We've Been Elfed!

The Goebel family, along with our soccer coach Freddy, have been elfed. Check out the video below.

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anniversary dance

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Thankful Heart

I have so much to be thankful for this year. I am especially thankful for my amazing husband and talented daughters, my family
and great friends. We are all healthy and get to live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. The Lord has blessed me greatly and for that I am so thankful!

14 Years and Counting!

Ryan and I celebrated our 14th anniversary this week! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY RYAN! I LOVE YOU!

PLANET ORANGE

Can I tell you how excited I am that it's basketball season?! I love the Suns and my little Stevie is the best! How can you not like that kid? He's an amazing point guard and a former soccer player to boot.I think this might just be our year. New coach...a couple of new players...I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'm hoping that Santa will bring me season tickets for Christmas. Yeah, fat chance of that, but maybe, just maybe, if I wish really hard I might get a ticket to at least one game. HINT HINT Santa.

Present on the Porch

Ryan got home the other day and found an advent calendar on our front porch. Attached to it was a note that read, "We were just in the neighborhood. Happy Birthday!" That's it. No name...nothing! We have no idea who it is from or how long it has been there. We never use the front door, but assume it couldn't have been more than a couple of days because my birthday was Wednesday. I asked a few people, but no one will admit to it. I guess it's just another Goebel mystery. Kind of like Ryan's keys.

Shappy-

One of my students is a HUGE fan of KMLE Country 108. He has the radio station on speed dial and is a regular caller on Hump It Or Dump It and the 8 Second KMLE Ride. About a month ago this kid called into the radio station and talked one of the DJs into coming to our classroom. So today Shappy came to Bellair. He spent some time talking to the students then taped them saying the Pledge. He is going to play the recording on the air next Tuesday morning. The funny thing is that It just so happens to be the birthday of my student that got Shappy to come. While Shappy was there the school went into lockdown. It was just a drill, but we were locked in our rooms for about 20 minutes. Poor Shappy picked the wrong time to come I guess. He was a really good sport about it.

So next Tuesday, December 2 at 8:00am (radio time) tune in to 107.9 to hear Mrs. Goebel's class from Bellair Elementary saying the Pledge.

I Once Was Lost But Now I'm Found

About 2 months ago Ryan lost his keys. It was actually quite a mystery because the day the keys disappeared he had been at church all day. We thought one of the youth was playing a practical joke, but no one ever fessed up, and the keys never turned up, so after scouring the church from top to bottom, we finally gave up looking. We'd pretty much forgotten about the keys until a package arrived in the mail this weekend. It was from Fry's Grocery Store and in the package (as you have probably already guessed) were Ryan's lost keys! Now we can pretty much figure out how the keys got from Fry's back to us. Ryan has one of those little Fry's cards on his key chain so the people at the store must have scanned the card to find his address and were nice enough to mail them to us. BUT....we still don't know how the keys got from church to Fry's in the first place. I guess it will just have to remain a mystery. For now!

Pole Dancing

It appears that my youngest daughter has a new hobby....pole dancing. Yep, you read that right...pole dancing. I witnessed her newest activity first hand when I was on playground duty today. Usually when I'm on duty Kayla and her friends hang out and talk to me, but today they raced right past with barely a glance in my direction. The girls made a beeline for 5 poles on the side of the basketball court. They each grabbed one and starting spinning and twirling around. When I asked Kayla about it she said that there were playing pole TAG but it looked an awful lot like pole dancing to me. I have a feeling I am going to have my hands full with that one!

Gymtastic!

After a long absence from the gym, I have finally dragged my lazy 'ole bootie back. I blamed this 4 month respite (ok so maybe it was more like 5 months) on the fact that my gym was too far (which it was) and the price of gas was too high(which it was), but in reality it was my lack of motivation and desire for FOOD that drove me to this self imposed dearth. So when a new gym, Mountainside Fitness, opened only 5 miles from my house...all my excuses flew out the window (along with the coke and Cheezits and all the other junk I've been eating). Mountainside it great! Almost as nice as Lifetime, my old gym. The best part is that Ryan joined too so we can go workout together. (Yeah, only that hasn't really happened yet.) So...I guess you can say I'm back. And not only am I back, but I'm back with a vengence! Even though I am so not a morning person, I have been getting up at 5:15 (that's AM people) to go work out before school. Then, I go back in the afternoon to workout some more. Getting back into the swing of the gym has been much easier than I thought. The first time I started working out I was working off 35 years of flab. This time it's only 5 months. After I finish working out I feel so good that I'm not sure why I stopped going in the first place.

