Unbelievable

This week has been a crazy weather week here...in the desert! It started Monday with just some drizzle and a few flakes of snow here and there. But yesterday, Wednesday, was worse. It started just raining at first, but as more cloud coveragae blocked the sun, the snow started falling (around 3). It kept falling until about 10. At times, it was blowing sideways...I can image now what a blizzard looks like. Now, we are in a valley that is surrounded by mountains all around, so the outer lying areas got more snow. We are about 5 miles from the base of one of the mountains, therefore, we received a little more snow than the rest of southern Las Vegas. I believe the weather man said it was about 3 to 4 inches.

This is the view from one of my windows in the house. Zach says that only the tips of the mountains are usually white, but the whole things is now. It's really beautiful. Also, they cancelled school today...for 3 inches!! So, I moved to the desert to only get the same weather that I was getting in Dallas...

So, I guess I've gotten my white Christmas this year after all. And I hope everyone else a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Visiting Home

My visit home for Thanksgiving was great. We took family pictures at my Mom's on Thursday that turned out wonderful. The timers on our cameras worked just fine! We were missing some people (Michelle, Devon, Drew, and Sadie)...but I'm not sure where we would have fit everyone if they were there. This is one of the many pictures that we took this day.



My best friend (and soon to be cousin-in-law), Christmas also showed up to have dinner with us. She brought 2 HUGE bottles of wine with her, and we (she and I) proceeded to drink 1 all by ourselves....we regretted it the next day.

On Friday I went to my Dad's, the house was completely FULL! We made use of every inch of sitting space that was available. My Great grandmother (Ma), aunt Sherry and uncle Wayne, cousin Jennifer; Memaw and Pepaw; Corey and Heather with the kids Madison, Michelle, and Devin; Bryan and Alyson; Christmas; Zach and myself; Pam and Dad; Jena and Chelsea (the huge dogs); were all crammed into the house. That's 18 people and 2 dogs.

I took this picture standing right outside of the livingroom (standing in the hall, by the one and only bathroom). You can only see 7 people in this picture, but...there were actually 14 people sitting in here. The other 4 were sitting in the dinning room.


Pam kept quoting the song Little Houses by Doug Stone, here is the chorus: "But you know, love grows best in little houses, With fewer walls to separate, Where you eat and sleep so close together. You can't help but communicate, Oh, and if we had more room between us, think of all we'd miss. Love grows best, in houses just like this."

I find this to be very true. I've grown up in nothing but little houses (if you count a house that is technically on wheels) and although i may not have loved every minute of it, I wouldn't trade it...but never do it again!

On Saturday, I was able to eat at one of my favorite fast food places that's not in Las Vegas, TACO BUENO. I'm a self proclaimed Bueno Head. Zach also got his Chick-fil-a (it's not in Vegas either)...and kept wanting to go back on Sunday but he forgets that they're closed on Sundays. For the rest of the days, I continued to eat as much as possible and visit with my family and friends. I had a great time and I can't wait to go back....

Home for the Holiday

Ahh...I'm coming home for the holiday (Zach's tagging along too). This is my first time back since I "officially" left in August. I know this doesn't seem that long ago, but I'm not used to "my people" being so disconnected from me. I would see either my Mom or Dad 2 or 3 times a week...not to mention my friends. I miss the last minute phone calls asking if I wanted to join someone for dinner or just come hang out and drink a bottle of wine (or more) and relax and laugh the night away. I never realized how busy (in a good way) that I was until I'm bored sitting here. Even with my crazy hectic schedule of soccer here...I find my self lonely, but mostly bored. There is only so much web surfing, TV watching, window shopping, and sleeping one person can do. I'm not meaning this to be a "pity party" for me, but this experience allows me to realize how thankful I am for my family and friends who have supported me (and still do) with this whole move. This also makes me cherish every moment I have with them when I am able to visit, and very grateful for the time (and money) they put forth to come visit me. I'm looking forward to seeing as many people as I can when I'm in town for a mere 4 days and getting very antsy for the next 2 days to pass. So, with that, I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving...gobble gobble :)

Soccer, soccer, and more soccer....

