Long Time No Post - A Funny Story for Today

WOW! It's been a really long time since I've posted.

I hope all who are reading our blog are doing well this Christmas Season.

Much has been happening here at the Ogle home. I'll try to catch up on some of the highlights soon. Nowhere near ready for Christmas, but...it will happen.

Just a quick chuckle for your Friday.

This morning Indy and I were rushing out the door, our usual morning routine. I always pop my head in Esprit's room to let her know we're leaving and wish her a great day. I truly couldn't see Esprit in her bed this morning and actually thought she wasn't there! I stepped inside her room at which point Esprit popped her head up from the other side of her pillow, looking slightly annoyed with me for waking her up completely. She's such a tiny thing she was hidden by her bedding!!! LOL

Anyway, that's not the funny part.

Out the door Indy and I go. I drop him off at school and make my way to the little donut shop near work. Coffee and bagel in hand I step into my car and notice that I am wearing a brown shoe but I have black pants on. This can't be right...then I realize that I have one of each!! LOL,LOL,LOL Literally, I am laughing hysterically as the reality hits me. Same shoe, different colors. First time I've done this. Feeling quite silly and hoping this isn't a sign of age?????

In Memory of Steve Grant

On November 27th, Steve Grant passed away in Costa Mesa, CA of a heart attack. Steve was Norma's husband (Scott's mother). Steve's death was unexpected and sudden.

Norma graciously allowed Steve's daughter, Jody, to have Steve's remains buried at his family's plot in Utah.

We are thankful that Norma and Steve had joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. We don't usually have Thanksgiving here at our home, but this year we did.

Soccer Games Resume

after the season game to a tragic halt for the past two weeks due to the Santiago fire. It was wonderful to see the players and families. Several families live in Foothill Ranch and Portola. Fortunately the stories they have to share are only of close calls and not lost homes.

The boys must have missed playing soccer together. Today's game was FUN to watch. A great exhibition of a team playing as a team. What great passes they were all making. Not a high scoring game ending up at 2-1, but a win is a win no matter the score.

Way to go boys!!!!!

HAPPY 65th ANNIVERSARY!

Aunt Mary and Uncle Louie celebrate 65 years of marriage.



Scott's cousin Lanis and her husband Bob hosted the Anniversary celebration at their home on Saturday. Lanis and Bob always put together a goodtime.

Aunt Mary looked stunning (as she always does) and Uncle Louie looked quite handsome too.

We were so happy to share in this celebration of marriage. Seeing family we don't get to see often enough, meeting family we may have never met and meeting friends that Aunt Mary and Uncle Louie have known as long as they have been married. How blessed we are...

A Great Soccer Game

and a much needed win for the Lake Forest BU13 Plus team.

We knew going into this weeks game against Corona Del Mar that it would be tough. The Corona Del Mar team were in 2nd place going into this weekend (to our 3rd place position), so a win was vital for us. Both teams played a fantastic game of soccer. On both sides the defense worked hard to keep goals at a minimum. We had several lucky breaks and scored more than CDM. Indy made 1 assist! Victory was ours this game!

4 games left in season play. We face Costa Mesa in two weeks. They will be the team to beat.

What a great season. We're a newly formed team this season, with only 3 out of 15 returning Plus players. Exciting!!!!!

I Love The Pumpkin Store

A friend emailed me the above picture last season. I could look at this picture all year long. I do actually. LOL!!!! I really need to have it printed out and framed so I can hang on my wall.

It's only been 7 weeks...

since I last blogged! Better than my last hiatus of 15 weeks :) Here's what we were up to...

* Indy's AYSO Plus Soccer team begins practicing

* Scott becomes the "official" assistant soccer coach. By default, since Scott took the required training course. What a trooper!

* Indy, Scott and I took a rather quick driving trip to the Sacramento Delta to visit my dad on his boat. We had no idea that the Delta was so large. HUGE. While we were there we went for a day trip out on the boat. It was relaxing. Indy did a little troll fishing toward the end of our day.

