FWF #4 - We're back! And off again...

Well, I'm pleased to say that Marika and I more than survived in Vegas - though the driving was pretty excruciating (3.5 hours there, 4.5 hours to return), the girls played really well and ended up making it to the championship (undefeated!) and losing in a shootout (this means the game was tied and it went down to penalty kicks against the goalie). We didn't get a post-game picture because all the girls were sobbing...it was so sad...it made ME want to cry!

But, one of the parents is a photoshop editing whiz and made this team picture...fabulous, right?

We're about to dash off to State Cup (another tournament) but I squeezed out some time to make a card...

Sketch from CAS(E) this sketch...

 And used Unity's newest January 2016 Sentiment Kit - Worth it All.

 

My recipe for this week is Dessert Pizza - totally yummy!! DaddyDude had requested it, after we had it at a team party (but the lady didn't share the recipe - don't you hate it when people do that? Thank goodness for pinterest!). I would totally make this again...but have more people around to help eat it!

FWF #30 - Crazy California Weather

Happy Friday! Have you been shopping the fun sales at Unity? Angela is offering great kits, 3 for $19.99! Woohoo! Time to go shopping! :)

I had some fun with the new Sentiment Kit - Butterflies & Sunbeams (August 2015) this week.

I found this CAS sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch blog (#133) and thought it would be a good way to showcase these great sentiments,,,

I made three mini-cards, just using my Gelatos and some sequins. Sometimes less is more!

For my weekly recipe, I made another one-pot pasta recipe, Garlic Parmesan Noodles.

I have to admit, these things still make me nervous (will I end up with a weird soupy mess?!) but I doubled this recipe and it still turned out delectably. I made this as a side dish, but next time, I would add some sun-dried tomatoes with broccoli and chicken, just to bulk it up. Yum! Simple and good!

I don't know about the rest of you folks, but we southern Californians had incredibly weird wet weather over the weekend. Marika had a soccer tournament down in Escondido (1.5 hour drive from the house). There was so much lightning, the games were all delayed and then when things finally started, it poured rain on the girls (who enjoyed it, though). Over the course of the weekend, most areas in SoCal received about 2.5 inches of much-needed rain (but the drive back took over 2+ hours - in pouring rain). Yay! But it was NOT FUN sitting there being a spectator! EZ-UPs had to be held down while rain was pouring down mercilessly. On the bright side - Marika's team won their very first tournament ever (they've been together for 2.5 years and now they're 10 years old) and the coach awarded the trophy to Marika as tournament MVP! She was so surprised but happy, considering she is a defensive center midfielder. She always gives 110% though. :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Thank you for visiting! :)

More farewell cards... FWF #24

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm so excited, because the kids are FINALLY out of school. Woohoo! Speaking of excitement, did you check out Unity's new website? Don't forget to update your password...they'll email you a big fat promo code!

 

The first card I made was for DaddyDude's colleague, who is heading back to the Windy City (his hometown). I decided to just make it a "wish you well on everything" kind of card, so it covered all of the bases...

 Here's the sketch I used (again), from Viva La Verve sketches..

 

And here's the front of the card...love the Everything Wonderful kit!

 

As well as the inside sentiment (from Bunches of Love Sentiment Kit, February 2014)...

 

Next up is a sympathy card for my older brother's family, since their beloved dog passed away from age old. I know it was especially hard for him to take, since Buddy was his very first pet. Hopefully this card will bring them some comfort. I chose this sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge to showcase the big paw print.

 

 

I've already used this kit (Dogs Leave Pawprints) twice this year - it's perfect for dog lovers. I used the sentiment for the inside (which of course, I forgot to photograph).

I made a third card for Marika's teacher, but completely forgot to take a picture of it! ARGH!

 

Last but not least, I have another yummy recipe to share - "No-Fry Italian 'Fried' Chicken". My youngest loves drumsticks and batter. She loved this new recipe with breaded drumsticks topped off with a tangy honey/vinegar sauce - it's another winner!

