I'm So Bad!

Time sure does fly! I just checked my blog and noticed that the last time I posted was in September! That's terrible! But, we have been very busy (so what else is new?). Let's see if I can sum up the past couple of months in a nutshell...
(ha ha)

Well, since it seems that soccer takes up a majority of our time, I'll start there.
Raegan's team has progressed so much this year. We went to a tournament in Benicia back in September. They only won one game, but had a chance to get to know each other outside of soccer, which was good. Although, I don't think the hotel that we all stayed at appreciated their bonding as well as we did. In October, we traveled down to Sunnyvale for an all U-11 tournament. This one was great because our team finally got to play against other teams that were all the same age. In our local league, we are the youngest team. There were 12 teams in the girl's division for the Sunnyvale tournament. Our team made it to the championship game against the Sunnyvale team and WON!!! It was so exciting! I wish I had a picture to share, but Casey didn't make it to that tournament and I didn't bring a camera. The girls all got championship t-shirts and first place medals.

The next weekend, we had a special visitor to our local soccer park. His name is Julian Valentin and he plays professional soccer with the Los Angeles Galaxy. (Yes, that is the same team that David Beckham plays for!) He was nice enough to come out and talk to our team and even warmed up the girls before the game. We've never seen them so enthusiastic about a warm up before! I'm thinking of buying a Galaxy jersey and finding random young, good-looking guys to come warm up our team.


Last weekend we had another local tournament. There were only 4 teams entered in our age division and they were all other local teams. Again, we were the youngest team. However, our "little team that could" went out and kicked some butt and took second place! It's so cool because the youngest team is never expected to do much their first year and we've already taken a first, second, and third place in tournaments this year.


Let's see...what else have we been up to? Both kids are doing music this year. Riley is playing the piano and the clarinet and Raegan is playing the viola. Both of them are enjoying their instruments, and they both have gotten their mother's musical abilities (wink). Raegan was asked by a group of musicians at her school to join a quartet. The other kids are all in 7th grade, but they couldn't find a viola player, so they asked the music teacher. The teacher said she had a student who was a beginner, but was picking up on it quickly (Raegan), and recommended her. Raegan auditioned for them and they asked her to join. I guess they plan to play at local venues and weddings and stuff. Riley also enjoys performing and has no problem giving on the spot concerts to anyone who will listen. His piano teacher has been giving him Christmas songs to learn and that has inspired him. I told his teacher that we should let him play Christmas songs all year long! I'm also still playing my flute in the local Shasta College Community Band and still loving it.

Casey has been a busy beaver too. Between working, school, and teaching, he doesn't get much free time.

Our third child, the hairy one (Drake), had to have a toe amputated last week. Poor baby! He's doing ok and manages to hobble around quite well. It certainly hasn't slowed him down much. The vets office cracks up whenever he comes in because they can't believe he's 9 years old because he's such a spaz. We love him though. He makes us laugh daily.


Ok, I've babbled on enough for now. As usual, I will try to be better about posting here, but you know the routine...

Holy Cow! Has it been that long?

Wow, I just noticed that the last time I posted here was July 14! Well, I do think I have at least a few good excuses.
First, we went on our vacation to Montana and Canada. It was great! So beautiful. Our friends, the Brittons, flew out from the Isle of Man and met us in Montana. We toured Glacier National Park for a few days before heading up into Canada. In Canada we stopped in Waterton, Banff, Jasper, and Golden. What beautiful country up there. The Canadian Rockies are spectacular. We traveled for about two weeks before coming home. Here are some of the highlights: (Casey is becoming quite the photographer)














Once we got back from our vacation, the chaos began...

Raegan had her first soccer tournament that weekend. Luckily it was in Redding, so we didn't have to leave town again. They lost all of their games, but played well. Then the kids went back to school the next day (Aug. 18), and I went back to work at the school. Raegan started at her new school, and apart from some pre-school jitters, she has really been enjoying it.

The next weekend, the kids and I went to Fort Bragg with my friend, Rita, and her two kids. Rita and I played in a soccer tournament over there. It was my first over 40 women's tournament, and I was pleasantly surprised at the competition level. There are some kick ass old ladies out there playing soccer! Our team didn't do very well (1 win and 3 losses), but we still had fun. Luckily our kids all get along well. They had a great time at the ocean (even though it was cold!).

The weekend after that, Raegan had yet another soccer tournament in Red Bluff (about 45 minutes away from us). This tournament ending up being a very exciting one, with 3 nailbiters. I told my fellow coaches that we may have to invest in a portable defibulator to keep on the sidelines for the coaches. The girls played fantastic and ended up going home with Third Place trophies!



