The "Chargers"

I think (translated "hope") that Krista has found her calling. She has tried dance and gymnastics with limited success, but she recently signed up for volleyball through the Boys & Girls Club and seems to really like it. And, for a new player, she's actually pretty good--especially at serving.

Her team name is "Chargers," which isn't very original, but their jersey colors inspired the name. It's funny, because the name certainly doesn't fit the way they play. They all (well, most) seem to hope the ball doesn't come to them. All of the "10 and under" teams are that way. So, the games can be rather boring. They go something like this: Serve, point - serve, point - serve, point - serve, point - serve, point - switch sides - serve, point . . .

Every once in awhile they actually return the ball, so then it's serve, return, point. But it rarely goes more than that. But by the 7th and 8th games, there was a lot more of this than the first several games, and it had just started to get interesting when the season was over (they only played 9 games).

Okay, and here's the embarrassing part; when the coach was handing out the trophies, he said a little something about each girl, describing each one before he actually said the name. So, he said stuff like, "This girl improved the most over the season. She really came out of her shell and started making great plays. Who do you think that is? That's right, it's Maya!" And here's what he said about Krista: "OK, who do you guys think gave me the most attitude throughout the season?" And here's where everyone pointed to Krista. "Why is everyone pointing at Krista?" the coach asked. "You're right, it's Krista!" Then he handed her the trophy. Yikes! And here's the kicker - she was proud!


The fall season starts in October, and I think both girls are going to play this time. Gene and I really enjoy going to the games. We miss going to Ashley's and Ryan's softball games (we enjoyed that more than they did, unfortunately), so it's cool to do something like this with the girls.

Here are some photos and video clips.

"Chargers on three, Chargers on three!"

Krista serving

"Rotate!"

This one is funny, because there's no ball in the picture, but they're all looking up, so it's up there somewhere.

Oops!

"Good game, good game, good game . . . "

Krista gets a good hit in this video clip (she's in the bottom right corner):

Krista serving (this is a good example of the "serve, point" concept):

Another good hit by Krista:

Good times!

My Manly Men

Now that our pine trees are gone, we've been working on our front bank. It took several weekends just to get all the pine straw and mulch raked up. Then we got our free trees from the city, and it was planting day. Gene had injured his left wrist the day before, so he was handicapped this day. Which was unfortunate, because there was a lot of work to do--much more than we expected. You see, those pine trees had been growing on that bank for many, many years. And the root system was unbelievable. And, of course, we seemed to pick the worst places to plant our baby trees.

Thankfully, Ryan came over. To be honest, I wasn't expecting him to be much help (sorry, Rye), because he's never really been one to do manual labor. But, he surprised us both this day. It really seemed like he was enjoying doing "manly" work. And, it turns out he was A LOT of help. If he hadn't come over, those trees would probably still not be planted.

So here are some photos of the long, HOT day.

Ryan started on what we thought was going to be the easiest tree to plant. Here's my baby boy using an ax to chop the roots in the hole where we wanted to plant our Little Gem Magnolia tree. It's hard to believe that this is the same little boy who used to spend hours on end in his room playing his Nintendo or drawing. When we told him we were thinking of adopting a child, he said he didn't want us to get a boy because the kid would probably expect him to play sports with him or something.

And look at him now.

This is what he had been chopping!

And here's the tree all planted!

Dakota was monitoring our resident gopher for us. She could not think about anything else all day.

Here's Gene chopping with one hand.

The Southern Magnolia on the left side was the easiest hole to dig, because no pine trees had been growing up on this side.

See, nice empty hole!

Four down! One to go.

Did I mention that it was REALLY hot?!

We saved the worst for last. We thought this Southern Magnolia was never going to get planted.

And this is why. . .

Daylight started to fade. But they were determined to get it planted.

And Dakota was determined to find that gopher!

They finally resorted to using the reciprocating saw. Check this thing out!

As the sun was going down, they were still working. We had to use a flashlight to finish. But they did finish! And now all our trees are planted. After we get a few other things done, I'll take more pictures. But it still looks pretty bad right now, so it will have to wait.

Thank you, Ryan! You're the best son in the whole world!

My Home Office

Although I do miss the social aspect of having a "real" job, I LOVE working at home in my own office. It's at the back of the house, and I can close my door and have complete solitude.

Of course, it doesn't always work that way. The girls can't seem to get it in their heads that, when I'm "at work," they aren't allowed to come in unless it's an emergency. Somehow I still get interrupted in the mornings with, "My stupid hair is too poofy! I HATE my flat iron!" And that's from the ten-year-old, for crying out loud. Or, it's something like, "Mom, Krista won't stop slurping her cereal, and it's gross!" Argghhhh!!!

So, I tried closing my door. That worked pretty well until the dogs started crying and scratching to come in (or go out). So, Gene put a doggy door in. It works great! Now, my puppies can come and go, and I can work in solitude again. (Sort of.) I absolutely LOVE it!

I have a recliner in one corner and a small, flat-screen TV in the other, so I can take a break and watch some HGTV anytime I want. I even have a place to store all my scrapbook stuff (which I never seem to find time to work on anymore). Did I mention that I LOVE my office?

My camera isn't the greatest, but here are a few photos.