We also went to the California State Fair. As you may know...we LOVE the Fair! There weren't any hula hoop contests :( But there was a special feeling after all this was the State Fair and not a County Fair. I think my Dad even had a good time. He's not really a big fan of fairs or amusement types of places. But there was a racetrack with opportunities to bet and even harness racing in the evening.

But the best part of the day was getting together with Scott's brother, Steven! We were beyond excited. We hadn't seen Steven for about 7 years. Way too long. It really was a GREAT day at the State Fair.










We also went to an orchard where you could pick your own fruit and veggies. It was fun! Indy was really liking it. Scott got into it too and is looking for corn here.

Since we had driven straight up on the 5 we decided to come back a more scenic drive and took the 101. We stayed overnight in Paso Robles at the Paso Robles Inn. The town square, library and city hall were right across the street from the hotel. A fabulous small town feeling. We'll most likely make another trip back.

On our final leg of the trip we stopped off at Pismo Beach. We couldn't have time it better. There were whales and dolphins feeding quite close to the beach. We must have stayed at least 1/2 hour watching. Beautiful animals.

Back home from our quick trip we had another great surprise. Scott's sister Sherry called and said she was coming out to Orange County for work but would have time to get together with us. Aunt Sherry lives in Indiana. We were lucky enough to get to visit with Aunt Sherry 2 nights that she was here. What a blessing. We were only sad that Uncle Scott and cousins Tay and Wes didn't come out too.

* Esprit starts Fall semester at Saddleback Community College

* Labor Day Weekend soccer tournament in Costa Mesa. The boys lost 2 games and won 1. These were the first games they played together as a team. Many of the other teams have been together for 2 or more years. They looked good.

* Indy starts school at Serrano Intermediate! 7th grade this year. They grow up way too fast.

* Soccer season officially begins with first game on 9/8.

* Scott starts Thursday night tennis league. Go Scott!!!!

A Work in Progress

I liked the look of my blog. But I wanted to see a little less border around the edges and be able to use that space. I know, I know... what difference does it make Judy? you really aren't blogging anyway!!! LOL But I think about blogging ALL the time. AND I check out my friends blogs just about every day. I just get lazy. I spend quite a bit of my time in front of computers working and have found it hard to keep up my own blog. I'll keep on trying :)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

NO SPOILERS...
We went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (book #5) a few weeks back. I liked it! The movies seem to be maturing just as the characters are. I was so intrigued by the storyline from this movie that I had to know what was going to happen! Indy had Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (book #6) on his bookshelf, so I started to read it. Loved it. The book picks up right where the movie left it. Couldn't put it down. I was so anxious to complete book #6 so I could read the final installment, book #7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.


Well, I bought #7 and have finished it. WOW! Fantastic! Surprises all the way through. Clever lady that J.K. Rowling. I can hardly wait to see #6 and #7 come to the "big screen", although it will be 2008 and 2010 before this happens. So this means I wait. I may have to re-read #7 before then!

No one else here at home have read either #6 or #7. They were pretty quick to try and get me to break and let them know the juicy details. I laugh at them. You want to know??? READ THE BOOKS... lol :)

Meet Tina Nichols Coury

My girlfriend Susan is amazingly artistic and talented in everything she does. (It must run in your family, Susan.) Susan sent an email the other day with a link to her cousin, Tina Nichols Coury's blog. Tina is a children's author and artist. I LOVED it! So... I've added it, along with Susan's new family blog, to my Awesome Blogs list. Take a look sometime. I think you'll enjoy it too!!

This is the item Susan sent that intrigued me to take a look further. Isn't this FUN? (As excerpted from Tina's blog site)

"As I said before, I consider the SCBWI National costume ball an art performance piece. Every year, around April, they announce the theme. This year it took me approximately two seconds to know what to do for the Silvery Moon Ball, I would become the Silvery Moon Queen. I would be decorated with famous children's book paintings with the name "Moon" in the title and of course I would paint them in silver. These are the books I chose to wear:

Good Night Moon, Kitten's First Full Moon, The Cow that Jumped Over the Moon, Walk Two Moons and the Golden Kite honor winner for non-fiction, Team Moon. "

For more details on Tina's costume check this out;

http://www.tinanicholscouryblog.com/2007/08/queen-of-the-si.html#more

In Memory of Nicholas

We hold happy thoughts of wonderful memories shared over the years with Nicholas. He was an extraordinary dog who led an extraordinary life. Our thoughts are with you, Dad and Gerd.

