THE WEAF

Go to this website and read the story and then vote for Kyle Weafer!! He is an amazing person and he is m favorite student of all times. You have to click on the "get Inspired" section on the left hand side. Then click on the "inspirational story" spot then click on the "kyle inspires me" to vote for him. You can vote once an hour. I honestly think that you will want to vote for him once you read the story his dad wrote about him. It really will be the highlight of his life!!

www.highschoolrudyawards.com

Photo Shooting Day with Yoh

i went to Ann Arbor to visit my BFFOTP Yoh and we went on a hike and a photo taking adventure in the nichols arboretum. It was great fun. I really am starting to enjoy taking pictures. it is so neat to see God's creation through a camera. Here are some of my favorite shots from the fun hike.

This one is cool because they are all different colors and in the same yard. Nice, plus they were super vibrant and grabbed my attention.

Part of the trail that was covered with leaves, it just looked cool.

The 'steep' part of the trail. I was just trying an different angle.

One of my favorite pictures I have ever taken. We were talking about how this place would be such a fun spot to spend time with the Lord whether it was reading, praying or just sitting with Him. And then bam there was this sign!

A little gate that went to someones backyard. I thought it was sort of like something I would see in a different country

Love Hurts

Shark tooth? Bear Claw? Dog Tooth? Those are the questions? Well the answer is dog tooth. Harley had her two front 'fang' teeth (a.k.a. Canine teeth) pulled on Wednesday morning. No her mother did not do this for cosmetic reasons, she did it because it was the cheapest way to fix the injury. On Tuesday afternoon I had to run a quick errand to the post office, so i put the dogs out back to play while I was gone which I do often. When I came home like 10 minutes later (at the max) I went to the back door to let the dogs in and they were happy as could be to see me - but they both had blood on their faces and paws! I knew this was gonna be bad so I ran across the street to get Lauren for some clean up help. As we were trying to figure out how to go about cleaning them we noticed that Harley's tooth was sticking out sideways - so i knew I had to take her to the vet. Leah came home to check out Yuma and she also had to take her in for a cut on her foot. Both dogs had to stay overnight at the vets.

Final Outcomes:

Harley: lost the fight, had two teeth pulled, has to take pain medicine and antibiotics, has to have her food mushed up, and severely bruised neck and mouth area.

Yuma: won the fight, had to get some stitches in her front leg, has some punctured wounds that had to have the fur shaved away so it will heal properly, and the ugly cone around her head

"Man this cone thing is awkward and I run into everything"

"Yes it looks like nothing happened to me but just scroll back up and look at my tooth again"

long over due

Nemo and Spiderman

Tom & Leah

Wyatt & Cass

Well i have been meaning to do this post for awhile but i put it off for a few reasons mostly because it could be sad and i was waiting for some pictures. in august i moved in with some of my great friends the T-Blakes (Leah -the mom & the canoeamericana blogger, Tom-dad, Wyatt-super fantastic 3yr old, Cass-such a great voice & she is 2yrs old, and Yuma-German shepherd & a tad on the hyper side or should i say excitable side) i moved in with them for numerous reasons: they are fun, rent was good, leah is a great cook, i hang out there often anyways, the Lord told me I should, save money and pay off debt, help them out financial, and to just become better friends with them. So far most of it has been pretty great the dogs got along pretty well from the very beginning - huge blessing since that was most everyone concern. the family time is fun for me, i get to play with the kids on most days, they tell me stories we play games, etc. we eat dinner a lot together and socialize or let the kids tell us things. the food is great - that was NEVER a concern at all. sometimes the dogs bark often - mine might start this process- she likes to bark at people who walk their dogs on the sidewalk - i think she needs to repent of jealously. in fact today we got a notice from animal control that their was excessive barking this morning, now this is not so normal because usually someone is home to tell them to stop however I was at work and the TBlakes are taking a small vacation/getaway. So i will admit I am a tad irritated at that and hope that there are no more notices in the future and that my landlords still let us live here. Honestly it is sometimes weird to live here just because i use to have a whole house that was mine and now i have a room and a bathroom (which they painted orange for me- yahoo). but really what does a single person who is out there coaching most nights and isn't even home much need a whole house to herself for - no clue is the answer to that question.

