Waking up at 5:30 and also 9:30

Recently I have not been up to too much. I need to be working on Boy Scots stuff. I'm getting very close to obtaining my Eagle Scot Rank and these things will be given to me as a "reward"

Ice Hockey

Drivers License

Job


There are more that I can't think of right now, but I really want to get it this summer, I need to look harder for an Eagle Project though. I sent a letter to the Church (VBC) for a list of Eagle Projects, but I have not received a list back yet. Maybe I will have to take my letter elsewhere.

July 4th was a lot of fun. We had a lot of the family over and we also had wayyyy too much food. Barbecues left and right, side dishes on the neighbor's lawn as well as a wedding which was catered.

That's right, there was a wedding. We had the Garden Grove Journal as well as Channel 3 news there. The two that were getting married were both in the army. Disappointingly, we now have to distinguish who is getting married in this State we are in. Just to clarify, it was a Man to a Woman. *Rolls his eyes in disgust*

As I said in my last blog post I will be moving all Hockey Posts to my new blog which has now been started. "The Village Idiots Hockey Club From the View of a Player". And yes, I do not think that the title could have been any longer. Now you will get the rest of my life instead of me filling these posts up with Hockey... See, here I go again.

We went to the Beach on Monday (7\7\08). It was better than the week before. The waves weren't anywhere nearly as choppy. The water was pretty still with swells coming every once in a while. I was able to catch about 2 good waves and I used my Boogie Board all day. I thought about Body Surfing once, but never did it, instead I Boogie Boarded the entire time. As fun as it is, I have to say that it is not a sport. Others may disagree, but I don't see a pro circuit anywhere (if there is one then please feel free to tell me).

Today is Thursday (7\10\08). I have been getting more and more involved in our new Church which is tons of fun. I woke up yesterday with a definite NO as to coming to the 6:30 A.M. Basketball game which would be today. I figured, if I can' wake up at 9:00 A.M, then how am I supposed to be able to make it to a 6:30A.M. Basketball game. Well, you'll never believe it, but I did it! Instead of waking up at my usual 9:30\10:00(which I hate doing because it feels like most of the day is gone) I was able to wake up at 5:30.

I've been trying to do Devotions in the mornings, but I never get around to it. Please don't take this section of this post as me bragging, as I dislike talking about Devotions because it can be seen as bragging, which I've been trying really hard not to do. Today I woke up at 5:30 A.M. and was able to do Devotions. I've heard\read a little bit of Job, but never actually read through the entire book, which is what I'm doing now. It's very interesting, and if you ever have a chance to read it, you should.

So we came and played basketball today. It was a lot of fun and hopefully it can get me back into Hockey condition so that way I will be able to play better this season. If I were to have rung my shirt out after playing basketball, then it would've made a puddle. Done cringing? Yeah, it was that nasty.

So that's pretty much everything between my last post and now. I have Hockey Practice tonight, which should be fun. I'm looking forward to it as I always love to play hockey. At Reality Check we talked the Church into letting us play Hockey in the Parking Lot during Coffee House. Yay! My dream that I'd be able to achieve right now is to play in a Hockey Tournament with the team I have right now, from A-P I wouldn't change anything. Enjoy your day!



-AJ

Hopefully this "catch up" post isn't too long

Sorry about not posting in a while, I've been pretty busy.........okay, I'll admit it, I haven't been too busy, I've been too lazy. Well instead of updating you on every hockey game between my last post and now, I will sum it all up without mentioning any specific games.


We finished 1st overall in the regular season with a record of 7-1-0. In my mind, I had 15 goals and 9 assists, but according to the league I had 15 goals and 4 assists for 19 points. No big deal. I ended up finishing T2nd in scoring in scoring with 15-4-19. I led the team in scoring, but missed the league lead by 3 points. I did tie for the league lead in goals with 15 though.

