Getting a little Intense at Europeans!

Rain, rain, go away!  Come again another day!

First day of European track finals were awesome.  Sam made it into all the finals- 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles and the mens 4x400m.

They got first in their heat with the 4x400m and were second overall. 

I was a little mad at this because I knew that they would end up medaling and since Sam was only the sub in for the first day would not get a medal despite helping get them to the finals!  I think I ranted about that one for a little while!  Especially since he had run it all year long.  Even when he wasn't officially in the race, the same guy would drop out every time and Sam would run it in his place- every time!  I was super unhappy that the other guy would get  a medal in the end even with all that supreme lack of effort!  See things were getting a little intense even on the first day.

Second day we noticed that Sam and his "girlfriend" were avoiding each other.  I asked him if they had broken up and he said, "apparently."  He didn't even know if they had for sure and why! Turns out it just has to do with Sam being too boy and not knowing anything about girl!  He rarely talks to anyone during meets of any kind.  He likes to focus and be in his head- think Michael Phelps with earphones on the entire meet.  Girl didn't understand that much, but dealt with it, because he would give her a smile or a laugh every once in awhile.  But since this was a two day event with a night in a hotel, I guess she figured there would be time to be a girlfriend.  Boy was she wrong!  At dinner, Sam decided to go talk to another girl (I know **GASP**) and then when it was time to eat, he looked around and saw her surrounded by people.  He wasn't, as he told us, going to go push people out of the way to sit beside her so instead he sat down with the girl he had been talking with.  Yah, my son doesn't understand anything about girls- poor guy!  So day two started with a confused and sad Sam.  Sam was able to run his races before even more intensity started. 

He got 5th in the 300m hurdles and 7th in the 110m hurdles. 

Then the heavens open and poured a monsoon down 

on us.  The teams all went to wait in the gym while hail started along with the puddles of water coming from the sky.  We went to the commissary and when we came out the standing water on the ground was above our ankles and there was no sign of the sheets of rain letting up.  There were MP's out and cars flooded in the middle of the street.  

The MP's directed us to park in the farthest parking lot away from the high school gym, because there was too much water at the corner you needed to turn to go up to the gym, but the gym being uphill was definitely the better option for parking! So we pretended to head to the parking lot and then made for the corner.  Thankfully, we made it through the standing water at the corner and up the hill.  It was still quite the sprint to the gym.  My pants were completely sopping wet by the time I made it inside.  I looked like a drowned rat.  They still hadn't decided anything.  So I waited until they came back with the final decision to cancel the rest of Europeans.  There were some pretty upset people in that gym!

I ran back out into the pouring rain and got the family and we all sat around and waited until they had decided who won what.  They ended up using the best times of the year, including first day trials as the deciding factor on who got 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  The 4x400m boys team got a silver medal in the end and Sam got to be one of the medalies,  because the other kid hadn't run it any other time that year and because the semi-final run was their fastest time of the year.   So Sam went home with a silver medal, 5th, 7th, a monsoon and a broken heart all in his first year of running track.  

Homecoming 2015- or - Sam's first official Date

Homecoming in Germany isn't quite the same as in the states. 

1.  First of all, it's not on your first official game at home (you know, your Home coming!) Ya, but I think that's mostly true in the states as well, now, because someone has to have their first game at home, right?  And who wants to have Homecoming the first weekend of the football season.  No one!
2.  Also, there are no parades.  I tried to get one going, as I was the cheerleading coach at this time, but with the approval we would need from the Garrison commander and the need for the MP's to block traffic and on and on they said "maybe next year."  Well  thanks- I won't be here next year!  I personally think the Garrison commander would have been fine with it, but sometimes getting a meeting with the commander to discuss something is not so easy!
3.  The king/queen, and court are announced at the pep rally and only the pep rally and there is no running them around the field in fancy cars during half time.
4.  The games are played on Saturdays, because of the travel time involved in getting to your opponent and so the Homecoming game is played Saturday afternoon, so that the players have time to get to the dance that evening.  Even then, it's a pretty quick turn around!
5.  Most of the kids can't drive (you have to be at least 17 and have a valid stateside license to drive in Germany.  Since the majority of people have a 3 year rotation here and most parents try to keep their child from having to only do their senior year here, the kids are generally here from 15-18 years or 13-16 years old.  That equals= not a whole lot of kids with driving ability), so going to and from the dance are a constant stream of parents, dropping off, picking up.
6.  Germans don't make corsages well, so there is always someone making extra money by making them- different clubs, random individuals, etc.  Some kids just don't even bother with them and then there are people like me that find it on Youtube and DIY it!

Other than that it is still the usual display of raging teenage hormones and loud, obnoxious music that very few people actually enjoy.

