Busy, busy, busy.....

Well, we never did succeed in getting my flowers planted. Or, not all of them anyway. We planted under our bedroom window, but DH decided that digging that up & tilling it by hand was too strenous for even him. So he got the rototiller from his dad's the next night, and we dig out a good 6 inches of fill-gravel from a strip of ground along the rest of the front of our house, under the living-room & computer-room windows. Found more gravel there than dirt, so we dumped what was there into the (outside) dog kennel. Fills in some of the holes Puck & Jenny have been digging. *grin* Anyway, but now we've got a nice little 6-8" deep trench along the front of the house that we need to REFILL with top-soil (or, at the very least, fill dirt) and get planted. My peas aren't coming up yet, and neither are the flower seeds I planted under our bedroom window. (That part WAS top soil, because it was re-seeded with grass-seed by the city a couple of years back when they came through & dug it out to put in new sewer & water lines.)

I guess the seedlings that we put in on Memorial Day over at the FIL's have all died, and none of the other seeds have come up yet. *sigh* Maybe we won't get ANYTHING from our garden this year. That'd suck!

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I was woken up at 8 am this morning by a mosquito buzzing around my head. Nasty little freaks! I told DH that this is it, it's time to get a couple of those pest strips. I know the things probably put off nasty toxins, but 2 of them will keep our house mosquito-free for the rest of the summer. I'll take a little toxin over serious lack of sleep caused by constant mosquito-bzzzz in my ears all night. *wry smile*

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DD had her first soccer game of the summer on Monday. I missed it, of course, being at work till 9:15 as I am on Mondays. They lost, 6-1. DD's team suffered greatly from their lack of team-work & team-spirit. There are a couple of girls on DD's team who are of the opinion that DD doesn't know how to play, simply because this is her first season. So, regardless of the fact that she played (and played well) at school during recess all year, they refuse to pass to her. (Once she does get ahold of the ball she does really well moving it -legally!- down the field. Kid's a born athlete! Even if she doesn't know the sport well, she picks up on it quickly.) So, she was out there getting frustrated that her teammates wouldn't pass to her even when she was open. One of the girls threw a tantrum when she got to the game 5 minutes late and found out that goalies had already been picked (the coach has already picked up on the fact that DD is a good goalie, thanks largely to her experience in hockey) and that she wasn't allowed to just walk in and say she wanted to play goalie. DH said that after this girl's initial tantrum, she refused to play, standing back with her arms crossed. *sigh* Then there are the two ball-hogs who are convinced they're the best on the team, even though the "best on the team" titles really go to the two smallest of our players. (They're small, but fast.) *shaking head*

It's ironic, I see very little poor team-spirit & team-work in hockey, but a LOT of poor team-spirit & team-work in soccer & baseball. At least at these younger ages. I'm starting to be convinced that what it really comes down to is the commitment level and desire to play in the children on the team. With hockey, parents generally make darned sure (after the first year or two, which are always spent in learning to skate anyway) that their children want to play before they shell out the $$ for all that hockey gear. Kids don't generally play hockey just because it's there. By the time they've been in hockey for 4, 5, 6 years, a parent is pretty sure that this is what a child wants to do. And the child is aware of how much money Mom & Dad are spending on them for registration fees, ice-time, and gear. So, both are well aware that this is a commitment & not something to be taken lightly. Not to say that we don't have our off weeks. We sure do. But if DD starts the season gung-ho about wanting to play hockey, we make it clear to her that she better play her best. Now, if she were to mid-way-through decide that she didn't want to play anymore, yes we'd push her. But only till the end of the season. Hockey is not a sport a child can join for part of a season then decide to drop out. Too much money goes into it for that. But, if at the end of the season DD is still adamant that she really doesn't want to play again next season, we would honor that request.

Soccer & baseball (at least at this age) seems to be considerably different. Little money is spent on decent gear & registration fees. Even tournament fees are considerably lower than were the fees for our hockey tournaments. So, the commitment level seems to be considerably less. With hockey, if you child drops out mid-season, you're out several hundred dollars. (DD's hockey last year, without sponsors or fundraising, would have been in the range of $2000, including our tournament fees.) With soccer, if DD were to drop out, we'd be out about $150. And I think parents & children realise that. So, as I said, I don't feel as though the commitment to being a team-player is there with baseball & soccer as it is with hockey (and possibly football). *shrug* DD is pretty disappointed, already, in how this soccer season is looking. With 2 teammates that can't stand her, and whom she can't stand, and another who's lazy if she doesn't get her way (at the expense of the others, no less), DD is pretty well aware that their competing well in games this season is slim.

And, as much as other people say "It's not about winning...." Sorry, to disappoint, but it IS about having fun, and children who lose every single game aren't generally having fun. Not to say that it's ONLY about winning, but to keep spirits up, a game must be won every now and again. Otherwise your team quickly comes to believe that their team sucks and what's the point. Heart is lost for the game, and children drop out. So, though it's NOT all about winning, winning a game every now & again certainly helps with the general enjoyment of the sport itself.

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We've had some crazy-humid weather the last couple of days. I mean, like folks from chicago, and florida, and texas are saying that they've never experienced this kind of humidity in Fbks, AK before, that this is something they're used to down in the states, but not up here. Still no thunder-storms (at least, not that I've heard), but very humid. I left work Monday night feeling like I could probably swim from the building to my car. Crazy. We did have some of that moisture actually drop on us yesterday, but not enough. WANT MORE RAIN! LOL

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I'm back to working a full 5 day week, again. Man, that couple of weeks with an odd schedual was incredible. I decided that I'm going to schedual myself a week off, twice a year, to just relax. I mean, a week where anything I get done is a bonus. Not a week spent camping or fishing or hunting. Not a week spent franticly preparing for christmas. A week in which my primary goals include catching up on laundry & dishes & my favorite shows or movies. A week in which I'm not rushing around, but just relaxing. I felt so damned good when I went in on Friday of last week. And even though I'm still tired, I feel pretty danged good this week too. (The mosquito this morning certainly didn't help, though.) I realized that I really just need that time off every few months to unwind & relax without any real pressure to do things. And, ironically, even after all the time I took off in May for jury duty, I've still got 160 hours of leave-time available to me. And more ecruing every day. And after July 1st, I'll have 2 more personal holidays available, above & beyond my leave-time. So, there's really no reason I can't afford to take a couple of weeks off a year, just for relaxing. That's not even including what I take off for trips or doctor's appointments.

And I realized, too, how often everybody else takes time off! I've got one coworker who takes off a week every couple of months. Not every 6 months, but every couple of months. And who's takes off whole days for a dr's appointment (and she works a 40 hour week). My boss takes a week off roughly every month & a half. Other coworkers who give themselves 4 day weekends every couple of months, along with 3 week vacations in the states to visit their family every year.

I don't mean to sound as if I'm being lazy, but I've been working non-stop for the last 5 years now, most of it without leave-time available. Only the last 2 years have I had paid leave. Last year I took 2 weeks off for my surgery, but because of the surgery it wasn't exactly a relaxing 2 weeks. I need to start being nicer to myself and giving myself a chance to relax, if I really want to stay healthy.

Anyway..... I suppose that is it for now.

Have a Blessed Day!