Kickin' It In Gear

I'm sharing a picture from Sweden when we were there during World Cup soccer time. It seems everyone on the planet is super engaged in "futbol" – not to be confused with America's "football."

I've paid some attention to the World Cup this year – as our host country should. But when it came evident that Argentina was going to rock it, I joined the bandwagon.

My nephew David's wife was born in Argentina and their three children are Argentina fans whether they want to be or not. They have the Messi jerseys and I am sure they were tuned in this afternoon when Argentina won to advance to the championship game.

No matter the sport, it feels good to support any hard-working team trying to claim a championship. I mean, unless it's the Packers in our version of FOOTBALL!

Sorry, not sorry.

Take time to enjoy what should be an interesting championship game!

Hidden Talents

My first hidden talent today was learning that I am a "good bleeder"... this is after a simple finger prick that turned into a good half hour of "bleeding out" (in my dramatic opinion) and hoping not to faint just to test our cholesterol and all that jazz for a work health program.

Thankfully some old friends had my back and I survived mostly unscathed except for a little down time on a couch in a lactation room (all these things exist in today's corporate America) and some stomach upheaval. 

Still waiting for my gold star for being such a great and generous bleeder!

After work, it was a bee line to Robinson Park for Senior Night for our Lady Royals. Every time I think I'm 100% aging out of this school, I think of the current squad that moves my heart with their hearts of dedication and hard work for Assumption. Congrats, Ari and my R sister. I will miss the heck out of you!

After that, I was able to finally stop at soccer a bit so I could get some pictures to Mr. Yearbook. That was a little bit more affirming that we are getting old and don't know most of these "young kids" anymore. Still, was fun to see.

Then, while I was editing and uploading photos tonight I hear some very young voices and realize we are watching our youngest next-door neighbors for a spell because of a sort of family emergency. Their hidden talents: Endless energy!

I realize we really don't have any toys around here any more. But we may have turned them into zombies by the time they left. Side note: I'd give anything for the energy of a 3-year-old. Wow. 

Good thing I don't have to set an alarm tomorrow! 

Do We Have to Keep Score?

Tonight launched the inaugural Women's Golf League at Tri-City. FORE!

My partner Marigene and I had the second tee time of the night at 5:10 p.m. It was weird keeping a combined score and then comparing it with the twosome we were up against. As soon as I noticed the one girl's college golf team bag, I knew we were gonners.

Still, we had fun and only lost by 3 holes. And it was a gorgeous night. 

From there, I raced over to Washington Field where our Lady Royals soccer team was playing in the sectional semi-finals. Our #1 seeded Royals trailed #2 Lodi by a 1-0 margin and then the lost 2-0. Sorry, Lady Royals. You've been phenomenal all season. Hold your heads high.

So now the only post-season team left is our Lady Royals softball team.

Gotta sleep fast. Game time is 8 a.m.!! Let's go, defending state champion Lady Royals!

Let's Go, Sports

My camera is out of hibernation! After being pretty schizophrenic the past week, Mother Nature did us a solid today and let the Royals spring sports season get underway. 

At least two sports anyway. Since track was an indoor affair up at UW-Stevens Point, I went to the girls soccer game at Washington Field – which is always cooler and windier than at home. But still, it wasn't as uncomfortable for 50-some degrees as one would think.

Of course the wind also meant we commenced Spring Sports Hair season as well. I'll get through it!

The game was great. Our girls were up 4-0 when I left at halftime. They ended up shutting out Adams-Friendship 8-0. After losing some key seniors, that's the good season starter they needed. I would've loved to have stayed for the whole game but my back is not ready to stand a solid 90 minutes yet. I'll get there. Hopefully for baseball or softball or both next week!

For now, a few highlights...

Kendall shooting one of her 5 (yes, 5!) goals on the night.

I couldn't handle how aggressive you need to be to play well. That and the 40-minute halves with NO break! Bless these girls and their stamina. I hope they have an amazing season like last year – and a return trip to state! Not sure when I'll get to another game once the ball starts rolling (literally) at the diamond.

Let's go, spring sports!

Sugar and Sweet (Victory) Tour

I had to create this because I needed something to sum up the last two days! And it pretty much does. Though cupcakes and fancy decorated cookies are competing with the most popular sweet option at graduation parties.

And no matter how the sugar was delivered, I was sure to sample it. That includes two grad parties and one bridal shower yesterday and two grad parties today. I have been hopped up on sugar and caffeine. And hope I crash tonight instead right when I've set to work in the morning.

But yes, it was a full weekend schedule. Jim had a family event up in Marshfield while I was at the shower so at one point, we were in opposite corners of the county. We met up about 6:30 p.m. to go to the girls soccer game together. Assumption remains undefeated and easily claimed the regional championship last night. They are a power house! Now it on to sectionals for them with home-field advantage the whole way. Hope they continue on the road to state.

