Sud Su Ming

Maria thought long and hard about what to name her cat. Names were listed, voting was done, names were eliminated, lists were reconstructed. It was a lengthy process. She finally settled on Sud Su Ming. It means Ghost of a Tiger. She read about it in a book.

Her cat is all grey, so the ghost part fits nicely. I was thinking that it would mean we would hardly notice the cat. She would slink around the house and just when you thought you saw her, you would turn your head, and she wouldn't be there.

Unfortunately, that's isn't the case. She loves to cuddle and she demands it by meowing rather loudly that she needs attention.

It's kind of cute. Kind of.


Until she starts climbing into every nook and cranny. She sits in the sink, runs across the kitchen table no matter how many times we yell at her, jumps up on the edge of the washing machine as soon as I turn on the water (and immediately throws her arm under the water), jumps into the dryer as soon as it opens (even if I am putting wet clothes IN), and basically gets on my nerves.

After a few hours of chasing her around as if we have a rogue toddler, her energy wanes and

napping commences.
I thought cats were supposed to be easy. I want a new ghost!

Pictures From My Phone

Although I haven't had the big camera out and about with me, I do have my phone. I thought I would share where my phone has been lately.

Keeping track of this little pip-squeak. Meet the newest member of our family: Ming.

She likes to meow much too loudly for her size, ignore the dog but be scared of our other cats, balance on the back of chairs, sit in the kitchen sink and growl at her toys.

My phone and I also went on a hike with some people from work.

My phone was absconded by a certain 11 year old at the mall who likes to take self portraits.

We may have been at a parade over the 4th and we may have seen the truck from my favorite farmers market.

There also may have been too many people sitting in front of us. Whatever.




This girl still enjoyed the parade. Maybe it was because we camped out next to a certain diner called "The Ranch" and we may have had some french fries during the parade. Verrrry American.

My phone also has been enjoying my new shoes.

These two fabulous people have been hanging out around me a lot lately.

My phone witnessed this dog playing tug of war with a pair of feet. She wants her stuffed bunny rabbit back!!

It must have really tired her out.

And that is how my phone spent the past few weeks. Stay tuned for more adventures from My Phone.

Summer Tournaments: Part I

Our summers are defined by how many days until our next soccer tournament and how far along we are in packing. Luckily our first tournament this year wasn't so far away that we couldn't sleep in our own beds at night. However, since both girls have the same coach, both girls went to this tournament. In order for the coach to make all the games, they schedule them every 3 hours. When you add warmup time in there, we had about 30 minutes between each game. Meaning we were never able to leave the field.

Meaning we were there for 11 straight hours on the first day and 10 hours on the second day.

I still can't believe how we were able to survive.

Did I survive?

Those 21 hours equal Mom having to pack a Ginormous amount of food for 4 people over 2 days. Plus, the food has to be really tasty, otherwise everyone will whine that they want the fries being offered in the food tent. It's not easy, especially when Mom is preoccupied with making sure the first aid kit is extensively outfitted.

What?

We have had everything from contacts popping out, face balls, sprained ankles, bloody noses, sunburns, you name it. And that is just my kids, I worry about ALL of the girls on their team. I like to be prepared.

Today, we will be reviewing Maria's experience at the tournament.

I consider myself pretty smart in regards to soccer and everything that has to do with soccer and anything that sounds like it might be related to soccer.

But I don't think you are supposed to have this much fun on the bench:



Her shoes are really bright and colorful this year, and that means she can run really fast in them.

The ball likes to stay close to shoes like that:

Can we take a second to discuss these freckles?

I think they are super adorable.

I'm sorry, I got off topic.

Back to soccer: I have noticed that she likes to play with her forearms out- creating a protective bubble of space that no one should dare to enter.

Even if she can't see you, she will put her arms out.

Sometimes I put my arms out to help make that protective bubble, but she always asks me to stop embarrassing her.



Why do I even worry? She will just shove people out of her way.

Her team scored 20 goals in the tournament (over 4 games) and only had 1 goal against them. They don't even have a goalkeeper, they just all take turns every 15 minutes. You can imagine how much Maria loves to be goalkeeper. Especially when her turn came in the championship game!

You know me...