And speaking of the youngest kid, here she is - we spent the weekend at the soccer park. I really thought they were going to win their last tournament, but a weekend is a long time and by the end of it all, half the team just didn't have their game on (I think they had gotten so used to winning, they had forgotten what it's like to work for it). It came down to the wire (1-1 tie) and then the team lost during PKs. What a bummer! But, at least they got some hardware to wear home. It's been two years since she started playing club soccer and now, at the ripe old age of 10, she looks seasoned (and no longer frail and dainty).

Thanks for visiting! Don't forget to check things out at Unity and have a great weekend!

Is It Fall Yet??? FWF #40

Happy Friday, folks! Time for another Friends with Flair post, featuring Unity stamps! You can check out everyone's projects here. Better yet...why not come and play with us next week? :)

Well, temperatures finally dipped down into the 80's for a couple of days, so it's starting to feel a little bit like fall here in southern California! Sheesh! Of course, one of the beauties of living here is that the kids have club sports all year round. Here's an action shot of Marika from her game last Sunday - one of her strengths is always hustling after the ball, even though she's smaller than average.

There was a technique I'd used several years back, that I wanted to revisit this week - the act of stamping on PearlEx pigment powders, to remove the image. I chose Ghosts, Goblins, Witches {Wit and Wisdom} and got crafty - and tried to see if I could pull it off.

I used an old sketch at Seize the Sketch (sketch #24)...

I used Pumpkin Orange from Series 3 of the PearlEx line. All you do is apply Versamark on the background paper, brush some pigment powder on, and then stamp (I used ink, but you're probably supposed to use Versamark - I can't remember!) to remove the powder and "make" your image. I also used some ancient Making Memories patterned paper and embellishments. Cropchocolate folks, you'll recognize it and probably have your own hoard, too!

So are you all getting geared up for Halloween? We're not! The kids have decided that they are done - not too bad, considering they are 9 and 11 years old. I guess they decided it was an awful lot of work for a bunch of candy they didn't want to eat. I have to admit - I was thrilled to hear this... no stressing over a costume this year!

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a party pooper... 10 years of Halloween is enough for me, though!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a chance to get crafty - thanks for visiting! :)

The Puppy Gets a Name and FWF #5

Hello, FWF peeps! Many thanks for the name suggestions last week and words of encouragement - we're pleased to report that the puppy was not claimed (whew!) and he is officially ours! We did settle on the name "Bo" although after Scrapper Al mentioned "Slugger", I remembered that the 1994 World Cup soccer mascot was a dog named "Striker". So, the girls and I are calling him, "Bo Stryker", which I think makes him sound like a super hero dog. :)

I will admit, however, that he is not responding to his name. "Puppy" seems to be the most effective still! We just weighed him tonight - he's gained 6-7 pounds in the past week! Is that normal??? Maybe he WAS pretty malnourished when we got him, I don't know!

He sat and watched the girls practicing softball for the first time - and I just had to laugh and laugh, because he kept chasing the ball - which we caught - expecting to see it on the ground. On the bright side, he seems to be relatively intelligent, because he figured it out within 3 minutes and just sat down and watched. 

It's a big sports weekend - Marika and I are driving down to San Diego tomorrow for her soccer tournament while Mika has a soccer game and then dashes off to play in her first set of "friendlies" for her new travel ball club, the Firecrackers. I'm really bummed that I'll miss her debut, but I think we'll be able to make her second and third game. I can't wait!!! I'm excited to see if she gets to pitch or not and where they decide to play her on the field. I also can't wait to see how the girls do - they've only been practicing together for about 2-3 weeks, so they won't be very good for the first few months, but... I can't wait!!!

Since I'm missing her big debut, I made a card for Mika to read while she's being driven to her first softball game. The card was based on Mojo Monday's Sketch #330. I love the inspiration stamps by Donna downey - here, I used her "Do More Awesome" stamp for the outside sentiment and "I'm Your #1 Fan" for the inside. I want her to know how much I believe in her and how awesome I think she is at softball. :)

Patterned papers and flowers (Prima), buttons (Doodlebug [I think] and Making Memories), ink (Memories, Inc.), stamps (Unity Stamp Co)

Hope you all have a fun weekend! Are you watching the Super Bowl? Can't wait to see those commercials! :)

Two New "Firsts" for Mika

 

For the next 8 weeks, Sundays = winterball softball games. Coach Joe decided to have Mika pitch for the first two innings. She did pretty well... even though she walked two batters, she struck out six and threw a couple of change-ups. She almost made an out at home and got trampled a bit in the process, but recovered quickly and continued to strike out people. The one girl who hit off her ended up on first base, but that was because of a fielding error. What I like about this picture, is how "ready" her teammates are.