Speaking of state, here's some of my fun the past few days...

Made this graphic for our one Royal going to state. Blake is also on the cross country team and a super kid. His mom was Carter's first- and second-grade teacher!

Half of our baseball team got conference honors as well. They just kept improving all season!

And, at the request of the softball team's "social media captain," I did some graphics for their conference honors, too...

And one more... In advance of Thursday's semi-final matchup at state softball...

The excitement never ends! Hope they win at state. Pretty sure there would be CAKE after that!

Looking forward to SWEET dreams tonight.

Just Sitting Around Watching the Sunset

Wildfires in New Mexico are causing some hazy skies and pretty sunsets here in central Wisconsin. I took these pictures tonight at the soccer field. My last pictures of a two-day photo spree. Hey, it's spring and in the 70s. You gotta make hay and shoot pictures when you can!

Yesterday I covered the Royals middle school softball game since I hadn't given them any love yet. Then walked over to the high school soccer game, where our Lady Royals continued their undefeated dominance beating Wausau Newman. It took them all 7 innings this time, though.

From there,  I headed over to baseball. When I left the softball field, our guys were down 6-1. In my short drive over, we rallied and tied at 6-6. Of course, I got there and must have brought bad vibes or something because we ended up losing 11-6. Ouch.

From there, I went over to the soccer field where our Lady Royals beat a tough Amherst team 3-1 and maintained their undefeated status, too. We've got some hot girls teams this year!!

Today, I shot the Lincoln baseball game. Wanted to catch one of my fave seniors in action before he's done forever. And another friend's son who's having a hot year. It was tied 1-1 when I left during extra innings. Rapids ended up losing by 1 in 11 innings. Uff da. 

I would've stuck around but wanted to get over to Lincoln soccer to take pictures of one of the girls whose younger sister plays for our Assumption team. Logan didn't see much action because she was in front of our goal and Merrill didn't make their way down there much. Lincoln scored 3 goals in the first 3 minutes and were up 6-0 at halftime. 

That's when I took these sunset pictures, then headed home.

I had to make one stop at IGA on the way home to get coffee creamer and a few things. When I was checking out, the "kid" at checkout asked me if I was 55 years or older. Insert a "what the ??" face here. I said "Nope, I've got a ways to go." Then went home drowned my sorrows in the ice cream I bought there. NOT at a discount.

On the plus side, I did get home in time to get a call from Carter. He and Mamie arrived safely in Denver last night and really like their place and, of course, love the mountains! 

So, all is good from here. Nothing much happening, per usual. I need to get to bed!

Taking Little Wins

It's Monday. It's not raining. Normally, I'd be all over telling you about the big softball win I took pictures of because they switched it to a home game. But... I didn't go. 

Pandemic adulting is hard! 

They did win, though! Still undefeated. And soccer is playing now. They're undefeated, too. Yay, Lady Royals! Unfortunately, the baseball team took a loss up in Marathon. Hopefully they'll get a few more marks in the win column yet this season.

As for me, I had a big victory today...

Yep! I slept through the night. Jim did, too. You know what that means... NO COUGHING! WHOOT!

I'll try not to get too excited – already am – but I'm feeling good and I think this stupid virus is about to become a memory. I'll still go to bed by 9 tonight and get rest. Not going to be that reckless. But I'll take the sleep and cough-free day for the win!

I'll keep crossing my fingers and hydrating, of course.

Be careful out there.

 

Spring Finally Sprung

I don't want to jinx it by saying spring has finally sprung. But I mean that it has finally sprung – for a day.

Somehow we got up to 76 degrees here in central Wisconsin. I didn't quite feel that warm thanks to a pretty steady cloud cover and very steady wind!

If you can believe, I did curl my hair before heading into town today. Obviously, I wasn't aware of the wind. And that it required super-powered '80s AquaNet. Not just regular hairspray!

Even with hair in my eyes, I somehow managed to shoot a ton of photos of our Lady Royals soccer team. Finally got a game. They are 7-0 overall this season so far and piled on the goals for an 11-2 win over Aquinas this afternoon. Pretty fun to watch!

Soccer requires power and stamina...

And guts and determination ...

And a tough skin! Ouch. It's quit an aggressive sport. Keep up the great work, ladies!

Hubby enjoyed the warm weather by going golfing. Now he's up in Rudolph singing with the choir and church (and socializing afterward). And I've got some windows open and am enjoying some girly TV.

Mother Nature, you have my permission to keep the sprung spring around!

Kickoff to Summer or Winter?

