Soccer Champ

 It's Darth's last soccer game today and I am devastated to miss it. Luckily his dad still sent us some pics, since his mom was with me as well. 

Ugh he's so cute and I'm going to miss his growing up!

Final Game! ... Again!

 Today was Darth's final soccer game for his soccer team. Seems like we just had a final game, because WE DID but hey, we we're used to this. Anyway, they did an all right job, it was HOT (because last Saturday was just raining on us the whole time, yikes) and they ended in a tie, which was garbage, but at least its over. Afterwards, we snapped team pics and that was that. Sadly, no medals for everyone this time. 

But look at all these cute tiny guys, so nice. 

Just Being Silly

Today after our soccer game (in which everyone played so great, I was honestly so proud of everyone) we went and got some breakfast because our game was so early. I took a pic of Darth as we were eating and he did a classic Darth face.

Coaching the Polar Cubs

Y'all, I am coaching another tiny soccer team. Technically, my sister is the coach, and then she asked for some help. We had our first game today, a fact I learned just the day prior haha. We showed up with our fellas and we were ready.

 Unfortunately for everyone, we were the only ones that showed! Nobody else of their team did! So we did a 2v2 (the games are only 3v3 anyway, since these jokers are 4-5 years old) and the other team switched out their players every 5 minutes (they had like, 6 players) and our tiny guys played the whole time! They were beat by the end, but they loved it. Nobody kept score, but Darth scored 3 points and celebrated with a dance and a dab, of course. Hopefully we'll have more people show up next time!

A football match!

Today we went to Portobello Road, which is basically a giant farmers market that is several miles long, it was so amazing! Of course I got a few things, and I tried to limit it, since I only have so much luggage space. After the road, we headed over to Wembley Stadium and saw a real England football match. Their national team played the Nigerian team in a friendly, and it was so much fun! The crowd was rowdy, but less rowdy than I thought they would be honestly.

And every person that swore near us, apologized for swearing in front of the kids, so that was really nice. Getting out of there was insane, 70,000 people trying to get into the tube station...it took forever, but we finally made it! What an awesome night. 

Old Photos

I have my last solo presentation for my Professional Business Presentations class. I could not be more excited for the end of this. After this week, I only have 4 more classes of this class! Woooo! I am legit so excited. This last presentation is supposed to be a persuasive one, and I chose to make my thesis "Run!". To set up my slide show, I decided to talk about how I hated running when I played soccer, so I pulled out some old soccer pictures. Because they're so old school, I decided to share them here, for the memories.

 This is me my first year of playing, which I think was 1996.

And here's me in my senior year, 2001. Ah the memories. What fun. Hopefully this presentation goes well!

The Last Game

Today, sadly, was our last game for the Angels. I have had so much fun with these girls, I’ll always be thankful to Chelle for including me in this team. We had an awesome last week of games, we won both of them! Tonight’s game was a good victory, but I felt so bad for a few of the girls, one of them was really sick, another one also had a tummyache, so they were doing the best that they could, but they just didn’t feel 100%. But they played so well, and they won! I tried to snap a pic of them, and this is the one I got, but only like, 2 of the girls are looking at the camera, I had zero luck here:

It was a warm game, they were so thirsty! After the game, we had a season wrap up pizza party at Two Jacks pizza, it was really good. And we, as coaches, got the girls their own mini pizzas. Chelle and I shared one with delicious toppings (as soon as we took off the mushrooms):

After a lot of farewells, our season is now done and over. I really want to coach again in the fall, I hope we get the opportunity! I’m sad the season is all done with, I had such a blast doing this!

First Soccer Game!

As I have blogged about our new soccer team, I will not waste any time introducing it. Today was our first game! We (Chelle and I) have been prepping for a week now. Sadly, we had to skip all of our soccer practices the past week because of inclement weather, so today was the first time seeing everyone again since the very first practice. Of course, I had forgotten half of the girls’ names. They were pretty good about telling me again what they were. After some warming up, we got started. We got to be on the field with the girls, Chelle back with the defensive girls, and me just running all over with the ball (well, the girls with the ball). It was fun, tiring, and made me sweaty by the end. After the game, we had cupcakes, to celebrate the other coach’s birthday. After singing to her, and giving everyone high fives, we all dug in.

