I was reminded

A coworker of mine reminded me that I haven't blogged about winning a photo contest in September. 

So here I am, tooting my horn.  

The department I work in at the hospital has held a photo contest for the past couple of years.  This year I entered a few photos, including the one above, with which I won.

I'm pretty proud of myself. Its one of my favorite pictures of Adam.

Happy Turkey Day!

Otherwise known as get up early on your day off and cook day.

I hope everyone has had a nice, warm, filling, happy, stress free (or mostly stress free) day with good food and good family (and/or friends).

We hosted and had Barb and Alan (Robert's parents) and our new neighbors (that are awesome) over for dinner.  My inlaws inlaws (Alan's parents and his grandma) were supposed to join us, but a surprise snow fall and a surprise flu bug kept them home. 

The turkey cooked faster than it was supposed to so my relax meandering plan for cooking dinner turned into get everything done ASAP! But it all worked out well and everything was soooo good. That's right, I rock Thanksgiving dinner. Booyah!

I'd like to share this poem/prayer that I recieved in a letter from my employer that seems to really fit the holiday.

Acknowledgement.
I wonder if the river ever despairs of its downward destiny,
and harbors a secret desire to flow uphill.
I wonder if winter yearns to be summer,
or if a flower wishes it could bloom out of season.
I wonder if silence would like to shout,
or if the sky wants to fall down and become earth.
I wonder if the bird longs to become a rabbit,
or if the fish ever dreams of walking on the land.
I wonder if the mountains envy the valleys,
or if snow secretly covets the warmth of June.
I wonder if the moon complains that it is not the sun,
or if the stars envy the earth.
I wonder if rain prefers a cloudless sky,
or if grass tires of green and hopes for blue.
I wonder if spring really likes growing,
or if fall rages against its colorful dying.
I wonder if the world ever sighs after more than it is...just like you and I.
Spirit of life, we struggle against our limitations. 

Teach us to accept them.
~Amen

Final games - A tomb of a blog post...

I totally lied in my last post. There were also games on 10-16-10. They all just start blurring together.  It's madness I tell you, MADNESS!

I really enjoy watching the kids in sports and REALLY REALLY enjoy the benefits they get from them, but at the end of the season I.am.sports'd.out. I'm tired of practice schedules and game schedules and running around. I'm especially tired of rushing to get dinner done and in them in the 30 minutes I have from the time I get off work and the time it is too late for them to eat because they need to digest a bit or they will end up puking during their practice. And dinner after practice just isn't an option for us. Late dinners interfere with bedtimes and we are strong believers that kids should have VERY reasonable bedtimes. This year Carus graduated from 8 pm to 8:30 pm and Adam from 8:30 to 9 pm. That way they receive all the rest their growing bodies and minds (especially the minds) need and they do well behaviorally and academically in school and out of school the next day. It helps mommy not go insane.  It's also nice to have some alone time with Robert in the evenings.

SIDE BAR:  Forgot to do a Adam's broken tooth update!

So update on Adam's tooth - all gooood news.  It's a baby tooth that is broken because it is getting pushed out by an aggressively growing in adult tooth. All looks good and, even though I can never get the kid to brush his teeth properly or even just brush them, he has NO cavities. YAY!

10/16/2010
Adam's game: won 2 touchdowns to 0
Carus's game: lost 3 to 1





HA! Kid got air!

10/23/2010
Carus's final game
Carus (last game) lost 6-2.  They were a VERY tough team and we did amazing against them. There was passing (which was something the girls had trouble with), but these guys were just a bit better than us. 



Adam lost 4-1.


10/30/2010
Adam's final game

We played the Jerky Dad team again, but Jerky Dad was behaving and things felt a little less aggressive. 

Unfortunately we lost 3 touchdowns to 1.



It was raining so there were a lot of times the boys on both sides dropped the ball, but occasionally the ball was stripped - this time my son did it. Adam is in the gold jersey on top of the kid in the black that just lost that ball in front of his helmet. The rest of the sequence to that play can be found on my Flickr.

Football 2010

And all the soccer pictures I uploaded are here:

Soccer 2010

I might add more pictures from the games to those folders over time, but not sure when or how many. I try to avoid pictures of other peoples' kids (that are very identifiable)...

Sorry, no pictures for you!

Okay, I'm a slacker and because of it we are going to go back in time for the games that I haven't said anything about yet.

Also, I'm sick. So I'm using it as an excuse.  Carus brought home the death cold TWO weekends ago and I have been fighting it off since. I lost and now my lungs hurt. I need to cough it out, but don't wanna cause that hurts and I don't actually want to succeed in dislodging my lungs from my body, but anyhoo...

This is going to be a long post, but I'll try to keep things as short as possible. And I felt bad about the no picture thing so you'll get some. HA! NOT LAZY!

But I'm not changing the title. Crap, back to lazy.

GAMES!!!

10/02/2010

Adam - Lost 2 touchdowns to 1



Gramma Barbara, Carus, and Daddy all ready for Adam's game.



