Daily thought

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ok, using pinkish color today, because I am wearing my favorite pink skirt. I went to bed last night just totally exhausted. Woke up this morning still exhausted. This schedule is just taking it out of me. Don't think I have much left in me. And I got up way too late so I didn't get to walk K and she has been giving me the stink eye all morning. Maybe tonight.

So, then I read my email and after getting through the football emails and junk emails, I get to the daily thought email. Which, btw, I look forward to every morning. And this one was waiting in my in box. Perfect! So, today, and the rest of the week, I will make the most of myself. I will continue to give all that I can for there is only one me. And I will also take some time for myself. Can I do that every week? I am not sure but will give it my best try. But I am sure that may help give me a boost of energy.

On that note, back to work and wishing you all a terrific Tuesday.

Wow, what a weekend!

So, yes I have used this title before, but this was a fun weekend!
Friday dropped Evy at her friends for a slumber birthday party. Greg and I went to practice (I ran again - yeah me) then to BR afterwards for some ice cream.
Saturday cleaned house (Greg was a huge help too) and put away most of the stuff that has been deposited in the fam room for the last few weeks. Off to get Evy, then to Judy's to look at the bunk bed, just what Greg wants, then to Sports Authority to get even more football gear (expensive sport!) and the kids birthday present - a trampoline!! Back home for lunch and finishing laundry (I had a huge to do list for Saturday). Greg and Grandma headed to Toys R Us so Greg could browse for his b-day present. Headed to church and after church had dinner and ice cream on the patio. What a turn out and it was so fun!!
Saturday night my mom came over, kids went bed, mom and I took a nap and then were up at midnight to see if we could see the meteor shower between 12 am and 1 am. We laid a blanket in the back yard, got the kids up (Evy fell back asleep) and stayed out till 1 am watching for shooting stars. We saw about 7 of them. So cool. If we were someplace darker we could have seen more. But it was still neat to see and relaxing laying out side - in our sweatshirts and covered with blankets in August (go figure)
Sunday morning the kids and I started setting up the trampoline and got as far as we could by ourselves. So the frame and legs are put together, now we just need the jumpy part and the directions say we need 3 adults. Then the net has to go up. We also drained the pool cleaned up the back yard.
Headed to our friend Korene's house. Her kids are Kahley and Justin. Korene, Michele and I were all in a play group and met when our kids were much younger. Think the girls were about 4 at the time. We don't get together as often as we used to but when we do the kids just go about like they saw each other last week and it's fun for us mom's to sit and catch up. Now that the kids are older we can start and finish a conversation without being interrupted quite as much. Thank you Korene for the fun afternoon!!!
We headed to my brother's house after Korene's house. Kids were going to hang out there (Tom was at a conference in Oceanside and then going to visit his friend Jeff in Oceanside).
Although my weekend was totally fun, this was the best part - Mama Mia!! My mom, sis in law Chrissy and I were headed off to see Mama Mia at the Preforming Arts Center. We went to Scott's Seafood for an early dinner before the show (love that restaurant). Chrissy and I had a delicious pomegranate martini and also grilled shrimp skewer with veggies and rice. My mom had the lemon drop and a fish soup (can't spell it)
Now, Mama Mia was excellent! A very fun show. I remembered more Abba songs than I thought I would. The cast was great and we had such a fun time. At the end of the show, the cast came back out and sang "Mama Mia" and then, dressed in the totally 70's costumes the rest came out and sang "Dancing Queen". Well for this we just had to stand up and dance as was about half of the audience. Totally fun!! If you have not seen Mama Mia, go, fun show and great music. Have to get the sound track.

Well, back to the normal routine today (Monday) Kids are at camp at Cal Elite and were excited to go. Then back to the football schedule. Scrimmage on Saturday. I will post more about it later.


Have a super week and hope you all had a great weekend.

Daily thought

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Can you read this?

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in th e rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.


Got this email from my dad tonight. Yep, I can read it. But no, won't translate it for you. It's really not that hard to read.
(I know I have been posting a lot lately, but just so much on my mind and so much to write about lately)

A tough night at practice

Greg is so wiped out after practice. All day long he was asking how many days till his first scrimmage. 9 days to go. Then during a water break he told me he does not want to do this anymore. Hang in there bud, I know it's tough, but you can't give up now, you made a commitment to this team and your coach is counting on you. I gave the best pep talk I could in the short time he had to get his water bottle and back onto the field.

