Flames 2, Middlebury Magic 0

Middlebury is one of our big rivals... I'm not sure why. Probably because Middlebury is always good at EVERY sport. We don't know how they do it over there but it seems they are always the best at everything. I'm happy to say that the U12 girls totally dominated their game today against Middlebury. Hee-hee-hee. I think they had 1 shot on our goal. It was great. Marcus (our coach) has been "keyed up" for this game. They even had an extra practice yesterday for 2 1/2 hours to try and get ready for today's big game. I guess it worked. It was awesome. We are ranked 2nd out of the 9 teams in our NISL League. After the game we went to B&P's house. Terry & Tine are here from Kansas. They came to the game (I don't know why I didn't think to get a picture of them there!) and we had snacks together afterwards. It was a beautiful day... in more ways than one. : ) Enjoy the pictures of more than just Madison tonight. I'm posting some of her teammates too... so you don't get bored. : )

Professional Bike Riding (PBR)

This morning we were waiting on Tony to come home from work so we could go to Quinn's soccer game so Quinn decided to do some bike tricks for me so I could take his picture. One day last week he "developed" all of these stunts while we were on our walk with Cocoa. I think a picture is worth 1000 words so I'll just let you enjoy these without further explanation.

It was an ugly sports day today so I won't even go there.... (lucky you).

Elkhart Flames vs Concord Minutemen

The Concord Junior High invited the U12 Flames to come and scrimmage them tonight. We are used to playing 8 vs 8 on a smaller field so it felt different to play 11 vs 11 on a large varsity sized field with only one borrowed sub. We lost 6-2 but overall I think we played very well. Madison even scored a goal while on defense!!!....for the other team. : ( Those goals happen some times. She stuck her leg out and the ball bounced perfectly off of it and into our goal. Thankfully this was just a scrimmage! I would say we did really well for 5th and 6th graders playing against 7th and 8th graders. The Flames had practice first so by the time the scrimmage was over they had been playing soccer for 3 hours.

Afterwards we made a trip to Mishawaka to drop the van off for some routine maintenance.

That's how we spent our evening... how did you spend yours?

Highlights from the week

Monday was our 18th wedding anniversary. Tony sent me 18 roses to work. Wasn't that sweet and thoughtful? We enjoyed them at work all week and they are still looking nice over the weekend. We went out for supper while Quinn was at soccer practice and we left Madison at home. Quinn was a little upset. He just could not understand ... "You do this EVERY year... you always go out to eat and celebrate your anniversary and don't take us with you!" He suggested just staying home and ordering Domino's Pizza. After all we only order pizza to be delivered like that about once every 2 years (seriously) so he thought that would be special enough.

Tuesday brought some "bumper cars" in our own driveway. Long story short... Tony backed into the corner of the van. Don't tell me that medical costs are the only thing out of sight. This little fender bender is estimated at $2000!! I guess I need to take a picture for you but it's too depressing so I probably won't. Good thing he had already sent those pricey roses the day before.


Three soccer games brought us 2 wins and 1 loss this weekend. I love this picture of Madison. She just headed the ball. Look at how high she can jump. The U12 Flames beat Argos 5-1 at Argos. It was a fun game. You can tell our girls have played together for a long time now. Her U12 teammates have become her good friends. She played with the U13 girls this afternoon and they got their very first win of 2008! They beat Warsaw 3-2. They were so excited. They did not score any goals during their Spring season (their first as a team). They've scored several goals this season already and today was a highlight with their first win. Madison is double rostered and plays with them whenever she can. You know.... it's never too much soccer for her.


Here is a picture I LOVE. You have to double click on this to see the boys' faces. Quinn is in the goalie jersey... I wish I could see his face too. He has a super neat coach who prays with them before and after every practice and game. The players pray some times and the boy on the right is praying before their game got started in Fort Wayne on Saturday afternoon. They lost 5-1 I think. This is definitely a growing year and we probably won't win a game this season but the boys are having fun and are improving. At half-time the score was only 0-2. Quinn told me that Coach Gio said at half-time, "Let's all give Quinn a hand because of the great job he has done the first half." That made him feel good. I should have counted his saves. Our young defensive players actually back-pedal down the field when the offense is dribbling down (instead of running forward and attacking the ball for you non-soccer people) allowing shot after shot after shot. Yaw, we need to get back to practice.