 

 

Her Team Easton coach let Mika borrow a composite bat to practice with last week. DaddyDude says they're really expensive, so we haven't purchased our own yet - this one is worth about $200! Mika was told to "swing away" (versus slap hitting or bunting) and got her first official hit as a left-handed batter. For those of you who haven't been following the softball saga, Team Easton told Mika to convert to batting solely left-handed since May/June. Since DaddyDude is ambidexturous and can switch-hit himself, we were optimistic she could pull it off. She is still learning and hopefully, in another year, can start demonstrating some more power.

 

 

One of Mika's strengths is, she's a natural slider. Here she is, sliding beautifully under the tag as she steals home. Whoosh! SAFE!!!

 

And today marked Mika's first outing as a catcher. We borrowed the team's equipment on Friday (for Mika to practice walking around in and catching with Marika), but our neighbor Peggy said she might have some smaller equipment (that her daughter used to use) that Mika could borrow. It DID fit a lot better and Mika didn't struggle so much to move around in it. Hey, I think she looks pretty tough in it!

I always take a lot of pictures of her and part of the reason is to study what she did well and what she needs to work on. She did a great job for her first outing, but she needs to rifle that ball to second and third base faster and harder to nail the runners who are trying to steal (and she can do it, I know). However, she needs to keep her right hand behind her back whenever she is catching the ball, or she risks getting it smacked with the bat if she's not careful. *shudder*

Overall, the team worked well together and won, 9-3. It looks like Mika's winterball coach has convinced himself to try and create/coach a 10U Team Easton set. This was one of our hopes (Mika is currently training with the 12U girls, since the 10U team doesn't exist yet) and Coach Joe is good friends with some of the 12U coaches. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will truly happen - plus, some of the girls on the current winterball team would be good on the new team.

I would be "totally okay" with Mika quitting soccer completely (after she fulfills her year commitment to the current team) and focusing solely on softball. Since she hates to run a lot, I just can't see her achieving much success at soccer. Her sister, on the other hand, has a pretty good team with potential.

And because I can't talk solely about one kid without at least mentioning the other... here's Marika doing one of her famous throw-ins at yesterday's . They lost, but they're playing quite nicely together as a team. There are no standings, so at least there is no pressure about "winning". It's all about improving and developing as good soccer players. Gotta love that!

But lucky me - her game was only four minutes away from the Prima Warehouse Outlet in Chino, so we just *had* to stop by and do a little bit of shopping. Now, that's what I call multi-tasking!

 

Believe Walk - Mika Seeks Redemption

 

I originally began this blog to document our life and my crafting, but lately, it's only been the latter. So, I figured there was no time like the present to rectify that! There's no craftiness here, so if you're looking for this, you might want to skip this post. I promise not to be offended! :)

Today, Mika participated in the local "Believe" walk, to honor and support those who had/were fighting against breast cancer. It was truly AMAZING to see the amount of community support for this cause! There were so many participants, not to mention dogs, too - people & animals wearing all sorts of pink in support. My girls were already planning ahead for next year, if we have a dog by then, what he'll be wearing when he walks with them. :)

Originally, the club softball team she is training with (we are waiting to see if they will form a team her own age, so she is training with the team that is one year older right now) were supposed to do the run/walk, but then they were told to volunteer by cheering at a corner. Well, as things turned out, I had registered Mika before the change of plans and since I didn't want our money back (it was a fundraiser), I told Mika to go out and earn her T-shirt. That's a nice T-shirt, too, isn't it? The idea was for her to run quickly and then join the softball girls (Team Easton) at the designated corner.

Some of you may remember back in April, Mika ran a dismal 5K. It turned out she felt guilty ditching some of her soccer teammates who kept whining, "Don't leave us, Mika! Run with us!" Mika ended up running 5 minutes SLOWER than her younger sister. Appalling! I promised Mika a dollar for every minute she knocked off her spring time.

