Volleyball season officially over

My daughter’s volleyball season ended this past Monday and though we didn’t have a winning season, the girls had a blast playing together and becoming friends.

So I invited the team over for a spend-the-night party to let them all hang out one more time together.  and of course what did they spend most of their time doing?  Playing volleyball in the front yard, in the back yard and in the street.

Around 1am my husband asks me if I think they will ever go to sleep.  I think not.  Eight 12-yr-old girls just threw out their sleeping bags and lounged while talking, giggling and eating.

After emptying numerous 2-liter bottles of soda, bags of chips, boxes of cookies and brownies as well as random candy, they made their way downstairs this morning to eat 2 dozen krispy kreme donuts.

Love these girls and the fun season they had!

over the bridge and through the woods

So my nephew, Q, has set off on an adventure to find bears but the trickling creek caught his attention just as he started out.

Maybe there could be some good stuff to find in the creek before getting on to the bear hunt.

He was a bit disappointed that nothing was biting or hopping or making any kind of excitement.

Did you hear that?

Did you see that?

Enough fishing, on to my bear hunting.

I think if we are very quiet we will find some in these dark woods.

Aunt Tara, you aren’t very quiet.

You will scare all the bears away unless you are as quiet as I am.

No bears out on this day so he trudged back up the hill, dejected.

He makes me laugh!

Last game of season

Praying before Championship game.

Coach and Son

Got himself a couple of doubles when at bat.

Worked hard behind the plate.

I love this picture.  Don’t know the batter but his face says it all.

Our friend, Coach Mike was umpire behind the plate.

Story about Coach Mike:  The game we played before this one my son was pitching.  This is his first year pitching and so he doesn’t have total control over his pitches just yet.  Well, a couple of his crazy pitches hit two batters.  When the second batter went down he got real upset because the batter was obviously hurt.  My oldest son is pretty sensitive and doesn’t like when others are hurt and especially if he is the cause.

Well I didn’t feel like Big Man there would appreciate me going out there and consoling him while he was on the mound.  So I am quietly crying, Luke is seeing to the batter and I look over and Coach Mike who is umpiring in the field walks over to him and pulls him into a hug.  He talks to him and lets him know that it happens in baseball and the batter will be okay.  He gets him calmed down and then looks over to me and I mouth, “Thank you.”

Well, the Championship game was exciting and close!  We didn’t win though.  The whole team was pretty upset because they went from the losing most team at the beginning of  the season to working so hard that they earned their spot in the Championship game and came up short.  They had nothing to be ashamed of cause they gave it their everything.  My nerves were shot!

5K, 8K, 10K, and 21K…. k, I am taking a summer break!

Last October, I began running again after years and years and years away from that activity.  From that point on I was a little obsessed.

This spring I signed up for 4 runs in 6 weeks.  My first run was the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, SC.

Fort Sumter (Civil War) in Charleston Harbor

This 6 mile race hosted 45,000 runners and 2.7 miles of it was over the gorgeous Cooper River Bridge.  Cool run but the crowd was a little unsettling at the end of the race!

My next run was the Ultimate Marine Mud Run (The Leatherneck) which I ran with my husband and two friends.  In this race, you run a little over 6 miles and 36 obstacles.  That was tough and challenging but so much fun!

The next run was an “only ladies” 5K mud run.  This was my team, The Muddy Cougars.

The last run was May 18th and the one I am most proud of!  My first 1/2 marathon.

When I began running, I contacted a dear friend of mine from high school, Jan and made plans to meet in the mountains of Georgia and run this race.  I am partial to trail runs so thought this run would be more interesting than your average road race.  (I am not a fan of road races, I get bored way too easily.)

This was the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life.  We literally spent the first 3 1/2 miles climbing this mountain and then the next 6 miles running across the top of it (up and down, up and down) and then the last 3 1/2 miles coming down.  This was unlike anything I have ever done in my life and pushed me way past comfortable.

Before and After pictures.  We were both so proud of ourselves for accomplishing this!  Totally cool!

There is no way I could resist getting a 13.1 sticker for my van to remind myself that I did something I never even imagined I could do!

Still running this summer but taking a break from races until October when I have another Mud Run and the Color Run planned with some good friends.

on the farm

It has been almost 3 years since we have visited my dad on his farm in Alabama.

Of course the kids are older and therefore felt it their right to learn how to drive the 4-wheeler by themselves.

There were chickens to feed as well as the eggs to gather.

There were a handful of cows that were ready to give birth or had already given birth to their calves.

The mama’s were very protective and kept their calves far from my wildly loud children.

My husband’s favorite pastime on the farm is all the work that he helps my dad do.  This trip was spent fixing fences and installing a new gate to a back pasture.

My favorite pastime is walking the property and taking pictures.

Little man watching the men work on the fence.

There was no way I could resist the rust!

The one downside to this relaxing trip was that my middle boy was sick the entire time we were there.  He had some kind of virus with a high fever and headache so he spent the entire time inside watching movies, napping and getting plenty of attention from me and Grandma Martie.