Luckily, I was able to move past my personal loss and focus on the Championship game. The last time we played this team we won 7-1. Was it a coincidence that our team had a 7-1 record in the regular season as well? I think not. Anyways, I started the game and was trying to clear out the front of their net in order for our captain to score the 1st goal of the game. I leaned a little bit to hard and the kid, who is half my size, in both height and weight, went flying and I was called for roughing. While I was in the box we scored and took the 1-0 lead. I came out of the box, picked up the puck and drove to the net. After putting it five-hole we took the 2-0 lead and never looked back. We ended up winning the game 7-1. That's right, I scored the second goal of the game, so that means that the Championship winning goal was scored by me. YEAH!!!!! As if it were coincidence again, we also won that game 7-1 which was our regular season record. So of course, being the team that we are, we all threw off our gloves, helmets, and sticks then dog-piled our goalie.

Thus, the first Championship in Village Idiots History was achieved.

I will not be able to update you on everything between my last post and now, but I will start posting day by day ASAP. I will also try to make a new blog for my hockey posts. It will be the same as my dad's villageidiotshockey blog except it will be from the view of a player. Stay tuned for more information on that one. Thanks for reading this post and have a nice day :)


-AJ

Games 4 and 5 ... initiating the intimidation factor (A.K.A. AJ King of the Penalties)

Ever since that penalty this season I have been given no more penalties and am still stuck at 2. But I can see that it is paying off. Onto game #4

Game 4 was the game of the year.


Period 1:

We started with no goalie and looked around at each other in shock for the entire first period. Luckily, we were only down by 4 (4-0) at the end of the 1st period.
Scoring summary for our team: 0 Their team: 4 Points for me: 0

Period 2 comes around and we tell one of our best players to suit up for goalie. He came in half of the way through the second period (about 20 minutes left in the game). By then it seemed to be a lost cause. The score was 7-1 and one of the coaches was ready to quit (I won't mention names). But thankfully, our team was not . I assisted the first goal which gave me 1 point on the night. I quickly assisted another one which made it 7-3 after one of the other players on our team scored. At the end of the second period the score was 7-3. We were down by 4 again.
Scoring summary for our team: 3 Their team: 3 Points for me: 2 assists

Honestly, I wasn't ready to quit, but I didn't think we had a chance. I was sitting there goalless headed into the 3rd period. One of our players scored a big goal quickly which made it 7-4. I came right back at them with a goal of my own. 7-5!!! I still thought it was a lost cause. With about 5 minutes to go in the game we put ourselves within 1. The score was no 7-6. Oh boy, it's time for my line to go out!!! I was placed on early as we were doing a line change on the go. I cruised in hoping they wouldn't see me as they were making a play in their zone. They made the pass to the guy on the point. I was able to intercept it, but it tipped off of my stick and into their player's skates. He looks down kind of spinning around and I was able to snag the puck. I skated through the slot and I knew 2 important things at the moment.

1. The player who messed up on the pass was going to cut into the middle to cover so I could not come straight down the slot, which would give me my best shot at a goal.

2. The player I took the puck from finished 3rd in scoring last season and he is a fairly decent player.

He may have beat me in scoring, but he wouldn't beat me on this play. I will now switch over to play by play courtesy of AJ.

AJ steals the puck. He enters in the zone. cuts toward the left side of the net. Backhand and ring...off of the crossbar. J\K. He beats the goalie with his backhand!!!

The score was now 7-7. We had tied the game and I had scored my second goal of the game! I raised both of my hands (which I don't really do anymore) and screamed YEAHHHHH. We quickly sent the play back into their zone and scored again to make it 8-7!! I screamed even louder for that one. I would be put back on with about 2 minutes to go in the game which was going to end 3-3 due to separate penalties. They pulled their goalie as it was a 1 goal game. Our guys cleared it and I won the race to the puck and to my surprise I was alone with the empty net. Easy Goal and thank you for the free insurance marker. The score was now 9-7. Another one of our players was able to hit the empty net with about 10 seconds to go. This made the score 10-7. The time ran off the clock and we had completed the greatest comeback of my life.

Drain Bamage: 10 Other team: 7

Points for me: Goals: 3 Assists: 2

What a great game. Game #5 has also been played and also has been final The score of that game was 9-3. I will write more details on that one soon as well. Including game 5 we are 5-0 and undefeated. I only had one goal in game 5 and I blew many chances. Sorry I didn't write more on game 5, it wasn't too exciting. But we did clinch a spot in the championship game because of our record. So we don't have to play in the playoffs this year and we have clinched 1st place!

