Decorating for the Holidays

I know, I know... I'm the girl who would YELL at girls in the dorm for playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving....I'm the girl who would grumble when seeing lights in the streets weeks before we even ate a bite of turkey...I'm the girl who made sure she didn't shop for Christmas gifts before Turkey day to prevent taking away the holiday special-ness of it.

But now, I think I've changed. Erin has a great point. We are never home to enjoy our Christmas stuff, so why not put it up early??? Tonight, Erin, Wendy, Becky, Rachel, Jessie and I decorated Becky, Wendy's and my house for Christmas. I have my own tree! It's 6 feet tall! Yes-it's fake. I hate that. But, it's all a girl can do when living without a strong man to go out and cut her a tree and without a little brother to water it. I don't have beautiful ornaments from my children, so my tree looks classy and matchy-matchy. Maybe a little like Home and Garden, but I like it. A lot.

Wendy and I even put icicles on it. Hmmmm....fun day! We watched Elf while decorating and then put in The Holiday to enjoy a nice girls' night.

I don't know WHY we do that to ourselves. WHY do we insist on watching sappy love movies??? Do we think that we'll actually be HAPPY and CONTENT with our situation after watching the picture perfect ending to the beautiful girl and the handsome guy's life? Why do we like to torture ourselves? Then, we are upset when the movie leaves us in a funk.


(music note) All I want for Christmas is some contentment... (music note)

Day o' Fun!

Wendy and I had an amazing day. Around 1pm, I saw Wendy stumble out of her room, and I, only a few minutes early, had awoken. We then did lazy things, like watch episodes of House and Office online (because we were too busy during the week to watch them) and then headed off to our last birthday hoorah. Wendy got me a dinner and a movie roommate date and I got her a lamp for her room. So, off to IKEA we went, and chose some amazing decorations and lamps for the house. I think I found a solution for getting rid of that boob light in our dining room. I know the guys in my life will be happy with the exchange. We then searched for Olive Garden. 40 min wait. Nope! On to our second choice, 10 mins later-On the Border. 25 min wait. Nope. Off to search for a Subway. Pablo-Pablo told us about non-existent Subways, leaving us in the middle of the highway- "You have reached your destination." So, we circled around past IKEA about 10 times, found a McDs and ate a burger and fries. Ironic, how Wendy didn't want to go to Red Robin because she wasn't in the mood for burgers. We passed Red Robin 10 times as well. (Mind you, we have only been awake for 6 hours and all this drama had taken place.)

We get to the movie theater and have to park 2 miles away from the doors. I set the car alarm off while trying to lock the door. We do the touch screen shortcut, only to find out that Eagle Eye is sold out. BUMMER! So, Wendy, in her fluster and hurry chose for us to see High school Musical 3-SING ALONG. Praise the Lord I caught it before she committed us to doing that for 3 hours with crazy tweenagers. We switched our tickets to Max Payne. I thought it was the new Bond movie, so I was stoked. Come to find out it involved deamons, murder, violence and other craziness. PG 13--BA LO NEY! We left after 30 mins, got a free pass for next time, went to Shoppers and rented Made of Honor from Red Box and headed home.

Fun, good movie. Cute guy. :-) Becky watched most of it with us. I got to tell her the above drama, so it gave me something to talk to her about. Finally, at 11:30, our birthday fun ended on a good note. I was left in a "aww, I wanna get married" funk, but soon, sleep will over come me and I won't worry about it anymore.

Although, I wouldn't mind a dream about Patrick Dempsey....

She's Baaaaackk......

I got a call yesterday to inform me that my roommate would be coming home today. She was being discharged. I called her sister, and found out that she's medically defined as "safe"- able to carry out every day functions without harming herself or others. Right now her sister has used up all her tears and now she's ready to throw reality at my roommate. She's frustrated because RM (roommate) won't take all of her medicine and is refusing treatment. She's in total denial.

Wait....I have a 3rd roommate?? She has been gone for so long that I've put it out of my mind. I've prayed for her, but the reality of her coming back to the Susquehanna house wasn't there. When I got the call, it took my breath away. I was instantly thrown back into the reality of my life that I have a sick roommate who has been gone for 2 months and is coming back. Every time I think about it, it takes my breath away.

Tonight, we got home around 10:30, and we see her car. We panic. We freak. We are still in shock. What do we say? How do we handle this? Do we get more involved in her life? Do we maker her talk to us? Do we push her to find a job and search for one for her? Do we go on living like we did, not trying to interact?

I don't know what God is trying to teach me through this. I haven't been a good roommate. I haven't purposefully involved her in my life or included her in my activities. Is He wanting me to become more involved in her life? What lines do I cross? Where do I push myself? What is my role? Where do I belong?