 

 

So, here she is before the race. I knew most of the people would be walking, so I brought her to the front. Then, she wormed her way to the VERY front!

Look! There she is, in the very front, to the left - that's her in the red shorts! The race began late. I think people were thrown off by the start, when the announcer yelled, "BELIEVE!" And then... nobody moved. Finally, the bicyclists struggled to get started and the rest streamed after them. I was pretty annoyed that I could not get a picture of Mika taking off, because chaos erupted after they got going. The game plan had been to walk quickly over to where the Team Easton girls were cheering, because I thought it would make a great picture of Mika running by her cheering teammates. Well, that didn't happen! It took so long to get away from the starting point, because so many people were walking - silly me, thinking the sidewalk would be owned by spectators! It took about 5 minutes to go against walking traffic to get to the next block. We arrived at the cheering corner a little too late, but her teammates were excited that she was doing so well.

Marika and I raced to the end of the race to try and get some final pictures of Mika. Lucky for us, those red shorts were very visible and we arrived just as she was running down the final leg of the race. There she is, running underneath the arch! Go, Mika, GO! I yelled for her to "kick it!", letting her know there was only 100-200 feet remaining.

 

Look at her! She's kicking it! I timed her race at 27 minutes and 0.49 seconds. I think that's pretty terrific for a 10-year old! Her spring time run was 35 minutes, 19 seconds. So, she added $8 to her allowance stockpile. :) The kid is seriously stockpiling it... no plans to buy anything, just saving. :)

 

As you can see, she became more adorned as she ran. I asked if she walked any of it and she admitted that she slowed down to get lollipops from people. I told her if she has skipped all the goodies, she would have finished in less than 27 minutes! But, the heart wants what it wants! Then we rushed over to where her friends were waiting.

Mika isn't part of the older team, but the team mom kindly bought her pink socks and a feather boa. The older girls are SO SWEET and kind to her, we're so fond of this group! They hugged and congratulated her when she returned. One of them even asked me if Mika had won! They're a great bunch of girls and Mika enjoys training with them.

 

And here's most of the team... there's Mika with the pink boa... after she left, there were pink feathers all over the street, not surprisingly...

 

 

I can't very well talk about one kid without mentioning the other, so here's her little sister, Marika, who joined club soccer earlier this spring, at the ripe of age of 7. She's eight now, and it's so fun to watch the team growing and bonding. Marika's the smallest on the team, but quite the bulldog - she's much more solid than I am and stands her ground really well. Here she is at yesterday's game, battling to keep the ball against some kid who is trying to knock her over. She ultimately ends up getting called for fouling Marika - justice is served!

And here's Marika's team - aren't they adorable/ They are honoring breast cancer awareness in October by wearing pink socks all month. We view Marika's participation on this team as a long-term project and have great faith that in two years, the team will be MUCH better and a force to be reckoned with, within another 5 years. Only time will tell, though, and hopefully Marika will GROW GROW GROW! In the meantime, hopefully she is learning that slow, patient, frequent hard work pays off with big dividends.

Thanks for sticking around to read until the end! :)

A Labor of Love :)

As July 1st rolls around, it's time to begin a new Cookie Cutter Challenge at 2 Broke Girls Challenge Blog! For this month, your challenge is to include 3-5 fussy cut flowers on your project. Post your projects under "The Cake Walk", under July Challenges. You'll find my Cookie Cutter thread there - and I'll look forward to seeing some of my Friends with Flair buddies there... right? ;)

Paintable papers (Prima Marketing, Inc), patterned papers (Lily Bee Designs, Echo Park "Life is Good"), white cardstock (Crafter's Companion), black cardstock (The Paper Co), Stickles, black ink (Memories, Inc.), Tim Holtz distress ink (Festive Berries), twine (Regency), colored markers (Spectrum Noir), black journaling pen (Sharpie), stamps (Unity Stamp Co)

 

 

Perhaps some of you are wondering why I titled this post, "A Labor of Love". How many of you remember these "Paintables" papers from Prima? I bought several sheets of it (okay, more than that!) but never used them until this project. It took me several days to brainstorm about this project, then at least a day to figure out which Prima sheets I wanted to use (I used two), and then at least 2 days to color all the parts. Whew! For those of you interested, here is what Amazon has to offer and here is what Prima Marketing still offers. Neither of the sheets I used appear to be available anymore.

