Game 7: Millersport (Homecoming)

Jared was up for Homecoming King so the entire family went to the game to cheer him on. He didn't win but hey, it was an honor to be nominated.

The game was awesome - we won 67 to 0. That's right - 67 to 0 !! From the football website: Eight different players scored for the Bobcats, including five touchdowns tallied by freshmen to help Grandview post its first MSL Cardinal victory of the season.

The guys got to ring the victory bell! Yay! Jared played in every quarter too.

Two observations: the Grandview concession stand hamburgers are outstandingly delicious.

Also, Millersport's marching band rocked. They put on a great show - somewhat reminiscent of the OSU marching band with dancing, jumping, great moves - we gave them a standing ovation. And they were only about 18 strong too. Our band (100+), in contrast, merely stood in place and performed what I'd call "the best songs you never heard by bands you love". Seriously, I had never heard of any of the songs before.

Anyhow, great game Bobcats!

Game 6: West Jefferson

For some reason, West Jefferson is a huge rival for Grandview. And the stadium was packed - we had to park at the library! The line for tickets went down the block. It was also alumni night. Molly played at the half time show and was mildly distressed when the wind started to blow her sheet music away.

The Bobcats lost 28-0 but the Coach was impressed with the teams gameplay and told them they played well and with courage. He even let them skip practice the next morning.

Game 5 - Liberty Union

Liberty Union is a ranked team and was expected to win. And so they did: 37-0. We listened from home.

Game 4 - Harvest Prep

It was a muggy, wet night. We wore our rain coats but in reality, it was just too steamy to keep them on so we huddled under the umbrella instead.

Jared thought the game would be a win. Sadly, it was not the case as the final score was 21-7. Harvest Prep looked huge as usual. For a private Christian school they sure have some big scary guys on their team!

Ox Roast 2008

The festival

Last Friday morning PJ had a Dr's appointment. We drove by Pierce Field and he saw the tents and rides set up for the Ox Roast. "A Festival?" he exclaimed happily, "Let's go Mommy!" It was raining very hard Friday night and honestly, I thought he'd forget about it by Saturday. But Saturday afternoon he asked again (and again) when we were going... and to his delight we headed out.

FUN!

When we arrived a band was playing "Brown Eyed Girl", people were packed into the park eating ice cream cones and there were lines of small children waiting their turn on the rides. PJ wanted to see it all. He couldn't decide which ride to go on first - the giant bouncer? The giant slide? The Merry-go-round? Or maybe the big Superman funhouse! What a choice! He finally decided to buy 2 tickets using some of his birthday money. Most rides for kids his age were just 1 ticket so now he had to choose which one to do first.

Oh No!

At first he wanted to do the giant slide. But when it was time to give the teenager his ticket, he panicked. We took him to the giant bouncy castle and again, he refused to go near it. Same reaction to the merry-go-round and the Superman funhouse. The same rides that, 5 minutes ago, were so alluring now were terrifying! I didn't understand his reaction and kept asking what was wrong.

I want to go home!

After about the third time I asked him why he was scared he burst into tears and said he just wanted to go home. My husband just shrugged and said we should just go. I don't know if it was the noise or the crowds or what... I felt bad for him!

Game #3 - Granville

I would've gone...

The September 5th game was at Granville, about an hour east of home. I would've gone - but Jared said they had never beaten Granville, a division II team... and it was raining heavily. So we opted to listen to the web broadcast instead. Again, there was another weather delay!

Jared's name!

I was delighted to hear Jared's name announced late in the game after he made a very good tackle. Go Jared! Unfortunately, the Blue Aces won - 49-7. Even more unfortunately, the boys came back to light the fire at the traditional Ox Roast but it was raining so hard few people showed up and they couldn't get the fire going, even with gasoline. More on the Ox Roast later....

Game #2 - East Knox

Lightning!

As I was getting ready to head out to the game Friday night, my mom called to tell me to wait - thunder and lightning had caused the game to be delayed. And, sure enough, the game was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon (although the boys had to sit in their pads until 10:30).

Sunny Saturday afternoon

So, Saturday afternoon I took the little kids to the stadium. To my happy surprise no admission was charged so I had $6 extra to buy concessions for the kids. That bought about one quarter of quiet! We played East Knox and I found myself sitting in the midst of East Knox parents in the bandstands (taking advantage again of the shade).

Grandview wins!
At half-time the score was tied 14-14. But by the end of the third quarter Grandview was up 28-14. Jared got some playing action in the fourth quarter to our delight. I didn't see him much in the earlier quarters. The game ended with a score of 34-14. The Bobcats then very enthusiastically ran to the big iron bell to ring out their victory. For a moment I couldn't figure out what they were doing - it had been a long time since their last real win! But boy it felt good!

