From Tennis Shoes to Dancing Shoes...lol

Allison had her district tournament Saturday. They had a bye to the semi-finals where they played Wynne - they won that and advanced on to the finals. We played Paragould in the finals -we had played Paragould Thursday night in our last conference game and it ended up being a very close match - with lots of controversy thanks to refs who really didn't know what they were doing - we won the match but Paragould of course said the only way we won was because of the refs - so they were out to get us in a major sort of way Saturday. We took care of that pretty easy - we won the first game 25-10 and the second 25-19. It was sooo sweet!! Alys played amazing. We were so proud of her. We rushed home because she had her Homecoming Dance Saturday night. She got rid of the knee pads and put on a dress and had a ball there too.

So, we have no more junior high ball to look forward to. Alys is moving up to Senior High and will get to go to State with them. Not sure if she will get much playing time but she will have fun just being part of the team.

Conference Champs! (hopefully)

With big wins for both Jr. and Sr. High Tuesday night, we are pretty much assured of conference champs. We have a couple more conference matches, but we hopefully can win those pretty easily.

The girls have both had great seasons. It has been so much fun watching them play this year. They got a treat Tuesday night with Uncle Scott and Aunt Jamie coming to watch them play. Allison's junior high season will end next Saturday at District - she will get to move up to the Sr. High team then. She probably won't see any playing time but it will be neat to get to travel to the State Tournament and be a part of that with them.

The first nine weeks is about over - the grades are good. I am very pleased. Chemistry is a definite challenge for Ann and Geometry is working Alys over - but they are doing fine.

Big Win Against Wynne!

Well, with four weeks down, the girls have bout gotten the hang of things. Their grades are doing good and they seem to have gotten into the routine of things.

We had a big week of volleyball. Starting with the Sr. High playing Jonesboro High School on Monday. We had played Jonesboro at the Briarcrest tourney a couple of weeks ago and beat them then, but it was a tough match so we were a little nervous going into this one. We ended up beating them pretty easy. That was fun. We played Wynne(conference match) last night, Wynne has not lost a conference match since 2003 - that is until last night - woo hoo!! The junior high won in three - a tough match but Alys had a great match with some awesome hits. The Sr. high won in three - it was a sweet victory. We played well, but not as good as we can. Hopefully we can beat them again when we go there to play in a couple of weeks.

Alys has a tournament at Valley View this weekend. Should be some good competition. She is a wreck because we play CRA tonight. She is so nervous about that. She puts so much pressure on herself. Anything less than perfect is unacceptable to her. I hope she will just play her game and not let the nerves get to her. We'll see how it goes..........J

Two Weeks Down!

Well, with the first two weeks down, I think the girls are finally "settling" in. They have finally gotten their schedules like they want them and have had tests in most of their classes. Academically they are being challenged big time. They will be fine - its just going to take some major adjustment and learning some study habits they have not had to have before.

Volleyball is great. The best part came from beating Westside last night. How sweet that victory was. We really thought Alys' junior high team would really struggle this year, but they have suprised everyone with wins over Marion and Westside. Alys is playing so good! The Sr. High played at a tournament in Memphis at Briarcrest this past weekend. We went with no expectations and were pleasantly suprised by beating everyone we played and winning the tournament. It was a much needed confidence boost we needed facing Westside last night. It was a nail biter - going five games - but we pulled it out in the fifth. Anna played great - digging up all they could offer!

I'm a little ticked off that I apparently have shingles. I finally broke down and went to the Dr. earlier who verified what I thought. She gave me medicine and I have every intention of being fine by tomorrow. Funny, when I looked on the internet for causes - the first two were fatigue and stress. I have none of that in my life so who knows where this came from :-) Later.........J

They Survived (barely)!

(Tuesday) Well, they survived - that is about the best I can say. To say it was overwhelming is the understatement of the year. To walk down the halls with over 600 kids and know just a handful of people - no familar faces in sight - it was just a bit much. They made it - it wasn't pretty - but they made it. On a positive note, they did like most of their classes - had some teachers they think they will love - others they weren't so crazy about. But they were ready to go back this morning with smiles on their faces. I think they realized if they could conquer the first day - just maybe they will make it.