Those of you who are Unity Stamp fans will recognize several sets:

1. Friends by Choice (title sentiment)

2. Total Cuteness (artisan gingham label)

3. A Little Buggy ("happy" sentiment)

4. "Love You, Sister" sentiment

5. {You} Inside My Heart

6. {...Moment by Moment} [butterflies & "so very very beautiful"]

7. Love in the Background

 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! I've got a week of studying for a soccer coach's clinic that I have to attend this weekend. No, I'm not coaching again, but Marika's travel soccer ball team needs someone who is "trained" to take over as coach, should neither of them be able to attend (i.e., stuck in traffic or ejected from the game). I would much rather do that than act as team manager. :) So yes, I'll report back next week on how fun it was to attend two 10-hour days of soccer clinic. They don't give me lunch (I had to pay $95 to register) but I am supposed to get a free Nike T-shirt. Hope it's cute! :P

Lately...

It's been busy over here. Like, REALLY BUSY. After school, the girls race to finish their homework before we have to run to somebody's practice. Marika's been playing RBY softball and Los Gauchos (travel) soccer, while Mika has been practicing with three different sports teams - RBY softball, the GU10 Extra soccer team, and for the past couple of weeks... Team Easton (travel) softball. Marika's already clinched a berth on her soccer team, but Mika is currently trying out for both the soccer and travel softball team.

 

I looked over at her over the weekend and gasped in astonishment - where did my little Mika go? She's now 10 years old and look! She sure doesn't look "little" anymore! Skinny as all heck, but thankfully, she's going to be a few inches taller than me. Yay!

Look at that beautiful slide! And the ball isn't even there yet... :)

At Mika's last game, her team was short a few players, so Marika got called up to play, even though she just turned 8 in March. She was WAY SHORTER than anybody else but Marika held her own - she walked three times (didn't strike out!) and made a great stop in the outfield... she even almost threw that runner out at first! Mika had a great day hitting (she struggled with her pitching, though), blasting a triple at her first at-bat and then a single later (she was walked for her third at-bat). It was an interesting game, because both teams were missing their #1 pitcher and both had to call up two 8U players. As things turned out, the game ended in a tie, 13-13. Not bad, considering the other team was ranked #1!

We've been really happy with how Mika has progressed and matured this year. She cries less during games and has really held it together during pitching (which is really stressful). In this past game, as I mentioned, she really struggled - it killed me to see her taking deep breaths, fighting off tears and wiping the sweat off her brow, as she tried to calm herself down and throw strikes. She did not flip out, freak out, or fall apart - I was very proud!

So... in June, Mika will have to make the first really big decision of her young life - will she pick travel softball or club soccer? We feel she is much better at softball, but she has claimed she likes soccer better. As of the past couple of weeks, she says she's leaning towards softball. I'm not sure if it's because softball is more lucrative (she is rewarded for her good performances in hitting/pitching) or because she is taking pride in doing well. It's been a frustrating season at RBY, since her coaches are... different... and the season isn't going particularly well. However, she really seems to enjoy practicing with other girls (with Team Easton) that are GOOD - and her former coach from last summer is far from the scene. Finally - we might have escaped Daddyball!!! For those of you who don't know what that means... it's when the coach favors his daughter at all costs and regardless of performance. The result? Low team morale and kids that despise you because you aren't playing fair and rewarding good performance.

Within a couple of weeks, RBY softball will finally be over. We doubt either girl will be selected for All Stars this year (Mika for political reasons, Marika mostly for talent reasons [but probably some politics, too]) so we already made a command decision to just not even think about it anymore. If they're asked, then we'll politely decline. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A RELAXING SUMMER THIS YEAR!!! At the end of last summer, if you'll recall, the minute Mika stepped off the field from her last All Stars game, she vehemently snapped, "I don't ever want to play All Stars again!" She absolutely hated it. It was no fun. We almost couldn't convince her to play softball again this spring.

