I can blog with pictures again!!! WOO HOO!
So the BIG question is---do you want me to bring Melanee's scrapbook pictures and William/Bradley's Run For Food pictures over to here??? Or is everyone done looking at them???
11/26/10
It WORKS!!!
So the BIG question is---do you want me to bring Melanee's scrapbook pictures and William/Bradley's Run For Food pictures over to here??? Or is everyone done looking at them???
Don't Worry. I'm Back!!!
I broke down and bought the extra picture storage space, so I can continue my blog here! I did it for all my dedicated readers and Sarah!
I haven't really blogged this week because I have been discouraged by having to buy the extra space. It took my 3 years to use up my allotted 1 GB free storage space....now I just bought 20 GB, but I have to renew after a year. Makes no sense, I think it should be that I have to renew after I've used the next 20 GB, which at the rate I'm going will be in 60 years, right?
Oh, well! I wasn't going to do it, but Scott said it can be an early Christmas present, so my blog is going to stay here, which is really good news because William accidentally found out today that www.lifeisapitch.blogspot.com is someone in Indonesia's blog....my new one was lifeisapitch2, but WAY too close to the Indonesia guy, so I am going to delete that one now.
And, Whitni, thanks for your blog book advice. I checked it out and only about 1 year of blog fits in a book. I would need 3. The other day I spent about an hour going through old blog post and deleting the "Kings Won" posts and the ones that were about... say...basketball, if it had 5 pictures, I would delete 2 or 3 of them. After an hour of doing that, I checked and I went from having 100% of my allotted 1GB used up, down to only 99.3% of it used up, so I stopped wasting my time.
So friends, welcome back to www.dsguymon.blogspot.com
I haven't really blogged this week because I have been discouraged by having to buy the extra space. It took my 3 years to use up my allotted 1 GB free storage space....now I just bought 20 GB, but I have to renew after a year. Makes no sense, I think it should be that I have to renew after I've used the next 20 GB, which at the rate I'm going will be in 60 years, right?
Oh, well! I wasn't going to do it, but Scott said it can be an early Christmas present, so my blog is going to stay here, which is really good news because William accidentally found out today that www.lifeisapitch.blogspot.com is someone in Indonesia's blog....my new one was lifeisapitch2, but WAY too close to the Indonesia guy, so I am going to delete that one now.
And, Whitni, thanks for your blog book advice. I checked it out and only about 1 year of blog fits in a book. I would need 3. The other day I spent about an hour going through old blog post and deleting the "Kings Won" posts and the ones that were about... say...basketball, if it had 5 pictures, I would delete 2 or 3 of them. After an hour of doing that, I checked and I went from having 100% of my allotted 1GB used up, down to only 99.3% of it used up, so I stopped wasting my time.
So friends, welcome back to www.dsguymon.blogspot.com
11/25/10
11/21/10
time for a change
Guess what I was so rudely informed of today by our friends at Blogger.com? They told me that I am at 100% of my storage space allotment. Well, I have been fiddling around with things for the past 2 hours and the solution I have come up with....after deleting a BUNCH of posts off my blog, which I didn't want to do because I someday want to make my blog into a book....I decided to start a new blog. You can find it at www.lifeisapitch2.blogspot.com I haven't got it up and running yet...but that's where you will now find all the happenings of the Guymon family.