RideMakerz

The other night the girls and I were at Westgate and found one of the coolest new stores! It's called RideMakerz and is all about creating a customized car. If you have a boy (or tomboys like I do), then I highly recommend you take them to this store. It's like the Build A Bear for cars. You pick your car body and wheels and can even add a sound. You have the choice of making it remote control and there are tons of accessories to help you "pimp your ride". When you have everything picked out you take your car to the assembly station to put it all together. There is a timer so you can time how fast you go. Must be a guy thing. The girls are going to create a customized car for their cousins for Christmas. (I hope they are not reading this!) We are going to take pics of them building it to include with the gift. Check out the link below.

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Camp Cougar!

This past week I went to 6th grade camp with Kayla's class. It was called Camp Cougar and was held at the Desert Outdoor Center at Lake Pleasant. To be honest, I wasn't too excited about going because it was on my birthday, but I ended up having a blast! The place was absolutely gorgeous and the kids were great! We left on Wednesday morning, spent the night and came home Thursday afternoon. During the days the students went to classes led by the Rangers at the outdoor center. The students (and parents) learned about desert survival, bats, animals in AZ, compass and map reading, weather, etc,...It was pretty interesting stuff and the kids were totally engaged. My personal favorite was Desert Survival 2. The students were taken out into the desert and given a box of supplies. They had to use the supplies in their box to build a shelter, fire pit and distress signal. I felt like I was on Survivor only I didn't win a million dollars at the end and I'm pretty sure some of the kids would have voted me off if they could have.



The strangest class was called Castaway Kids. Even though we were at a lake we went fishing in the parking lot. "You might be a redneck if..."!


It was a great week! Thanks Kayla for taking me to Camp Cougar. I had a lot of fun!

Saturday Soccer

This weekend was a busy one for the Goebel Girls! Even though we didn't have a soccer game, we still had soccer. The morning started at 9:30 with a mother daughter breakfast at the Deer Valley Airport. Both the 96 teams were there so we had over 60 people. It was a lot of fun!
Breakfast was followed by a shopping trip to Walmart. The girls are playing in the Kohl's Christmas Angel Tournament in December and as part of the tournament entry fee each girl and coach has to bring a $10 gift. The girls had fun running around the store picking out gifts for children who might otherwise not get a Christmas.
Next, we headed over to CCV for team pictures. Coach Freddy asked me if he could get his picture with Kayla since he doesn't have a daughter on the team. I think he likes her because she is the only girl on the team who makes him feel tall. LOL! Ryan had to miss the team pictures because he took the youth group to Magic Mountain for the weekend. When pictures were over we went to our church where Freddy had set up a classroom training session. It was from 12:00-5:00 which we thought was going to be a really long time, but actually it went quickly and Freddy made it a lot of fun for the girls. He brought cookies for the girls and we ordered pizza about halfway through the session.


Then Freddy took them to the school next door to do some team building games.

It was a busy day, but everyone had fun and enjoyed spending time together.

KICK FOR THE CURE CHAMPIONS

This weekend the girls participated in the Kick for the Cure soccer tournament and took 1st place in their division! Not only did they take first, but they were undefeated!! They went into the weekend hoping they would do well. They had already beaten all the teams they were playing in regular season, but in sports nothing is for sure. The first game was against Ahwatukee on Saturday morning at 8:00 am (YUCK!). They are so not a morning team, but ended up winning 2-1. That afternoon they played North Valley Soccer Club and won 5-0. That put them first in their bracket which meant they had to play in the semi finals against our B team (CCV Stars Red) Sunday morning. That was fun because all the girls are friends and train together on Thursday nights. They beat the Red team 5-0, but there were no hard feelings. In fact, both teams went out for pizza together after the game. The finals were this afternoon at 2:00. They played San Tan Legacy which they had beaten 4-2 in regular season. Besides us of course, San Tan was probably the toughest team in the division. It started out really rough. San Tan had control of the field and the game was getting very physical. But when one of the girls did a slide tackle and took out our goalie, it changed the whole momentum of the game. (The girl got a yellow card.) It was like someone lit a fire under our girls and they pulled out a 4-0 Victory! WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

