A Challenge – Doing Their Best

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….but it wasn’t quite enough

Today we drove to the east end of the city to participate in the Girls’ Soccer City Championships. The sky was overcast but for the most part the predicted heavy rain held off. It was humid and during the second game we experienced a brief light shower. Earlier in the day the two teams that we would face off later played against each other. The team that lost challenged us to play if we didn’t win our first game.

Unfortunately our first game was difficult. The team we played against was our toughest competition to date and we lost 3 to 0. It was our first lost of the season. An hour later we played the second team to determine who would come in second. We were pretty evenly matched. In the first half no one from either side scored. In the second half they scored first and then we scored. The game ended in a tie and went into overtime. Have I ever told you how much I hate overtime, especially ‘golden goal’. The first team to score would win. The girls fought hard but it wasn’t to be this year.

You’d never know from the photographs that the girls were disappointed. Their sadness was brief and they walked away knowing that they had come a long way just to get to the city championships. We, their coaches and parents, were very proud of them. Bravo girls!

Soccer Finals, Future Aces Assembly and Jump Rope for Heart

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..all on the same day

To say it was a busy day is an understatement. Our soccer games for the West End Conference Finals were moved up to today because of a scheduling conflict within the organization. At school we had already booked our assembly and Jump Rope activity for the same day.

At first I was a bit upset because I’m also the coordinator for the Jump Rope for Heart activity and one of the soccer coaches. Luckily my principal is very generous and understanding and she suggested that I go with the girls in the morning for soccer and return in the afternoon for Jump Rope. If the girls moved on after their first game my colleague and the second coach would stay with the girls.

As it turned out the girls did win their first game. They begged me to stay for the next game so I agreed to stay for the first half but then I really did have to leave. When I walked toward the car during the second half the girls were ahead by one point but as I drove away I saw that the other team scored. I knew that if they lost this game they would be back at school within the hour.

When I got back to school I watched part of the assembly and at the end of it I took the photo of all of the Future Aces winners. Then I set up the tent for the music equipment and the prizes that I had for the skippers. As soon as the children came out for recess we started skipping and continued for a good hour. Teachers chose students who were working extra hard and sent them to me for a prize. Some of the older students performed their favourite songs with the microphone and near the end of the hour we had a jump off where specially selected students jumped for a short period of time while teachers and student helpers counted how many times they turned their ropes. We had 3 different age categories to make it more fair. All in all it was a great event.

…..and guess what? The soccer team didn’t return within the hour. In fact when they did return they ran over to me and declared that they had won all their games and were going to the city finals in two weeks. Yeah!

From Zero to Hero – Day 8

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Mama Cormier

DAY 8: MAKE YOUR “ABOUT” PAGE IRRESISTIBLE

I have to admit that it’s been awhile since I’ve updated my About page. When I saw today’s assignment I thought “why not?’.

The first week back at school has been a tough one. Everyone is exhausted. It’s been extraordinarily long and I thought Friday would never come. Today I went out for recess duty when it wasn’t my turn. I simply forgot that I had a made a change with one of my colleagues weeks ago. I went back inside because I did have a scheduled duty later in the afternoon.

I started my day with a 7:45 basketball tryout session with 32 grade 4 and 5 boys and I ended the day staying late, trying to figure out how to open up the report card system so that teachers could start recording their marks and comments. Normally it’s a pretty straight forward procedure but we had a few changes in staff recently and we had to call the help desk for some assistance. Of course the help desk was very busy as well so there was some waiting on the phone before we could talk to someone. Our problem wasn’t as easy to resolve as one might think but after a half hour on the phone, some running back and forth and paging a few staff members most of the glitches were fixed and one last problem, we were assured, would be resolved by the morning.

I have to admit that I am extraordinarily tired today. After cleaning up after dinner I have no energy for any extra jobs today, although I did pack up one more box of Christmas stuff. I got a little bit of exercise on yard duty today. I don’t like just standing around so I walk for the full 15 minutes when I’m outside, especially when it’s cold.

Check out my ‘new and improved’ About page.

Cheers!