11/19/10
Jonny B. (part 2)
This is really Jonny B. part one, but the way Blogger works is WRONG and wont let me order these the way I want if I mess up the order I write them...so, YESTERDAY...the day before today...I was visited by the Fed Ex lady, yeah, a lady, aren't they usually Fed Ex "men"...actually, I've never seen a UPS lady, have you? Anyway, the lady arrived at my door with a big long tube. I knew IMMEDIATELY what it was. I told her, she didn't know what I was talking about, not a soccer fan, I guess. I didn't let her unenthused response get me down, I proceeded to open my "package", which was actually VERY hard to do. I ended up taking a knife to it and just sawing off the lid, hoping the whole time that I wasn't harming the precious poster inside. Got it opened and this is what I found. AUTOGRAPHED. So I moved everything off the side of the fridge and this is where it now hangs. I really do love it! Do you want to know how I got it? Well, I follow the ChivasUSA on Twitter. I talk ("twit") to the guy who Twitters for the Chivas all the time. I ask him questions when I can't watch the game. He always responds. I enter all of their contests. One day, I checked my Twitter account and I had MISSED a contest. The prize of that contest was a Jonny Bornstein poster. I Twitted ChivasUSA and asked them if there was ever going to be another contest. They said "Yes", but they had given out all the posters at the game. (He asked why I didn't come by the booth!!!???? Haha, cuz I live in CHICO, no where near LA.) I was sad. After more games and more twitter communications with the guy come to find out that there was ANOTHER poster and that there would be a contest "sometime" to determine the owner of it. As the season came to an end, I followed ChivasUSA every day and never saw another poster contest, so I began asking the guy about it. During the very very last game, I asked him and he said the poster was mine, just send him my address!!! I did. I was so excited. SOOOOO HAPPY. WooHoo. But the poster NEVER came. I twittered them only to find out that they had a "mix up" and they were "sorry", but an "extra-special" poster would be shipped to me "soon". Now I have it!!!! And really love it.
 |
| Jonathan Bornstein |
Jonny B
As you hopefully remember, Bradley wrote a letter to Jonathan Bornstein after the World Cup. He didn't respond. Then after him telling me as to what he does respond to, I wrote to him again, sending him a picture of him, a picture of Bradley, a letter, a birthday card, AND a self addressed stamped envelope. That was at least 3 weeks ago. I thought since I sent it to the Home Depot Center and he is no longer a Chiva, maybe there wasn't going to be a response. Well, LUCKILY I was wrong, guess what Bradley got today in the mail???---
And I LOVE what he wrote on the back----
And I LOVE what he wrote on the back----
And I love Jonny B! And Richard, if you throw flames about this post, I will assume you like Jonathan Bornstein, too, and you are just jealous. end of seaon party festivities
Notice the goalie in the picture, he looks so tall, well he is no taller than William or the two guys next to him, he admitted that he was standing on his toes for the picture--
William's team had their end of season party the other night. It was held at Round Table pizza at the same time as the PV girls volleyball party and one of the radio station's meetings. There was also a fundraiser thing going on for cancer, so the place was CROWDED! William's coach talked a little about each boy, he did a good job. He gave out some awards. William earned his varsity letter, an academic team award, and a GPA award.
William's team had their end of season party the other night. It was held at Round Table pizza at the same time as the PV girls volleyball party and one of the radio station's meetings. There was also a fundraiser thing going on for cancer, so the place was CROWDED! William's coach talked a little about each boy, he did a good job. He gave out some awards. William earned his varsity letter, an academic team award, and a GPA award. 
11/17/10
Wil's Essay
I took this idea from Gina...sometimes she has "guest bloggers" on her site, well, not really, actually she just sometimes puts her kids school assignments out there for all of us to read. I have really enjoyed the ones she has shared. Her kids are thoughtful and very good writers. I don't know if I can say the same about my son, William, but he is very good at exaggerating! Here's his latest essay for his College Prep Writing class. The assignment was to write about someone with a disability and what they have taught you (or something like that). Some of you may remember my version of this story from a few months ago, when it actually took place. (but NOT in the way William has interpreted it).
One of the most annoying things in the world is having to repeat yourself. In my life, that happens regularly, for my mother is deaf. She hardly understands anyone and most of the time she does not even realize she is being spoken to. While most people do not really consider somebody that is deaf to be “disabled”, deafness does cause major strain on daily life. Nevertheless, being raised by a parent who has a disability will instill qualities of patience, tolerance, and compassion.
