Football Anyone?

Saturday afternoon, our family skipped Ann Bennett's soccer game to go up to the NC State football game. It was a 7:30 game, so since Carey never leaves a game early, we knew it would be a late night (especially because it was a TV game). Over the years we have had some HORRIBLE weather at games -- 152 degrees one time with sleepy children, -30 another year. We figured this would be a good one -- cool, but not cold. So, off to Raleigh we go. As is tradition, we started out tailgating.

Ann Bennett and "friends"

I don't know if you can see it or not, but the guys in the convertible had an interesting "tail gate" strategy. They ate in their car with the top down. Never seen that one before.

Next, we went to the "fan zone" where they have fun stuff for the kids. You know you are really getting old when you go to get a new free ring tone at the Alltel booth, and the guy gives directions to your son and says something like, "I'm gonna tell him how to go get the one you want since he probably does more with the phone than you do." Seriously! I mean, I know some 9yo have phones, and maybe Bryant looks older. Who knows, but really!

This is actually the first pic I have of them in front of the stadium.

So, we go into the stadum. In like the first 3 minutes, South Florida scores. It's not looking too good. Then, something makes a guy behind us boo the officials or some play. A guy in the next section starts yelling at the guy behind us not to "boo the field in this house." A bunch of explicatives, security and even the real police later, they calm down and we get back to the game. Don't you love it when you take your family to an event that should be safe, and they get exposed to stuff you'd like to avoid? Meanwhile, Ann Bennett is talking a mile a minute -- important stuff like if the Cubs played NCSU, who would we cheer for? If Furman played NCSU who would I cheer for? There's Mrs. Wolf. Are those our cheerleaders? We managed to avoid the food questions. NCSU scored a field goal.

At the end of the 1st quarter, it started to rain. We had an umbrella -- in the car, and I had on a white t-shirt. We really did not think we were going to need rain gear. As the rain got harder, I decided it was not going to be pretty if I stayed in the rain, so Ann Bennett and I go get ponchos and hide out under the bleachers. A bit later, I call Carey to find out he and Bryant have also vacated to under the stands. It takes us a while to find each other - bad reception under stands in rain! We found each other and Carey says we are leaving. The score was already 31-3 or something like that. We left before half time, and he has never left a game early. As we walked out of the stadium, State scored the only touchdown of the evening. It was not pretty. I think the final score was 41-10.

So, the next picture is really what we drove to Raleigh for last Saturday. At least we were home a little earlier than expected. I am shepherding Ann Bennett's Sunday school class, and she was singing in church.

I hope your team won this week. Furman won 35-10, but neither of my children are Paladin fans. Maybe they'll convert yet!

First Soccer Game - AB

Ann Bennett has somehow made it to 6 without ever playing soccer. Shocking, I know! She never ASKED to play, and we have so many blooming games to go to with Bryant that I didn't push it. She tried t-ball last fall, but once she'd tried it, she was done. Well, now that she's in U7 for soccer, it's all girls. She's on a team with lots of her friends. They have an Ann Bennett, Anne Catherine and Anna Dudly on her team. Those poor coaches have a hard time knowing which Ann name to use! Anyway, it's been a great experience. Her coaches are great. Both are fathers of girls in AB's school. One's daughter broke her arm in August, so she's not even getting to play. We're so lucky to still have him helping with the team, and we hope Grayson makes it back before the season ends!

AB throwing in the ball.

AB is #8. I wasn't sure she'd stay with the ball when it was so hot, but she did.

Her favorite part - chatting with friends. Notice Grayson's cast.

Anne Catherine, Ann Bennett, Mary Archer, Lydia, Grayson, Coach Stuart watching. My favorite picture of the day!

We actually had 2 games this weekend. The previous weekend we were rained out by Hanna. We lost on Saturday, but I guess Sunday counts as a win. Only 2 kids from the other team showed up. Their coach wasn't even there. The girls didn't care. They still scrimmaged and got in some extra practice. I think this is going to be a great experience for AB. She has a lot to learn, but she seems really interested in going. We'll keep you posted.

Grocery Shopping and Diet Coke

First, I love diet coke. I drink way too much of it. But, I am feeling very much like I might need to give up my dc. I have never really paid all that much attention to my shopping habits. I go in and out of organized periods when I have meals planned, organized lists, etc. But, honestly, I kind of wing it a lot. I have a great husband who doesn't mind running the 1/4 of a mile to the store for items I need, or he willingly pick things up on the way home. When kids came along, shopping was much more difficult. I remember going through the aisles with Bryant as a toddler. By the time I got to frozen foods, he was done and started tossing things out of the cart! We got over that, but it made me realize shopping was no longer an easy, stroll through the store activity. It is still expensive to take kids shopping with me, so in the summer my very slack habits return. I even try to shop online some during the summer. The $5 fee is well worth the money I save by not having kids with me in the store. (Those of you who haven't tried it, should try it. Once you do it, it is easy!)

