Write My Life

I walked into my favorite local scapbook store to just grab a few sheets of black cardstock. It was full of eager shoppers. I gazed around at the empty bins of adhesive and cardstock. It took me a while to process it all. The store was closing. With sadness, I filled up my cart. This scrapbook store was the last store where people knew me by name. Oh, sadness!

From Banff in Canada, Mike writes, “Glaciers are not nearly as impressive in the winter.

I drove from Banff to Lake Louise yesterday. On a clear day in the middle of August, you can see the lovely lake, and a couple of distinct glaciers. Yesterday the lake was very nice, but the mountains were covered in fog/clouds, and I was walking over snow and ice, so the idea that there was snow on the mountains behind the clouds just wasn’t very surprising.”

2 children participating in soccer this fall provided quite a challenge.

Practices once/week for each girl and two games on Saturdays kept us busy. We had to balance schedules and make adjustments.

Since the girls were in different divisions they played on different teams in different leagues. Games and practices were held across town from each other which made some interesting challenges when Mike was out of town and I had to be in two places at one time. Thankfully, friends of Jaclyn and I were able to help on several occassions.

Was it worth it? It was tiring, but the girls had a great soccer season.

Pink. That’s the color of Jaclyn and Jennifer’s AYSO soccer uniforms.

Pink. That’s the color the girls wanted the very least. But, they both got pink. Jennifer’s team, Drama Queens, dressed in dark pink and Jaclyn’s team, Pink Bubbilicious, dressed in light pink. The girls, though, got over the pink thing and really enjoyed playing soccer.

Jennifer enjoyed her first soccer season. At the U8 level, she learned many soccer skills and improved greatly throughout the year. She played defender and goalie much of the year. She did a nice job and hoped to play even more positions next year.

Jaclyn enjoyed being on a team that featured 3 other girls from her elementary school. As it turned out, her team was very good and that provided an extra layer of enjoyment. The team was well balanced with different girls showing different strengths, from great attacking and goal shooting to awesome defending, these girsl were good. Jaclyn played midfielder and did an excellent job with the throw-ins from the sidelines. At the end of the regular season they finished the season with all wins except one tie and one loss. They entered the Redwood City tournament and won the U12 championship. Congrats Pink Bubbilicous girls!

Today we celebrate (Auld Sod Red Magic Merlin CD OA OAJ CGC) Merlin’s 13th birthday. Earlier we had a grand game of fetch and now he’s chewing on his favorite chew stick. He had back issues earlier in year, but I am delighted to say he is back to his normal ball fetching self. He’s graying and showing the usual signs of aging, but quite healthy! He’s my first ECS and just a great example of an English Cocker Spaniel. Here is a recent photo of him and my 7-year-old daughter Jenny.

Most days are just a bit of this and a bit of that…an errand in the morning and shuttling the girls to some activity afterschool. Then some days are crazy days. Yesterday was one of those days. I spent a total of 45 minutes at home in a 12 hour period. It went like this:

8:00 Drop Jenny off at school

8:20 Run errands – Kinko’s copies, Long’s Drug and post office

9:20 Hike with my buddies

11: 30 Quick trip home for a quick shower and quick lunch

12:15 Library Committee Meeting

1:30 Library Aide

3:00 Gymnastics

4:45 Soccer practice

5:45 Home to make a phone call about Girl Scouts

6:00 Church for dinner and Bible class

8:20 Home…WHEW!!!

It did have some fun activities (hiking and library work) and it did have some good stuff (church) but being away from home so much can be draining. I’m glad most days are NOT like this!!!