Last night Allison and I were sitting in the rocking chair. She started whispering to me, “Mom, Mom!”.
I looked at her and whispered back, “What, what?”
She turned my head back so that she could whisper in my ear. “Mom, Mom…. Fruit Snack.” Like it was a top secret subliminal message to me to get her a fruit snack.
It cracked me up. Which made her laugh and keep doing it.
When walking in public somewhere with Allison we will tell her she needs to hold a hand. She has decided the hand to hold will be her own.
“Hold MY hand, mom!” while she grabs one hand with the other.
Is it weird that we left home, partially to get away from the effects of Hurricane Rita, and went to watch the Tulsa Hurricane football game?
During the game, when the team is about to do something (first down, have just gotten the ball back, whatever), they flash “HURRICANE WARNING” on the scoreboard. At first, Nathan thought that meant the hurricane was on its way to Tulsa, and “Why weren’t we going inside!”.
“I tackled that boy, wrestled with him, pinned him to the ground then took his tootsie roll.”
Overheard by my dad’s neighbor kid when he was talking to Caleb. Maybe he doesn’t know I am “that boy’s” mom. When we visited my mom at work, she gave the kids about 50 tootsie rolls (not the small ones either). Not wanting to over-react, I asked the kid (I think Tyler was his name), “So, what’s going on over there”.
Nathan had challenged everyone next door. Whoever could wrestle him to the ground, would be given a tootsie roll. The boys all thought it was great fun, not to mention awesome that Nathan had soooo many peices of candy.
Man this place was sort of crazy yesterday. It is part of the evacuation route for Beaumont and Houston. People went into town for lunch, and did not return in an hour, because of traffic. The entire town is sold out of water, bread, batteries, kerosene… all of the necessary bad weather items.
Friday morning, we were a little concerned about the storm. It looked like it would still likely be hurricane class 1 or 2 when it hit here, and we were/still are likely in the direct path. If not, it would stall over North Texas and dump rain. No electricity, flashflooded driveway (we live next to a creek) and a hospital that sucks, made the whole experience sound like no fun. We decided to take a couple days of vacation, brave traffic and go somewhere.
As the day wore on, we realized there was a good possibility that it would not get very bad, even with all the stuff already mentioned. BUT, we still have a four day weekend. Might as well take advantage of it instead of sitting around in the dark eating poptarts. We decided to drive to Shreveport, and if the traffic was tolerable, keep on driving.
Traffic was non-existant. Zero, zilch, zip. So, now we are staying in Tulsa, visiting family.
After checking out the weather info today, Rita has been downgraded to a category 3 (YEAH!). It looks like she will even sputter out before getting to Oklahoma. Where does it look like she is going to dissipate? You guessed it… right on our house. At least on Monday we will know what to expect when we get home. More than likely it will be nothing at all, just some much needed rain. And everyone at work can make fun of us for leaving when we know it was just a good excuse to take a vacation.
Whenever Zoey trades out her earrings, Allison wants to be a part of the action and will find whatever she thinks looks like jewelry (screws, random beads, click-it things) and put it in her ears. We decided it would be a good time to get them pierced. If she already had earrings, maybe she would stop putting other things into her ears. We made a visit to Claire’s at the outlet mall on Sunday (9-11). Allison was pretty excited. Here is a picture of her ear before…
We sat down in the chair to wait for the pierced lady, and Allison was OK with it….
until the lady put a clip in Allie’s hair to hold it out of the way of her ears. She’s not really shy, but isn’t used to strangers just touching her either. Allison freaked out and we didn’t pierce her ears. I didn’t want her to be traumatized forever over earrings. When we were riding back to Brenda’s house we figured out that she thought the lady cut her hair.
On Wednesday night, for the family’s return trip to Dallas, we went to a different Claire’s. The lady was much more comfortable around children then the first Claire’s rep. Allison was excited again. We sat down. She thought it was fun when the girl (Claire for lack of memory) drew on her ears. The first ear was pierced, and Allison only started crying when Claire took the gun off of her ear. Claire quickly did the second ear, and it was over. Allison cried a little, not screaming cries though, and she was calmed down when we left the store. We had some, “Mom, ear hurts!”, and “Kiss It, Now Blow” through dinner and part of the drive home. She also thought my and Zoey’s ears needed kisses and blows since we had on earrings.
Now Allison has some ear pretties. A picture will eventually go here.
We waited until Zoey was 5 and could tell us whether or not she really wanted earrings. When she got them, she cried a little, but was so brave we were proud of her. The most horrible part came 6 weeks later, when Zoey could change out her earrings. She really wanted to swap them, but would not let us take them out. And, because of the locking mechanism, they did not want to come off easily. Allison may wear this pair of earrings until she is 10.