well when i was moving good 'ol Leah was pregnant with baby #3! Which I was stoked for because he was going to grow up loving on me from day 1 and it was going to be great. I say that he was going to love me only because the other kids do, i was assuming that he would just follow their lead. it was going to be cool watching someone grow up so closely day to day. Well God had other plans for Big ZEKE! He was only here a short 10 days until he got to go to heaven. i must admit i am a tad jealous of that. I miss him already but know that i will see him so much longer when i get to heaven too. So as you can imagine living in the mix of the TBlakes going through the grieving process has been different - i wouldn't say hard just different. I know that God has me living here for a reason and who knows maybe it is just to be living and walking through this with them side by side or as much as they will let me in. I just do the best I can and do whatever it is that they ask of me without question only because I know it is what they would do for me. some days it is sad just because Zeke isn't with us, sometimes i am just sad for them and sometimes i am sad because i am grieving too. but i know that we will work through this or wrestle through this together and separately because we are praying and talking to the Lord and because we have amazing community support.

this week they are out of town and i am doing my best to maintain the fort. i have cleaned up dog puke two times - no idea which dog it is. one puke i stepped in and also ended up puking myself- pure awesomeness! then today as i mentioned animal control stopped in and one dog puked at least this time it was not on the carpet. they are going to be gone a few more days. i was planning on having a few parties here towards the end of the week - however I have now postponed them due to the dog puke and barking incidents. (really no parties were ever planned, we did have a game night though).

whelp that is all for now on the whole moving to Mastin street and living with one of my favorite families the TBlakes.

To-LA

Okay so I am going to tell you a story about my friend Tola. I first met Tola when she was an incoming freshman at BVNW - she is currently a sophomore at Mary Washington University. I met Tola in the summertime while I was coaching weights and conditioning for all girls that were going to play volleyball or basketball at BVNW. Right away Tola stood out to me because she had amazing strength and stamina for a freshman, and because she had a fantastic attitude. So I just started talking to her and trying to get to know her. I asked her if she was going to play basketball - she was like well I am not very good and I only played last year and was on the 'B' Team. I said well you should think about it, I think that you would be great at it and I might even be able to be your coach. Hey I felt I needed to do what I could do to get this girl to go out for hoops so that I could be around her more. oh and I did really think that she would be a great basketball player. So I got to hang out with her and get to know her more over the summer. I went to watch a few volleyball games of hers also - which she was super great at.

Then came time for basketball and yes my few readers she did go out and made the team. I was correct she was a great hoops player and picked things up quickly. So quickly that during her freshman year she played on the Freshman A team, the Sophomore team, and the Junior Varsity team. She was a natural and a hard worker so she moved up the ladder quickly. She ended up playing volleyball and basketball all four years of her high school. She was a leader in both sports and was also involved in many other things in high school. She was also homecoming queen her senior year! Everyone just loves this girl.

Tola also joined a Bible study that myself and another basketball coach led together. Then one summer Tola and I did a Bible study together. It was really a great opportunity for us to get to know each other even better and also to just grow in the word together. This really was one of my favorite parts of knowing Tola and being friends with her.

