The Golden Girls

For the past month I've been coaching a woman's 55 and older basketball team. I believe the oldest one being in her later 70's.....and yes, it was as funny as it sounds.

I volunteered to help teach these ladies some of the basics of basketball. I mean really, really, basic. Such as, you have to dribble the ball, not run with it. The differences between offense and defense ( i know it seems obvious, but it turns out that its quite confusing to some of our senior citizens ) :) We were practicing with a goal in mind; to help raise money and gather food for our local food banks.

The first practice was a little shaky, but they improved each week and were having a great time. I had imagined it to be a slow paced game, but I was way off. These elderly woman are aggressive and competitive! They were flying all over the place; hacking, stealing, blocking, shouting, flying sprawled out on the ground after a loose ball. I thought we were going to have some broken hips or something more serious by the end. Even at one point we had to stop a scrimmage and remind them that it was just for fun and to lighten up a bit. They were awesome and it shows ya no matter what your age is competitiveness stays with you. I enjoyed spending the time with these ladies getting to know them and was happy to help them out. After a month of practicing we split them into four different teams and I was in charge of the blue team.

We had a great turn out from the community and tons of food was gathered for the food banks. These woman definitely sacrificed their bodies and time for a good cause and I was happy to be a part of it. The Blue team ended up taking third, well we ended our last game 3-3 with the red team and decided to just call it a tie, so no one came in last place :) The ladies I coached were so happy to be a part of this basketball team that they asked me to coach them for next years Hoop Fest, which is a huge 3 on 3 tournament in Spokane, WA.

They handed out medals at the end of the games that said "Golden Girls 2008" It is hanging in my room and is a good reminder that it's always good to take some time out of your life and help someone else.

spare time

Sometimes ya just gotta cut loose! There isn't much to do for young adults, but I always enjoy going out with the friends and forget about school and work. I also went golfing yesterday for the first time in awhile to a short course here in CDA. Every hole is a par three and I havent really played since high school. It was a blast and I did suprisingly well. Only one close encounter with a fellow golfer and my ball. FORE!

Midterms

Well I'm half way through my first semester back at NIC. Things are going well so far, but a little stressful. The midterm grades were posted and I have three A's and a C. Which is a MAJOR improvement from my prior attempts at college, so I'm happy and hope to keep them there....well maybe I can work on the C a bit :) I'm excited to get this first semester under my belt and then come to Utah for a visit. The semester ends December 16th, so I will be flying in shortly after and hope to see everyone! What else is going on in my life?? Well there was a major drug bust at my work and a few pounds of meth was found in one of our units and I had gangsters from the Insane,(which is a dangerous gang located in Long Beach) driving around here asking questions and undercover cops. Then after the bust the main detective asked me out on a date. It was a very exciting day at work and completely random, but broke up the usual dullness of my job. Nothing to exciting happening in my life just keeping busy with homework. I should be working on a Biography on Samuel Adams, turns out it wasn't just the name of a beer, but one of our founding fathers and a ruthless, cruel bastard. Anyways, it's getting freezing cold up here already and I'm not looking forward to another winter in North Idaho. Really I was thinking about transferring to Dixie after this semester. Who knows though I change my mind quite often! :) any suggestions? I posted a few pictures because Sheri asked if I only owned one shirt so here is proof I own at least 3 or 4 :) There is a few from camping and other random times. I cooked my first dutch oven all by myself!

T for Vendetta!

