!!!!! WORLD. CHAMPIONS !!!!!

Today started out in church, alongside my best friend [that's Rob, fyi..] and our congregation as we sang praise, worshiped and studied. I made it my prayer that I would maintain myself and a level head for later today in the event that the USWNT would fall to Japan in the WWC2015 finals, and I meant it. It sounds frivolous to pray for something like that, but I've been making very intentional efforts lately to BE present in mind and focus on ALL cylinders, according to the way I'm called to act, speak and behave, so praying for self-control if the ladies lost was really not an illegitimate prayer.

We headed home, took care of some errands and chores around the house and then.. it was time!

all day long. thinking about this.... all. day. long. 

I met up with Brandon a little earlier than necessary, but with good reason: When Germany played, we nearly missed kickoff because Goodfellow's was packed and we got lucky with room at Latitude's. I was determined to stay put at Goodfellow's tonight. He'd snagged the big center table, a space that would soon be shared by Jessica, Rob and then by chance, a group of people who knew Brandon. It was the perfect arrangement, and within no time, kickoff happened. 

And I... MISSED. The. First. Goal.

I mean come on! We were still getting situated with menus and drink orders, and WHO would've honestly thought that we would score in the THIRD minute?! (Not me, so that means I'm a bad fan with no faith.. I know, I know!)

So there was Lloyd, in replay, with the first goal of the final WC2015 game, and it was beautiful. Goodfellow's was roaring with fans, and just as I was trying to calm myself down, Lloyd nailed another one in the 5th minute.

UN. REAL!!! 

lloyd, you're an animal!!!

Brandon declared that Carli Lloyd was his spirit animal, and I somehow became even more nervous than I was at kick-off, because all too often we've seen strong leads [especially this early on] be dashed by an unprecedented opponent comeback. 

I didn't stay nervous very long - Holiday with her 14th minute goal, and then Lloyd with the back half LAUNCH that cleared the keeper put us at 4-0 at half-time. Holy freakin' crap, USA. You. Are. On. FIRE!!!! 

holiday & lloyd!! 

I'd been saying the entire game that I wanted 2 things:

1. Tobin to score a goal, and 

2. Wambach to sub in for at least some playing time in her last World Cup. 

Minute 54 was Tobin... 

tobin!!!!!!!!

And then in came Wambach, with an even bigger surprise trade from Lloyd, who insisted that Wambach take the captain's band to finish out this monumental game. Sure, Abby's absence from the team is going to affect me and all the years of my childhood leading up to this [we won't even talk about Rampone possibly leaving], but to see her have the captain's band for the Title game of the 2015 World Cup was about enough to make me cry.

captain wambach! 

And then Wambach insisting the band move to Rampone, for the trophy ceremony: 

christie rampone - hero from my childhood! 

[Here's the link to the article & page from which I borrowed those shots: USAToday Article]

And I would've cried, if I hadn't been so busy screaming my face off as the minutes wound down and it became clear that even with a 2-goal answer, Japan was going home in 2nd place and the USA were taking the Title of WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!! 

The amount of can't even'ing that was me tonight was basically unrivaled. 

FIVE to TWO. WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS. I am SO. FLIPPIN'. ECSTATIC!!!!! 

I wore my Lloyd shirt today. It was a solid choice to do that, and I don't think I've ever been so excited to watch a group of women play and win a game in my life.. not even at UC! [Sorry, ladies]. Lloyd, you deserved every single bit of that Golden Ball award!!! 

congratulations!!! 

And, despite other ways in which Hope Solo's made headlines, when it comes to the game, there's not a better keeper out there. Angerer is a close contender, but Hope is the brick [wall] in the box, and while some may not agree, I wholeheartedly believe she earned the Golden Glove, too! [Quick question though, where exactly is Julie Johnston's award for baddest-to-the-bone defender?!] 

yeah, solo!!! 

Guys, I'm exhausted from screaming like a psycho in the public view of the poor patrons at Goodfellow's, but a] don't care much.. sorry not sorry, and b] we just WON THE FRIKKIN' WORLD CUP!!!! So there's THAT.. and now I don't know what I'm going to be looking forward to for the next few weeks... but I'll figure it out ;) 

U-S-A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xo | cmd 

SEMI FINALS!!!

TODAY. WAS. THE. DAY!!!!

omgaaaah.. 

and this one. 

I spent the entire day amped up over the game, and even though Becky and I didn't make it to Montreal today, I'm fortunate to have a viewing area big enough at home to [kinda] compensate for not seeing the ladies in person on the field.

