Rachel Hits the Goal Post

In Upward Soccer this year, they are not using goalies. Also, there is an arc in front of the goal, and if the ball is in the arc, no one can touch it. So if the ball literally stops short of the goal inside the arc, no one can go and kick it in. Yesterday, Rachel had a shot at scoring and the ball hit the goal post and then just stopped right there inside the arc. She did what she was supposed to - she didn't step in there to kick it in. Here's the video:

Katelyn Scores!

Katelyn's Reward

As I posted over a week ago, Katelyn had a rough week at school a couple of weeks ago. It was probably a combination of many things (tired, sick, emotional, etc.), but we decided to try and help her overcome whatever the problem was by rewarding her for good behavior. We told her that if she had a good week last week, then she could have a playdate with her buddy Kylee! That meant that she didn't need to be crying at school and/or making herself throw up at school. Well, she did it! She had a great week at school last week! So, Kylee's mom, Christy, and I had decided mid-week last week that today (Monday) would be a good day for a playdate. However, we ended up with some complications. Kylee's little sister, Jacee, started running a high fever Thursday evening of like 103-104! She had stage 4 kidney reflux, so anytime she starts running a high fever, they are concerned it's another kidney infection. Jacee went to the doctor and it turned out she just had a virus. However, it was a pretty strong virus. It kept Jacee down & out all week-end not feeling well. Christy was afraid that maybe we shouldn't do a playdate today because what if Kylee actually had the virus and passed it to Katelyn. Christy didn't want Katelyn having a setback at school after doing so well last week. I told Katelyn that it looked like we were going to change the playdate to a different day. She cried & cried last night at bedtime when I told her. I tried to explain it to her, but she was tired and she had her heart set on a playdate TODAY! I saw Christy this morning at school, and she said that if I was okay with it, that maybe Kylee could come over and play this afternoon while she went to the store. We decided that Christy would come to school to get Kylee just like normal, and Christy would make sure that Kylee didn't seem the least bit sick. Then, if all was well, Kylee would go home with us! Katelyn was so tickled this afternoon when I told her that Kylee WAS going to get to come over! They were so excited!!!! They played nonstop for the time that Kylee was here. They made books, played dress-up, danced, and sang! At one time we were all 4 dancing and singing so loud that I didn't hear my phone ring!!!

Kylee - we're glad you got to come over this afternoon! Tell Jacee that we hope she's feeling better!!!

Working at the art/craft table

Friends!

Silly faces!

Saturday Soccer

This past Saturday both girls had games at 10:00, and of course they weren't on fields that were side-by-side. Since Robert is coaching Rachel's team, he obviously was at her game and I watched Katelyn. I wish I could've seen Rachel's game because Robert told me that she played really well and scored 2 goals!!!

Katelyn did fine in her game. I told her she has to remember to do two things: run fast and kick the ball hard!!! She enjoys playing, although when she gets out on the field with all the other kids, she tends to be a little hesitant about going after the ball. She does fine, but soccer is not her strongest sport!! Here are some pictures from Saturday's game:

Pajama Day

This past week was a special week at school. You see, every year our school does just one fundraiser - it's a walkathon event. Friday was the big kick-off for the fundraising event (the walkathon is actually not til October 1st), so all week the kids were allowed to dress up for the theme of the day. Monday was school spirit day and the girls were t-shirts with their school name. Tuesday was wacky day and they dressed pretty crazy. Katelyn wasn't so sure about dressing too wacky, but Rachel was all for it! She had me put ponytails all over her head, she wore her shirt inside out and backwards, with unmatching pajama pants inside out! She wore 2 different colored socks and 2 different shoes. She thought she was pretty funny!!! Katelyn went with a more subtle wacky attire, and just wore mis-matched clothes. Wednesday was favorite college sports team day, so the girls wore orange UT shirts. Thursday was pajama day and the girls wore their PJ's! Rachel even had me put some rollers in her hair to wear to school!!!! Friday was beach day, and Katelyn wore a really cute outfit that had Hawaiian flowers all over it. Rachel wore her VBS shirt since it was a Hawaiian theme. Both girls wore their hair in pigtails and I toke a lei and wrapped it around their pigtails from one side to the other. They were really cute!!!

Sounds like I should have some really cute pictures! However, the only day I actually got my camera out was on PJ day. Sorry about that! Here are the pictures:


This is Katelyn's doll, Jaycee. She posed her this way and wanted me to take a picture, so here it is!

Sunday Pictures

These are just a few pictures taken before church last Sunday. I have two beautiful girls!!!

It's Soccer Season Again!

It's soccer season! The girls both had their first games last Saturday. Katelyn is in the pre-K/Kindergarten league, and Rachel is in the 1st/2nd grade league. Katelyn's league is co-ed, but Rachel's league is just girls. Katelyn has the skills and knowledge to play soccer, but when she gets on the field with all the other kids (most of which are all much bigger than she is - even the younger ones!) she loses any aggressiveness she has and just kind of runs around near the ball, but doesn't get in the middle of everything. I think we might need to encourage her to do other sports instead of soccer. Like I said, she has the skills and can do drills perfectly and practices well, but when it comes to games she gets a little shy and becomes very passive. She still likes playing and seems to have fun, but I'm not really seeing a promising soccer career for Katelyn!