The relationship between my mother and I has its ups and down. We often get very frustrated with one another. Sometimes I get so aggravated just from trying to communicate from her that I avoid her. However, something happened recently that has brought me closer than ever to her. My mom is very much into soccer, almost to the point of obsession. She watches soccer constantly on the television. She also is currently a youth soccer coach and has been coaching every fall and spring for the past 16 years. During this last season, a few weeks ago, her team was winning 8-0 and had no intention of letting up on their pitiful opponents. The coach of the other team was rather upset, and went to “consult” her. Well, he actually just yelled at her from across the field, saying that she had “no class”. He did not know that she is deaf and was getting pretty upset that she was not responding. After another goal was scored he screamed, “Are you DEAF?” One of the kids on the team got her clipboard and wrote, “That guy says you have no class, and called you deaf”, and pointed towards the tomato-faced man. She marched up to the man, stood toe to toe with him, and said, “Calm down, Bub, I am deaf, and I’m still a much better soccer coach than you, and I know what I’m doing, it’s obvious because we’re beating you 100 to zero.” She then shoved him, almost to the ground.
This whole episode was, ironically, very beneficial for me. My mother taught me, indirectly, that even though there might be something wrong with you, be proud of who you are. Do not feel sorry for yourself. Since that day, I have been more patient with my mother, and do not mind repeating myself too often. I am so proud of my mom for sticking up for herself. I do not seem to get as impatient with her at times when she would have flustered me in the past. I, since the incident, have been more tolerant towards people who need extra help. There are two special needs kids in my Intro to Art class and I am seated directly in between them. Each day they make me smile and bring me joy. I am glad that I have the mother that I have, for she has recently, within the last few weeks, taught me tolerance, patience, and compassion. I wish that I would not have been so immature and insensitive towards her in the past because I do not know if I can make it up to her.
“What did you say?”
One of the most annoying things in the world is having to repeat yourself. In my life, that happens regularly, for my mother is deaf. She hardly understands anyone and most of the time she does not even realize she is being spoken to. While most people do not really consider somebody that is deaf to be “disabled”, deafness does cause major strain on daily life. Nevertheless, being raised by a parent who has a disability will instill qualities of patience, tolerance, and compassion.
The relationship between my mother and I has its ups and down. We often get very frustrated with one another. Sometimes I get so aggravated just from trying to communicate from her that I avoid her. However, something happened recently that has brought me closer than ever to her. My mom is very much into soccer, almost to the point of obsession. She watches soccer constantly on the television. She also is currently a youth soccer coach and has been coaching every fall and spring for the past 16 years. During this last season, a few weeks ago, her team was winning 8-0 and had no intention of letting up on their pitiful opponents. The coach of the other team was rather upset, and went to “consult” her. Well, he actually just yelled at her from across the field, saying that she had “no class”. He did not know that she is deaf and was getting pretty upset that she was not responding. After another goal was scored he screamed, “Are you DEAF?” One of the kids on the team got her clipboard and wrote, “That guy says you have no class, and called you deaf”, and pointed towards the tomato-faced man. She marched up to the man, stood toe to toe with him, and said, “Calm down, Bub, I am deaf, and I’m still a much better soccer coach than you, and I know what I’m doing, it’s obvious because we’re beating you 100 to zero.” She then shoved him, almost to the ground.
This whole episode was, ironically, very beneficial for me. My mother taught me, indirectly, that even though there might be something wrong with you, be proud of who you are. Do not feel sorry for yourself. Since that day, I have been more patient with my mother, and do not mind repeating myself too often. I am so proud of my mom for sticking up for herself. I do not seem to get as impatient with her at times when she would have flustered me in the past. I, since the incident, have been more tolerant towards people who need extra help. There are two special needs kids in my Intro to Art class and I am seated directly in between them. Each day they make me smile and bring me joy. I am glad that I have the mother that I have, for she has recently, within the last few weeks, taught me tolerance, patience, and compassion. I wish that I would not have been so immature and insensitive towards her in the past because I do not know if I can make it up to her.
