Sunday again

Looks like my weeks fly by! Well, soccer is finally over, at least for high school. Chelsea is in the process of making some hard choices about soccer which will affect her future. One of her HS coaches plans on starting a competition team and many of the girls on her HS team will be playing, and Chelsea's been invited to play also. She is already on an AYSO All-Star team (basically a comp team that plays by AYSO rules). Since this team follows many rules that regular competition teams don't the level of play is a little below that of comp teams. However, her AYSO team has been selected to play in the National Games in Hawaii in July 2008. Although she wants to do both, I don't have the time or money to pay for it all, so I've told her she needs to choose. Personally I'd like to see her stay with her All-Star team because she's played with them for 2 years, the coaches are great, the parents of the girls are great, and I love the AYSO philosophy which emphasizes fair play, positive coaching, letting everyone play equally, etc. Of course, the philosophy of a comp team is to win, win, win.

If I wanted Chelsea to get a soccer scholarship the choice would be easy because recruiters attend competition tournaments regularly. Personally I'd rather her not play on a college team. I know some college athletes and sports really takes a lot of their time and affects their academics. Plus, other than the Olympics, there is really nowhere to go with women's soccer after college, so concentrating on academics is more important. She can always play on a recreation league if she really wants to.

But, I am letting her choose and then she has to live with her decision. There will be no turning back once the choice is made.

Now for Eline's news. She has had her cell phone taken away for the second time. If it happens again she will be suspended from school and will most likely not be allowed to return. Since she is a foreign exchange student the school doesn't get any money for her, so they have no reason to deal with discipline issues with her. I told her I'd prefer she leave her cell phone at home, but she has decided to to leave it in her locker. I told her she could make that decision, but we talked long and hard about the consequences of getting in trouble again. I am also going to let her parents know. She takes it out to look at the time, so I am going to have her get a cheap watch so she will know the time. She is a good kid but she really doesn't comprehend how we can have such a "stupid" rule. I've explained that the teacher has no way of knowing if she is looking at the time or at a text message, either one being distracting to the teaching environment. She still thinks its stupid, but there you have it.

We went to SLC yesterday and found a Dutch store which sells all kinds of Dutch food and other products. The owner is, of course, Dutch so Eline enjoyed talking to him for a little. She especially enjoyed being able to buy things that reminded her of home. I bought some frozen sausages and some mix to make crepes because she was really trying to decide how to spend her money and even though she wanted them she decided not to get them. She was really happy and appreciative when we got home and she saw what I'd purchased.

We also went clothes shopping. Eline needed some warm clothes and has recently discovered the American art of sitting around in sweats. I personally rarely wear sweats, but I know lots of people do wear them, and I am trying to discourage her from wearing them to the store or to school. I did tell her I won't take her to the store with me if she's wearing sweat pants or pajama pants. Chelsea doesn't wear them out of the house either. I guess it's really not so bad if you take some time to do your hair and clean up, but I just see too many women and teenagers who literally look like they just got out of bed, didn't bother to comb their hair or brush their teeth, and decide to go shopping. Not in my house! LOL! Chelsea bought herself a new hoodie and some new shoes so she was happy also.

Chelsea is looking to earn some money for her trip to California with her HS band. She is going to Disneyland and Sea World. I am making her earn some of the money to pay for the trip. And I won't let her sell overpriced cookie dough or wrapping paper. She has created a flyer offering to babysit, do yard work, pet sit, bake (she's a good baker) or other odd jobs. She also collects aluminum cans. If you or anyone you know needs some work done, let me know.

Well, it's time to get the girls up for church so I'd better go. It takes a while to get these two moving in the mornings!