Congratulations to the Brooks Family

We are so happy to hear that Jonathan & Lori Brooks (along with their daughter, Hannah) are expecting ! That's right a new baby is on the way. Please be praying for this family as they await the birth of their new child.

Differences Between Men and Women

Please. . . this is just for fun. . . don't take it seriously!

Women

1. Women have the "Oh dear, the toilet paper is on its last sheet; must replace it immediately" gene.
2. On being told that someone has bought a new car women usually ask what color it is.
3. Women have a built in calendar - we remember birthdays, anniversaries, and appointments.
4. Women put things on the bottom stair to take up next time she has to go upstairs.
5. Women know what to do when someone starts to cry.
6. Women speak in paragraphs.
7. Women recall every outfit they have worn for the past two weeks.

Men

1. Men have the "Oh no, can you pass me a roll of toliet paper." gene.
2. On being told that someone has bought a new car men ask what kind it is.
3. Men have to be reminded of birthdays, anniversaires, and appointments.
4. Men just step over things at the bottom of the stair until being told to pick them up.
5. Men tend to shuffle out of the room mumbling something about doing the grouting when someone starts to cry.
6. Men speak in sentences.
7. Men cannot remember what they were wearing yesterday without looking on the floor next to the bed.

U-12 Girls Soccer Team

Thanks to Lance (Bubba) Ramer the U-12 Girls Soccer Team was recognized by the Clewiston City Commissioners for winning the State Championship. Mayor Mali Chamness recognized the girls as a team and then each one individually. All the Commissioners also spoke words of encouragement and congratulations to each girl.

Bubba was instrumental in contacting the City Manager, Wendell Johnson, requesting the City recognize these girls for their accomplishments. Thanks Bubba!

U-12 Girls being recognized by the City of Clewiston

U-12 Girls in front of City Hall after receiving their certificates

Best Steak of the Year

Bubba and I enjoyed the best steak of the year tonight at the Hendry County Cattlemen's Dinner at the Civic Center in LaBelle. The cattleman do a fabulous job cooking the steaks, baked potatoes and preparing a salad. The steaks are so tender you can cut them with a plastic knife! Can't wait for next year! We also enjoyed seeing our friends and getting acquainted with people we haven't had the chance to socialize with.

Mike & Shelia

Gary & Tabitha

Terry & Mali

Kevin & Debbie

Our Milestone

Today is a special day to me. A year ago, Bubba and I attended the Cattlemen's Dinner at John Boy Auditorium together. That night was the first night that we made a public appearance together as a couple. It seems silly that I would be giddy over something like this at my age, but I am! To me it says something of our relationship. We have made it through an entire year and we are still seeing each other. Tonight we are attending the Cattlemen's Dinner once again together. It's special knowing that we are beginning attending functions that we attended last year together. I can't imagine attending any of these functions without him beside me.

Look Around

While Angela and I were in Ocala this weekend, David was in Lakeland at the Planet Wisdom Conference. Six youth from our church along with Pastor Jonathan and Lori left on Friday at 3 o'clock to attend the conference at the Lakeland Center.

This year's topic was "Look Around". Mark Matlock, the main teacher of the conference, taught from Ecclesiastes. He encouraged students to never stop looking around for the truth and taught that "The Truth" is found in God's Word. Mark pointed out that Solomon had everything life had to offer (money, wisdom, wealth, pleasures, etc.) but was never satisifed until he had Christ. David and other students discovered what a life that matters really looks like, and how to share that life with their friends.

Mark teaching the Word of God

By the Tree lead students in worship and Skit Guys brought real-life humor that added an exciting dimension to the weekend that also reinforced the message.

Skit Guys

By the Tree

And as always on a youth trip they found time to be teenagers! Making goofy faces or just enjoying one another.

A Big Thank You

After the trophies were presented to our girls by the AYSO league we got together as a group with our team. Coach Hiro thanked all the parents for their dedication in getting the girls to practice and scrimmage games leading up to the state games. He then had each girl present their parents with thank you notes they had written last week prior to traveling to Ocala. My read as follows:

Dear Mom,
Thank you for everything you have done for me this soccer season. Like spending money. . . wait you do that every day (ha-ha)! Dealing with the attitude that I have and my stinky feet. What I am trying to say is thank you for your support! I wouldn't have made it this far without you. Love You,Angela

Hiro, Irma and Arnold not only taught these girls all season the skills of soccer, but they also taught them to appreciate each win and to appreciate the support and love their parents give them. I've heard Hiro say on more than one occassion that there are children out there that don't have the support and love of their parents and the girls should treasure and appreciate their parents.

