Fredericksburg Academy Girls Varsity Basketball team has made it to the finals! They will play Wakefield Country Day School tomorrow at The Highland School in Warrenton VA.
I believe it will be a close game and could be won by either team. I have also heard that the WCD coach has been suspended for unsportsmanlike conduct and will not be coaching. This is a good thing.
Ya'll know that I am not a sporty girl, normally picked last for teams...and actually okay with that. I wrote a lot of papers in school to make up for a lack of mad skills on the playing field. But I was a great scorekeeper, color announcer and cheer-er...all important skills, right?!
At FA, the students are required to play two seasons of sports per year, so I became a parent fan a few years ago. Anyone who wants to play can be on the team, however, they may not get a lot of playing time. One thing I have noticed over the years is how the coaches have fostered a great sense of "team". A team need skilled players, able subs, cheering fans and a sense of good sportsmanship.
As I have watched several coaches over the years and several groups of parents, I am struck by how fortunate that our school has had some great coaches!
I have witnessed coaches who have badgered, berated, brow beat and used unseemly language while coaching their teams. Maybe I am naive, but I would like my daughter coached by someone who is an encourager, not a belittle-er.
Last fall, I had the privilage to play "soccer mom" to a group of children who are new to our country. I was saddened to hear adults yell at 5 year olds as if they were playing professional soccer...for money. On the other hand, I was filled with joy at the dads who gently coached some of our children from the sidelines, helping them understand about throwing the ball in without letting your feet leave the ground.
I am thankful that I have seen more positive actions and that all of the parents who volunteer their time to coach these children is fantastic.
I am thankful that my daughter has had some wonderful coaches who have taught them that just because they CAN run up the score, it is not the right thing to do.
I am thankful that somehow, an athletic gene snuck through and she is a great player.
And, I am thankful that she is a great teammate and encourager. Play Ball!!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
A Tiny Silver Pencil
I went to a meeting today with the college counselor at my darling daughter's school. She is a junior and the testing and application processes have begun. When I started filling out forms, I commented to my mother that I didn't remember all of this when I was applying to college. She replied that she was the one who filled everything out...so no wonder I don't remember!
The counselor had prepared an extensive list of schools she is interested in attending, with size, tuition, grades requires, test scores required, etc. I was amazed at the amount of information we received...thank you very much Ms. Nobles!
We have made some plans to attend tours/Open Houses at the top 4 schools during Winter Break and....
WAIT JUST A MINUTE...do you know what this means?!
I will soon be the mom of a college student...how did that happen?!
Before long, I will no longer see her before bed each night, nor will I greet her with a "Good Morning, sweetheart" before school.
Before I break down into a sobbing mess...let's look at this a little differently...
She has attended a fantastic school since Pre-K, which is a college prep school, so what did I think she was going to do after graduation? That's right, go to college!
She is bright, curious, intelligent, caring, positive, cheerful, smart, sensible, a good friend and a warrior for those whose voices yearn to be heard. And one of the most beautiful people I have ever met.
I am excited for her to journey towards being a grown up person, someone who will make a difference and change the lives of others.
She is the kind of person I would like to have for a friend.
No matter where she ends up going to school, near, far, big school, little school...she is always in my heart, no matter where she goes.
So, grab your pencil, color in those dots, sign those applications and take the world by storm!!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
A Tiny Silver Pocketbook
My extraordinarily talented college friend, Julie Britton Burney, hand painted a fabulous pocketbook for me!!! I have known Julie a long, long time...she was a bridsmaid in my wedding and wore her pale pink dress like a true princess!!
After getting her degree in Interior Design back in the day, she has been busy and is now back in school getting her degree in Graphic Arts.
She is going to New York in May and is going to have a booth at a show, working on getting some of her drawings licensed!! I am very excited for this new opportunity for her and proud of her taking that step out in faith!
She personalizes her bags and paintings for the person she is painting for.
For me, she painted me as she remembered first meeting me...long brown wavy hair and big green eyes...Ah, Youth!!!
