i love this game

if you haven't been keeping up with my blog, my volleyball team made it to the state tournament for the first time in school history. what an experience.

we won our first match 3-0, the girls played solid and it sent us to the quarter finals.

our quarter finals match was against joseph city. now, if there are any teams that make it to state that lack quality, they are quickly weeded out in the first round. joseph city is a little town (mormon...i'm assuming) a few miles east of flagstaff. they have won the womens volleyball state championship a number of times, most recently in 2006.

set one - refs killed us (23-25), i really really try not to blame refs...but come on!

set two - we killed ourselves (14-25), too many errors against a phenomenal team

set three - joe city killed us (23-25), we played our hearts out and just got beat

going to state and winning our first game was an amazing experience, giving joe city a heck of a game was an amazing experience. however i am not certain these were the highlights of the trip.

see we have these cross-town rivals, greenfields, they are an very tough, very well coached team and have essentially become our rivals due to the intensity of every match played over the years...always great volleyball. well, they made state as well and came early to cheer us on against joe city. we decided to return the favor as they played their quarter final match following ours. our girls went absolutely nuts! it was sooo much fun cheering so hard for a team that we have had to sweat blood over to beat.

i have put a lot of pressure on myself and my team to make state, especially this year, so much so that there were moments that i may have lost focus of why i coach this sport.

cheering like crazy for our rivals put my love for this sport and for coaching back into perspective...what a night.

see results here.

state tournament

the lady lynx volleyball team is a 2 seed at state. we are playing joy christian at apache junction high school on friday nov. 6 at 11am, if we win...which i think we can, we play at 5pm.

see the brackets here.

state

ill start with a little history. four years ago i took over a volleyball team that had won one game in its previous two seasons. i remember my first day of practice like it was yesterday, and it wasn't pretty. however i promised what we lacked in skill we would make up in hustle...we went 15-9 that season, missing the playoffs my one match. we lost to a team that i felt didn't deserve to be on the same court as us, they proved me wrong, they kept the ball in play and we didn't.

in 2007 we went 19-6, however one of those losses was to a team we beat twice earlier in the season giving us a 3 seed at regionals instead of a 2 seed. we lost, denying us a trip to state. of course i am convinced if we had a 2 seed, we would have won.

2008 was bound to be our year, in '06 i set a goal to be in the state championship game in 2009, therefore in '08 we not only needed to be a lock at state, we should win our first game. we were doing what we needed, we went 20-5, yet our schedule lacked toughness and again i felt we gave a game away we should have won. this gave us a 2 seed at regionals, leaving us to play a good team we had lost to twice already that season. my girls played tough at regionals, we went the full five games and lost 13-15, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth and another trip to state denied.

its 2009, i am returning my top 7 players, all of my starters. this year was supposed to be a breeze, a one seed at state, certainly nothing short of a 2 seed.

in spite of my optimism, this season has seen its share of adversity. rolled ankles, an athlete being asked to step down due to failing grades, never seeming to have a full team at practice, a two game slump in which you wouldn't believe that it was the academy of tucson volleyball team. all this in a year the aia 1a south moved to power points that did away with regionals all together, making your regular season the playoffs. on top of that we lost 14-16 in game 5 to a team that went to the state semi-finals last year. winning that game could have potentially given us a one seed at state.

with all that, we won a game tonight against an average team that guaranteed us a spot at the state championship tournament in two weeks. this accomplishes the second of two goals our team set this year, a 3.7gpa and making state.

of course as coach always says, "once you have accomplished your goal it's time to set a new one."

mama!

here are a couple recent videos of beniah playing, walking and talking.. :)

mug of bruises

as most of you know, beniah is walking and like his dad he does everything full speed. this might be ok for the average child who is bottom heavy. however b is head-heavy...and falls that way. last night for example, i was playing a game with b that involved me getting in between him and the parking lot outside zona 78, he thought it was funny to run into my legs then BAM! he landed on his face. it would be very easy to asume we abuse this child to look at his face. fortunately for him that is not the case. unfortunantly no matter how he falls his head almost always takes the brunt of it. "you should see the other baby"

whats love

most of my partners (sbux co-workers) are college students and although we are only a few years apart we are definately in different life stages. i love my partners especially since i've started working nights. the coffee business slows down a little at night and i've been able to get to know my partners more and actually talk with them instead of just asking them to get more ice! interestingly enough i've found myself very protective of my partners. when i start to hear about a new guy i'm always the skeptic and happy with them, but none the less hear myself ask the questions that a parent may ask. and i know that i am a mom now-but i realized that i am this way with my friends as well. i am very protective of their hearts and my usual gut reaction is that this person deserves better.

recently, on a night when all girls were working, everyone was sharing and pitching in on other's situations. for the most part i stay out of these conversations. i mean i definately ask questions, but my issues are not the same as theirs. (ie. how do i know if he likes me?) but one of the girls turned to me and said "we should just ask christe, she is in love! what is it like? how did you know?" i got to give my answer and gloat about my husband and since then i feel like "love" has come up in our conversations at work frequently. i've heard people say they don't believe in love, that they love their current boyfriend, or they thought they loved their ex boyfriend but now realize that it wasn't love.

so what is it really? well, in the fear that i wouldn't do an explanation of love justice i'm going to answer by saying ask me in person. :) but i am really excited for a new series we are going to be doing at our church in the coming weeks. i want a new marriage. this series will answer questions like: (taken from my pastor's blog)

how do you prepare for marriage if you aren’t married?
are there things you can do to make your marriage win if you aren’t married?
what do you do if you are in an unhappy marriage?
what does God say about divorce? is it ever okay?
what about lust, adultery?
what if i get hurt, do i need to forgive the person who hurt me, or can i make their life miserable?

beniah is one

beniah,

its amazing. a whole year has passed and my baby boy is not so much a baby anymore! you are almost walking and you love to say mama-and i love to hear it! i love that you have grown to become more and more snuggly. and i LOVE to watch you play. it is amazing watching you learn how the world works. you've learned about gravity quite well-you no longer just try to crawl from our bed to the floor. now you let yourself down-feet first! and you understand where things go when you drop something..behind the couch or between dada's legs. you have also developed quite a taste for food. things you prefer: almost any furit, sweet potatoes, anything mommy or daddy has on their plate..strawberry bananas smoothies! oh! bananas especially. things you don't: broccoli! i love that you love coco and wave bye bye and secretly that you said mama first. (don't tell dada) and although our night continue to be a little longer than they should be, i still love everything about you. how's that for irrational love?

love, mama