Soccer State Championship Game

Last Friday our Bulldogs played for the soccer state championship in Norman at the OU soccer complex. To say it was nerve-wracking and exciting would be an understatement. Last week was a complete roller coaster of emotions. 

It all started when we played NW Classen in Oklahoma City last Tuesday. It was the third round of the playoffs.  It was such an exciting game and we pulled off a 2-1 win. The boys went ballistic with joy, even walking towards our bleachers full of fans and giving us a round of applause. That might have been my favorite moment after the win. Coach Campbell wanted to make sure the boys thanked the fans for all of the love and support they've received throughout the season. 

Fast forward to the end of the week. Our town was so excited. We hadn't had a state championship in 10 years. All the businesses had signs up wishing the team good luck. It was incredible. We planned a send-off for the boys and they didn't know about it. 

I don't know if there's anything more exciting than seeing your team being led through town by the police with sirens. So cool to watch!

We left around 3pm for the 7:30 game in Norman so we could stop and eat. We ended up running into traffic so we met our friends at Taco Bell for a quick bite. I was so nervous, I could hardly eat. 

We arrived at 6:30 for the game and were so impressed with the OU soccer stadium. Biggest soccer complex I've ever seen. 

The game started and two minutes in I knew our boys were scared and playing like it. I didn't even recognize some of the boys, they playing so nervous. The other team was phenomenal. We were in trouble from the first goal four minutes into the game. We ended up losing 6-1 but we were so proud of our team. What an honor to even make it there!

Spring sports

Tyler and Hunter have both been busy with sports, of course. Hunter been working on pole vaulting in Track this Spring. He hasn't had much of a chance to really pole vault because they don't do that everyday in morning practice. I hate that for him. He's got good form, he just needs to keep working on propelling himself up and over the pole.

He got out in the first round at his first track meet at the starting height. He was disappointed but I wasn't considering that's how his brother started out when he first tried to pole vault.

Tyler also decided just yesterday to join Track again this Spring and pole vault. He hadn't started out the Track season with the Track team but on a whim the other night said he was going to ask Coach Miller if he could. I think he might be doing it just to join his best friend, also named Hunter, at all the track meets. That way they get to pole vault in the morning, then have the rest of the track meet day to just hang out and watch all the races.

I just talked to Tyler and the track meet today didn't go that well. He and Hunter both got out at the starting height. We are having forty mile an hour winds so that might be a slight factor in their unsuccessful day.

Tyler had a soccer game on Monday night against the town that the boys Dad lives in. It was a very rough game with a lot of mouthing and shoving. Two of our boys got yellow cards and both teams almost got into it at the end of the game. One of the other teams players actually came over to the stands and was yelling an obscenity at a Grandma on our team. It was crazy. I hate confrontation so it completely freaked me out. Soccer can be a crazy game with crazy players and fans. We suffered our first loss that game so our boys were mad anyway. Hopefully, we'll take some lessons from our loss and go on to win big the rest of the season.

Our soccer team is #4 in the state

Class 5A Soccer (Boys) Week 2 Rankings as of 3/17/2014 Rank School (#1 Rankings) W-L Points 1 EAST CENTRAL (5) 5-0 121 2 HERITAGE HALL (4) 2-0 110 3 NORTHWEST CLASSEN 4-2 86 4 SKIATOOK 4-0 70 5 CLAREMORE 2-0 62 6 CASCIA HALL 4-2 56 7 PIEDMONT 3-0 53 8 COWETA 3-2 52 9 DEL CITY 2-1 44 9 MEMORIAL 2-2 44 11 PRYOR 2-1 42 12 DEER CREEK (EDMOND) 1-3 33 13 WESTERN HEIGHTS0-0 31 14 EDISON PREP 1-2 27 15 EISENHOWER 1-0 21

We won the Oologah tournament this past weekend and the boys were so pumped about it!

I copied the listing of rankings on the OSSAA website and we are number 4 in the state! That is unbelievable! We are so proud of our Bulldog soccer team! They are doing terrific! Tyler's on the team with his two best friends, which makes it even more exciting. They are the only three Freshmen on the team. Our soccer schedule really kicks into gear soon so we will a busy soccer family. I don't mind, I love watching soccer. We are on our tenth year of soccer so it's all we've ever known practically.

Front Page News

Look who made the front page of our little newspaper?!  

We had our preseason soccer tournament last weekend. It was gorgeous soccer weather and we won all four games, making us the Skiatook Preseason Tournament Champions! 

Tyler played in all of the games after the first couple of minutes, which thrilled me to death seeing as he's a Freshman! 