But I do have to admit, these guys are being worked tough. Warm ups, running, drills, more drills and even more running. During defense drills Greg was diving on the ball, being dog piled, taking a beating. I did see him get kicked in the leg (not intentionally) and rammed in the back by a helmet (not intentionally). I told him this is what it is like in the games. Also told him he is one tough guy and will be able to take it. And he is not the only one getting roughed up, in fact most of the guys are.

He is really getting his dose of reality now. Football is not like soccer or baseball. Even though Greg can make soccer a contact sport.

I have to admit, Greg is one of the fastest guys on the team. Since he is first to get through the defense pads the coach is holding up and first to dive on the ball, yep, he is going to get beat up. By this I mean, end up on the bottom of the dog pile and get knocked around.

And I also see him out there thinking about what he is going to do during defense and offense drills, anticipating where the ball will be going, finding the holes and getting through them.

Got home close to 8:30 and Greg and I had some granola and chatted about practice. Then we snuggled and watched the rest of Dirty Jobs before I tucked him into bed. Have to admit, I am wiped out too. Makes for a long day.

Hang in there Greg, tomorrow is another day. This is only your second week of practice and you are so looking forward to your first scrimmage. You are a tough guy and this will just keep getting easier as the season goes on. We will get through this and you will have a good first football season.

One more practice this week and then the weekend. Ahhh! the weekend! Time to sleep in (and clean this very messy house - it's been one of those weeks) . Next week is full contact. Should be fun......

Family foto

I still have not posted anything from our Florida trip, but here's one of my favorite photos.

Daily thought

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.
— George Herbert

No need to think about this one. To me it's harder to keep a grudge than to forget and get on with life. There are more important things in life. At least in my opinion.

Well, the UCI summer program is over. Today is the last day and was open house. Poor Evy is sick, caught that summer cold and has a slight temp. Can tell just by looking at her. :( She was a trooper and came along this morning and showed me the things in her class and then we went to Greg's class. I relented and let Greg come home too. Saves me a trip heading back to Ladera Ranch this afternoon.

Greg is actually at Dairy Queen with the neighbors to get an autograph of Casey Kotchman of the Angels. He found a semi clean baseball and put on his Angels shirt and Angels hat and was off.

Football practice tonight and tomorrow. Nothing going on tomorrow for the kids so they can sleep in. Maybe I will too.

So, back to work now. Have a terrific Thursday.

How Greg spent his 9th Birthday

Greg did not want to go to camp on his birthday , but I insisted he did as this is the last week. He left home in a good mood and I picked him up from camp in a good mood. He got to play with Harrison before heading off to football practice and was quite happy with that.

At football practice a few coaches wished him Happy Birthday. Then after practice, the coach let Greg lead the chant they do in their huddle at the end of practice then the entire team sang Happy Birthday to Greg. Tom brought popsicles at the end of practice and the guys dove into the cooler grabbing popsicles!

After practice we headed to Shogun for a late dinner where Grandma Shirley and Evelyn met up with us. The place was just about empty so it was like a private party. Another family was seated at our table and it was the dad's birthday that day too. While we were waiting for our chef to arrive at our table, Greg opened some cards he received in the mail. (He gets the big present this weekend).

We had an entertaining chef who made the onion volcano Greg requested. Poor Greg was so tired that he really didn't eat much of his dinner. We asked for a birthday package (ice cream and a photo) for Greg. Greg got a scoop of ice cream, a pineapple boat, a fun origami birthday hat and a birthday serenade. We all sang happy birthday to him and then the matre de proceeded to serenade Greg in his own renditions of Happy Birthday. But instead of Greg, it was Murphy (on the back of Greg's practice jersey). Greg was a bit embarrassed but having fun :)

Poor guy was so tired when we finally got home. He was alseep within seconds of laying down. He said he had fun birthday. Now we need to plan the party.

warm ups, drills (Greg takes the lead) and Happy Birthday












flaming volcano with dinner, Happy Brithday Murphy and the awesome waterfall and stream in the restaurant

Happy 9th Birthday Greg!

Today is Greg's 9th birthday. I was writing out checks at business day (for school) today and kept writing 8-7-98. Nine years have gone by way too fast! But they have been a fun and busy 9 years.

