June 2025

My first ever Açaí bowl and I didn’t like it. Millie and Andie went to volleyball camps the first week of June. Between the camp at Athletes Only and ACP camp, I fed them. Not my favorite for sure. 

June 2 marks the day my friend Terri died. I met her mom and sister for lunch. She’s been gone for 21 years. 

Stuart was in the UK for two weeks after our Long Beach tournament with Millie. He had lunch with Hope. She will be in Arizona for two weeks in late July. We are so excited. 

Millie and Andie are besties for sure. 

The boys had a sleepover. Despite the fact we have ample beds for them to sleep in, they insist on sleeping on the floor. 

These boys chose wisely. 

Another floor dweller. 

Millie had her friend Brinkley over for a sleepover. They had a shopping trip to Queen Creek Marketplace and bought this blow up volleyball net. 

My morning shop at Wal-Mart presented me with this. So are swimsuits a normal attire for Wal-Mart? I’m guessing it is. 

June 7th we attended Tatum’s dance recital. She is so talented. 

When we got to Long Beach for our 4 day family holiday, we went to a hat shop. I don’t ever wear hats, but this one was too perfect. This is a brand my Aussie family swears by. 

We spent the day at Seal Beach. 

Kids peppered the volleyball and actually did get in the water. 

Chris, Tom and Owen joined us the day before the SoCal tournament for Jack and Owen. We ended up going to Seal Beach again. The kids had fun. 

SoCal Cup tournament wasn’t as much of a success as we had hoped, but the boys played well. 

The day after SoCal cup tournament Will and Jack were invited to an Elite 2027 graduate camp at UCLA. It was amazing. Jack loved the campus, for sure. 

This was a building on campus. The UCLA campus is beautiful. 

When we got back from Los Angeles, I washed clothes and repacked to go visit Liz in Oregon. 

Mt. Washington. 

The Peter Iredale is a ship that ran aground in 1906 on the shore of what is now Fort Stevens State Park. 

We walked around the beach and tried to find sea life in the tide pools, but no luck. 

We headed to Silver Creek Falls to get a glimpse at the waterfalls. It was definitely on my to do list. So amazing and beautiful. 

Waterfalls are timeless. 

We had strawberry shortcake at a Farmer’s Market on the way home. I also bought some local goods. 

When I returned from Oregon, Stuart and I were delighted the following day to have lunch with these two handsome fellas. Carter and Jack were both doing summer weights. We invited them for lunch and they shockingly took us up on it was 

Our next stop for summer was the Florida National tournament. We got there a day and a half before we hactually had to play. We had lunch and beach time at Daytona Breach. Maddax is Vicki and Ryan’s you

Me, Chris and Vicki also had some beach time. 

After the beach, we checked into our Villatel airbnb. It was amazing. 

Jeremy and Stuart decided to shave their facial hair into fumanchus. It wasn’t my favorite, but it’s just hair. It sill grow back. 

Vicki decided Millie’s hair needed to be her mustache. 

While in Florida we went to a dart place with Kristi and Bob. We had so much fun!

Once the tournament was over, we went for lunch and ran into Jack’s coach, LaVelle. He wasn’t able to tell the team goodbye as he is a softy and couldn’t handle it. When he saw us outside the restaurant, he ran outside and hugged the boys. We love him!

Jack’s team made the gold bracket, but lost in the first round, so we’re definitely disappointed. However, Jack was given the honor of being selected as one of twelve players to receive the All-American trophy for his age group. We are so proud of him. 

The last night in Florida we sent the kids to a movie and we headed to a local bar for drinks. Jeremy and Christie had left, so it was the perfect time to invite Bob and Kristi to go with us. Again, another good night was had by all. 

We got home on July 4, just in time for burgers and fireworks. 🧨 

May 2025

Do you wanna know what these random items are in the shopping basket? Well it all started the previous Friday. This day happened to be a Tuesday. I had told Millie that I was no longer going to wake her up in the mornings because she treated me horribly, and it usually ended with her telling me she hated me.

So on this special Tuesday morning, I reminded her twice that her alarm had gone off, and I came downstairs, but she didn’t get up. So at 6:45, when they normally leave for school, I told Jack to leave. I also left. I had no lunch, I didn’t have my coffee, and I really wasn’t prepared to leave for the school day because I normally don’t have to leave until 8 o’clock.  However, I had to prove a point. 

She called my neighbor and my neighbor said she would take her to school. I explained to Elise the situation and she had a good talk with Millie. I’m happy to report. I no longer had an issue with her getting out of bed and going to school.

Sometimes you get a good idea and you bring your buddies over to shave heads.

And Carter, the boy to the far right really stepped out of his comfort zone to shave his head. We were also proud of him!

The carnage

Our kids make us proud every day, especially when they get academic awards that are tagged to their sports awards.

My niece, Emily, made a surprise visit in the middle of May. Her dream job has always been to be the dance coach at Mountain View high school. The job became available and she applied. Then she came out for an interview. A couple weeks later, they offered her the job. I don’t know if they’re gonna move from Dallas, Texas to Gilbert, Arizona, but they might. They are young and have no obligations so now is the time to do it.

And they got to see one of Jack’s volleyball games.

Stuart finally joined the 50s club. Even though we had gone to Seattle as a surprise for him, claiming it was for his 50th birthday, this party was actually the first thing that was scheduled. He was surprised!

Heidi, to my left, and Yvette, to my right, are the girls’ volleyball moms. 

His birthday was such a fun night! The food was amazing! My boss, and friend, Kristi’s mom Patty made all the food. 

We had quite the spread. 

Stuart’s 50th surprise party was so much fun. My friend Chris had this cake made for him. So perfect!

Remember that time she didn’t want to play soccer but they won the championship? This girl!

The semi finals didn’t end the way we hoped, but the boys played hard. 

We love you, Long Beach! Millie had a tournament and she played really well. They didn’t win a 🏅 but her play has improved so much!

Ice cream is always a must on vacation or on any day!

My girl volleyball crew! We cruised around the bay. It was so much fun.

Millie has grown so much this year. Most of these girls will go on and play for 15U next year, but hoping some of these friendships last a lifetime. 

Does Jack have a friend who lives on a ski lake? Yep! Living his best life!

Also, we trusted Jack to stay home over Memorial Day weekend on his own. We got back from Long Beach, just Millie and myself, we had dropped Stuart at LAX to fly to the UK to see his family for two weeks. The next morning Jack said to me, ‘Mom, I was a bit scared by all noises at night. And then I did wonder where the extra paper plates were. I had to use real plates.’ I love how he thinks a plate fairy just comes around and refills that shit. He did tell me that the weekend by himself made him realize how much I actually do around the house. Ha!

Did our anniversary number hit three times at the casino on Friday when I went with my boss? Yep! Did I come home with any money? Nope. It was still a lot of fun! The month of May has flown by! The summer will as well because we are all volleyball, all of the time until July 28, and then boy’s club starts and girl’s club starts. So really, we are just all volleyball all the time until Spring 2030, at least. Fun!