36 posts tagged “soccer”

If there's one thing I love most about my camera, its the sports mode.  I have a Nikon Cool Pix.

Last weekend was the end of traveling soccer.  Tennis finished yesterday and swimming lessons ended today.  August is 1 of 2 months a year that we don't really have any sports activities.  I'm looking forward to 3 weeks of relaxation plus a few trips before school begins.  Summer just goes by way too quickly.

Things That Tick Me Off:

1. People who expect the church to do everything for them without doing anything for the church in return.  I'm in charge of lining up the people to help with church services for August:  communion prepares & servers, ushers, greeters, lectors, acolytes, and nursery attendants.  It's amazing how few people are willing to do these things.  I mean, if you're going to be there, what's the big deal?  The hardest thing to get is ushers which boggles my mind.  My own husband won't do it!  I'm trying to figure out how many things I can do myself in one service.  And, of course, there are 5 Sundays in August this year.
2. People who are rude because you dare ask them to help in church.
3. Insurance.  Our appeal for Lily's dental work was denied.  Not a big surprise but the amount it was going to cost for the hospital portion was unexpected.  Try $4000-$6000 which doesn't cover the dentist's bill.  This is for teeth that are going to fall out in a few years!  Needless to say, the surgery has been cancelled and she's just going to have to get by with laughing gas.
4. Bullet points that won't go away when you want them to so you have to add another entry.
5. See #4.

Things That Make Me Happy:

1. The amazing transformation we are making for our Sunday School program.  It's becoming a rotation model program and all the rooms are being remodeled.  It's going to be beyond anything I ever could've imagined and I'm sad that Cody starts confirmation this year so will miss it!  I think he might be a helper so he can still have the experience in some way.  I'll be sharing pictures once all the rooms are ready.
2. Breaking my golf record by 2 strokes on Sunday.  Now, if I could improve my short game, I'd really be rockin'.
3. Tomorrow will mark one week since Lily has been in underwear, with no accidents, and daily pooping in the toilet.  What a tremendous relief and none too soon as kindergarten starts in 23 days. 
4. Having a potluck picnic out at the reservoir to celebrate the end of the soccer season.
5. Jace sleeping through the night.
6. Back to School shopping (even though it signals summer is coming to an end).
7. People who are willing to volunteer.
8. The last week of tennis & swimming lessons.  August should be relatively activity free.

Cody:

Game 1:  Tied 0-0 at half.  Lost 0-2.  Cody went down with a migraine the last 5 minutes of the game.

Game 2:  0-1 at half and lost 0-4.

Game 3:  0-1 at half and lost 0-3.

Yep, they were shut out.  Not pretty.  In their defense, they only had 2 subs and in the 2nd halves you could tell they were running out of steam.

Jace: 

Game 1:  They started out behind 0-2.  Jace scored his 1st goal since the beginning of the season and played goalie the 2nd half!  I was pretty nervous since it was the first official game he's played goalie but he did well and we won 5-4.  It was an exciting game!

Game 2:  2/3 of the way through the game, we were behind 0-3.  Then, we had an awesome charge and were tied 3-3.  One of our players kicked the ball and the end of the game whistle blew as the ball was rolling.  The ball rolled into the goal and the goalie got it but the ball had gone over the line.  We thought the game ended in a 3-3 tie because the whistle had blown but found out later that the referee counted the final goal so we won 4-3!  What a comeback!

Game 3:  At halftime, we were down 0-2 (do you sense a pattern here).  I wasn't worried because it seems we play better under pressure.  Sure enough, we came back to tie 2-2.  Jace had an assist.  It was another extremely exciting game.  Unfortunately, there is no championship at U10 or we definitely would've been in the running!

Tuesday night was a much better one for Jace.  I read a chapter in our book and then he just asked me to close the closet door and he was out like a light with not one tear.  I'm guessing he was quite exhausted from the night before.  I had told him if he woke up after 5 am, he could crawl in bed with us.  I woke up at 4:45 due to a thunderstorm and was quite surprised that he didn't show up in our bed until 5:30 because the storm continued until 6:30.

