First Game

Today was Madison's first soccer game.  She decided this year she wanted to play...and now that I am not working outside the house and have a little more flexibility in my schedule we decided to let her play.

Let's start by saying I never played soccer.  I was a basketball and volleyball player until the diagnosis of my cancer took me out of the game.  So I sit on the sideline and cheer and am learning right along with her.  She is on the same team as her two best friends.  They all did such a great job today at their first game of the season. but not only is this her first game of the season it was her first game EVER!

And not only was there a game at 9:00 a.m.   they then had a scrimmage at 12:00 pm.  I wasn't going to have her go to the scrimmage...I thought it might be too much. But she insisted she wanted to go back. They all did a great job.  But...at the end of the scrimmage they were DONE!  Madison took a huge tumble and that upset her, then the coach was going to put her in for the last few minutes of the scrimmage, but she was crying and hold her stomach.  It was 91 degrees out...so I think the heat got to her. In fact I think it was getting to all of them.

Anyway...needless to say we are now in soccer.  Practices 2 nights a week. A game  on Saturday!  It is going to be a busy few months!

Here  are some pictures of the players doing their thing!

They were lucky though that they got the game and scrimmage it.  Not long after it started storming. It was raining really hard too.  Over where my husband was it was even hailing!  This summer has been super wet here in our area! I just hope the winter doesn't bring as much snow as we have had rain. 

Randomness

This past week has been super busy with working, soccer practice, school meet the teacher night and all.  Tomorrow another weekend comes and I haven't even shared last weekends photos.

We spent all weekend out at our land last weekend....Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We headed over at 2:30 or so....and were there until 10:30 or so. We just absolutely love it. It is so peaceful and quiet out there.  The girls shoot their bows, as does Shawn and I sit on the porch watching while knitting.  It just doesn't get better.

 My sweetie and me.  The girls got their hands on the camera to take a few pictures.

 My loves.   Yeppers...I was a little camera happy this past weekend.

 Of course I had to get a picture of Sadie.  She LOVES being out at the land.  She starts barking as soon as we turn on the dirt road...which is a mile and a half to our driveway!

Sisterly love!  It does happen! 

One of all of us.  I wanted at least one together!  We don't do many family photos so sometimes I just take out my tri-pod and tell them they don't have a choice! 

As I said when we go out to the land it is super relaxing and most of the time I sit on the porch and knit!  This past weekend I did a lot of knitting and got my latest project finished.  I still totally enjoy card making and scrapbooking....but with knitting I can take it with me to the land.  Anyway...here is my finished project that I got done tonight! 

 I so love it!  And it is a super easy pattern!  I love the design around the top!  Love out it fits across the front.  And this is my FAVORITE color!

I even wore this tonight to my daughters, Meet the Teacher!  OF course I probably shouldn't have as it is a little on the heavy side and it was HOT!  But...I still couldn't resist!

And last but not least...Madison at her Meet the teacher night!  She was super excited!  We got to meet her teacher, see where her classroom is and she got to see a few of her friends that are going to be in her class and the classroom next door that works with her class sometimes.

Carli's School orientation was last night...but she would not let me take pictures. I figured I wouldn't push my luck. I got lots of pictures at the land last night so I wouldn't force the issue at orientation.  Of course I will have to get "First day of School" pictures that are not optional!  But that won't happen until Wednesday.

Triple Time Stamping

I have seen this technique quite a bit on some other blogs.  I finally decided to try it myself. I actually got the tutorial from Dawn's Blog HERE. I had a lot of fun doing these cards.  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  Of course with the help of the tutorial for the sizes it went pretty quickly!  I used the fun set from Stampin' up...Lacy&Lovely.

Sharing...

...some photos.  Hello cyber-friends.  I thought I would share some photos I took while out at our land.  We love to go out to our land to enjoy the peace and quite.  IT is so relaxing sitting out there by the bonfire while the kids shoot their bows and just relax.

I decided to get out my DSLR and put it to good use.  So we walked around and took some pictures.  

 This spider is one of THOUSANDS that are around.  I can handle a lot...but spiders are NOT one of them.

 I love the color in this wood.  THis is what Shawn chopped up for some firewood.  But aren't the colors pretty?  I think so.

