Relief is coming

The last time I left this blog I talked about what I have been doing in my busy life, well the next week, life only got more busy.  Although, I am glad there isn't snow on the ground yet,  but the roads are a little icy in the mornings, which is scary to drive in.  I am at work right now on an inservice day, and there is nothing for me to do.  Good thing I have homework to work on.  The teachers just had conferences last night and it is like they really have nothing to do either.  I wish in-services were more fun.  Anyways, here is the recap as of late.

October 19:  We had a game against Service and the girls had another battle to win this one.

October 21:  We played a school that is not in our conference, Lumen Christi.  Lumen was the first school I coached volleyball at.  They are a tiny private catholic school and didn't have much of a volleyball program when I was there.  Since I left, their program has been growing and there were a handful of players I coached when they were freshman, now seniors.  It was nice to see them and I knew they would probably stomp my girls, but since my freshman team has been beating everyone in our conference, I decided it was time to let them have a taste of something different.  The game was long.  We didn't pull out a win, mainly because my girls were nervous and they were not playing like they usually do.  Their emotions ran wild when the referees called things the girls have never heard all season.  Anyways, they were pretty upset with the loss and I felt indifferent about the whole thing.  I really wanted to see them fight that night, but instead they seemed to have curled up in little balls.  Oh well, it is not how you fall, it is how you get back up.

October 22-23:  I ran a giant tournament at Dimond High for the Varsity teams.  There were 20 teams invited total, which were teams in our conference and out of our conference, all over Alaska.  Even Barrow showed up, and they live on the tip top of Alaska in the DARK.  They were good too, which was awesome.  I directed traffic, made sure C-Team girls were working their shifts, talked between coaches and parents, and made sure the big bracket was updated.  A parent thanked me for my good work.  Actually, I got a lot of thank you from the coaches as well.  I was very proud of myself for running the tournament smoothly, no gliches.  The ex-Cteam coach even commented on me on how I was not looking stressed, because every year she stresses out about this tournament.  I just hoped for the best and it worked.

October 26:  We played Eagle River and killed them.  Scores 25-9, and 25-11.  I told the girls if they could keep them under 10 points, I would buy them treats.  So they did it, and I got them a bag of candy.  Good thing I didn't say cookies or ice cream, because that would of been more pricey.

October 28:  Our last practice of the year! I was definitely in a great mood.  Knowing how I will have my time back and knowing I did it, made me really happy.  We had a fun practice with the music going and the girls were very energetic.  I will finally get my money for coaching within the next couple weeks.  Most of it will go towards our savings for buying another vehicle.  Hopefully, I can use some of it to buy a new camera.  I really want to upgrade my EOS digital camera.

When I got home, my brothers came over.  Justin has a project where he needs to make the Air Force Academy Chapel.  Cory has been so awesome to help him.  I tried to help, but it seemed like the boys had it covered.  Here is a picture of what he is supposed to build and a picture of the boys working on the scale model.  They spray painted it gray and Justin suggested to add snow on it.  Spray paint snow should do it or glue cotton balls all around it to make it look like winter.  I suggested they put a little GI Joe by it too.  Hopefully Justin receives a good grade for it.

In the afternoon, I have a calculus exam to take. Then tonight we play South High, which is one of our main rivals and tomorrow will be our last tournament of the year at East High.  I hope the girls bring their "A" game for the next two days.  Time to step it up one more time.  After the tournament, my team plans on eating at Red Robins.  This is for a final good bye and good times until the volleyball banquet, scheduled for December 1st.  Hopefully we will eat together as champions!  Cory and I plan on not doing anything this Halloween.  We NEED to relax and just be with each other for once.

Other than all of this volleyball, Cory and I have been planning out what classes we want to take next semester.  Looks like I will be taking calculus II, a chemistry lab and maybe a computer science class that is required.  Oh if only I could JUST go to school.  Although I did think of my dream job, which would be a photography teacher for high school.  That would be so great!  <3

Cool Nule

Wow! It has been awhile.  Well I guess I have lots to cover.  I am going to summerize what my life has been like since the last time I blogged. First off Cory finaly got am interview scheduled for next month for the IBEW electrical apprentice job. We are excited but first he must pass the interview. Praying it works out.

October 9:  My C-Team girls had a tournament out in Chugiak.  They played so amazing and we won every game.  The girls deserved their First Place status in the Gold pool.  We had a lot of fun and one of the parents even bought pizza for the victorious day.  I am so proud of them!

October 10:  I took senior photos of a girl named Hillary Vilareall, graduating from Service High School.  I took her older sisters pictures back in 2008, so this was a great opportunity.  She plans on being an architect.  Here are some of her pictures.

October 12:  We had a game out in the valley against Chugiak.  We barely beat them.  Scores were 26-24 and 25-23.  I believe the girls were getting a little too comfortable with their winning streaks and they knew it.  I wasn't too impressed with how they played, but I am glad we squeezed out a win in that one.

October 15:  We had Breast Cancer Awareness night for a home game against Bartlett.  Lots of Pink.  The day before, the girls and I tye dyed t-shirts and socks to prepare for the night.  The girls had a lot of fun tye-dying and they looked great with their own made shirts.  The night was great because the girls played the best game all season.  The scores were 25-9, 25-6.  What a hoot!  Cory wore a pink cape one of the girls made, too bad I didn't document that, but I did document Cory holding a parrot.  It was an in-service day at work and one of my coworkers brought his parrot in while he did grades.  The parrot liked to say "whats up" a lot.

