2010 Volleyball Officially Over

What a great success this season has been.  Last night, we had our end of the season banquet at Dimond in the auditeria.  It was really nice with all of the decorated tables, decorated stage with our 2010 State Championships Logo, slide show, and catered food.  Dinner was a taco bar and was really delicious.  The coaches all went up individually, starting from the C team to the varsity level.  Which meant, I got to go first.  They even introduced Cory to go up on stage and he shook his head.  But the crowd started chanting his name, so he was forced to come up with me.  I was happy he came up.  Anyways, I had been thinking of what to say for a week before the banquet.  In the end, I wrote some notes on a note card of what I would say. I didn't want to type out a paper of everything I wanted to say because that just stresses me out.  I just wanted to wing it and let it all come out naturally.  Of course, I was nervous and I'm sure it showed.  Although, it was the better that I have done speaking in front of a large group of parents and players.  I started off with thanking the coaches, then talked about how season went and how the girls improved.  I introduced my girls up on stage and when I said their name, I gave them a little fun nickname.  I went on and presented my awards of Most Inspirational, Most Improved, and Most Valuable Player.  Then instead of talking about all of the girls and making my speech boring, I made a poem about the team.  I wrote the poem the day before the banquet and thought it would be a great idea.  Cory helped a little bit.  This is the poem

2010 C2 Volleyball Poem

By Cory and Gly Larson

The pyramid push ups, squats, and push fives are done
After working with the Larsons, you made it to number one

Hard work is what we’re all about,

Your efforts paid off with a successful season, no doubt

My roster is full with twelve talented ladies,

I love them all, but most times they drove me crazy

Alaina the court protector wearing her libero jersey

Kelsey on the right side, slamming away with no mercy

Those two were my captains, the leaders of this pack

Nadia, like a tiger, she’s mean with her attack.

Rehtaeh, she’s tall as a tree, reaching to get that big block

Haley with her beast serves, she’s tough like a rock

Oh Katelyn, she’s always energetic, sometimes hyper

Here comes Dakayla, cover your face, she hits like a sniper

Mackenzie, Mackenzie, sometimes forgets where she’s at,

Emma will confirm, “Hey, we’re in setters stack!”

Heidi out like a mongoose, hungry for that pancake

Brittany our team princess, someone kiss her, so she can finally awake

Lastly there’s the lovely Megan,

Like an explosive, she’s our little secret weapon

I will truly miss these women, they’ve come so far

I will never forget this season, you studly stars

I am very thankful to have been your coach,

Don’t worry I won’t bug you anymore about your approach

Good luck in the rest of your volleyball career

Remember, C-Team, it begins here.

I have to admit, I did forget to say two lines, which meant, I forgot to mention two of my ladies.  Nobody noticed but Heidi and Brittany.  I felt so horrible because I didn't realize it until I was off the stage.  Note to self: Point at every line you read.  I was reading the poem and looked up at the crowd, which made me lose my spot.  Now I think it is funny.  I will need more practice with this public speaking, but I am just happy I didn't do the worse out of the coaches.  The banquet lasted for about 3 hours.  It was the first time doing a banquet for me, and there was things I def learned to make next year better.  The girls gave me a gift, which was really thoughtful of them.  I didn't expect a thing.  It was a box wrapped up, with another wrapped up box in it.  It was like digging for buried treasure because I went through 6 boxes to find an awesome gift!  The girls got me a voucher for two for an overnight stay at Alyeska Resort.  I was absolutely grateful for this gift.  I know for a fact this kind of gift it pricey.  Well I have until May to use it, but if only I had a snowboard and Cory and I could use it to snowboard and stay the night out there.

I am so glad the season ended with such success.  A record of 14-0 and winning first place in all three of our tournaments.  I hope those girls take this success through out their lives.  I can't wait to see what they will become in the future.  Coaching is so rewarding, especially after hearing this from Emma Hickel, "You really changed me for the better, and I just can't say thank you enough.  Hopefully if I make it to varsity my senior year, I will owe it all to you guys! Thank you so much!  I feel like I improved so much!" I know my practices weren't easy, but I really wanted to push them so they could be amazing.  Besides improving their volleyball abilities, I wanted to boost their confidence and make them better people all around.  I am super excited for what will become of next years season and turn out.  Although, I will never forget my first season COACHING at my alma mater, Dimond.

Love,
Gly

Ice Storm

Today I woke up and was ready to jump in the shower.  Then I thought to check the internet on my iPhone in hopes work was cancelled due to the ice road conditions.  Yesterday going to work was pretty bad.  The roads were horrible and scary.  People were getting stuck in ditches left and right.  UAA campus was closed and I had a feeling if conditions worsen or stay the same, there will probably be an ice day.  Well, Alaska never has cancellations due to weather, unless the roads get TOO icy.  There could be 7 feet of snow and school/businesses would still open.  Hopefully tomorrow there will be a closure and that would make me have a 6 day weekend, awesome!  I definitely have Thanksgiving and Friday off, but having tomorrow off would be such a treat.  Even if I have to go to work tomorrow, it will be an easy day and it will feel like a Friday.