Tola decided to go to Mary Washington for college. It had the best program for what she thinks that she wants to do with her life. Its far away but thankfully when she comes home she wants to see me! So we almost always have time to hang out if it is only for an hour. When she went to college one of the courses she had to take was a PE course, so she took a volleyball class. There were a couple of girls that were on the Volleyball Team that were in her class. After a few days of the course, her professor asked her if she was on the University team. Tola said no. He asked why not, she said that since she is far away from home and she wants to focus on grades that it was probably best to not participate in a collegiate sport. Well this professor talked to the Volleyball coach and told her that she should come by class and watch Tola. The coach did, then asked Tola to come and meet with her when she had time. Tola is thinking maybe she wants me to be on the scrimmage team or just a manager. Well as the conversation starts up with just normal things, Tola feels real comfortable. Then the coach starts asking her about her background in volleyball and why she did not try out for the team. Tola explains the same things to her that she did her professor. The coach then said would you want to practice with us and see how it goes and maybe if you want you could be a part of the team in the future. Tola is like sure why not, she is also thinking that if all goes well she can be on the team her sophomore year. Well she practices with the team and gets to know the girls on the team. Then the next day the coach says she can be on the Team THIS YEAR if she wants too. Tola is like heck yeah! She still thinks that surely she will not play much but she is just excited to know people and be involved in sports again. She plays the rest of the season and has a great time, she also plays a ton. It comes time to go home for the summer and she works out all summer and is excited to come back in the fall to start her sophomore year because the team should be successful and she is going to be one of the Captains!! I am not surprised, she has a lot to offer anyone let alone her teammates. Well last week she called me and she got injured, not good! She came down from a huge hit and landed just a tad funny on her left foot and BAM - she tore her MCL and her ACL. Dang - she was crushed when I talked to her. She was sad that it happened but honestly she was mostly sad for her team because they were sad that she was hurt. Figures a great kid like that automatically looks out for others. I was so sad for her and felt helpless. I was happy about one thing - she told me that of all the people that she wanted to talk to you she really wanted to talk to me. I would rather her call to tell me good news but those words really made my heart feel great and it reminded me that athletes do care about coaches. Tola is not sure what the future hold for her right now but she knows that God knows the way and what He wants for her in this season, though it maybe different than what she had planned. She is doing her best to keep her chin up and most likely she is still being a great leader for her team and trying to keep their spirits up and helping them stay focused and still win games even if her position on the team has temporarily changed.

If you have never met Tola I pray that someday the Lord will bring your paths together. She has truly changed my life and continues to all the time. To-LA I think that you are an amazing woman of God and I am very thankful that you are in my life. Continue to press into God's Word and know that He and I are always in the stands cheering you on no matter if you are playing in a game or sitting on the bench. We are your biggest fans. Love you for life my friend.

Volleyball

well this year I am taking on a new different challenge and it is really almost over. I am the head 8th grade volleyball coach. I enjoy coaching a ton so it was sort of easy for me to say yes to this opportunity. I will admit to you guys - any of you that are reading this - that volleyball is the sport that I know the least about. I never played volleyball on a team only for fun and in P.E. classes. I chose to play softball year-round instead, mostly because I was WAY better at softball than volleyball.

Anyways the season opener is tomorrow and the last game is September 30th, fast season! My team is really great a few of the girls on my team were the national champions this summer in a 13 and under league. So we should be real decent and be successful. I know that I handle the coaching aspect of these girls but I am curious to see how the drama or no drama might play into this short season. Since a few of them play on a club team together and the other girls do not, it could be interesting. My outlook is that we will win most games and that the drama will start to rise the last week of the season and then I will not have to worry about it because the season will be over.

If you want to come catch a game just let me know and I can give you a schedule I will warn you that most games start at 3:15 - however they are free and the concession stand should be open.

Dream I HAD to share!!

So the other night I woke up from a dream! It was a bad dream that something had happened to my Uncle Bobby. All I could see was him and that he had been in some sort of serious accident. I could not tell what kind of accident car, plane, or work related (he is a mechanic for airplanes). Then I could see me being super sad. He is my favorite uncle - I know you aren't suppose to have favorites, but he was always the one that would play with us kids and just showed me he cared about me all the time that he was around!

So when I woke up I prayed to see what I was suppose to do and I talked to Yoh about it. I tried to text one of his daughters but I didn't have her number so then I decided to get on Facebook and send his wife and two girls a message saying that Uncle Bobby need to be careful because I had a bad dream about him and to tell him that I loved him and I think he is a great man and father!

