It's all about the sports in 'Murica

Max's football team he signed up for dissolved- not enough players.  I thought there were plenty of players!  He would have gotten to participate constantly!  Instead he was placed on a team that had played together for years and practiced about 25 minutes away.  When you have almost every day practices this really stinks!  Also they did a lot of Friday night lights and tailgating parties and other things to simulate high school football, but since we had a senior playing high school football we ignored all of those things.  I was either at Sam's game or working so I only got to see 2 of his games.  Poor Max.  He understood, he said.  He played a guard this year.

Joseph ran cross country after much harassing and arguments from us. 

Our cross country team is 1st or 2nd in the state depending on the year, so he was never going to make varsity.  Even the people on the JV team were running 18 minute 5K's, so he was on the C-team.  A lot of people are on C-team.  This is the land of the runner!

Samuel did his senior year on Football.  

 The team mom's made these for all the seniors.  There was a hook on the back for hanging balloons on game day!

He started out on kick off and kick off return team

He ran this ball back for almost 60 yards!

and as an alternate receiver, but since his coach never ever ever changes players, he didn't play receiver very often.  The coach kept trying him in various positions in practice.  He told him that he was too athletic to be sitting on the side lines.  He finally decided to put him in as a nose guard.  Yep all  5'8 140 pounds of him pushing against 250 pounders.  

They had specific plays they used him in.  He was supposed to do specific things, which he usually accomplished despite the huge guy in his way, but usually got crushed in the end.  

We eventually learned to sit away from the main crowd who were loud and rude and yelled a lot.  Our team isn't the greatest.  We have an amazing assortment of skill players!  They always review us well, because of this.  We also get 2 or 3 signed to college every year.  Unfortunately, we have very few big guys for our line (hence using Sam.) So in the end, our season isn't very long.  If we make play-off's we are out the first round.  We didn't even make play-offs this year.  We still got people signed to colleges, however.  When we moved we found out where the main players families sit- like the quarterback's family.  I always wondered if the mom could hear all those negative comments!   Nope!  She doesn't sit by the bench people and the B team families!  

I got slightly more involved this year- only slightly.   These women are a little over the top for me.  But I did help with Homecoming.  They did a great job!

This is Sam going to homecoming... by himself! 

It took almost the rest of the year for me to forgive his friends who caused the rift with the girls that ended with no one going except Sam on his own.  He did find friends there that he hung out for a little while.  

So much for Fall sports.  

Sam and I at the end of year banquet

Onward and upward!

Homecoming!!

We were killed- of course- but Sam got to play lots, because the other team kept making points and so he kept being put out on the kick return team! 

He also played on kick off team and linebacker and the linebacker played on the line.  No clue what was going on there!  They lost by less than the varsity did.  After the Varsity game, of course,  the "Our football team sucks!" statements started flying.  Emma pointed out that football is the only sport where people start saying that if they loose one game!  She's right.  They might say it in basketball, but other than that, can you imagine if the the volleyball lost one game and everyone started saying how bad they sucked, or cross country.  That one is hard to imagine because our cross country team has won every meet, both boys and girls for a couple years now.  But if they lost to a team once, can you imagine people going around saying, "man, our cross country team sucks!"  Nope, doesn't happen!

So... the cross country team won. 

Emma had her best race ever on that particular course- which is the hardest course in Europe.  I might point out that they won without trying.  They have all Europeans this weekend, so those that were going were either paired up with someone who was close to getting a varsity letter or just told to go slowly.  You could see who was paired up with whom, because the one was smiling and waving to the crowd and the other one was huffing and puffing and in pain.  Our fastest guy said he was going to run in the back.  I can't believe it, but he actually stayed in the back the entire time. I bet he has never run that slowly in his life!

Before the race, they gave out flowers to all the seniors.  I knew they were going to do a Senior recognition, so I made a little bouquet of flowers from the ones I had bought to make corsages with to give to Emma when they called her name.  Well they didn't call her name!  When they got to the R's it was obvious that they missed her.  At that point they called someone who was not actually a senior and so there was a little discussion going on.  That's when I piped up and yelled, "yes, but you forgot Emma.  Emma Kress is a senior."

So she got called up before they ended the calling up of seniors.  All the parents around me said, "good job, Mom," but I was afraid she was pretty upset and maybe embarrassed by me, so I handed the bouquet to Robert and told him to go give it to her.  They broke up and a whole bunch of girls surrounded Emma to give their sympathies.  That's when her Dad, who is always dashing this way, swooped in, told her that she was never forgotten in his book, gave her a kiss and the flowers and all the girls went "AWWWWW!"  Later we assured her that it was her baby face that made her look like she was much younger (they actually do have her down in the cross country files as a Junior) and that she would be thankful for that when she gets older.  Her coaches also apologized a couple of times, so I think she was good in the end.  It's just hard to be forgotten!

