Padres 14 - Rangers 11

Wow! What a game Thursday night! Game 2 in the TOC and we were up against the Rangers. But there was no holding the guys back Thursday night. The Cardinals coach was there and even commented on what a great game our guys played! Rumor has it that they are nervous to play us on Tuesday.

Here's the low down of the game by inning. We had first ups.

1 - 3
6 - 4 (we are now ahead!!)
8 - 5
13 - 5
13 - 11
14 - 11 9 (got them out 1 2 3 in the last inning)

I do have to say the Rangers played a spectacular game too! The coaches were Greg's coaches last year and 5 of the guys were on the team with Greg last year. Greg was sad that the Rangers lost but happy his team won. Rangers had a triple play in the 5th inning and didn't let us score.

Greg was batting 4th this game and think he felt the pressure.

At practice Saturday we saw that the final teams in the tournament are us and the Cardinals, and the Dodgers and Angels. Dodgers and Angels play Monday and we play Tuesday. If we win we play Saturday, loose play Thursday. If we do play Thursday and win, we will play again on Saturday.

So, please come out for the game on Tuesday, 5:00 at the Youth Athletic Park, right across from Lake Mission Viejo. Wear your Padre blue, bring your noise makers and your Padre spirit.

Way to go Padres!!!

The weekend........

Friday afternoon Tom and the kids took off for Campland on the Bay in Mission Bay (San Diego) for the Adventure Princess Family Camp. Greg was supposed to have practice Friday, but it was changed to Saturday so opted to go too Friday night.
I stayed home to finish up some things and watched Lake House (Super chick flick movie!!) Saturday morning 6:30 am, car was gassed up, money in my wallet and a Starbucks chai tea latte in my cup holder, and I was on my way to San Diego. Now that's a great time to make the trip south. No traffic and I always like the drive along the coast. Got to camp land about 7:45 when everyone was still getting up. Enjoyed meeting the other moms and dads and had a super camp breakfast of waffles, eggs and bacon!!
Saturday was a packed day for the girls and families. After breakfast we headed to the beach for water games, swimming , etc.... Greg and I rented bikes and took off for a nice long bike ride along the bay. Found this super bike path. Back to camp for swimming and lunch and a little more playing. Then Greg and I headed home for his 4:00 practice. We were both so tired!
Saturday night Greg and I just chilled watching a movie and fighting to stay awake. We were both zonked out by 9.
After church this morning, Greg and I went to his football meeting. 30 kids on the team, 7 coaches and many many parent volunteer positions! I signed us up for towels, photography and stats. (I did football stats in high school). Practice starts July 30, 5 nights a week. We are going to have one tired boy! First game is Labor Day weekend.
Now we are home till 4:00 practice. Tom and Evy are on their way home from camp.
Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Real Simple Daily Thought

I haven't had a good daily thought for a few days. Well, they are all good, but not one that jumped out at me enough to post.

I do like this one. I do like the picture too and stuck that on the post as well.

It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
— Sir Winston Churchill

So, my take on this one......take things one day at a time. Tackle today, today. Tomorrow will come no matter what so make the most of today.

Kids opted to stay home from day care today. I told them they are on their own and not to bug me or they are headed to church. Greg used the rationale that he needed to rest for his game tonight. Ok, then why are you up at 6:30 am!! My rules are: not to bug me, do 2 days worth of Kumon homework, reading, not to bug me, not too much tv, not to bug me, don't argue, pick up your rooms, make your beds, put away your laundry, don't' bug me (please), and entertain your selves.

Every summer we have a rewards program for doing workbooks, reading, helping around the house, etc..... This is the free week and then it starts next week. The kids earn points which are tallied up at the end of summer for a reward. This year the kids want Nintendo DS's. We priced them last night at Target. The kids already have a list of games going too. I'm not one to run out and buy the kids the latest game boy game. The game boys are 2 years old. We don't even have Nintendo or PS or X box. Don't see the reason to have one. Another excuse to be a couch potato. I didn't have one, no computer games, no game boy...... I turned out ok.

Greg has a game today, 5:00. Hope he's not nervous. I'm not making a big deal out of the game (although I am excited as it is the play offs!!).