So then today I get a Facebook email from my Aunt Cindy - Bobby's wife saying this: "Bob says thanks for the note last week about being extra careful. Today he came within inches of a T-bone wreck with someone speeding on C Hwy. He says it didn't happen because he was being super careful after your note. We all love you and wish we could see you more."

Okay how amazing is the Lord!! I have dreams or moments when someone is on my heart often but I have never gotten to hear of anything like this. I just praised the Lord and thanked him for this amazing word/vision/dream that he gave me. I was thankful that I was obedient in emailing them! It was just so awesome that I just wanted to share and so that I would always have a record of this story of awesomeness!!

Crawling - long over due post

Okay so this post is long overdue and I apologize a ton. I saw Samantha Prescott several months ago and I of course was taking pictures of her and bam she started crawling for the first time, and I got it on film!! TOOT TOOT! So here it is. 

Canada Vaca

So I just got back from Niagara Falls, Canada with Melissa Yoh, Pat Yoh, and Jen Yoh. I took tons (around 200) of photos but that would take forever to post on this blog! :) So I just picked a few of my favorites to share. I enjoyed the 2 days we were there - mostly because we took photos the whole time and it was just amazing to see such an amazing creation of God. It was nice on one of the days we were there and one day it was sort of cloudy but not horrible. My favorite part was the Maid of the Mist boat ride that took us almost into the horseshoe falls, we got soaked even though they gave us ponchos. 

This is what I was calling the "baby falls". It was a waterfall in this garden area we went to.

This is the very top of part of the Horseshoe Falls, I enjoy it because it shows the bridge way in the back and some of the rapids!

A bridge and some water out in front of a hotel - I thought it was a cool shot

One of the first photos I took it is from inside our hotel on the observation deck

I am pretty sure I tried to get this shot about 50 times, I think this is one that I took from the boat ride! I like the rocks at the bottom.

Trying to do some framing with the trees

I liked the spot at the top in the middle where it sort of separates a tad

Rodeo

well on friday night i went to what I am pretty sure is my first rodeo. i might have gone to a rodeo as a child and i just don't remember. so the rodeo was fun, of course i took lots of pictures and i have picked a few of my favorites to post for you to live via my pics. i enjoyed witnessing many parts of the rodeo - i saw some guys wearing cowboy boots with the spurs on them - don't think i have ever seen this. i enjoyed the bull riding of course - that is considered the main event! i also like the barrel racing, it was awesome to see the horses maneuver that quickly.

Bull rider after he got bucked off

Yoh walking with Gabby

Horses in the pin - check out their jaw muscles

Bull rider - nice shot if I do say so myself

A cowgirl doing some barrel racing

Theodore

Theodore eating some leftovers that the birds left behind

He is scoping out the scene!

Alright one of the fun parts of my day is watching this chipmunk. He comes around Yoh's patio everyday, I think that he lives in one of the shrubs in front of her porch. Well Harley has really enjoyed watching him. I named him Theodore. So everyday Harley spots him eating some leftover birdseed and she just stares at him and her whole body becomes stiff like a statue. She is weird. Who knows what she would do if she would actually catch him. But for now the sliding glass door will continue to separate them. I have always said that my dog is pretty smart, she really is - I am sure it is the bird dog in her! So just the other day she was laying far away from the glass slider and she was kind of asleep - and I saw that Theodore was visiting for his afternoon snack and I just said to her "Theodore is here" and man she jumped up and ran over to the window! So when Yoh woke up we tired it again and sure enough she went right over to the window to check and see if he was there! 

coaching thought

So the other day I was reading my friends blog about coaching through FCA , or simply put coaching with the idea of God first! So here is what got me thinking and processing: 

"As a coach I have been given an incredible opportunity to live my life in such a way that over the course of a career, hundreds even thousands of people will be impacted personally by ME! This is a tremendous calling, and one that I was not intended to live up to on my own." 