No More Lime Green???

Esprit's girlfriend, Shannon, re-painted her bedroom a couple of months ago. That's what started it... Esprit decided she was ready for a change. Ready, as she turns 20, to "calm" her room down a bit. I must say I was disappointed, sad actually. I LIKE the lime green walls. It's a happy color! AND I remind myself that my daughter is now a young adult and will be making her own choices and decisions whether I like them or not. And it's just paint on bedroom walls. So Scott and Esprit head off to Home Depot and choose the new colors. I'm told they will be two complimentary shades in the tan/beige family. Well, the colors were a little different than Esprit originally imagined, but she likes it! And they're great! More exciting than I had expected. Still a happy color. Still like my Esprit!!

What Have We Been Up To?

WOW! It's been 15 weeks since I last posted here on the blog... I really had planned to blog more often. I'll have to keep working on that goal.

I'll recap some of the events of these past 15 weeks;

* Indy joins the MV Soccer Club team
* Esprit gets a job at CarMax
* Bill and Sharon visit from Missouri

* Lanis and Bob host a birthday dinner for Bill

* Weekend soccer tournament in Temecula


* Our niece, Danielle, graduated from High School in Tennessee

* Weekend soccer tournament in San Diego

* Weekend soccer tournament in Mission Viejo


* Indy decides NOT to play for MV Soccer Club

* Indy promotes from 6th grade to Jr. High


* Indy starts summer school (NOT his idea!)

* ESPRIT TURNS 20!!!!!so we take a
* Family trip to the Del Mar Fair where...


***Indy wins Blue ribbon for Hula Hoop contest
***Esprit wins Blue ribbon for Hula Hoop contest
***I win Red (: ribbon for Hula Hoop contest
***(beat by my own daughter!)
***Scott participates in the Frozen Tee Shirt contest! That's Scott trying to "thaw" the frozen shirt with his leg - TOO FUNNY!!!!

* Indy tries out and makes the AYSO Plus team (soccer)
* Indy and Scott go Deep Sea Fishing off of San Diego
* Esprit and I see Martina McBride at the OC Fair (Esprit's FAVORITE performer. AWESOME show!!!)

Fishing in the back yard

Indy and some of the neighbor children spent this afternoon fishing in our lake. Our neighbors Patrick and Deanna were kind enough to let the children gather around their dock. It was a successful afternoon...


Say Cheese!

Stopping to Smell the Flowers

My Azalea tree was stunning just in time for Easter! We all took a few moments to enjoy the color

Easter morning

After quickly surveying their Easter baskets, Indy and Esprit were out the door to hunt for the eggs the Easter Bunny (wink, wink) had hidden from the night before. Gone are the days when each egg found was adored and enjoyed before going on to find the next treasure. Within the blink of an eye all eggs, real and plastic, were found. My camera isn't fast enough to capture all the action that takes place in these brief moments. Indy and Esprit were darting across the patio and practically leaping across the furniture as they each tried to be the one with the most eggs. Esprit was the winner by 1 egg. Even after giving Indy back the 2 eggs she "stole" from his basket, as he left it unattended while looking for eggs!

Coloring Easter Eggs

Esprit and Indy colored our eggs this year for the Easter Bunny to hide on Easter morning.

Wishing you All A Happy Easter

Baseball and Soccer update

BASEBALL -

The Mets are improving their batting and fielding skills tremendously! 2 wins since I last posted! Way to go Mets!

Todays game was especially exciting as we beat the first place team 6-5. The team ALL played a great game, with 2 of our players hitting home runs! BUT... since this is the OGLE blog, I'll hilite Indy's contributions for you - LOL (Esprit LOVES it when I say LOL!!!!!) Anyway... Every "at bat" Indy's coach insisted he bunt. Struck out twice (: and then a beautiful bunt allowing the runner on 2nd to advance to 3rd. Unfortunately the Pitcher was too quick and threw Indy out at first. But never mind as the runner on 3rd was able to make it into home for what would turn out to be our winning run!