Anyway, with my kids back in school, it is back to more planned meals, lists, etc. I'm even trying to pay attention to grocery ads and do some comparison shopping. In so doing, I see how much diet coke must be costing my family. So, now in addition to knowing that the aspartame and other chemicals are bad for me, I realize the cost is ridiculous. Plus, I guess I could help the planet out by not using as many bottles/cans. But, can I live in a world without diet coke? Of all the people I know, my brother-in-law probably gets this more than most. What to do. . .

Shrimp Anyone?

OK, we live at the beach, but I have failed to convince my children to eat any seafood. Ann Bennett has always been a pretty good eater, but she's gotten pickier as she has gotten older. About a year ago I decided to TRY to work shrimp into our meals, but this is what happens when I do.



Can you see why it takes a lot to even try? The first time I served it, I gave each child one shrimp and asked them to eat it. After crying for 20 or more minutes, AB finally put it in her mouth. She chewed it up and held it in her mouth for over 20 minutes -- seriously! Carey swears it was more like 30 minutes. I cleaned up the entire kitchen with that shrimp in her mouth! She kept saying she needed help to eat it. Can you imagine holding a chewed up shrimp in your mouth? Disgusting! So, I decided we needed to back down. For now, our goal is to just have her tolerate a shrimp on her plate. She doesn't have to eat it, touch it or let it touch any of her food. It just sits on her plate! She still can't stand it. She about falls apart when she sees shrimp in our house. But, I'm determined. So, in this video, you heard Carey send her to her room when she starts crying. (He got to 3.) She stayed there about 10 minutes -- crying, moaning about how horrible shrimp is and we are to make her see it. Now, the only benefit to this is that Bryant sees how ridiculous this kind of behavior is, and he eats the 1 shrimp he is given. He doesn't like it, so he tries all kinds of things to make it better. Tonight he took a drink of water and then the shrimp. He about gagged on it, but he ate it without complaints. Now, I can sympathize. I remember this sensation as a child -- especially when Mom tried Weight Watchers and served us liver, but that's another story. Carey on the other hand has the following reaction. (Sorry this is so short, I ran out of memory.)

So, dinner tonight was lively. Tragically upset daughter. Gagging son. Laughing outloud husband. But, eventually, we had this happen.

So, is that success? I guess it is at least progress. It took a lot less time for her to calm down and just sit at the table. She would not eat a couple of her tomatoes or a bit of one of the quesadillas because she swore the shrimp had touched them. Again, I used to hate tomato guts, so I can understand this to a degree. But, she came back to the table, ate most of the food and we had no more tears. I think pink baby might have helped. Pink baby was AB's lovey for a long, long time. Now she is one of many "aminals" that AB loves. But, I guess in times of real crisis, you need your MOST trusted friend!

Check This Out

First of all, we came through Hanna without even losing power -- which is really amazing. About half of our neighborhood lost power due to a huge oak tree that fell on the power lines, but we are not on that grid. Fortunately they had power by late afternoon yesterday. We are thankful as we know Hanna was not so kind to Haiti.

I have to tell you about a site I have followed for a while. The link is www.caringbridge.org/ga/marin. Marin is a teenager who now lives in Seattle. Her family was in GA, and Marin was a part of a very competitive year round swim team there. She was really good and had hoped to compete in Beijing in '08. At 15, in 2005, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor/cancer. She had 3 surgeries in short succession, and she was left with right side paralysis. At some point during this battle, her father's job relocated to WA and the family moved. I can't imagine changing doctors or leaving a support system of friends in the middle of something like that, but they did. Anyway, she NEEDED to swim and found a way to make it happen. She is currently in Beijing at the Paralympics. This has been a very difficult year for Marin, and as recent as a month ago, she was in hospice care. It is amazing she was able to make the trip. Another amazing thing about this young girl is when the Make-a-Wish foundation heard about her desire to go to Beijing, they asked if she would like that to be her wish. She said no thank you. She was going to make it there on her own. Anyway, there is a post on her site today that is just amazing. I encourage you to go visit it and leave a note. I'm sure her family would appreciate it along with prayers for safety during their time in China and the return trip home. I just wish I could see some of this on TV! It's much more inspiring that the political squirmishes we get to hear about right now.

Hanna Fun

I'm going to try to give you an idea of what boys think is a good idea of activity on a hurricane day. I've known for as long as I can remember that boys are different than girls, but raising a son has highlighted this fact that those of you gals with brothers already knew, I'm sure.

Anyway, the following video -- if this works -- was taken a few minutes ago. Please ignore the mess in the garage, and remember we live close to sea level. There are no basements to store stuff here or to send crazy kids to. Boy do I miss a basement, but that's another story.