Anyway,

#solo

#harris

#morgan

#krieger

#leroux

Ob.SESSED. 

It'd been raining for the greater part of the late afternoon/early evening, so when I turned into my neighborhood, I wasn't surprised to see it a bit tousled from the storm. Small bits of trees and branches were down and fresh leaves and twigs were strewn across all the lawns. My backyard has a particularly larger ticket item sitting on my shed [which appears at first glance to remain unharmed], that we will have to deal with on a night other than World Cup Semifinals:

well that's.. just.. very nice, storm. thanks. :/ 

The storm not only took its toll on my backyard, but it knocked out the already so-reliable Time Warner Cable, leaving me with a pesky, stubborn and overall aggravating sight of the white screen telling me it's more or less thinking about thinking about letting us watch anything. It's a hit or miss every.single. game with TWC, so I wasn't surprised when we had to rally together and determine our contingency plan. 

That plan was set for Goodfellas, but that was dashed as soon as I arrived to find Tim & his family standing in line by the front door, without an open table in sight. We quickly weighed our options, and took a chance on running across the street to Latitudes. GOOD. DECISION. We snagged a table for 10, and before long there were 10 of us craning our necks in the direction of the big screen, where kickoff happened just as we were being seated. 

There are few sporting events on planet earth that will ever elicit the type of emotional response comparable to that of soccer. It's safe to say really that there are no other events that could do so. I've never traditionally considered myself a feminist, but our USWNT is a collection of the most talented, charismatic and patriotic athletes out there - after tonight's game, heck yeah I'm proud to be a woman, an American, an athelete/a soccer player and a supporter of these ladies paving their own way to World Cup victory.

No, it wasn't Abby's 2012 goal against Brazil, but it was an absolutely beautiful sight nonetheless to see our team challenge Germany and come out on top. 

I snagged this from ussoccer_wnt's IG, which sums up the night in what words just can't... 

#lloyd #ohara

I. Love. This. Team. Love It. 

Congratulations, USWNT! Here's to ONE. MORE. GAME against the winner of tomorrow's matchup. Just a few more days.. YOU CAN DO IT! 

And to this group [minus 2], thanks for hanging out and hanging in there together! I couldn't have hand-selected a better group to roll with on a night like this! :) 

@ latitudes

U-S-A! U-S-A! 

Let's go get it, ladies!

xo | cmd

USAvCHN

It's FRIIIIIIDAY!!!

This was the first thing I wanted to see when I woke up today.

Throughout the day:

krieger

And...

leroux

And...

lloyd

Basically, I spent my entire day awaiting the 7:30 EST kick-off of this [and, my apologies if I've offended anyone with my lack of input/care/interest for the marriage equality bill...], but this just, for me, took insane leaps of precedence over that.

I wasn't entirely sold after the first 45 minutes as the teams marched off tied at nil..

The second half started with Abby giving one of her signature speeches [haha], and the team hit the field to see what they could do in the next 45 & change.

Finally.. 

captain lloyd! 

YEAHHHHH!!!!

Congrats, ladies!!!!!
This World Cup has got me completely engaged. I. Love. It.
See ya back on the 26th!

xo | cmd

Sunshine & Soccer Stats

Between work and volleyball, there wasn't a wide open space to do much else other than analyze the USWNT World Cup bracket. Naturally, my money's on the US taking it all, but only time will tell, and if I had to pick a second choice, my money's on Germany.

world cup bracket funnnnnn 

But I mean, the U.S. is gonna take the cup, but it's fun to pretend there might be a chance for another winner, haha.. ;) 

Meanwhile, in not Canada, the local happenings of the evening [volleybal] at least went by with sunshine and happiness. 

sunshine is good for the soul! 

lovely volleyball! :D

Ahhhh... That's a good Wednesday!

xo | cmd

USAvNGA

Guys.... World Cup action is starting. I don't know if that means much to a lot of you, but I'm predicting a couple of things for this year's Women's WC: 

1. The USA will WIN! Why? Because they're freakin' AWESOME, and because, along with my American brethren and sistren (whatever), #IBELIEVE!

2. Hope Solo will get GC of the campaign

3. Becky and I will scream a lot, and many people will see a side of us that they A) didn't know existed, or B) fear, every time WWC years come around. 