Yes, we had snow this morning. Yes, this weekend traditionally kicks off summer. Yes, I wore a winter coat to shoot photos tonight.

And duh, we live in Wisconsin.

Freeze warnings and frost advisories have been issued for much of the area for the second night in a row. And oh goody, record low temps are possible when the air temps could drop into the upper 20s to low 30s.

Who's glad they aren't camping this weekend?

It wasn't as chilly at baseball and soccer as I expected since we did have sunshine. And it was especially comfortable – albeit in a light winter coat – when the wind wasn't blowing. Pretty pathetic weather if you ask me!

I'll cross my fingers that it will be nice for graduations this weekend and possible recreational activities involving swinging clubs and cursing! Now THAT's the sound of summer!

Have fun and be safe.

Royal Trifecta

As luck would have it, today's forecast called for Royal Blue skies and highs in the scores and the temperatures (well upper 60s felt good). I called it Home Field Friday since three of our spring sports were hosting at home this afternoon and evening.

I went to baseball to show them some photographic love and support. While I was there, our softball team made quick work of their game across town, beating Chequamegon by 15 to remain undefeated. Wow.

Meanwhile, baseball was pretty exciting. We ended up coming from a matchup tied at 2-2 to win 6-2 – just our third win, but so nice to see actual hits! Since that game went the whole time, I never did get over to soccer, but they won as well, 4-0. 

A Royal Trifecta of victories! 

We went out to eat at Ida's afterward to celebrate the victory – and eat a good fish fry, of course. So I got home after 10 p.m. and have several hundred photos to sort through. But I didn't want to go two nights in a row without blogging or you might think I died.

Or flew back to Arizona. 

Still tempting.

Are You Ready for Some Fußball?

Was today yet another Snow Day? Well, let's see. History shows us that it's winter and we're in Wisconsin and the day of the week ends in a "y," so yes. It was another snow day. I feel like we're in that Groundhog movie. Every evening it's like: Winter Storm Warning. No School Tomorrow. Yikes.

So let's check in on the other side of the globe – where there is no snow. And they're wearing shorts.

Well, indoors anyway. Carter told us that yesterday a dozen of the students went to an indoor Fußball (aka soccer) arena. He said it was the North and South Americans against everyone else. That made it 6 on 6. And your winners... The Americans! 15-12. That's a stinkin' lot of goals! He said he was too tired to get a picture of the place, but thankfully someone did and shared it on the program page on Facebook.

They said: "A fair fight was provided by students on Wednesday afternoon at SoccArena Heidelberg. Of course, the fun was in the foreground!" That's the translation anyway. Carter is second in from the right side.

In this one, he is wearing the green pinnie and just left of the center of the photo. I know, it takes a mom (and good zoom) to figure it out!

Glad he's having fun. For today's excitement, though, the city of Heidelberg is under a tap water warning. Apparently some unidentified chemical got into of the city's water, so the only thing to drink is beer. Well, bottled water, too. Carter said he got to Aldi and managed to get some bottled water before they were sold out. And since they were going to a German celebration of some kind this evening, I am sure he played it safe and drank bottled something there, too. Ha.

Not that I didn't believe him, but I did check other news sources to confirm the story. And yep. Something weird turning the water blue. I don't know if it's comforting or not to know that the U.S. isn't the only place weird things happen. Just grateful he is safe.

He's officially been in school there a month now. Wow. It really seems like 6 months at least. Seriously. But that's just me. I can tell already how life-changing this is for him. Maybe even for me. I have to grow up and let go sometime.

But it's a heckuva lot more exciting living vicariously through him this winter than here. He just has to worry about drinking the water. We have to worry about how it's going to freeze on our windshields and roads.

Be safe out there!

Now, Who's Excited?

There's three reasons right there that it was a pretty excited evening in Assumption Royals territory!

I attended the baseball game because I knew the Royals and Loyal were closely matched and it would be close. I was so nervous on Coach Austin's behalf that I didn't even take my camera out of the car. When we fell behind, I started to wonder if maybe that jinxed it.

Seriously, ya'll know about sports superstitions!

Thankfully by the 5th inning, I found the correct place to stand that led to some hits and the score of one run for us to tie it up. I stayed in that exact pose for the rest of our at bats in innings 6 and 7. Must have worked. In the bottom of the 7th, one of our seniors hit a walk-off single to bring in our guy on third base. There was much rejoicing!!

Now for a quick turnaround, they play again tomorrow afternoon at Pittsville for the Regional Championship. I don't recall us ever beating Pittsville in all the years Carter played. It's OUR turn now. Good luck, boys!

The girls softball and soccer don't play until Thursday. For softball, they're one victory away from state! Fingers crossed!

