I left Terville (THANK GOD!) on May 13th and landed home safely with more excitement then you could imagine. I was in France for 8 months, with only a three day trip to San Diego in January for the funeral of my Ant, so I was over due for some In-and-Out Burger, ha! After two weeks of enjoying be home I was ready to run again and left to work a vball camp down in Wilcox, Arizona. I don't know if it was growing up where I grew up or what, but I absolutely adore small towns, temporarily at least. The people were all so welcoming and hospitable and the campers were so grateful for our presence, i think that's a huge reason why I continue to work camps; the satisfaction of seeing progress in the kids in addition to showing up each day to their anxiousness to work and learn, almost makes me want to coach someday....almost.
Ja'Nice and the babies came into town from Fort Irwin just as I got back from Arizona and I think I almost burst with excitement just knowing they were on their way. They stopped first
at my dad's house to drop their things off before coming to my moms and I couldn't wait to see them...I drove less than a mile to meet them because I couldn't wait anymore. I've always heard people talk about the joy that children bring, but I've never felt it with other
kids the way my niece and nephew make me feel. I get SO excited when I see them (even now on the webcam from across the ocean). No matter what mood I'm in or what's going on, Mya can always say something crazy or do something totally outrageous to make me smile. That or just looking at how incredibly happy Jojo is, always smiling and laughing or just sitting looking at you with his funny eyebrows like he's got a question to ask. They make me happier than anything in this world. So aside from fun time with the babies, Ja'Nice, mom, and I went to the Reggae in the Desert Festival and had a really good time. We got a chance after the show to meet Ky-Mani Marley and take some pictures with him too, which was exciting.
mom @Reggae in the desert
The weekend flew by and early Monday morning I was off to Washington State to work two more vball camps in Chehalis and Forks (YES THE TWILIGHT FORKS, soooo exciting I know). On my way up to the great Northwest, I was delayed in LA for about 6 hours, and what better way to spend a layover than horseback riding with my brother DOnovan, in Burbank, just a spare of the moment idea, ha I loved it.
Both Chehalis and Forks are in Northern West WA so we got to do some driving around the state, visit the beaches on the Pacific Coast (La Push, Ruby and First& Second Beach), walk through the only rainforest in the nation, stay in the most amazing Bed and
Breakfast (Huckleberry Inn, HIGHLY recommended), eat fresh Halibut over the camp fire, visit a few of the Indian reservations, take a ferry to Seattle, pick fresh salmon berries, and hear some pretty cool cougar stories from Bill and Kitty, the B&B owners. All because of volleyball. I was talking with my high school coach, Coach Hill about and all the opportunities that volleyball has brought about in my life and it's really crazy to think about, I'm so thankful.
Sign from "Twilight"
Next on my journey I headed to France to sign my contract for the 2009/2010 season. I spent a whole week in Istres to do all of about three hours of work. For the most part it was really exciting to come and sign my contract, but after that I spent the remainder of my week sleeping during the days and the nights wide awake on the internet, strange trip, but glad I got it done.
After that week I was glad to be back home and even more excited to go to Fort Irwin to be with Ja'Nice, Jon, Jojo, and my Mya. For two weeks, I woke up each day around 6am, ate breakfast, went to run, came home showered took a nap, woke up to Mya screaming from downstairs, "Antie, wanna hold you", played all day with the kids, stayed up late at night playing scrabble with Ja'Nice (and mostly losing), then waking up and doing it all over again. On the army base there's a park, a pool, a bowling alley, a movie theater, and a gym, so that's what we did; go to the park, go "swimming in the waaaaater", as Mya would sing, jump on the beds and go to the movie theater or some variation of those activities and I can honestly say there's NO other way I would have rather spent two weeks. There was lots of True Blood, hot tamales, green beans, scrabble, neapolitan ice cream, Yo Gabba Gabba! and pee pee at the park and I can't wait to do it all over again!
Back in Vegas it was time to work again and the end of July mean basketball tournament time. I've been working the Big Time/Reebok Summer Championships every summer for 8 years now (with the exception of last summer, wow I'm getting old). So, I spent 5 days straight watching boys high school basketball and staring at stat sheets, good times.
My summer at home ended with my older cousin Bill's 30th birthday party and a chance for me to say goodbye to some family members before I left. When Ja'Nice and the babies left I cried, I can not imagine what I'm going to be like with my own kids if I'm acting this way now with my niece and nephew. I've been gone for two weeks and I already miss them like crazy.
That brings us to today: like I said I've been in Istres for two weeks now and let me tell you it's the complete opposite from my first two weeks in Terville last season, night and day. Here's one example: I have photos from the first night we went out in Terville and Regan and I are wearing flip flops and jackets, the first place we went when we got free time in Istres, was the beach, so there jackets vs. bathing suits. Our workouts here have been reminiscent of my training days at UT plus some. I almost forgot what it was like to have good volleyball training, but it feels good to be surrounded by people working hard again; so here we go....
the girls out in Marseille
Beach
1 comment:
i love that you love babies. you're the coolest. emery would love you.
and i'm with you - i'm always overdue for in-and-out. even if i ate it yesterday. hehe. :)
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