Away Game Varsity / Home Game JV (Utica)

Radio broadcasts rock!

We did not make the hour drive up to Utica last night to see the Bobcats play. However, I did not feel TOO guilty for a few reasons - eleven family members did make the trek so I knew Jared would be supported, Jared told me there was a less than "4 in 10 chance" that he'd play (his words) and ghfootball.com provides a web broadcast! Yay! So in our nice comfy airconditioned living room we were able to listen in. At half time the score was tied up, 14 to 14. Unfortunately we missed the half-time show - a tribute to AC/DC. But the broadcast rocked!

Unfortunately, they lost. Twice.

Jared never was put in last night's game, even for a minute. And they lost - final score 35-21. Today the little kids and I went to Bobcat Stadium for the home JV game. Jared played the whole time! Three guys were injured on the sidelines. The score was 22-0 at half-time but the Bobcats did score two touchdowns. Final score was 30-16. Next week... East Knox. Go Bobcats!

Scrimmage #2

Where is #62?

We arrived late (PJ lost his shoes - again) and spent the first minutes at the game eagerly scanning the field for jersey #62. No luck. I thought maybe Jared was wearing a plain blue jersey again but Molly insisted Jared was #30 based on his stance and the bandaged right arm. I wasn't convinced but #30 did have a few good plays towards the end. We took plenty of pictures of #30. Fortunately that was Jared after all!


Not much play time

Jared was disappointed that he didn't get as much play time as he would've liked. He is really hoping to start this year. However, he did play well and his coach said he'd give him a free burrito. And that is what really counts!

Winners

Again, the scoreboard didn't keep score (but did keep time). But I'm fairly certain the Bobcats won over Columbus Academy. It was another beautiful summer afternoon - and another game we spent on the bandstand to get out of the sun. Aunt Pam and Uncle Jim came this time to cheer on Jared. Next up - the first real game this Friday in Utica. GO BOBCATS! (I hope Jared starts!)

GO BOBCATS! Scrimmage #1

Today was the first scrimmage for the Bobcats. PJ and I arrived right at 10 AM. The sun was already terribly hot and bright (we'll sorely miss that by the cold wet October Saturdays!) so we followed the example of a few other parents and sat in the bandstand under two large shade trees. Ahhhhh... we were right at the goal post too so it was fun to be right at the scene of all the action.

Confusion

The first hour was terribly confusing. Our guys were wearing yellow practice jerseys for some reason. The other team was in white and yellow. Then randomly, the coaches brought the blue jerseys on the field and the guys changed right there. "Must've finished up in the dryer, " a parent commented. I never saw Jared's #62. For awhile I thought he was wearing #82 but then I heard people yelling "GO SEAN!!!!" and realized #82 - who played very well - was not my son. Apparently my child was wearing a plain bright blue jersey. I'm sure he played extremely well...even if I never quite figured out which player was him!


So much yelling

Having never sat so close before, I never realized how much yelling goes on during a game! Players yelling at other players, coaches yelling at players, coaches yelling at coaches, refs and coaches yelling at each other, refs yelling at players... And then we saw a player PUNCH one of our guys. The mom behind me said "maybe it was a friendly teasing hit?" The dad said no, and I turned around to agree. And the refs did nothing! What the heck sort of sport did I sign my kid up for??


I think we won?

They didn't keep score on the score board and the plays seemed very random but I think we won? Maybe? We definitely scored a couple of touchdowns... The other team was HUGE though... corn fed farm boys (with anger management issues!) And I think they outnumbered our guys 3 to 1... another guy behind me mused that our guys seem to get smaller every year ...

GO BOBCATS

Here's to a great season! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Getting PJ's birth certificate

So I finally quit procrastinating and picked up PJ's birth certificate today so I could enroll him in school. I should've ordered it online and saved the trip but that takes up to 6 weeks to process and I need to get him in school before that!

My plan was to go right when they opened to minimize the wait time. I did manage to get lost downtown during morning rush hour and all the one way streets only added to my fun - but on the second try I found the Vital Statistics office. Luckily there were free parking spaces open (which was fortunate in that I didn't have any change on hand for the meters).

I was the only person wanting a copy of a birth certificate. Silly me, I assumed that with no line there wouldn't be a wait - the posted waiting time was 20 minutes and they managed to take exactly 20 minutes to process my request. The office was quite grim - dirty, stained brown carpeting, fifteen stained red chairs, and one sad clock. No magazines, no water fountain, the only entertainment was listening to the guard chatter on his cellphone about how sick he was (with graphic descriptions!) and how he couldn't afford the $15 copay to see his dr. until payday. You know, for all the talk of how much money the government wastes, apparently none of it is filtered to Vital Statistics! I would've appreciated some 5 year old Readers Digests and some free weak coffee... sigh.