Kaydee update: She sure wants to get out and run! I have found ways to sneak her medicine to her - cheese! Also started on glucosamine. I take her on a very short and slow walk to the end of the block. She wants to run. I watch how she walks and she does have a weird walk with her weird legs. I have been reading so much about hip dysplacia. Everything is pretty much says the same thing. We will go back to the vet next week and I will have my long list of questions.

Back to work. Have a super day and make the most of today :)

Anaheim Ducks Win!!!!!!!!!!

A little excitement here in the OC tonight as the Ducks take the Stanley Cup!! Whoo-Hoo way to go Ducks!

Sports: Local Sports

Major League Sports from AP
Anaheim Ducks Win First Stanley Cup
06-06-2007 10:53 PMBy IRA PODELL, AP Sports Writer
ANAHEIM, Calif. (Associated Press) -- The Anaheim Ducks aren't called mighty anymore. Now they can simply answer to Stanley Cup champions. The 14-year-old Ducks captured their first NHL title with a 6-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night, ending the series in five games in front of the home folks yet again.
For the first time, the Stanley Cup resides in California and at the expense of Canada, which hasn't boasted a winner since Montreal in 1993. Calgary, Edmonton and now Ottawa _ in its first trip since the Senators were reborn in 1992 _ each had a chance the past three seasons only to be done in by a U.S. club from the sun belt.
Tampa Bay, Carolina and Anaheim aren't exactly traditional hockey hotbeds but they have been the Cup's warm weather homes since 2004. Wayne Gretzky made the game a happening in Southern California when he came to Los Angeles in 1988, the Ducks made it legit two decades later with their second trip to the finals.
Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer won it for the fourth time, and brought his brother Rob and teammates Teemu Selanne and Chris Pronger along for the ride for their first. Rob Niedermayer is one of three Ducks on the losing side of the finals in 2003 when Scott Niedermayer and the New Jersey Devils captured their third title in Game 7.
Only Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere had something to smile about that year when he was given the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the MVP of the playoffs. This win was so much sweeter as he stopped 11 shots in the clincher. The biggest roar came when Antoine Vermette shot wide on a penalty shot in the third.
Scott Niedermayer finally earned the MVP award many thought he deserved four years ago.
The 36-year-old Selanne waited 14 seasons and 1,041 regular season games to become a champion. After leading the Ducks in scoring this season, he capped off the year with a title. Pronger was on Edmonton last year when the Oilers lost in seven games to Carolina. He returned to the lineup for the clincher after serving a one-game suspension.
Sticks and gloves flew in front of Giguere when it ended. Fireworks went off and streamers fell as the Ducks rushed off the bench to celebrate.
Senators forward Daniel Alfredsson, the first European captain in finals history, fell short of his first championship in 11 seasons. He supplied all the Ottawa offense despite feeling the booing wrath of the fans, who chided him all night in response to his shooting the puck at Scott Niedermayer in Game 4.
Andy McDonald started the scoring 3:41 into the first period with a power-play goal, his third tally in two games, and Rob Niedermayer made it 2-0 with 2:19 left in the frame. Travis Moen had two goals, one that never touched his stick and another in conventional fashion.
Alfredsson scored twice in the second period, including a short-handed goal that cut Anaheim's lead to one for a second time, but the Senators couldn't shake off a fluke goal that Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips put into his own net with a pass off the skates of goalie Ray Emery.
That one was credited to Moen.
When Francois Beauchemin scored a power-play goal with 1:32 left in the second, the Ducks' two-goal lead was back and the excited crowd anticipated an appearance by the Stanley Cup that sat in a crate offstage.
By then it was just a matter of time for the Ducks, 8-0 at home in series-clinching games _ including 4-0 this year when they dropped the mighty from their name but not from their game. In the building formerly known as the Pond, Anaheim is 6-0 during the finals.
In the middle of the third period, the buzzing and quacking crowd serenaded Emery, called for the now-polished Cup, and bellowed with delight after each whistle.
The Ducks played five games above the minimum in the postseason and went past five games only in the Western Conference finals when they won three straight to erase a 2-1 series deficit and wipe out the Detroit Red Wings.
Ottawa also had a quick run to the finals, needing only five series in each to eliminate Pittsburgh, New Jersey and top-seeded Buffalo. But the Ducks proved too tough with their hard-hitters and tight checkers shutting down the Senators' top forward line that was broken up by coach Bryan Murray after the unit led the NHL in playoff scoring.
Anaheim is the first West Coast city to lay claim to the silver chalice since the Victoria Cougars of the Western Canada Hockey League defeated Montreal in 1925, two years before NHL clubs began exclusively playing for the Cup.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Outside my window

