Soccer...finally!

We finally had soccer games this morning. Jeffrey and Josiah have missed their teams' first two games because we've been out of town. Jeffrey's team (the Gators) got outscored 5-1, but Jeffrey scored the one goal. He played goalie a little bit, and decided that he didn't like it so much. He is needed much more at forward. Actually they could have used a few more Jeffreys in lots of positions on the field. There wasn't a huge amount of hustle shown by the other guys on the team. Oh well, that's life in Rec League soccer!

Josiah's team (the Eagles) lost 1-0. The score came on a wierd call by the official (and I'm NOT just saying that! :-) ) that gave the other team a penalty kick very close to the goal. At one point, Josiah dribbled the ball nearly the entire length of the field and got a shot on the goal, but one of the defensive players got it just before Josiah kicked it into the goal. By the end of the game, most of the parents knew Josiah's name. Josiah thought it was cool. He said in the car on the way home, "Mom, the lady who handed out snacks knew my name! And people were calling my name on the sideline. I thought it was the coach, but it wasn't. It was other people who knew my name!"

Way to go boys!!
Jeffrey and Josiah after the game.
Josiah loves soccer!
Jeffrey really is enjoying soccer as well.
A "double header"!

Nice to have "techy" friends

Thanks to Dan for the clue and subsequent email about fixing the underlining problem in the last post. I'm so un-informed when it comes to computer and techy things. I can do lots of things if nothing goes wrong, but troubleshooting is certainly out of my realm of abilities. So thanks, Dan!! It was an easy fix.

My fisherman

One of the most wonderful things about living here in SA is living only three hours away from my mom and dad. Three, instead of 10!! Because we live close enough (and because he's amazing and awesome!) my dad took Jeffrey away for a fishing trip to the Gulf of Mexico. Rockport, TX specifically (which is near Corpus Christi). My dad knows a man who is a fishing guide there. (My boys are sure that Pop knows EVERYBODY, or almost everybody everywhere!) They went after J&J's football game last Thursday. Jeffrey had a WONDERFUL time. In fact, he said they were some of the best hours of his life. My dad said that he told Jeffrey that he knows what it's like to be in the middle of a family (he's #2 out of 4 children). He wanted Jeffrey to be the first to do something in our family. Isn't that wonderfully sweet. I'm wiping tears from my eyes right now! Jeffrey lived it all up! He loved getting to be with Pop by himself for hours and hours, spend the night at a hotel, go out on a boat, see lots of animals ( I think the camera came back with about 100 pictures of pelicans, sea gulls and jellyfish). He came back with a list of 25 different fish and animals that he saw. He caught his limit of fish and dad fried them up last weekend while we were all in Bryan for my 20th high school reunion (that'll probably end up as a post for a later date!). What made it even funnier for Jeffrey is that my dad didn't catch anything he could keep. That made Jeffrey's catching him limit even better! :-)

Jeffrey and his "trophy" trout
Jeffrey with a catch. I don't know what kind of fish this is. But it tasted good!! (Jeffrey just told me this is a redfish.)
Waiting for the next bite.
Beautiful sunrise over the Gulf.
Reeling one in!!

No bailout needed-but lunch might be nice.

Since Lauren has been around (she's getting to stay two extra days after Julie and her other kiddos went home) there has been a rapid rise in the amount of time spent playing games. Lots of games. The Price is Right, checkers, and Monopoly have been the clear favorites. Since Katie has gone with Julie, checkers has taken a back seat. She is truly the queen of checkers, even at age 4. Mike (her dad) has taught her how to think two moves ahead, and she does. It's a hoot! She'll tell you where you should move and then totally beat you. It's funny. But since she's gone Lauren chooses TPIR and Monopoly every time. In fact, I walked into the office/schoolroom about an hour ago and she and Josiah and Jeffrey are playing AGAIN. Josiah said "Mom, just call me Bill Gates. Or Gates, Gates is fine. I'm totally rich." But now, I hear him talking about having to mortgage property. Funny how things turn around. In fact, I'm waiting for them to realize that they've been playing the game instead of eating lunch. Any time now I expect them to hear their stomachs growling and call it quits on the game. Maybe Wall Street should follow suit. When things get hard, go eat lunch. PB&J, pringles and chocolate chip cookies can make lots of things better!

Teeth aren't tools...especially when they fall out.

I had a friend in Memphis who would tell her children "Teeth aren't tools" whenever they would try and use their teeth to open something. I thought that was a great saying and used it several times. That is until I realized that I used my teeth quite often as tools. What's a mom to do?? ...I quit saying it. (Which was easier than changing my habits of "dental leverage". I have plenty of other more important habits that I'm having to change so I can bring the boys along in healthy habits!!) Well, today sweet Josiah was using his teeth to open a water bottle, and pop! Out came a tooth. Thankfully, a baby tooth that had been wiggly for a while. We had to hunt for a while to find it. It flew out of his mouth and onto the floor mixed among a collection of paper scraps from the schoolwork he was doing with Lauren. You can't tell too much from the picture, but it's on the bottom on his left side.



Josiah re-enacting the opening of the water bottle. This really isn't a good idea. As I look at this picture, I'm realizing it. The American Dental Ass'n. is coming to San Antonio for a conference next week. I hope they don't see this blog!! Of course, maybe he could be the "poster child" for bad habits. Or maybe that would be Jeffrey after this crazy discussion he and Michael had a couple of nights ago about brushing your teeth without toothpaste. He thought (and in fact said that I said-which I did NOT) that it was good enough to brush your teeth without toothpaste. He said that for a month or so he hasn't been using any. THAT could be the reason that he was the only one with a cavity when we went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago in Memphis. In fact, the problem isn't only that Jeffrey hasn't been using toothpaste, it's also that I think he mostly sits with the toothbrush (we use an electric Soniccare one) in the middle of his mouth for 2 minutes without moving it around. That works about as well as owning excercise equiptment makes you fit and healthy when you just own them and never use them. TRUST ME...that doesn't work!! Note to self...add dental health to schoolwork, serve more leafy greens (calcium), be thankful for strong teeth!!

Pumpkin around the world

Inspired by this post of fun things to do with a pumpkin, I picked up a pumpkin this weekend. Actually, I mostly got it because I had a coupon to get it FREE, and I'm a sucker for free produce! (Of which I got $17 free this weekend!) The pretty pumpkin has been contendly sitting on my kitchen cabinet this week waiting to be used. So, this morning, Julie (my beautiful sister)and I were talking and wheels started turning. So we printed off some continents off of Enchanted Learning and set Josiah and Lauren to work. They wrote and colored the names of the continents, cut them out and pinned them on the pumpkin. Then they took a sharpie and wrote the names of the oceans on the pumpkins. Here's the result. We'll see what else the pumpkin turns out to be. For today, it made a very fun social studies lesson!


Lauren, Josiah and Mr. World Pumpkin, showing his Eastern hemisphere.
More Eastern hemisphere
A blurry picture of the Western hemisphere

WAY TO GO JEREMY!!

Jonathan (L), Jeremy (R)

Though it's almost a week late, I HAVE to brag on Jeremy. He has been a trooper in football this year. He's been less than enthusiastic about playing, but he's gone to every practice and game and done his part. Last week, it paid off. At the game on Thursday, Jeremy was given much more playing time. In fact he played more in Thursday's game than in all the previous games combined. He made a couple of great tackles (his first of the season) AND ran a kickoff back for a touchdown!!! Way to go Jeremy!! We are all so proud of you!

(PS Jonathan's hamstring is still hurting him, so he didn't play at all. Hopefully this week he'll get to play)