Of course, the exciting thing for me today has nothing to do with sports. My countdown is now just 2 weeks until the Skol Sisters are in Scandi-hoovia! Whoo-hoo! And look what arrived in the mail from my twin...

Uff da! Now that's a cool apron! Might have to bake some victory treats!

Skol, Royals!

Some Bunny Loves Spring

I was so ecstatic that Spring Sports Season finally kicked off today – appropriately with Royals soccer – that I grabbed my camera and went to take pictures just to TAKE PICTURES! Then I get home and realize by the wildlife preserve in our front yard that I am not the only one who loves spring!

A trio of bunnies getting their salads in for the day! They are much more disciplined than me!

Definitely wild but still sorta cute!

I was especially relieved to see some robins. Yes! They survived!

Strutting past the snow like "we beat you!" Hopefully, it stays that way.

For those paying attention, the Royals are supposed to start their softball and baseball seasons tomorrow. If the weather holds. Nice enough at 62 degrees today, but I don't know if tomorrow will stay dry. If it does, softball has home opener vs Edgar and the baseball team is playing a "home" game away from home at Edgar.

Just hear "Play ball!" will be music to a lot of ears. Those other "some bunnies" who love spring for its sports!

Upper Levels

Freeze frame any time period of your life and study it a minute. What did you spend your time doing? What were your dreams then? Is that "most important thing" in your life still most important, pretty important, not even important at all?

Now that I am old and wise, I see it's a pretty common pattern for teenagers to think that high school is their life. Everything important is defined by success in athletic and academic endeavors and relationships. Remember when your world revolved around championships, cramming for tests and hanging out with friends?

In high school, I was a brainiac who had a knack for writing. Very few athletic skills other than walking and chewing gum at the same time. Actually, not much has changed in either department.

When I think of how much emphasis is placed on sports – by no one in particular – it surprises me how few of those high school jocks and jockettes go on to play in college and beyond. Are they burned out? Not good enough for the next level? Or just have other priorities? I applaud them for being adult enough to figure it out.

We've had a few seniors at Assumption recently sign letters of intent to participate at the college level for various sports: football, baseball, softball, and soccer. I'm proud of these "kids" and have enjoyed watching their athletic – and leadership – skills develop over the years. Pretty cool. Hope they do well!

I remember when Carter was little and we figured he was destined to get a scholarship in either soccer or juggling. (See photo taken 8 years ago today.) Guess what? He IS playing soccer in college.

Granted, it's a one-credit physical education course. But he's playing.

Never give up on your dreams, kids. You never know what God has in store for you!

Filled in the Blanks

Ever have one of those weeks? It seems that every blank on the calendar has been filled. And there is no clearing in sight until next week sometime.

But I am not complaining (as long as I get to bed in about 5 minutes!)

After our campus tour fun on Monday, Tuesday was a mega-Monday kind of day at work. That hasn't changed much as our little department is taking on some more duties and we are working on our largest magazine of the year. Just a little stress.

On Tuesday after work, I made some treats for my Wednesday night Jamberry Nails party. Yes, I turned the oven on when it was 87 degrees. And yes, I turned the A/C on! It was worth it as I brought in Monster Cookies on Wednesday to work and then leftover Hornet's Cake today. Got to keep our blood-sugar levels and spirits up, right?

My Jamberry Party went quite well last night. There were 6 of us here and I had a lot of outside orders beforehand so I will be getting some serious Jams on soon. The party officially closes Friday night if you still wanted to sneak in an order. No pressure, though. Just don't come to me when you are jealous of my Jam-tastic nails!

After a late night, I managed to get up for 5:40 kickboxing class. Uff da. Felt that energy drain all day. Thus the reason for an early bedtime.

Was planning to go watch our Assumption girls in the sectional soccer game tonight. But it has been raining nonstop since this morning and still is. I have admitted before that I am a fair-weather fan. Hope they still won with me cheering from afar. As in miles away in my house.

Also had to start to get Carter's packing in gear for Germany. Borrowed a suitcase that is sturdier than ours and I printed out the packing list. That's as far as we are. A teenage boy is not that concerned. Of course, he doesn't have to worry about packing a curling iron and hair spray and that good stuff. Maybe he can pull this off by Sunday morning.

Well, I guess he HAS to.

Right now, even though he works tomorrow night and is re-taking the ACT Saturday morning, he is not thinking about either of those – OR packing. Just trying to hook up some used PS3 he bought. Good grief.

Jim may say my boy and I are two peas in a pod, but I beg to differ. I'd be packed! Of course, after the way this stressful week is going, I admit I am jealous of his relaxed attitude.

Maybe I could take a cue from my fellow pea. Thank god tomorrow is Friday!