Got Mud??

Sam had a soccer game this last Wednesday, which just so happened to be a very rainy day ALL DAY LONG! (Not mention cold and windy!) There were several times when the girls were trying to kick the ball and would be slipping and sliding all over the place, instead.

This would have been the perfect game to take pictures at, but due to my surgery, I spent most of the game sitting my the car - trying to watch it from a distance. (It's kind of hard to hold onto an umbrella with both hands because the wind is blowing so hard the umbrella keeps going "inside-out" AND take pictures at the same time, anyway.)

Sam managed to keep (relatively) "clean" through most of the game, until the last 5-10 minutes. Her and a girl from the opposing team were trying to kick the ball and they kept slipping and falling down in the mud. It was absolutely hilarious!

Pure Torture!

This week I've been "enlisted" to do something that is pure torture....all for the love of my daughters!

On May 15th, there's a Taylor Swift concert in Seattle and the girls want to go REALLY bad! There are 2 different local country radio stations that are giving away free tickets this week. Amanda has been diligently listening to the stations, trying to score some tickets, but so far....no luck. Of course, during the day she's at school, so this is where I come in. Knowing how I feel about country music, she asked me to actually listen to these two stations and try to win tickets for them. I can only take so much of listneing to county music!!! After about 3 minutes it's like pure torture!! So now here I sit at home, listening to.......country music. Ugghhhh.......

Sigh......What a parent wouldn't do for their child.......

Whoohoo for the military!

Hospital bill........

Is anyone screaming and running for cover yet?? Well, I'm not! I got the bill in the mail today for my surgery and one night's stay at the hospital last week. Actually, the bill is just for the hospital stay. (There is no charge for the surgery itself.) Are you ready for the total?? It was a whopping $15.65!! Yeah for military benefits!!!

Living proof.......

Well folks, here's living proof that Amanda is............my daughter! As I'm sure most of you know (and for those of you who DON'T know) I have always been and probably always will be......a big whimp! Amanda has been wanting to go to a blood center to give blood, but we just haven't gotten around to doing it. Well, this last week The Cascade Blood Center was at her school, so she brought the permission slip home for me to sign and very excitedly took it back. On the day of the blood drive, she went into the gym at her appointed time and laid down on the bed next to a friend of hers. (They took pictures of each other with their cell phones, which is why the pictures are kind of fuzzy.) Amanda was pretty excited about giving blood until a couple hours later. She was sitting in her 6th period class when she decided to take the bandage off her arm. She started feeling dizzy and nauseous, so she stood up and headed for the nurses office. The next thing she knew she was waking up on the floor! She had passed out......COLD! I'm amazed she didn't hurt herself on the way down - but other than being embarrassed, she was fine. YUP! She's my daughter alright!

Soccer time......

I think Soccer season is my least favorite sport that Sam plays. Afterall - we do live in the Pacific Northwest. The past 2 weeks we've seen rain, snow, hail and a small amount of sun. Sam tried out for and made the JV Soccer Team at school and the first game was this last week. The day before the game it was snowing and hailing a good part of the day and I was dreading standing out in the cold the next day. But luck was with us and it was a nice sunny day (a tad cold - but that's ok...it wasn't raining or snowing).

Amanda and her music

This past week has been a really busy one for Amanda. She participated in the Mountain Region High School Instrumental Solo & Ensemble Contest today, so she's been busy practicing and getting ready for it. First Amanda played in a Saxophone Quartet and then she accompanied two of her friends on the piano in two different songs (one played the saxophone and the other played the flute). So she had to learn 2 pieces of music on the piano and one on the sax for the quartet. I took pictures while they were practicing while waiting for their turn and then my camera battery died. I was really bummed!
Everyone was assigned a time and room to be in to play their music for a judge. When it was their turn, they were to give a copy of their music to the judge in the room. Then when they were done playing, the judge would give them tips on how to improve their playing and what their strong points were. They were also given a score.....1+ being the best score you can get and so on. The quartet she played in received a score of 1 and are now qualified to go to State! They sounded really good (of course, I'm not biased or anything). Way to go Amanda! I am really proud of her and her ability to play 3 different musical instruments. Her love of music is amazing.

Multi-tasking at its best....

The other day Sam was playing Guitar Hero on the Wii and I went in the room to watch her. When I walked into the room, this is what I found........she was playing Guitar Hero and talking on her cell phone at the same time - and she didn't even miss a beat! What talent????