"'That movie (Shadowlands) is a pet peeve,' Dr. Edwards said."

Just printed the article here.

BASEBALL! BASEBALL WAS FUN THIS WEEK! Should of had a little scrimmage or something.

Year in review in a couple weeks. Expecting all to delve themselves into it too!

God is goody, good, good to us!

That was an excellent weekend!

Highlights: seeing you all, the race, shopping with all--and the girls, food, trivial pursuit, and clue (wish we could have gotten one more round of clue in---I was so mental that last game--confusing).

Shouldn't that game be easier once you get older?

We got home in 5 hours 40 mins today, WOW!

So I just talked to mom and Bruce briefly (wish I could be at the beach). Stunk we couldn't hear each other on the phone :(, but just wanted to say hello, thanks, we made, and love you all!

I watched a little of Holes on the drive home, but mostly slept. Such a cutie awesome tv mom and dad! THANK YOU!

So I've found it harder and harder to hit the brick wall after vacations. Nothing's as bad as the end of summer one, but COME ON! (I'm talking about work, about responsibility, about adulthood).

I think of the Lord God Almighty. His spirit, His word, and everything we are to trust while on earth, and then I just think ---what of this I'm doing or pursuing matters to Him and His kingdom.

Yes, plenty. Just praising Him daily and trusting Him.
But I'm wanting more. I'm moreso wanting the patience to wait.

Just some random in depth notions I deal with after every blessingful meeting with my loved ones.

I am thoroughly ready to pursue this half marathon more intensely. Just looking at the runners ages and times from this weekend and the half marathon results from last year...

My goal: half marathon this Jan., marathon the next, and triathalon the next (or visa versa). Lord willing.

It is freezing in our house today--like 50 degrees---but we're not using the heater. I'm going to go sit somewhere until Casey wakes up. It's only 3:40 p.m.----it feels like 10 p.m.

Until next time---your melancholy Mary friend.

Scimmage went frantically well! Yes!

Good to hear you're all safe and sound in S.D.

See you soon!

I'm all packed.

We have a scrimmage tonight in Merced. Hopefully it's not too much "chicken with its head cut off" syndrome.

It has been uncomfortably cold in the mornings here, I must embarrassingly say. We had frost this morning, that needed to be scraped.

If you've seen the new Jim Carrey Grinch, the scenes where he is a baby and 8 year old grinch are HILARIOUS!

At least they are when you're sitting with a bunch of high school students at 8 in the morning.

Oh, my fam. We found out that baseball is not having its usual "PIE" fundraiser. So we will try to pick some up tonight, but me at a scrimmage and Casey maybe with us....

Tomorrow we will leave around 1 pm after our half day. Let's hope that gets us there around 9 pm. Please Lord :)

Either way we'll buy some pies in S.D. Talk to you in person soon!

WE GOT THE TRUCK!!!!!

And we're getting our dog the week after Thanksgiving!

WHOA, WOW, YAH, WOOO!

There are new pictures of the dogs up in that link to the right. We are really pulling for Pluto, but we'll take Titan if we can't have Pluto :)

Can't wait! see ya for now!

Today I got an awesome surprise of the Dido cd from dad! YES! And another one of those cool blank "record cds".

THANKS DAD!

WOOOO!!!!!OH MY! OH MY! It's the weekend somehow, some way!

Next week I will teach "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" as an author and character analysis, and movie reviews. Cake fun times.

Then you know what. THAT TRIP SOCAL STYLE!

Practice tonight I really turned into a vegetable space cadet and kept stopping drills in the middle of them, calling them over, and rambling in unknown languages.

It was hilarious and weird. So I probubly should catch up on sleep tonight. (oh and I saw my first ashma (bad spelling) attack that a girl on varsity had tonight-----very scary!)

CPR from 8 am to 5 pm all day tomorrow in Merced b/c of necessary certifiable coaching requirements.

Last blog quip from a weekly Friday snack time for teacher's: Chilli in the teacher's lounge at break = happy, happy teachers. Not kidding.

It was the most amazing homemade chilli seemingly that anyone has ever had! YUM! Lotsa poofing and bronx cheers to be shared all around I'm sure.

bla bla, must slow down and watch King of Queens. IT'S ON "UPN" station TRACEY! Every night at 7 and 7:30 pm. Also, did you and dad get the 5k flyer in the mail today?