Last night, Cody & I were in Fargo for soccer games and didn't get home until late.  Ray said Jace had a hard time with both of us being gone so he let Lily sleep in the bottom bunk and Jace in the top.  We had carpooled to Fargo and the boys were telling scary stories so Cody wasn't about to sleep in his new bedroom downstairs.  We moved Lily to her bed and Cody went to sleep in his old room.  At 2:30, Lily showed up in our bed.  At 3:00, Jace arrived.  I asked if he'd noticed that Cody was in his room.  I carried Lily back to her bed and went to check on Jace.  Cody was up and having a hard time sleeping!  I feel like I suddenly have 3 infants again who don't sleep through the night!  Thank goodness, we're heading to the lake this evening where all 3 of them share a room.

Cody's team won their soccer games 5-3 and 4-3.  Cody scored 1 goal in each game and played goalie the last half of the first game.  He allowed 2 goals but blocked several, too.  Its not the best position for him but our regular goalie was gone.

Ray left for Mexico City this morning.  Since we've been busy with soccer tournaments, I'm allowing all 3 kids to have a friend sleep over tonight.  I've obviously lost my mind.  I'll probably be drinking by the end of the night, and I don't drink!  Pray for me.

Yesterday was the summer solstice for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. How did you celebrate the arrival of summer and the longest day of the year?

At a soccer tournament, of course!  We actually started on Friday.  Here's the rundown on the games:

Cody:

• Game 1 - Led 1-0 at the half.  Cody scored a goal and we were tied 2-2 until one of our teammates accidentally scored for the other team ending in a 2-3 loss.  Painful!
• Game 2 - First half went great which seems to be the story for this team.  We had a 2 point lead until our "Director of Coaching" whom none of us like decided to show up to coach the 2nd half.  He had Cody, our leading scorer last season, on defense or on the bench!  The game ended in a 3-3 tie.  Normally, that wouldn't bother us but we would've won if our parent coach had been allowed to keep calling the shots.  He knows the team best and did a phenomenal job with them last year.
• Game 3 - We lost 0-1.  The other team was really good so I wasn't too upset.  The boys actually played really well all weekend in were much improved from the previous tournament.

Jace:

• Game 1 - Ended in a 3-3 tie.  We led the whole game until the last 3 minutes when they tied it up.  Bummer!
• Game 2 - We won!!  Final score was 5-2. 
• Game 3 - It was a hard fought game but they lost 2-3.  Jace came really close to a goal and had 1 assist.  His team also played much better this tournament.

This photo is actually from the first soccer tournament.  The tournament photographer took it and it was up on their website.  Jace's team had just scored a goal to take the lead and Jace did 2 flips.

Friday night, we went to supper at IHOP for the first time.  We've been meaning to get there for quite awhile.  Ultimately, we were disappointed.  I thought they'd have a lot more variety of pancakes to choose from and I much prefer Ray's or Perkins' pancakes.  Lily's chocolate one wasn't bad, though.  After supper, we went back to our hotel so the kids could take a swim.  It was a small pool with no "extras" but we had the whole thing to ourselves.  The boys were getting bored after awhile so decided that Ray & I would judge their different jumps into the pool.  They came up with names for them and even starting acting our characters.  It was the best time and I can't remember when I last laughed that hard with just the 5 of us.  Twice I was laughing so hard I couldn't speak and was crying.  It was a great family moment.

Between games on Saturday, Ray took the kids to "Kung Fu Panda" while I did some shopping for his upcoming birthday and business trip to Mexico this week.

