She's HOME!!!

My baby is back. She had a great time. Made tons of friends and only got sad once. She was happy to see me though and is glad to be home!

In other news, the Princess has spent much of the last two days being sick. Sick enough that I missed Generations for the first time ever. This is the 4th year and I had not missed a day. They went on without me, of course, but I'm pretty sure they missed me just a little!
The Princess seems to be feeling a bit better tonight. i hope it sticks. she has been freaking out all day about maybe having to miss school!

Mark will be home tomorrow afternoon, hooray! He woke to a mouse in his cabin this morning chewing in a granola bar! Ewwwwwwwwww!!!!!

Football-The Flag Edition-Week 2

I'm happy to report there were no headsets in evidence with this week's opponent! We won again, by an exorbitant amount even though score is not officially kept. The only bummer was that we were told to be there at 7 for pictures, which they didn't end up taking until 7:40. We are tired!

He Made It Out Alive!

My husband went into the Grand Canyon on the south rim at 6:15 this morning and made it across and out on the north rim at about 8:00 tonight. An hour or so later than planned, but he made it! Now if I could just hear from my daughter I'd be thrilled! I don't think in her whole life I've gone so long without talking to her. And I'm sure she's not happy about it, but my guess is she has no cell phone service where she is. :::sigh:::

Friday night Football-Week 5

All good things must come to an end.
Final Score:

Us-7 Them-23

We were outplayed tonight, but the teenager did a great job, played a ton and had his name announced 3 times. Once as part of the "monster defensive line". Once as "Hit hard at the line by number 72, The teenager!" And once because for the first time in the announcer's 14 year history at our school, someone won the 50/50 raffle twice in a row. My mother. "Grandmother of High school football player number 72, the teenager!"

No pictures again as Mark has the camera, but I may add some from the school web site after they are posted next week. Now I'm off to bed as FE's game was moved from noon to 8 AM with team pictures at 7!!!

Bah! Humbug!

I'm feeling a little grumpy today. My darling husband is off to hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim with his dad and brother. He's really been training so hard for this and I'm excited for him BUT it's also a super busy weekend. The teenager has football tonight, FE has practice and SB is leaving on a church retreat. FE's practice is at exactly the same time as SB is leaving so I had to enlist help from my mom to take him since SB wants me with her. Then we race to the teenager's game. Tomorrow is early practice for the teenager and FE's game and Sunday is Generations and church which I might not normally go to when Mark was out of town and we had already been there for Generations, but SB is coming back then and I'll have to be there for her. I already feel really exhausted and I don't sleep when Mark is out of town anyway. Pity party for me!lol!

In good news, SB was cast in The Snow Queen as a Maiden. It's really fun that she'll have danced every villager role after this year's shows. Such a chronicle of growing!

And three two weeks from tomorrow we leave for Disneyland! Woohoo! Now THAT I am excited about!

Football-The Flag Edition

Yesterday was FE's first football game. He plays flag football with the YMCA. Now, I am the first to admit, I generally take my sports pretty seriously. As in I can tell you where the teenager's team is ranked in their division and by which newspaper. I can cheer with the loudest of them. I question officiating. But this? this is YMCA flag football. For 9-12 year olds. It's been several years since we've played YMCA sports, but prior to our break, the teenager played for 10 seasons and SB for one. Mark coached every single one of those teams. He's unable to coach at the point, but the coach FE has is really awesome and laid back. As you must be at this level.

Well, the coach from the other team? And the parents? Oh. My. Gosh. I knew we were in trouble when the coaches walked up with headsets on. Headsets for gosh sakes. To talk to each other. On the field. And a playbook 10 inches thick. And separate coaches for offense and defense. My brother and I were dying laughing. I mean, the fact that I didn't fall off of my chair is really remarkable. And then? Once the game started? They were obnoxious. They complained to the ref that one of the boys was too tall to be 12, that our coach was subbing too many players at a time, too many men in motion. Seriously? The wife of the coach was looking up things in the rule book because she thought we were breaking too many rules. And another dad from that team, was walking up and down the sidelines taking notes. You would think, the way these people were acting, that all the college scouts in the state would be skipping high school football this week and heading straight for the YMCA flag football field. I am so not kidding. The ball was too slippery, the ground was too wet, the jerseys were too close in color so their kid couldn't know who to throw, and on and on and on. After I finished laughing, I was so thankful that we ended up on a team with an extremely laid back coach. And in the end, even with all their obnoxiousness, we won, by more than should be allowed in this type of game. Since they didn't score at all.