Rachel loves soccer and is pretty good at it! She played well last week and made some really good plays, especially defensively! She did get kicked pretty hard in the kneecap (by her own teammate!) and sat out for a bit. She kept telling me it hurt. I wasn't too sympathetic. I told her she had 2 options: she could sit on the sidelines and her knee would hurt, or she could go back out on the field and play and her knee would hurt. I said if it were me, I'd rather be playing! She agreed and went back in and made some more good plays!!!

Here's a slideshow from the first week of soccer:

Future Fashion Designer

Both Rachel & Katelyn really like to play dress-up. Katelyn usually picks out the same 1 or 2 outfits that she prefers, but Rachel tends to take various pieces and make up her own unique creations. This is one of her latest. Notice the hair clips helping to keep the scarf together as some kind of top! And you've got to love the leopard print heels with the outfit too!!!

Rachel's Birthday Morning

Last Wednesday (3rd) was Rachel's birthday, so we woke her up, sang Happy Birthday to her, and let her open presents before going to school. Rachel didn't ask for much - pretty much just books! There's a really good used book store nearby, so I scoured shelf after shelf looking for books that she would like. I found some great books for her and at much better prices than retail - and the books are in near perfect condition!!! Here are some pictures from Rachel's birthday morning:

Wake up Rachel! It's your birthday!!

Leave me alone!
Not awake yet!
Okay - I'm ready to celebrate.
Thanks Katelyn! Cool new computer typing game!
An American Girl book! YEAH!!!
More books! Just what I asked for!!!
Silly girls!

Funny Face

The girls got this toy from Beth & Donald a while back. It's fun to put your hands or feet in it and see what it looks like. You can also put your face in it - sometimes it turns out pretty good, and other times it doesn't. This time, Rachel stuck her tongue out, and then we carefully moved it from her face and let her pose with it. Kind of creepy!

Play Day at the Pool

One afternoon right after the Olympics when we were at Mamaw & Papaw's house playing in the pool, Robert started announcing the girls as they were going off the diving board. He was assigning a degree of difficulty to each jump and then giving them a score afterwards. It was hilarious!!! They were doing anything they could think of!! Some of Katelyn's favorite things to do were the pencil and the cannonball. Rachel liked to do anything - dive, walk the plank, the hammer & the nail, the spinnerette, etc. They made up lots of silly things to do. After a while, Lloyd got in on the action too. It was a lot of fun!

Celebrating Rachel's Birthday Again

On Sunday afternoon, August 31st we celebrated Rachel's birthday with Mamaw & Papaw and Lloyd & Wendy. Wendy made Rachel a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing - Rachel's favorite!!! Rachel got several new books, new clothes, a video, and money. Lloyd & Wendy also gave her "tickets" to their home theater to come and watch her new movie. You see, they have a really cool media room with a projection TV that takes up the entire wall!!! It's better than actually going to the movies! They gave Rachel 2 "tickets" - one for her and one for her favorite sister!!! It said it was good for anytime, but then had an * with exclusions - such as UT football games, major sporting events, etc. It was really cute!!

Here's a slideshow of the afternoon:

A Good Day!!!

Thanks for everyone's prayers today!! Katelyn had a good day! Robert walked her in and sat with her in the cafeteria ("bus hall") until it was time for her teacher to come get the class. Once Mrs. Tilley was there, Katelyn got in line and went to her class and Robert left. She had a good day!!! I found out she cried a little bit two times. Once was when she couldn't find her friend on the playground and the other time was on the way to lunch. Katelyn told me that she was hungry and her tummy was growling and she cried for just a few seconds and then she stopped! So it was a much better day today!!!! Robert offered to walk her in again in the morning, so we're hoping she'll have another good day tomorrow! Then we'll see if she's ready to be dropped off. I'm just happy that she had a good day with very little tears and she ate some at school!!!

Cautiously Optimistic

Thanks to all of you who read my previous post about Katelyn having a hard time last week at school and left a comment for me. And thanks to those of you who have emailed me or asked me personally about how Katelyn is doing. We've had a good week-end. She has eaten pretty well this week-end, which we're very thankful for! She probably ate more Friday between 3:30 and 8:30 than she did from Tuesday through Friday afternoon!!! We've talked a little about school tomorrow, and she says she's going to have a good day with no crying! We'll see how it goes, but I'm cautiously optimistic. I've promised her a playdate with her buddy Kylee if she has a good week, so maybe that'll help her get through the week!!! I'm working drop-off duty in the morning, but Robert is going to take Katelyn to school later so that she doesn't have to sit in bus hall for a long time. Maybe that'll help. I'm sure everyone's prayers will help her too! And Mrs. Jeanne - you didn't cause the problem! We'll have to stop by again Wednesday and talk to you again.

Hopefully, I'll have good news to post tomorrow about Katelyn's day at school!!!!

