December, 2004 - jimsjoint

December 31, 2004

Last practice of 2004

Three good days of practice for the girls. Practice on Wednesday and Today, Alumni game yesterday. I guess the Wednesday practice was one of the tougher ones. The girls were complaining that night and the next morning that they had sore muscles, everywhere! I love to hear that. The Alumni game didn’t really pan out. Only one alumn showed up to play. The girls played a modified split squad scrimmage instead. I don’t know how they did it but the team was on the field the last three days and was able to dodge the rain each time. They even got to practice in the sunshine today! I almost didn’t let them in the car for the ride home today. They looked like they had been doing situps in the mud, which they were. The coach said that they had done such a great job the last three days that they could take the rest of the year off!!

sports

December 29, 2004

Eagle Soccer – These Girls are Good

Ahsign_1 In non-league action against San Leandro High, The Girls from American continued their winning ways by posting a 5-0 shutout. The team is really coming together. Kate played the whole game in goal and had a couple of nice saves. She showed a strong foot in her kicks. Kelly almost had a goal as she received a pass right in front of the open goal but pushed it wide left. Either way, all the girls played a good game. The meat of the schedule begins when the team returns from Christmas holiday, first hosting Newark Memorial, then playing on the road against bitter rival, Washington and perenial powerhouse, Logan. Its gonna be fun!!

This blurb from this mornings Argus:

Girls soccer

Non-league

AMERICAN 5, SAN LEANDRO 0

First half—American, Melissa Flores (Lauren Pimentel); American, Kaitlyn Loewen (Christie Locke); American, Locke (Sammi Brown, Dubay). Second half—American, Sapna Sethi (Pimentel); American, Locke (Loewen).

Shots—American 14, San Leandro 2. Goalie saves—Kate Flaherty (A) 2, Jamie Forrest (SL) 8.

Record—American 7-4-1.

vacation

December 28, 2004

Winters Road Trip

Since the girls and I are off this week we decided to take a drive up to see my sister-in-law, Diane. We hit the road yesterday morning for the drive up to Winters. The rain was heavy (very heavy in some places) most of the drive and only stopped when we got to Vacaville and onto highway 505. Fortunately the traffic wasn’t too bad since I think most people are off work this week. Anyway, a mere two hours from home and we were pulling into the driveway at the ranch. Diane was outside waiting for us with four dogs. All happy to see us! Hugs all around!! (except for the dogs who were wet). It Dsc00139_1 wasn’t raining when we arrived so we took a walk around the property. Of course with all the rain, everything was GREEN GREEN GREEN. The creek was running real fast. Its beautiful up there! Towards the end of the walk it started to rain again so we headed into the house. Diane prepared some EXCELLENT omelettes with scones and toast. Spinach, green onion, garlic, tomato and cream cheese. BOY OH BOY was that good. That along with fresh squeezed OJ and coffee made for one great meal. After that it was just kick back and visit for a while. It had been way too long since we had been there or talked so we all had a lot of catching up to do. We talked talked talked talked talked. It was real nice. We headed home around 3pm. Barb had called us to tell us to avoid highway 80 because of a big wreck in Vallejo so we went 80 to 680 and through Niles Canyon, stopped at Pizza Italia for a couple of pies and headed home. Started a nice fire and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Caught Barb up on all the goings on and called it a day. love days like this!

holidaze

December 27, 2004

Merry Christmas

Im003683 It was a nice Christmas for us. We made some enchiladas on Christmas eve day then went to the Christmas Vigil at Our Lady Of Guadalupe Church. The childrens mass is always good as they recreate the nativity. It wasnt that many years ago that Kate and Kelly were dressed up and participating in the mass. After church we cruised over to Cripps (Crippsmas ) place to see the Christmas lights. This is THE place in Fremont to see decorations and its only 4 blocks from home. Then it was home to bake some cookies for Santa. We exchanged some gifts and drank some eggnog. After that we were off to bed for a long winters nap.

Christmas morning the girls slept in (not like the old days when they were up at the crack of dawn). Spent the rest of the day playing with our “stuff”. If there was a word to describe this Christmas it would be “high tech”. Digital camera, wireless router, mini-Ipods. Too much technology for this simple mind. Spent most of the morning trying to get Kate’s mini-ipod to work.

Had a great Christmas dinner over at Al and Debbie’s house. Tri-tip, sausages and enchiladas! Now thats my kind of Christmas dinner! Deb’s mom and dad were there as well. Always a nice time at the Shull House. Deb’s dad, Nate, got a poker table for Christmas so we even played a little holiday Texas Hold’em.

Barb is back to work today but the girls and I have the week off. With the exception of some soccer practice and an alumni game on Thursday, we are just going to kick back, relax, visit friends and family, and enjoy our time together. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas! God Bless.

holidaze

December 24, 2004

Christmas – 2004

Christmas_2004 Our Christmas present from the girls! They went to the mall today to do some last minute shopping and totally surprised us by getting their picture taken with Santa.

Maybe their best picture yet. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!

WE LOVE IT

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas from the Flaherty Family .

holidaze

December 23, 2004

News Flash – Christmas Canceled

Howtosavemoneythischristmas Sorry Kids. Better luck next year!

I got this picture via email and had to share it.

kate~n~kel

December 22, 2004

Christmas – 2003 – THE END ?

Xmas2003_1 What a great run its been. Seeing the girls year after year, growing up into beautiful young ladies. This may be the last “Santa Pic” for them. At 16 and 17 they may have finally outgrown ol St. Nick. I think they’ve only done the last couple of years pictures as a courtesy to Barb and I. The only thing that may get them back to the mall for one last picture is that we would like one Santa picture taken with both of the girls’ hair down. In all the pics since 1992 at least one of them were wearing a pony tail. Before that it was either short hair or the infamous mullet

kate~n~kel

December 22, 2004

Christmas – 2002

Xmas2002_1 Our girls are so beautiful! I just love them so much! At this point we are not forcing the girls to visit Santa. At this point they have outgrown Santa and are only doing this for mom and dad’s sake.