But now look at her! Team Easton won't have their tryouts until June (probably), but one of the main coaches seems to really like her, so I'm cautiously optimistic about her chances - she's really fast compared to the others (thank heavens she has been practicing with the soccer team 2x a week!) and that makes them want to utilize her speed with specialized hitting (slap hitting). Some of their speedy Team Easton girls can get on base 8-9 times out of ten! I think that's so cool! Mika just doesn't have the mass for be a home run hitter, but she's perfectly capable of making contact regularly. I absolutely love to watch her play softball - she just looks so comfortable, like she's in her element.

I know she seems young, having to pick one sport, but it is so difficult trying to get these two kids to so many different places. Plus, we think she'll get even better at the one sport, because she'll have more time to focus on it (DaddyDude has bought extra equipment to work with both girls on their pitching and batting in the garage during the evenings). Marika will get to do one more year of RBY softball... if she's not a star pitcher next year (really, the talent pool is pretty lackluster there for next year when she's an older girl in the division), then she's done and will focus on soccer. Marika, especially, seems more likely to improve if she has one sport to focus on.

CC Challenge #47 - Blue, Green, White Color Scheme

cardstock (Bazzill blue, Bazzill green, and Carta Bella white), twine (Jillibean), FP Double Alpha rub-ons, Snake Tape adhesive runner, banner stamps (Hero Arts), soccer die (QK), black cardstock (TPC), ink (Memories, Inc.)

Another DT member (Becky) and I were in charge of this week's challenge: to create a project using blue, green, and white. I have actually NEVER worked with this color scheme before. However, the timing was perfect, since I had decided to create a card for Mika's team to sign tomorrow at the team party, thanking the sponsor (who happened to be the physical therapy group who rehabbed my knee TWICE). Love them!

I just purchased the Hero Arts stamps a couple of weeks ago - banners have been "in" for quite awhile and show no sign of disappearing. It's a great set, since you can use them for many different occasion. You can see the whole set here.

And... it's over!

We spent all weekend at the Hemet soccer fields for the second half of Mika's GU10 soccer tournament. On Saturday, they won their pool (beat 3 teams within their grouping) and went on Sunday to play in the semi-finals... where it was a close game but we lost 2-1. The consolation game followed at 3 pm, where we ended up playing our local rivals for 3rd or 4th place - another close game but we lost 3-2. AGH! So, they finished 4th overall in the area, which is still very good - and only the top 4 teams overall received medals. On the bright side, it was the best afternoon game the girls have ever played (usually they have no gas), especially when considering it was a double-header.

Unfortunately, it wasn't too much of a surprise that the end came. By Saturday, it was painfully obvious that teamwork had begun to break down - some of the girls felt they didn't NEED to pass the ball and so... they did not. Since these were not our best players, it really made a difference! It also did not help improve teamwork that one parent offered his child $50 to get a goal. After hearing that, there was no way this girl was going to pass - not when she saw dollar signs whenever she looked at the goal (she did not, by the way, get her money).

Still, it was a bit of a letdown, because the girls have worked hard and as a team, we've been together for almost 6 months! We've seen them develop into better players (for the most part) and we were REALLY proud of Mika. It's hard being coached by your parents and she persevered under all the pressure, whereas she could have dug her heels in and said NO. But she worked hard to live up to our expectations and it was a joy to see her finally living up to more of her potential.

Now... we look forward to softball starting up next month. I get to be one of the regular parents sitting on the sideline at practices, catching up on my reading or crocheting. I don't have to get to the fields early to stake out a practice spot, or to spend time planning drills or line-ups. AMAZING! Not that I didn't enjoy it, but now I have more time. :) I ordered some crochet books today and look forward to trying to get better this year... at least until I might have to coach again this fall...

Traditions Layout

 

CC-items: FP Chipboard Alphas, FP Grab-Bag patterned papers (Delight), marker (AC precision pen), diecuts (MM Flutter), MM brads (B&W combo), MM baby metal signage, MM celery ribbon + slider

For the month of November, the Cropchocolate.com focus group's challenge was "Traditions". I decided to finally scrap photos of our last New Year's morning, when we ate some ozoni. We're a pretty relaxed family when it comes to traditions, but I simply CANNOT begin a new year without making this for breakfast! This past year, it was the 4th day after my ACL surgery, but I still managed to hobble around the kitchen, making the soup. :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We spent a very relaxing week in Palm Desert, thoroughly enjoying the sunshine... Marika's soccer team finally ended their season (the day we left), so I was able to de-compress from that stress. Mika's team clinched first place (yay!) and will have their playoffs next Saturday. They've already clinched a berth to advance to out-of-area play, which won't begin until January. DaddyDude says I should stop coaching after this, because I'll never have a better team - he's absolutely right, this is a "Dream Team" on many levels - and hopefully things will work out with the girls, so that I won't "have" to coach anymore, either.