We were the visiting team, so the Padres had their last ups. Our Pitcher, Jake Ogle (no relation) was awesome. Top of the batting order, first batter - STRIKE OUT. second batter - fly to outfield, where Indy made a GREAT catch, OUT. third batter - STRIKE OUT!!!!! Game Won. Can hardly wait for our next game after Spring Break.


SOCCER -

Dad and Gerd came out for a beautiful sunny day of soccer. Sadly, it was our 1st loss of the season, sigh... 3-1. But exciting all the same. We had 4 lost goal opportunities in the 1st quarter. Now maybe the boys will appreciate Coach Hal's game plan a little more. Perhaps he really knows what he's talking about???

We also had a "guest" spectator. Our coach has been quite impressed with the boys playing so well as a "team" that he suggested that we go to a "Club" level. We are joining the Mission Viejo Soccer Club and in the process of submitting the paperwork. The General Manager of the club, Anna Murphy, came out to see the boys in action. Anna was wonderful talking with the boys after their loss. She pointed out that it made her job easier to see a flawed game as she now can direct the trainors on what needs to be worked on. I liked how Anna was able to take the negative and turn it into a positive. We've been working on that with Indy.

Our next soccer game is the 14th, so update next weekend....

Where does the time go????

Wow! Hard to imagine that it's been 2 weeks since I last posted anything. So much going on all at the same time. I'm sure I won't get all the events posted. As I get older (and grayer! LOL) I seem to be losing some of the detail that, at the time it happens seems important, but now doesn't seem so important. Is this just me? I hope not! I'm promising myself to post more often. Enjoy...

Mets Win 1st Game of Season!

There was much excitement on the Majors baseball field yesterday afternoon.

Mets vs A's. Final score 9-4

We had sunshine in our eyes followed by gray clouds, a wind tunnel and sprinkling. There were bases stolen, batters out of order (coaches mistake, 2 automatic outs), errors giving up runs, a runner out at home plate and a number of questionable Ump calls. As I said, much excitement. Overall, both teams played a good game, but someones gotta win! AND IT WAS THE METS!!!!

Indy made a rather nice play catching a fly ball in center field for the 3rd out with runners on base. Way to go Indy!

I Have Been Blessed

At 7:20am Sunday, in between phone calls with Esprit, I received the phone call that my dear friend Charlie lost her battle with lung cancer earlier that morning.

I knew this call was inevitable and yet I feel this is surreal and I'm certain the reality hasn't fully hit me. Charlie has lived in Florida for over 15 years and I wasn't able to be with her physically throughout her battle. I was given the gift of spending a weekend with Charlie almost 1 year ago, after she'd had her first round of chemo.

I knew Charlie for 25 short years. Ours was a bond that transcends time and distance. We shared laughter and tears, dancing and drinking, known each others loves and lost loves. An unconditional friendship.

To know Charlie is to love Charlie. Everybody loved Charlie. I Loved Charlie.

I am looking at a photo of my dear friend as I type this. Crying and laughing intermittently. As I was speaking with Charlie's daughter Stephanie earlier today, we figure there's quite a party going on in Heaven. Charlie's there and there's always a good time where ever Charlie goes.

I Love You and will miss you, Charlie. But, I have been Blessed to have known you.

So Much to Write About

After my previous post the days were going by without much to say. I was missing Esprit terribly and so the days were SLOWLY passing, but really nothing else... until this past weekend, which is still pretty blurry.

I desperatly tried to get to the Friday night crop at Angel's. I waited until Friday to reserve my place and had to cancel a few hours later. Work. It seems CPA's don't really care about my crop schedule. A much needed ME time that had to be put on hold.

We all slept in on Saturday, Indy included, until after 10:00am. Haven't had the opportunity to do that in a long time. Needless to say the rest of Saturday went by rather quickly. Indy's soccer game was in Laguna Beach at 4:30pm. Tie game. As always very exciting.

