trip to Evansville

It was 'family weekend' at the University of Evansville this weekend. Chelsea and I (along with Chelsea's bff, Danielle) drove 5 hours to visit Kirsten. We were all dissappointed that Nigel would not come. "I just saw her a couple of weeks ago, why would I want to spend 5 hours in a car to see her again? Has she changed that much in a few weeks? Besides, she will be home in 2 weeks for her fall break." Such a practical outlook on life.... :-(
The girls and I had fun visiting and seeing Kirsten's new living arrangement. It is a perfect set up for her. She has her own room, shares a bathroom with one other roommate, has a nice small kitchen and a living room for all 4 of them to congregate. They have set up a roommate night out, and also a game night. Looks like loads of fun! I think the best part of the whole situation for Kirsten is living right across the street from all the frat houses!!!! :-) So many boys to choose from..... :-) hahaha
It was a long drive both ways, but worth every minute of it. Chelsea and Danielle spent 5 hours both ways on their cell phones, comparing messages and pictures and generally laughing the whole time! It definitely kept me entertained!

Now it's back to school and the last two weeks of my volleyball season. The freshmen finish on Oct 8th. The varsity will continue to play through the playoffs and hopefully find their way to the State Tournament!!! Go Eagles!

I held tryouts for swimming on Friday and will have another one on Monday. There are two or three swimmers in the group! I will probably end up with about 30 swimmers all together. That's alot for a 4 lane pool, but it's all good.... :-)

Summer really is over....

I am draining my pool. :-(
You all know how much I like swimming. I think I was born in a pool! Well, last night I decided it was time to take the thing down, so I started the draining process. I actually hadn't been in it in about a month. But, it's still sad to know it will be another 8 months or so until I get to put it back up.

Here is a picture if you haven't been lucky enough to see it in person. :-)



That is Chelsea sunning herself in our awesome pool!!!


BUT --- all is not lost!!! It's swim season at SBA! We have had preseason conditioning for about 2 weeks now. Our regular season starts on Oct 8 - that's the day after our last 9th grade volleyball game. One of the best things about this swim team is the facility where we practice. It is a fitness center about a mile from our school. They have an outdoor pool which is heated. So for about 3 weeks we get to swim outdoors!!! It's great fun except when it is raining. I walk up and down the side of the pool with my umbrella and my feet get soaked! Sometime around the end of October they put the 'bubble' up over the pool and it becomes an indoor pool! This is really interesting to me. Swimming in a bubble. I'm sure my sister Debi could find some kind of psychological meaning to this...
Anyway, the water is warm and I walk up and down the side of the pool, still getting my feet soaked - this time from the splashed water. And when it is cold outside, the condensation that forms on the inside of the bubble makes it 'rain' inside! The kids love to bang on the sides of the bubble and watch the water fall from the top into the pool. Cheap thrills! Then when it gets REALLY cold, we get FOG inside. So much fog that it is hard to see the end of the pool - 25 yards away. That's when I really have to walk up and down the side of the pool. I have to be able to see the swimmers!!
The last interesting thing about this facility is the lack of lights. In December and January, it starts to get dark about 4:30pm around here. Well, we practice until 5:00. There are three small lights inside this bubble making it very difficult for my 52 year old eyes to see everything. I'm hoping this year they will add a few more lights to the area. I'm not holding my breath on that one.....
I don't have any pictures yet, but when I do I will share them.

Ahhh, swimming...... you gotta love it!

More Volleyball news

Saturday was a fantastic day for my freshmen team. We hosted a tournament with 8other teams, and won the whole thing! My team was in pool play with 5 teams and the other pool had 4 teams. We beat Southwind, then beat Germantown, then beat Arlington (that's Chelsea's school!) and finally played St Agnes. Well, in pool play St Agnes beat us in two games. We just could not put the ball away on them. They dug everything. And then we made some really bad serving errors! Our passing was great, but serving and hitting errors just did us in. The girls didn't know how to take a loss - since that was our first one!
We rebounded and won the first playoff match against Collierville. Then came the Championship game against - St Agnes. This time we put some great runs together. Allison served 14 points in a row to put us in front!!!!! Which lead us to win the first game. The second game was back and forth and St Agnes came out on top. So that lead us to the third game. It was a real "nail biter" with many ties. We ended up winning 17 - 15!
The girls were so thrilled! You would have thought they just won an Olympic Gold Medal or something! It was a really fun day! I was there for 12 hours, but it was all worth it in the end. :-)
So now the team is 10 - 1! What a great season so far!!!!