Okay, Okay, maybe I jumped the gun with the whole Graduate thing, but Boo and I will be starting North Idaho College on August 25th. Boo's first time and well its my second attempt at success! :) Due to my lack of responsibility and common sense to do things right the first time I will be basically starting over. This first semester I am focusing on patching up my butchered GPA by retaking classes I received a less than par grade. I will be coming into this semester with more of a kick- ass attitude vs my half-assed attitude at 18. You may ask yourself what has brought this change of attitude? Well let me tell ya; waiting on some of the more primitive and ill-mannered people in our society has made me wage a personal vendetta against them! I have decided that a job that would require me to live paycheck to paycheck and serve unappreciative people is no life at all. Although I don't have the desire to live flashy, I would like to live comfortably. I moved into the basement of some of our family's friends. They have a very nice home across from the Spokane river and they travel a lot. They offered to let me live there free of charge while I'm attending school. It helps them out because they don't like leaving the house empty all the time and it obviously helps me out by having no bills or distraction of roommates. There is a private entrance, kitchen, bathroom and laundry room all down in the basement. It's awesome to finally have a place of my own. Living with roommates is a challenging thing. To come home and find the house a mess or to be woken up at 2am with stumbling, laughing and music can really get to a person! At least when I come home to my house a mess I will know it is my mess! I will maintain my job with G-Town and it will be the perfect job for a college student. If you read my first blog post you will know that I will have all day at work to do my homework. Finally something to do! :) I am very excited for the future and whatever it may bring! Also thanks to my parents for helping me get back into college.

Family Vacation

First off it was very nice to get to visit my Larsen family over the fourth of July! It just would be nice to do that on a more regular basis rather than once or twice a year. Family vacations are really bitter sweet. On one hand it's amazing to spend the time with the ones you love and then on the other hand the long car rides and cramped space make for a hostile environment! Once you step into that vehicle and shut the door it's like everyone is looking for a reason for someone to piss them off! The first thing you have to do is stake your territory. Although space is limited you must treasure what little land you have claimed your own. It is a very important and tiring job to make sure no elbows or feet cross your line and once they do immediate action must take place by either slapping or kicking it back. Also to make yourself clear you should pipe off a comment like "get that corn out of my face!" but if they are repeat offenders "gosh watch your freakin elbows you about hit me in the face" usually is a better approach and makes them aware of the seriousness of their actions. If anyone has travelled with their brother or sisters should understand these back seat wars. Now when it comes to the parents that's a whole different story. Anyone notice that everyone has to be in the same mood as them? What is that crap? lol. Gosh no one laugh or giggle when there is a lovers quarrel at head quarters. Which is usually over something stupid like '"stop hitting the brakes and then hitting the gas" or "i told you i would freakin drive just pull over. you're being a baby." It could even be over the mere temperature of the car. Who knows what could set them off because car rides are usually emotionally unstable environments. On this last trip I was trying to ignore a feud up front when i got a text from Boo who was travelling with Ty and Sloan and he wrote "why do married couples always fight in the car?" which made me laugh out loud because I was just wondering the same thing! Why is that Captain Ron? Nobody knows boss. Anyways, when you put aside all the fighting it's always worth it. It wouldn't be a family vacation with out all the yelling, fighting, laughing and good times. So thank you to my wonderful family for making me have the best and the worst of times! I love you all.

Killin Time

Well since most of you are only graced with my presence once a year I thought I might be able to keep more in touch by creating this blog! :) I know I enjoy reading everyone else's blogs while trying to kill six and a half hours of downtime that I have to endure at work. Some of you may be thinking "aw poor girl has to play on the internet all day and get paid" well let me tell you it is hard to kill that much time on the net. By the way I work for a company called G- Town, USA, and we sell Storage Condominuims, sounds fancy? Really they are overpriced storage units that are meant to be owned by people with way to much money or way to little brains. Either way it pays the bills. Anyways I sit in the clubhouse at G- Town and hope for someone to come in. It rarely happens and always catches me off guard when clients walk in the door. Normally I'm engaged in an intense game of Suduko, catching up on celebrity gossip, (worthless info i know) religiously checking my email hoping someone has written me, and lately I have a new habit of googling anything and everything that I'm unsure about. I am beginning to think that Google is turning me into a hypochondriac. The other day I had a headache so I google "headache" Bad idea. I started stressing whether it was a Tension, Cluster, or Migraine headache. Then I had to worry why I had the headache in the first place and whether there was some major problem. By the end of my search I was definite I needed a CAT Scan to get to the bottom of it. Then 4:30pm finally came and I turned off my computer....the headache stopped. Guess it was my bodies way of telling me that I was wasting way to much damn time staring at a computer screen and doing absolutely nothing. So I decided to take my dad's advice and start a blog today. Now I only have five and half hours at work to waste. Hope everyone else's lives aren't as rough as mine.