Soccer Time

The soccer season has begun! Carmen and Rachel had games this weekend. Both girls have gotten stronger since last season and we could see it in their playing.

Carmen has been playing defense for a few seasons. I have always believed that she could be a very good midfielder. This game she played both positions. As defense and midfield she took on any player and made great plays. One of her most entertaining plays was when she headed a ball that came back down to her and she was able to kick it in mid air. Here are the pictures of that play!

Carmen's team is new this year. She's playing with the same coach from the spring season and with some of the same girls. A number of her past teamates moved up to an older age group and so we have many new girls join this team from other teams. They need more time playing games together and making sure they cover for each other. Carmen played well though.

Rachel's playing looked stronger and more solid from last spring. She only had one practice before the game on Sunday. I believe that giving the girls a larger field to play on and being able to play with just girls has made a huge impact on them. Many parents were commenting how much better each player looked. This year they have a goalie for the first time and 5 other players on the field.

Rachel loves to say she is only good at defense. She prefers this position so she can rest, but she is a great soccer player in any position. She was able to drive the ball up the field from her defense position multiple times. I also think she liked playing against one of her good friends who is a great soccer player. Rachel has been on her team for years. Now they can compete against each other and Sunday both handled the challenge well.

The soccer season has just begun. There will more pictures and updates to come.

Cross Country Season Has Begun

Tobin's cross country racing season has begun. He ran close to 500 miles over this summer in preparation for this season. Tues, Sept. 8th was the first race of the season. He was racing against two of the fastest guys in the the state. Needless to say, the pressure to perform well was huge.

The race began strong and fast.

He stayed with thefront pack for the first 2 miles.

After that he couldn't breathe well and felt as if his legs wouldn't move and that he may pass out. He decided to drop out of the race. I believe he had an asthma attack; exercise induced asthma.

Over the next few days, I got a new persciption for an inhaler and extender tube. He is using it and feels like his lungs are a bit better.

Monday, the 14th, he had his second race. Shrewsbury was running against a team that didn't have much competition. Coach Smith decided to rest the top 6 runners. Since Tobin didn't finish the first race he was to run this race. If things were going well with his lungs he was predicted to win the race.

Everything went well for the race. He began strong and in the lead.

Tobin won the race! He finished 40 seconds before the next runner.

I'm not sure how long the race really was. It was around a 2.6 or 2.8 mile course. He finished in 16+ minutes. Shrewsbury also swept the race having the first 7 runners finish the race. This is the lowest score a team could get at a meet. It was also a triple meet, so these scores count double for us!

Let's hope for more of these races. He is going to an invitational race in Franklin Park this Saturday. The coach has only invited the top 7 from the team. I'll keep you informed as to how he does.

School's Begun

School began for everyone Sept. 1st. I began work on August 31st. I work as a kindergarten teacher's assistant in our school system. It was very difficult to transition back into work/school mode after a wonderful summer and beach vacation in North Carolina.


I took these pictures in order of bus arrival.


Tobin is now a sophmore at Shrewsbury High.






Sarai and Carmen share a bus even though they go to two different schools. the schools share a back parking lot they are that close to each other! Sarai is in 8th grade at Oak middle. Carmen is in 6th at Sherwood Middle.



Notice Sarai's new hair color. She got it re-dyed before school. She has streaks of blue and purple in it. We also re-dyed the red/orange hair back to her normal color. I am amazed how dark her hair looks with these new colors.







Some how, Zori got into the picture:) She loves Sarai's attention in the morning.


Rachel is in 3rd grade at Spring Street.