Could you please pray for Wendy and I about this? Ask God to give us wisdom as to what our next steps are. I need to pray fervently about what to do next. Tomorrow morning (maybe early afternoon, depending on consciousness) will be spent asking Him for wisdom. She needs a job. We need to meet with her friends and possibly a pastor from church to see what to do next.

She's back. Now, what are we to do?

More Pictures

Coach Peffer and the most amazing Assistant Coach Craft


Calvary Road Christian School 2008-2009 Girls Volleyball Team

WOOHOOOOO!!!!!!! WE LOVE VOLLEYBALL!!!!

Volleyball. My Favorite Sport. Ever.

We did it! We finished the season!!! The 19 girls of Calvary Road Christian School placed 3rd in the Tournament and 2nd in the season!

Unbelievable. Half of these girls haven't even played vball before. I've never coached before. I'm still in shock. I'm sooo happy and so proud of them. Soooo so proud.

But BEST of all we were also honored and surprised to find out that the coaches voted us to win the Best Godly Character award. We could have come in 6th place and won SO MUCH just with that honor. That says so much for our school and what we believe to be important. The trophy below is the Godly Character award. We didn't get a trophy for 3rd place (so I'm going to go buy us one. :-). This trophy is worth so much. This is what matters. Any team can win 1st place. It's possible for anyone to attain that. This---this award, not possible for anyone. Not possible without His help.

Chic-Fil-A Our FAVORITE place to eat!

The faithful fans!!!

It's over. The 2008 Volleyball season is over. No more practices, no more drills, no more driving that 15 passenger van an hour away for a game. No more getting lost, no more Chic-fil-a, no more begging of allowing drinks or milkshakes in the van. No more making the girls put their seatbelts on. No more horrible refs. No more yelling at the girls to CALL THE BALL and communicate. No more ice packs. No more stress about planning how in the WORLD I was going to get 19 girls on the court in 2 (or 3) games.

No more wins. No more losses. :-) No more close games. No more heart attacks or 2 minute volleys. No more watching the girls improve each practice and each game. No more AMAZING moves on the court. No more fast thinking with a quick slip over the net into a hole. No more great pass, set, spike combos. No more great net work. No more circle jumping to get ourselves pumped up for the game. No more game face. No more break checks. No more stories in the van and no more creating Miss Peffer's perfect man. No more eating out with my family of 19 girls, an amazing assistant coach and the faithful 5 moms.

Until next year.

The Incredible Hulk

Hi. This has been a week of all weeks, let me tell you!

First, Monday morning, I was in the teacher's meeting and started coughing. I left to get cooled down and get a drink. I went into my classroom to open the window for a breeze. The window has no crank on it, and previously I've been able to pound on it gently, and it pops open. Pound, pound, SMASH! My fist went through the window. I broke the window with my fist. Apparently I'm the Hulk.

After the initial shock wore off, I said, oh no, oh no, oh my goodness, Oh my GOODNESS, and hurried to the office. I brought everyone out of their offices to my side, looking for glass, applying pressure, and trying to problem solve for me. The cut was about 1/4 of an inch from tendons, 1/2 inch from veins. The cut was more of a slice sideways, like peeling an apple. Not straight down in, but not a scrape either. After gauze and tape, I called Kaiser, (my dr's office), and told them the problem. They had me on the phone for about 10 minutes, trying to set an appointment up for me! I was pushed out the door by the secretary who took care of the rest of the phone call, and out I went, driving myself to the hospital, 10 mins away. Yep. I drove myself with my hand on my head. Good idea, I thought, until blood came through the gauze I had on. Then I thought it was probably a stupid thing to do. Dad concurred.

I get to Kaiser, and it feels like I'm in an E.R. episode, staggering in, asking for a doctor, showing my wound. I ask the pharmacy where I could go to find a doctor. He told me I needed to drive to the emergency room because they don't do that here. What??? I said, well, I know there are doctors here, and i need one, so I'm going to find a doctor.

2 hours, 2 antibiotics, 4 shots of anesthesia (I can't think of the medical term right now, but I know I've heard it on TV) , 5 stitches and an arm splint later, I head back to school to teach for the rest of the day. Nope. I didn't go home. I wasn't even asked if I wanted to go home.

But, I did stay home from school on Wed. I needed a break to get over this cold and to heal my arm. It was a great day.

So now I'm babying it as much as I can, always wearing the wrist brace to prevent too much movement at that skin.

Now, pictures for your viewing pleasure. (I didn't include the grossest ones.)





I took my camera into school to show the kids. They LOVED it! My friend, Eric said that it looks like a shark bit me.