I made treats to be sold at the concession booth for the football game.

I made brownies and dirty white trash mix.  I put tags on them, so people knew that the brownies didn't have nuts in them and knew what the other stuff was.  Apparently the principle walked up and had an apoplexy about the Dirty White Trash labels.  They assured him that a white person made it, so it wasn't racist, but he made them take off the labels.  They said they still had people coming up and asking for the Dirty White Trash, however.  There was none left for me to take home.  The kids were not happy!

In the end, since I had to work at the concession stand for a while, I didn't have time to make the corsages.  My friend and Emma's friends mom, got the flowers and made most of them before I got home.  I ran over and finished helping her and then took them all over to the girls who were getting ready at one girls house.  I thought Emma's turned out perfect!

Emma was supposed to have a date, but his host family wouldn't let him come down because he had been down too often with other girls- he is an exchange student from Utah, that Emma met at a stake dance. He is coming down this weekend to make it up to her.

The girls were taking a really long time to get ready, but they were the same girls who had a tantrum that I would dare go to the Oktoberfest the same time as them and actually want to ride on the same train, so I decided to stay out of that mess.  The three that were ready were getting very antsy, but I told them to give them a little more time.  Finally I came up with a compromise that seemed to work- we took pictures with just the three then sent them on their way.

George, Emma and Mary Katherine 

The others came with one of their dads.  Apparently, I was still hated on.  They complained that I was trying to hurry them up.  Emma pointed out that I didn't want pictures of them, just of her- which is absolutely true and that I had been the one that had said to give them more time, but they said they were still going to be mad at me.  People will find a reason, no matter what you do- you just stay away from those people!!  

Emma had lots of fun at the dance by mostly staying away- she danced with the other two she went with and then found a couple boys to hang out with.  She also did some Yearbook Editor work.  She succeeded in getting two dates for this week with two different people that night and a birthday invitation to one of the other guy's birthday party. 

Sam is so sad that football is over now!  That Sunday we played football out back.

The little boys both learned how to throw much better and Sam had a great game with some friends.  It was beautiful weather.  I'm going to miss these days, as the weather turns cold.

What's Up with Us?

What have we been up to, lately?

  Same as usual in the Fall:

Soccer

Football

Sam lost his position as slot back because he couldn't practice on Sundays when all the running backs and receivers are suppose to have an extra practice.  He is now on the kick-off team, punt team and corner back or outside linebacker.  He comes home with a lot more bruises than he ever did before!  He has had swollen fingers at least 3 times this season.  I am not happy about this coach!  I told him he has to practice his catching the rest of the year so that he can play receiver or running back in high school.  No more of this defense stuff!  He says he likes defense.  He got three quarterback sacks in the last game so I guess he does a good job, but I'm not happy about it!

Football

Joe decided to do flag football this year.  It may be his last year of sports.  We might try some tennis or golf with him.  He just doesn't seem to like it that much once he gets going.  He always says he wants to and then he never wants to go to practice or anything.

And new for this year- Cross Country!

The volleyball coach decided that Emma was too old and too short for his Junior Varsity team (her skills were exactly where they should have been for the Junior Varsity), so he cut her.  Luckily, she had a friend there that day that encouraged her to join cross country and even brought her over to eat with her cross country friends, so that she could meet them.  In the end, she has stuck with it and we are very proud of her for that!  She wants you to know that she beat that girl that is right in front of her.  This is the second to last turn in the course with only about 300 yards to go to the finish.

It keeps us busy!

I went with Sam on a Field trip to the science museum. 

It was pretty cool.

I took the advice of someone who said, "go on all your kid's field trips while you are here- it helps you get to know the area."  It was fun!  And I don't know if I would have gone to Heilbronn if I hadn't gone on the field trip, but it was a really charming German city!

We helped Max with his rocket ship.

He only lost to the space shuttle which is right above his and to the right.  His is the silver and blue one.

We made up a science experiment that involved cookies- those are the best kind of science experiments.  

We tried out different times of egg substitutes and then had people rate them on taste, appearance, moisture, firmness a couple other things. 

We tried vinegar and baking powder, soda pop, oil, applesauce and bananas. 

The banana chocolate chip cookie was not very good.  The soda pop one tasted fine but just crumbled.  The oil one was really dry.  The others tasted almost the same as the test one.  It was a fun experiment.   His teacher talked to me at the science museum and told me that he is the class leader and elevates the class to a whole new level with his comments and observations.  It's always nice to hear good things about your kids!