Anyways, it was a Dimond High sweep.  C, JV and Varsity all won their games against Bartlett.  Here is a picture of the coaches.  Left to right, Cory, Me, Kim Lauwers-head coach, Stan Afoa-JV coach, Rachel Swenson-other Cteam coach, and Cyndi Addington-volunteer coach.  Gotta get a kick out of Stan's hair!

This weekend was a nice relaxing weekend with no volleyball.  Cory and I went window shopping for a LED flat screen TV.  We decided we want a bigger TV in the living room and put the 32" LCD in our room.  After a lot of research and looking around, our knowledge of TVs grew.  We knew the difference between plasma, LED and LCD.  Also, we know about resolution and refresh rates.  We found a great deal at Sams Club, going for a Hitachi 42" LED 120Hz 1080p, and pretty excited to own it soon.  We are still debating to buy it at the moment after all that hunting.  Only because we are down to "Do we REALLY need it?".

I have a busy busy week ahead of me with a chemistry exam tomorrow, two volleyball games, senior night, and a tournament to run next weekend.  Woohoo.  Last push of volleyball season <3

Humanity is alright after all...

Today Cory and I went to WalMart for some groceries and we bought Grandma a photo book.  When we got to the checkout lane, an older lady in front of us had a counter full of stuff.  She looked at us and asked "Do you two want to go in front of me?"  We only had three items to purchase, 2 milk jugs and a frozen lasagna dinner.  Cory replied, "If you don't mind ma'am."  So she shoved the items in front and made room for our items and let us go before her.  What a nice lady.  We thanked her after we checked out and felt pretty happy.

After WalMart, we headed to Sports Authority.  I signed up for the coaches club, where I get this booklet of coupons that I can give away to the volleyball players.  They have pretty great deals for coaches and players. We were shopping for prizes to give the girls for tomorrows practice.  We are having a C/JV team in house tournament.  Coach Rachel and I already picked the teams ensuring that none of the teams were stacked.  We decided the winning team get individual gift bags.  She is making baked goods for her contribution and I am chipping in Quench Gum and Power Bars.  When we got to the check out lane, cashier Phil (which I learned is dating one of my coworkers), helped me out and also gave me $5.00 off of my little purchase.  He searched in my coupon book for anything to save me money.  He found a $5.00 coupon and used it immediately.  I was thankful for his willingness to hook me up.

That was 2 for 2!  Just when I was going to give up on humanity (mainly on how high schoolers disrespect the staff), these adults flipped my perspective around.  Thanks to those guys for making my day!

<3 Gly

The green is coming in

Me taking pictures at Point Woronzof

This week was yet another busy one.  On Tuesday Cory had a group project presentation for his safety class.  He told me his group got a B, which is pretty good.  Now he has to prepare for a solo 10 minute presentation in front of the class.  Lots of preparation and practicing will go into that long presentation.

As for me, my girls had two games at the end of the week versus East and West.  We won both games and I even played with the line up for the girls.  I had some girls play middle that aren't middle, some play outside that are not outside.  I was really impressed to see how the girls stepped up into different positions and they still played well.  Yippy, our record is now 9-0.  We have a tournament this upcoming Saturday in Chugiak, which is out of town.  It should be fun for the girls and we will do secret spikers again.

Cory got me signed up for a USAA account.  We bought a ROTH IRA for me.  We put down $1000 to get it started.  We wanted to do this for awhile, but was waiting to save up that money.  It made me feel more adult by planning on my retirement.  People around my age do NOT think of retirement plans.  I mean why would they?  Retirement is SO far away.  Anyways, a Roth IRA is an individual retirement account that has non-deductible contributions and tax-free growth.  I won't get to take it out until 2040, because that is the plan I chose.  I will be 52 then, which is about the right time to retire.  Since we cancelled our Alaska Club membership, we plan on putting that 150 a month into my roth IRA.  Although, when we make more money, the contributions will raise.  It is so weird to think that far ahead in the future, but once I am at the retirement age, I will be so thankful we made this decision.  One of my coworkers got me started into thinking of retirement.  He invested in a traditional IRA when he was 40 and said that was way too late.  He wished he invested in a roth IRA when he was my age.  He thinks if I invest now, the benefits later will greatly be appreciated.  I am glad I listened to him and Cory was all for it.  I don't think retiring from one job alone is enough to live off the retirement checks.  So gotta have an additional retirement plan.

This weekend has been pretty chill.  I helped out on Saturday during the other volleyball games.  I even got a pedicure with one of my girlfriends, which has to be the highlight of my weekend.  Cory had to work this weekend on base.  He had to study last night for an exam to get his rank up.  So instead of hanging out with him on our saturday night, he studied and I went shopping.  I was pretty bummed out he crammed on studying, because I was really planning to hang out with him after he got off work.  Well he took his exam this morning and passed with flying colors.  He will now have another stripe on his sleeve and now an E-5, which is a staff sergeant.  I am proud of him, of course.  More money for us, well 50 bucks more a month for his one weekend a month, but hey, it is better than nothing.  As for me, I got to sleep in and when I woke up I got some chemistry and calculus homework done. When Cory got home from work, we decided to go to Point Woronzof to take some pictures and enjoy the sunset.  We saw planes come in real close because we were right next to one of the air port landing strips.  I had a blast.  Too bad we are losing sunlight now otherwise we would of been outside longer.  Sunset probably came around 7:40pm.

Balancing together on a stump

Only 4 more days for the Alaska PFD of $1,281.00. WHOOHOO!  I am so proud of being an Alaskan.  I seriously want a bigger TV.