This is what I work on while out at the land.   I physically can't do a lot to help Shawn.  So while he is hammering, sawing, crawling around on the roof and the girls are shooting their bows or playing on their Ipod...I am knitting!  Yep. I just sit on the porch my hubby built for me on the shed and watch him work, watch the kids, with my feet up and knitting.  Life couldn't get much better.

Homemade Bows

My husband and I have bought land here in Virginia in Giles County.  The land from where we live now is about a 35 minute drive.  We bought 20 acres and will be only the third resident on the dirt road.  We love it out there. It is peaceful and quite.  you can sit outside and not hear anything but the birds, tree frogs and crickets!  

Hopefully in the near future we will be living out on our land.  We are in the process of getting the septic in...then it is the well and getting a trailer of some type out there.  Though now, we do have a 20x10 shed out there so my husband can store tools and other things we need out there.  This weekend he built a porch on the front of it so we have a place to sit, up off the ground if we want. 

Of course the girls have another theory.  Most of the time they think it is "boring" and God forbid their Ipods should die.  Shawn was telling them how when he was little he would make his own toys which got them asking what kind.  One he said was a bow.  So off into the woods Madison and Shawn went.  About two minutes later Carli changed her mind and wanted to go.  So I yelled for him and walked her out the him.  

They came back with he sticks they needed.  Then shawn got out some string and they had their bows.  Seriously...I wasn't sure it would keep their attention.  Boy was I WRONG!  

 They stood on the edge of the small porch shooting their "arrows".  Some just fell right in front of them others flew quite a ways.

 Here they are just learning to hold the bow and to actually use the bow and arrows together.

Seriously I wasn't sure how long it would last.  But they did it for well over an hour...and then they didn't want to stop. But we had to make them because it was getting dark.  Then they both asked if they could bring the "bows" home...so they really must have liked them.

The entire time they were practicing, not once did we hear about their Ipods or how bored they were.  I even said to my oldest who of course is a teenager and to her nothing mom and dad does is fun, "Did you have fun?".  She just looked at me, and I said "well, was it fun?" and begrudgingly she said, "Yes, it was"...with a smirk on her face like she was annoyed that she had fun doing it.  Good Lord, you gotta love teenagers.   Madison of course loved doing it, but she was a willing participant from the start.  I guess it just goes to show sometimes you have to make the kids do something they start off thinking they don't want to because in the end they will like it!

The girls are already asking when we can go out and do it again.  Sadly, with work and such sometimes it is hard to get out during the week.  But he promised next weekend.  Also, since they liked it so much we may get them their own real bow and arrows and target so that they can practice and have ones to really shoot with.

Sympathy

Sympathy card made for a friend of mine who lost dad dad a few weeks ago.  Of course I never like having to make them but I do when the need arises.  Can't wait to visit my friend in a few weeks.

I used Wisteria Wonder, Perfect Plum, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White for my colors.  The stamp set is Too Kind. I also used the Large Oval Punch and the new punch Artisan Label Punch.

Hope you all have a great week!

Moving...and Goodbye

My friend Cailin is almost finished with graduate school.  She has accepted a job in Maryland and will be moving to Gettysburg, Pa next week.  

She is the first person here in Virginia that I met when looking for friends to craft with. She introduced me to the Queen Bee Croppers crafting group that I am now a part of and like to scrapbook with.  On July 20th we had a goodbye crop for her with a few of our members.  We each created a 8x8 layout for her and gave her the album with the pages in it as a going away present. 

 Queen Bee Croppers group that all got together on Saturday (July 20th).

Me and Caitlin at the crop.

Caitlin is a very crafty girl!  She does some awesome craftiness.  Another craft of hers is knitting.  And she is a member of a knitting group that meets up Wednesday's at a local coffee shop and sometimes on Saturday at a local yarn store. Thanks to Caitlin and another friend of mine I learned how to knit and now knit with her and the rest of the group on Wednesday's.  Anyway...this past Wednesday our knitting group met as usual and had a little "going away" party for Caitlin.  

We had a good time.  Knitting, eating goodies and just having fun!  We all printed our favorite knitting patterns and put them in a binder along with gift cards for her.  We got them from all different places and hopefully they will come in use at her knew house.

Caitlin, thanks for all you have taught me in crafting in the last year and a half and for being such a great friend.  Good luck in your new adventure!  You will be missed here!