4. We'll keep the cards to a minimum, and not do anything excruciatingly stupid.

5. We'll WIN, because well... #USWNT! 

8pm was slow to come around... but it did, finally, and found Becky, Mike, Rob, Brandon and I in what I'm sure just became our assigned seats for the rest of the game viewings we'll be hosting. 

here we go! 

We needed to win the group, so we can get on with it and get into elimination play. Well...

that happened.. 

... and then ABBY WAMBACH happened, and sealed the deal! 

Looks like we're on the Sweet 16, and I can't wait to see who we've got! #IBELIEVE! 

World Cup fever, folks.. I've got it... 

xo | cmd

The Next Step | USAvSWE!!

A couple days ago, I wasn't entirely sure that Friday would ever get here... yet, at the same time I felt like it was Friday for about 3 days in a row. Weird how that works.

At any rate, Friday showed up and I was ready to see it. The sun was out all day, the daily flow went as planned [well, for the most part, which... if we're even 51% to 49%, it's considered a win sometimes.. haha], and to top it off, there was an actual lunch hour today!

I finally purchased the book 'Phenomenal' today, and although I'm less than 30 pages in, I would recommend this to any and all of you! Elisa and I gathered ourselves together for what we're expecting to be the last Friday dual outing for at least a little while, tethered our hammocks up in Ault Park, and retreated into our own little moments of paradise for about 40 minutes.

this was perfect ♥

There's been so much going on recently, just as it pertains to work alone. We've been on hyperdrive for the past few weeks, so the degree to which this was needed today was grossly understated, at best.

hammocks. books. birds. sunshine. fresh air. barefeet. 

I'm not built to stay indoors all the time.. I'm really not. I mean, who is, I suppose?
There is so much change happening right now on the "workfront." Paul, our new franchisee, sets foot in the office on Monday.. at that point, he'll take full rein of the helm here and become the leadership element of which we've been barren for quite some time now. It is an overhaul on the horizon, and while I am welcoming it with perhaps aggressively beckoning arms, it is still change. It is new, it is foreign, and it is a little scary. It is all good change, but there is always some measure of the unknown that nestles itself into whatever resolve we've already made.. and it's weirdly unraveling.

And then, I saw this as we were closing our lunch break and leaving the park:

.. & the first thing that came to mind was,

"IS GOING TO BE OKAY." 

Because honestly, it IS! I'm that notorious trip-&-free-faller, whereas most people are in either the camp of just leaping into something OR taking it one cautious and analytical step at a time. I run straight down the middle and usually end up faceplanting at the end, so I couldn't help but give that you-got-me eyeroll to the universe when I literally almost stumbled up these steps, and saw the pink chalk letters that were any and everything except random today.

I needed to absorb that although these changes start on Monday, it's cool.. 'cuz it's naturally THE. NEXT. STEP.

And it's [not] gonna be [just] okay.
It's gonna be AWESOME.
Deal? Deal.

The work day closed its doors, and on its heels opened the evening doors of WATCHING THIS:

^^ There were so. many. choices. for which one of those promo posters I would put on here, so please be proud of me for selecting only two. Haha.

USAvSWE! 

Disappointingly [< I was back and forth on whether or not that was a word; it is, FYI], while the game was a nail-biter, it ended after 3 minutes of added stoppage time, it still ended at a tied score of 0-0.

We have Megan Klingenberg to thank for that.

saving the game... literally.

The score was still at 0's by halftime, and although we had much hope for the second half, well... at least it wasn't a loss. 

halftime.... 

tied up: usa v swe | 06.12.15

Meh. It's obviously not ideal, but we'll take it. 

It's finally the weekend, and that's an added bonus! Enjoy it, fellow blogbots! 

xo | cmd

# U S W N T !

Google started my day off with that little number, just a quick reminder that today was the day that the USWNT kicked off their World Cup run in Winnipeg vs. Australia.

[I'll spare chat about my day at work; it was one of those Mondays that flew by about as fast as I could blink!]

After work, I picked up Sydni and we continued on home, where I spent the next hour both fueding and praying that Time Warner would get its act together in time for kickoff. By some miraculous spat of fortune, the "This channel is unavailable; try again later" screen transformed into pre-game coverage, with about 10 minutes to spare before kickoff.

Talk about cutting it close.

Mike, Becky and Brandon soon filled up the living room as we awaited the start of the USWNT opener against Australia.

It was off to a slow start, at first anyway..

^ Until this.

And then THIS:

And finally... this:

Ladies, ya KILLED IT!

yessssssss

That's about as much as I could handle for today... thanks for tuning in. See ya later!

xo | cmd