Sharks WIN game 1

See this picture-
This is what I like to see when I am watching the Sharks play....the puck is in THE OTHER team's net and the guys are jumping up and down cheering, while the other team is sprawled all over the ice. Good Job Sharks, even without my favorite player you got the win....it's the first time they've won a game 1 in about 3 years...and they beat the Red Wings! The Detroit Red Wings....you know, the team from "hockey town"....that scary red team with the weird team name. (who came up with "red Wings" sounds like a food at KFC. Are they named after chicken wings, cardinals are red, why couldn't they just be the cardinals, red wings is just a plain, lame name....I need to do some Internet research and find out the story behind their name....if there is a good story, I'll blog about it (tomorrow, because its 12:30 at night right now).....

I thought it would be fun to feast on some "wings" tonight while we watched the Sharks game...but my family wanted Pizza. They got neither......maybe on Sunday, when we watch game 2.

* apology

I COULD NOT get my english language, grammer, proper tense, storytelling, editing skills to work while writing the "Chico won" post, so MY APOLOGIES!!!!!

Cup Stacking

One time we were watching "Minute to Win it" and had the guy stack and unstack cups. I thought it would be a fun activity for the cub scouts...so I bought a bunch of cups, but I haven't had a chance to let them play it....today the boys got out the cups and had fun stacking and unstacking them (and throwing shoes at the stack and all other manner of spreading cups all over the living room).

Chico Won

An update from an earlier post about the high school soccer game....Chico won.

We are NOT Chico fans. They are the ARCH enemy. They are mean, rude, snotty, rich, spoiled, potty mouthed, stuck up, girls who just happen to be good at soccer.

Before Melanee played for PV, Pleasant Valley had won the league championship for like 9 of 10 previous seasons. The year before Melanee played PV lost a bunch of players to graduation. The PV's teams of the early 2000's were always so good and had so many good returners each year that not many freshmen would ever make the team at tryouts....so they'd go do track or softball...they'd never try out their sophomore, junior, or senior year.....that turned out to be a bad thing because after a team full of seniors graduate, the lower class men who become the juniors and seniors hadn't ever had much playing time, so they weren't very good and there were 10 openings for new freshmen ... Melanee's first year of soccer, first two years, in fact, she played on a young, inexperienced team. So, playing the teams like Chico and Shasta were HARD and PV was always the under dog. But those PV/Chico games were BIG TIME. The whole town seemed to come out. There would be high tension in the air. The players would definitely bring their "A" game and the games would be HARD FOUGHT ("fought" used both literally and figurativly).

I think Chico beat PV pretty handily freshmen year (and made a big deal out of it because PV had beaten them the previous season for the championship). They were cheering, celebrating, and "partying like it was 1999"! Those losses really hurt. By sophomore year PV/Chico games were closer, but Chico still beat PV. But by Junior year..... Chico came to PV in their painted cars, caravan style, horns honking, arriving at PV in a Mardi Gras style, sitting on OUR sidelines, cheering their loud, annoying way, cocky arrogant players, parents, fans....the tv news was there, the newspaper reporter was there and at the end of the game .... pandemonium..... not a win, but PV actually tied Chico. Those bitter parents and fans were SILENT....those lame Chico players were CRYING.....it was a VICTORY for PV (even though it wasn't actually a WIN, it was a VICTORY). It felt like the happiest day on the PV soccer field since the beginning of time. (maybe I'm exaggerating there, a little).

Fast forward to Senior year......Chico returns to their annual game against PV at PV. They arrive semi in style, but beat down just a bit over the year before. Their car windows are still painted in "Beat PV" messages, but I don't recall any horns honking upon arrival. The game begins. It is a well played, skilled, emotional game. Both teams were out there to win. PV still hadn't scored a goal on Chico in ages, so when they did ..... CELEBRATION time! UN- BE- LEAVE- ABLE!!!!! And it was a pretty goal. Happy times. But don't forget.....Chico has big guns, they have championship caliber stars, they have better uniforms, they have the money, they have mad soccer skills, they are SCARY......they come back and score. Game is winding down......and it is a HUGE defensive battle. Chico is stopped OVER AND OVER and OVER, shut DOWN......late in the game, chaos is happening in front of the Chico goal and SOMEHOW, not exactly skill, not exactly luck, but PV scores. There are seconds left in the game...Chico throws ALL THEIR EFFORT into the last ditch effort.....PV holds them off and WIN THE GAME.....They beat Chico....THEY BEAT CHICO. Later that season Chico tied and lost to Shasta and the League Championship went to PV. No, not Chico, not the favored team, not the so called "best" team.....they LOST.

tree swing

The boys really didn't want to go to the soccer game....so I decided to let them do something "fun" before I MADE them do something "boring" so I took them to the rope swing near the creek. They had a BLAST!

