David "Ovechkin" Kelley

David is obsessed with sports, "basketball, baseball and football" were three of his first 20 words spoken...when he was three he awoke suddenly and yelled "Javy Lopez!" (a baltimore Oriole at the time)...he obsessed over Javy and baseball for a few years, and then, he discovered.....HOCKEY! via the Washington Capitals! and for those of you who don't know, The Washington Capitals is, in my unbiased opinion, the BEST team in the NHL! they are a terrific group of guys who have such a great attitude and it makes you nothing but happy for their success...David zeroed in on one player, Alexander Ovechkin. Now, the entire NHL has zeroed in on Ovechkin. David lost a tooth and was happy because Ovechkin was missing a tooth also. Ovechkin has long hair, so you guessed it, David has long hair! David played in line hockey and tells me he is ready for ice hockey...He plays Hockey for hours in our basement and has a passion for Hockey that is unmatched by anything I have seen before.

Today Dale and I took David to the Capital's practice rink during their practice time. Not many people were watching, so we were able to sit right next to the glass and watch. David was thrilled to get so close to Ovechkin and the other players! He was the only kid that I saw there and the players noticed him...One player Graham Mink, who was just signed with the Capitals in July, made sure to throw David two game pucks...! Graham had such a great attitude about interacting with David, it made his day!

After practice he got a few autographs on his capital's sweatshirt...(which David himself had also autographed with a big, bold "DAVID KELLEY" on the front...)

We went to lunch at a local chicken place where another Capitals player, Shaone Morrison, came in, he saw David holding the sweatshirt and a marker and was nice enough to ask David if he wanted him to autograph his sweatshirt. David is now in the basement playing hockey with his "official game puck" (Thanks again to Graham Mink who now has a huge six year old fan!) What an exciting day for David!


David wearing his autographed sweatshirt showing off his puck...
#26 Shaone Morrison
#28 Alexander Semin
and most importanatly David Kelley

(on the back)
#39 David Steckel
#10 Matt Bradley

Spa night!

So my niece Ciara invited me to be her "mom" at activity days spa night...My sister in law Scarlett and other niece Brenna were there, and also my other sister in law, Teresa, and nieces Anna and Alison and also their aunt Jenny, Corinne and Sheely are also in that ward, so they were there as well! ..We started out by giving the girls manicures...Ciara bites her nails, so it didn't take long for me to paint her little nails! Scarlett was doing her best Asian accent to give the girls an authentic experience! (you should have seen it, an Asian impression with a spanish accent!!!) After the manicure, the girls set us up for facials...we started by steaming our faces, (and having eye makeup running down our cheeks) and then we did a scrub that had a bit more than a tinglely feeling, I felt like my face was burning off!! after washing the scrub off in a hurry, we went back and the girls put a "mask" on us...i use the term mask lightly...it was a yogurt substance that smelled of yeast...or vomit...take your pick, it was nasty...they put cucumbers on our eyes and had us relax...Ms. Ciara thought she was funny and while I was in this vulnerble state she got my camera and took pictures of us!! She then sent the pictures to whoever before I took the phone from her...she is sweet isn't she! I am sharing in the joy by posting scarlett's photo, not my own! and if Scarlett ever reads my blog I will take it down, so enjoy it while you can!!!

David and Greg's Soccer Game

Dale and I are coaching David and Greg's Soccer team...we had our first official game on Saturday...our team is stacked...we do not officially keep score, but if we did it would have been like 18- 2...Our players were very excited.. The highlight of the day was seeing Greg play his first real game of any sport. In Micro soccer we actually have two games going at the same time, I was refing one field and Dale the other...I really enjoyed watching Greg become aggressive and go after the ball during his game..at the half ,Dale and I switched and I went over to David's field and Dale reffed Greg's field...David is an old pro..He and his friends really enjoy playing together and it was fun to see the pride they took from scoring goals together...I love being able to coach, it gives me a front row seat to all the action and I love being able to watch the kid's progress as the season goes on...Shawn was my photographer for the day, so here are a few pictures that he took...

Getting ready to start the game...

Watching the team practice goal shots

David in action

David

Greg during a break

Greg in action with his teammate Dominic....

A bit delayed...

The first two weeks of school went off without a hitch! All the kids are getting used to their new schedules and seem to really like their teachers and classmates.

Shawn is the first to get up and go to the bus stop... I enjoy my time with him alone each morning at the bus stop and when he comes home after school...

After Shawn goes to school, I take the other 4 kids an hour later. These were taken on the first day of school. They have been getting into the routine of things and I have had to do very little to help them get ready in the morning...Greg even got into the hang of making his lunch all by himself after the first week!

The kids love the first week of school because I am the one with the hours of homework! I had two pens run out of ink from doing so much paper work!! the laughs on them now, I am done for the year, and their homework starts this next week! I love being the mom!

I'm opening pandora's box!

I told myself I wouldn't get political, but I have to highlight some things that I gleaned from the DNC and the RNC speeches.....I cannot complain about the character of any of the candidates, to me they all are great people, Americans who love their country and who really believe in the cause of their respective party... coming from a situation like I did, I need to have hope for children and for families that come from rough backgrounds, or have difficult challenges to overcome,.all the DNC speakers gave me so much hope for those people.....Obama was an amazing speaker and really incites hope in me ...a hope that we are progressing and that all of our social issues can be changed and that no one will be left to suffer and that each child will have an education and will have health care, and that every child will have every oppurtunity no matter what circumstance they are born into...He incites hope in me that hard working people will get a fair shake in life...I walked away from Obama's speach touched and almost euphoric that all of America's social problems can be fixed with the right leader...

The RNC gives me the same sense of hope...but for a different reason, they also are concerned for every American, but to quote Guiliani, "Hope is not a strategy"....I think this is what I am looking for, someone with hope, who can put it into action...hope alone cannot get anything accomplished. ....coming from a poor/dysfunctional situation, I definately recognize the need for governement social programs...we had free lunch, and I was thankful for the real milk to drink...I had help with college from the governement, it is all so necessary, but our governement social programs cannot be so big that we cripple the real social programs, which are better jobs and more oppurtunities for people to pull themselves out of their tough positions within a capitalism... Mike Huckabee said something that I related to very well...he said "I am not a repulican because I grew up rich, but because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor waiting for the government to rescue me" ...I have to add that being a business owner, I see how it all works...when we have more money, we take a little and then we create a job or two, the more we have the more we create, and the more the government takes, the less we create...I know that there is balance in all things ...the government needs some, the people need some. The balance needs to be kept, the government cannot take to much or jobs stop being created, but they need enough to ensure that all social needs are being met...right now we are in crisis, job creation is in reverse, and money for our countries social needs is up...so the government needs more money, but less is being generated...bottom line, change is needed and fast, everyone is telling us they can do it, but who really will have not only the hope, but the ability and the wherewithall to act on it? ....the debates are going to be interesting....