We All Need Some Motivation

Cropchocolate.com Chocolatiers are required to participate in the monthly focus group challenges. I really liked this month's challenge, which was to incorporate subway art into a project. 

As many of you know, I've been rehabbing my knee from ACL reconstruction. It's been a very long and slow process... building back muscle strength as been extremely frustrating. However, I'm in the homestretch now! In less than 6 weeks, I am medically cleared to go back onto a soccer field and play in a game! I was allowed to begin running about 2 months ago and since then, I've been running 6 miles 6 days a week - and my times have been faster than BEFORE my knee injuries last year.

Still, I could use some motivation every day. So, I created my own little subway art piece, combining my love for running and playing soccer. It's nice and blingy, so it's pretty to look at, too. :)

P.S. Look! I finally learned how to create my own watermark!

It's over! It's finally over!

The Western Zone World Series tournament took place the last few days in Hemet. For four days, we sweltered in over 100 degree heat. On Saturday, the poor girls actually had to keep playing while thunder boomed, lightning flashed, the wind blew dirt/sand/pebbles everywhere and - oh yeah, it rained on them, too! UNBELIEVABLE. They let 7-9 year old girls play - and they're using metal bats and surrounded by metal fences! Are you serious?!

Well, they won that game in extra innings at least. But, on Sunday, unfortunately, they lost the championship game to a travel ball team that had no business playing in a PONY league. What can you do? At least they got a really snazzy medal as a runner-up.

Mika didn't enjoy her All Star season very much this past summer, much to our dismay. I can't say I blame her, what with all the hooplah, drama, and politics going on. She definitely needs a long break from softball. After her "banishment" to outfield for two tournaments (where she was literally dying of boredom, because very few balls came her way), she was suddenly re-assigned to the infield (3rd base and then 2nd base) - but he hadn't had her practicing there. Does that make any sense?

But good news! It's AYSO soccer time already! I just got my rosters for both Mika & Marika's teams. I've heard back from almost everyone and since I have one request player on each team, I know that those parents will help me out - that is a huge relief. We have a couple more weeks before practices can begin, but the girls and I (especially Marika) have already been practicing.

Speaking of soccer... my custom-fit ACL brace came a couple of weeks ago - but it's back with the company right now, getting retro-fitted for a ski boot (on the offhand chance I'll ski again, I need a little adapter to attach the brace to the ski boot - I figured it was better to be safe than sorry!). Hopefully, it will return before AYSO practices begin.

I was surprised by how comfortable and light the brace was - I'm wearing a lightweight sleeve underneath the brace. It does feel slightly weird to wear it while running on astroturf (I went to visit my old Sunday team last weekend) but it wasn't as odd as I had expected. Less than seven weeks left before I can play! I already signed onto the roster of a Thursday night league, even though I will be able to play only for their very last game. Still... it's nice to be wanted on a team. :)

Almost there...

While it's great to have insurance, sometimes the wheels can turn slower than we would prefer. After about 4 weeks of waiting, I finally got insurance approval to schedule an appointment to get measured for my custom-fit ACL brace (last Friday). I've been waiting impatiently, because I'm not supposed to start practicing soccer or roller-blading until I'm wearing it. 

I thought the technician would slather my leg with plaster, but it turns out that things have improved! He simply took some mesh (looked similar to dry wall tape)  that was coated with substance - when submersed in water, a chemical reaction begins, resulting in a slow hardening. I got wrapped up and we rubbed the tape (which got warmer), and then finally, it was rock hard within a matter of minutes. Very cool! It took only another couple of minutes to cut me out of the cast, which is now at the brace-making factory (I should be receiving it within another week). The technician also told me that the facility now has a body scanner so had my appointment been a little later (a few weeks?), the machine could have scanned me just standing there and the brace would have been ready within 3-4 days. I'm constantly amazed by the quick pace of technological improvements!