He even made two goals in the last game. One only counted because the first one the refs called a handball, which was a dumb call but that's ok. 

I was so proud of the team! They played terrific!

Basketball, Brooms and Big Test

Basketball was the first order of business this morning.  We had a game in Collinsville, playing our last game of the tournament we're in this week.  We lost our game by two points, but the boys did such a great job.  We're finally figuring out how to pass to teammates and work together to score points.  I think they've done terrific, considering they're only 9 years old!

We picked Small Fry's teammate Matthew and took him to the game for his parents.  He came home with us after the game to play for a while.  Luckily, my mountain bike was in the garage so he was able to ride bikes with the boys.  They had a ball riding around the neighborhood.  Matthew lives in the country so he doesn't get to ride a bike very much.  He loved scooting around our small little neighborhood.  I guess it's more fun doing tricks and stuff on the cement instead of gravel and dirt. 

While the boys were outside playing, I did some deep cleaning.  The snow storm last week has resulted in a ton of sand being brought into the house.  I love to walk around the house barefoot and that sand drives me nuts.  It just seems that I can't keep up with the amount being brought in with the boys shoes. 

I swept and mopped the entire house and even went outside into the garage and swept the sand out.  That's the only thing bad about using sand to melt the snow on the roads.

Tater Tot accomplished something terrific last night.  He had been attending a soccer referee class this past week, three hours a night.  He's really enjoyed it and learned so much.  Last night was the qualifying test and he passed.  He's now an official recreational soccer referee!  He'll start on the 4-5 year olds games and progress into older games as he gets more experience.  He'll make $8 a game and is so excited to have his first real job!  I'm so proud of him!   

Mr. H was out of town today for a Masonic event and just got home.  He's watching a basketball Slam Dunk contest in the living room with Tater Tot and I can hear them yelling everytime someone does a great dunk.  It's hilarious!  Small Fry and I have been in the bedroom watching Ghost Hunters.  I have no idea why but he loves Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters.  It doesn't scare him at all.  He just thinks its funny and they probably stage everything on the show. But, nonetheless, we watch it everytime it's on.

I'm catching up on my blogs, trying to get my March menu plan done and making sure everything we have scheduled is in my planner for the next couple of weeks.  Springs coming and with it, a ton of activities.

Soccer camp

The boys went to soccer camp at the local university recently and loved it.  They talked about it all week long.  They even practiced every night when they got home.  So cute!

Tater Tot and his friend Pickle.  Everyone calls him that on our soccer team, cause his name's Dylan. Get it... Dill....Pickle. HA!

Some of the TU football players working out before the soccer kids came onto the field.  I had the pleasure of watching one of them puke his brains out right in front of me when they got to my end of the football field.  Yuck!

You can see Small Fry with his back to me.  I couldn't get close enough to him to get a good shot.

Trying to look cool

They were lucky enough to get to watch the World Cup on the Jumbotron during the camp.  They thought that was pretty cool.

With their buddy Sammy - the soccer team kids

Wicked Weather

Yesterday Oklahoma was hit by some of the worst tornadoes we've seen in the past 5 years. We'd been warned all weekend that it would be a bad day for storms but I really didn't think that 5 people would lose their lives. It started suddenly at about 5pm during rush hour in Oklahoma City, then continued going east towards Arkansas.  I feel so sorry for the people that had to endure this tornado because this is the same area that was close to being hit by the Oklahoma City tornado of 1999.  I heard on the news that some of the injured people were saying they couldn't go through this again. So sad.

We didn't get any bad storms over our area. I'm so thankful for that.  I get really nervous about tornados but I also think they are so interesting.  I took Meteorology in college thinking that would be a fun and interesting class.  Ugh-it was so hard.  I think I got by with a high C.  Not my finest moment in college.  
The worst part was that a girl on the bus with the boys told them a tornado was coming so they were freaking out when they got home.  I had to pull up the radar on the computer to show them that we were ok.  Kids think it's so funny to try to scare their friends.

Other random notes about what's going on in our lives:

-This weather is driving the dogs nuts. They have all kinds of nervous energy. 
 wish they would do more of this.

-Soccer has ended for the season.  T-man's team is tied for first place in U12.  I'm so proud of how far they've come this season.  It's so exciting to watch them work together to make goals.  The boys are learning to be aggressive and push back when the other team is applying pressure on them.  I have to admit, the aggressive competitor in me loves that!

 

-On that note, why didn't my parents push me to play more sports in school??? I have such an aggressive little girl in me that would have been super competitive if my stupid shyness hadn't gotten in the way. That is one of the great tragedies of my life.  Shyness destroyed many opportunities for me.  If I had only conquered that early on in life.  I'm super outgoing now but deep down inside, I still suffer greatly from shyness and low self-esteem.