Now I have know for a very long time that coaching is a huge way to impact peoples lives, I had many coaches that have impacted my life in both a positive and negative way. That is one of the reasons I became a coach because of the coaches that I had in my life and the ways that they made me become a better person and helped make me the person that I am today! However I have always just looked at my coaching job as something fun to do and just try to teach my athletes something more than just the sport itself, I want them to gain something from me that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. Now I have no idea what that might be that is most likely different for each athlete. I also know that sometimes I impact some athletes in a negative way - mostly that happens because we don't vibe or I say something to them that they cannot handle. These athletes will always stick with me! 

Since I have become a believer and a follower of Christ I try to treat my coaching style differently and I try to do what I think that Jesus would do in my position. I know that I do not always do this, but I honestly do try. Well then I came across this quote and it kind of blew me away! I guess you could say it had an impact on me. I would like to find some other Godly Coaching quotes that are out there to - so if any of you find some for me send them my way!! Well this quote also got me thinking about how many athletes I have actually been in contact with since I have started coaching back in 2000 - I am not counting kids I coached before then mainly because it was to spread out to try and figure out. I originally came up with about 320 athletes and Yoh said that I way underestimated that, see I didn't count all the track athletes nor did I count the athletes that I worked with during summer conditioning, nor did I count the athletes that I did work with however didn't really coach that team (tricky I know, basically I am saying that I worked with varsity kids but I only assisted that team). So I recalculated the number and the rough figure was over 1,300 athletes!! WHOA! Now I will be honest I am sure that some of those people overlapped since I coached them for multiple seasons and/or years! However the biggest thing is that I need to be doing a better job of how I interact with these athletes. So in the future of my coaching, however long that ends up being I need to do more of what the above quote is saying I need to make sure that I am impacted these athletes in a way that Christ wants me too. I need to understand this opportunity was a gift and utilize it and impact all these athletes in a positive way! 

Well I just wanted to process my thoughts on this quote and let my followers know that I realize that being a coach is a huge responsibility and that I have never taken it lightly and from now on I am plan on doing more than just coaching and praying for my athletes - much more!   

I will leave you with one more quote by Michael Jordan: 

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career, I've lost almost 300 games, 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Mark in a commercial

okay so I had to brag on my brother. he is the one serving the food for the followers of this blog who do not know what my little brother looks like. Enjoy

Starting the summer off

Well I am officially IN my summertime! As most of you know I decided to spend my summer in Michigan with my best friend on the planet - Melissa Yoh! I do want to say that I have been trying to post for a few days now however her Internet keeps kicking me off - LAME! So I am at panera and I have 30 minutes to use the free Internet here. So here you go. My trip was very successful we (Harley and I) went to Champaign, IL first to see my friend DJ (real name-Alicia/friend from college days) while there we went to a relay for life event, DJ works for the American Cancer Society and she had to do some educational things there at the event. Then the next day we went to church, a restaurant where we ate outside with Harley - she did very well, it was her first time DJ thought maybe it was something that we have done before since she was so good. Then after that we decided to spoil Harley a tad since she had been spending some time in the car with not much space so we took her to a park. This park has a very large paved path and it also has some off the paved path paths - which we did decided to venture to as well. While on the path DJ and I talked about all kinds of things and just enjoyed the weather and the scenery. DJ wanted me to take a few pictures of the nature so that she could load them on her computer and then later use them to look at to do some paintings. She enjoys painting and is getting quite good at it if I do say so myself. So the best part of the walk was during our talk about not so fun to talk about items that involved spiritual warfare and kicking spiritual things out of your house, and deliverance! All really uplifting topics - right? Well maybe once you are finished doing them they are. Well anyways while we were talking about those items out on the path about 8 feet in front of us was a beautiful deer. We immediately turned around - mainly so that Harley would not see it! Then I went up and captured some photos! So below are some of the photos that I took in the park.  (no worries I wont post pictures with every post!)