Carus had two games.
1st game: Lost (don't remember the score)
2nd game: Lost 3 to 2






GAMES
10-09-2010

Rain rain rain! IT RAINED. And we got wet. But not as wet as the kids.

Carus's game - They won 3 to 1.

Soggy Carus



Adam's team won 4 touchdowns to 1. (Adam is 87)





Rain was our good luck charm. YAY Rain!

K, I know there is one more game for Carus and one more game for Adam to go through, but I haven't even organized those pictures and my head is pounding so without further ado...

TOODLES! I'm going to hit the NYQUIL!

Game 10-13-2010

Wednesday game

Sacking the quarterback.  He's done it before, but this is the first time I've been able to catch it (clearly) with my camera.  I even got a sequence!

Getting past the guy who was blocking him.


Hitting the guy with the ball.  You can't see Adam really well here.  He is on the side of the quarterback.

Holding on.  Adam is on his knees and trying to pull the guy down.



Still hanging on.  See Robert in the background?  Gray shirt, red hat, sunglasses.  He was holding the down score keeper tracker thing (do not know what it is called).


I'm not sure if Adam turned him to help bring him (QB) down, another player turned him to bring him down, or he (QB) turned to try to shake Adam and team.  Either way this is where he started to come down.


Adam's on the ground, you can see the 8 on his jersey.  He's still hanging on.


And now he gets to be on the bottom of the pile.

When Adam was on the field he seemed to be lined up to tackle a kid called Big Jake (name changed to protect the innocent).  He got his Big nickname because of his size.  That's him against Adam in the picture below.  He is a 5th grader and is much bigger than Adam.


Here Adam is getting by Big Jake, which he was able to do regularly.



Big Jake has a jerky dad.  Robert was holding the down flag thing yesterday so he was on the couch/team side of the field.  They keep the parents on the other side so that kids don't have to listen to parents comments because sometimes those comments aren't too nice.  Robert was saying every time Adam got passed Big Jake, Jerky Dad would be yelling at his son that he was a wuss and #87 was smaller and shouldn't be able to get by him and blah blah blah.  Basically it took all Robert had not to smack the dude up side his head.

And this isn't the first time Jerky Dad has been a little aggressive.  A few weeks ago Jerky Dad ran onto the field during a game to yell at another kid on the other team. A grown man felt the need to yell at an 11/12 year old kid (5th/6th grade) JUST because he had a good move, probably getting by Big Jake and that made Jerky Dad mad.  The organization suspended Jerky Dad and his son from a few games. 

I don't think Big Jake should be punished for his dad's behavior - only if his is reprehensible, which according to Adam, can be - and I would have liked to see Jerky Dad expelled from all games, etc. But eh, what are you going to do... 

I don't think we will play this team again, but if we do, I hope Jerky Dad stays on his best behavior.  I hope he does for any other teams they play against too.

In this picture below, they have Big Jake (78) and another boy on Adam.  I didn't get the picture, because the sun was going down and my camera had to think longer between pictures, but Adam did get through them.


Also, last night after practice (Thursday night) we found out that Adam broke his tooth, possibly at this Wednesday game... He says it doesn't bother him at all and it isn't hurting, but off to the dentist we will go. And we may end up getting another mouth guard. I've prepared myself for injuries, it's a tough sport.  I guess we've been lucky that other than some bruises and sore muscles we haven't had any injuries, but I'm a little frustrated that his tooth is broken.  I think it is because I've prepared myself for a broken bone and I'm expecting that.  Every time he holds his arm or rubs his wrists after a play, or limps off the field, I prepare myself for x-rays and broken bones - but none. HA! Strong bones!  Oh wait, teeth are a bone. Well there ya go, our first broken bone.

Wednesday games & football picture

There are three other teams in the league and Adam's team has started playing games against them on Wednesday's. But first - posed football picture.



Our first interleague game was 09/29/2010 - got some fun sun flare...  Made it hard to see the game though.



It was 3 touchdowns to 2 - the other team won.  But still fun to watch and they have fun playing. You can't see Adam's number in this picture, but he is almost directly aross from the ball with the long black socks and black sleeves. 


That's Adam pushing on the other boy. He is number 87, you can sort of see the number... sometimes the easiest way to pick him out is by his socks or shoes or shoe/sock combo.



Second game was 10/06/2010



It was 1 touchdown to 0 - the other team won



Stay tuned for games from 10/02/2010 and 10/09/2010 (Adam and Carus) and 10-13-2010 (Adam)

Games 09-25-10

Adam's football game 09-25-2010



Early morning game - warm up started at 8 - and VERY foggy.  The fog lingered the whole game and there were actually a few points were we couldn't see the boys at the other end of the field. 



See how far off they look, I'm only about 20-30 yards from them.


I'm pretty sure we won this game, but I don't remember the score.



The fog cleared up by Carus's game. And we drove into the next town over which I don't think got any fog. It was actually pretty warm.



They won, but it was close. Again I don't remember the score. I need to start doing these posts sooner after the game... I want to say it was 2 to 1 but again.... ugh!