First Game
So my new favorite sports number is 46. Nathan had a 12:00 game today. Everyone show up at 11 for pictures. It was in the mid 90’s and HOT. Since all the flag football games were scheduled before Nathan’s game, everything was sort of drug out. His game didn’t start til maybe 1:30. They had 12 kids show up, meaning one kid gets to rest at a time. The other team had 15.
Which means, of course, Nathan got to play some offense. Except he’s never practiced offense. He did ok. He was on the line. Early on he would run past the D-line and take on a linebacker. The problem is the D line was getting to the qb in the backfield. Later on he started taking on the person closest to him.
So the weather was brutally hot. I’m not sure I emphasized that. Whoever said there’s no crying in football obviously didn’t watch much youth football in the Texas heat. After about a quarter and a half, our kids just came unglued. The blocking disappeared. The qb/rb were upset that they kept getting hit right away. The bigger kids were exhausted. And they took turns letting the one kid ride the bench based solely on who was the most hurt at the time. Football can only get better / more enjoyable from here.
Nathan, surprisingly, had great composure and probably the most energy on the team. And it’s not like he didn’t take his hits. On one kickoff return, he did the Charlie Brown flip, where socks and shoes go flying everywhere. He was flat nailed.
Nathan’s team lost. Other team scored an early TD (first possession), then Nathan’s team scored right before the half. On the kickoff after the TD, there was a classic youth sports moment, when the kid on the other team received the ball and then ran the wrong direction for a safety. 10-8 at half, Nathan’s team winning. But then the other team put up a couple of TDs in the second half to pull out the win. 22-10 was the final, I think.
For Nathan’s personal highlights – He snagged a kickoff cleanly from the front line. It may be the only ball that was caught, and not picked up off the ground. He just downed it though, didn’t try to run (would you run without any blockers?) He was in on a couple of gang tackles. And the pictures show him making some solid blocks. He was always a step late to all the plays though, so most of it was kid gets tackled, Nate is the only one within 5 feet left standing. He made it to the play, but too late. It’s because he was indecisive. I’m telling him to make a decision and go at it full steam, even if it’s the wrong decision. (like chasing the rb if the qb has the ball). Once he realizes it as a mistake, he can re-evaluate. But he would have made some plays in the backfield had he been more decisive. All of Nathan’s plays will be in the backfield, if they get past him, he won’t be able to catch up often.
I’m proud of Nathan. While he didn’t do anything extraordinary, he came away from the game with a good attitude and fairly energetic. Playing for an hour in 90+ heat in full pads with no rest, that’s impressive.
Oh yeah, since there are three kids named nathan on the team, and two of them are coaches sons, they’ve nicknamed our nate “Cujo”. At least they have a way to refer to him specifically now.
I took the camera and took a lot of pictures. The setting that lets you take like 5 pictures in 2.5 seconds is pretty cool. But it really eats up the memory stick. They all came out pretty good in high resolution, which is a first for me and action shots. Yes, I know the highlights are blown. Here are some of them:
Nathan and the QB warming up.
Nate / QB / RB
Can you guess which one Nathan is? hint: He’s the short one!
Play in the backfield. Nathan is the first one there NOT involved in the play.
Opening a hole (left side of the picture)
The running back dragging the pile on the touchdown drive. This picture looks great at full resolution.
Nathan making another great block.
TOUCHDOWN!
Another TOUCHDOWN (other teams)
This kid missed the tackle in the backfield and took a faceplant.
I made these pics bigger. A couple of things to notice: first, there’s a fumble. Second, Greg capturing #88 on his way down. Third, Nathan is out there (46) looking to make a block.
A pitch back to the running back. He caught it and ran upfield some. (notice the ball in the air).
Nathan fighting through a blocker to try to make a play. I like the hand full of jersey. The play ran away from him though, he didn’t quite make it in time.
Another “suspended football” picture. This was late in the game, when they were just trying to get the ball away from the swarming defense.
For the first few days of this week I was in Dallas for training on some software. Needless to say, I am now a page layout GENIUS!
Here is a recap of the 3 days:
Monday : Made it to class. Got to training about 20 minutes late. Even though we got to the car rental place at about 7:30 (and had a reservation) , it took an hour to get the car. Apparently Mondays are their busiest days. Then I got lost on the way to class. Luckily, they hadn’t really started yet, just passed out name plates for the computer (which for the rest of class, I got to be the mysterious stranger).
From Greg – I don’t know if Allison really knows what’s going on. Like that you are in Dallas and we are in here. Every once in a while (like when I asked if she was ready for lunch) she asks for you, and I just say you are at Wendy’s house.