Greg is at camp till 2:30, then football at 5:15. Busy day. He wants to go to Shogun for dinner and sit around the tepan table. Sounds good to me! So, we will have a late dinner after practice tonight. Planning a birthday party which will be at a later date.

So, happy Birthday Buddy! You are a great kid, funny, loving and so full of energy and life and we love you very much!

Practice - week two

Week 2 of practice means full gear and contact! Ok, now it's really hard to pick Greg out of the crowd of boys on the practice field. Today he wore his blue socks and one was up and one was down. That made it easy. With all those pads on Greg just looks so much taller. I do need to measure him. And he just looks so much older. I know he has grown so much this summer. Evelyn 2. New shoes for her every few months. At the rate she is going, we will be sharing shoes by 2008.

So, after I did my 3 miles around the track, I plopped down to watch practice. Warm ups and drills first. Who is passing up everyone when they are doing the warm up runs - Greg. Oh my, it really is him. He has mastered the Karaoke (who knows if I am spelling it right - but it's pronounced like when you get up and sing a song you really don't know but want to impress) and that is tough, crossing one leg over first then the other all the while going sideways. Back peddling, passing up guys. Some guys even fall over and we have seen the domino effect many a practice. Greg was a domino one practice.

Water break, sweat running down his head after the helmet was removed. Let me tell you, there is a unique way to remove these helmets as they are very fitted. Starving kid so he downed a Tiger's bar and grapes not to mention water and Gatorade. Then the kids were split in 2 groups to practice offense and defense. Have no idea what defensive position Greg was at but it was on the side (have to do some googling here to learn the defensive and offensive positions). The boys would line up and 3 coaches would run plays. Greg was quickly off the line every time getting right to the coach with the ball. Coach told him to hold back a bit (guess that was what he was supposed to do) and Greg did and watched the pass and got the coach for the tackle! Whoo-hoo. A few of us mom's were cheering our guys on, they were doing so well. A few boys had to rotate in and out, but Greg stayed in every play.

The boys were not allowed to tackle each other, only the coaches. Hard for a 7 or 8 year old to down a 200 pound coach! But they sure tried.

Water break and then it was time for me and Evy to head home as Tom came to relieve us.

Evelyn was busy playing with Maddy, her new friend. Sometimes they watch the practice. But mostly like to lay on the pads or hang on the soccer goal post at the end of the field.

It's fun watching these guys practice. Can't wait for the games to start and they are almost here. Scrimmage on the 18th is at 11 but don't know where yet. Opening day is the 25th! Don't know the time yet.

So, I guess I can add football mom to my mom list - soccer mom, baseball mom, softball mom, girl scout mom, boy scout mom, adventure princess supporter mom, Diva Mom, and I am sure I have missed many mom titles in there. But the one I love being the most is Evelyn and Greg's mom. Mom to the best kids who ever walked the earth (my earth!). I don't mind going through life being known as Evelyn and Greg's mom when some one can't remember my name (I do the same thing too).

Go Bears!!! Whoo-Hoo

Daily thought

A good one for a Monday morning when there is so much to do today and this week.

I recommend to you to take care of the minutes, for hours will take care of themselves
— Philip Dormer Stanhope

I had a wonderful weekend scrapbooking with friends and met new ones too. Our second Crops2Remember weekend was another success!

Another busy week ahead. This week starts dummy contact practice for Greg. The guys practice in full pads. They can only hit each other with a padded shield. Hmm, this will be interesting to see. Greg has been waiting for this week.

Evelyn has made a friend with a girl who has a brother on Greg's team. This is good as Evy has someone to play with and keep busy while Greg is practicing. It's a long practice. Makes for a late night too.

Have a great week everyone!

One tired football player

Day 2 of practice and another good workout. Which means one tired football player in this house. Greg had to get his helmet adjusted so it fit him better and we got his game pants exchanged for a larger size. After stuffing them with all the pads and going over a padded girdle, there was no way he was going to make it through the season with the pants so tight.
Last night we had dinner at 8:45. oh my! Got a great tip from a seasoned football mom - dinner at 3:30. That's the game plan from now on. Then after practice Greg can have a good snack on the way home. But I have been loading up the cooler every day with fruit, water, pb sandwiches and granola bars. Get it packed up in the morning so everything is ready to go.
Looking forward to Friday morning when the kids can sleep in and not have to get to camp. Greg said he will sleep all day until he has to get ready for practice :)
Happy Wednesday.........