Who does this? How many people put their hand through a window? Dad says a lot of people. I think of how dumb I was and laugh at the fact that I broke a window with my fist! This will go in the books as one of the stupid things I did while teaching. What memories AND great scar story!

And you know what? My repaired window now has a handle on it. Hmmmm.... :-)

A milestone

25. I'm now officially 25 years old. 25 years ago, the world didn't know about Abby.

It sounds like such a small number. In reality, it is. If I had 25 cents, I'd be bummed. If I had 25 minutes before a test, I'd be cramming. BUT, because I have 25 years (tengo veinte y cinco años), I'm freaking out.

After our loss on Tuesday, we were sitting at Chick-fil-a and I was talking to my amazing assistant coach and a player's mother and her 2nd grade son (also one of my students.)
Coach: Is it a milestone birthday?
Me: yes, as a matter of fact, it is. I'm a quarter of a century old.
Coach:....hmm...I can't even remember 25 (she's about 40)....let's see....where were we? We were in Kentucky just starting a youth group...
Me: We! See! You had a we! At 25, you had a we! I want a we!

2nd Grader: I have a Wii.

All of us burst into laughter, just amazed and dumbfounded.
Me: Well, I guess my problem's solved. Just go to Walmart and I can get a we!
Coach's husband: Well, if you stay in the electronic section long enough...you might be able to get yourself a we. That would be the place to go to find one.
Me: Yah, but I'd really want to find cingular in the section so it could turn into a we...


My day was great. I felt so treasured. I was sung the happy birthday song at least 8 times today. Sometimes they sang in English THEN in Spanish. The lady in an office beside my room was about fit to be tied after all day of singing. I also received "giftcards" from the 2nd graders-paper folded in half with things like, $23,948,604,928,274,574,930@#¢. I also got a flipbook of birthday pictures, 2 3 cornered birthday hats and a ring.

More to come tomorrow....I'm so beat!

I want to go home!

I don't want to be here. I want to go home.

The Answer

By God's amazing power, I was able to find my roommate's friend at a church where there are over 2,000 people my age. I asked her if she could tell us anything about what was going on. She told me that my roommate admitted herself to a hospital and she's getting the treatment she needs. We don't know how long she'll be there, but she's safe and taken care of. I am to contact my roommate's sister for the situation about rent, etc.

So, now my anger has dissipated and prayer has filled me. Please continue to pray for the situation and for my roommate. I don't know what we are going to do in the future. I'm sorry I can't tell you more, but what I've told you is plenty enough for praying. :-)

Thanks to all who have been praying. I am so appreciative!

The Crazy Day

I had a crazy day yesterday. It was sooo long and full of so many things I just don't know where to start.

I need you to be praying for my roommate situation. Without going into too much detail, my roommate has left me and my other roommate to fend for ourselves when paying this month's rent. She is unreachable. I've tried to call her MULTIPLE times, now her phone is off and her voice mailbox is full. Not do solely to me, but also to everyone else who is trying to find her/contact her. She hasn't been home since Tuesday morning. I haven't seen her since last Thursday. Her friend stopped by on Wed to pick up some things for her and told me she would be staying with her for a couple of days. She wouldn't tell me anything else-just that she would have her call me. No phone call yet. She's not in danger at all, but I don't know what's going on. What I do know is that we have to pay her rent because there is no individual accountability with our lease. It's a one check, on time deal. So dumb. SOOO dumb. So, I'm sick to my stomach about all of this, wondering if she'll ever come back and how I' m going to handle it when she does. I need wisdom, calmness and whatever else one needs in this situation. This is real life stuff and I don't like it.

With that on my mind, and having to teach that day, plus a crazy picture day with getting the girls in and out of their volleyball uniforms (during my 8th grade history class), I had to gear up for our first away volleyball game. Get the balls, the medical kit, the water bottles and snacks, clipboard, scorebook, and all 18 girls. I had to drive a 15 passenger van full of girls in the rain for over 35 minutes. I took it for a practice drive in the parking lot just to get a feel for it. Praise God I learned how to drive in a minivan and had to maneuver Dad's truck around. I had to run back into school to get my phone, and I slipped and fell down the stairs. It hurt SOOOO badly. Knocked the wind out of me and I screamed. It was not good. I'm sore and feel like I played 3 volleyball games.

We got there in time and had a great couple games. It was SOOOOO close! We won!! The first game was 23-25 them, then 20-25 us, and then we got the last one 9-15. It was intense. My captain and best (and only) overhand server could only get one serve over then she messed up. NOT like her at all! She usually gets 10 points in a row. Then she fell and was out for the rest of the 2nd game and 3rd game. Stepping into her place was our secret weapon (even a secret for me!) she scored at least 14/25 points. Unbelievable. I also took another girl out before she served because she just can't get it over. The next round I let her serve and she got 6 points! I made her prove it to me that she could do it. That's my new method. Make them prove it to me. I jumped about 7 feet in the air when we won. The girls were laughing at me but it was a GREAT moment. We also got a team picture taken that was beatiful!I'll post it when I get it. I told the girls that we have to win it in 2 next time. My heart can't take that stress!