Quinn saved another one in this picture! Thankfully he doesn't take all of those goals scored on him personally. I think it helps knowing that Tony was a goalie for forever and they can talk "goalie-talk" with each other. He really is enjoying the new goalie role. I kind of miss seeing him out on the field but it's OK. It's always good to try new things. I heard Kevin Leman say something awhile ago that keeps coming back to me. It was something like this...

Don't be afraid to let your kids try new things, things that involve a risk of some sort...things that you don't think they will excel at. Allow them to find the things they are best at by allowing them to learn how to experience disappointment and failure... now... as a kid. All great and successful adults will be able to give you examples of when they tried something and failed at it. They learned from it and moved on.

Quinn is doing a great job at being the goalie. He is learning more each game... and it will take lots of actual game experience to be really comfortable with it... and for me not to be on pins and needles with him in the box!

Well, tomorrow is a new week. Ahhhhh Mondays. I'm going to bed and praying about my attitude the whole way.

Love ya, Leah

Hurricaine Ike

By this evening our rain gauge showed that we got between 6-7 inches this weekend. Hurricaine Ike is passed us now and we hope we'll see the sun tomorrow. I'm thankful for a dry basement. The last time it rained like this our basement flooded because the sump pump broke. The 2 soccer games were thankfully cancelled for this afternoon... only because of the field conditions. We had a relaxing afternoon and evening at home. Other than Madison accidently spilling a 2 quart pitcher of red kool-aid all over the inside of the refrigerator and the floor, it was a pretty quiet day. That was an interesting way to get the refrigerator cleaned. Madison made brownies all by herself and the Colts beat the Vikings.
Hurricaine Ike = Nap for Leah. Life's good.

Soaking Soccer Saturday

We had 3 water polo soccer matches today. While it was raining nearly 3 inches in about 2 hours this morning, my family was at two different soccer fields, throwing all common sense into the hurricaine like rain. Madison played the entire game for the U13 Flames team against Middlebury. I've never watched a game in that strong of a down pour, I seriously think it was stronger than the water pressure from our shower head. After the game Madison sincerely told me, "That was fun!" O.H. M.Y. S.T.A.R.S. That was not at all what I was thinking during that hour and a half. Madison and Holyn found this puddle that they couldn't resist playing in after the game. It wasn't physcially possible to get any wetter so why not? I wish I could have gotten some pictures of them while they were playing but I didn't dare take my camera out of the van. The U13s lost something like 7-0. In the meantime Tony & Quinn were at his CYS game. I heard Quinn played very well and they tied 1-1. Their record is now 4-1-3 (3 ties). This afternoon it quit raining long enough for Quinn's U11 Flames team to play, back in Middlebury. He played goalie the whole game. We lost 6-2. The boys are probably not going to win very many games. All of the players are new to the Flames except for 2. It's a "building year"... ha! They are all 4th graders and the team is U11 so the other teams have 5th & 6th graders on them. Some of them look as tall as I am.

It's only 6:30 and I've already eyed the clock... seems a lot later. The rain is now back with promises of Hurricaine Ike joining us tomorrow. Two games tomorrow afternoon will probably look like a rewind of today. Anyone want to join us? I'll bring the boat, you bring the oars.

Summer Highlights

Cocoa

Flames Soccer

The Flames season opened this weekend. Altogether we had 5 games between yesterday and today. 1 win, 3 losses and 1 tie. (One was a Concord Youth Soccer game for Quinn). The Flames have new uniforms this year. How do you like that orange? Also a new change, Quinn is going to play some goalie this season. Today he told his coach he didn't want to play goalie the whole game. At half-time it was 1-1 against a Hispanic team (they are always very good). He didn't play goalie in the 2nd half and we ended up losing 5-1. Ouch. May be he needs to be in that box. I don't know. He doesn't want to get "stuck" in there all the time... wanting to keep his foot skills fresh too.