P.V. vs. Chico

I probably really shouldn't blog about this until I know the outcome of the game, but I'm thinking it probably ended up in a 0-0 tie. I had to leave before the game was over, so I don't know until someone posts the results on Facebook or until I read the paper tomorrow. Today was the P.V./Chico game, at P.V. I went to watch, but it was weird being there because I knew so many people. It was also odd to be there and not feel stressed AT ALL. It didn't seem like the intensity was there anywhere. The fans were QUIET, the players didn't really seem to be trying very hard, and there wasn't the feeling in the air that there should be at a PV/Chico game.

I did enjoy my time sitting in my lawn chair, in the sun, watching my favorite sport.

I am not sure who this player is but I do think that she broke her leg.

Here is how PV lined up for a direct kick right outside the box when Tori had a hand ball...the Chico girl kicked it HARD, but over the top by just a few inches. PV has new uniforms since Melanee played, these look really nice, but it's weird seeing them in different uniforms, to me it wasn't even like the same team.

hockey terms

So, we are pretty new hockey fans....I've been calling the "bench" the "dug out" (oops, baseball term)....calling the "rink" or "ice" the "field" (oops, soccer term)....but I haven't figured out this one-----what is it called when a hockey player is "dribbling" the puck???? I KNOW it's not called dribbling, is it???

hurdles

William had ANOTHER track meet today. This time it was at Shasta and it was a tri-meet with Enterprise, so it was TOUGH.

Here is a picture of William warming up. He hit the hurdle on this attempt, you can see it tipping over and the people in the background are snickering a little. I also crack up whenever he wears his crazy sweaters, button up shirts, or flannel shirts as warm up gear!

Here is another warm up shot. Great form here!!!! His friend Jen took a bunch of pictures for me. I had to go to cub scouts, so missed the meet.

Here is the beginning of the race. I think Jen taking pictures from the middle of the track made for some great shots!

They looked pretty even right here, but this guy ended up passing William before the race was over.

William came in 3rd. He also ran the mile and thought he ran a fast race, but his time wasn't his best. He texted me after the meet and said he wanted to quit track after next week because he thought he did so bad, but I later, after a bunch of reassuring, nice, "don't quit" type of texts, I figured out that, oh yeah, next week is the last week of track!!!!

In his final race, he ran a 54 second 3rd leg of the 3 4 x 400 relay. That's FAST!

windy day

The weather here in Chico has been weird lately...

H-O-T one day, rainy the next, cloudy one day, sunny the next, wintery cold one day, springy beautiful the next....well, yesterday was short sleeve weather, today was pull out the old winter coat weather....it was SOOOOOOOOO windy. And guess what happened to a branch of our tree...yep, fell ONTO the roof!

I don't like summer-too hot, I don't like winter-too cold..., but I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind and not have mixed up seasons.

Track Team Pictures

I still haven't gotten around to re taking the soccer pictures of Bradley and Andrew for my dad's frames, but now I have a track picture of William to replace the old cross country one. William doesn't like it because he thinks his hair is too short. I like it. I like the green grass. I do, though, think it is weird that the photographer stood on a ladder.

BUT, it's the TEAM picture that I have the most complaints about, just look at it-

The picture was taken on a Tuesday, a Tuesday that came on the day after a Monday holiday, so as you can see, many of the boys FORGOT that it was picture day, so we have kids in their p.e. clothes, street clothes, and there NUMEROUS different types of uniforms, so that even the kids IN uniform don't look "uniform". Another thing is---why is it INDOORS, it's not the "indoor" track team? And by having JV and Varsity BOTH in the SAME picture, it makes toooooo many people, therefore making them all small and hard to see. Also, they spelled William's name wrong. And, maybe the funniest thing, they didn't even have them stand shortest to tallest (look at the SMALL kid in the back row (5th from the left), yep, he is standing in the BACK row!). Can't believe this picture was produced by a PROFESSIONAL and I PAID FOR IT!

camera woes

My little, easy to use, one click, auto everything, which has taken 95 percent of the pictures for this blog, for all my scrapbooks, and for everything I've needed for the past 5 years or so has a scratched lens...although, I can still get SOME good pictures from it, so I continue to use it. My big camera, which has so many functions, knobs, controls, and features on it that I don't know where to even begin using it works pretty good SOMETIMES, but it is too slow for athletic shots, the moving takes too long to get into focus and I miss shots, plus, I want to take LOTS of shots, but it is slow in between, so I miss even more shots.....but these pictures PROVE that it is a good camera.They are clear and nice when the subject is standing close and still.