I got to go to the pep rally the day before,  because I was also on the homecoming committee for the football team.  We had 12 Varsity and 12 JV players hand out flowers to the 12 Varsity and 12 JV cheerleaders and thank them for all they did for the players.  Sam forgot his jersey, like he seemed to do all the time this year, so he quickly borrowed someones, so he could be one of the guys giving out the flowers.  Afterwards the girls kept asking me who it was that gave them their flower- but of course I wasn't paying attention to who was giving whom a flower.  I was just trying to make sure it all went off smoothly.  The girls really liked it though and that was what was important.  Afterward the cheerleaders did their performance, the Juniors and Seniors gave their powder puff performances- meaning the boys dressed up in the cheerleading uniforms and did a dance to a song.  Some of them took the girls flowers to use in their dance and never gave them back.  The performances were hilarious and the Juniors definitely, hands down won, but of course the whole thing is rigged and the Seniors walked away with the trophy.  The pep rally was the most fun part of the whole thing.  I have got to make sure I am on that committee again!

The JV lost their game and the Varsity won theirs.  I helped pin flowers onto all the dads of seniors for football, cheerleading and the band.  I did a horrible job.  I only learned how to pin a flower onto a lapel afterwards, when I pinned the boutonnière I had made on Sam.  Guess I should have Youtubed it!

Sam got face masked in the game and came out with a scratched eye.  That kid messed up my Homecoming pictures- which one was it, which one.  I will kick him in the neck!

 And I can do it too.  You know how I know?  I kicked Sam in the neck in front of the school!  He would not ask Sara out. 

 He kept avoiding it.  He said she kept getting away from him, or he couldn't find a convenient time.  I wasn't convinced though, because they go to church together and are in seminary every morning together. I told him it wasn't nice to make a girl wait until the last minute, because she had to buy a dress.  So I told him if he didn't ask her that day I was going to kick him.  As I was picking him up from football, I asked, "Did you ask her today?"  He said, "no, she disappeared."  So I kicked him- right in the neck.  He knew the consequences!!  His friends just died!  At home I laid down the law.  "No asking tomorrow, no wrestling!"  He knows I don't like wrestling, so he knew I was serious.  Plus, I just proved that I would kick him in the neck with all his friends watching if he didn't do what I told him to do.  The next day she disappeared again on him.  So he found her at lunch and had to ask her in front of all of her friends.  I had scared him enough that he was willing to do it.

Of course she said yes, because I had already texted her mom and asked if she would say yes if Sam asked.  I didn't want to pressure him too much if there was a chance she would say no.  That really would have been mean!  He had a cute little football that said, "want to tackle Homecoming with me" on it, but he lost it, so he just asked- lame!

As far as I know they all had a great time and had lots of fun!

When Sam got home, though, he said, "That was a lot of work.  I don't think I am going to do that again."  Yep- that was a whole lot of work to get dressed up and dance a couple dances with a girl.  Crazy kid!!  He just doesn't understand the power of a throat kicking mom!

Shock and Awe!!!