Don't you love this picture above of Madison and Peyton? How rare to actually get an action picture of them together. The U12 girls played really, really well this weekend. This afternoon they beat Chesterton 2-0. Madison is always happy to beat them because we've lost to them in the tournaments several times now.


Madison played great this weekend. Her coach told me after today's game how happy he was with how well she is playing and what a good leader she is on the field. (Sorry to brag, had to).


Quinn saves a goal in this picture. I'm finding it's very stressful for the soccer mom sitting on the sidelines when your son is the goalie! He has been going to a 1 hour goalie practice each week and has learned a lot.

Old Thresher's Reunion

Double click on these photo collages to see them better.

Grandpa Dale restored this 1948 John Deere tractor, which even went through a barn fire in the process. For 5 days over Labor Day weekend, the Old Thresher's Reunion occurs in Mount Pleasant, IA. Farmers and/or antique enthusiasts of all types join in a festival which includes "browsing" through litterally over 800 antique tractors. In order to show your tractor, it must be at least 50 years old, unless it's the "featured" brand of the year... those can be newer. This year Madison and Quinn took turns driving Grandpa's antique tractor in the parade. I've got to say it was like no other parade I've ever been to. Tractor after tractor after tractor!

Special visitors

My mom and dad came out for a fast weekend, arriving at 11:30 on Friday night. We had a lot of fun during our weekend though. We watched Quinn score the winning goal during his soccer game on Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer's Market and went to Antonios for supper on Saturday night. Yum! They had to leave today after church and lunch. Mom and Dad, thanks for driving all the way out here for a short weekend. I love you both so much!

Deer

OK, so I can't count. The doe and her twins returned after the kids got home from school. I never saw a third fawn so there must have only been 2. I'm telling you, there were a lot of legs running through our yard at the moment! The kids and I stood on the deck for a long time watching them. I wonder what is bringing them out of the woods twice in the middle of the day? The river is the direction they came from. Quinn and Nate are putting out a bucket of water and sweet corn to try and luer them back! Ha! Who knows, it may work!

Cocoa's "find"

This afternoon Cocoa was at her usual post, on the corner of the couch, looking out the window. Suddenly the hair stood up on the back of her neck and she started growling. I went over the see what she was looking at. There was a doe and 3 fawns in our back yard! Cocoa started barking and she scared them off, but not before I was able to snap this picture of 3 of them in Buzz & Ellen's yard (our neighbor's). It's a little blurry because I took it through the window. Isn't it unusual for a doe to have 3 fawns?

Happy Birthday Beppe!

This is a little late but Beppe had a birthday on Tuesday. We celebrated by going to the Texas Roadhouse for supper after Quinn's soccer game. Quinn's team won 1-0 and he scored the goal tonight. For those of you that don't know (I know I have a new reader... Hi Kristen!) "Beppe" is pronounced Bep-pa and is the dutch word for grandma. Beppe lived in the Netherlands until she was 7 years old so that's one small way to remember her roots. Happy Birthday Beppe!

Back to School Today!

...Just a few minutes ago...

Does anyone else find this funny?

This morning...

Quinn's CYS team won 3-1 this morning. It was a beautiful cool summer morning. This was only their 3rd game but already I can see improvement. They are 2-1 now.

Early afternoon...

Madison played in a scrimmage for the U-13 Flames team (one age level up). It was HOT. The sprinklers would periodically come on for about 20 seconds. In the middle top picture you can see the water spray. No one seemed to mind. The Flames team lost, "A lot - 2". Madison was happy to be playing again.

Mid afternoon...

The U-12 Flames team (Madison's regular team) had a swimming party at Mariah's house. 11 of the 12 girls were there. They had a great time doing something together other than soccer. These girls are from multiple different schools and several school districts. Their common denominator is soccer. The dog, "Sophie," on the far left cracked me up. She is a miniature collie which is a "herding" type of dog. She circled the pool for basically the whole 3 hours, trying to herd the girls into the pool. Most of the time, barking! The only time she was totally quiet while circling was during the time that this picture was taken, and all of the girls were in the pool! It was so funny! Mariah's mom said that she has lost a lot of weight over the summer, herding all of the kids into the pool constantly, running miles and miles around the pool edge!