More Volleyball magic

Once again I will brag about my freshmen volleyball team. They are great! We won 2 more games this week - that makes us 5 - 0! That gives us good confidence heading into this weekend's tournament. We are hosting 8 other teams at SBA on Saturday. There is a VERY GOOD chance we will win the whole thing. That is the goal anyway...
I'll let you know how it goes!

I love my Dallas Cowboys!

It's another football season! Yay! Time to kick back on Sundays and watch my Dallas Cowboys have another great season! This year they have a new player - Felix Jones. He is a graduate of Booker T Washington High School in Tulsa where I used to teach. I used to watch him run the football when he was a freshman. It's hard to believe he's old enough to be a pro player!!! So watch for him to make a big impact in Dallas.

My volleyball team

I coach the girls' 9th grade volleyball team at SBA. This year's team is really very talented. There are 12 girls on the team and they all have the ability to play anytime I ask. It's hard to decide who to play and when. It's really a nice problem to have.
Tonight was their 3rd straight victory. It was a little 'rough' as we had to play 3 games in order to be successful. I have one player - Allison - who is cool as a cucumber. She seems to play very well under stress. She's the one we go to when we are behind. She kind of takes over when no one else seems to be doing anything right. Tonight we were in the 3rd game of the match when she began serving. 8 straight serves - and she could place them anywhere on the court she wanted. What a great talent to have. Pretty amazing as a freshman!
So I'm pretty pumped about our team! :-)

Tomorrow I get to travel with the varsity team to Chattanooga to a tournament. I will miss one day of school (yay!) and get back very late on Saturday, but we should have a great time. I'm looking forward watching the 'big girls' do their thing. It's very refreshing being part of such a successful program!
GO EAGLES!!!

My baby is growing up

Chelsea amazes me. Somehow, somewhere, she has decided to grow up! She is starting her 4th week of high school - a pretty scary step in most of our lives. And yet, she has tackled it with grace, humor, and a sense of responsibility! She undertakes her mound of homework without much complaining. She wakes herself up in the morning at 4:45am to get dressed and do her hair and makeup. She has a smile on her face when I get up an hour later to make her breakfast. It's truly amazing! This is the same daughter I had to drag out of bed last year at 7:00am, who would mumble something at me at the breakfast table and I would have to shout to hurry up or she would miss the bus! This is the same daughter who would forget just about everything unless I reminded her a bunch of times... :-), let alone get her homework done. She is the daughter who would be "lost in space" most days and not very responsible. What happened? Did I miss something?
I guess my baby is growing up.....

Monday - a great holiday to do nothing

I am just sitting here watching a little TV. What a way to spend an day off of school. I should be working on lesson plans, but it is just too easy to do nothing.

I am forever envious of my older sister, Debi. She seems to be able to motivate herself to work out/train for her triathlons. I am quite proud of her accomplishments, but at the same time I kick myself for not getting with the 'program' and get moving. One thing about being a PE teacher - I get to move with me kids in class. If I didn't do that, I think I would weigh a million pounds!!!
Just so you know, Debi, you are very inspirational to me. Keep up the great work!

I was hoping to lay out in the pool today. You know, the last time before summer really ends. However, the clouds are out today so not a great day for tanning... Very sad about that....

So here I sit with my computer and the TV.....

It will be a busy one this week at school:
Tuesday, VB practice then "meet the teachers" night at school.
Wednesday, Middle School swim league meeting, then VB practice - the parents are coming to practice to learn how to keep score. That should be interesting!
Thursday, game with Bolton 9th graders. I hope they are better than 'beginners'.
Friday, I go with the Varsity team to Chattanooga for a weekend tournament.

So, only a 3 day week for me at school!!! YAY!