I was having a heart attack and wanted to throw up when she was in goal.


She was probably keeping calm by visualizing this memory from earlier in the day:

They were taking pictures of this:

CUTE! She was squealing like a 12 year old girl.

Not the dog, my daughter.


I am telling you this- if you try to push her off the ball, she will not take it well.

She will make you sorry, even if you are wearing matching headbands.

They are so cute when they pose all professional like.

Especially when they sweep their division.

But they also smell really NOT GOOD when they play soccer all weekend and the sun comes out and makes them even hotter and then they take their shoes off in the car.

Then they wonder why we always have to drive home with all the windows rolled down.

Going 60 mph.

We are open to additional suggestions.

Thoughts

Sometimes I think that I need to go back to 1998 and hang out with this girl more...

Because when I see her like this, I FREAK OUT:

In all honesty, this picture was a little joke we pulled on Dad. I took it with my phone, and came home and told Morrie we found the perfect graduation dress. Then I showed him this picture. He says to me "Don't you...Don't you think it's a little LOW in the front???" as he started to hyperventilate.

It was the best 3 minutes of my life.

This is how perfectly beautiful she really will be. She had graduation photos at school already. I may have cried.

Unless you think that makes me ridiculous, then I definitely DID NOT cry.

Really.

Hand me a tissue please.

Then I dried my tears and we went to a Sounders game and all was right with the universe (it's funny how that works).

They gave us free stuff.

You can ignore the fact that the stadium looks empty. We were there 2 days early. We REALLY don't' want to miss anything.

Although, sometimes when it is really cold and rainy at the game, and I have a poncho on, and I can't even clap because my arms are inside the poncho, I wish I was curled up at home in front of the heater like this:

Or playing cards with this girl:

Who decidedly has NO poker face.

I like to play her for quarters.

Happy Easter!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter, and perhaps explain my prolonged absence from blogging.


I have been pre-occupied with nervousness. Anxiety.

Someone get me a paper bag!!

Maria's team was in the semi-finals of state cup, and Isabelle's quarter final game of state cup was scheduled for the exact same time on the exact same day. I was horrifically torn, not knowing which one I should go to and very nervous for both girls. We decided that Morrie would take Maria and video tape her game for me. I wanted to have game updates, but I know it is impossible to text and use a video camera. at the same time.

Morrie did NOT want any texting whatsoever. He was in his own ball of heart palpatations.


We knew Izzy would be doing things like this:


When she got dressed for this position, I was a heart attack waiting to happen:

I hate to see her in goal, and her goalie was injured, but there was a possibility that the main goalie would play. We crossed our fingers. We said extra prayers. We lit candles. When we got to the field, the other back up keeper got dressed. We obviously didn't light enough candles, but this would work out. Phew!

Then the second half came and Izzy had to put the gloves on. I was dying. I knew Morrie did not want to know this was happening. However, I was surprised that he hadn't texted me ANYTHING at all.

It turns out, all the parents watching Maria's game were freaking out as it went into double overtime.

You can see a cool highlight video that Maria and Morrie made here:

www.youtube.com/fcalliancepremier

Izzy's team won their quarterfinal and were decidedly overjoyed:

We met up with Morrie and Maria to find out that she had lost after the poor kids played an 80 minute game. It wasn't a fantastic experience for Maria and we tried to sweep up her sorrow by going out to dinner and getting caught in the worst traffic around Southcenter mall ever.


Maria's tryouts were the week following state cup and she wasn't sure if she should tryout again. In the end, she decided it was worth a shot as there would be a new coach.

Here is a picture of a girl I plan on seeing more of this year:

She was excited to be offered a spot on the A team, and we look forward to much more soccer inspired fun for the next 12 months. I sure am glad she had that one day off from practice!

Just kidding, I think she will have May off.

Maybe. Probably.

Well, I'm not totally sure.

I can't think about it anyway, as I have to prepare a stack of paper bags for Izzy's semi final game this weekend. Why does it feel like my heart is beating in my stomach? Why do I keep waking up at 3:30 in the morning?

Is this called socceritis?

