You Don't See That Every Day

I talked to my son today. This in itself should not be cause for a blog post. But the fact that I haven't talked to him since Saturday morning is the reason behind it all. He is away at football camp. And I miss him. I miss any of my kids when they are away for more than one night. The Family just isn't right with someone missing. Normally, we are not "summer camp" people. It just doesn't fit with our family philosophy. And it usually costs an arm and a leg and an gallbladder procedure; of which we have had enough of. So when the football season started -which by the way, seems like they started a little early. Back in the day when I was in school football didn't start until August, but the boy has been out there since June! - so when it started, the note came around that there was a mandatory camp this week for this team. I resisted in my mind. Thoroughly. We told the Boy he had to come up with the funds because there was no way we could. And he did! Th...

 So I wrote earlier about it being someone's 14th birthday. Since it is 'party' year, the Boy invited a ton of his school friends to his party. We decided to have it in the church gym. Best party I have hosted - in terms of ease and clean up! We had 16 boys in the gym, for 3 hours, and no one got hurt! They played basketball most of the time, a little dodge ball, and even some jump-rope and hula hoop. These boys are crazy funny; we sure enjoyed just hanging out and watching our son and his friends.  Today the Boy had his end of year football awards party. The coaches called each boy up individually and talked about him and his growth over the season. So what was it that caught the coach's memory for Sam? The shake and bake moves? The hard tackling? Nah, coach said this Boy always was 1st. First on the field, first to the line, first, first. And I thought to myself, yep, he's been like that ever since his beginning in this world. He came into the w...

I've started and deleted this post too many times to count. I can't get quite the right words to come out, yet I am afraid that if I step away it won't get written. The afternoon was a lovely time spent with my girls at home doing our home stuff. And then we were off to the Boy's football game. Last night we had another long talk with him about goals and expectations and playing time. There was some frustration on his part. (And prayer for wisdom from us!) We didn't know what we would be seeing in today's game. But the game was more than we could ever imagine or dream of. I am so so glad his grandparents were able to come and see the Boy play this time. He was on fire! He tackled! He ran! He juked and left the defense standing! At one point he even tackled the quarterback and then helped him up after the whistle. For some reason the team wore different colored jerseys this time. So instead of looking for #22 we had to be on the lookout for #41. So were were w...

I thought I would post a photo for you of (some of) our replacement dishwasher(s). They are sure cuter than the model that broke. My son got his football jersey earlier this week. Of course the number has significance to him. I wasn't aware of 'who' at the time, but I have now been fully educated on it. (And yes, it has to do with a former OSU player.) So his first game was last night. A bright sunny very warm day greeted us at the field. We were the 'away' team, so we got to sit in the tiny grandstand without shade. I only stayed for the first half because of the girls. It was their first night back to Awanas and youth group, so we made sure to get home in time for some supper and to get to the church on time.  The Boy had a great game! He played linebacker (and maybe something else ... those terms are all a little 'fuzzy' in my mind.) And he got plenty of playing time; I was able to watch the game without cringing. For some reason it seemed...

And what a weekend it was! I had to spend all of yesterday just catching up on what I didn't get done on the weekend. It started Friday night with an auction and dinner out for me and G. A night out without the children ! Even though our kids don't attend the school that is part of our church, we went to the auction anyway and had a terrific time! There was a silent auction before the dinner and an oral auction afterward. I must have my father's genes in this area. I see an empty auction bid sheet and I feel bad; it looked so forlorn and lonely that I just have to put my number on it. Okay, so I didn't put it on all the empty ones, just the ones I might even be remotely interested in. And that is how I ended up with a Marie Callendar's pie; and tickets for an aquatic center for $6. Our anniversary date night is already planned too. G scored tickets to the symphony for a great price! On Saturday my baby girl got her first shoes. And she hates them. She has always ...

Football is a big deal in our house. If we wanted to have the means to do it, we would pay for cable just to watch football during the season. Thankfully our (financial) priorities are different than that, and we watch what we can on the basic TV. But today is different. Today there seems to be some big game between a team from our state and one from back east somewhere, or is it down south? Sad to say I don't know where Auburn is, and sadder to say, I might not look it up. So everywhere we go we see people wearing Oregon Ducks apparel. And all over facebook people I know from high school and church are cheering for the ducks. (Can Christians be Duck fans?) Notice I didn't mention anyone from my college cheering for the Ducks - yeah, because we went to the other school. The better school. And just because our football team didn't make it to these bowl games ... well we will always be Beaver believers. And I am sorry to say, I just can't root for that school. Ever. Sorr...

I have been away. That seems to be a common theme for this time in my life. Football dominated the weekend. There was a wedding. The next day was pumpkin carving day. My brother holds an annual carving party, dozens of friends and family coming to carve pumpkins. In the recent years a pumpkin rolling has been added to the list of events. We all stand at the top of the woods and take turns rolling. This year we even had a King crowned - the one whose pumpkin went the farthest won the crown. It just happened to be my 26-year-old nephew.

Last night was The Boy's first flag football game of the season. Yes, most football fans get going in the fall. But we have to be true to our strange selves and get excited about football in the summer. The city league plays for 6 weeks starting last night, running through the month of July. It makes for a crazy schedule, but it doesn't last too long. Anyway, the first play of the game, the ball sails into our boy's hands, and he takes off running; he thought he had been "tackled" - ie, his flag taken off, but he wasn't, so he kept on running. It was a beautiful thing to see. I tried very hard to control myself, stay in my seat and just cheer wildly, instead of jumping up and dancing on the field. Of course, in the excitement, I didn't take a picture. And the last play of the game - the one where I was running the Princess to the bathroom - the boy made a beautiful interception catch. It was such a fun night! These 3 ya-hoos decided to have their own fun. ...