OUR FIRST VICTORY!

It's sooo late, so I won't go into the details right now (though it's killing me) but WE WON!!!! 2-0! GO CRUSADERS!!!!!

The Game

Yesterday was a crazy day of emotions. While I was teaching Spanish, I was internally freaking out about the game. I had no clue how the things at the beginning works. It was not a fun day. Then, when it came to game time, I was soooooo nervous and excited and I couldn't wait to see how the girls were going to do. I didn't do ANYTHING right with having line ups ready for each game, or having a plan with who is going in. I just thought--um...I'll sub when I need to. ERRR!!! Wrong! I'll know better for next time.






The girls looked AMAZING in their socks! I had them wear them all day at school which was super cool for them and made me smile each time I saw them. (Hey, I know too much pride is a bad thing, but this was earned pride. :-) They looked impressive on the court too.

I had to have a score keeper and no one knew how to keep score. So, my assistant had to keep score which meant that she couldn't coach at all. She's the one who knows all this volleyball stuff and she just had to sit there! She did whisper to me different time about taking timeouts. I totally forgot about time outs. Good thing she was there... :-)

So, our first game was AMAZING. We did a great job working together and getting it over. One girl got 6 points in a row from her serving. We just need to get everyone else's serves over too. We won the first one. We lost the 2nd one. And then, the last one....... we lost too. It was sooo close. So many times it was tied. The girls played really well for their first game. We definately have things to work on, but I was pleased with my girls. I almost told someone we won!

My friends and I went out to celebrate my first game (or they just needed a reason to go out to eat) at Unos. On the way there, Eric, Mr. PE teacher, told me: Abby, I made an observation of your coaching. (oh no....what did I do....) You smile way too much. You need to have a game face on. Show that other coach and the refs that you mean business.

So...between now and Thursday, I'll be working on my "mean coach face". I hope I remember to pack a pair of my angry eyes....

Sept 16, 4:00

This date has been stuck in my mind for more than a month. I've based other dates on it because I knew that today, Tuesday, was Sept 16. And I'm nervous.

Our first Middle School volleyball game is today. AGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I don't know what I'm doing! Score card? Roster? Lineup? Triangles and circles on the scorecard? Looks like Greek to me....or a Kindergarten worksheet. How many subs can I put in? Should I let ALL 19 girls play? What do I do with my captain who chipped 2 teeth at practice yesterday? Can she play today? And the other 8th grader who ran into her and has a sore back and front hip? Do I put her in? Is it really just about having a good time or is it okay to want to win? I want to win!!!


(deep breath) The good thing is is that the girls LOVED the socks. We found out that if turned inside out, they are a bright blue! Who knew?! The girls were so grateful and kept talking about them. I was a little happy. Ok, A TON happy. Hmmmmm.....the work was worth it. The PE teacher (a friend) laughed at the socks when I showed them to him. I told the vball girls that he did that and then I encouraged a mass "booing" chorus. It was music to my ears and a lot of fun. :-)

So, here I go...off to teach computers and spanish and 8th grade history. THEN---game time!

The Result

494 rubber bands, 38 socks, at least 60 gallons of water, the removal of those 494 rubber bands and at least 16 hours of my time resulted in this.

Good Idea, Bad Idea

Good Idea: buy white socks to tie-dye for the vball girls instead of ordering them. It would have been $160 for 19 pairs of socks. This endeavor cost me only $35.


Bad Idea: putting on all of the rubber bands BY MYSELF! 13 rubber bands/1 sock * 38 socks= 494 rubber bands. You should see my fingers. I think my hands will permanently taste like rubber bands. I started the task at 4pm. I finished at midnight. Yep, 8 hours of rubber band wrapping. AND they still aren't dyed. That's tomorrow's project. But I did find out that you can put them in the washing machine and do them ALL at the same time. Yes, yes. I know. I need to bleach out my washing machine when I'm finished. I don't plan on looking like a smurf.

Lesson Learned: The girls should pay me the $125 difference for all of the time I put into those socks. Now I know why the socks cost that much.

I hope they turn out right. I didn't try one to see if the pattern I created will give me the result I want. Let's pray!!!!!

Another bad idea: doing this when I haven't done any school work AND when I have to get up @ 6 for church tomorrow (oh....today.....)

On that note... Goodnight!