We are sunburnt and exhausted, but it was an awesome weekend! I am so proud of all the girls! Go CCV Stars!
Now I'm going to bed!

You can call him....Mr. Vice President!

Move over Biden and Palin...there's a New Vice President in town. For the second year in a row...Ryan has been elected 1st Vice President of the Arizona Baptist Convention. Not really sure what a 1st VP does or why there is even more than 1 VP. LOL! In a year of election firsts...Ryan may have his own first. Not many states in the Southern Baptist convention would have a youth guy as their VP. Especially a youth guy without a seminary degree. But good ole AZ must realize what an amazing guy my hubby is with or with out a seminary degree. Next stop, the White House.

GOEBEL 2012

The Shack

If you haven't already read the book The Shack, I highly recommend it.

The Shack revolves around Mack (Mackenzie) Philips. Four years before this story begins, Mack’s young daughter, Missy, was abducted during a family vacation. Though her body was never found, the police did find evidence in an abandoned shack to prove that she had been brutally murdered by a notorious serial killer who preyed on young girls. As the story begins, Mack, who has been living in the shadow of his Great Sadness, receives a strange note that is apparently from God. God invites Mack to return to this shack for a get together. Though uncertain, Mack visits the scene of the crime and there has a weekend-long encounter with God, or, more properly, with the godhead.

I have been trying to write this entry for days and have really struggled with what to say about the book in this blog. I know that there are many critics of the book who say, among other things, that it is not Biblically correct. I don't want to, nor will I, get into a huge theological debate over the subject. However, I feel a need to express my thoughts on the book. I will keep it simple, because to me it is simple. My opinion is that The Shack is a great work of FICTION that was never meant to be studied as theology. The story isn't about "religion" but rather a relationship which truthfully, isn't that what it's all about? My God is good. My God loves me. My God desires a relationship with me and he will not be limited by my stereotypes of who he is. This book really made me think about how I view God and the limits that I sometimes put on him. It left me with a yearning to know him more completely and a renewed desire to make him Lord over everything in my life.

I encourage you to read the book and form your own opinion.

Christmas Already?

Is it just me or do people start getting ready for Christmas earlier and earlier every year? Some of the stores had Christmas decorations up before Halloween and one of the radio stations is already playing 24 hour continuos Christmas music. Now, I am all about stretching out the holidays, but before Thanksgiving? That's a little nuts. I refuse to get ready for Christmas until my birthday (which by the way is next Wednesday, Nov. 19!) and Thanksgiving are over. One holiday at a time!

Peeing In The Rocks

I was looking for this picture the other day when I wrote about Anna's inventions.
Here is a picture of her very 1st invention.



When Anna and Kayla were little, rather than drag them both out of the pool to go use the potty, my mom would let them pee in the rocks. The girls thought this was great. I thought it was gross and I would get really ticked off with my mom for letting them do it. Anna, always the peacemaker, decided to come up with a way to make us all happy. She built a toilet and put it on the side of the house in the backyard. For a 5 year old it was a pretty good little commode. It even had a place to put the toilet paper. Anna was so proud of herself. I didn't have the heart to tell her that technically they were still peeing in the rocks. You gotta give the girl credit for trying.

HO HO Holy Stuff in the Yard

Last Christmas I posted a blog about our neighbors and their rather "eclectic" taste in Christmas decorations. (Eclectic is a much nicer word than tacky don't you think?!) They have a little bit of everything and it's spread all over the yard. Plastic candles, blow up snowmen, an old wooden nativity scene (that is missing two of the wise men and baby Jesus), colored lights, candy canes, wreaths,....etc,.. The guy that lives there starts pulling things out of boxes about mid November. Every day he spends hours outside putting stuff up and at night the family sits in the driveway and sips cocoa while they admire his handiwork. Over the past few years the decorations have slowly made their way into the surrounding yards and the girls and I jokingly refer to it as the house with the "HO HO Holy stuff in the yard".