So, as you can see, that between soccer (Raegan and I) and music (Riley and I) we have been a very busy bunch! I hope I can find more time to post here, but don't count on it. I enjoy keeping busy, but it would be nice to find time for a nap now and then!

Whew! That Was Close!

So, on Friday, we came very close to having to evacuate. The winds shifted in our direction and we could see the dark brown smoke getting closer to us. Casey had gone to workout on Friday morning, and as he was heading back towards our house, he could see the flames from the highway.



Luckily, we had plenty of time to pack up more of our important stuff, and we had both cars loaded up and ready to go. Our friends, Chuck and Gaylene came over and took Casey's motorcycles and some of our boxes of pictures back to their house. We were just waiting for the word to leave. There were about 10-12 firetrucks parked down at the school, which is about a mile from us, ready to go if needed.



There was so much air power sent in that several of our friends in town said it looked like a dogfight out our way. They had lots of planes and helicopters flying around all afternoon dropping water and retardant.



Thankfully, later in the afternoon the winds shifted west, away from us, so we never had to evacuate.
Things seemed to have calmed down a bit for now. They seem to have better control of the fires now. The winds have died and the humidity is up, so that's been a big help to the fire crews.
Hopefully things will remain steady. We've sort of unloaded the cars, but still have things packed just in case. We're kind of living out of suitcases and some of our walls look a bit bare, but we want to still be prepared to leave just in case things change again.

If you are interested in keeping track of the fires, go to Enplan and check out the progress. We are close to both the Motion and Moon fires. You can locate the town of Shasta on the map just off HWY 299 and east of Whiskeytown Lake.
So, quite a bit of excitement in our quaint little town, but we're OK!! (just tired of all the smoke)

Startin' to get a little nervous...

So the fires are slowly making their way closer to our area now. There have been some evacuations in other parts of Shasta, but on the other side of the highway. There is also another fire burning in the towns of Ono and Igo, and it seems to be making its way in our direction. I can hear helicopters flying nearby that are dropping buckets of water/retardent or whatever. I can see the smoke behind the hills just west of our house.



Casey is at work right now and is keeping me up to date as to what is going on as far as evacuations and such. Luckily the winds that we had yesterday have died down, but it still seems they are having a hard time getting these fires under control. I think they are still quite a distance away from us, but they are heading in our direction somewhat. So, yes, I am starting to get a little nervous. Luckily, we are all packed and ready to go if needed. All we have to do is throw everything in the cars and get out.



This is bringing back memories of the time we had to evacuate from our other house in Redding. It was a week after Riley was born. Luckily, that fire never got real close to our house, but it was still stressful and scary.



All these pictures are from Redding.com . They have good updates there if you're interested.

So, that's where we stand right now. Hopefully, we won't have to evacuate and everything will be fine. But I think I'll keep praying, just in case...

Cough! Cough!

As I sit here at the computer, my usual view of the surrounding hills is now blocked by a blanket of thick, brown smoke. Yuck! Fortunately, so far we are safe where we live, but there are several fires burning just miles from us. Yesterday I gathered all of the boxes of photos, cd's of photos, etc. and placed them all in the office just in case we need to eventually evacuate. I don't think any of the current fires burning pose a direct threat to us, but the way the drought conditions have been this year and the possibility of another thunderstorm heading our way this weekend could change things pretty quickly.

On a lighter note...
Summer is here! And I'm lovin' it!
The kids are going to summer school, so they are gone from 8:00am - 2:30pm. Freedom! I have really been enjoying my quiet days so far. Of course my big list of projects I have intended on getting to has sat untouched thus far, but who cares? I certainly don't! It is amazing how fast the time does go though.

I have done a little scrapbooking, but not as much as I would've liked so far. Here are some of my latest layouts:





I even did a couple of layouts using pictures of me when I was about 8 years old. I definately want to scrap more pictures of me from my childhood. So fun!




I was also busy making photo scrapbooks for all the dads this Father's Day. I made a slide show so you can see the results. I really like how they turned out. I got the idea from a website, so don't think I'm really this creative. I wanted to keep them really simple. I even made some of the "papers" for this on the computer. I wish I had more time to do more of the creating side of digital scrapbooking.

I've also been busy getting ready for the upcoming soccer season for Raegan's Division 3 team. Another one of her coaches and I have been taking a coaching class that ran last weekend and also this weekend. I'm learning alot and really like the instructor. I've also been playing in a summer adult coed league. There are a few of my regular teammates on this team, but for the most part, it's a totally different team. In this league, they are allowing some younger guys to play. In our other league, you can only have one man under 30 on the field at a time. The women can be any age as long as they are at least 18. In this summer league, they are allowing each team to play 2 guys that are between 18-25 and two between 25-30 on the field at a time. Holy Cow! Talk about feeling old! These young guys are so dang fast! So far I haven't felt like I can't keep up, but the game is definately faster than I'm used to. It's been fun, though and we have a really good team. We've been creaming every other team so far. I think the score on our last game was like 10-1.