For todays agenda at least:  Stay inside hang out with hubby and do some studying.  If we had ice skates, we could probably cruise around the streets ;-)

Here are some pictures I took from the Anchorage Daily News site of how horrible the roads are.

EDIT:  It is 4:44PM and I just looked at the Anchorage School District website.  We have tomorrow off too! Yes!  6 day weekend! Yeehaw!

Fast Turkey

Whoa.  Where did November go?  I can't believe this month is almost over.  I thought time was supposed to go slower now that I am not coaching volleyball anymore.  Anyways, I will have a three day week at work this week and I am so glad!  After the 4 day weekend, we will have a 3 week shoot until the two week Christmas break.  Gotta love the days off working for the school district, which I really enjoy.  I can't wait to become a teacher and have my own classroom.  The only tough part about teaching is the unmotivated and back talking teens, but other than that, it is so fun to teach and watch students learn.  I have planned out that if I take 8 classes per year, I will be done with school in 3 years.  Which seems like a long time, but time moves so fast and by then I will only be 25.  If I could take more classes a year, I would, but work isn't letting me with their hours.  Once I obtain my bachelors, it will take me 1-2 more years to get a masters and certificate for secondary teaching, which puts me at about 26 or 27 years old to have my own classroom.  Most of the teachers I work with didn't start teaching until they were 26-28.  So I don't feel so bad under their wing as a teacher assistant.  That is probably a great time to settle, even though I wish we had more money now.  Life will continue to be busy for awhile, but as long as I keep my stress level down and switch up activities, then life is good.

Cory got his results from his IBEW interview and he ranked 51 out of 200.  I look at it as top 25%, but at the same time, that looks so far from the top 10.  Companies take apprentices according to rank and if they need more workers.  For example if a company needed 4 apprentices, then they would take the top 4 out of that 200.  Right now it is pretty dead for work, being that it is winter.  They said in March, things start getting busy and Cory might get called to be an apprentice, if they end up needing 51 people.  Oh, just another waiting game.  I don't know what to think, but Cory has tried to get a good job.  We knew this was going to be the risk to take when he switched from active duty to reserves.  I tell myself it is not my fault, but I continue to feel like it is my fault he is in this jobless position.  He reassures me that it is not and he chose to switch and wanted more control of his life.

Right now our hope lands on him getting that civilian job on base.  If he could only get his job back when he was active duty.  They are trying to hook him up, but only time will tell.  Time, faith and hope.  He has applied every time his ex-shop has had an opening.  I really hope it can work out, because that job is our best bet.  If he lands it, he can continue to work on his retirement.  He already put in 5 years.  If he starts a non-federal job, he would have to start back at zero years.  Plus he would get a great hourly wage, where we can afford to buy a house and I can go to school full-time.  I am trying not to lose faith here, but it would really help if Cory can get his armament mechanic job back.  I am glad he is persistent though.

Well, Cory and I signed up at the gym called Powerhouse.  The base gym was way to far.  Here are our calculations:
1.  Base gym took 20 mins to get there and back home, which is 40 minutes for travel.
2.  Going 5 days a week (Cory), in one month all that gas going to the base gym equaled a tank of gas ($75-80).
3.  Powerhouse costs $69/month and it only takes us 5 minutes to get there.
Conclusion:  Saved about 10 bucks a month and saved 40 minutes of our time on base gym vs powerhouse. Win!

I am slowly getting back into working out again.  So far I am only 3 days a week, which is perfect.  Right now I am trying to round up some people to play on my team for adult league volleyball.  I am close to a full roster, but I need one more person that can play middle.  We plan on playing reverse coed and I am so glad to have not only my friends play, but also my hubby play with me again.  I also need to find a business that will sponsor our team because the entry fee alone is $450 for 16 matches.  Then on top of that each player needs to pay $55 to play.  We also need to make jerseys and I am hoping a business will sponsor us and we can wear their logo.  Well, I have until Dec. 3 to get a sponsor and one more player or else we are paying out of our pockets and I hope we don't have to do that!