This summer those neighbors moved out. I didn't really think too much about it until Anna reminded me that there probably wouldn't be any HO HO Holy stuff in the yard this Christmas. That made me kind of sad. I mean it's become pretty much a holiday tradition around here and we actually look forward to seeing what new things might show up in the yard. In fact, we turned it into a game. "Who can guess what random Christmas decoration will show up next and where will it go?" I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to find some new form of holiday entertainment when who should come strolling up to our garage sale today, but our old neighbors. Turns out they just moved into another neighborhood down the road. So...I can still participate in one of my favorite holiday pastimes, but I don't have to drive by it every day on may home. GAME ON!

Setting the Record Straight

Apparently my post entitled "It's THAT Time of the Month" was the topic of conversation at a certain staff meeting the other day. My husband thinks that it was an unfair post and believes he was grossly misrepresented. So Ryan, I would like to offer my sincerest apologizes and set the record straight once and for all.

Blogging world...Ryan Jason Goebel is an amazing husband and is "almost always" willing to get whatever I need whenever I need it. In all fairness to him, it was THAT time of the month for me when I wrote the blog and my hormones were raging! Being bloated, having a headache, backache, cramps, water weight gain, irritability, food cravings, and mood swings is NO excuse for hanging up on him in the middle of our conversation or writing such an insensitive blog. It was both rude and uncalled for and I am truly sorry. It won't happen again (or at least not until next month).

Tool Box on a Shopping Cart

My last blog was about Anna and her wood shop project. This blog is all about Ryan and his new project. I like to call it
"Tool Box on a Shopping Cart". Mainly because that's what it is...a tool box on a shopping cart. (See the picture below.)


Here's the story. The other night on our bike ride, Ryan spotted an old shopping cart in a ditch. (It was probably left there by one of the homeless people who live in the canal under the bridge.) For some reason Ryan seems to find a lot of stuff in ditches. Once when we lived in Indiana, he found a tv in a ditch. He brought it home, fixed it up and to make a long story short, it's 10 years later and we are still using it. Anywhooo....today Ryan went and got the cart and brought it home. He spent most of the night in the garage "pimpin' his cart". It looks pretty amazing and you know what's even better? He got a smokin' deal on a tool box to go on top of the shopping cart he found in a ditch.


The Tool Box on a Shopping Cart isn't Ryan's only great invention. He just recently created something that makes life much easier for a soccer parent. However, it's TOP SECRET so I can't post a picture on here. Wouldn't want someone to steal his idea!

Like Father Like Daughter

Anna is definitely her father's daughter. She loves to build things and is always working on some kind of project. Other people's trash is Anna's treasure. Empty boxes, scraps of fabric, tape,...you name it....she'll find some way to use it.



This quarter she is taking Wood (wood shop) at school. She is building a locker for her soccer stuff. Ryan took her to buy the wood and helped her cut it tonight.



She can't wait to go to school tomorrow and start building!

She Scores

Kayla scored her first goal of the season today!!!!!! It was so exciting! The whole team rushed her after she scored and Courtney picked her up and swung her around! The girls won today 7-2 and are 6-0. Gooooooooo STARS!

The Pirate Who Didn't Give Kids Candy

On Halloween night, Ryan put on a pirate mask to answer the door for trick or treaters. He was cracking us up with his pirate routine. I tell you, those poor kids didn't know what they were in for when they rang our doorbell. At one point he got slammed with a whole group of trick or treaters at once. He was tying to keep in his pirate mode as he passed out candy and fended off the obnoxious kid that kept trying to get more than his share. Finally, the trick or treaters left and Ryan shut the door. A minute later there was a knock on the window and we heard this little voice say...."I didn't get my candy!". We laughed so hard. It was hysterical!