My totals for the season: GP: 5 Goals: 9 Assists: 6 Points: 15 Points per game average: 3 PIM: 2

That's it for now


-AJ

Back to hockey, 3 games into the season and a huge milestone!?!?!?

Finally I have a good start to the season! It's been a long time, but I need to remember not to get to full of myself. As I may have said earlier, at the start of this season, I started with 395 career goals. Now, I never guarantee myself anything as I have had a few off seasons, but I knew within the next 2 seasons I would hit that mark. Well 3 games in and I've already hit the 400 mark!!!

Game # 1

Here we go, start of the season, all fans in attendance as it was a Thursday game. I start on the 2nd line. When I got out there the score was 0-0. This was great as I would get a good chance to score the first goal of the season. I get a nice break after stealing the puck in the offensive zone. I take the first shot and it hits the goalie. Shot #2 on the rebound a backhand....and...it hits the goalie. Look what I found, rebound # 3 a backhand right over the goalie's shoulder. Yet another season where I started off the scoring. Period 2 rolls around and I was sitting there with 1 goal. The puck was sent to me in the corner. We were playing exceptional defense that day and we were holding the points. I switched spots with our Left Defensemen. Came down the middle, and a slapper. Top Shelf! Career Goal # 397! Shortly after, we won the faceoff and got the same set up going again. A pass from me off the boards to the left D, who passes it to the right D. By this time I was in front of the net screening the goalie. A shot by the right D and Assist #1 of the season for me.

Game #1 Final 8-3. Points for me 2 Goals and 1 assist

Game #2:

I've had a problem the past season breaking 3 sticks in games. I have never done that before now. We start the game out and I do my usual slap shot taking. I shot one that was tipped and it almost went into the street. It landed on the side walk. So I start to get a little cocky with my hard shot. The next chance I get I rip a shot of that went wide. I go in the corner to get the puck and I hear the sound of a broken stick. Keep in mind this is the shaft that I won in the raffle at closing ceremonies last season. So I dropped the stick in the corner and looked up in disbelief. I went to the bench and after the whistle one of my teammates goes to pick it up thinking that the blade was broken, which is what I suspected. He picks it up by the top and the bottom falls off. There goes my $ 50 shaft right in half. I need to stop shooting softer...........well maybe not. So I get my backup stick and we planned to do a corner celebration, which is what they do in the NHL every time they score, if I scored. So....I scored and peeled off. We did the corner celebration! All I got was a ton of sticks in my face.


Game #2 Final 6-3 W My point totals Goals:1 Assists: 0. My point totals for the season Goals: 3 Assists:1. So I was starting to feel selfish. Career goals for me was at 298.

Game #3

I haven't had a penalty in 4 years. That's 11 seasons. So I was bragging about it before the game. My first shift I cruised into the offensive zone and...look what I found! A puck right there in the slot with no one around. I know what I'll do, I'll take a slap shot...whiffffff. I tipped the top of the puck and it hit the goalie in the stick. The play goes the other way and I go back on the backcheck. I lift the stick of the attacking forward. He turns and I end up pulling his arm back. I knew it would be a penalty, so I turn around and sure enough, there's the ref with his arm up. #14 2 minutes for hooking. Come on, if I would've known I was going to take a penalty I would have made it boarding or roughing, something that's worth the two minutes. I'm not suggesting that the penalty was un-merited, but I wish I would've known. So I do my hard time in the box. I came back out very frustrated after that last play. So look what I found again! The puck...I know, I'll take a slap shot (I guess you know where this is going and if you don't read above when I took my last slapshot again). The puck goes behind the net and I was able to take the puck off of the guy's stick. I come around and zing, top shelf. Career goal #399!!!. By now I was starting to feel selfish so I started telling my teammates. I was at 4 goals and 1 assist on the season. Here comes my team mate down the side. The defenseman was way out of position. He winds up... and right on his tape comes the pass for zinger #2. I was at 1 goal and 1 assist for the game. Period 2 comes around and I get to start on the bench. My 1st shift back out there I stole the puck in the corner. Stick handled around 3 guys on there team. Came in on the goalie acted like I was going to go one way and back handed it on the other side for goal #2 of the game. Career goal #400!!!. Okay, so I was starting to feel selfish again. I had 2 goals and 1 assist in the game. No more points for me in period #2. Period #3 comes around and they had their goalie pulled as the score was 6-1 and their goalie wasn't exactly doing well. I passed the puck to one of my teammates who I told to start training at faceoffs. An empty net goal and my 2nd assist of the game!!!. Later on in the game I would pass it to one of the defenseman on my line and he would do the same for my 3 assist of the game. So I finished the game with 2 goals and 3 assists.