Other than that this weekend was fun.  Thursday, I had dinner with the varsity volleyball team and other coaches at Chili's.  They just won their third state championship and it is amazing for our program.  They played against South, which was the team that was undefeated all season and took first in every tournament.  Except, on that night, November 13, the Dimond girls beat them to take the state title.  Whoohoo!  It is great.  I am so happy for those girls.  Looking for a "four-peat" next year.  Friday, Cory and I drove to Wasilla to have dinner with our friends that live out there.  They have two boys and they are so cute/fun.  We also watched two movies in a row.  What bums we were.  Yesterday Cory and I ran a bunch of errands then went to Banan & Crystals house to watch the UFC fights.  Banan works on the slope and he is dating one of my high school classmates, Crystal.  Then today they came back over and we watched a movie called, Ip Man, a martial arts movie, and had Chinese food.  Yummy.  Which reminds me, we are going to spend Thanksgiving with my family to eat not only turkey, but a lot of Filipino food.  Score!  Until next time!  <3

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day and at first I came up with the idea to make a photo button of my husband.  Then I thought, maybe I can make a generic logo for a photo button for staff that want to honor our military members.  I sent out a mass email on Monday to the staff at Dimond and asked if they wanted me to make them a photo button of someone they know in the military or a generic one.  In fact, I got my photoshop skills out to make a neat logo design to support our troops.  I got a lot of responses and the next day I started making buttons.  I made probably 50 photo buttons.  I was glad to do it.  MSgt. Watts, the JROTC leader, said to me "God Bless You for doing this."  It felt great that I was doing something right.  We have a machine here at school to make photo buttons. I am very thankful I got to use up the supplies to make such a little trinket.

One of our teachers here at Dimond, Jason Ott, is in the Air Guard.  He left back in the summer before school started and has a six month tour in Afghanistan.  He writes our school once a week so we can know how he is doing.  A good number of staff asked to wear a photo button of Ott.  There is another staff member, Jamie Bahmer, whose husband is also in Afghanistan.  The sacrifice they made to go there is amazing.  Cory also went to the desert back in 2008, right before we met.  I am so proud of him in so many ways.  He is now a Tech. Sergeant.  When we met he had 2 stripes on his uniform, now he has 4.  Woohoo! And although, I have never met my grandpa, he was also in the military.  I heard stories of him going to Vietnam.  He must of been an amazing person.

In honor of our veterans and current military members, I wore my "Dimond Supports our Troops" button and one of my husband, Cory.  What a great day to honor all of those people.  Although, I wish the students realized it was Veterans Day.  Oh high schoolers can be so ignorant.

On the side note, today is the first day of State Volleyball.  Cory and I will drive to Wasilla to support our Dimond Varsity.  I hope they play well.  Let's get a THREE-PEAT!

I love my AIRMAN. 

My photo buttons I wore
TOP:  The design I made
BOTTOM:  Cory

Great Success

I am so proud of the girls I coached.  I had 9 freshman and 3 sophomores on my team.  I am so thankful I didn't lose any of them because of grades or anything dramatic.  I can't believe season is over, but I am so relieved.  The girls finished with a perfect season.  We won every game in our conference and took first place in all three of the tournaments we had.  I did it.  After our first tournament back in September, I made it a goal to have a perfect season.  The girls deserved it with everything I put them through.  They were probably the only C-Team that did extreme weights and conditioning.  They are hopefully set with good foundation that will lead them success in their volleyball careers.  I know for a fact, the freshman will never forget this season.  I, for sure, will remember this season forever.  My first year coaching at Dimond, the school I have many volleyball memories at and learned so much with great coaches.  I am so glad to be a part of it all and give back.

Congrats girls for finishing first place in our end of the year tournament!  We did not get knocked out, but for our championship match, we played Chugiak.  Chugiak's C team is coached by my good friend, Chelsea Guarco.  They got knocked out of the winners bracket in the first round and fought their way back up to the champsionship match.  It was so cool playing against her team.  The best friends' teams playing against each other.  Anyways, after our long day of battling it out in a double elimination tournament, we decided to eat dinner at Red Robins.  We ate dinner as champions!  It was delicious!  I slept with a smile slapped on my face that night.  Here is our victory portrait :)

Champions!!

Yesterday, Cory woke me up and suggested we go to Eklutna Lake to take some photos.  A photo adventure.  I was groggy and still wanting to sleep, but I was down for it all.  We got ready in our warm clothes, made myself some coffee, and headed north.  We had no time for breakfast, so we had some McDonald's breakfast.  Cory also bought some flowers because his idea was to take these vibrant flowers with the dead, cold, environment surrounding it.  In Anchorage, there is no snow yet, but 20 miles north, yes there was snow on the roads!  We shifted into 4-wheel drive to go through the curvy and hilly roads to Eklutna Lake.  When we arrived, there was about 3-5 inches of snow on the ground.  It was pretty cold, but that didn't stop us.  We walked around the lake and through the woods to a creek.  It was actually really relaxing to be there, because it was dead quite.  The only noise I heard were the 4-wheelers driving by, but it wasn't much.  Here are some photos from our jaunt.

Oh, are those flowers for me? and the handsome guy too? :)

We had a very productive day.  We did some house chores, like laundry and grocery shopping.  We also rearranged our living room.  There is now so much more space now that we don't know what to do with our selves!  I love the new arrangement.  We basically flip flopped everything.

Anyways, I also made my little brother his senior Ad that goes in the yearbook.  I was very proud of it and it is going to be one of the most unique and neat looking.  Click on it for an enlarged view.

Until then!  Love, Peace, and Happiness <3

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