11/16/10
You've Got Mail
I don't know if any of you read the "comments" section of my blog or have followed my quest to get in touch with Jonathan Spector's girlfriend. She had tried to e mail me a few months ago, but I somehow missed it...then after I did my blog post trying to get her attention by writing Jonathan Spector NUMEROUS times, she commented again, I gave her our address and THIS
came in the mail today for William. He also sent a short letter. William was so thrilled. The mail came while William was at school. Do you think I waited for him to get home or do you think I opened it? (The way you answer that will easily show how well you know me?)
came in the mail today for William. He also sent a short letter. William was so thrilled. The mail came while William was at school. Do you think I waited for him to get home or do you think I opened it? (The way you answer that will easily show how well you know me?) I think getting this in the mail today after the big Landon Donovan discussion was perfect timing. I very much doubt that Landon Donovan would take the time to write to a fan. Yeah, he probably donates money and items to the less fortunate or to his favorite charity, and yeah he probably signs random autographs for rabid fans who stalk him, but I think the actual sincere care shown by Jonathan Spector and his kind girlfriend towards William was heart felt. They took time out of their busy lives, used their money on postage, and reached out to an overseas fan. Their generosity has touched my heart.
It's also a really nice picture. William will cherish it, I'm sure!
I don't know if I have written here about participating in a chat online with Jonathan Bornstein. He actually took my question and answered it. I told him that Bradley had written him a letter a while back and checked the mail, excitedly each day looking for a response from Jonathan Bornstein. Nothing ever came....so I asked in the chat if he answers fan mail...his response was that he does, and that he is most likely to answer cards or pictures and will surly respond if the letter, card, or picture is sent with a self addressed stamped envelope. So, I got off the chat, found a birthday card, found a picture online of Jonathan Bornstein, sent it to Costco, found a photo of Bradley, filled out a self addressed stamped envelope. Then picked up the picture at costco, wrote a letter, and took it all to the post office, had it weighed and sent. That was at least 3 weeks or more ago, and he has not replied. Bradley has also written to his favorite hockey players Dany Heatley and Ryane Clowe and neither of them have replied either...that makes this written correspondence between William and Jonathan Spector so much more meaningful. Way back in the early 1990's I was a Dallas Cowboys fan. I noticed that they would win in their special alternate blue sleeved uniforms EVERY time. I wrote a letter to Jerry Jones, the Cowboys owner, and he, yes HIM, not his secretary, Jerry JONES himself, wrote back to me and thanked me for my concern for his team and my suggestion. haha. He also sent me a 8 x 10 autographed glossy picture of HIMSELF. yeah, I am the proud owner of a Jerry Jones autographed photo....lol....just what every Cowboys fan would kill for, huh? lol
Anyway, Jonathan Spector is awesome. Seriously. I know Richard will say something like Donovan could take him down anyday, but if it was playground style picking of teams and I was a captain, I would pick Spector over Donovan every time. (I wouldn't want to tire Landon out or have him yelling at our teammates!)
11/15/10
Rain, hail, downpour storm
A few weeks ago, there was a 5 or 10 minute long storm that dumped so much water on us that our street almost flooded. Of course Andrew went and played in it!
We had the missionaries over for dinner that night. The missionaries who drive a car arrived first, dry as can be....the bike missionaries were wetter than you could EVER imagine a missionary to be! DRENCHED!
Hunting
Scott and the boys got to go hunting on Saturday at some super secret wonderful location and got 4 ducks. We ate them for Sunday dinner. Scott told me to put this on my blog....but he needs to get his own blog, don't you think!?!??!!
Pumpkins from our Garden
These were in my camera, was going to write about them at Halloween time...lol. Look what we gre
w in our garden---
Not exactly "Jack O Lantern" quality pumpkins that's for sure. Don't know what happened to them? lol. We didn't even end up carving them. Too bad Gina oesn't live closer, they could be Fall decorations.
w in our garden---
Not exactly "Jack O Lantern" quality pumpkins that's for sure. Don't know what happened to them? lol. We didn't even end up carving them. Too bad Gina oesn't live closer, they could be Fall decorations.Photo Shoot
Here are a few pictures from Melanee's latest photo shoot with the talented photographer Teena Cook. 
I love them all, but like the smile on the black and white one the best, but because it is missing the beautiful fall colors, I think I like the picture above the best!
My back hurts and I'm starting to get a headache, so this post will be short, but if I didn't hurt, I would have written a long "Melanee is the BEST!" post. She really is special and wonderful. And I'm not just saying that because I am her mom. She's a hard worker, smart, athletic, fun, and loves to serve others. I wish there were more hours in the day for her to do all that she wants to do. I love you Melanee! I love the photos, Teena!
