie, Mike, Elizabeth, and Karen. I booked my flight to Orlando today!

We're Headed to the National Championships!

This past week-end my mixed doubles tennis team headed to New Orleans for the Southern Sectional tennis tournament. We won our state championship several weeks ago which gave us the berth into the Southern Sectional tournament. We flew to New Orleans on Thursday. On Friday the matches began. A team match consists of 3 courts of mixed doubles. So a score from a team match would be 3-0, 2-1, 1-2, or 0-3. In other words, you have to win at least 2 of the 3 courts in order to win the match as a team. On Friday afternoon we played the Mississippi state champion and won as a team 2-1. My partner, Lanny, and I won our court 7-5, 7-6. It was a tough match! Saturday morning we faced off against the Louisiana state champion and our team won 2-1 again! Lanny & I won 6-4, 6-1! Saturday afternoon we played the Arkansas state champion and our team won 3-0! Lanny & I won 6-1, 6-3! Sunday morning we played the Georgia state champion who happened to also be undefeated! It was a great match and our team won 3-0 again! Lanny & I won 7-5, 6-3! With that win, we had won our half of the draw! Next up was the finals on Sunday afternoon against the North Carolina state champion. Guess what? Our team won 2-1 for the sectional championship!!!! Lanny & I won again 6-1, 6-3! So we won the Southern Sectional tennis championship!!!! Next up is the National Eastern Championship in Orlando! We'll be competing against the champions from the Caribbean, Florida, Middle States, New England, Eastern, Mid Atlantic, and Midwest!! Pretty exciting, huh?!?!?!?!

Winning was awesome!!! Throughout this season, our team has not lost a match! Pretty cool! In our local play we were 10-0. At the state tournament we were 5-0. And now at the sectional tournament we were also 5-0. So we're 20-0 right now! I have played in all 20 matches and my personal record is 19-1. Lanny & I lost a tough match here locally back during the summer, but our team covered for us and won the other 2 courts so that as a team we still won! During the state & sectional tournaments, Lanny & I haven't lost! He's a good mixed partner to play with. He also happens to be one of the tennis pros at the fitness/tennis club where we belong, so he's a pretty good player!

The last leg of our flight last night got cancelled, so we ended up renting a car at midnight last night and driving the rest of the way home. They dropped me off here at home around 3:30 this morning! Of course, my luggage isn't here yet, but I've heard it's at the airport here waiting for the delivery service to deliver it to me. With all that craziness, my teammates who took pictures of us haven't had a chance to upload their pictures and share them with everyone. But once they do, I'll be sure to post a few on here of the SOUTHERN SECTIONAL TENNIS CHAMPS!!!!!

Cutting the Apron Strings

Yesterday was a small milestone in Rachel's life - she went on a field trip without me!! Last year when she was in kindergarten, I went on every field trip and was at school in her classroom about once a week. Yesterday, the entire first grade and fourth grade went to see a Junie B. Jones play. The teachers had to purchase tickets in advance, and just reserved enough for the students and teachers. Parents were told that if they wanted to go, they'd have to drive up there and see if any tickets were left, and it was on a first come, first serve basis. I tried to be smart and order a ticket online, but you weren't allowed to! It was just for school groups! You weren't even allowed to purchase just one ticket online! I talked to several other parents that typically go on every field trip too, and they hadn't been able to get any tickets either. We kind of all agreed that it was silly for us to drive up there just to watch them get off the bus at the play and then watch them get back on the bus after the play. So, Rachel went on her first field trip without me and was just fine! She did inform me that a few parents were there and she told me "Mom, you could've gone. All you had to do was go and buy a ticket!" Turns out they did still have some tickets available at the door, but how was I to know that? This was a good field trip for her to go on by herself. I wouldn't have let her go somewhere like the zoo or Dollywood without me! At least not yet! We're taking baby steps!!!

Anyway, I would share a picture of her field trip, but since I didn't go, I don't have any pictures!!!

Still More Pictures from the Beach

On our last day at the beach, we decided to take the girls to Pensacola Beach to play miniature golf. We first stopped at the park in Navarre to feed the ducks. We had some saltine crackers that weren't very good. Evidently the ducks didn't like them too much either, because they just ate a few bites before swimming off! Oh well, we tried!

We had a good time playing miniature golf! After the first 9 holes, I was leading the group of all 6 of us (the 4 of us plus Puddin & Papa). However, on the back 9, I choked and gave up the lead. Robert & Papa were fighting it out those last few holes, but Papa sealed the victory with the only hole-in-one of the day on the 18th hole! Good putting Papa!!!