A bridge in the middle of the meadow

A deer that was like 8 feet in front of us, Harley did not notice (whew!)

Orange daisies - what can I say I LOVE ORANGE

Trees and sidewalk - with a different approach from the photog 

Okay so now that Harley and I are officially in Michigan and enjoying life with Yoh and Mason Thomas I will also give you some details about that. Mostly we have been just hanging out in the apartment and around Ann Arbor. You know typical summer things: staying up late and sleep in, going on walks with the dog, watching a couple of movies, journaling, praying. Yoh and I went out to eat and to a movie the night that she had off. We saw UP it was cute and in 3-D!! It has been kind of gloomy here so far so no pool time has taken place yet - but it will soon - i can feel it. Next week Yoh has 3 days off in a row so we are going to go to Pat Yoh's house and then head to Cedar Point which is an amusement park with at least 17 roller coasters!!! FUN! So I will keep you posted on that for sure! Other than that I am just hanging out with my best friend on the planet and enjoying the face to face time while I can - you know in between her working and sleeping times! :) 

Loose Park Rose Garden

So the other day my friend Lauren Blake went to Loose Park on a "photo" shoot! It was just fun to hang out with someone and take pictures. So we decided to post our top five shots. Hope you enjoy!

Little bud with the end result in background

Petite orange one

Daffy Duck on the waterfall

Yellow Rose

The Perfect Rose

God's Beauty

I love tulips!! This little yello guy is awesome.

More tulips - on this angle I got a tad lower - i like it

Yep the sold sign for my house - it is pure beauty that only God could create.

Thanks for all the prayers over the past 5-6 months, Praise the Lord it sold!!

Whoa an amazing sunset

Tis the season

WARNING: I have no clue why it is underlined nor do I know how to get rid of it!

Most of you know that I coach multiple sports, but this is my favorite season - Softball! I love being outside (even though it has rained more than it has been sunny this year), I love the game intensity, I love the athletes, I love the dirt, the double plays, the several ways to bunt, I love almost all aspects of the game the only thing I do not really like is the COLD weather!
This year the I am the Varsity assistant at BVNW. I am excited about this position, mainly because you get to work with the top team but you still get to coach the younger girls too. We have a great team this year and we should be state contenders this year - that is if we keep our heads in the game and there is little to no girl drama! We have 6 seniors and almost all of them have played at the varsity level all 4 years, 3 are going on to play in college - 1 at Nebraska, 1 at Wisconsin, 1 at Rockhurst! I think as long as we get our hits and runs in the first couple of innings no body will be able to stop us. However it is softball the score can all change with one swing of the bat!
So far we have played 4 games, we have had to postpone 2 games due to the rain. We are 4-0. We have a big game this week against another team in our conference that always gives us a run for our money. Then next Monday (April 20th) we have a super big game we play Blue Valley and they went to state last year and won the conference by 1 game and we got 2nd in the conference! I will most likely post again after that game because I know all of you will be wanting to know how it turned out.

Here are some pictures:

The team

Pregame equipment


Outfield/scoreboard/flag

Catchers view of the game

Michigan Trip Pictures Spring Break 2009

Gabby with her big "I love the camera" smile
Mason Thomas just chill-axing

Yoh doing one of her famous poses for the camera

The sistas getting geared up for the wagon ride

Gabby climbing to the top of the slide at the park

Yoh and her favorite dog Cooper! Yoh is also mid dance

Brynn eating some grub

Brynn getting pushed by her big sister! Amazing facial expression

A goose and 2 ducks on the pond at Yohs apartment complex.
The second duck is the the cattails - can you see her?

Some geese on the pond at Yohs apartment complex



Some of my followers were looking forward to some pictures of Yoh's new place in Michigan. Well I failed to take any, my bad! I will do a better job this summer!