11/8/10
They have returned
Melanee's team is back in Virginia...hopefully they didn't miss too much school. I'm sure they have made some memories they will cherish forever.
During the first game Melanee got kicked in the shin so hard that even through her top dollar shin guards, she got cut. It all worked out ok, though, because of the kick, her team was awarded a free kick, which Melanee kicked to a teammate who kicked it back to her, then she kicked it to another teammate on the other side, who scored a goal.....so getting kicked helped the team score a goal!
Some of her classmates welcomed them when they returned to school.
11/7/10
Ben & Jerry's
Melanee's team had time to stop and tour the Ben and Jerry's factory in Burlington, Vermont while they were there. Melanee looks pretty happy in the pictures, so I take it she enjoyed it. Looks like they got samples, too, YUM!
Twirps
William went to TWIRPs last night. I don't know many details, because he has been sick, so sick, since the moment he walked in the door, but here are some pictures.
the USCAA fiasco
I took a day to try to get my thoughts together about this subject and I really wish I were as good of a writer as Gina or some of my other blog friends, to be able to get my feelings out in words. (in the correct words).
Melanee's team plays in the USCAA...the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. Their claim is that they "level the playing field for small colleges". Many of the schools in their "association" are religious based school such as Southern Virginia University, which is a school affiliated but not owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is a Liberal Arts university which prides itself on upholding the standards and teachings of Jesus Christ. An example of just some of the other school belonging to the USCAA are Mennonites, Seventh Day Adventist, Catholics, and various other Christian based schools. You would think a governing body of as association made up of this wide variety of beliefs and thoughts would be better at acknowledging and honoring their religious practices. Well, the USCAA clearly shows favoritism and they also blatantly disregard others. The game schedule has an asterisk at the bottom of each and every page stating "game dates and times may be subject to change". In one place on the USCAA web site it even says, "if due to religious convictions game time may be changed to allow game times to occur after sundown". OK, so they are stating that they understand that 7th Day Adventist's Sabbath Day ends at sundown...I get that. I don't even have a problem with that....but WHY do they schedule SUNDAY games, KNOWING that many of the school (MOST of the schools) participating in the tournament believe that Sunday is the Sabbath Day. One of the 10 commandments is to keep the Sabbath Day holy...Mormons aren't the only ones to believe this little tid bit.
I want to also point out that the USCAA also sponsors Fall Championship tournaments for cross country (held on a Friday) and volleyball (taking place between Thursday thru Saturday). Why would soccer be any different. SVU has been National Champions or runners up something like 10 out of the past 15 years.....this means to me that the playing on Sunday is a relatively new concept. I also don't understand why the Catholics, Christian, other Sunday honoring religions don't put up a fight to keep their sabbath day holy....why do these school play....if everyone is against it, I'm pretty sure they would change it back to the way it used to be and they way they have it for all the rest of the sports.
I know that typically women's college soccer games are played on Sunday...this fact has, I'm sure, helped many Mormon athletes choose SVU as their college and their team. They don't WANT to play on Sunday. When Melanee was considering transferring to Minot State in North Dakota last year, we took a look at their schedule and EVERY WEEK they have a Sunday game. That was one factor Melanee used in deciding to stay at SVU.
So, Melanee's school went to the USCAA sanctioned National Championship hoping that if they made it as far as the finals, the game would be moved to Saturday evening or even Monday. They DID make it to the finals.....The game WAS NOT changed to accommodate their beliefs. It all could have worked out fine......could have....but didn't BECAUSE.....the 7th Day Adventist's sabbath is Saturday....they need to play AFTER sundown.....so their semi final game was played Saturday at 7:00 pm. The team they played won, but there was no way to make them have to play back to back games Saturday night or to make Melanee's team have to play a 9 or 10 o'clock evening game. The women's semi finals WERE SUPPOSED to be played at 1:00 and 3:00 Saturday afternoon, but after the Adventist school advanced, the games were switched to 5:00 and 7:00. See, the USCAA accommodated the convictions of one religion....and not another....that is favoritism AND discrimination.