Sunday morning I was awakened at 5:30am by a phone call from Esprit. There had been a problem with their return flights and they were stuck in New Bern, NC! Esprit was frantic and now so was I. 7 hours later...Esprit and Daniel had missed all of their connecting flights and it was apparent they would not be coming home until Monday. US Airways claimed they didn't have paid tickets from Charlotte to LA. Expedia claimed that US Airways had made changes to their tickets and wouldn't do anything to assist. With the storm in the Northeast all flights were overbooked and there weren't too many options available. I have never felt so helpless. I couldn't do anything. Eventually, US Airways made arrangements for flights out on Monday. As I write Scott has picked Esprit and Daniel up from the airport and we await there arrival at any moment!!!!!!

In the midst of the many phone calls with Esprit we received a sad email from Scott's Dad and Sharon. Their beloved dog, Clancy, had been killed by a hit and run driver last week. We are sad for their loss. We remember Clancy as a pup. He and Indy would share Grandpa's chair while watching movies.

Did I mention that Sunday was also our 18 year anniversary?

North Carolina

Esprit and boyfriend Daniel left early (the airport shuttle picked them up at 3:10AM!) for a week's vacation in New Bern, NC visiting Daniel's father. They landed in New Bern around 4:45pm ET and I've already talked with Esprit. Thank goodness for cell phones! Mine will get used A LOT this week...


Here's Esprit fitting herself in Daniel's bag. His clothes are already in there too! We debated saving the plane fare... LOL!!, not really.

Indy's Sports Update

Mets Baseball
Saturday was the first "official" game of the season. Our opponents, the Phillies could do no wrong. They scored 12 runs in the first inning. It was impossible to catch up (: The game was called a mercy at the bottom of the 4th inning 14-3.

Arsenal Soccer
What a fantastic start to the season! All 3 games played this season have been shut outs. 2-0, 6-0, 2-0. Very exciting to watch. Indy is definitely in his element on the soccer field. He scored the first goal at Saturday's game and assisted with 2 more. He gets more pleasure out of the assist, funny guy. Can hardly wait for our next game!

I've posted running game totals to the left and will update every week.

Pond problems this week...

One of the hoses to the pump came loose causing a majority of water to flow out of the pond this week. By the time it was discovered and water added our fish were extremely stressed. Our white Koi didn't make it. The orange Koi did, but isn't out of danger yet. She appears to be quite sad about the loss of her mate. We are all sad too. Silly how attached we become to our fish.

And Off to Opening Day for Baseball

Directly from soccer it was off to the baseball field for Opening Day. This year Indy is on the Mets. We missed the early morning festivities and arrived just in time to have photos taken. This was followed pretty much straight away with our double header exhibition games.

More Soccer

The boys had a great first game of the season with a winning score of 1-0. Looking forward to our game this Saturday. Bright and early. 8:00am in San Clemente. Looking forward to the extra large coffee for this one!

A Little Bit of Soccer

Spring Soccer season officially started this past weekend. Very exciting...this is the first time Indy has done the Spring season. He's on the "Arsenal" team. Looks to be a fun time. We had a practice scrimmage on the 24th bright and EARLY and arrived to help setup the field with coffee in hand. I think Esprit's picture says it all.







I'll get a better photo of Indy, but here's what I did get - Indy's the one bent over on the left side.
Final score? Arsenal 0 - Visitor 0

Esprit??

You may be asking, does Esprit still live here at the Ogle home? The answer is yes! Between school, work and boyfriend Daniel we don't see as much of Esprit as we used to. Here are Esprit and Daniel in Esprit's room.Your eyes do not deceive you, that's lime green on the walls AND Spiderman in the background.

Koi Show

Before Indy's baseball practice on Sunday we took a drive down to the Del Mar Fairgrounds to the the 20th Annual Koi Show. We've never been to a Koi show. There were some beautiful Koi. We weren't buying, just looking.


After leaving the Koi Show we decided to stop in the town of Del Mar and take a walk down by the water. For all the trips we've taken to the Del Mar Fair, we realized that we have never seen the town of Del Mar. It's so quaint. Indy decided that we need to go back and stay for a longer visit when we have the time.