How cute are these?! I used a funfetti cake with a vanilla frosting, dyed yellow to match the liners and pop-ups. I think they’re pretty fun. So now, I know what to expect from a game, and how to prep for them. And, in case you wondered, we tied, 1-1. It was a great game, and I can’t wait for the next one!

Put Me In, Coach!

Today was my first practice as an assistant coach. Chelle and I (and her sister-in-law) are coaches for a 5-year old girls soccer team. We’ve known about being the coaches for a while, but today was our very first practice, with our first game happening in another week. Since none of us have ever coached before, this was a scary experience for me.

We started off with introductions. Them to us, us to them. We talked about the rules of soccer, we broke off into groups for smaller drills, reconvened back up for some running, stretched, and that was practice. It lasted 45 minutes, and it was a good one. I thought we were supposed to have a group of soccer newbies who didn’t know anything, but almost every girl had been on a team last year! We only had 3 girls that hadn’t been on teams previously. But I think we’ll have a great team. Our name is The Angels. I think that’s a great name! After practice was over, we took a group shot, for memories, of course.

Don’t they look great? Wish us luck for a great season!

BFF’s

Last night was the last RSL home game, and as such, was also the Fan Appreciation Night. The first 5000 fans got a Kyle Beckerman bobble head. We got there pretty early, I wanted to get a bobble head. They gave another bobble head away, Nick Rimando, and even though we got there 15 minutes after the gates opened, we missed out. It was only by a tiny miracle that we got one at all. So for this one, we showed up with 10 minutes before the gates opened. There were a lot of people there, so many that I didn’t think we’d have gotten one, but after waiting in the chilly air, the gates opened, and we made our way in. Lucky for me, I got one!

I was pretty happy about that. The game was freezing, and with many layers, and blankets, it was still cold. The game ended in a 0-0 tie, but thank goodness, we’ve made it into the playoffs. So there will be one more game, as luck would have it. So, after the game, home I came, and introduced the two new friends to each other.

I think they’re going to be best friends.

A Slight Delay

I forgot, the other day, to blog about the RSL game that we went to on Saturday night. It was, as usual, a good time, but an interesting game to go to. It was a chilly time, which is weird for August, but to be honest, it was a nice break from the scorching temperatures we usually have, and I just sit in the stands, sweating, drinking copious amounts of water, but not getting any cooler. So it was nice, for a bit. As we were walking into the game, it was sprinkling ever so slightly. The game started, and it was still sprinkling. We got 3 minutes and 15 seconds into the game, and all of a sudden, the referee blew the whistle, and stopped the game. Due to the proximity of the lightning, they stopped the game for the safety of the players. They made an announcement, saying that the players would be leaving the field, and for our safety, we should leave our seats, and go stand up in the concession areas. I’m a rebel, so we hung out in our seats, waiting for the players to return. I took a picture of the sky after they left, the sky looked so dark and foreboding.

80 MINUTES LATER the players returned to the field. We sat there, playing games, chatting, and I live-tweeted the event, so that those at home knew what was going on, the inside scoop. Then, through the storm clouds, and the lightning, and all that, a rainbow emerged, and we thought the game might start soon.

Finally, about 15 minutes after the rainbow was seen, they returned, and warmed up for about 10 minutes or so. Then they started, and we were chilly. PJ & I had to go to the team store during the first half, to get a jacket, she had left hers in the car, because on the way in, it didn’t actually seem like it was going to be cold. Husband left his too, so I bought him a long-sleeved shirt out of the kindness of my heart. Then we stayed and watched the game for the remainder, and we won! It was awesome. At the end of the day, we had stayed at the stadium for about 4 hours. That’s not a super long amount of time, but oh man did it seem like it a little. Thankfully, we all lived, we had fun, and the best news of all, we made it to Baskin Robbins 7 minutes before they closed, which was the miracle of the night.

Miscellaneous...Wednesday

Ok, everyone. I know it’s been quite a long time since I’ve been on here last. Truth is, there hasn’t been a lot going on, and really, things are kinda boring, so I held off as long as I could. But now there are a few things I could document on here, so let’s get to it.

