Winter Sports

Sam:  Wrestling, again- despite my various tries to stop him.  I did attend a couple meets, but never saw him win.  I decided it must be my presence that was causing it, which was a nice excuse for skipping any other meets.  He actually did really well at his weight group- 126, which he never reach while wrestling it. 

This is the only non fuzzy picture I have of him.  Pretty pathetic mom, hu?  He got Batman socks for Christmas and had to wear those every meet.

They did make him wrestle up to 132 a couple weeks in a row and he couldn't win at all at that weight group.  He ended up 4th in regionals, just missing European Championships and then was refused the wild card, because his record wasn't as good as some kid he kept beating- why?  Because they had made him wrestle up those two weeks and one week he got some shoulder ligaments torn and had to sit out the rest of the meet.  It was a real bummer for him.  In the end he did receive a varsity letter and another Coaches award for being the kid that was always there doing exactly what he was supposed to, best attitude, tried their hardest, always helping out.  I am proud of this crazy kid of mine.

Joe:  Computer gaming- right not a sport.  He keeps telling me he is working out, but I don't quite believe it.  His pants are about to fall off of his non-butt.  He has the physique of a famine victim. Unfortunately, he is such a picky eater that protein shakes are not going to work for him.  He has picked up a liking for all things junk oriented, however.  So we are constantly talking about good weight and bad weight and good food versus bad food.  I should talk though, as I have a chocolate food problem that's probably as big as his junk food one.

Max:  Basketball.  He got much better this year.  At the beginning of the year he was the best little rebounder ever and he could dribble at least decently.  This earned him a spot as a point guard, although he also played the other guard. 

By the end of the season he could actually shoot too.  He made about half of his lay-ups, anyway.  On the final game of the season he prayed twice that they would win.  I thought about having the talk with him about praying to do his best instead, but then just didn't.  Why disappoint him?  They were loosing at first and then Max got in as point guard and made the second and third basket of their team which put them on top.

(These are super low scoring games still.  I think the highest I have seen was 30 points for the win.) 

 He was very excited that he helped his team win.  There was still plenty of basket making- of which he made maybe one or two- but it's basketball and he helped! (said just like the shake and bake girl)  When his coach awarded him his medal afterwards he told everyone that this was a team of 10 and 11 year olds and Max was one of the youngest on the team, but was definitely the leader on the team.  He realized when the other point guard got up that he had said that Max was the leader and quickly added that Patrick was the other leader.  Patrick lives behind us and definitely knows his way around a basketball.  His dad was always good to talk to Max after each game and tell him how good he did and help him out with a few pointers, like, if you can just learn to dribble with that left hand.  Max really liked Patrick's dad talking to him.  He was one of those dad's that always had encouraging words during the game.  I like those kind of dad's so much better than the yeller/ranter raver types- especially since I fall into the negative Nellie type myself at times.  Thank goodness for awesome parents and good examples!  And of course great coaches!

I made the cupcakes for after the final game.  There was cherry lime, chocolate peanut butter and pina colada.  They were all yummy!

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.

4th of July

The local hangout spot came up with a deal on Independence day, so we went and enjoyed it with some friends- After the traditional pancake breakfast at the church, naturally! $5 got you a wrist band for anyone under 12 and they could do unlimited anything! Since it was Sam's 12th birthday week, they gave him one for the $5 price, even though he was technically over 12, now. The kids had such a fun time! They spent most of their time in the batting cages and big slide. Except for Max who didn't like either. He spent his time on the little train for the most part. Even Rob tried his hand at the batting- although he missed every single one the first time! Hee hee! After he got warmed up, he was able to even get a couple in the fastest pitch (70-80 mph)! I guess he hasn't gotten to do a lot of things, lately that he used to do a lot of. I bet he would fall the first time he tried skiing, again, too! After some super yummy ice cream that this dairy makes, we watch our cities fireworks with about 1/2 the ward. The kids favorites were the stars and smiley faces and the shimmery ones! Happy Independence day, America!