It tells the race course! BYE BYE ALL YOUS

Mom congrats on your PRESIDENCY!

A good day of teaching and coaching for me today.

I ran with my assistant coach (45 year old mom of player) before prac., and it was only about 2.5 or less.

(skip this paragraph if you don't want my running sched.)Tomorrow, I want to run more than that, and Friday I will try to pound out a good long one.---if I don't crash. Then, Sat. maybe a timed 3.1...but supposed to be cross training. Sunday 5 miles AGAIN! Ahh.

Dad and Trace make sure you rest Tues &/or at least Wed. :) YES!

Ooo, Matt I can't wait to "get destroyed by mother nature" next summer for more than a week's stay of inviting myself over!

YES HOT TUB! WOOoo, anybody for some grasshoppers or egg nog? I'm feelin' the nog after dad mentioned it today.

Mike can't wait to get into your new band! Man, my brothers are so cool! catch ya's

Arnold rolled back the car tax...will it be replaced with another tax though?!!

Let's hope not. For now, it's sweet since our truck won't be in for another week!

Here is a quote from the dealer today: "It is on the train ride to main railhead then it will transfer to the train to california and then it is a matter of when the ground transport brings it to us".

Right, right, and THE EXACT DAY IS!?!? COME ON!

So, last night I konked right out at 8 p.m. Monday night sleepers. The running Sunday's are what get me on Monday afternoon.

Dad and Trace ARE YOU READY!?

Tonight we only had 6 players of 11 @ practice due to FFA sloppa mojave bo-bobbi convention. 4 prac's till first "game", it's a scrimmage come on.

Yes, I'm that into this JV basketball! Gotta love unloading all I've learned these years of basketball :)

Current playlist (as inspired by dad's list the other day):

1. The Sounds-Dance with Me (rock out!)
2. Mike Edwards-Fullness*
3. The Shins-So Says I
4. No Doubt-It's My Life
5. Travis-The Beautiful Occupation*
6. Ryan Adams-So Alive

SO, SO, so, into all of them RIGHT NOW, but especially **Mike's Fullness and Travis (want the album too!--does Matt have?).

Today, I ran 5 miles with my minidisc player (including the above music over&over&over). WHAT! Yeah, I'm starting to feel stronger in endurance. Hey we have a race in 11 days, I better get going!

Dad, we will have baseballs and a bat or two. Along with tennis raquets. Sleeping is strictly forbidden in my book. (well normal 8 or less nights,& maybe some short naps @ least). Wooooooooooooooooooo!

Tracey hope you and Matt had a wonderful, wonderful evening :) Also, I will bring the Christmas music I have next week :)

"Lord, haaa''ve it allllllll,...oh Lord, take it alllll, ladeda"---AWESOME MIKE!

Bring some of your more fun PS2 games, b/c we're bringing our PS2 to Thanksgiving.

Also, if it can fit!??!You all should bring that Upright DVD, and Katuras....come on that's only like 3-4 skinny light things.

Oh well if not, I'm sure we'll be real busy just being :)

DAD! I will bring tennis raquets b/c they live right by a club. We won't go to the club though b/c whatta rip I'm sure, but maybe at the local school.

Also, we can get Tracey into and MOM WILL YOU PLAY!? Plus maybe J and mike---matt would you ever? bye bye for now

Mike I'm sure you've read, "Mom finds out about blog" from The Onion?

...."she was 'VERY EXCITED :)!!!' to find his 'computer diary,'" Very funny, this really old mother finding her old son's diary. HA!

Tracey good description of the ocean view and instantly not caring about dangerous playground behavior.

I thought like that one day when I was coaching softball last spring. Only it was the mountains. It's just neat to be somewhere different than the old flat,flat view.

I remember certain nights in Ohio where you could see the weird cloud sunset and it seems the clouds are like mountains with the sun setting over them.

Majestic. Anywhere you see God's natural beauty. Definitely majestic.

Dad I liked this list: "yarn, combs, and mouthwash."