A Hard Time

Usually my posts are happy & upbeat things about the fun things going on in our lives. But today is a serious post. I just don't know what to do. You see, last Thursday Katelyn started crying at school. I was puzzled by that because she has never really had any problems with being away from us. She went to preschool for 2 years and LOVED it! She loves all her activities at church and has been looking forward to kindergarten for a long time. Her first few days of kindergarten she was all smiles from the time we dropped her off to the time we picked her up. But then Thursday came. She cried for an hour at school. I thought it might have something to do with one of her friends crying and Katelyn tried to console her for about 30 minutes, and then Katelyn started crying. I thought it was a one-time thing. But then she cried again Friday. After the Labor Day holiday we thought it would be back to normal, but Tuesday morning she cried and made herself throw up. Now granted, she has been struggling with a cold, sinus infection, etc. and is on antibiotics and steroids, in addition to her normal allergy & asthma medications. So I know she has a lot of congestion sitting on that little tummy of hers. But that's not an excuse. She ended up throwing up twice at school on Tuesday. On Wednesday she cried again and threw up at home before heading to school, and then twice again at school. She made it through the afternoon without throwing up, so we thought that was good. Thursday she teared up a little bit and cried a little a couple of times during the day, but didn't throw up. YEAH!!! But this morning when we dropped her off she wouldn't get out of the van and Robert had to pick her up and put her on the sidewalk and then we just had to drive away with her crying. It breaks my heart! And she's not eating anything! I'm so worried about her. She only weighs 32 pounds fully clothed, so she can't afford to lose weight. I don't know what to do. We have read books like "The Kissing Hand" that was recommended by her guidance counselor, we have tried punishments, and we have tried rewards for not throwing up (like yesterday). We've made up songs, we've had talks, we've tried to do crazy things, ANYTHING! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO and my heart is breaking. Robert went back over to school this morning and saw a friend of ours who had seen Katelyn this morning and she said that Katelyn had not thrown up and that she saw Rachel walking Katelyn down to class. So maybe she'll be okay. But the other thing is I don't want Rachel to bear this burden too. It's not her responsibility. She's being such a great big sister, but I don't want her to get upset about Katelyn. I'm just so emotional about it all right now. So if anyone actually reads this blog, please say a prayer for Katelyn.

Rachel is Officially 7 Years Old

Today is officially Rachel's 7th birthday, although we've been celebrating it since Friday! It's so hard to believe that 7 years ago today I was in the hospital recovering from a c-section with a brand new baby girl!!! That year Labor Day was actually on Sept. 3rd, so I was in labor on Labor Day! For those of you who didn't know us then, here's a brief recap of the events leading up to Rachel's birth. It was Sunday afternoon and I was taking a nap while Robert was playing golf with some friends from church. All of a sudden I woke up and knew something had happened - my water had broke! So I called Robert and told him to come home!!! The guys were giving him a hard time trying to convince him to stay and finish the 18 holes before going home. They told him he would be a legend if he did!! He told them he would be a dead legend if he did!!!! He did the right thing and came on home and we headed to the hospital. I got checked in and hooked up to everything, but we weren't making any progress. They kept coming to check me, but still no progress. Finally Monday morning early the doctor decided that my body wasn't going to have this baby on its own - I needed some help. So they got me ready for a c-section and in just a few minutes we had a baby girl!!! We were both completely shocked to see a red-headed, blue-eyed girl! We just assumed we would have a brown-headed, brown-eyed girl. Boy, were we wrong!!! From the start, Rachel was a wonderful baby! Through the years she has grown into an intelligent, beautiful, sweet, caring, loving, wonderful 7 year old!!! I love her tremendously and am so proud to call her my daughter!!!

Birthday Olympics Pictures

Here are some pictures from the 2008 Birthday Olympics (aka Rachel's 7th birthday party):

All the kids with the Olympic Banner (compliments of Wendy's intern)

Rachel carrying in the Olympic "torch" during opening ceremonies!


The cake

Rachel & some of her friends waiting to eat cake

As mentioned in a previous post, Rachel's birthday was Friday night and the theme was the 2008 Birthday Olympics! We had lots of fun! The kids were divided into three teams - the red team, the blue team, and the green team. They all signed their team poster, put on a ribbon with their team color, and then marched in waving smaller versions of their team flag to the Olympic fanfare for the opening ceremony! Each girl was announced and had a big smile when their name was said over the microphone!! Then Rachel ran in with the torch! Then it was time for the games to begin. Rachel & Katelyn were both on the green team, which ended up winning the gold medal in almost every event! The good thing is each team won at least 1 gold medal. Each team had a "national anthem" that was played when they won the gold medal! The songs were "We're All in This Together," "All for One," and "Push It to the Limit." We had an award ceremony after each event. I think all the kids enjoyed it and had a good time! Rachel decided that the best part of a birthday party is having your friends come over to your house - not the presents. So she told her friends that they didn't have to bring a gift, and that if they did, they would be donated to Mission of Hope, an organization that helps out kids in Appalachia. Every year they collect toys to give to the kids of Appalachia at Christmas. A lot of the parents liked that idea and were very supportive. Rachel collected several nice things that will make some young girls happy come Christmas time! I'm so proud of her for doing this!