I can't wait to put my things in my new pocketbook and sashay around town!!!
Thank you Julie, you made my day!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
A Tiny Little List
25 Random facts about me ( As posted on Facebook):
1. I have way too much free time or I would not be writing these notes.
2. The first VCR tape I bought was "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and it cost about $80.00 back in 1987.
3. My dvd's are alphabetized.
4. My laptop is green and my phone is pink, my two favorite colors.
5. I make my own greeting cards...and have sold them as well.
6. I have all of my drafting equipment, pens and project boards from college.
7. I know all of the songs from "The Sound of Music", just in case I am at a show and someone needs a quick replacement.
8. I like making lists and marking things off as they are accomplished.
9. I love, love, love pocketbooks, especially really big ones.
10. I have all of the books written by Stephen King, bound in red leather, on my bookshelf.
11. I don't know how to drive a stick shift, although when I am dream that I am driving, I always drive a stick shift.
12. I cannot drive over a tall bridge, flat ones are okay.
13. I still haven't unpacked all of my wedding presents.
14. I like to wrap presents in shiny white paper and big hand tied bows.
15. I would like to go back to school and study studio art, just to learn.
16. I love shopping in paper and stationery stores.
17. I learned how to knit last year.
18. The thermostat in my car has to be on an even number.
19. I am somewhat claustrophobic and like to sit on the end.
20. I like to be early.
21. I check and double check maps before I go on a trip.
22. I would like to take piano lessons again someday.
23. I love fresh flowers, but not star gazer lilies.
24. I don't like to share closets or bathrooms.
25. I wish I lived closer to my family.
1. I have way too much free time or I would not be writing these notes.
2. The first VCR tape I bought was "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and it cost about $80.00 back in 1987.
3. My dvd's are alphabetized.
4. My laptop is green and my phone is pink, my two favorite colors.
5. I make my own greeting cards...and have sold them as well.
6. I have all of my drafting equipment, pens and project boards from college.
7. I know all of the songs from "The Sound of Music", just in case I am at a show and someone needs a quick replacement.
8. I like making lists and marking things off as they are accomplished.
9. I love, love, love pocketbooks, especially really big ones.
10. I have all of the books written by Stephen King, bound in red leather, on my bookshelf.
11. I don't know how to drive a stick shift, although when I am dream that I am driving, I always drive a stick shift.
12. I cannot drive over a tall bridge, flat ones are okay.
13. I still haven't unpacked all of my wedding presents.
14. I like to wrap presents in shiny white paper and big hand tied bows.
15. I would like to go back to school and study studio art, just to learn.
16. I love shopping in paper and stationery stores.
17. I learned how to knit last year.
18. The thermostat in my car has to be on an even number.
19. I am somewhat claustrophobic and like to sit on the end.
20. I like to be early.
21. I check and double check maps before I go on a trip.
22. I would like to take piano lessons again someday.
23. I love fresh flowers, but not star gazer lilies.
24. I don't like to share closets or bathrooms.
25. I wish I lived closer to my family.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A Tiny Silver Movie Camera (2)
Here are the answers to "Guess My Favorite Movies" quiz.
Note: I have all of these movies on my dvd shelf, so come on over and we can watch one or two!!!
I posted the answers in the original post!
Note: I have all of these movies on my dvd shelf, so come on over and we can watch one or two!!!
I posted the answers in the original post!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
A Tiny Silver Movie Camera
Guess My Favorite Movies!!!
I posted this on Facebook, but thought my sister sister would enjoy playing!!!
The Rules...
1. I picked 20 of my favorite movies.
2. I went to IMDb and found a quote from each movie.
3. Posted them here for everyone to guess.
4. I will strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions.
6. No looking at my favorite movies on my Facebook page.
1. It's giving life that counts. Until you are ready for it, all the rest is just a big fraud. All the crazy haircuts in the world won't keep it turning. Life isn't a love in, it's the dishes and the ortho and the shoe repairman and ground round instead of roast beef. And I'll tell you something else; it isn't going to bed with a man that proves you're in love with him; it's getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable , wonderful world with him that counts.
