Like this:

So I’m just going to act like it hasn’t been three months since I blogged. Here we go…

Really enjoying a nice lazy Saturday after a pretty relaxing week. I had been going, going, going for a while and it culminated last week when I had three straight nights of rehearsals and performances (I played drums in my church’s Easter musical) and track meets (well, only one… it was a long day) on top of my two jobs. Had a late hockey game at 11:10 last night (more on that later), so I didn’t get home til around 1:30 this morning. It was nice to sleep in, since I had nothing going on today.

So, what’s gone on in the last three months? (Ah, I wasn’t going to mention that… oops.) I turned 25, coached my way to nationals in May, changed mission trip plans, and scored my first two hat tricks ever. Oh yeah, and got a temp job. Not bad.

First, the temp job. I used to work at Holiday Retirement. I got laid off on February 5, 2009. Big reduction of force (about 35 or so) and I wasn’t able to escape it. Anyways, I had been struggling to find a job for a year. Turns out, Holiday was doing a project where they are entering cards with resident leads (Direct Inquiries, or DI’s) into a computer system. A lady I used to work with, Shannon, called me out of the blue and told me they needed more data entry people. I called the temp agency, went to Portland the next day and took the tests to qualify. I got a call later that day that Holiday wanted me to report to work on Monday. What was cool and ironic was that I got the job on February 5, 2010. Yes, a year to the day that I was laid off. Crazy. It’s not the greatest job, but I’m getting more than I was on unemployment and it feels good to actually earn my paycheck.

I turned 25 on March 8. It was a pretty busy day, with work starting at 6:30 or so, track practice after that and then bible study and Applebee’s afterward. But when it’s your birthday, it’s not that bad. It was a good day. Was taken out to lunch by my friend Rachel and Ryan Bell, a former co-worker when I was at Holiday. Last year, March 8 was daylight savings day. Yep, we lost an hour. So I had a 23-hour birthday. I mean, I hate losing an hour anyway, but on my birthday? Really? It was nice to get a full 24-hour birthday this year.

I’m a first-year assistant track coach at Corban College this year, helping with the hurdles. It’s been great to get back into the sport because I haven’t competed in three years and hadn’t even attended any meets in that time. Its been fun to be back at meets each week with little to no pressure on me. I sure don’t miss the anxiety of competing. Anyways, last week one of my hurdlers, David Anderson, automatically qualified in the 400 hurdles for the NAIA National meet at the end of May. He’s had a great season and has really broken through because he’s very talented as it is, but he’s in great shape this year, too. So, assuming that all goes well (no reason it shouldn’t), I’ll get to go to the National meet in Indiana here in a month and a half. I’m hoping that one of my women hurdlers, Jocelyn Smith, can qualify in the 400 hurdles as well. She’s battled some health issues and is starting to round into shape. It would be great to take two hurdlers to nationals. We’ll see how it goes.

If you read my blog last summer, you know that our trip to Honduras didn’t end up working out. (If you haven’t read about it, you can take the hint or you can not take the hint… the choice is yours.) We planned a trip to Belize this summer, over the 4th of July holiday. Well, due to lack of interest and other reasons, the Belize trip was cancelled. But, our pastor quickly put together a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico at the same time. I’m really excited to go back to Oaxaca. I went there two summers ago with Pastor Randy and it was a great trip. We have our first meeting this Sunday night and I’m excited to get into the planning stages of this trip.

And, the hat tricks. I had never scored three goals (called a hat trick, if you didn’t know) in one game before. There were a handful of games where I had scored two goals, but not three. There was even one I can remember where I scored two in the first period and thought I had a good chance. I even had a breakaway in the third period of that game and hit the post. No dice. Well, I’ve scored two hat tricks in the past month. The first one was the same deal… I scored two in the first, so I liked my chances. This time, I got the third one in the third period. It was pretty sweet. One thing about it, though, was that it came in a blowout against a team we’ve beaten easily a few times (Fallout). It was the type of game where it was over early and Fallout kind of had their heads down. One could argue that getting a hat trick against them was “easy.”

Well, I got my second hat trick last night and it wasn’t “easy,” nor was it against a bad team. It came against Here For Beer, a team we’ve struggled against in the past. We’re now 2-0 against them this season. We won 5-2 and it was a great team win where we played good defense and passed very well. I got two goals on my first three shifts in the first period. Here we go again, I think. It was looking like I wasn’t going to get my hat trick, but I almost scored into an empty net at the end of the game. I got tripped from behind and almost scored while I was sliding on my stomach. No dice. However, I got a breakaway with about a minute to go. I came down the right wing and made a forehand-backhand move and beat the goalie five hole (sorry for the hockey lingo, but it’s the best way to describe it). I have to admit, the goal was sweet and I’ve been hoping to pull that move off for a while. Felt good to put it in and get a hat trick with that goal.

The RoC Stars are now 6-2 this season. I’ve still got the results page going, even though I haven’t blogged consistently.

Well, that’s it for now. Off to enjoy the rest of my lazy Saturday.

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