Mika had her third tournament this past weekend in Indio. In case you didn't know, this city is hideously HOT! Most of the team stayed at a hotel over the weekend, but we were loathe to do so, for a variety of reasons - mostly because we had just returned from Scottsdale and didn't want to deal with the expenses or hassle of packing/unpacking. It turned out to be a good idea, because at least we could escape from the heat! Mika's team lost in the last inning of the championship game (again) against the very same team that beat them at the last tournament. On the bright side, at least they got a medal this time!

Mika was moved to right field (a disappointment to us, if she was being punished) and we were very puzzled as to why - until we saw the stat sheet (the scorekeeper is keeping track on a mobile app for stats). The scorekeeper is assigning errors pretty harshly, so if Mika throws it in but whoever is receiving it doesn't catch it (for whatever reason), it's an error recorded against Mika (and only Mika). We were not pleased to see how many errors had been scored against her (at least half the time, whoever was catching it should have caught it), although yes, she has had a few. While we don't begrudge her being punished for her lack of perfection, being sent to outfield should not be used as a punishment AND perhaps more importantly - we are detecting a significant level of favoritism on the team (Mika is not one of those specially favored). There isn't anything we can do about this, because if we say something and get labeled as a troublemaker, that may result in our girls not being selected in future years.

What also bothers me was seeing Mika looking depressed and unhappy, after she was sent to right field. Actually, it broke my heart! You could just tell it was bothering her, even though she denied it. Once we saw the stat sheet, we were sure she was being punished and told her that her shift was a result of her errors (she didn't know what an error was or that they were being recorded against her - it's kind of brutal to be scored that way, when you're only 7-9 years old, if you were to ask me). She was in shock and started crying. We think that Mika's very talented at softball, but she doesn't like to push herself to the limit - so this was a lesson to her that she needs to try harder and even during practice, she has to push herself. Only time will tell if this is a lesson she'll embrace or ignore.
I should point out that we talked to Mika about this Tuesday evening after practice. Thursday - before practice - she told me that at Wednesday's practice, the scoreekeeper had told her, "I put you in right field because you can play there before than anybody else." That was sweet of him to do, but I don't believe him. It made her feel better at least, I suppose.

Some good news - Mika has been batting really well with "Buster, the Green Monster" - she's batting something like 0.520, or fourth highest on the team (the two leaders are over 0.700, which is incredibly good!). She also has only THREE strikeouts for the entire All Star season (the lowest for the team), which is excellent (the person with the highest has 16). DaddyDude is really pleased with her batting stance and I'm proud that she's not intimidated by any pitcher so far!

To brighten Mika's spirits and to alleviate Marika's boredom, we decided to hire a pitching coach to get Marika started on pitching (she's been asking for the past couple of months). Mika is taking the lessons with her sister, even though we are doubtful Mika will be a good pitcher - ONLY because she is very emotional (something a pitcher can't afford to be). We told Mika this and challenged her to prove us wrong - I'm hoping she will start to calm down and be able to focus better, even in the face of adversity.

Both girls were giddy with excitement, before their lesson. We liked the instructor (who has a very impressive resume, I was pleased to see) and after the lesson, the girls wanted to practice, practice, practice! I liked that the instructor broke down the mechanics of pitching to a few steps - the girls only learned the first few and are pushing to do the whole movement, but we are telling them to go slow and only work on what she taught them. We don't want them learning any bad habits, since those will be hard to break. I think it's interesting (and telling) that the girls are so willing to practice pitching, whereas I KNOW I would not see this same reaction if I were teaching them the piano!

Only a few more weeks until the last softball tournament, but we're already getting ready for soccer over here. I've officially committed to coaching Marika's 8U team and have volunteered to coach Mika's 10U team as well (still waiting to hear back from that commissioner). I'm excited! Coaches are allowed one player request, so I took a former player from Marika's team last year (and her younger sister) and Mika will be playing with one of her classmates - whose parents we are good friends with (and are extremely helpful) - and who is an excellent player. Woohoo!