We are going to take a vacation at the end of July. We're heading over to Glacier National Park in Montana and then up into Canada a bit. It should be a great trip. Of course we planned this all before the gas prices decided to take a huge leap, but I hope it doesn't ruin our trip. Our friends, the Brittons, from the Isle of Man will be flying in to meet us in Montana and then travel with us. That will be great, and I know we are all anxious to see them again.

Well, gosh, aren't I long winded today! I guess I should go glance at my project list, huh? Not that I'll actually do anything from it, but I need to refresh my memory on what it was I put on the list.

Oh, and before I leave, you may have noticed I added a new lead song on my playlist. It's the new single by Gavin Rossdale (otherwise known as Mr. Gwen Stefani). I really like this song, and like even more the picture I found of him! Sexy man! Yeah baby! Enjoy (both the song and the picture!)

He Did It!

Hooray! David Cook won American Idol! I'm so happy! I really didn't think he was going to after he got a bit trashed on the night before the final. But not only did he win, but he won by 12 million votes! The song playing is the one he sung after he won. It's called "The Time of My Life". I think it's supposed to be released as a single. I've also added a couple of other David Cook songs that I like.



And now for some Bokavich News:

School is winding down. There are only 2 more weeks left! Hooray! Raegan is going to a camp this week. It's for all the 5th graders. It's in Whiskeytown Park. They leave Tuesday morning and come home Friday afternoon. She seems very excited, but I'm kind of nervous that she will get homesick. She has a tendency to be a bit clingy to us, and even has a hard time sometimes just spending the night at a friend's house. We shall see...

Last Thursday, the kids had a talent show at their school. Both of the kids performed (and I had a small part in it too!) Raegan did a comedy routine. It was so cute. She pretended she was going to sing a song along with the guitar, and instead she told some jokes. Everyone laughed, and she did a great job!



Riley and I did a piano duet. We played two songs. It was the first time neither one of us made a mistake! He did so good! He loves to perform.



In other news...

Raegan made that Division 3 soccer team! Her coach said she did really well at the tryouts. I stayed out of the whole tryout process and didn't say anything to her or to her coach. I wanted her to make it on her own, not by me interfering. She was very excited when she found out that she made it. The coaches also officially asked me if I would be an assistant coach with them. I said "yes", and I am also very excited to be a part of this team. It seems like a good bunch of girls. I know most of the girls from having coached them at one point. It's going to be a lot of hard work for both Raegan and I, but we both are looking forward to getting started. It should be a lot of fun!

Here is a slide show of Raegan this past soccer season:

Well, I think that's about all for now! As usual, I will try to post more often, but I have started a list for myself of projects I would like to complete this summer. Hopefully I can finish everything on my list...

Yep, it's actually here...

Today is the day. The big one. The "F" Word.
My 40th Birthday! Yikes!

I still can't believe that I'm 40 years old. It's hard to even say the number.
However, my friend, Wendy, said, "But 4 and 0 are such small numbers! I mean 0...that's nothing!" Thanks Wendy!

Riley asked me the other day what I hoped to get for my birthday, and my answer was "Younger!". Ok, I don't feel 40, and I hope to most people that I don't look 40, but I just remember as a kid thinking 40 was SO OLD! And now that I'm here, I'm thinking, 40 is nothing! I still feel 25! (except a couple weeks ago when I had a soccer tournament and had to play 3 games in a row!) Ok, but I guess the fact that I was even able to play 3 games in a row without passing out or dying says something, right? And Riley didn't even notice that I had any gray hair yesterday when he said that Casey would go gray before me. I told him I already had a bunch of gray hair and that's why I color it, and he says, "No you don't, Mom." Don't you just love kids? And by the way, Casey does NOT have any gray hair!! Bastard!!

In honor of my big day, I created this layout about me turning 40:



I also though I would re-post the video I had on my other blog, "The Story of Lori".

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ok, time to face the day...and embrace it!
Afterall, look at my life...what else could I possibly need?

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Hello...is it me you're looking for?

Gosh, I really need to get better about posting here.
So, let's see...what have we been up to?

Well, soccer mostly. Raegan's team has been doing surprisingly well. They've tied two games, won one game, and lost one game. The team they played yesterday was the "stacked team", meaning that they had about 6 or 7 Division III boys on their team, as well as some Div. III girls. And, boy, could you tell! Holy Cow, they were good. Our team did very well the first half, and the score was only 1-0 at halftime. But our defense, who was just getting pounded the entire game, was overpowered in the second half and we ended up losing 4-0. Still, not bad considering how good this team was.