A Little Somethin'

When Maria plays soccer, I think that sometimes, the other team might underestimate her due to her size. Then, she runs past them like a bullet, or pushes them down, and before they know it, they are dumbfounded. Then she gets called for her 3rd foul and I look up at the sky like I don't know who's kid that is. If you read my blog regularly, you know the "knee in the butt" is a favorite move of hers.

She will kind of push you out of the way and take the ball, if she is so inclined.

This is totally typical. She will run up against anybody. Doesn't matter if you are a foot and a half taller. She is not intimidated by you.

Maria has had an excellent week with her new coach. These pictures are what it looks like when you get your mojo back. I think I need to go out and get me some of that mojo.

We do other things!

You must think that by this time, we don't do anything except play sports. It's a little bit true, but I will prove to you today that we are multi talented. This is Maria after school last week. I think someone needs to get more sleep. She may want to take some of the vitamins that are sitting right in front of her. Just a suggestion. This is moi talking to my friend Kathy. Morrie is- for some inexplicable reason- using my camera. Izzy is repeatedly saying "Mom, we need to go to Starbucks" over and over. I can't hear Kathy and I can't hear Izzy (because they are both talking to me), but I can pose for the picture!

I think this is why I embarrass the kids sometimes. Not totally sure, but it's a possibility.

Maria finally woke up, and she is holding her goods from Starbucks. Can you believe they sell cake pops now? I keep thinking some baker just totally scored the giant contract with that decision!

Starbucks in my family makes everyone very happy. The happiness lasts too, so it is in my best interest to keep it coming. The joy lasted so long for Maria, that she is actually posing on the soccer field here.

Who does that?

Poses all funny when they have a camera pointed at them?

Weird.

Izzy and I spent HOURS shopping for her graduation dresses. No, that is not a typo, they need TWO. I think they are trying to kill the parents. Morrie said we should go for high neck and long skirt.

Does this foot the bill?

It's not a shirt folks. It is really a dress. My dad had it easy in our day.

OMG, she looks so cute here! I have to go hug her. She is getting to grown up and I need her to be 7 again.

I will also have you know that I don't always hold the camera at soccer games. Well, most of the time I do. Unless my camera is broken. Then I sit around with these two squirrels. I wonder what piece of priceless advice Maria is passing on here. Maybe I shouldn't ask.

There you have it, we drink Starbucks, we lay around, we talk on the phone and we make fun of ridiculously short dresses. Ialso make Izzy try on floor length gowns just to pull pranks on people when we text them pictures of it. Then we lay on the floor of the dressing room laughing until our sides burst.

Our Weekend

This is the snow that cancelled Isabelle's soccer game. Phew! That only leaves us 2 volleyball games and 1 other soccer game to go to!

This is the dog that loves loves loves to chase snow balls.

This is where she sits when she comes back inside and sites for her dog portrait.

Uh-oh! Time to go! This is Isabelle at her very first game:

DOWN AND READY! (they yell this a lot)

I might start yelling it in the middle of dinner to see if anyone responds.

She asked me after the game what she could have done better. Ummm...maybe not be so hard on yourself? Just a thought, after the first game of YOUR LIFE!


OK, throw on some clothes- okay, a lot of clothes, and lets pace back and forth in the freezing weather shall we?

This is Maria coming in too early for the ball, but getting in a nice ankle kick anyway. It looks like her eyes are closed and she is just hoping for the best. That's how I usually play as well.

Weird. Nobody wants me on their team...

This is what it looks like to kick a frozen ball around the field. It makes me cold all over again.

Back to the warm gym I say!

This is all of Maria's energy getting thrown into a serve. She is even gritting her teeth I think. It made it over, and in 5th grade that's all you can really hope for since nobody can return any of the serves. You think I am being funny, but I'm not. Her game of 3 matches lasted over an HOUR. I won't tell you how many times they forgot to rotate on a serve and lost the ball. Then the other team missed their serve and we got it back.

There were looooong stretches of time where no points were scored.

She's eyeing either the ref or the score keepers. Quite frankly, it looks like she paid one of them off before the game.

Once Morrie and I can figure out how to clone ourselves, this will all be a piece of cake. We're hoping to have the gene part figured out by Friday as we have 4 soccer games and 2 volleyball games this weekend. Gulp.