After Hiro presented the parents with their thank you notes he then presented the girls with a state champion charm that the Clewiston AYSO purchased for each them. Wear it proudly girls you deserve it and worked hard to get it!

The Finals

Our semifinal game was at eight o'clock on Monday morning. Angela had to be at the field to warm up by 7:30. This was the earliest we had played all weekend. I wasn't sure how the girls would do playing in the cool morning air and on a damp field. We took the field and faced off with Homestead. Homestead is a very good team and was major competition for our girls. Angela played as goalie for the first two quarters of the game and then during the third quarter played defense. She sat out the fourth quarter. Homestead made us work for the one goal we scored the entire game. At the end of the fourth quarter we were tied. Being new to the game of soccer I am clueless about tie breakers. However, I now know that you play two - 10 minute quarters. Whichever team scores the most points during these quarters is the winner.

Angela plays defense against Homestead

Several people from Clewiston that could have returned home the night before or left on Monday morning stayed to cheer our girls on. It was great having the support from other teams and their parents.

As we took the field to play the overtime everyone was nervous and excited. We had screamed so much that our voices were hoarse. But we kept screaming and cheering Clewiston on. Homestead scored the first goal during the overtime. My heart must have dropped to my feet (at this point I wasn't aware it wasn't sudden death). However, one of their players was offsides and their goal didn't count. Clewiston scored as well during the first quarter of overtime to put us ahead by 1 point. Then boom, they came back and scored another point in the second quarter of overtime. The score is now 2 - 1 (Clewiston's favor). We are on our cell phones calling friends and family that can't be there! All we have to do at this point is keep the ball on our end of the field and away from Homestead. But that wasn't enough for our girls. . . they had to score one more time. 3-1 the game is over and Clewiston has moved to the finals!

Our next game was played at 11 o'clock against Boynton Beach. Boynton Beach dominated the game the first three quarters with us not scoring. They scored on Angela in the first quarter and my heart broke for her when I saw the look on her face. Our girls have ran 15 minutes every practice for the past two months . Their endurance in amazing. It's fourth quarter and they have pulled out the stops. . . the determination was all over their faces. We scored three goals in the fourth to win the game. We are going home with trophies and smiles on our faces.

Angela talks to her dad while waiting for her trophy

Angela receiving her trophy
Clewiston U-12 Girls State Champions

Angela told me that after the game when they were lining up to shake hands with the Boynton Beach players she thought she recognized one of their players (she just happened to be their goalie). Sure enough it was Kim that she went spent a week at World Camplight Camp (formerly Florida GA/Acteen Camp) at Lake Yale, Florida. The girls got the opportunity to visit for a while after the game and made plans to see each other this year at camp.

Sunday - Second Day of Soccer Tournament

On Sunday morning, we were off to the soccer complex by 10 o'clock. Angela's first game of the day was at 11 o'clock against Weston. Prior to the state tournament we played a scrimmage game against this Weston team. During that scrimmage game one of our players, Elisabeth, was injured. Weston plays very aggressive soccer! Elisabeth's collar bone was broken and she hasn't been released from under her doctor's care, so she wasn't able to go to the state games. The team has missed having her on the team. The game against Weston was tense. The game was 0 - 0 until the last two minutes of the game when we made a goal. After the goal was made our team played defensively to win the game. The girls were pumped to win this game since we only had one other team to defeat to advance to the semifinals.

Angela guards our goal against Weston

Oliva charges the ball against Weston

We Are # 1

Brock played again on Sunday with his first game at 12:30. They played Key Largo. Unfortunately this was not a win for them. They played their hearts out and it was hard watching them try so hard. They played again at five o'clock against Ocala only to come up short again.

The U-10 boys waiting on the sidelines

Brock takes a much needed break

When Angela wasn't playing in games, she was hanging out with friends from Clewiston or watching other teams from Clewiston play. She played again on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 against Ocala. By the time we played Ocala, they knew they were out of the running to be in the semifinals because they had lost on Saturday. It was still a very competitive game for our girls. Ocala kept them running and working to win the game. From there it was just waiting to play on Monday in the semi-finals. We stayed to watch the U-12 boys play against Homestead. Our boys lost to Homestead by one goal. It was fun watching them play and witness the talent of these boys. We played a scrimmage game against them on Wednesday of last week and they beat us.

First Day of Soccer Tournament

This past weekend Angela, Brock, Bubba and I headed to Ocala for the State Soccer Tournaments. The tournament was held at Big Sun Soccer Complex .The road trip was fun and full of laughter. Clewiston had 5 teams competing in the tournament this year, with 55 kids and their families attending. One hundred and four teams were registered and played games. There was a U-10 boys division, U-12 girls division, U-12 boys division, U-12 girls division, U-14 girls division, U-14 boys division, U-16 boys division, U-19 boys division, and a U-19 girls division.