Game #3 11-2 Final. My points for the game: Goals: 2 Assists: 3. My points for the season: Goals: 5 Assists: 4 Points: 9.

There you have it, career goal #400 was scored finally!


Thanks for the read. I really need to try not to get full of myself and start seeing only the scoring title. I need to remember to play for my team and my team alone. I already have a scoring title, not that I wouldn't like another one, but I really need to keep my focus on my team and not be to selfish. We are 3-0. Undefeated. And on a 3 game winning streak! I would like to keep that going and not ruin it by being selfish.


-AJ

More time in the pool

I still really like the pool. I think I'm spending to much time in there. We got some of the neighbors together yesterday and went into the pool. After one of them (who shall remain nameless) said that it was to cold we went down to his house to go swimming in an in-ground pool. The nextdoor neighbors wanted to go swimming in our pool and they didn't say anything about it. So here we go heading down the street and their dad follows us down there. After talking back and forth we decided to let them swim in the neighbors pool with us. I really like this weather it's nice and hot. Perfect pool weather. After we came home from that I went to go pick my mom up from school with my brother. I got to drive home. When we got back I was really itching to go swimming again. So I said to my self, "Self, why not"? So I went swimming again. That was my fourth time of the day. For today, I have to get some schoolwork done before I head down to the beach for a few days (Tuesday to Thursday). I have hockey practice on Thursday at 6:15. The season will start next week. Should be a good one!


-AJ

Life...not hockey

This will be my first post in a long time. This one will also not be about hockey which will be my first one like that in a long time. Yes I know...I have a problem. Anyways onto catching up for this year. School has been going fine and I'm still doing well. I am not going to update since January in this post, because not to much has happened since then. I did get my permit finally though and I'm driving my mother crazy (note that I did not say my mother, Crazy) asking her to let me drive everywhere and coming up with places to go just so I could drive. I will just update on yesterday for this post. Yesterday was the first day that our new above ground pool was actually full (we got it on friday). So I was able to go swimming a few times (twice by myself) before I went to my Aunt Faith's house. When we got there, we went inside and I grabbed a handful of Peanut m n' ms so I could eat them when I went outside. Turns out I didn't get to much time to eat them, because the younger kids wanted me to play with them. So I did. We ate dinner, talked some more, and then we headed home for the night. Yep that was my day, so I will try to post another post tommorow about today.


-AJ

Penalty Minutes

Just wanted to point out a stat that I'm pretty proud of . I have not had a single penalty in 3 years (9 seasons if you do the math). The last penalty I had was for covering the puck in the crease when a player on the other team faked out our goalie just to be stopped by my stick. This past season I was the only player in the top 5 in scoring with 0 penalty minutes.


-AJ

1\20-1\22 2008

I couldn't think of a creative title, so that is what I came up with. Sunday we went to Church and afterwards went to lunch. That night we played some Bubble Boy table hockey until 11:00 or so at night. The next day (monday 1\21) I woke up to the smell of Pancakes and Sausage. Soon after breakfast we headed down to the rink where we were able to get a good 2 hours of playing time in before it started to rain. Today nothing special has happened so far. I still need to do some chores and stuff. I also need to clean the house up for company tommorow when the Red Wings take on the Ducks. But before that game its Wings vs. Kings tonight. Should be a good one!