I need to fiddle with all those controls some more! Wish me luck.....I really want to get one of those perfectly timed hurdle shots of William before the season is over!

track meet

Today there was a make up track meet to make up the one that was rained out last Wednesday. This first photo is Andrew giving William a drink of Gatorade, also the coach giving the distance runners a pep talk, but I really put it in for Melanee to notice what is happening in the BACKGROUND. I'm sure it will bring back fond memories!!!

It's funny how and where hurdlers stretch.

This is the first lap of the varsity boys mile race. William is in third, he's the one with red shoes.

I think he came in 5th or 6th place, but he got his season best time.

William also ran the 300 meter hurdles. He got his PR (personal record).

I asked William the story behind this picture and he said they were "freaking out" ... look at Ivan and even Julia ..... because Aaron was running the second leg of their relay race. Aaron is their anchor leg, usually!

Someone took a picture of all the hurdlers and the cart of hurdles...I was up in the stands, too far away, but I got one, too!

spelling sentence error

Each week for homework Andrew has to write a sentence for each of his spelling words....this week he had words that ended in "ed". One of the words was "wrapped". For his sentence he meant to write- I was wrapped in a blanket.....but he misspelled "wrapped" by leaving out the "w" and one of the "p"'s. Oops!

46 days

Only 46 days

until the start

of World Cup soccer action.

Can't wait!!!

Go USA.

music

I need some good songs for my blog playlist. Any suggestions?

Wil

Many people came up to me at church today and complimented me on my wonderful son William. He really is a good person. As I type this he is just arriving home from volunteering at a Salvation Army dinner for the homeless. Just last week he got a phone call from the leaders in charge of this summer's Encampment for the Boy Scouts and Young Men in the ward. He asked William to be the Assistant Head Scout. That is really an honor, since there are hundreds of Young Men to choose from in our Stake. Everyone LIKES William, or Wil, as he is known to his friends.

Big news

I have been thinking about blogging about this, but wasn't sure if I should because it may have been a secret and my blog is not the most private thing in the universe, so this morning I asked and Melanee said that I could blog about it, so now I just need to think of things to say without sounding like a braggy mom. Oh, wait, this WHOLE blog makes me sound like a braggy mom, so I guess I should go with tradition and brag a bit.

Melanee will be a Junior next year. WOW, where did time go? How can she already be entering her JUNIOR YEAR OF COLLEGE???? That is just mind boggling to me. She will be an upperclassmen. She has grown so much during her two years at SVU. She asked me today if Bradley and Andrew remember her......well, I'm sure they do, but she HAS changed and grown up tons. I see her changes as changes for the better. She actually HAS and USES a planner. That was a shock to me! I don't know how she manages all she does in her busy life from classes, church meetings, institute meetings, Executive Council meetings, assistant coaching, working for the athletic department, social life, homework, and sleep.....it's good she has a planner, and I hope she pencils in "sleep" every few days.

She has ALWAYS loved soccer. Back in high school her life revolved around soccer. It was what she looked forward to, it was the one thing she loved to do, it made her happy, and it also frustrated her that not all her teammates were quite so gung-ho. Now that she is in college, playing college soccer, she is happy doing her "thing" (soccer). I'm so glad she was able to continue her passion past high school.

I was so happy to find out that Melanee, along with two other teammates, will be sharing the captain duties for the SVU women's soccer team next season. Last year the coach told her that she was "too competitive". I thought that was a compliment, but to him, he didn't want her to be so serious, so intense. Maybe he saw something new and different in her after last season, but I think she will make a great co-captain. She has leadership abilities, she has passion, she is fun, AND she now has and keeps a "planner" to keep her organized. I know she can do it, and do it well! I am so proud of her and so happy for her.

Life is a Pitch

I was chatting with Melanee this morning on Facebook and asked her if she saw my new blog title. (If you didn't see it, it was a picture of the Shark's arena (HP Pavillion, or the Shark Tank). I also changed the title of my blog to "Life is a Rink".) I was trying to be funny. I don't even know how many of you saw it or even noticed.....but Melanee's response made me change it back to "Life is a Pitch"....haha...she said simply, "I like soccer." She is right, soccer is better, especially when she is playing!

