Memorial Day Weekend

Whoever said three day weekends were relaxing was lying. This past weekend, like every previous Memorial Day weekend in recent memory, was spent on the soccer field in Medford. Megan and Camille's team were playing in the Rogue Valley Cup. It is a large tournament with teams from Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada. We have done this tournament every year for the last 5 years. When Zac played it was easier because it was just him. Now both girls play and Zac referee's. We stayed the weekend at my sister Sara's home in Jacksonville. It is closer to the fields than Grants Pass. The 1/2 hour difference in the drive was a big deal when the girls needed to be at their games at 7:15 on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Between the girls they played 10 full length games. Zac ref'd Saturday and Sunday a total of about 15 or so games. He made a lot of money this weekend. Not bad for a 14 yr. old! The girls did very well. Camille's team took 4th place. This is very good for a team that is very young and the first tournament they have played. It was a new experience for them to play such physical games. Camille did very well on defense. She is very fast and understands the game very well. Megan's team lost in the championship game and placed 2nd. This was hard for her team. We have won the tournament the last couple of years. We lost to a team that is always our biggest challenge. It was a very rough and physical game with several injuries. It's fun to see the changes in the way they play from year to year. Megan scored a goal on both Saturday and her Sunday games! It has been about 2 years since her last goal. She plays mid-field and doesn't get a lot of shots on goal. Most of her game is spend assisting her teamates. So, it was very exciting to see her shoot and score. William and I both were able to see it. Most of the weekend, we were apart at each girls games. They played at nearly the same time on fields as far away as possible from each other. With each girl needing to be an hour early for the game and needing about 15 minutes to get to each field, when the games were played near the same time, we divided and conquered. It was nice to see both girls play yesterday. Then we needed to shuffle Zac from field to field. It got easier on Sunday because Zac was at the same fields where Camille's team played. That was nice. When we weren't at games we were able to spend sometime with my family. My brother Ken and sister Sydney and their families were in town from Colorado and Utah. We celebrated birthdays and had a lot of food! It was nice to spend time with everyone! I look forward to the day that we can relax on a long weekend....

Teenagers...UGH...

Last night around 10, William and I were in bed watching Grey's Anatomy. Okay, I was watching and William was trying to sleep. Camille was fast asleep in her room. Megan and Zac were brushing their teeth and getting ready for bed. Suddenly, our doorbell rings about 10 times quickly. Simon, our watchdog, starts barking and runs downstairs. All I can think is "Really? Doorbell ditching at 10 in a school night?" As I hear the offenders run on the front porch, William peaks out our bedroom window to see what's going on. Now, we can see almost everything from our room. It is upstairs and in the far corner of the house, with 2 walls of windows. All he can see is two dark figures jumping over the rock creek, through the neighbors yard and down the street. About this time, Zac has made it downstairs to the door. All William can say is, "We have been TP'd. I don't even know how to spell it. I am sure that everyone knows that it rains a lot in Oregon and last night was not exception. I thought it was hilarious! Zac yells to William that they got his car. William has been parking the BMW in the driveway. The Denali is in the carport and my car is in the garage. He needs to rearrange some things on his side so he can park inside. His side has the treadmill, home gym, Foosball table and free weights. He has always parked his baby in the garage, but when I got my new car, I got the garage. It's funny having a 3 car garage with only one car inside. I am not putting my car in the driveway. I do not want cats on the top. I worry about their hair on the soft top and I don't want it used as a scratching place at night. Okay, so when Zac informs William about his car, all bets were off. I don't think I've seen William dress so fast! He had his keys and was gone so fast. He, Zac and a very excited Megan were off to find the "brats that messed with my car". What was he going to do when he found them? He was gone for about 20 minutes. He never found them. Megan and Zac spent the next little bit cleaning up what they could. I have to give the kids credit. They got us good. Meg and Zac willhear who did it, and then we will plan. My mom didn't teach me to cook, but she did teach me to properly vandalize. So, when the kids are home from school, we should have more info on who we will be visiting! When we were building our home, we landscaped with a lot of trees. I knew when we did it, we were asking for trouble. I guess it's just another phase of my life. Very exciting! The pictures are of the yard after the initial clean up. The first picture is from our front porch. The second shows our driveway that is lined with trees. The kids better enjoy cleaning up because I am sure this will happen many more times!

Amelia Earhart

This week was the 'Living History Museum' at Camille's school. She has been working hard on her project. Each 5th grader is assigned a historical character. They are responsible for writing a 3 page paper, make a visual project and have a monologue prepared about their character. Camille was assigned to be Amelia Earhart. How perfect was that? Well, for the last several months Camille has been studying her subject like crazy. She and her Uncle Matt made Amelia's first plane, Canary, while we were in Utah in April. She was so cute! She worked very hard and it was apparent. The school gym is filled with different booths from each student. As people walk around to each booth, the student begins their presentation. Many children had not prepared well. They needed to read their parts from note cards. Part of the assignment was to have everything memorized. Camille was totally in character. She spoke loudly and with emotion. Her voice was clear. She didn't even seem nervous, except she kept rolling her feet! We had a difficult time finding a costume for her, but my nephew, Tanner, had just needed a costume for the Wright brothers, so we were in luck. It was a little awkward for me because she had a line at her booth while many other children had no one at theirs. So, I spent the time visiting each booth. Camille was so proud of her plane. She was very upset yesterday at school because someone touched her plane and broke the propeller. Her teacher tried to glue it back on, but it wasn't quite straight and Camille did notice. She knows that plane inside and out. She and Matt worked very hard on it. I think we will hang it from the corner of her room. I am sure it will look great with the Hawaiian theme! It was a great evening. My sister Stacey and her kids came. They were visiting from Utah. My brother Ed and his family also came. We were so grateful that they made the effort to come and support Camille. It was a bitter sweet night. It was my last activity at the school. Camille will leave elementary school is a couple of weeks and head to middle school. Zac will head to high school. I've said it before, it is happening too fast. I am not ready.