YOURS, MINE AND OURS ( THE ORIGINAL VERSION WITH HENRY FONDA AND LUCILLE BALL)
2. I believe one should fight for what one believes. Provided one is absolutely sure one is absolutely right.
TO SIR, WITH LOVE
3. Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends.
LEGENDS OF THE FALL
4. This old gypsy women once told me that if you jump backwards nine times before the sun comes up, you won't be pregnant. Well, I jumped so far I had to take a bus back and then I had twins.
WHERE THE HEART IS
5. Now, what would you like to wear? Black, black, or black?
THE SECRET GARDEN
6. In my philosophy, a man cannot call himself well-contented until he has done all he can to be of service to his employer. Of course, this assumes that one's employer is a superior person, not only in rank, or wealth, but in moral stature.
THE REMAINS OF THE DAY
7. You know, dolls make the very best friends. Just because they can't speak doesn't mean they don't listen. And did you know that when we leave them alone in our room, they come to life?
THE LITTLE PRINCESS
8. I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.
GONE WITH THE WIND
9. All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight my brothers. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men, but I ain't never thought I'd have to fight in my own house.
THE COLOR PURPLE
10. Well, from this day henceforth, it seems you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you marry him...and I will never see you again if you do.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ( BBC VERSION)
11. With the exception of Eddie and myself, whom you already know, we're going to be using aliases on this job. Under no circumstances do I want any of you to relate to each other by your Christian names, and I don't want any talk about yourself personally. That includes where you've been, your wife's name, where you might've done time, or maybe a bank you robbed in St. Pertersburg. All I want you guys to talk about, if you have to, is what you're going to do. That should do it.
RESERVOIR DOGS
12. Congratulations. In the history of this camp, that was the most infamous, the most disgusting, the most revolting display of hooliganism we have ever seen.
THE PARENT TRAP ( ORIGINAL VERSION WITH HAYLEY MILLS)
13. If you can paint, I can walk - anything can happen, right?
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER
14. Say Lou, did ya hear the one about the guy who couldn't afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L2404.
FARGO
15. On the page, it looked like nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I had never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable songing it had me trembling. It seemed to me I was hearing the voice of God.
AMADEUS
16. When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
17. Now please get out of my Van Halen t-shirt before you jinx the band and they break up.
THE WEDDING SINGER
18. I don't want to talk about it! Everytime I think about something nice, you remind me of bad things. I only want to talk about the nice things.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE
19. I don't know if it will help saying this to you...some men in this world are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us...your father is one of them...
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
20. Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I am with you.
DIRTY DANCING
I posted this on Facebook, but thought my sister sister would enjoy playing!!!
The Rules...
1. I picked 20 of my favorite movies.
2. I went to IMDb and found a quote from each movie.
3. Posted them here for everyone to guess.
4. I will strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions.
6. No looking at my favorite movies on my Facebook page.
1. It's giving life that counts. Until you are ready for it, all the rest is just a big fraud. All the crazy haircuts in the world won't keep it turning. Life isn't a love in, it's the dishes and the ortho and the shoe repairman and ground round instead of roast beef. And I'll tell you something else; it isn't going to bed with a man that proves you're in love with him; it's getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable , wonderful world with him that counts.
YOURS, MINE AND OURS ( THE ORIGINAL VERSION WITH HENRY FONDA AND LUCILLE BALL)
2. I believe one should fight for what one believes. Provided one is absolutely sure one is absolutely right.
TO SIR, WITH LOVE
3. Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends.
LEGENDS OF THE FALL
4. This old gypsy women once told me that if you jump backwards nine times before the sun comes up, you won't be pregnant. Well, I jumped so far I had to take a bus back and then I had twins.