I am just not up to doing the Hawaii trip, yet, so instead I wanted to write about our latest experience. We were asked several months ago by our bishop to be Ma's and Pa's for the upcoming youth conference which was to be a mock Pioneer trek this year. They do this every 4 years to help the youth appreciate their pioneer ancestors as well as their parents today and to find strength they didn't know they had. We were a little reluctant at first. 1) I was worried about our children for the three days we would need to be gone and 2) neither of us had worked with the youth in this area and didn't know much about them. The bishop said he was planning to help us find places for the children and that it didn't matter if we didn't know the kids as we would have a mixture of youth from all over the stake. The planning meetings were time consuming and not very convenient, the actually trek was just 6 days after we got back from Hawaii and I had to sew my pioneer costume to go. We also ended up buying about $200 worth of stuff to go on the trek. It was a late night trying to get ready, a very early morning where we got lost and didn't get there until an 1 1/2 late (turns out everyone else had just been standing around doing nothing the whole time anyway), and it was the hottest day of the year so far. I did not start out with a very positive attitude, but in the end it was the best experience ever. We truly enjoyed ourselves and loved working with the youth.
The group we had looked a little on the less muscular side, but in the end their heart, their spirituality, their strength of spirit and a few hidden muscles made our group the best one out there by far. Rob took us and the kids up the hill to the shade as we waited and got to know each other. We went down the hill to build the handcart and brought it up the hill empty. The kids decided right then and there that we must be the smartest parents of the whole group. The most muscular of the group said in his testimony at the end of the trek that he looked at our group and thought he felt sorry for them, until his name was called last and then he wanted to cry. At this point he had decided that he would just get a few more muscles then he planned on this trip and tried to have a more positive attitude. He ended up being the person we chose to be our Big Brother. He also said that he was wrong and that we were definitely the best group out there.
We had 5 girls and 4 boys. 2 of the boys weren't so much on the helping side, so our girls shouldered a big load and they did a great job!
The first day was the longest and hottest. The path was mostly through shaded areas, but also mostly hilly. Because we were already at the start of the hill, we got to be the first cart in the line. This was nice, because carts got confused, broken, took their own breaks, etc along the way. Our group moved out, trying in vain to stay up with the trail boss. We did about 1/4 of that long day out of site of anyone. We also did a lot of waiting to get the other carts caught up to us.
The first day was also the Women's pull. This is suppose to show the girls the kind of power they have, prove to the boys that the girls were pulling and show the girls how much work the boys were doing. The last time they did this, they had about 14 kids(boys and girls) to a cart. This time there was 8-9(therefore, less girls per cart this year.) It was impossible for the girls to get the carts up the very steep, rocky, rutted hill they wanted them to without helping each other. Luckily, the girls figured this out all on their own, before anyone even tried or someone would have been injured for sure. They all hopped onto 4 wagons and pulled those up first. Closer to the top we saw at least 1/2 the boys picking blackberries and staring at the girls. They got a sever talking to by one of the pa's (we heard later on.) The boys were not allowed to talk to the girls, but they were allowed to help any way they could think of without actually touching the carts or girls. Some fanned them, one continued to pick blackberries for them to eat afterwards, a few, includind a couple of ours, started filling in a couple of the bigger ruts and picking out some of the bigger rocks. Most of the girls helped 2 or 3 wagons up the hill. Our group of girls helped with 5-6. They just kept running back down. One even got sick and we had to keep yelling at her afterwards to stop her from helping with ours. Five kids went to the hospital after that first day with heat exhaustion. None of them were from our group, thankfully.

We ended up 2 1/2 hours behind schedule that day. We didn't get into camp until 9:30 at night and had to set up, build a fire and make stew and biscuits on an open fire from scratch. This picture is actually from the second night making dinner- I couldn't take pictures in the pitch black that night!

The families were given nothing to eat on the way that day so everyone was hungry, but almost too tired to eat. Our family kept a positive, all be it exhausted attitude. They did what they had to, ate quickly and got ready for bed. Even still, we had 3 girls who huddled around the fire or the one candle we brought to try and read their scriptures. We slept under the stars that night with cows mooing right next to us.
The second day, the leaders realized that it had been too hard on the kids the first day, so they tried to shorten the trek by a couple miles. Unfortunately, after about 1/3 of the wagons got down a very steep hill they stopped us and told us the way was impassible and we would have to go back up the hill and continue the original way. I was not at all happy!! But those kids of ours, just said, "oh well" turned the cart around and muscled up the hill. The other carts sent some of their bigger kids down to help those who had to come back up, but our kids told them that they were fine and to go help the other carts. They truely were an inspiring group!
Before we got to camp that day it started to pour on us. Everyone pulled out the tarps and set up shelter as soon as we got into camp. It rained a couple more times that night. The trail boss told us where to stay each night- the first night we were right in the middle which meant we were bombared with smoke from all sides. Even if it hadn't have been pitch black, I wouldn't have been able to see with all the smoke in my eyes! So, the next day, we broke away from where he put us and went down the hill, right next to the stream, between two trees to set up our shelter. There were quite a few jealous individuals out there when they saw that. We played games, had a hoedown and watched a demonstation on blacksmithing. It was a good evening.
The next day we had a testimony meeting, where all but two of our kids got up. Our Big Sister was the first person to bear hers, in fact. I leaned over and told Rob, theirs the Relief Society President for the college ward she will go to (when she goes!) I never got up on that first fast and testimony meeting, when I went to college, because I always thought I would wait until the next time when there was less people getting up- but I also never got much of a calling. I was the hymnal passer-outer one year. Seriously, though, how else are they suppose to guage the youth, if they don't hear from them. I realize that know! One thing this definitely taught me was, Be a Part of Life. Don't be a Bystander. Get in there, get involved! Our kids all amazed us, because they did that! They were so outgoing, spiritually involved, quick, smart, full of strength, not overly worried about what others thought, comfortable with themselves! Amazing for teenagers, don't you think.
Shock and Awe was one of the family names we came up with. We also called ourselves the purple people eaters and we liked to tell the Sunbeams (the yellow team) that we were going to eat them! Just a little bit of shock and awe from our group!
It was a great experience and I am glad we got to participate. It has helped us grow! We were so thankful to the people that watched our real children for us, as well. Even when Max got so sick (Fever and congestion). Thank you, Thank you!