FridayNight Football-Week 4

This week's edition of Friday night football is brought to you a day early by Yom Kippur. No pictures because FE also had football practice and SB had cheer, so the afternoon and evening were crazy. But Final Score:

Us: 32 Them 13.

The teenager got a TON of playing time until the other defense figured out how to stop him. He's too big and strong for them to actually block against, so they went after his knees. They went directly for his ankles and knees to bring him down once they couldn't stop him any other way. There was one scary moment when he took longer than I would have liked to get up off the ground, but he was fine. I think too he was exhausted as it was a busy game for our defense!

Anyway, we're 4-0 now. After last week's game we were ranked number 5 in our division, which coming off of last years 0-10 record is looking pretty good!

The rest of the weekend is crazy as well! Tomorrow night is our skate night fundraiser, of which I am in charge. Saturday is FE's first football game and a date night with my hubby and Sunday SB auditions for The Snow Queen. Lots of fun stuff! Hope your weekend is lovely as well!

Bad Day

I'm bleeding money right now, and the other bodily fluids flying around my house (from people and animals!) are driving me insane. I have been crying most of the day. Sometimes it just feels like I can't win. And my troubles are relatively minor. I know there are people dealing with far worse things. But, sometimes? I need to be able to have my own little pity party. So I am. Bah!

Cool Air!

As Karin mentioned yesterday, the air has changed. It feels like fall. We've got doors open this morning to let the fresh air in. and my kids? Some of them are wearing sweatshirts. Since, you know, it's 64 degrees!lol!

Lessons Learned...

I think it's hard to be a 15 year old kid and make decisions that you cannot possibly realize the importance of in the future. The teenager played football his freshman year, but really had enough and had no desire to play his sophomore or junior years. I would have preferred he play, but he didn't think he was good enough and really disliked the coaches. I think now he regrets that decision. He's been getting a lot of playing time, but is not a starter. The boys who have been together for four years are mostly starting, although there are a couple of kids who have been standing on the side lines for 4 years, who really still get no playing time. I think the teenager is quite blessed to be getting as much as he's getting, but also, since three weeks ago we didn't know if he'd be able to play at all, I feel considerably lucky to be seeing him on the field period. I'm sure it's frustrating for him. He's huge, and he's really very good. Good enough that his coaches told me to make sure to register him with the NCAA clearinghouse so that college coaches can talk to him. They think with his size and grades and ability, he just might have a shot at a scholarship. We'll see how his knees hold up, and athletic scholarships are few and far between, but the thought is nice! I think he's learned a hard lesson though. That maybe sometimes we need to do things that seem terrible at the time so that we can have a better future. Tough lesson.

Friday Night Football-Week 3

Final score:

Us-45 Them-0

Good game. Our first away game. The teenager didn't get much playing time until the end of the third quarter, but played the entire 4th quarter offense and defense. He opened a hole for our final touchdown and made a couple of great tackles.

The other school, which I shall not name, had the worst sportsmanship I've ever seen. Yelling horrible things and booing our cheerleaders when they went to the other side at half time, as is customary. Our crowd has never booed opposing team cheerleaders when I've been there. These people were awful. So bad that one of their players got EJECTED from the game. And? After that he threw his helmet when he went off the field. He's really lucky the refs didn't see that!

I Love Teacher Inservice Days!

No school for my three youngest today. Woohoo! A perfect end to a nearly perfect week. My two youngest charges have been on vacation most of the week, so I've had the week off from them. I haven't been home much, but have enjoyed breakfast with friends and working in the Princess' classroom and lunch out with friends for her birthday! Today we're headed to have pizza and play games with one of the Princess' friends who is with us for the day. We've also got football tonight and FE has his first flag football practice of the season! He's never played before but is soooo excited. Watching his brother play has really made him energized for football. Tomorrow the grandparents are headed over for dinner to celebrate with the Princess, and Sunday I have a lunch date with a good friend. A busy, but fun weekend! Hope yours is the same!