WHERE THE HEART IS
5. Now, what would you like to wear? Black, black, or black?
THE SECRET GARDEN
6. In my philosophy, a man cannot call himself well-contented until he has done all he can to be of service to his employer. Of course, this assumes that one's employer is a superior person, not only in rank, or wealth, but in moral stature.
THE REMAINS OF THE DAY
7. You know, dolls make the very best friends. Just because they can't speak doesn't mean they don't listen. And did you know that when we leave them alone in our room, they come to life?
THE LITTLE PRINCESS
8. I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.
GONE WITH THE WIND
9. All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight my brothers. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men, but I ain't never thought I'd have to fight in my own house.
THE COLOR PURPLE
10. Well, from this day henceforth, it seems you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you marry him...and I will never see you again if you do.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ( BBC VERSION)
11. With the exception of Eddie and myself, whom you already know, we're going to be using aliases on this job. Under no circumstances do I want any of you to relate to each other by your Christian names, and I don't want any talk about yourself personally. That includes where you've been, your wife's name, where you might've done time, or maybe a bank you robbed in St. Pertersburg. All I want you guys to talk about, if you have to, is what you're going to do. That should do it.
RESERVOIR DOGS
12. Congratulations. In the history of this camp, that was the most infamous, the most disgusting, the most revolting display of hooliganism we have ever seen.
THE PARENT TRAP ( ORIGINAL VERSION WITH HAYLEY MILLS)
13. If you can paint, I can walk - anything can happen, right?
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER
14. Say Lou, did ya hear the one about the guy who couldn't afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L2404.
FARGO
15. On the page, it looked like nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I had never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable songing it had me trembling. It seemed to me I was hearing the voice of God.
AMADEUS
16. When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
17. Now please get out of my Van Halen t-shirt before you jinx the band and they break up.
THE WEDDING SINGER
18. I don't want to talk about it! Everytime I think about something nice, you remind me of bad things. I only want to talk about the nice things.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE
19. I don't know if it will help saying this to you...some men in this world are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us...your father is one of them...
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
20. Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I am with you.
DIRTY DANCING
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A Tiny Silver Television Set
I sat down yesterday to watch what I thought would be a funny movie...it was not...so after watching about half of it, I gave up and switched over to regular tv. I dvr several shows, so there was bound to be something ready to watch. I found my show, but there was no sound. Great picture, no sound. I switched over to regular tv and again, no sound.
Hmmmmm...I am famous for hitting the wrong sequence of buttons and messing up the HD tv functions...
I tried turning it off, checked the settings, nothing worked. Finally I gave up and went to my darling daughter's basketball game. While there, I mentioned to my husband the tv problem. Knowing that I would want to watch American Idol in my den, he went home after the game and went to work.
I went to church to help prepare a meal and called him on the way home, only to find that he had spent the last two hours unhooking all of the wires from the tv, moving the tv to a different room ( where the sound worked perfectly), moving it back to the den ( again, no sound). He then put a movie in, which played perfectly...thus putting a cap on his frustration.
His first comment when I got home was that I could watch tv in the "man-cave" since the one in the den was not working. I just watched a movie, figuring the dvr would capture it's scheduled recordings and I would call the cable company in the morning.
In the middle of the night, I sat bolt upright...thinking..."I wonder if he unplugged the cable box?"
So, bright and early, I came downstairs, unplugged the cable box, waited a few minutes and plugged it back in. The re-booting started and after about 10 minutes, the box came back on, the time was displayed...looked normal.
I gingerly pushed the TV button and the Power button...and snap...there was Al Roker, telling me all about the weather!! Hurray, I have audio, I don't have to get the tv repaired, I don't have to shop for a new tv ( although, I am loving a certain Samsung I saw over Christmas holiday)!!
So, the solution was the unplug the cable bos and plug it back in, allowing it to reboot. So simple, so simple...
Kind of like hearing an animal with four legs and hooves running by and thinking Zebra, instead of horse!!!
So, I am catching up on American Idol...it looks like itis going to be an interesting season...on my favorite tv!
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