Wednesday, November 12, 2008

THE DAILY NEWS


Check it out!
Our local paper has done an article on our volleyball team and it came out in today's edition. I'm so excited I can hardly teach!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

COLOR

This shot is of my backyard. We are blessed with a greenbelt behind our house that won't be developed and will remain a haven for the deer, raccoons, and other critters who visit us from time to time.
On Saturday, October 25, we took a drive up north to Tacoma where Catherine had her final regular-season volleyball game. On the drive up I was struck by the colors everywhere! Fall had arrived, the leaves where changing color and I almost missed it. I had been spending too much time in my classroom and in the gym, and my short drive to school doesn't show me much. So the next week I determined to change my pace and make sure I noticed the changing colors. Our town is so pretty this time of year!

Monday, November 10, 2008

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

I noticed that I had not updated this blog in over a month and didn't really wonder why. As my dad would say, "I'm busier than a one-legged man in a shin-kicking contest." I thought that once school got underway, my schedule would click in and turn into a routine. Nothing routine so far!

Both the girls have played volleyball this Fall and while the junior high season is over (and Stephanie has already begun basketball), the high schoolers play on! On Tuesday, November 4, our girls played their first (ever) district playoff game. We traveled up to Taholah, WA and played a heart-stopping match. To gain the victory, one must win three out of five games...we took the first game, Taholah took the second and third games. Our girls didn't want to go home yet so they won the fourth game. On to the fifth and decisive game. While the first four games go to 25 points, the fifth game goes to 15 (and you always have to win by 2 points). So much excitement as we were winning 12-6 and the Taholah Chitwhins ("bear" in the Quinault language) caught up. We went ahead, they caught up. They went ahead and with the score 14-13 in their favor, they served for match point. It bounced off my Catherine's arms and into the corner of Taholah's court! We got the ball back and the point. So tied 14-14 our captain, Myriah serves a nice one, the girls battle it out and we get the point. Whew. Now we have to win by 2 points so Myriah serves again and...ACE! They couldn't return the serve, we win the game and the match and advance to the next district game!! We went wild. My voice has yet to return to me.

This Saturday we traveled up to Lake Quinault to tackle the next round. First we played the first place Lake Quinault Elks and we lost 3 games to 1. It was sad. We still had one more chance...one more match...win and we go to state, lose and we go home. We played Whishkah Valley and took the match 3 games to none! Whoo Hoo! On to state!
The girls will travel to Yakima, WA, Thursday afternoon to play on Friday. They'll be playing at the Yakima Valley Sundome, the same venue that will host Sesame Street Live, the Harlem Globetrotters and Brad Paisley. This is very cool! They play their first game at 2:00 on Friday and if they win, they don't play again until Saturday morning, but if they lose, they play again Friday evening at 8:00. Lose twice and you go home.

I'm so proud of our girls. This is just our school's third year having an athletic team and the girls are doing so well! They even get complimented on their behavior as they visit different schools. It's always my prayer that win or lose, we will be a good reflection on our Lord Jesus.