As I mentioned before, I am now the Assistant Den Leader for the Webelos. I have by now had 1 activity, and 1 Pack meeting. For the activity, the boys all wrestled for like, an hour, then made collages as quickly as humanly possible so they could get back to fighting with each other. Since this is really my first experience hanging out with more than 2 or 3 boys (my nephews, who, compared to this, are really quite tame, who knew?) I was pretty taken aback by all this. And then last night, we had a Pack Meeting (The Blue & Gold Banquet, doesn't that sound fancy?), which apparently happens once a month, and everyone gets together to hand the monthly awards out to the boys, should they have gotten any pins/patches or whatever it is they get. Truthfully, I haven’t learned any of the lingo yet, but I expect to someday. I mean, come on, its still my first month!

Monday was Husband and I’s one year anniversary. That’s right, doubters- we made it to one year of being married! (I don’t know that there are many doubters out there, but if there are, I want to rub this in their face.) We kept it pretty low key, being a weeknight and everything, and went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I cannot express how much I love this place. I’m glad it’s not closer to where I live, or else I would probably eat here once a week. For our gifts, we went in halfsies on a new TV – the one we have is…well, its not small, but for the room we have it in, it’s really hard to see, and it’s really far away from where you sit to watch it. So we got a new 55” TV – we had found one on sale, and decided that was the way to go. So we got it home on Monday, set it up, and holy cow! It’s just so…big! I’m definitely not used to it yet, but it’s really nice to be able to see words on the screen, and able to see the TV completely. I’m still trying to get used to the size of the TV, and I imagine that someday I will. I just can’t wait to watch a soccer game on it.

Speaking of soccer, the season starts this weekend! I am so excited for it. Sadly, we open with an away game, at LA, but I still have high hopes. The team has many new players, which is good, there are a few injuries right now as well. I'm going to hope for a win - I want a win so badly against LA, and to have a win at LA would be even better. I'm sure I'll update everyone here with the game results, so everyone - cross your fingers, toes, and everything else you can for a win for the RSL!

MLS Cup

Well ladies and gentlemen, today was the MLS Cup game. An entire season boiled down to this one game - and RSL wasn't even a part of it. (Frowny face) LA Galaxy vs Houston Dynamo. I'm not really fond of either of these teams, but boy do I hate LA. Their team is my least favorite - mostly because I hate most of their players. Because I was barely interested in this result, I didn't even record the game, I just followed it via Twitter.

As I understand it from Tweets, it was a pretty boring game, until LA scored in the second half, in the 72nd minute. And then the scored stayed that way until the end, with LA beating Houston 1-0. I wish Houston had won. That's actually what I was hoping for. I wanted LA to lose. I can't even explain why I dislike LA so, I just do. When the game got over, I was really glad I didn't watch it. To watch 2 teams that I don't care about battle a scoreless tie? Boooring.

And there it is. The Cup is taken again, by a team I don't like. I'm hoping next year we can make it to the final game, that would be great. I want another championship for RSL. Go team!

It’s Only Halftime

Last Saturday, RSL played Seattle in the first leg of the 2011 MLS Playoffs. It was a crisp evening (and by that, I mean, I was pretty dang cold) and the air was crackling with excitement. They’ve made the playoffs for the last 3 years, so you’d think at this point that we’d be sort of used to it, but not yet. The 2009 playoffs, which won RSL the championship, happened because of a series of fluke accidental games, but last year was all our talent. After a lot of bad luck this year (so many people getting injured, including Javier Morales’ broken ankle, and a lot of call-ups to the national teams) we ended up doing pretty well, and got into the playoffs in the third spot. But there’s still some work to be done.

Now back to last Saturday. The game was at 8, hence the chilliness. We got off to a good start, and scored before halftime, so thank goodness for that. The team seems to do better when they lead going into a half. After an exciting second half (in which 2 of our defenders got injured, and had to be substituted out) we ended the game with us winning 3-0. It was awesome – the screaming we all did was so loud.

But right now, its just halftime. We play at Seattle tonight, to finish the first round of playoffs. This round is based on aggregate goals – meaning, the end result is decided by who had the most goals when you add the 2 games together. So getting a 3-goal lead last week was the best thing we could do. If we win tonight, awesome! If we tie, that’s good. If we lose 2-0, or 3-1, that’s ok, too, because we’ll still have the most amount of points. I’m going to root for a victory, but I’ll settle for a tie.