I want to point out here that I am very proud of Melanee and her teammates for sticking up for what they believe. What a hard decision that would have been for me, or anyone, not as faithful. These girls LOVE soccer. I have even heard Melanee say before that "soccer is life", but she has really grown up and is a strong, faithful person who knows that soccer is NOT life and that she is doing the right thing. Their stand on this may just get the USCAA to move the tournament back to Thurs, Fri, Sat scheduling. Their stand on this shows others how important keeping the Sabbath Day holy really is.
I did write an e mail to SVU's athletic director before the team left and she SINCERELY believed that if the team made the finals, it would be moved.....so I shouldn't even bring this up....but I have wondered why a team would even go to a tournament where the championship game was scheduled for a Sunday, knowing that they don't play on Sundays.
I am SO glad that Melanee's team won both their games on Friday and Saturday. They earned a berth in the Championship match and were denied it by the USCAA. Emma stated it best on Facebook----"3rd place never felt so bad". It's sad that the highest they could get was 3rd place. Their original plan, if the game wouldn't be switched, was to arrive at the Championship game in their church clothes and say, "Give us our 2nd place trophies". But in all the attempts (for MONTHS before the tournament even began)....to get the game changed to a non Sabbath Day.......the USCAA knew that SVU wouldn't play, so they allowed the team that lost to Melanee's team yesterday continue on to the Final game.
I hope everything works out for the best after all this chaos.
I feel bad for the girls on Melanee's team who are non members of the church. I feel bad for all of them to go all that way (from Virginia to Vermont), win 2 games, and come home empty handed knowing that they have a great team that possibly could have won it all!
I think I am done with this post....I'm still sitting here mad or sad, not sure which one.
****And I sure wish the USCAA would answer my e mails.
Melanee's team plays in the USCAA...the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. Their claim is that they "level the playing field for small colleges". Many of the schools in their "association" are religious based school such as Southern Virginia University, which is a school affiliated but not owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is a Liberal Arts university which prides itself on upholding the standards and teachings of Jesus Christ. An example of just some of the other school belonging to the USCAA are Mennonites, Seventh Day Adventist, Catholics, and various other Christian based schools. You would think a governing body of as association made up of this wide variety of beliefs and thoughts would be better at acknowledging and honoring their religious practices. Well, the USCAA clearly shows favoritism and they also blatantly disregard others. The game schedule has an asterisk at the bottom of each and every page stating "game dates and times may be subject to change". In one place on the USCAA web site it even says, "if due to religious convictions game time may be changed to allow game times to occur after sundown". OK, so they are stating that they understand that 7th Day Adventist's Sabbath Day ends at sundown...I get that. I don't even have a problem with that....but WHY do they schedule SUNDAY games, KNOWING that many of the school (MOST of the schools) participating in the tournament believe that Sunday is the Sabbath Day. One of the 10 commandments is to keep the Sabbath Day holy...Mormons aren't the only ones to believe this little tid bit.
I want to also point out that the USCAA also sponsors Fall Championship tournaments for cross country (held on a Friday) and volleyball (taking place between Thursday thru Saturday). Why would soccer be any different. SVU has been National Champions or runners up something like 10 out of the past 15 years.....this means to me that the playing on Sunday is a relatively new concept. I also don't understand why the Catholics, Christian, other Sunday honoring religions don't put up a fight to keep their sabbath day holy....why do these school play....if everyone is against it, I'm pretty sure they would change it back to the way it used to be and they way they have it for all the rest of the sports.
I know that typically women's college soccer games are played on Sunday...this fact has, I'm sure, helped many Mormon athletes choose SVU as their college and their team. They don't WANT to play on Sunday. When Melanee was considering transferring to Minot State in North Dakota last year, we took a look at their schedule and EVERY WEEK they have a Sunday game. That was one factor Melanee used in deciding to stay at SVU.