-We're looking at soccer camps for the boys to attend this summer.  The local university has a camp that they can attend in June.  We might go with a friend from town.  Hopefully his Mom and I can coordinate car-pooling, which would make it so much easier.

-H-man got a notice at school that his reading score on his Dibels test was at the level that requires him to attend a summer reading academy. Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!  I was freaking out about it until I called the principal and he explained that H-man only missed the cut-off by one point. Since his score was so high, we can buy a program at the bookstore to work on at home.  So.....no summer school.  Whew!

-I am so busy at work.  They are starting projects faster than I can get the paperwork done.  But, I've found out something.  I love busy paperwork.  I much prefer being the background person who works on all of the paperwork.  People find that stunning since they think I would be the outgoing person that wants to sell or speak to large groups.  No way!

-I am loving the Real Housewives of New Jersey!!! Teresa is my hero.  I'm buying her new cookbook, Skinny Italian.  Can't wait to try her recipes.

-My Aunt Gail and Uncle Sherrod are coming to Oklahoma City to see the college softball championships in late May.  We're going to go pick them up and hopefully my Mom and her sister can go shopping and have a lot of hanging out time.  That would be so good for my Mom.  I can't wait for the boys to see them, and for them to see how big the boys have gotten.

-The boys and I have been miserable with allergies and sinus junk.  How long can this stuff go on??? I've complained so much on Facebook that one of my high school friends actually emailed me to ask if I was pregnant.  HA! Now that's funny scary!

Soggy Saturday

This morning we woke up to pouring rain and two scheduled soccer games, both out of town.  I hoped and prayed for the text messages saying that they'd been cancelled but no such luck.  Mr. H and I split up the duties and I took Tater Tot to his game, which was about thirty minutes away.  I grabbed my standard baseball cap and threw my hair in a ponytail so I could avoid the inevitable mess of crazy, curly hair that results on rainy days.  T-man was super excited to play in the rain and mud because it means more sliding and falling in the muck the entire game.  Boys love the dirt...especially 11 year old boys that play very rough!

T-man did a great job in the game, as did all of his teammates.  We ended up the game with a win - 9-6.  His team is really starting to work together and pull off some great passing plays.  It makes me so proud to see them do such a great job!  My sweetie scored two of the goals too!

After the game was over, it started raining really hard so we decided to go into town and look around the mall.  T-man wanted a new pair of running shoes since his foot seems to be growing a size a month. HA!  He now wears a 7, which is close to my size.  He's already 5' tall at 11 years old.  He's going to be bigger than me before I know it!  The big decision today was whether to get him slip-on Vans or more running type shoes.  I personally don't really like Vans so I was pushing hard for the running shoes.  Anything resembling the skater boy look scares me to death.  That's a total stereotype but I figure that's my Mom perogative.  I let T-man look for himself though.  After he looked at the Vans, he decided the Under Armor running shoes were his favorite and I was super happy because they were actually cheaper.  You have to love that!

We went into one of the kids shoe shops and I was stunned to see a ton of Ralph Lauren Polo tennis shoes.  Just...like...the...80's!!! Please, please, please let preppy come back!!!  I had to have a pair of white canvas with navy and I bought a cute pair of plaid canvas shoes for Small Fry. I wanted to surprise him!

We also had to stop into Abercrombie because they have the cutest t-shirts!  T-man got one with an Indian Chief on the front-he loves that because Mr. H is Indian and T thinks he acts like an Indian Chief sometimes. Tee-hee!

He also had to have this Bulldog shirt since that's the schools mascot.

The cutest thing about the entire shopping trip was when we bought T some Aviator sunglasses in one of the kids shoe shops.  They were Vans sunglasses and he thought he was so cool that he'd check himself out in every mirror in every store we walked into.  That's right-he wore his new sunglasses inside....he's cool like that!  Maybe that self-esteem that I always try to instill in my boys has backfired on me! HA!

I heard from a co-worker yesterday that Hobby Lobby was having some great sales so we headed there next.  I scored some great stuff!

A glass beverage server that I'd been eyeing forever-50% off!

A new outdoor rug for the back porch

A few things to hang on T-man's wall collage that I can never seem to finish-ugh

We finally made it home after a great afternoon of spending some nice mother-son time together and Mr. H and Small Fry had spotted the ice cream man in our neighborhood.  They had saved us both an ice cream sandwich in the freezer.  You can't find a better end to a relaxing afternoon than that!