My Husband

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love." -- Dr. Seuss

Today, we celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary and a total of 16 years together.  I was just dealing with Layne's graduation and how her life is flying by.....I guess everything is going too fast. 

In some ways it feels like a long time and in others....it seems like we just met and are madly in love.  I really must say that Heath is a great man and I am so lucky to have found him.  Our paths actually crossed before we ever met and I believe it was fate and I guess that makes him my soul mate.  We are truly happy and I look forward to another 13 great years with him. 

Happy Anniversary to us!!

Boy I hear you in my dreams

I feel your whisper across the sea

I keep you with me in my heart

You make it easier when life gets hard

My KitchenAid

I did forget one things during my summery update blogs.....during our holiday break, we were at the antique shop and came across this wonderful Kitchen Aid mixer.  We had been considering purchasing one new, but found this instead.  It was $75 and then the booth it was in was 20% off!!  We had to buy a new cord and some grease and after only a few months....Heath got it all back together and it is good as new, better.

I really love it!!

Layne likes it too and now she can use it to make her famous cupcakes!! 

Summer fun!!

8th Grade Graduation

It is official.....Layne has graduated 8th grade.  The program list night was really great.....kinda over-the-top for 8th grade but a nice tribute to their accomplishments.  It was held at the high school that Layne will be attending and it was packed.  We were literally in the very last row--in the balcony.  I believe that they said there were 275 kids in her class--wow!  That is more than my high school graduating class.

Layne completed all 3 middle school years in the IB (International Baccalaureate) program and also received the Presidential Academic award.  This is given to students that have a GPA of 3.5 or higher.  Great job kid!!

I did get teary a few times....it is just so hard to believe at times.  It feels like yesterday, she was just a baby.  Here are the photos we took after we got home.

Several (Cheri, Scott, Joyce, Gordon, Kelly and Steve) contributed to her graduation gift.

Getting that iTouch going!!  And she was very happy about it.

Her flowers from graduation (one from "the boyfriend").

I often use the phrase "No Regrets" when I am coaching.  I encourage the players to just go for it, put everything out there and know you did your best.  I give Layne this advice as she moves on in her life.  Take every opportunity that is given to you and enjoy every moment and never look back.

Some of the very talented kids in Layne's class performed "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan.  It was amazing and so appropriate (I love the song anyway).

Hug your kids a little tighter, appreciate your spouse and be nicer to the dog.....we each only get this time, so use it wisely and make so many great memories.  I will finish with just a part of the beautiful song the kids performed last night (this is when I cried a bit).

I will remember you

Will you remember me?

Don't Let your life pass you by

Weep not for the memories

Weep not for the memories.

Just a little more catching up to do (April/May)

After we returned from Baltimore, the following weekend was Easter and a weekend of volleyball off!!  We had another lovely, low-key holiday together.  The next week, Heath had a tryout in Chicago and did a detour through Ohio and was able to spend time with his dad for his dad's birthday.  He also was able to see his sister and her family.

Heath and his niece, Judy.

Heath's nephew Ronnie, who is one year older than Layne.

Heath's sister, Holly and her husband, Howie.

Heath and his dad, Steve at dinner for Steve's birthday.

More tournaments......then on Friday, April 23rd we were off to Kansas City for the Show Me National Qualifier.  Layne and I had planned to drive, Heath would be coming in from Minneapolis on the same day as us.  I did, however, find really cheap flights to KC from Denver.  Since Heath was coming in that morning also, I wanted to meet him at the airport and catch a ride with him to the hotel.  Because of this arrangement, that meant Layne and I would need to take the 7am flight out of Denver, and leave the house at 3:30am!!  WHAT WAS I THINKING???!!! It had been raining in Colorado Springs during the night and when we left, I didn't think much of it until we reached Monument.  The Continental Divide runs just past this town and for reasons I don't know, it causes strange weather.  Just a few miles out of Monument the rain turned to snow and covered the roads with thick slushy stuff.  It was dark, only one lane from the cars ahead of us and heavy stuff coming straight at us.  It was awful and added quite some time to our trip.  I was sure we would miss our flight, but we made it in time and even got coffee.  After getting to KC, I realized that even though our drive to Denver was really bad, we actually were lucky we went at that time.  The road eventually closed for a bit and some families that flew later than us didn't make their flights.  The tournament turned out good for Layne's team and they finished in the Gold Bracket again.  Layne in white jersey.