Scott came home from church and asked if there was anything I wanted to watch today like hockey games or basketball games. I thought about it and then answered, "I'm sure there are basketball games on, but I'm not interested in any of them." And William and I got to talking from there. Yeah, Basketball is pretty boring, they score over 100 points a game. Then we came up with, and agreedthat---soccer would be better with a smaller field,............ and if they were allowed to crash into each other,.................. and used sticks, .............................and the ball was smaller and flatter, .............................and if they wore pads,.................and if they froze the grass. Nah, soccer is fine, just the way it is, and actually it is a lot like hockey in some of the strategy like passing, shooting, defense, goalies.

So I am back to calling my blog "Life is a Pitch". Sorry if you missed the 12 or so hours of it being "Life is a Rink".

Washington D.C. temple

The upcoming week is finals week at SVU. So on Friday there was what they call a "reading day" or basically a day off to help prepare for finals

(or maybe it really is for reading). Anyway, it's really neat that the temple is fairly close to campus because a group of students went there on Friday. It is such a beautiful place. I'm glad Melanee got to go and I'm really glad she thought to take a picture!!!!

Perry McLeur

I don't think I have the name of the Buena Vista high school spelled correctly, but close enough!

Melanee is the assistant coach for both the boys and girls soccer teams. Every time I talk to her, chat with her online, or text with her she always gets in an "I love the Perry Mccleur kids."

She has told me how they have improved and continue to improve and how nice and respectful they all are. They say things like, "yes, mam" or similar things when she works with them. She said that the girls team won their first ever game a few weeks ago and they were thrilled. Yesterday, both teams has games, which they played at the SVU field. One of the players broke his arm. Here's a picture of the ambulance-A month or so ago a different player broke his leg in two places during an away game. She says the town doesn't have a local youth soccer league, so for most of the players, high school soccer is their first soccer experience. One of the girls players once brought Melanee a meal from her parents Chinese food restaurant, which Melanee thoroughly enjoyed. All in all, she is very happy with her time spent coaching.

Sharks blog

My new aspiration in life...to be a San Jose Sharks blogger....man, I wish I was taking notes during the game, if I could remember all my thoughts, I would have SO much to blog about!

Who needs kids playing soccer or running track or going on field trips or saying funny things, all I need to blog about is the Sharks (well, for at least 4 more games...hopefully A LOT more).

The Sharks won tonight by a score of 5-2. That sounds like quite the blow out, but it really was a close game, too close for my liking. I knew the Avalanche would bring their A game to this game because they knew that if they lost, they would be on their long summer vacation....I also thought that they would come out very mad because they were beat so soundly last game.

Well, the game began and less than 1 minute into the game the Sharks scored, lil Joe Pavelski scored.....it was very exciting. I thought the Sharks would just totally dominate the whole game after starting like that, but they didn't...the Avs played hard and the first period ended 1-0. Then in the second period, the Sharks made a few mistakes.....and like I've said before, the Avs can't really do much on their own, they need help from the mistakes made by the Sharks. A LOT of press and fans have been doing a lot of criticizing of Jumbo Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, saying that they need to elevate their games since this is the playoffs...well, this one guy on the Avs skated right past Jumbo Joe, while neither Murray nor Boyle came over to help and Nabby didn't protect the whole goal, which allowed the Avs guy to score........Then another series of mistakes led to the Avs second goal. UGH!!!! So for a while there, the Sharks were actually losing 2-1. I didn't like those few minutes. Not at all. But guess who came to the rescue with a beautiful shot....yep, game three's antagonist....Dan Boyle.....who is slowly becoming my new favorite Shark (but I still like Marleau). Then, lil Joe, now easily becoming "big" lil Joe, scored again. AWESOME. So the game was nearing the end, William and Bradley and I were all saying "are they going to pull their goalie?" I've only seen that work ONCE and don't really think it is a good idea, so I'm always REALLY happy when the other team does it BECAUSE.....the Sharks have an OPEN net to shoot at....and they did...three times, making it go in TWICE...final score 5-2. WOOO_HOOOOOO.