So, Melanee's school went to the USCAA sanctioned National Championship hoping that if they made it as far as the finals, the game would be moved to Saturday evening or even Monday. They DID make it to the finals.....The game WAS NOT changed to accommodate their beliefs. It all could have worked out fine......could have....but didn't BECAUSE.....the 7th Day Adventist's sabbath is Saturday....they need to play AFTER sundown.....so their semi final game was played Saturday at 7:00 pm. The team they played won, but there was no way to make them have to play back to back games Saturday night or to make Melanee's team have to play a 9 or 10 o'clock evening game. The women's semi finals WERE SUPPOSED to be played at 1:00 and 3:00 Saturday afternoon, but after the Adventist school advanced, the games were switched to 5:00 and 7:00. See, the USCAA accommodated the convictions of one religion....and not another....that is favoritism AND discrimination.
I want to point out here that I am very proud of Melanee and her teammates for sticking up for what they believe. What a hard decision that would have been for me, or anyone, not as faithful. These girls LOVE soccer. I have even heard Melanee say before that "soccer is life", but she has really grown up and is a strong, faithful person who knows that soccer is NOT life and that she is doing the right thing. Their stand on this may just get the USCAA to move the tournament back to Thurs, Fri, Sat scheduling. Their stand on this shows others how important keeping the Sabbath Day holy really is.
I did write an e mail to SVU's athletic director before the team left and she SINCERELY believed that if the team made the finals, it would be moved.....so I shouldn't even bring this up....but I have wondered why a team would even go to a tournament where the championship game was scheduled for a Sunday, knowing that they don't play on Sundays.
I am SO glad that Melanee's team won both their games on Friday and Saturday. They earned a berth in the Championship match and were denied it by the USCAA. Emma stated it best on Facebook----"3rd place never felt so bad". It's sad that the highest they could get was 3rd place. Their original plan, if the game wouldn't be switched, was to arrive at the Championship game in their church clothes and say, "Give us our 2nd place trophies". But in all the attempts (for MONTHS before the tournament even began)....to get the game changed to a non Sabbath Day.......the USCAA knew that SVU wouldn't play, so they allowed the team that lost to Melanee's team yesterday continue on to the Final game.
I hope everything works out for the best after all this chaos.
I feel bad for the girls on Melanee's team who are non members of the church. I feel bad for all of them to go all that way (from Virginia to Vermont), win 2 games, and come home empty handed knowing that they have a great team that possibly could have won it all!
I think I am done with this post....I'm still sitting here mad or sad, not sure which one.
****And I sure wish the USCAA would answer my e mails.
Don't tell me this doesn't look FUN
This is where I wanted to be the past few days! Burlington, Vermont....with the SVU women's soccer team. Don't they look like the funnest group of girls????
Fun and pretty and happy!
And this last picture should probably get it's very own post, but it is after mid night, so I am bunching them all together. These are the 4 All Americans from Southern Virginia University with their awards (which my dad and I always comment that they should be PERSONALIZED with the players NAMES, don't you think? The USCAA is cheap and if you check back tomorrow I may just have another post about the unorganized organization known as the USCAA. 6-1, not bad
Andrew's season came to an end today. They won today's game 8-2. Throughout the season they only lost one game.
To be fair after the long write up about how much I loved Bradley's team, I better do a good blog post on Andrew's team......
Andrew's teammates hardly ever came to practice, they didn't listen to me when I gave them instruction, they constantly tripped, pushed, copied, and messed with each other, they talked back, they never brought their water bottles, they whined, complained, and basically drove me completely bonkers.....oops, I was going to do a good blog post.
I wonder if I would have liked this team better if I wouldn't have had Bradley's team to compare them to?????? Possibly????
Anyway, this team was SKILLED and they IMPROVED throughout the season....we had about 5 SUPERSTARS who carried the team, another 8 athletic kids who knew what they were doing and tried hard, and one other.....haha....yeah, it could be considered a "stacked" team, but the computer random draw just gave me that team...so it wasn't really stacked. One team beat us, so I can't brag of an undefeated season or a league co championship or anything.
We were the only team in the league with black uniforms. We got a lot of compliments on them, so I think the league will make black one of the team colors from now on.
Andrew had a good season. He is a tall, strong kid. He will be one of those athletes who can pick up any sport he tries. He wants to try baseball next. That should be fun!