During March and April, Layne has her middle school volleyball season.  It is, I believe, are the only middle school district in the world that has volleyball in the spring versus fall.  It isn't horrible but it would be nice not to have to double-up on volleyball.  She does get pretty tired during this time also.  Her middle school team had a great season and finished up the normal season as the Champs of District 11.  Their volleyball classic tournament at the end was a bit bumpy.  I was REALLY hoping they would have made it to the finals, because that is on TV!!  Well, they made it to the semi-finals and had a good season over all.  I am glad to be done with middle school volleyball and next year in high school, she will play in the fall.....yippee!!

    

My coaching ended at the end of April, with my team finishing very well.  We moved up several divisions in the region and came really close to getting to Division 1 (we started in Division 5), my team had a great season and they were a fun group of girls to coach!!

Layne had her last club tournament on May 16th in Denver and we were hoping the team might get a bid to Nationals in Reno this summer.  They had looked promising in their regional tournament, but just couldn't get it together.  I can't complain, they had a great season with tons of amazing accomplishments and so much improvement!! 

I guess Mother's Day was in there also!!  I got my breakfast in bed, which I love and look forward to every year.  Heath and Layne got me some great recycled mugs from Starbucks and a new light for the kitchen (we are doing a few things in there now).  My wonderful mother surprised Layne and I with some pedicures at a local salon.  I got the deluxe/premium package and it was just amazing.....as you can see below.

We also had some guests in town from Knoxville, Allen, Shannon and Beckett Mathes were in town for Allen's work.  We had a great hike and dinner with them on Mother's Day.  They were in town for most of the week and had several great dinner's with them, it was really great to have them in town and to spend some time with them.

It was a great Mother's Day!!

School is winding down for Layne and as of today, she only has three days left.  Since she is in 8th grade, they have had a few extra fun things for them to do.....like the rafting trip she just went on last week.  She doesn't have many photos or any of her actually rafting, but she had a good time and said it was fun.  I was really concerned the water would be super cold, it is water that comes straight off the mountain!!  It was a beautiful and warm day so she said it wasn't bad, she did get a pretty bad sunburn!!

Tomorrow night is her 8th grade graduation.  I am having a hard time believing this.  She is still suppose to be a little girl and now she is getting ready to go to high school.  It is so crazy how fast the time has gone.  I tell everyone who has small kids to cherish every moment and to just hold on to them as long as you can.  I know people told me she would grow up fast, but I don't really think I listened and now I kick myself for not talking that advice more seriously.  Or maybe it doesn't matter if you have a grasp on that concept and have all good intentions......time just goes too fast and it is out of our control!!

Speaking of time and fast....Heath and I will be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary on Monday!!  I can't believe I have put up with him this long, but in appreciation of my devotion to him.....he is talking me camping to a primitive cabin with no water, electricity or restroom.....with Layne and our four dogs!!  Sounds romantic, I know....don't be jealous because I got the good husband!!  I actually think it will be wonderful and very peaceful to get away from civilization for a few days.  I am sure it will be beautiful.

I think that this will about get us up to date, now I just can't fall behind again!!  I hope everyone has a great rest of their week and an enjoyable holiday weekend!!  I will get some photos up of Layne's graduation and then our little trip this coming weekend.

On a side note....and I am sure I will be writing more about the subject, we are trying to be more green in our family.  I know it sounds silly because it is "all the rage", but we really are trying to use less, use differently, eat better and get chemicals out of our life.  So, I am just going to leave you with a quote I came across and really like.....

Use it up, wear it out. Make do or do without. - New English Proverb

Time to catch up.....January thru March

OK......It is time I just sit down and get this done.  I have no excuses, I have just been busy and when I am not busy I guess this blog hasn't been a priority.  So sorry for those of you who look forward to what the Hoke's are up to.  I will just have to catch all of you up on our last 5 months in this one blog post (or maybe several?).  I am just going to highlight the important stuff, but really our life has just been full of volleyball.  No surprise there.

I actually just took a second to look at the blog to see exactly the last time I posted.  Wow, before Christmas--here we go.

We had a lovely Christmas at home in Colorado Springs--just the three of us.  We get significant time off of work during the holidays and Heath had a holiday camp in town to work, so we just stayed home and tried to relax.  Ya know, as much as I want relaxing time--it is so hard to actually do it and be OK with it.  We tried hard and I think we pretty much did it--we watched lots of movies and stayed in our new Jammie's all day on Christmas day. 