Tuesday : From Greg – This morning, after dropping the kids off, Allison and I went to Walmart. She stayed asleep on my shoulder. Water, bottled lemonades, cleaning supplies, diapers. and icecream bars.
Now Allison is refusing to eat her cereal, and begging for icecream. go figure.
A little later in the day – Allison had her fav lunch today. ham and cheese sandwich, hold the mayo, hold the bread. Nate’s practice was ok. (It’s logged on the forum). House is a disaster area. Maybe I’ll clean when Allie sleeps.
Wednesday morning : From Greg – So I was putting the books in the car and Allie was distracted by the TV. When I came back in, she heard the door. “MAMMA!”
She’s been really good for me, and not just been calling your name all the time. She knows you are at Wendy’s and just accepts it. But I told her “no, it’s just me, but we are going to go get mom today. Do you want to do that?”
“Yah! Go BYE-BYE!”
“heh, not just yet, first we have to get baths and get ready for a long car ride, and then go get Nathan and Zoey, ok?”
“GET CLEANED UP! GO BYE-BYE!”
Like if we get it all done right away, we can get you. 
She’s excited to go get you.
Since I was without family for 2 1/2 days, I stuffed myself on restaurant food, then went shopping for clothes to fit my larger (because of all the fine dining face stuffage) self. Ok, really it was just time for a wardrobe overhaul. The 2 shirts I bought after having Allison are wearing thin.
Between the prices and the styles, clothes shopping intimidates me. I cringe at the thought of spending $50 for a shirt and have a really hard time making myself spend the cash. It is also hard to find clothes that actually fit, and are flattering. It doesn’t help when for shirts, one size is way too small in the boob area, but the next size up is too large. So, I am either busting out (get it?) or the cute v-neck drops down to my belly button.
When Wendy and I got to the mall on Monday night, we saw some a little boy (5 or 6) who had no fear of public humiliation and decided to go to the bathroom outside. Maybe the hedges looked like they needed some watering. It felt like I was back home, in the country.
At the beginning of the season, they were lining up Nathan with two bigger/slower kids when they ran sprints. Over the last 3 practices or so, they’ve been lining him up with faster kids. The first day, he outran the two he was matched up with. Then the coaches started pulling the “you aren’t going to let Nathan beat you are you!” thing. So today he was up against three kids, and he just outran them all. Every time. I don’t know what to make of that. Maybe the coaches giving him that peptalk just gets his engine running.
Since they have a game Saturday, they practiced their plays and run blocking, and told the defenders to not really tackle. Which is good, because Nathan would have had a hay-day. They were practicing an option play I think, to Nathan’s side, and it wasn’t working, so Nate just kept getting fumble recoveries or phantom tackles.
They play the same team the scrimmaged on Tuesday, so hopefully his team wins. They scrimmaged better defensively than offensively.
There was a scrimmage today. And Nathan got his game pants and a new mouthpiece. He was all amped up. Before the game, one of the coach-dads talked to me about Nate. Said he was really impressed that Nathan tackled the rb in the backfield yesterday. Later, when his wife showed up, she said a lot of the same thing. Turns out that phantom linebacker/cb/left end position Nate has been playing is the strong safety. It’s a lot easier to see that when they have enough kids to have a full team line up on defense. Cool This guy played strong safety in high school, and seems to be the dad in charge of the defense, so that bodes well for Nathan.
So Nathan’s team gets to play defense first. Nate took on the hb during a couple of pass plays away from him. Then they rushed to his side and he took a bad angle and the kid blew past him on the outside. But they still went 3 and out. On offense Nathan plays…. the bench!
I finally figured out how they are going to hide Nathan on the field and keep him from being a liability… Just let him ride the bench. 11 positions, 14 kids. Nate sat out pretty much the rest of the first half. about 2 more possessions. I was starting to get aggitated.
I think they just forgot about him though. Because he played all the defense the second half, and even played half a series at rb (of course they threw them all, nate has never practiced offense in practice). He did a better job in the second half of turning the rb back into the pile. Had the rb stopped in the backfield one play, but the kid pulled away. Nate was trying to drag him down by the jersey.
The kid that Nathan tackled yesterday to impress the coach ROLLED through the other team. In general, Nathan’s team is bigger than the other team. The RB is a lot bigger than Josh, the other team’s rb.
It’s funny how football makes adversaries out of friends.
Not the scariest running back you’ve ever seen.
They have a practice on Thursday and a game on Saturday. I’m pretty excited. I’m hoping Nathan can just make one or two good plays (in the backfield). And I hope we get good pictures of it!
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