Party Time
My traditional Costco cake for our end of the season soccer parties. Aren't they beautiful? If you have a sport team, Costco will put all the players names on them for you.....awesome.
11/6/10
Season Finale 14-1
Today was a BEAUTIFUL day. I think one weather report I saw said it was 76 degrees today. The trees have turned colors, the grass was green, the sun was out, there was not a cloud in the sky....it was a perfect day to enjoy a soccer game. 
We won the game, we became co-league champions with the team we tied, and we ended the season UNDEFEATED!
This is my u12 team, the StingRays. I don't think everyone is in the picture, and the photo quality is bad, but this picture just cracks me up. These guys are a BLAST.
So as today's game began the sidelines were a little chaotic with one player bleeding like crazy and me not having a bandaid, a napkin, or ANYTHING to help him out. Everyone was at the game, so we had 4 subs. The other team had zero. All of my players (except for one) want to be in the game and play every minute of the game. If I do the substitutions every 7 minutes, it makes for a lot of in and out of the game and adds to the chaos on the sidelines. I just wanted to enjoy the game, but instead I had to deal with a HUGE lead. I think it was 5-0 within about 15 minutes after the start of the game. And all 5 of the goals were beautiful. My team works really well together, their passing skills and teamwork make life very difficult for the other teams we play. Michelle and I were on the sidelines and I think the question "What should we do?" was asked more times that I can count. The other team's coach didn't seem to get mad at me, the ref never said anything to me, the field supervisors never came over (except to do first aid on the bloody kid), so I let the kids play. I did tell them to pass more, to try to do header goals, I took out each player as he scored a goal, I put the weak players up front, I played with 8 players on the field, I did all the little tricks to avoid running up the score, but they didn't work. Kolby wanted to do a bicycle kick goal & Bradley wanted to get a goal so that he could have the distinction of being able to say that he scored in EVERY game this season. I told them to go for it. One player promised to only get assists.....which is funny because if we are trying not to score, if he gets an assist, that means we scored....haha...The kids were having fun. One little boy scored 4 goals, but none of them were done because of poor sportsmanship, he was always the recipient of hard work (his) or lucky bounces after his teammate's hard work. He had a great game and was SO happy. Most kids get mad when I take them out of the game after scoring...but this kid walked off the field each time with a huge SMILE. There were two players who hadn't played goalie yet this season and they both got their chance to stand in the goal, which can be semi boring on our team.
The other team was JUST NOT very good. They NEVER covered our guys, so when we did all of our good passing, we seemed to always have open players. I am not trying to justify the outrageous score (well, maybe I am)....haha.....but really the 14 goals were nice. The other team did score one goal and they had a few players who tried really hard. I was really happy to see the player who scored pumping his fist, smiling, getting high fived, and feeling his moment of glory.
What a great season. I don't think I can say it enough that this StingRay team was special. I think Michelle and I could tell from practice #1. They boys were respectful and that means a lot, says a lot about their character, and is way more important than their athletic abilities in this life. The boys were kind to each other and funny. This season went by soooooo fast and I think part of the reason was because I actually enjoyed it. I looked forward to the practices and games because the boys were well behaved, they seemed to enjoy being there, and I don't think I can take too much credit, but wow, this was a GOOD soccer team. The parents were nice, too, and, seriously, having good parents really makes coaching easier. It was also fun to have Michelle as my assistant coach. She helped me out on the side lines, she did a lot of phone calling (which I hate to do), and through soccer, I got to spend more time with her, which I LOVE to do.
11/5/10
3 time All American
Introducing our very own three time All American Women's Soccer player----Melanee Guymon!
I love this GIRL! And I am SO proud!
I love this GIRL! And I am SO proud!
GAME 1=WIN
Enjoy this photo, cuz it might be all you get! haha....soooooo small, but I love it anyway! Melanee's team won 3-0 today. She scored a goal. I am so happy!
11/3/10
Fun Team
Melanee and her teammates are half way to Vermont right now. I wish I was going to be joining them tomorrow. But since I am not, I thought I'd share these photos of them for you to enjoy and for you to see what a fun bunch they really are. 
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