My office window looks out the front of the house. My desk is in front of the window so I can see outside all day and not have to only see the computer screen or the wall. Birds galore today. Humming birds drinking from the flowers on the table outside the window, blue birds sitting on the roof, robins sitting on the back of the chairs. Pretty blue sky with white fluffy clouds, new plants beginning to grow on the slope across the street. Little breeze blowing. June gloom finally went away and the sun it out. Beautiful day out. Will take Greg on a bike ride while Tom and Evy are at their last Adventure Princess meeting of the year tonight. So nice not to have homework (except Kumon). No dragging the kids out of bed early to get to school. Summer has begun!!

Padres TOC schedule

Finally, the website is updated. We play Thursday at 5:00 against the Rangers. We lost to them once and beat them once. Our teams are very equally matched so it could go either way. A win means we play next Tuesday, a loose means we play Saturday at 12:30.

For more info, go to www.nmvll.org , on the far right side of the screen , click Single A under playoff bracket. The pdf schedule will pop up.

All of the blue washed out of Greg's hair, but there is still a faint black "p" on the back of his head. Fun times!!

Guess who???

Robby, Michael, Harlan, Jamie and my brother Eric (10 maybe??) Can't believe I still remember the names. Robby and Harlan lived on our block. Michael lived in the same neighborhood, on another block. Jamie lived in another neighborhood and was a friend from school and soccer. Think all the boys played soccer and baseball together except for Harlan. My dad and Michael's dad were baseball coaches together.

Eric's birthday. Don't know how many candles are on the cake. This is in our back yard. We had a huge patio (remember having to sweep it!)

Ok, now get ready for the next ones. Don't fall over laughing. No really, they aren't that bad, but makes me laugh seeing them. Fun.

Ready

Set

Ok, look!!

This is me at my 9th grade graduation. Love the braces and the feathered hair! My mom made my Gunny (sp??) Sax dress. Like the tan lines too! And as it turns out, my best friend, Liz (aka Fizz-It), well, her mom made her the same style of dress. And we didn't even plan it. We always thougt it was fun to dress the same anyways.
This is Liz and me at our 9th grade graduation. Probably somewhere near the quad at Christopher Columbus Jr. High School in Canoga Park (yep, the Valley).

Oh, a trip down memory lane.

Sunday

Sunday already. I stayed up too late last night working on my project. Got a huge brain storm so went with it. Scanned some pictures today and need to get them on the project. :)

I got up early and met the guys at O'Neill park at 7 am for church. It was so cool to have church outside. I didn't stay for breakfast as it was cold. So, opted to do an early Sunday morning Target run. I didn't even look at the ad! I had a ton of stuff to return. And then just strolled around the store with my Starbucks chai. Peace............

Cleaned up the garage and got Evy from Jordyn's. Tired girls. Boys came home, tired and stinky! Greg's hair is such a funky shade of blue now. Told him I am scrubbing it for him tonight. Spent some time going through a huge box of old photos that I can't wait to scrap one day. :)

Here's some pictures of my car. They wouldn't up load yesterday.




Back to my project now......

Saturday

<

Woke up early with the kids to get ready for our neighborhood garage sale. When the kids opened the garage at 6:30 and started hauling things out, we were mobbed! Made some great sales in early morning hours. Overall we did pretty good. Kids made some cash and so did I. Greg bought a bike for $5!. Evy bought some smaller things for a few bucks. We still have some stuff left over, but it's going tomorrow. Another garage cleaning day.

Greg had his first play off game today against the Red Sox. Padres started out slow but pulled it off 17 - 10, final score. The next game is Thursday at 5:00, more than likely against the Rangers. Our game after that will either be Saturday or Tuesday, depending on how we do.


Greg was so in the game today, game on, game ball Greg. Nothing getting by Greg at 3rd base. Tagging runners out, power house throws to 1st getting runners out. Hitting to the fence. You rock Greg. The boys had their hair painted blue, all the parents had their car windows decorated, noise makers galore and a lot of Padre spirit. Whoo-Hoo!