Christmas Eve we took some photos of Layne with the dogs....it took many to get it almost right.  This one was almost perfect if Sully didn't have his bone.

Pedro just loves Sully.

On Christmas morning, Layne was super excited about her stuff.

Pedro, just chillin' and listening to a little Bob Marley on the record player.

Heath and I got each other the same mug.  Poor Layne, she knew but didn't know how to tell each of us without giving it away!!

Heath got many hiking books, now he just needs time to read.

Well, whenever we are home and done unwrapping.....Scotty is always there to pick up all the paper.  We didn't know what to do.

On the 26th of December, Layne had to be at the Olympic Training Center for 5 days of USAV HP Holiday camp. Even though she drug her feet a bit--she had a good time. (She is number 18 in the front row.)

The volleyball club tournaments started right up in January and that is what we have been doing every single weekend since January 3, 2010.  If I hadn't mentioned it before, I decided to coach the Pikes Peak 15 National team (which is the 2nd team in our club) and Layne played for the Pikes Peak 14 Elite team.  Because of this age difference, there was always a tournament every weekend and some weekends we both played.  I believe I had 2 weekends off the entire season.  The nice thing was that both of our teams traveled to Baltimore for a Qualifier (more about that later).  This is my team below and  this was after an early tournament we had won!!

I had a nice low-key birthday on January 9 and I am sorta pleased to say I have started the second half of my 30's!!  I only feel old because Layne is getting so old--I blame her!!  She did make me cake!!

I spent a lovely morning at Starbucks.  What was funny was that I took all my cards with me to open there and my uncle Dan and Cletus had gotten me a gift card for Starbucks!!

In mid-January Heath and the HP Department hosted their annual coaching clinic and we were super excited to meet Karch Kiraly.  He is currently our women's national team assistant coach.  I really enjoyed learning from him--he is an amazing athlete/coach.  Layne got a special treat and was able to ride in the car with him to a local volleyball facility where he did a mini-clinics with hundreds of kids.  Below is a photo with Karch (middle in blue) and then some other USAV kids to his left and Layne and her club director on his right. 

At the end of January, we had a wonderful visit with the Osterberg's.  Hayes always makes us laugh and Cam is starting to warm up to Aunt Dor.  Heath and Zach finally went on their winter camping adventure--and surprisingly cut it a day short.  They said they missed us, but I think it was just too cold!!

In mid-February we had a lovely visit with Joyce, Gordon and Cheri.  They came out to watch one of Layne's 3-day tournaments in Greeley.  They must have been good luck because her team won the whole thing!!

Then end of February we headed to Denver for the 3-day Crossroads National Qualifier.  We had a lovely time that weekend and got cheesecake!!  Layne played, I coached and Heath ran a couple of HP tryouts.  Seemed like a common theme most of the time. 

The very next weekend we had a great, one-night visit from a former Fusion Alumni!!  Amy (Vander Broek) Wagenknecht and one of her friends, Amanda, from college drove out to do some Spring Break skiing and took a Colorado Springs detour.  It was a very short visit, but we had a great time and packed a lot of stuff in.  Below, we are getting ready for a short and dangerously slick hike.  We never have quite the right gear!!

March 27-29, all three of us traveled to Baltimore, MD for the Northeastern National Qualifier.  I hope that I don't offend anyone, but I just wasn't crazy about Baltimore, maybe we didn't see the right stuff?  It was nice and the Inner Harbor was cool but the big city just isn't for me, especially this city.  Not sure why?  The weather was pretty bad--rainy and gloomy, but the volleyball was pretty great.  Layne's team had an amazing second day--beating the #2 seed of the tourney and winning their pool.  That put them into the Gold Bracket and playing for a bid to nationals.  That was more than enough and a huge accomplishment for them and apparently too much pressure for Layne.  The team lost their first round match on Monday morning--so sad!!  They have one more qualifier coming up in Kansas City at the end of April. My team also played well--we made it into Gold!! 

Of course, through January, February and March we both had many tournaments and some great successes.  Heath was super busy flying all over the place conducting HP Tryouts and thinking back now, that time just flew by.....WOW!!

I think that I am going to end this post with March and then start the next one that will take care of April and May!!  Don't want to be too boring for all of you.