We left early Saturday morning for another weekend of soccer games.  Cody had been complaining the night before about his groin muscle and was concerned that he wouldn't be able to play offense.  As the team's leading scorer, that was certainly not good to hear!  We gave him some Motrin and hoped he'd be fine by the time we arrived.  Sitting in the car didn't help as he tightened up so he played defense.  They played a team from Winnipeg, Canada, and got smashed 1-9.  His 2nd game wasn't much of an improvement as they lost 1-8.  Their last game was Sunday against a team that had beaten them the week before.  Cody's leg was better but he was still playing defense (rather poorly, I might add).  Late in the 2nd half, they were down 1-3.  I was thinking to myself that the coach should just move Cody to offense because he wasn't doing any good at defense.  The coach must've read my mind because he put Cody back in as a forward and he quickly made this gorgeous goal kick to the upper corner of the net to tie the game 3-3.  Soon after that, we scored again to finally win 4-3!  The crowd and kids were going wild.  They really needed that boost in confidence.

Jace's first game was really good but they ultimately lost 1-2.  They lost the 2nd game 2-5 and the 3rd game 1-4.  I have to keep reminding myself that Jace is only 8 and the majority of his team are 9 & 10 yr olds.  I can't expect him to play at the same level.  He still does a good job of being aggressive and getting in there, though.

On the way back, we ate at Texas Roadhouse for Father's Day.  It was the first time we've gone to one.  We loved the atmosphere and the fresh baked bread but prefer Famous Dave's food.  For a gift, we got Ray some golfing sandals.

We're home so we didn't get murdered in the Bates Motel.  In fact, we didn't even see anything exciting like Police Caution Tape. 

Rundown on the soccer games:

Jace Game 1:  This is Jace's first summer playing competitive soccer.  I hesitated to put him in since he's only 8 and he's playing at a U10 level but he definitely held his own.  They won the first game 9-6 and Jace even scored one goal!

Jace Game 2:  Tough opposition.  They lost 2-6.

Jace Game 3:  This was a very exciting game.  They came back from behind to win 3-2.  Jace played a little defense but mostly center in all of the games.  Win or lose, the parents always make a tunnel for the kids at the end of each game.

 

At U10, they all get participation medals and don't keep track of standings.

The boys voted on their team name.  The Ducklings!  What were they thinking?

Cody Game 1:  They lost 2-6.  Cody scored the only 2 goals.  The first was on a penalty kick and the 2nd was just a regular goal.

Cody Game 2:  At halftime, they were behind 1-4 and came back to end in a tie 4-4.  Cody scored 1 goal.

Cody Game 3:  This was going to be the scary one as it was against the team that throttled them at the tournament in May 0-10 where we didn't even finish.  They came out really strong and there was no score until the end of the 1st half when the opposition made one goal.  So, the halftime score was 0-1 which was amazing!!  Unfortunately, we were missing 2 of our players which meant we only had 1 extra to sub in and out and our players definitely ran out of gas.  (The other team had 5 extras).   They lost 0-5 but I still think that was a major improvement.

That's Ray & Grace at the end.  She came to watch his game.

Cody also thought he'd have some extra team spirit by having lightning bolts shaved into the side of his head.  (His team is Lightning).  Unfortunately, his hair is as light as his head so you can barely see them!

All in all, the tournament went better than I expected.  We took 2 extra boys with us so there were 7 of us in the hotel room!  For the first time, we took Rascal and he was such a little angel!  He would just sit on my lap during the games or play with the kids.  We found out mid-way through that dogs weren't allowed at the soccer complex so I just carried him and kept him on my lap.  The complex had a really nice playground.

 

 

Immediately after the last game, we took the kids and 4 of Cody's friends to an amusement park for his belated birthday party.  There, they had 2 games of laser tag, some arcade games, a round of mini golf, and pizza.  I wish I could've gotten in on the laser tag but many of the vests weren't working!

 

 

 

We got back into town just in time for Ray to drop the kids and I off at church for the start of Vacation Bible School.  I'll share about that later but boy am I exhausted!

We're leaving early in the morning for a soccer tournament.  Gndsgang and family left today as her oldest son had a game tonight.  They're camping but called to inform us that there was a man stabbed to death yesterday in the hotel where we'll be staying!  They haven't caught the perpetrator.  I sure hope we don't get that room!