-AJ

So much to say, so little time to say it

Wow, I didn't realize it had been over a month since I updated this blog, so much to catch up on, lets see how I do. The Season ended off great for our team, after being 1-3-0 when we named our captain, we quickly moved to 3-4-1 at the end of the season. My last two games of the season were a couple of my best. Lets start with game 6. I started the game with a quick 2 goals heading into the second period. I got one in that period. A little bit of useless information is that my best two periods are always my 1st and 3rd periods. So headed into the 3rd I already had a hat trick, so what more can you do? I ended up scoring a goal and notching one assist early in the period. I wasn't paying to much attention to the scoreboard until I had that assist and when I looked up we were up 10-3. Its always nice to be up by that much. So being down by 7 what does the other team do? That's right, they pull their goalie. I was able to knock the puck off the stick of the eventual leading scorer and bank it off both posts and into the net for my 6th point of the game (5 goals and 1 assist). We ended up winning the game by a final score of 12-4. Going into game #8 we were obviously the underdog playing the 7-0 undefeated team in the division. I was able to get one assist in the game. Down 5-4 heading into the last few minutes we were all almost out of hope. So we were lucky enough to put another one up on the board and tie it 5-5. We were going to do a shootout, but the other team did not want to, so onto overtime it is. We spent almost all of overtime in their zone only to come away with a tie. 5-5 was the final score, but at least we soiled their perfect record. So if you do the math, 8 games in a season and we just finished game #8 you will arrive at the conclusion that it was now playoff time! We were playing the same team we beat 12-4 in the first round of the playoffs. So to start the game off they scored almost instantly. Towards the end of the 1st I had yet another quick two goals. Fast forward to the end of the game, because I can't remember to much more of the game. We won 10-7, but the score does not show how much we dominated. I walked away from the game with 5 goals and 2 assists. Probably my best playoff game ever! So we made it to the championship game against a very good team. This team was very smart and had great puck control. We jumped off to an early lead with an assist from guess who? Dissapointingly, that luck ran out quickly, we lost the game 8-2 and I had 2 assists. My best playoffs as far as I can remember notching 5 goals and 4 assists for a total of 9 points.

But what did I get on the season?

Now today hits. For those of you that don't know, we are no longer attending Calvary Chapel of Fullerton, because it is to much of a hassle to get down there on a Sunday morning and when we get back it is already afternoon. I will miss the fun times I had there with all of the youth leaders.

Anyways, we are now attending Village Bible Church in Garden Grove, so we had a new members class today. That started at 8:00 A.M. I had Hockey closing ceremonies at 10:00 so we had my assistant coach pick me up and take me there, because my parents had to be at the Church until 12:00 P.M. for the meeting. I am going to have to do the rest at another time with the Youth Pastor.

Okay, onto closing ceremonies. We get there and its Big Gay Soccer Day(Soccer Tournament) at the park, so there was absolutely no parking. We were luck enough to find a spot. When we got there I was placed on cone patrol, so I had to put cones wherever there was an empty spot. I was told to cheat a little bit and put cones in places where it said no parking and even next to a few parking spots where there was not a marked spot (ironically thats one of the spots where we parked). So when people left the lot we placed a cone in the spot they had just left and when there was no movement we went up to the front of the lot. When at the front of the lot we asked people what they were there for. It went sort of like this.

Are you here for Soccer?

-Yes

Sorry the lot is full

And when they'd say now, then we'd pick up some cones and let them park there. Lots of people were greatful.......well at least the ones that were there for hockey were.

So onto the cermony itself. We finally got a trophy with the Village Idiots Franchise as it has come to be known. So that's always nice. But before they anounced the trophies or raffle prizes they put up the scoring chart! I ran over to go check it and the scorers were as follows

1. #27 20's and the 9 -28 points
2. #10 Bloodline-our team - 25 points
3. #55 I cant remember their team name-23 points
4T #19 I cant -22 points
4T #14 ME!!! - 22 points with 12 goals and 10 assists!!!

So there you have it, my most assists in a single season in quite some time. A top 5 finish in scoring is never bad. Including the playoffs I had 17 goals and 14 assists for 31 points. I know you don't care, but as far as my rough estimation goes (excluding playoffs of course). I currently have 295 career goals, 5 more for the mile stone.

And ontop of that I won the grandprize in the raffle! A $50 shaft that my dad was going to buy for me, but I had him buy the neighbors used iPod instead. The used iPod broke and thanks to Apple Care became a Brand New 30 Gig iPod!!! Thanks Apple Care!

We also had an allstar game today that I got to play in. I had 2 goals and 4 assists in that. Those are also always fun. I can't wait until next season, it should be fun. I will try to update this blog more then once a month from now on, sorry about that.


Sorry for the longgggggggg read.


-AJ