Go RSL!

Foto Friday

Sadly, I don’t have any fun photos of anything going on with me right now, but as I was looking at things on my computer, I saw this oldish picture, and I think its glorious. It’s especially appropriate because, as I understand it, football season just started.

I don’t know why I find this so funny, its just a great name for football. I tried to call it handegg, but nobody would know what I was talking about, so now I use the normal name.

Happy Football Weekend, everyone!

Ole Ole Ole Ole

Last night was the final CONCACAF game for my beloved RSL. They still do play in the regular MLS competitions, this was just an extra competition we’re in. It comprises of US/Mexico/Canada, the Caribbean and Central America. Up to last night, we were the only US team left in the tournament. I’m not sure when we started playing in this, maybe sometime in the summer? But we’ve been doing pretty well in it, obviously, since we were the last MLS team in it.

I had been super pumped up to get to this game. Every game has been great, and full of suspense, and then all of a sudden, we found ourselves in the final! Here it was! Thank goodness for me, the final was here in beautiful Sandy. I left work, got all decked out in my team colors, and off I went. The team had asked for a “Red Out”, they wanted us all in red, and we were happy to oblige. We got to the game pretty early, to get fully in the mood. The stadium was packed. It was sold out, including selling out of standing room. And everyone was in red. The stadium was loud, we all stood the whole game, it was amazing.

I’m setting the mood up for this, to let you know how great it was, what the atmosphere was like. We were pretty evenly matched the first half. We sadly were missing our captain, Kyle Beckerman, but we seemed to be surviving without him. Of course, 40 seconds before the first half was over, Monterrey scored. What an unfortunate way to start the second half, but I still had high hopes that we could come back from this. We either needed to beat them (duh) or be tied at zeros or ones to win.

Sadly, we never came back. We had a lot of amazing opportunities, but we just couldn’t seem to get any in the net. When the final whistle blew, there was stunned silence from the crowd where minutes before, we’d all been so loud. But I’m proud of my RSL. They played an amazing game, they just had some bad luck in this game. Luckily that wasn’t our season, it was just the CONCACAF. Our season has only just began – and I can’t wait for the remaining games. I think it’ll be a nice consolation to have us win the MLS Cup this year. I know our guys can do it – they’re having a great season so far. I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds.

End of Season

Tonight was the last RSL game of the season. I didn't know going into the game that it was the last one. It was a playoff game, we were playing against Dallas. We had already played Dallas in the first leg of things last weekend, at Dallas, and they beat us, 2-1. I was not happy, but not discouraged, because I knew that we could turn things around at home. We are so far unbeaten at Rio Tinto for the last 25 games or so. All we had to do was beat them by 2 or more points, and we would continue onto the next round, but that was easier said than done.
It just wasn't our night. We played pretty well for the first 15 minutes or so, but then Dallas unexpectedly scored, and then we kinda fell apart for the rest of the half. We came back from the half and played really great - and had so many missed goals, and opportunities to score that we just couldn't finish on. Fortunately, we scored in the 80th minute, tying up the game, but we needed one more goal to stay alive, which we didn't get. Although the game ended in a tie, we lost out of the series, so season over.
I'm sad that the season is over, soccer is my favorite season. It'll start again in 3 months, so at least I have that to look forward to during these cold months. And the good thing is now my weekends aren't going to be determined by an RSL game going on, there's more of a freedom here. But still, I'm sad. Good work, RSL. You finished a strong season.

We could take the Cup!

