Ashlee's Soccer Party

Ashlee had her end of the season soccer party tonight at Rico's Pizza.  They each got a medal.

Ashlee in gray sweatshirt

Ashlee in gray sweatshirt and her friend Lauren getting ready to hand a medal to someone.

Ashlee's team and coach.

Soccer Tournament

Ashlee and Mikayla both played soccer for the city league this fall. At the end of the season they always have a two day tournament.  This weekend was the tournament.  They both did well.  You can see how much they improve in just a few months.  

Ashlee has never played goalie, nor did she have the desire to play goalie, but her coach put her in that position and she did extremely well.  During games I would hear other people on the sidelines watching the game say things like "Man, no other goalie would have got that", "Good job goalie".  One parent at their last game said she deserves an award for MVP.   She surprised herself and surprised all of us.  Her coach ended up saying that he thought she was probably one of the best goalies in the league at their end of the season party.  She stopped lots of goals. 

Ashlee's team played some tough games, but got knocked out of the tournament.   Mikayla's team took third place in the tournament.

For some reason, I didn't manage to get any pictures of Ashlee's team, I am a bad mom.  Here are some of Mikayla's team.

Mikayla Second player from left.

Mikayla second player from left with her medal on.  Third place in the tournament.

First Basketball Game of the Season and Ever for that matter

10/22/2014-  Ashlee and Mikayla have never really tried to basketball or have even had an interest for it.  This weekend they decided they wanted to try out for the school basketball team.  After their first day of tryouts they decided they liked it, so they tried out again on Tuesday.  Today they found out that they both made the team.  This was a teaching moment...you never know until you try and if you don't try you will never know.

Fast forward to 11/2/14 now.  That is the day of Ashlee and Mikayla's first basketball game of the season, and first game ever for that matter.  And to top it all off, their first game was against their friends from their old school Whitmore Charter School.  When they arrived to the game, their friends from their old school were out waiting on the curb for their bus to arrive.  Their bus driver told them "look girls these girls are friendly"  (he didn't know that they were waiting for Ashlee and Mikayla to get off the bus.

Mikayla's team played first, and their was  one point in the game where she was having to block her best friend Allison from her old school and they were laughing and giggling down the court, they couldn't keep a straight face.  Then Mikayla attempted to score a basket for her old school (I guess she thought she was with them), luckily it didn't make it in, but that made for more laughs.  Mikayla's team ended up winning their game.  Here is a picture of her with some of her friends after the game.

Brooke, Mikayla, Allison, Jordan and Heather

Ashlee's team played next.  They won as well.  You could tell that Ashlee was afraid to block her friends from her old school.  She didn't want to be aggressive or get in their way because she knows them and they are her friends.  

Mikayla GRIT Awards

Mr. Martinez the PE Teacher giving Mikayla her award

Ms. Ries Mikayla's 6th grade teacher giving her a award

Mikayla was recognized twice a school assembly this morning.  She received a GRIT award for Focus from her teacher Ms. Ries and she also received a GRIT award fro Perseverance and Focus from her PE teacher Mr. Martinez.  Mikayla has been at her new school for about 6 weeks and is doing very well. 

POST FOR THE LAST 3 MONTHS

I know I have been really slacking on this blog for a long time.  Every time I sit down to work on it, there is some technology issue and it takes hours to accomplish a simple task.  I finally did it though!  I finally updated the last 3 months.  So in order for the post's to make any since, you will need to start in June and work your way to September, otherwise you may feel lost.  Hopefully I can stay on top of this better in the future; so I don't have to spend hours and days playing catch up.

John's Change of Employment

The past 14 months John has been working for Foster Farms.  He has met many people there and has became friends with almost everyone.  He enjoyed his job, but he (and the kids and I) have not enjoyed his schedule.  Most days he leaves the house between 7-7:30am and doesn't return home until sometime between 7-10pm.  He never knows when he is getting off and never knows if he has to work a Saturday or not until sometime Friday afternoon.  Plus he was on salary pay, so he was being paid to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, but was working way more than that.