Tonight I had a basketball meeting b/c we couldn't have practice----oh yeah there's a volleyball game tonight---"Valley Championship". Unkay.

Goodnight.

Chris Carabba: such stage presense and song writing ability!

Too bad he is so depressing to listen to. And too bad my brother Justin is so much more amazing on stage than this guy.

Carabba (dashboard of course) just draws you in and you can't help but flat out enjoy his live show (like I saw tonight on tv).

But Justin, man there's nothing more truer than watching him sing his heart and praise God with his voice, with his music.

And Mike I haven't seen you on stage as much, but I hear the same quality in your music in your soul through the music and lyrics.

Just captivating and knee bowing to the Lord Almighty. SWEET!

Can't wait to hear you guys play someday. At church, in matt's living room, on stage, in heaven, wherever. God is good.

Um...what day is it?

And what month is FLYING!? YES YES YES YES!

Today I am testing kids all day, so I am sort of bored:) A very good bored though :)

So generally my mind is consumed with coaching. LOVE IT! It makes me so at ease with everything else. We have our 1st scrimmage Nov.25, right before T-day break.

And I'm looking forward to the 5k on Turkey Day as well. I'm hoping to break 30 mins.! OH MY! My training is NOT reflecting that goal though....2 weeks from tomorrow! We'll see.

AWESOME!

And a free shirt (paid for really though) to sport around Chowtown...? What's more fun. Oh seeing my family too! complete radicalness all around!

JUSTIN! Yes to Year in Reviews! Everyone post 'em and I'll print 'em!

I would like a copy of peeps from last year for an album of sorts. (can get J's from online, but others? eh, erp, eeka, yeah yeah whatever sometime :)

Also, Justin very fun, cool drawings.

So mom (and Trace)-- Casey and I will bring 6 pies from "Marie Callendar's" restaurant fund raiser at school. We'll take requests when the time is closer or now....whatever.

And I was thinking I could make the sweet potatoes if you need me to, but I wanted you and Tracey to keep in mind that Casey and I won't be there till a Wednesday night driving :) ---so we may be puny help if at all, so sorry.

Just don't think you and Tracey need to go crazy making stuff.

It's all good. I(we all) just want to sit in the same room with my mom. With my dad. With Mike Edwards. And that kid Justin, my other good bro. And again with Matt and T, so good to see them twice in a mo'.

Mike encouraging blog today! Also, good to see the Christmas list up there :) later conchitas!

So relaxed today. It's chilly and overcast, it reminds me of home. Warm and rested with no work or worry.

Right now, Dido "Christmas Day" is playing, and I will put up Christmas lights in our living room.

It just feels right to do today.

For some reason, I planned practice @ 8:30-10 A.M. this morning..... Umm....but @least now I will not waste my day.

We're going to John's Incredible Pizza this afternoon! All you can eat, (kiddie place) where they have a sports room, a cartoon room, and others.

Laser tag, arcade, huge tvs. Yeah, it will be fun if we can block out the noise of kiddies ;)

Tracey, I hope you are recooperated from the migraine. I too am going to REPEAT this week's workouts. I only got a chance to run Sunday, do some drills with the team throughout the week, and today I just ran 2 miles.

So we'll be on the same schedule still. Cool!

P.s. that high school girl @ our school is okay, praise God! And praise God about Josh Caldernello.

Dad, keep up the training, and fun to read about your trip :)

I got your letter with BGHS winning girls state cross country, and the Belle/Sebastian article. Thanks.

Mom, I don't think we should "NOTeat as much over Thanksgiving", like you mentioned. No, no, bad idea.

So here's the essentials again: Apple and pumpkin pie (here comes the green poop, hahahahahahhahahaha), vanilla ice cream and matt's fire place going, sweet potatoes/marshmellows, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and yum yum chop turkey!

catchya
"ratty sweaters, homemade blouses, chains on their face"

Today was weird.

One of Casey's (lower minded) students was wrongly handcuffed for a long story, and we had to "LOCKDOWN" our school.

Lock everything and let noone in. False alarm though, but weird and somewhat scary.

Then a good student/athlete somehow fell while horsing around with a friend. They both fell and the she hit her head on the concrete going into seisures immediately and being ambulenced out.---not sure how serious even.....