Angela played one game on Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. against Homestead. Our team won 6-0! That was our only game on Saturday. After Angela's game we enjoyed eating lunch at Pizza Hut. Then we returned to the complex to watch Brock play at 2:00 pm against Boynton Beach and then again at 5:00 p.m. against Miller Pond. Brock's team didn't win their games on Saturday however they had fun. Bubba coaches Brock's team and he does a wonderful job with the boys!

Brock's mom arrived Saturday around 12:00 p.m. along with Beau and Jeri Lynne. After Brock's 5 o'clock game the five of them went out to dinner at The Outback. Bubba also refereed this weekend for some other games, so we stayed for him to referee his last game before going to dinner. Bubba treated me to dinner at Harry's Seafood Bar & Grille on the square in Ocala. The calamari was delicious! Downtown Ocala was decorated with lights in the trees on the square and the city had special events on Saturday evening for AYSO. We didn't take in the events but they sounded fun (a street dance and ice skating). We opted for hot showers at the hotel instead.

Dinner Disaster

Ever find a recipe that looks terrific and then try it to find out nobody likes it? That was our experience tonight. I purchased a magazine a month or so ago "Fix it and Forget it Slow Cooker magic". So this weekend I pulled it out and found some recipes that I wanted to try. We get tired of the same ole menu around here. I found three which worked out with our schedule this week. Among them were: Garlic-Lime Chicken, Magic Meat Loaf and Slow-Cooked Short Ribs.

The ribs turned out good, falling off the bone good. I haven't tried the meat loaf yet, but will do that for Thursday night dinner. The garlic-lime chicken was dinner tonight. . . it was not so good. David actually managed to eat it (surprisingly because he is my picky eater), but Angela and I didn't do so good. I had made the comment that it sounded good and who can mess up a piece of chicken. Well. . . . I did!

A Little Different Entry

I normally blog about our family, but today I wanted to blog about something entirely different. It stems from reading a friends blog this morning and I've been thinking about what this person wrote since reading it. This friend made an entry on their blog about quotes they have came across and how when they are feeling down, sad, angry or whatever they take them out of drawer and read them to lift their spirits. I'm sure all of us have favorite quotes, scripture, songs, etc that we draw from. For me it's quotes and scripture that come to mind so often. I just felt the need to share a few of my favorites. . .

1. 'For I know the plans I have for you, ' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:12
2. "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Hole One of Israeil, your Savior" Isaiah 43 1:-3
3. "For God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." Dr. John Piper
4. "Perhaps after all our worries and questions, we’ll discover that all along God had the right thing at the right time for us. Perhaps His plan is more wonderful than anything we could create by ourselves - whether it comes with 'pomp and blare,' or quietly, 'like an old friend.' Perhaps... perhaps... we should entrust our questions of 'How?' and 'Who?' and 'When?' into His tender care." from the movie Boy Meets Girl
5. "When two people love each other, but they just can't seem to get things right, how do you know when enough is enough?" from the movie The Mexican
6. "Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you only have one life to live and one chance to do all the things you want to do."
7. "Being in love is what makes working all week bearable. It makes cruising with your windows rolled down feel like you're riding in a convertible. It makes you dance to the rythm of the copy machine and makes Friday night really feel like THE WEEKEND."

Updates

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I blogged. It's been a busy year. Can you believe that we are half way into January. Time really does fly when you are having fun!

Where to start. . . New Year's Eve I went actually stayed up to ring in the New Year. Bubba and I went to the Country Club and saw the New Year in with some friends. We had a great time dancing and just socializing with everybody.

New Year's Day we had lunch with mom and dad. Afterwards we visited with them for a while and then drove into town. That evening we had dinner with the Ramers and watched football. A nice way to spend New Year's Day (with family and friends).

This past Saturday was busy with Baseball sign ups and the AYSO Soccer Bar-B-Que. After we finished with those activities in the morning, Bubba and I went to Fort Myers to shop for him some new clothes. All the kids were off doing their own thing and it was nice to spend time just the two of us.

This weekend we travel to Ocala for the State Soccer Tournament. Angela will play on Saturday and Sunday, with the possibility of Monday if they go to the finals. Brock will be playing as well with his Dad coaching their team. It should be a fun weekend.

David will be going to Planet Wisdom ( a student conference) in Lakeland while we are in Ocala. This makes his 5th year attending this conference and is really looking forward to it.

Well that catches me up to this week.