-Does the Sharks coach's hair turn more and more gray each and every game?
-Is Jumbo Joe hurt, he sure isn't playing very well?
-McGinn messed up 3 times in a row.
-I barely noticed the rookie #36, was he even out there?
-The pre game guy who is married to Kristi Yamaguchi needs to shut up if he wants to criticize the Sharks.
- Randy, the announcer, needs to stop jinxing the team with his little comments like, "the Avs need to do something to get their fans into this game" then a second later the Avs guy scores!
-Sometimes they need to just stop with the passing and just SHOOT
-Has there ever been a streaker at a hockey game?
-Why does Greiss, the back up goalie, who hasn't even played a minute, have a black eye?
-Will we ever get to see Staubitz, Ortmeyer, Wallin, or Leach on the ice? If not, will they get a week with the Stanley Cup when the Sharks win it?
-I could tell whenever Blake got the puck, the sound of "boos" towards him was overwhelming.
-Speaking of Blake, he looks AWFUL with a beard.
-It's lame that the Sharks tv people, like that ANNOYING, Brodie dude, have "playoff" beards. They aren't part of the team.
-I wonder who would win a fight between Todd McClelland and Douglas Murray?
-I get a little scared when Huskins and Demers are out there, but they seem to do pretty well.
-Vlasic scared me once tonight, but I really like him, he is fast, good with the puck, and positions himself well.
-All in all, I like the Sharks. They are a likable bunch.
just have to say-

GO SHARKS!!!!

Green run

William went on a run today and this is what he wore....he didn't stay out too long, though, cuz he saw lots of people and he thought they were staring at him.

SVU Women's Soccer

I think they should all be smiling in this picture...and I think Melanee should have brown hair......and I think that she shouldn't have stood in between 2 very tall girls, because she looks short, but I thought I'd post this picture anyways......wishing that they can train hard over the summer, get some hot new recruits, and go back next year and WIN all their games!!! I went and watched a part of Melanee's old high school soccer teams game the other day and really missed being able to watch Melanee play soccer. Melanee is going to stay at SVU for two more months for some summer sessions of classes, so I hope she is able to take time to get in some training while there.

Couple of Sharks thoughts

I'll start by saying this is how I want to see Anderson tonight!!! (Face buried in arms, tears in eyes, belly down on the ice, PUCK IN NET!!!!)
Now I want to talk about the Get Loud promo the Sharks public relations or merchandise team came up with last game. I, speaking for myself, LOVE these bright orange shirts. I want one. I would wear it every day. I think it is so cool and awesome and all those other describing words. I thought when I first saw it, and read that EVERYONE in attendance at game 5 was going to receive one, that the stands would look sooooooooo neat as a sea of orange. Have you ever seen an NBA game have a "white out"? Have you ever seen a college game where the stadium is full of the team color? It looks REALLY spectacular. Well, if you haven't notice, I'll break it to you, the Sharks team color is NOT orange. (yes, there is a SPECK of orange in there somewhere, but they are TEAL, sometimes BLACK, sometimes WHITE, NEVER orange. So, on Thursday night, the fans were ALL given these free orange "Get Loud" t shirts to wear. Some of them did. Most of them wore their expensive Teal Colored jerseys or other sharks apparel....so the audience was a sea of teal with a few orange spots. Orange and teal do not really go well together....it was NOT the "white out" effect the promotional crew were going for......and it kind of flopped. I did read a quote from the goalie, who had a good point, he said something like---at least they were smart enough not to give away BLACK shirts, that would make it hard to see the puck.

5-0

I went to the Girls Camp Meeting like I was supposed to and guess what the score of the Sharks game was when I got home?

It was 0-0.

I didn't miss anything. The boys were watching for me, they said I really didn't miss much. No goals, no fights, no injuries, nothing exciting like that. So I sat on the couch and began to watch. The Sharks SCORED! We CHEERED. If any of our neighbors were asleep, we probably woke them up. haha. Then the Sharks scored again.........and again..................and again, you get the idea....it was FUN to watch. I'm glad I went to my meeting and I'm glad they held off all the exciting action until I got home.

GO SHARKS!!!

Track

As you probably know, William REALLY enjoys being on the track team. He has fun running. Don't ask me how that is possible, I think running hurts, but he like it. He doesn't exactly do much training on his own, but he goes to all the practices. This year he is participating in hurtles along with the mile and the 4 by 400 relay. Last year he did the 1 mile, the 2 mile and the 800. He also sometimes did the 4 by 400 relay. He was on JV last year. This year he runs varsity. The competition in varsity track is a lot more serious. William has also gained a bunch of weight since last year. He also spends a lot of time at practice and meets socializing.....SOOOOOOO, he is not quite as good at track this year as he was last year. When he went to practice yesterday his coach told him that he wont be participating in the meet today. He was very bummed. He was mad, even. He loves the meets. He wants to run in the meets. Why practice all week to not have a meet???? The meet on Wednesday was rained out. So next week there will be 2 meets, hopefully that will make him happy.....and he is a lot more motivated to get a faster time and place higher in the meets, now that he was left out of this one.

Baby Chicks

Andrew's sharing day at school is on Wednesdays...he wanted to share our new baby chicks.