Anyways, @ practice the head maintenance guy, kicked us out of practice early for a new floor clearner bla bla, and that was super annoying.

On other lighter sides, Casey is going to build a truck contraption for hauling our canoe and bikes solidly into the truck bed. Weird to explain, but he and the shop teacher are going to weld it all.

Neato mosquito. By the way, truck in approx. 2 weeks.

JUSTIN WAY TO UP'n decide for the concert! Shininger (friend o'mine) and I did that with a Cranberries concert in Indy. And I had already seen the Crans in concert the Thursday and Friday before that 3rd Saturday of UP'n GO!

Kewl. Ewe, that spelling is sick-o. Dad have fun! I'll end on a good quote: "take that scrub and get off me"

p.s. WARNING, WARNING! Do not go to Amazon.com unless you want to find 2 million things you want for yourself, or for other people!

HA!

Dad I saw your wish list, and then proceeded to fill mine up for the next four Christmas' and birthdays!

The children only Christmas exchange is ON!

All we need is for Matt to email me his choice of #1 or #2. Then I will reveal who your exchange sibling is!

So coaching bball is full go, and I'm lovin' it! Ooooo, don't like that McDonald's commercial reference......"Yo, my gangsta, I'm lovin' it".

That's a McDonald's commercial?! Yeah. It is. And if one more "Raider Hater" is yelled out on our school grounds, I will puke!

I agree with Matteo that Bron Bron is fun to watch. And there's a dying laughter happening to Tracey's "it's beginning to look a lot like christmas....
and i'm going to be out of control!!!!"

Got to chat with my youngey bros, and padres tonight. Good times are ahead: 2.5 weeks.

From Thing Two to Thing Ones, we out!

Both list in order of most wanted to least :) All in all just wishes!
Here is Casey's Christmas List, all available at cabelas.com:

1. ($34.99) Storm Proof Tackle Bag
2. ($69.99) 120 Quart Igloo Max Cooler
3. ($89.99) NEBO Outfitter XL Cot $89.99
4. Fishing lures and bait:
($5.79)Item # JD-11-7210 Dives to Crankbaits (351) Baby Bass 0-16 ft.
($6.99)Item #JD-31-6739 S.S. Minnow (102) Hot Tiger
5. ($36.99) Gerber Splitting Axe
6. ($34.99) Cabela’s Deluxe Camp Reclining Lounge Chair
7. Or just flat out cabela's gift certificate :)

Here is Mary's Christmas List:
1. ($35) IPOD FM Transmitter (has to work w/ old IPOD model) @ apple.com or anywhere.
2. Monster ICharger for IPOD @ monstercable.com (has to work w/oldpod) also @ apple.com
3. ($89)NEBO Outfitter XL cot @ cabelas.com
4. ($14?) Wigfield : The Can-Do Town That Just May Not ($ Book of Liz), a book(s) by Amy Sedaris @ amazon.com or half.com
5. King of Queens 1st Season DVD @ walmart.com ($28)
6. Cool looking blank cds (jewel case are cool but opt.)
7. Gap gift cert.
8. Cds @ towerrecords.com or other: "Eisley", two albums: "Marvelous Things" & "Laughing City" ($6.99 each); Dido: "Life for rent"; Holly Nelson cd @ hollynelsonmusic.com

It's cool weather outside and that is nice! And I've been sticking with my half marathon/5k workouts.

Today, 40 mins. of cross train biking. IPOD + Chowchilla High School track = 5-6 miles of YES!

Casey and I almost have our Christmas list ready to post later today :) And Joan, Mike, Matt?? ---that's right you'll all get tube socks.

Basketball coaching officially starts Monday in the gym. I'm almost positive it will lift my attitude about teaching lately.....ugh! :(

Tonight we will make some food, maybe stromboli, and watch all three Godfather movies that we borrowed from Matteo.

Oh, also we've almost completely mapped out our "OREGON EXPLORATION" trip for this summer. We hope to go with or meet up with Matt and Trace somewhere along the way and hit Seattle as well.

Very cool!

Mom & Dad, very excellent to hear you got to see Elf! I want to see that, and Cat in the Hat!

A package soon to 1040!