This week I went to P.E. again, of course, and had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed volley ball. It’s this game where you have to hit a ball over the net, for those of you who don’t know. Half the time I can’t even get the “hit the ball” part right, and of course when I do hit it and it flys over the net it’s just the other team passing the ball to us because it’s our turn to serve.

Oh, and I was told by Spencer that he wasn’t laughing at me, but with me. Uh, yeah right. Saying “Go Kate”(I’m sure you thought my name wrong, Spence) while laughing and throwing your arms up in the air as the volley ball hits the net instead of going over it is not laughing with me. Please, somebody tell me if I’m wrong.
Anyway…
What’s confusing for me is being up by the net. I have to make split-second decisions about how to hit the ball(under handed or over handed), and I’m not the best at split-second decisions. I usually do it backwards, hitting it under handed when it needs to over handed or the other way around, and am usually promptly told by either Christina or Josh that I did it the wrong way. Woops.
There is good news in this post, but I like to savor the best for last(which is why I eat my sandwiches from the outside in). I actually was able to get the ball in the air and eventually over the net when serving. Our coach taught us the way not to break our fingers and wrists during the game by showing us how to hold our hands. I was serving way wrong. I’m still not that good at it, but practice does help…a lot. I asked my mom to pick me up a volley ball, and she said she would next time she went to Wal-Mart, so hopefully I’ll be able to practice passing and serving in our backyard. I want a yellow one with a smily face on it, but I don’t think we’ll be able to find one like that. Oh well.

Volley ball is my new favorite sport(it used to be swimming), and hopefully by next year I’ll be able to play on a team.

Posted by Kait in Volley Ball

Running.

I hate it.

I’ve been running almost a mile every day for 4 days.

Why?

Because of co-op.

First of all, you should know that our family doesn’t go to P.E. after home-schooling co-op because by the time P.E. comes around, mom is worn out. I don’t care really, I get to have fun for a couple of hours anyway.

So, last week half of my family was sick. So Joe and I went to co-op with some friends of ours, they go to P.E. We said we would go with them. That might have been a mistake.

It was going good, having fun, hanging with friends, going to fun classes, and then it came…time for P.E. I should have seen it then. I’m the one who said I wanted to go. P.E., how hard could it be? All you do is stretch and to sit-ups and stuff right? Wrong. First you get to the park and you do a bunch of stretches, mind you I’m wearing jeans. After that, you split up into 4 groups. Older Girls, Younger Girls, Older Boys, and Younger Boys. So I’m left with a bunch of girls I don’t know. Luckily, Victoria was there, so I wasn’t all alone.

So we get to this bar thing and we start doing pull-ups. That was about the easiest thing I’ve ever done. Then us and the boys trade places. So now we’re over at this small little concrete slab. We run and grab these little blocks, and run them back and drop them at the line. I did it in 10.58 seconds, pretty good I guess. Then we do these little stretch thingies, I don’t know what their called. And then we join the boys at another concrete slab. They do push-ups, we do sit-ups, and then we switch. I did 26 sit-ups in like 45 seconds(I don’t know what the time limit is). Then I did 7 push-ups. I know, it’s sad. They said half of the push-ups I did I didn’t go down far enough. What they must not realize is it hurts just as much doing half as it is does going all the way down.
By then your pretty tired. Then they make you go run a mile. I didn’t know that. I start out in first, not even running hard. I almost get around the first lap(there are 4) and I have to really slow down. By the time I’m half way around the second, I feel like I’m going to die. What’s really embarrassing is when these little girls, Anna, Anna Marie, and Julia, turn around and walk with me, telling me to hurry up. These girls are the little girls that stick to my heels and argue about who gets to sit next to me at co-op. Now they’re arguing over who gets to hold my hand and drag me along. It was very sad. I finally got past the finish line. Then, to my relief Christina gives me a bottle of her water. That water was half gone within 2 seconds. I joined the rest of the kids for volley ball. I had never played before. I’m on a team with Joshua, Katie, Justin(just met him, funny guy), Bethany, and Christina. We’re against Victoria, Spencer, Alex, and Benjamin(another new face). It’s my turn to serve. Great. I’m trying to get this ball in the air. I have Christina and Josh yelling across the…volley ball field?…trying to teach me how to serve. Finally I focus on what Christina is saying and hit the ball. Over the net it goes! Lucky first try. We shift around.
I’ve found 2 positions I really don’t like. Middle, and server. I’m not the greatest at getting the ball over the net.
I’m getting confused as Joshua(he took the team captain role) is yelling “Katie, hit the ball” as it sails over the net. I start running towards it. Wrong Katie. I almost collide with “other” Katie as she turns around. Spencer’s on the other side of the net laughing at me. The little pest. The balls rolling and I try to step on it to stop it. Bad move. I end of on my behind after slipping on it. I’m trying to get up as I laugh. Eventually I get up. Joshua and Justin tell me it’s my turn to be in the middle. I just give them a funny face and move toward the middle.
It’s really confusing playing volleyball, at least with these kids. Because I can’t tell when they’re just tossing the ball over the net to the other person cause it’s our serve, or when I’m supposed to actually hit the ball. It still was a lot of fun. At least I got to hang with my friends for and extra hour and a half.

I get home and I just fall on the couch. I thought my legs were about to fall off. I found out the next day that we were going to start going with the Whites to P.E. every week. Great. I figured that if I had to run a mile, I should work so that I don’t drop dead afterwards next time. I’ve been running almost a mile since Tuesday, and it gets easier every time. By next Tuesday I’ll be able to run how I wanted to the first time – With Pleasure.

Posted by Kait in Volley Ball