Greg and Coach Robbie

Padres-13........Greg

Warm up lap

Leading the pledge with Kyle and Preston

Team

After game talk, stars and game ball

Evy went to Jordyn's birthday party and is spending the night. Tom and Greg are at a boy scout camping trip. Me, home alone with the animals. I'm a little lonely and getting tired, but having fun watching movies and trying to get my scrap project together. It's started but I'm stumped. So instead, I am here, trying to get some ideas.

I went for a nice long run this evening, ran the distance too :) But I was sad (and cried) to not be running with my running buddy Kaydee. I snuck out when she was napping. I felt guilty. But K was in a chipper mood when we got up this morning. She was dancing in circles for her breakfast, she hung out with us in the garage during the garage sale, and so wanted to play. But doing our best to keep her quiet. Tonight she was running around the back yard and I felt bad to have to quiet her down. She so wanted to play and run. Guess the pain meds are kicking in, and shes keeping them down now.

Tomorrow I'm up early to meet Tom and Greg and the rest of Pack 818 at O'Neil park at 7 am for church. It's outdoors, so cool. The breakfast with the boys. Hope to get back home to do some more scrapping and then putting away the garage.

good night........... heading back to my project.

Padres schedule

Ok, the game time has changed again, back to 1:00 Saturday. Keeps changing every 12 hours or so. When I know more, will post it

Real Simple Daily Thoughts

I got 2 today :) Must be because I need a double dose today. ( I also need a double dose of caffeine, so am off to Starbucks in a few)

I am thankful for the mess to clean after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.
— Nancie J. Carmody

Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length.
— Robert Frost

This is the kids last day of school. Ahhhhhhhh. The mess of books is still piled on the couch and I know there is more coming home today. We will go through it this weekend.

Neighborhood garage sale this weekend in our neighborhood if you are looking for a bargain.

Baseball at 1:00, then Tom and Greg head to O'Neil park for a boy scout camp out. Evy is off to a friends for a birthday party. Me? Well, I'm home alone. You know what that means....... scrapping and chick flicks! Love it.

Ok, time to get dressed and head out to Starbucks and Long's for glucosamine for K.

Happy Friday everyone. Hope you have a fun and safe weekend. Hope you have lots of messes to clean up and find towers of happiness.

Kaydee

For several months Kaydee has been limping, more so after a walk, run or playing with her buddy Zuko. Her limp has been more frequent and she was really favoring her right leg. But she still was excited to go on her run with me every morning. I just thought she had strained a muscle or ran too much.

Yesterday we took K to the vet. After an exam, which K did not like, the vet wanted to do x rays. That required sedation.

About 1 1/2 hours later we were called back to the vet to get our K. First the knee x rays were explained. Left knee, patella luxation, grade 1, on a scale of 1 - 4. This means her little knee cap is a little off center, not right where it should be. Thankfully no degenerative disease. Right knee ok.

Now to the hips. Not good. Our K has hip dysplasia, both hips. It's moderate and the next stage is severe. What happens next? THR, both hips. (total hip replacement), within the year. OK, we will deal with that later.

For the next 2 weeks bed rest for K. No walks, no runs, no playing. Doggie lady of leisure. Now K loves her naps, but she also loves to go for walks, runs and plays hard. Going to be tough on all of us for 2 week, and maybe longer.

K has pain meds which include an anti inflammatory. Also need to get glucosamine chondroitin sulfate for her joints.

Our beauty was so groggy last night from being sedated. She was wobbly and not quite sure what to do. She took her medicine well, ate a little, drank water. But was restless all night. In and out. Then she began throwing up. This morning she at a little breakfast and took her meds, has been drinking lots of water and moving around better. She is giving me the sad eyes to be let in the house but need to make sure breakfast stays down first.

The vet called back this morning with the result of K's blood work which we also had done yesterday. Her cholesterol is up. Hmm? She doesn't get a lot of people food. Probably high because she did not fast before the test. (just like us humans). And her phosphorus level is elevated. Could be a lab error or could be the beginning of kidney disease but, no other kidney values were elevated.

We go back to the vet in 2 weeks for another check up and to do more blood work to test the phosphorus level and urine.

I have had dogs all my life and never had a dog with problems with the hips. I did have a rabbit who needed surgery a few times. But nothing like this. But we will do what we need to do to get our beauty well again.

I am sad that I have lost my best running buddy. Hopefully not forever though. Also sad that our beauty is not well. But for now, we will do our best to keep K rested and get her better.