Memorial Day Weekeend 2010

Catching Up

Whew! It's been a whirlwind around here for the past few weeks....and I don't see it letting up anytime soon. Crazy, crazy time of year!

2 weeks ago, Megan & I headed to Orlando for a special occasion...

Ree "The Pioneer Woman" Drummond was in town for a vacation book signing... we just love love love her!

It was an hour & 1/2 drive from our house & started at 6pm, so of course we left the house at 11. :) We stopped & had lunch, did a little shopping & grabbed a spot. We were about 20th in line, which afforded us not only a spot upstairs where her Q&A session took place, but a seat in the 4th row! Score! I'm not a good judge of crowd sizes but I do know that they ended up having a group upstairs, then rows & rows of people wrapped around downstairs. For once, my paranoia about being everywhere early paid off!

She brought her daughters... they are more beautiful in person . And she was super duper nice & gracious & self-deprecating. All the things you want "celebrities" to be when you meet them.

The ladies RIGHT in front of us in line to get our books signed snuck in a PUPPY!

A FREAKIN' PUPPY!

So, so cute! But, let's face it, a puppy right ahead of us, made us completely forgettable. :)

But she really liked Megan's shirt!

It wasn't a puppy, but it was something.

~*~*~*~*

The following week, was Ben's Principal's Honor Roll Breakfast

They did a little video of each of the kids who made straight As. Isn't he cute?

Too bad the sound wasn't working.

Michael's been out of town for the other Principal's Honor Roll Breakfasts, but Ben & I were glad he was able to make it to this one.

So, so proud of that boy! (Ben's pretty great too!)

The next morning was ANOTHER awards ceremony at Ben's school. Ben got a trophy for making Principal's Honor Roll for the first 3 quarters of the year (4th quarter grades aren't out yet)

He also got an award for winning The Battle of the Books. :)

Woo Hoo Ben!!!

~*~*~*~*~*

Last Friday was my dad's birthday. I was totally remiss in that he didn't get a "Today's the Day" post. Sorry Dad!!! But, how 'bout this?...

Last Friday was the Day!

not enough?

Here's a cute picture for you then.

Happy Birthday Dad! We're celebrating this Sunday.

~*~*~*~*~*

This past weekend, it was time to enjoy the Florida Sunshine... and 95 degree heat!

State Cup Weekend had arrived! Jordan's team won the Semi Final after 2 double overtimes & 7 PKs, so it was time for the BIG SHOW... The State Cup Finals!!!

Jordan REALLY wants a State Cup Championship!

The year before she joined her team, they won State Cup.

When she was 16, she was 2 minutes away from winning a State Championship, but the other team tied it up & her team ended up losing in PKs.

Tragic.

Her high school team lost 1-0 in OT in the Regional Semi Finals to the eventual State Champions.

Tragic.

This is her one LAST chance at a State Championship.

The girls were down 2-1 with 10 minutes left. It was looking kind of grim, and then...

JORDAN SCORED!!!!

and about 5 minutes later, her teammate Zoe scored again!

And then...

the whistle blew!!!

2010 U-18 FLORIDA STATE CUP CHAMPS, BABY!!!!

Jordan had quite the cheering section at the game. Of course Megan came to cheer her sister on...

And Michael's parents were there. Michael's brother & his girlfriend came & braved the heat. Heck! Michael's sister, Amy even flew in from Cape Cod to cheer J on!

Here are Jordan & her teammate, Kara with their old former coaches, Andy & Vickie, who are some of our closest friends. Jordan & Kara have played together since they were 11 years old.

Oh yeah! Ben was there somewhere too... trying to read his book in peace. But, I have a feeling Brachy wasn't letting that happen.

Because of this State Cup win, we will now be travelling to Baton Rouge in a few weeks to cheer the girls on in Regionals...

Woohoo!

~*~*~*

Last night was Ben's first Middle School band concert. Look at my little drummer boy!

It was a great show. Full of all the usual squeaking & squawking that middle school bands are known for. :) But, thankfully, drummers don't squawk.

~*~*~*~*~*

Megan got a job! Unfortunately, that means she'll be living in Gainesville this summer, but summer jobs are hard to come by these days, so she was fortuate to get one. Plus, I get the feeling sleeping on our couch was getting kind of old. She'll be off weekends though, so I'm sure we'll see plenty of her.

~*~*~*~*~*

As if that is enough, today is Jordan's last day of high school...

*sigh*

It goes by so fast. I swear, I just dropped her off in Mrs. Foley's kindergarten class.

The next few weeks are going to be even more crazy with college orientation, graduation, graduation parties, Regionals & the World Cup (not that we're going, it will just occupy a lot of conversations among the Beth's Blog Bunch). And then we'll throw Father's Day in there for good measure. :)

See ya soon!

Mother's Day Weekend...

After driving 2 hours Friday night, we got up in our hotel at o'dark thirty to watch Jordan's team play in what could have possibly been her LAST CLUB game... in the Sweet Sixteen round of State Cup.

they played hard!

and ended up winning the game 3-0!

(Jordan's scored the 3rd goal, but unfortunately I was texting my friend about the game & missed it.) Lesson learned: NEVER TEXT AND SPECTATE, MY FRIENDS, it could be dangerous to your relationships... Jordan wasn't too happy that not only did I not SEE her goal, but I also did not get any pictures of it. The good news is that her soon-to-be college coaches DID see the goal, and really aren't they the IMPORTANT ones these days?

Once the game was over, these two athletes had to rush home...

and a few hours later they were transformed into these beauties...

All I asked of Jordan that day (the day before MOTHER'S DAY, I might add) was that she & Kara get a picture together during the dance. But because she left her camera in the car, you'll have to settle for a PS creation taken with a photo of Kara that I had to "borrow" from FB.

Now, if I had one day, one hour even of my life where I looked like this, I think I'd be taking pictures of myself constantly...


Soccer girls!

The girls... I swear the parents must have spent 10 minutes taking pics of the girls in this pose...

While toe poor boys were lurking. Don't worry, we eventually threw them in there too...

The clock struck midnight, the carriage (Hummer Limo) turned in a pumpkin (4Runner) & it was time to get some sleep & drive 2 hours AGAIN to play in the Elite 8 of State Cup. Again, it's single elimination so 1 loss & they're out. Club career over.

Sunday they played a serious rival. A really good team. A team that once beat the first team Jordan played on 7-0 (or maybe it was 7-1, only Michael, Jordan & Andy, her coach at the time, can remember).

GOOOOALLLLL! (I saw it this time, but alas, it wan't Jordan)

And again... after 90 minutes in the hot, Florida sunshine,

Game over! Final 4 in 2 weeks, baby! Woohoo!

and THAT was Mother's Day in my neck of the woods.