Good news sports fans! Real Salt Lake, my boys, have made it to the final game! Lets be honest, nobody thought this would happen at all, but here we are! We had our game today, against Chicago, and oh boy was it a nail-biter. It was a scoreless game, so we went into overtime. After a 30 minute overtime, we were still tied at zeros, so into penalty kicks we went. Believe me, this was super tense! I was clutching at PJ's leg, basically digging my nails into anything, and wow. We had the first five, and we missed one, and we stopped one of theirs, so tied again. Then we had sudden death. They went, and we stopped it! We went, and...a miss. I was about out of my mind. They shoot again, and Nick Rimando saves again! We shoot....gooooooaaaaallllll!! I went out of my mind. Even though I was watching this from the comfort of my basement (Come on, I can't afford to go to Chicago on a whim!) I freaked out. I started screaming, and I jumped, and there was some definite huggage. My friend Karen called me as soon as it was over, to celebrate, and pretty much all we did was scream on the phone at each other.
After the game, we were so energized up, we took a quick victory lap around the neighborhood, while shouting things to the neighbors, who I think were all just in their houses. I don't know if anyone heard what we were saying, but it felt nice to be shouting it.
The final game, for the MLS Cup 2009 is next Sunday, we'll be playing LA. We could beat them! You never know, especially this year! We looked into taking a jaunt to Seattle for the game, but come on, I'm not made of money. We'll be watching though, you can guarantee that!

Who knew?

My beloved RSL has advanced to the next rounds of playoffs! I won't lie, I actually didn't think this would be happen. I mean, getting to the playoffs was big enough as it was, but to have made it farther? There had to be so much things that had to fall into place for us to get there, and when it all did, I was shocked and amazed. I totally didn't expect this to happen!
We played Columbus last Saturday, here at Rio Tinto. It was sort of a boring game, nothing going on, pretty evenly matched, etc. In the 87 minute (or so...) we scored! I couldn't believe it-we went crazy. The next game was last Thursday at Columbus. If you know my RSL boys, you know we do not play well when we're not at home, so of course, I was expecting a loss. I know it's bad to say this, but I'm a realist. Anyway, I couldn't watch the game because I had my evening with Comedy Sportz, but I was being updated by the minute by both my dad and PJ. As I got their texts, informing me that Columbus was up by one, then two, then RSL scored, then another score! We're tied? What the heck! Then, miraculously, we scored again, and won the game! I wish so much that I could have been watching the game, but alas, 'twas not to be.
I'm so psyched we won, and I'm not sure when we play next. We'll play either Chicago or New England, whoever wins the game that takes place tonight. I still can't decide which team I want to play more, but whoever it is, wouldn't it be awesome if we went even further? Keep your fingers crossed!

Activities seem so good in theory...

I kept thinking like, every day this week of things I needed to write on. I kept having things to keep you all updated on, but then it comes to the one night that I actually have the time to write, and here we are, can barely remember anything. But I'll do my best!
So, we had a FHE activity this week, which was a big relay/game night, best team left standing. I was wearing my lady cop sunglasses (read: aviator glasses, but I think they look like cop glasses) at the beginning of the evening, because it was super sunny, of course. A few hours into it, the sun had gone down, so I put the glasses onto my clothes to hang on. I forgot that they were in my pocket at one point, so when I tackled someone to the ground, they were smashed! I was so sad, they were a favorite pair of glasses. But surely I can find some more, so I'm ok with losing them. Also, later in a race I was doing, I fell in some mud, which wasn't the worst thing ever, but it sucks to fall in mud! The sprinklers were on all night, so the ground was so muddy all over the place. But it was nice and cool all around the park, so that's a plus.
Lately, peoples around me have been doing all sorts of great things for me. On Tuesday, my mama brought me home some tacos, for Taco Tuesday, and then today, she washed all my bedding for me. My brother filled my car up with gas, Chelle brought me a delicious cookie to work, and my dad cut up four pineapples for me, since the electric knife scares the heck out of me. It's nice to have peoples take care of you like this-I hope this doesn't change!
Last night was the MLS All-Star game, which was fun. It kept me up way past my bedtime though, which was just unfortunate! All day I felt so tired, and then I meant to go to sleep ridiculously early tonight, but that didn't end up happening, of course! Right now I'm furiously typing to finish, so I can go to sleep, at the same time I'm soaking my foot in Epsom salts to try to get rid of an infection I have on my foot. I've been getting this massive blister on my foot, and it's not getting better, I think it's just getting worse, so I'm trying to fix it! I hope it works, because this foot is driving me crazy, and now it just hurts, and that's just annoying.
I guess that's really all I have for now, plus I'm just beat! I'm going to try - which is an empty promise, but I really will - to do better about keeping you updated, but until then, these posts will have to do!