Today, I have a soccer tournament with my adult coed team, and Raegan has tryouts for the Div. III U-11 girls team this afternoon. We'll be living at the soccer park all day today. My team has a 12:00 game and a 1:00 game, and then depending on how we do, we may then have to play again at 2:00, and then if we are still doing well, we may end up in the championship game at 3:00! I may not be able to walk by the end of today.

I feel so bad because Riley has a cub scout event today that I have to miss. His pack is doing their annual rocket launch this afternoon. Unfortunately, Casey had to go out of town this morning too, so we're both going to miss it. I went last year, and it was a fun event. Riley has two rockets to launch. He's very excited. Luckily, he has a wonderful den leader who has agreed to take Riley for the entire day. It's actually better this way. Riley would not want to be hanging out at the soccer park all day anyway. He's become pretty good friends with his den leader's son, so they will have a blast together. I still feel like a terrible mother, though.

I've been busy with my scrapbooking too, and have made a few layouts with the skiing photos Casey took on their skiing excursions up to Mt. Shasta. Here they are:










So, I guess that's it in a nutshell. We all have various events coming up in the next few weeks that I will keep you updated on.

Until then...

A Bit of an Update...

So, it's been awhile since I've posted, so I thought I would just give an update as to what we've been up to!

We had spring break the week after Easter, and although most of it was uneventful, the kids did have a great couple of days with Casey up in Mt. Shasta at the ski park. So, where was I during all this snow filled fun? At home. You see, I don't ski. It's not that I've never tried. Oh, I've tried. Let's just say it's not my thing. The kids keep asking me why I don't want to go skiing with them. My reply is that I don't ski, I fall...alot. I always joke that I would be the giant snowball tumbling down the hill. I'm glad that they all like it so much. Both of the kids took to skiing pretty quickly. But what is surprising is that Riley is actually the one who has really taken to the sport and is excelling! You see, Raegan has always been the jock, and sports usually come fairly easy to her. So when Casey told me that Riley was the one who was really doing great, I was so excited! It has been so great for him. Here are some photos Casey took on their last ski trip...









Soccer is also back in full swing. This season, Raegan moved up to the U-12 division. And, for once, I'm not the coach! I am one of the assistant coaches though. It's kinda nice not to have so much responsibility. There are 3 other coaches besides me. The main reason I wanted to join these guys was because they are the ones that will be coaching the Division 3 U-11 girls team in the fall. That team is the one the girls have to try out for. They go to tournaments, and overall, it's much more competitive. I had already told the guy who is going to be the head coach that I would help him if he needed it, and he said he'd be happy to have me join his coaching team. So, this season is kind of a test to see how we all coach together. So far I'm loving it, and we all seem to be getting along great!

We had our first game yesterday, and we were all pleasantly surprised at how well our team did. We tied 2-2. You see, because none of us play the stupid political youth coaching B.S. that some other coaches do, our team is a bit of the underdog. Our team is the only one in our division with more girls than boys, and we do not have one Division 3 player on our team. (They mix them in the spring season). The team we played yesterday obviously had some D3 girls on it. And they were HUGE! Holy Cow! But our little girls (and boys) stood up to them and held their own. It was an awesome game. I think it also showed the boys on our team that the girls know how to play, and aren't the giggling, gossiping, silly girls that they usually see at practice. So, regardless of how our other games turn out, I think it will be a great season!

Boy, I'm long winded today, huh? I better not write anymore, or I won't have anything to talk about in my next post!

Until then...

David Cook Rocks!!!

Ok, let's talk American Idol...
I hate to be an "I told you so", but I have been diggin' on David Cook from the beginning. While everyone else is all about David Archuletta, I've been saying, "No, this David Cook guy is really good". Even Simon Cowell didn't like him at first and told him he was boring and had no personality. (I think he told Chris Daughtry the same thing)

So last night just proved my point all along...
I didn't hear Ryan Seacrest say what song he was singing, so when he started, I was thinking, "What song is this?" Then I thought I heard him say "Billie Jean", and I was like, "Oh my god! He's singing Billie Jean by Michael Jackson!" Then I got a little nervous and thought, "Oh no, how's he gonna pull this off?" Well, I shouldn't have worried at all because David totally rocked it!! Oh my god, it was so awesome.

What I love about this guy is that not only does he take risks, but he can totally take a song, change the arrangement, and rock it every time. He is the only contestant that has consistently done this and succeeded every time. He is so talented, I hope he wins!

So, if you missed his rockin' version of Billie Jean, here it is: (don't forget to pause my music at the bottom)



If you have missed any of his other performances, go to YouTube and watch them. His version of Lionel Richie's "Hello" is also amazing. Love him! Not so much diggin' on his hair though, but I still think he is by far the best of all the contestants. Sorry Archuletta fans!