Celebrating Mother's Day with a Fiddler

Last weekend as you know was Mother's day. We spent the weekend with our moms and caught a show at the Orpheum. On Saturday, we headed to Greenfield to spend some time with Gran-Gran. On Sunday, the kids and I gave LeAnn her gifts and headed to church. After church, we headed to Memphis to see Grammy. LeAnn and I had Orpheum tickets to see Fiddler on the Roof. This is the farewell tour for Topol in this show and the role he made famous. It was a special night and if you get a chance to see this show during this tour, see it!

On Wednesday night, the children's choirs at church had their annual share time. Abby had a speaking part and did a great job. Both of the kid's choirs were great. We are so lucky to have great leaders at our church, that know music and love to share it with children.

That's just a quick catch-up on the last week. This next week, we have the last week of school, soccer tryouts for next year, a dentist visit, and a doctor visit. And I get to miss it all since I get to work in Murfreesboro the whole week.

The Ant Project

Ian had one of those wonderful projects that teachers give first graders. And we all know who really does those first grade projects don't we! But we are lucky that Ian wants to do a lot of it himself. So it isn't that bad for us parents. Ian's class has been studying insects, and they had to make a three-dimensional insect of their choosing. When Abby did this project, we did a ladybug. Ian chose a fire ant. It was interesting and we learned a lot about fire ants. We used Styrofoam balls and base, felt pieces of fabric, pipe cleaners, and wooden Popsicle sticks. It turned out pretty good.

Also this past week, was Grandparent's Day at the kid's school. We don't have any pictures of this since we were not there. But Grammy, Granddaddy, Gran-Gran, and Uncle came to school for the day. Each class performed a couple of songs, and showed off their classroom and projects they were working on. From what we hear, it was a fun day.

Oreo, the Guinea Pig

Okay, the guinea pig. Abby has been on us for quiet some time about getting a guinea pig. Every time we go to the pet store to get supplies for our livestock, Abby spends the entire time looking at the guinea pigs. One of her best friends, Ashley, has two guinea pigs, and Abby just has to have one. LeAnn and I had decided to get Abby a guinea pig for her birthday in July. Of course, Abby didn't know that. So Abby had announced that if she got a goal in soccer, she was going to use her $100, to get a guinea pig and the cage and the other paraphernalia.

So a couple of Thursdays ago, we get this email form Ian's teacher, letting the parents know that the classroom guinea pig had babies, and they were needing good homes. So we were now being faced with a free guinea pig. So LeAnn, who was very much against getting a rodent, decided that it was a good idea to get this guinea pig now. We decided not to let the kids know.

So last Saturday, after Abby's first soccer game, we met Mrs. Patsy at the school to pick up the newest addition to the family. The kids were speechless and couldn't believe we actually let them have a guinea pig. After a quick stop at the pet store to get the supplies, we brought the newest addition home. The kids named her Oreo, because she has a black head and a black bottom and is white in the center. She kinda looks like an Oreo.

Oreo has been a lot of fun, I admit. I didn't realize guinea pigs made these high frequency noises. She has a personality that is sweet, and she loves teasing the cats, who can't figure out what she is.

So now we have, two dogs, two cats, three fish and a guinea pig. We are going to start charging admission to our little zoo!

Best of the West Shootout

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, but it really isn't my fault. Someone with a fancy new camera, that her incredible husband gave her for Christmas, wouldn't download pictures to the laptop. But finally, she did. So let's go back to last weekend and our last soccer tournament of the season shall we.

Last weekend, the local Jackson Area Wide Soccer hosted their spring tournament. We were grateful to have a tournament here in town for a change, and it was the last tournament of the season for us. In fact, the soccer fields are right across the street from our house. So talk about playing at home!! This tournament was a little smaller than most than we have played in, but there were still some good teams entered. Of course, playing at home doesn't necessarily mean you get to sleep in. We got to play at 8:00am on Saturday against the Dyersburg, TN Strickers. It was an easy game for our girls as we won 9-0. But the big news in this game was that Abby finally scored her first goal!!! It was on a great pass from Addison and Abby was in the perfect spot to slam the ball through to the back of the net! Now here is the thing. Abby is the youngest on the team. In fact, if she was a week younger, she would be playing on the U10 team. She is also the only new girl on the team this year. So Abby was a little hesitant and a bit behind the other girls back at the beginning of the year, which was August 2008. So to get her to be aggressive, I promised her that if she scored a goal, I would give her $100. And yes, I lived up to my part of the bargain. Their second game was against the Poplar Bluff, Mo Kickers. Again, the girls played great and won 5-0. And guess what! Abby scored again!!! It was a great clean up goal. Now she did NOT get another $100. But it was great day for Abby. Now this put us in the Championship game on Sunday against our most hated crosstown rivals, the Jackson Rush Swoosh team. It was a classic game ending in regulation at 2-2. It was the first time someone scored against us in eight games. We played two overtime periods and were still tied at two. So we went to penalty kicks. And with our goalie, Morgan, we liked our chances. And Morgan didn't let us down and we won the PKs 4-2, to win our third straight tournament championship!

The girls went 15-1 during the spring season and would have qualified for the state championships if they had had them this year. The state organization eliminated the U11 tournament this year, so we don't get to go this year. Hopefully, next year. They held their opponents scoreless ten times during the spring, and only allowed more than one goal twice. This group of girls played great together. They dominated the spring because they were quicker than their opponents and they were just manic aggressive.

The season is over for our girls and they will practice for a few more weeks. They have tryouts for next year's team in mid-May. Next year, they go to 11 v. 11, so that should be interesting. Abby has come so far, and I hope she can make it to next year's squad. We have a few girls that our coming over from Rush trying out and some from out-of-town. But I like her chances.