Pictures from the beach wouldn't be complete without a picture of Papa wrapped up in the pink blanket!!! Each night before heading to bed, Papa would stretch out on that awesome couch and wrap up with that blanket!!

In the slideshow are also a few pictures of Puddin reading to the girls. Both of the girls love books! Rachel loves to read and to be read to. Katelyn loves to be read to also, and enjoys just looking at the books and "reading" them to herself.

I hope you enjoy this last slideshow from our beach adventures!

The Park at the Beach

On Thursday morning, we decided to take the girls to a park in Navarre to let them play for a while before heading to the beach. Navarre is the city on the "mainland." It's located on the bay. You cross over a big bridge to get to Navarre Beach, which is an island that has the Gulf on one side and the bay on the other side. (Our condo was on the Gulf.) Anyway, there was a pretty cool park just across the bridge in Navarre. You'll see from the slideshow the bridge from Navarre to Navarre Beach and the view from the park in Navarre looking towards Navarre Beach. The girls had a lot of fun playing at the park.

Family Photos

It seems like I'm always the one taking the pictures, and therefore, I'm never actually in the pictures! Puddin (Robert's mom) offered to take a few shots of all of us Friday while we were at the beach. I wish I had asked her to take some pictures earlier in the week when I took the girls pictures with their denim capris and white shirts. I would've rather had our picture all together in clothes than in swimsuits. Oh well! I should've thought of that earlier! At least I have some pictures of all 4 of us together at the beach! The girls always want to do a silly picture, so here it is!

Here's a slideshow of the rest of our family photos.

Playing at the Beach

Riding the Waves

Another Favorite

Okay, so here's another one of my favorites from the beach. Here's the question - should she be a model or should I be a professional photographer? Don't answer that! This was the result of Robert saying "Katelyn - give us your serious face." I thought it turned out really good! The original was in color, which is in the slideshow I posted earlier, but I think I prefer the black and white version better.

Beach Scenery

Beach Photo Shoot

This was my attempt to get some decent photos of the girls on the beach without having to pay a real photographer. I think I managed to get a few good pictures - what do you think?

Dolphins!

As I mentioned in a previous post, our condo was right on the beach. One morning Robert came in and woke me up with "Do you want to see some dolphins?" Of course I bolted out of bed and ran out onto the balcony to see at least 4 dolphins, including one baby, playing in the ocean! They weren't too far from shore. Robert said that before I got out there they were really jumping high out of the water and playing. By the time I got out there, they were mainly just swimming and heading somewhere else. I tried to get some pictures, but with my digital camera having a slight delay, it was tough to catch the dolphins when they were out of the water. I was trying to guess when they would jump! Oh well, here's my attempt to photograph the dolphins. They're the black specks you see in the ocean!

Beach Fun

These are some of the pictures from our trip to the beach last week. In the past, we've gone to Destin, Florida. But last year we decided it was getting too crowded for us. So this year we chose Navarre Beach, Florida. It's about halfway between Destin and Pensacola. It's a fairly quiet beach with not a lot to do around there, which is perfect for us! We like to play at the beach, play at the pool, and play some tennis! This place had everything for us! We stayed at Navarre Towers, which was AWESOME! We had a 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo. The girls shared a bedroom with 2 double beds which was perfect since that's what they sleep in at home. We had a bedroom with a queen bed, and then Robert's parents had a HUGE master suite with a queen bed. We had our own washer & dryer, good size kitchen, large dining area, and nice living room with a sectional couch that we all wanted to take home with us!!! Navarre Towers is directly on the beach, which was great! Most days at the beach we had our own private area with just us! There were very few people there. We didn't have to worry about the girls being too loud, splashing water on someone, or accidentally kicking sand on someone. It was great! And most of the time at the pool we were the only ones there. Sometimes there was another family there, but that was it! And everytime Robert & I played tennis we were the only ones out there. So it was almost like our very own private vacation spot! We did head down to Pensacola Beach one day to play miniature golf. But other than that we were either at the beach, at the pool, or playing tennis!

Katelyn loves to play in the sand, and this year she was a little adventurous and actually played in the shallow water a bit. She can occupy herself for hours with just a cup of water and some sand!

Rachel had lots of fun actually in the ocean. She liked to jump the waves with Robert. He would take her out a little ways and help her ride the waves in! She thought that was lots of fun!

The first day at the beach the girls got their swimsuits absolutely full of sand, and needless to say, it was very irritating to them. So Robert went out and found these cool orange playsuits/swimsuits that actually have an SPF of 40! After that, whenever we were headed to the beach, the girls wore those swimsuits. If we were headed to the pool, they would wear their regular swimsuits. The orange suits made a huge difference at the beach! No more sand in the swimsuits!!