Anyways, a few weeks ago John had to attend a two day safety training for work.  One day he finished up early, so he stopped by my work and picked up Ashlee to take her to soccer practice.  When he showed up, he noticed an employee violating a safety issue, so he jokingly came into the office and started speaking of what he witnessed.  A couple days later, my boss was upset with some things that had been happening with our night shift crew and asked if John was looking for a job.  I (jokingly) responded back yes (the night before this John had worked a really late shift and I was done with his hours).  Over the next couple of hours, my boss kept asking me questions here and there. I didn't think he was serious, then a while later he made John a job offer.  I knew right away that we would not be able to survive off the pay he was offering, but we penciled it out and discussed it, and decided that is would not work for us.  A couple days later my boss began to ask more questions and came back with a better offer.  This time, the offer was better than John's current job.  John went and spoke with my boss a couple days later and decided to take the job.  There are some draw backs to the new job though, John has to work night shift for the next few months 6pm-6am 7 days a week until this harvest is over.  After that he will work from 7am-3:30pm 5 days a week 7 1//2 months out of the year.  During harvest he will have to work 12 hour days 7 days a week, but we figured that would be better than his current job.  So we just have to get through a few months of night shift hours and then hopefully things will get better.  Wish us luck.

Friday, September 19th was John's last day at FF.  For two weeks prior to his leaving, he was confronted on a daily basis by people, who were saddened to hear that he was leaving.  John received compliments from many of his co-workers, his boss, the plant manager, the head of HR, etc.  All of them admired him for his work ethic and the way he treated and respected others.  An employee who had been employed by the company for 40 years, told John he "was the best supervisor she ever worked with."  His last week there, he was given a gift daily by his co-worker supervisor, who ran the night shift in his department.  On his last day his boss and his co-worker supervisor took him to lunch and his crew of 35 employees, showered him with gifts and hugs.  Most of them wanted to know where he was going to work, so they could go too.  John left FF on great terms.  He was told if things don't work out he is welcome to come back.

Yesterday (September 20th) he started his new job.  He is training a couple days on day shift, before starting night shift.  Needless to say, he has adapted well, he seems to know what he needs to do, and is kind of bored.  He is use to a much faster paced environment, so we will have to see how this goes.  John doesn't like to be bored, and if he spends too much time standing his back hurts.  Hopefully things will be a bit busier for him on night shift, so he can stay awake and get through this!

Volleyball and soccer

This is the time of year when life is hectic crazy. I am working full time 6 days a week, the girls are back in school and they are both participating in sports.  There seems to be something every night of the week and we just go one day at a time because that is the only way to get through it.

Mikayla is playing volleyball for the school and is doing very well.  She has had four games so far, and has scored points at every single game.  She is the only girl on her team allowed to serve over hand, the rest have to serve under hand; and she has been recognized on the morning announcements at school twice for her accomplishments at games.  I have only been able to leave work once to attend her game, but hopefully in the coming weeks I can take some time off to see her play some more.

 This week Mikayla played volleyball against Gustine, Teresa was able to go and watch her play and sent us these pictures.  Mikayla was recognized on the morning announcements at school for having 8 ace serves at this game.

 This is the morning announcement that was on the school web site and also announced on the morning announcements the day following Mikayla's first volleyball game.




Mikayla is playing soccer for the city league as well.  She has one of her coaches from last year and some of the girls from her team last year (the rest of the girls moved up to the next age group due to their birthdates).  They have had three games so far and have tied one, and won two.  They are off to a good start.

Ashlee is playing soccer for the city league as well.  She is on a team with her friend Lauren from Whitmore Charter.  She is glad that her and Lauren are on the same team and still get to see each other 3 days a week, even if they don't go to the same school anymore.  Ashlee's team has had some tough competition, and has been dealing with lots of injured and missing players, so that makes it hard for those that are participating.  Most games the girls have to play the entire 85 minutes because they don't have enough girls to sub for them.  Ashlee has recently started playing goalie, and has done well.  She can play any position she is asked to do.

Ashlee #14 Lauren #15

Ashlee and Lauren