Ellie’s 7th Grade Volleyball Season

This was Ellie's first opportunity at playing school sports.  It was so fun to watch her play volleyball this year.  She has wanted to be out on that court in the uniform since I was coaching when she was just a 4 year old kid helping me out.  So, dreams realized.  It was a little up in the air who their coach would be until a week before the season.  Heather Pauli decided to step in and coach.  I couldn’t have asked for a better coach for Ellie for her foundational year.  Heather was not only encouraging to the girl – building team the best she could – but she also knows volleyball and expected good things from the girls.  They had 15 girls on the team, which is a pretty good number to have. 

Heather chose to play them in changing groups throughout the season – not a A and B team format.  I truly believe that this led to two things: 1) a better team chemistry overall, and 2) growth in every girl by the end of the season.  Their team had a great record – only losing to Northwestern once in league play, and then Northwestern a second time in the finals of tournament play.  Let’s go #9

We are fortunate to have a lot of pictures since Amber Doty came to all the games to cheer her daughter on.  Here is a mix of pictures from the season. 

                          

WCAL League Runner-ups!! Go Bulldogs!  (A little teary-eyed, but so much to be proud of!)

Looking forward to what the next years might bring!

    

Wayne County Fair

Normally, we are at the fair 2-3 times – to watch goats, to ride rides, to eat food, to look at stuff, maybe a concert.  This year?  We went once.  And for a very short time. 

We had just come off of being at Cedar Point all day Sunday until late at night.  My feet and body were exhausted from riding rides and walking around.  So, to wake up Monday to head to the fair was a hard thing.  But Madison is in band and was performing at the fair.  We wanted to watch her.  So, we went. 

We caught Sam and Lilli showing their turkeys.  Checked in on their goats – Harry, Mary, and Lloyd (Dumb and Dumber allusion). 

We went to check out the fair art

Ellie’s art

    

Madison’s art    

         

and the 4H display.

         

Ellie ran into her friend, Clara, who joined us for awhile – to watch their friend show her pig and to eat lunch.  And then I just shut down and so did Madison, but Ellie was not and so that was a conflict and was not a good end to the fair, but it was what it was. 

We came home and the girls had volleyball practice yet.  They had Tuesday off to sleep in and recover, so that was helpful.

Visitors

Jeremy’s extended family from Florida had planned to come through town on Labor Day.  They were planning to see Gloria that day.  Because this was attached to another trip, they came out anyway.  And we were so glad to see them! 

The girls both had volleyball games that day, but we took them after their game and met Ned and Judy (his aunt and uncle) and Ryan, Lori, Piper and Pace at the hotel restaurant where they were staying.  The girls were so excited to see new baby Pace, born in July. 

         

Piper is also entertaining.  They got to read books and play hide and seek with her as well. 

    

The adults talked and enjoyed each other’s company.  It is always good to see family.

Jeremy’s birthday

Sometimes in the midst of school starting and the fair, Jeremy’s birthday gets lost.  This year it is both was lost and celebrated. 

He had signed up to ride in the VeloSano (Latin for “swift cure”) Bike for the Cure that he has participated in the past few years.  He rode in honor of so many people, which is hard to come to grips with … how his list keeps getting longer of those he knows affected by cancer. 

This year, his uncle David rode with him.  And I am so thankful.  We have had beautiful weather – almost no rain (which is not good, but does make for being outside nice!) with some comfortable summer days.  However, September 7 was NOT beautiful in Cleveland.  (It actually was kinda nice here though…)  It rained the entire ride.  The wind was super windy.  The temperature was in the 50s.  It was definitely not good riding weather.  He said it made him stay motivated to keep riding knowing that those he were riding in honor of had gone through so much more.  He and David made it, but it was not easy.

    

They got home around 3pm, unloaded the bikes, and then Jeremy realized that he did not have his wallet.  He had left it on the bench where he had been eating after the ride.  So, instead of going to the fair as we had planned, we all went back up to Cleveland to get his wallet and celebrate his birthday with some good food!  He chose Mabel’s BBQ.  It was delicious! (Some lady really wanted to take this picture of us with our menus)

    

    

We walked around that area of town a bit, but mostly ate and came home.

    

I made dirt pudding for him on his birthday which Madison enjoyed with him between volleyball games, youth group, practices, and everything else.  The forgotten wallet was a blessing in disguise because we were actually together to enjoy each other!