Anyhow, $16.50 later, I was in possession of my son's official birth certificate and now I can enroll him for kindergarten!

Feeling like a tattle tale :-(

Ugh, I had a stressful day at work today and now I'm feeling very guilty. What do you think about this situation? One person in my 5 person department is relatively new (7 months). What we do isn't really hard - it's basically data entry, we work in the admissions department of a large charter school. We do work with the guidance department too, we work to make sure students are placed in the correct grade, that they have their papers all in order, etc. There are lots of exceptions, pages of State rules, etc. that we have to follow to admit a student. For example - certain things usually must be sent with the application as proof of Ohio residency - but there are always exceptions - such as for homeless students or victims of natural disasters (like Katrina). I think the lack of black and white guidelines keeps the job interesting - you can't just sit at your desk and listen to music and type away for 8 straight hours, we are always talking to the families, to the counselors, the previous schools, even probation officers or social workers, etc. (we have a very large at risk population, many of whom have been out of school for awhile and are now getting their lives back on track).

Anyhow, the new hire is struggling. She keeps making the same mistakes repeatedly and it's affecting the rest of us - her new thing is just marking every single application that crosses her desk "pended" and handing it off to another person - (it only takes minutes to pend it, it takes longer to accept one. One of things they look for at our review is how many applications we process per day). This makes more work for the rest of us. Also, some of the mistakes she is making can affect the state funding we receive - we absolutely must make sure certain things are in perfect order in case of a state audit. After talking to her many times (she just smiles but doesn't change) I finally went to our supervisor today. Unhappily, he called in his boss too and made it a closed door meeting - NOT what I anticipated. I approached it as "I'm concerned ... I'm afraid she is unclear... maybe we can send some more reminder emails..." and I volunteered to sit with her, but the two supervisors said no, they knew there was an issue, then they wanted me to address everything she's messing up... my boss even wrote on his notebook "PENDS applications for NO reason" and underlined it. I felt so uncomfortable but they said I did the right thing and they appreciated it. I told Patrick (my husband, he works there too) afterwards and he said "Congrats. You got her fired. Happy now?" Ugh! What do you think? Was I a big tattle tale rat? I feel guilty. :-(

July 4th celebration at church

After Christmas, my church's July 4th celebration is my favorite service. My parents offered to take me this year (couldn't afford to refuel my car) so I happily accepted. I wore my America flag tee from Kohl's, Lorene wore her Old Navy flag tee, PJ didn't have one that still fit but wore a blue and white striped polo - close enough!

The service was excellent, as usual. A local color guard presented the flag. Both kids were mesmerized by the marching soldiers. We then said the pledge of allegiance and sang the national anthem. Scenic pictures of America flashed on the overhead screens - Lorene kept pointing and exclaiming over them. Then we were seated and sat back to listen to the choir, the orchestra ensemble and the handbell choir perform patriotic anthems - including My Country Tis of Thee, God Bless America, America the Beautiful and When Johnny Comes Marching Home (PJ especially enjoyed this one). As always, my favorite part was the salute to the armed forces. The orchestra and choir performed the official song for each branch of the armed services and every one who had served (or would serve - we have a few recruits in the congregation) would go forward and we would clap. I was surprised that the Navy had the largest number of women who had served.

A country song about letters from home was then sung while the overhead screens projected pictures of the sons (no daughters) of church members who were currently serving. Next was a audio clip of the words of our founding fathers. At this point Lorene was restless having lost interest in the overhead screens and having scribbled on all the available scrap paper. I took her to walk the halls (along with about a dozen toddlers and their parents) while the congregation sang "God Bless the USA". We returned in time to see the color guard remove the flag and to hear the ensemble play a very rousing "Stars and Stripes Forever".

Afterwards we had vanilla cake and chocolate ice cream and lemonade in the fellowship hall. PJ was happy because each piece of cake had a sparkly star stuck into it. Unfortunately he lost his in Papa's car on the way home.

28 miles

Worth of gas in the tank... no money until payday (Monday) so we are stuck this weekend! Of course suddenly there are all kinds of things we could do... my cousin is in town with her new baby, my church is having their big July 4th celebration Sunday, my mom wanted me to run an errand for her today (picking up pictures at the mall)... but no go. Stupid $4/gal gas! And I just read that they are forecasting gas going to $7/gal within 2 years. Wow I hope not. I like being able to afford groceries...