It's Over

But what a party! 40 teenaged football playing boys, 3 coaches, two extra parents, plus the other 5 of us. The chili with mashed potatoes was actually not bad at all, but boy am I glad I cooked because there was no way the chili would have been enough. I used 5 1/2 pounds of pasta, 5 pounds of meat, and 3 48 oz jars of sauce. I have enough left to maybe feed my kids lunch tomorrow. Maybe. They LOVED the spaghetti and even made a good dent in the chili. They also ate almost 10 pounds of potatoes, 2 bags of salad, a pound of cheese, and a ton of cookies. They all walked out groaning about how stuffed they were and how great the food was. Even the coaches. They were in and out in less than an hour and every single boy and coach said thank you on their way out! Polite! Now they're all at the JV game together, probably still groaning!lol!

Ack!

It is the tradition of the varsity football team at the teenager's school to do a team dinner every Thursday night. This is just for the boys and their coaches, but it's about 45 people. Sign-ups happened at a meeting at the end of the season last year, so I missed them since the teenager wasn't playing then. Well, apparently they were unable to fill all 10 slots. It is customary for a family to provide all of the food and the home for the dinner. One family was able to provide food, but since they have a son who plays JV football on Thursday nights, they were unable to host at their home. Which is where we come in. A couple of weeks ago, the coordinator called and asked if we would be able to provide the home for the event. I asked a few questions about what would be required and then said yes. It seemed easy enough. Until the person providing the food never called until two days ago. And when she did, and told me what she was making (chili and mashed potatoes), I was a little heart sick. See, as anyone who knows me in real life knows, I take my hosting responsibility very seriously. I want everyone here to be happy and leave well fed and content. I know my own teenager would not be eating the food she is providing, and I am guessing at least half of the other boys won't either. So, last night I decided I need to cook something as well. The teenager said spaghetti, which is relatively easy, even for a crowd, so that's what it is. I also got some other things to go with the chili to make it more palatable for teens, like tortilla chips and cheese. So this dinner, which I only had to provide a house for, has ended up costing me a small fortune in food, paper goods and beverages. And now I have to cook! Oh well, I am grateful that I have the money to spend and the house to fill. But you should be praying for me anyway!

Happy Happy Birthday Baby!

My Princess is 6 years old today! We had a great, but very busy day. The Princess is happy though, and the festivities have just begun! We are so blessed to have our sunshiny girl!

Friday Night Football-Week 2

Final Score:
Us- 42 Them-32

The teenager got a boat load of playing time tonight. He had some awesome blocks, knocked a bunch of guys down, stopped a scoring drive, made a tackle that he should be credited for in the stats for this game, ran his butt off and played HARD! He was getting high fives from coaches when he came off the field. And? To make it even better, not only was his usual cheering section there (the 5 of us plus my mom and brother and FIL) BUT, his junior high math teacher, who is SB's teacher now, came to the game just to see him play. And he couldn't stop talking about what a great player the teenager is. AND? My mom won over $200 dollars in the 50/50 raffle!lol!

Regrets...

Last night was Junior High curriculum night at the school my three youngest attend. The four teachers each spoke about what they would be doing in the classroom this year, but also about how they feel about junior high aged kids. How much they love this age. How they understand the physiology of this age group. How this is the second largest growth spurt in a human being's life, second only to ages birth to two. And I cried. I knew all of these things, but still it made me cry. I cried because for the teenager this junior high experience was awful. It was awful because the teaching staff in place at that time (minus the one still there) did not understand the dynamics of teaching this age. Thought that mentally and psychologically beating the kids up was the best way to get what they wanted from them, which was students prepared beyond all measure for high school. They got that. Surely the teenager did not even have to open a book his freshman year of high school. He had already learned everything they were teaching in the honors classes. But, at what cost? I lost my child for the better part of two years. Lost him to a lack of self-esteem and a lack of belief in himself, brought on, in large part, by the crushing of his spirit by three of those teachers. My apprehension about my daughter staring junior high was due, in large part, to the experience we had before. I wish I had listened to my instinct five years ago and pulled my son out of this school and taught him at home. I really do. But, it was easier to just not make the waves. I didn't fight hard enough for my child. And my heart hurts for that decision.

Happy!

FE has been asking for a Nintendo DS Lite for ages, but I am not usually in favor of them because of the cost and the mindlessness of some of the games . SB had to save for ages to buy her own. BUT, when he saw this one and declared he wanted it because the game that came with it was like his bell work at school and he LOVES bell work? I couldn't resist. My mom and I bought it together for him. And, as you can see, he was thrilled!

Friday Night Football!

My teenager, number 72!

Blocking!

Victory!

The End!