(Thursday) Well, its day four now (according to Anna - only 173 more days left this year, but who's counting), I think they are finally getting settled and getting the hang of things a little better. Alys ran a couple of errands for a teacher yesterday without getting lost - she was so excited! Anna has finally got her schedule fixed like she wants it - she moved from Trig-PreCal to TCM (transition to college math) - the trig was just too much for her - she moved from PreAp English to AP English - she is pleased with that - Rise Rothe is the teacher for that and she is looking forward to having her.

We played Valley View Tuesday night - it wasn't very pretty. The junior high (Alys) won the first game much to everyone's suprise - Valley View's junior high is very strong - the second and third games didn't go our way but Alys played her tail off - I was really proud of her. In senior high (Ann) we were up 23-19 in game one but just couldn't finish it and lost it 26-28. The next two games weren't even close with Valley View winning easily. Ann played very good - she had some amazing saves. As always she made me proud. We play Marion tonight - another tough match - they have a couple of girls that are HUGE. Hopefully we can play good and take care of them.

First Day of School

Well they're off! After a fairly calm and tear free morning the girls got off to their first day at Nettleton. Of course, they got stopped by a train, then the traffic was backed up for a couple of miles down Nettleton, but after about 25 minutes (makes the drive to Paragould look pretty good, lol) they finally made it there. Wish I could be a fly on the wall.........J

It's All New!

Well, here late on the eve of the girls first day of school - I can tell its going to be a long night. I can't tell you the last time I "put the girls to bed", but tonight I literally had to lay down with both of them till they went to sleep - and that sleep was benedryl induced. I think they are both shocked at how nervous they are. Alys knows several people in her class, and has one friend that has the identical schedule as her so that is good. Ann on the other hand knows about three in her class and has no clue if she knows anyone in any of her classes - add to the mix she and Garrett are finally really over (meaning not talking everyday on the phone like they have been doing since they "broke up") she is in really bad shape. I don't think I have ever seen her like this in her entire life. She is just pitiful, its breaking all of our hearts. We are just hoping for a really good day tomorrow - good classes - nice new friends - and for Garrett to leave her alone and let her move on. This will be my first time since they started to school, that I didn't take them to school. I would love to just go with them and hang out all day - but I guess thats probably not gonna happen. I do have friends in both the junior high and the high school offices and I feel sure they will be hearing from me regularly tomorrow.

The girls both had volleyball jamboree's last week. They both did great. Alys and her team won some and improved as the night went on. Ann's team lost all of their games, but got a lot of kinks worked out so they can be ready for Valley View on Tuesday night. That is one game I would just as soon not have to play.

That's all for now - let's hope and pray I have happy girls tomorrow afternoon..........J

St. Jude Yearly

When I took a glance at my calander last night - I realized I had forgotten that we went to St. Jude this morning. Had a full morning planned, but decided we better go ahead and get it over with since school ball practice starts next week. Got there fine, had the usual talk before they drew blood about how bad Ann's veins are - finally after digging around in her hand for about five minutes they finally squeezed out enough blood to run the tests they needed. All came back fine. Our usual Dr. we have seen every visit since we left was out today and had to see someone else - good thing we have not had her for the past 14 yrs. or our visits probably would have stopped long ago - can't exactly explain what was bad about her - just made me as well as Ann very uncomfortable. Oh well, its over now for another year - this chick we saw today said they will release Anna when she is 18, but Richard (who we ALWAYS see) has told us they will continue to follow her for longer than that - so who knows - we will just go back next year and see what Richard says.

Mr. Wyatts heart cath went well - he had some blockage but Dr. Hill didn't feel it was signifigant enough to put a stint in at this point - will follow up in a year and see if there are any changes.

We enjoyed a visit this week with Jesse and Stefanie - hard to believe that they are all grown up - Jesse will be out in just about a year.

July 23, 2007

The girls went to a volleyball camp at Fayetteville this last week. It was a camp for Sr. High but Alys got to go and play with the JV team. This was the first time they had really gotten to play with their new teammates and they both did well. At this point Ann is playing libero for the Varsity. She is so excited and really played aggressive and loud (not something she usually has a problem with). Alys enjoyed playing with the JV team - it will be tough to go back to playing with junior high after playing "up".

Today was an interesting day. The junior high team at Nettleton played the junior high team from CRA. Alys was a nervous wreck. She really dreaded facing her friends across the net. The match went fine with Nettleton winning both but not by much. This was just the first of many transitions we will be making over the next few weeks.

Hal's dad is scheduled to have a heart cath in the morning at 7:00 - mostly just precautionary - but we are all anxious for this to be over and have good results from it.