Small world at work

At my work it really pays to watch what you say about another employee until you know who they are and who they are related to! I work alongside my sister-in-law and my husband. We are not the only husband and wife team! I also work with a brother and a sister and a pair of sisters, many sets of long time friends and in the past we've had parent/child relationships and in-law relationships! The joke is whenever a new hire starts is to figure out who they are related to. When I started back to work, the other girl in orientation was someone's niece!

I have a new manager now - it seemed at first that he didn't know anyone ... but it turns out he was a substitute teacher at the very small school I graduated from years ago, and where my niece attends now. Also, his daughter was classmates with one of the men in my department! And my middle school principal is my sister-in-law's boss... and one of my best friend's from elemenary school's dad was also an employee. It really is a small world!

Gentle gentle

19 month old Lorene is having a *small* problem with hitting her older brother PJ. Her Dr. advised that the next time Lorene hit him, to take her hand and make her pet him, saying "Gentle gentle". The Dr. thought this would get the idea across better than reprimanding her. So we tried this Saturday. Lorene hit PJ. I said "Gentle gentle" and made her pet him. She looked at me like I was insane. Then, looking me square in the eye, she hit PJ again. Again, I picked up her hand and said "Gentle gentle" and made her pet him. This time she threw her head back with a hearty laugh, then looked at me and whacked him again! Poor PJ. So now we're back to "No hit" and removing her from PJ's vicinity.

Goodwill

We went to a few Goodwill stores last weekend because my husband was hoping to find a few old roleplaying game books. Somebody on one of his forums had found an amazing find at a Goodwill - for just a couple of books he bought a few books that were worth over a thousand dollars. My husband did not have that sort of luck unfortunately. It wasn't a waste though - I was able to find a blue striped Aeropostale dress shirt for my 16 year old for just $2.99 and a pair of Old Navy khakis for $3.49. We are going to a wedding next weekend and he needed dress clothes - I was THRILLED by the savings! And the clothes look like they had never been worn. The only inconvenient part was sorting through rack upon rack of khaki pants hung in no particular order looking for an elusive pair of 34x34s.

PROM!

Tonight my oldest son is at prom. (He's the one on the far right) It's been a crazy two weeks getting prepared. Everyone says the boys have it easy - but we had to come up with the money for the tickets and the after prom tickets, and make reservations (and come up with the money for the dinner as well) and he had to rent a tux... and get a haircut... and buy the corsage... and new swim trunks for the after prom... Now, to be fair, he didn't need to actually start getting ready today until 5 pm and his date's mother told me that she started getting ready at 10 AM! Of course she had to get her hair and nails done - but they all looked so nice and so grown up.

I never had a prom myself, my school didn't have them (no dancing allowed!) So I hope I'm not living TOO vicariously through my child! Anyhow, they were going out to dinner (where they would meet the third girl) at 7. Prom began at 9 PM at the country club, and after prom will begin at 12:30 AM. After the after prom they are going out for breakfast and then I expect he will sleep the rest of the day!

He did tell me he expected the music to be "lame" because the principal was selecting it and he is very "old". Um... I think the principal is MY age!

What a weekend

Very stressful weekend - my husband has pneumonia and has been so sick. He couldn't even watch tv this weekend or eat or anything. I should've taken him to Urgent Care on Saturday but my mother had a medical emergency. She was in the hospital for stomach surgery which went very well. I was so relieved because, for some reason, I was dreading her surgery and felt very anxious about it. Then Saturday Dad called - both of her lungs had collapsed, she was bleeding internally and had overdosed on the morphine from the pain pump and for a moment they thought they had lost her. I was just frantic! One of my brothers went to the hospital to be with my Dad - neither were allowed to see her of course. I just worried at home. On Sunday the situation had stabilized and we were allowed to visit with her in the ICU briefly.

Meanwhile, my poor husband was at home with a fever of 103.9. Monday I took him to the Dr and he walked out with FIVE prescriptions. Thank goodness for health insurance - we paid $86 but without the insurance we would've had to pay nearly $400!

Mom is now in the ICU step down unit and is able to take phone calls (I've talked to her every day) and might be able to come home this weekend.

My husband was actually back to work today although several co-workers chastised me for "letting" him come in.

Hopefully both mom and my husband will continue to improve.

YAY!

Today was the big weigh-in. After one week, the results are in. I have lost 6 pounds total! YAY! I was kind of freaking out the other day when it appeared I had only lost 2 (even though my husband assured me 2 pounds was healthy and something to be proud of). But 6? Now 6 is awesome!

My husband has lost 10 pounds which is fantastic! I'm so proud of him - he's really been very conscientious about sticking to the diet. Go us!