One of My Favorites

This has to be one of my favorite pictures from last week at the beach! I actually took the picture in color, then used editing software to make everything black & white except right around the girls. I thought it turned out pretty cool! I'll get more pictures posted today! I just wanted to share one with you!

Fall Break

Sorry for the brief absence. We've been in Navarre Beach, Florida for Fall Break, and we just rolled back into town this evening. I have lots of pictures and videos to share, but you'll have to wait until another day because it's bedtime! But let me just say that we had a GREAT time - GREAT weather - GREAT condo - GREAT beach!

Rachel's 6-Year Checkup

Yesterday Rachel had her 6-yr checkup. Everything went just fine, even the shots. While we were there, both girls also got their flu shots. Rachel didn't like the shots, but she did fine with all three of them. Katelyn only had to get the flu shot. She was so good - didn't even cry! She just kind of gritted her teeth. We've told the girls that it's okay to cry - they just has to be still. After church last night we ran by the Dollar Tree to pick up a couple of treats for being good at the doctor's office.

For the record, Rachel is 45 inches tall, which puts her in the 43rd percentile in height, and she weighs 43.5 pounds, which puts her in the 41st percentile in weight. This may be the first time that she has dropped below 50% on her height. I looked back to her kindergarten checkup, which was actually almost a year and a half ago, and since then she has grown 2 inches and gained 1 pound. No wonder some things that used to come close to fitting her in the waist now fall right off! She's grown taller, but only added 1 little pound to that frame. Slim sizes are our friend!!!! The adjustable waistbands used to work okay, but now it seems like with even making pants as tight as possible they're still too loose on Rachel. Like I said, slim sizes are our friends around here!!!

Katelyn's School Pictures

Katelyn recently had her school picture taken at her mother's day out program. Here they are. Please forgive the quality - I had to scan these in to post them, so they don't look as good as they actually do in person. But you can still see what a cutie she is!!!

Thank Goodness for Steroids!!

No - this post isn't about Barry Bonds or any other professional athlete. It's about Rachel. And no - we're not trying to bulk her up for sports!! HaHa!! Towards the end of last week Rachel started getting a snotty nose and coughing a little bit - not uncommon for her since she does have allergies and asthma. It wasn't anything really bad, and she actually had a checkup with the allergist on Thursday afternoon. Everything went fine there and he said her lungs sounded great - no wheezing at all!!! Friday she was pretty much the same - snot and cough. Friday evening the children's choir from church had been invited to sing at a local school's carnival, so we went to that. Rachel coughed, but still nothing horrible. By bedtime Friday night, she was coughing quite a bit more and was really congested. We had already been using her Xopenex inhaler every 4 hours, so we were hoping that would help with the coughing. When it was time for Robert & I to go to bed, I decided to just go and sleep with Rachel. Otherwise, everytime she coughed we both were waking up. Around midnight, Rachel was coughing and rolled over towards me and she had tears rolling down her cheeks. She was having a horrible time trying to breathe. She was really struggling to get a breath. We immediately used her inhaler again, tried to calm her down, and let her drink some ice water. The cold water will sometimes help. We waited a few minutes and she still was struggling and she was panicking. I guess I would panic too if I felt like I couldn't breathe. Lucky for us, the doctor has given us a prescription for steroids to keep at home to try to keep us out of the ER. (Just for history, we've ended up in the ER several times because of needing steroids to help one of the girls breathe.) Anyway, Robert & I made the decision that either we gave her steroids then, or we were going to have to go to the ER. We decided to give her a dose of steroids. Then Robert put her in the car and drove around with the air on full blast. (If it had been wintertime, we could've just gone outside for a few minutes, but since it's not cold outside, the ac was our next option.) When they got back, she was breathing a little better and had calmed down. I slept with her the rest of the night and we didn't have anymore bad episodes. Saturday we continued with the inhaler every 4 hours and did another dose of steroids. She played her soccer game and played well. Looks like we avoided an ER trip! YEAH!!! She's still coughing, but not as bad, and we haven't had anymore bad episodes. Tomorrow is her 6 year check-up at the pediatrician's office, so he'll be able to really check her out and listen to her to make sure that she's on the mend. I'm just so glad that we had steroids on hand just in case of a situation like we had Friday night. We've been through it enough that we know when the girls need a dose of steroids, and it's a pain having to load them up in the middle of the night to go to the ER just to tell the doctors "All she needs is a dose of steroids." This way, we saved a trip to the ER and the cost of a trip to the ER! Thank goodness for a doctor's forethought!

Kate - it brought back memories of Fall Creek Falls last year - not fun!!!