Okay, so about my crazy and demanding soccer schedule...

Many of you know that i'm coaching both the boys and the girls varsity soccer teams at the high school i'm working at. At the beginning of the boys season (starts in August, ends in October), it was pretty stressful because everything was in such disarray. I was unable to even get the boys together until the 3rd day of school. At this point, you might be thinking...."what's wrong with that?"...well, the first game was scheduled for a week later. I had no clue how many guys i would have, would i have enough for a JV team...or even a Varsity?? Once I met all the guys, I determined that I only had enough to carry a LARGE varsity, we started with 26, ended the season with 21 (due to grades and quitters). After that, I discovered that i only had enough uniforms to suit 15 players...b/c the seniors from last year were allowed to keep their uniforms....why on earth this was allowed, i have no idea. So, I now have 1 week to get 10 uniforms ordered, numbered, and delivered in order for us to play our first game. Well, i got so far as to get them ordered. Our first 2 games were scrimmages, so it really didn't matter about their uniforms. SO, i scrounged up 26 uniforms of mix-n-match jerseys and shorts and handed them out. I had to tape 1 to many of them so they wouldn't have duplicate numbers. so i had a 61, 71, even a 161. It was quite entertaining to us and we even had running bets as to whose numbers would stay on the longest (hey...it's vegas...you can gamble on anything). Well, i finally got the uniforms in just in time for our 2nd district game. Oh, and the socks...they had to wear their own at first, then i got a really good deal on some Adidas copa game socks. $7.50 a pair (they are normally $10). So i made the guys buy their socks...they got 2 pair (green and white) for 10 bucks...and they get to keep them. So we finally look like a real unified team just in time to tie our first game. That was the first time they hadn't LOST a game in 3 years. They were super excited. After having to purchase uniforms and socks...the budget was almost gone. I had yet to buy new balls or any other equipment that was needed...so i started trying to hustle equipment from the other sports. The athletic director got wind of this and he decided to help me out. He decided to give me some more money (for balls, cones, and water jugs) and also bought me 2 new nets (because i was having to tape holes up in the ones i had). this all came in for our last game...we finished the season in 6th place, 3-11-2. That is 3 wins and 2 ties better than previous years. It turned out to be a great season, had lots of fun, and learned quite a bit.

So, on to the girls season.... I got exactly 2 weeks of nothing to do (that's only because we didn't make play-offs). so, try outs were yesterday and today. I had 45 show up, had to cut 2, and 8 are ineligible because of grades. Good numbers....but not so good players. I've got my work cut out for me with this team. Also, the uniform situation...I thought i had it bad with the boys uniforms...well....the girls don't have any. they wore the boy's uniforms along with mix-n-match with the other jerseys. So, i decided i HAVE to order them new uniforms. But i only have enough money in my budget to order enough for only the Varsity. I only had $1000. Somehow, i talked my way into 22 sets (1 white and 1 green jersey, and 1 pair of green shorts) of Nike Women uniforms for $1078!! They also gave me the same deal on the socks (but for Nike) and i'm doing the same thing with them that i did with the guys. So, they should have thier new uniforms by their first game on Dec. 9th. (wish us luck). The JV, unfortunetly are wearing the boys set of uniforms and are getting cheap-o socks that they gotta buy too. I have yet to decide whose on Varsity and whose on JV, but I have to do this by next friday. So, that's where i'm at with my high school teams...

As for me...i'm playing as well. I'm playing on a Co-ed 11v11 team on Wednesday nights (we made it to playoffs), a Co-ed 8v8 on friday nights, and a womens team on sundays mornings. So once again...my life is fully consumed with soccer BUT i'm loving (mostly) every minute of it.

I'll let you know how i'm feeling about it once the girls season get going....

toodles.

Here I am...

well...i guess i jumped on the bandwagon. i was introduced to this thing by my cousin, then my mom joined, then my brother....so what else was i to do?? i'll just join in the fun and blog away. (btw...i hate to capitalize and i'm a terrible speller.) so, here i am...