For those of you that don't know, those are plasma cars. (You don't pedal or push yourself along. Somehow you move that steering wheel back and forth to move the car.) Ann Bennett won the first one a couple years ago, and the big guys loved it so much that Bryant asked for one last year for Christmas. In this video, Bryant and Ward are racing. Robert and Tanner are chasing them, but what they want to be doing is rolling/throwing baseballs at Bryant and Ward to knock them off or at least pushing a skateboard in their path. I drew the line at those ideas. The contraption in the middle of the garage is to practice hitting. Notice Ann Bennett just stands in the middle and watches the madness! After this, they went outside to play football. Robert, Tanner and Bryant are in 6th, 5th and 4th grade and play together most days. Ward is Robert's older brother (in HS) who sometimes comes and plays with them. They LOVE it and so do I. He can't be convinced to hang with them as much now, but when he does, I feel a little better. He sort of makes sure they don't kill each other in football or whatever adventure they create, but he is fun in the way only an older guy can be.

So, the point is, you moms of preschoolers still have a lot of years of extra activity ahead of you. Invest in lots of items to expend energy. You still have years to use them. I'm sure all of these boys are over the age the plasma car is marketed to, but they still seem to find ways to use them. If we didn't have lots of stuff to play with outside, they'd be inside playing x-box or wii or watching tv. At least this way they're being active and creative.

Hurricane Prep

Until I moved to this area, I never really understood hurricanes. I knew what they were, but I never understood why people would stay in the area. I always thought, just leave. But, now I get it. You never really know until it is too late if you need to get out of dodge or not, and what do you take, and will you find a place that accepts both your cat and dog? The uncertainties go on and on. Plus, the one time we left, we almost couldn't get back because of flooding. I live in town and not at the beach, so I have never had a mandatory evacuation. If a mandatory evacuation was in place, we'd leave. And, if that Ike heads our way, the post will be different. However, I have now lived through a ton of storms -- Bertha, Fran, Floyd, Ophelia, and lots more that I don't even remember any more. My kids don't really remember hurricanes because fortunately we did not have even one last year. The only thing they "know" about hurricanes is Katrina, so Bryant keeps asking where we are going. When I tell him we're staying here, he looks at me like I've grown another head. But, he's 9, so he moves on quickly.

Anyway, there is a wierd energy in the air when a smallish hurricane is heading your way. It kind of energizes you. Everyone talks about it, and once all the work is done, it kind of goes into party mode. I know that sounds crazy, and once the storm hits, it's not such a party. And, AFTER the storm, clean up is NEVER a party! But, I have some really fond memories of waiting for a storm. And, just about everyone here has a hurricane tradition. Most everyone I know buys "rubbish" before a storm. There is some rule that seems to say that calories consumed -in drink or food - during a storm don't count. My personal favorite is a Nutter Butter cookie. I NEVER buy these at other times because I simply have no self control with them. So, I have gas in my car. I have water (though in all the years I've been here we have never lost water in the city limits), batteries, a manual can opener, canned food, ice, candles, a charged cell phone and nutter butters. We should be fine now.

Oh, and for those of you who might try to call us, don't worry if our phone is out. We won't have phone if either cable or electricity is out. This is the only problem I've had with cable phone service. Before cable phone, I never lost the phone, so when boredom set in I could always phone a friend. Now, I have to referee fights without the vita-line. My cell phone should work, but only as long as I have battery power. From what I understand, the storm will not be here until late tomorrow night/early Saturday morning -- if it even comes here, and it is fast moving. You just never know, but Carey has heard that the kids are out of school tomorrow. I was hoping they'd at least go half day. I hate making up missed days! Hurricane days are never as much fun as snow days were. Please do remember all the people who work during these storms. Emergency personnel, medical staff and even power companies have a lot of work to keep everyone safe during a storm. I know this post seems lighthearted, but I do recognize the power and potential threat of a storm. Pray that no fools try to surf in this storm. Someone always does -- especially with school out tomorrow.

Back to Work

Today was my first day as a preschool teacher, at least since I've had children, and if you don't count Sunday School or VBS or play group, but you know what I mean. I'm actually earning a paycheck for this one. Anyway, I am co-teaching the toddler class at the preschool where my kids went to preschool. I'm working with a friend (Janet) whose son (Marshall) has been one of Bryant's closest friends for life. Our younger kids are also good friends. In fact, our older boys started school out in this same class in the fall of 2000. They were in a class of 11 -- with 9 of them being boys. One of the teachers "retired" after our class. The other one works across the hall from us. Today was a fun but crazy day! We have 10 kids, and about half of them were crying today. But, they all liked going outside, snack and singing their blessing, so for a bit everyone was happy. At least we had an extra person with us today, and what do you expect with toddlers? I was so fortunate that neither of my children EVER cried when going to school. They were happy to be there and loved every moment of it -- as did I. I'm excited to see these little ones grow over the next year and to know that their families are getting at least a little break.

Football Draft

Carey and Trip have had this fantasy football league for 10 years or so. I can't actually remember, but it's been a while. (Laura, do you know how long? I think it preexists the kids, right?) They hold the draft on Labor Day weekend. Traditionally, we alternate the draft location between our town and theirs. But, we've had a few issues over the years. Hurricanes come our way, and at times it has prohibited travel. And now, our growing families make it harder to be together. But, the league survives. They just do it online, so they don't have to be together. What tends to happen is the group in each town gets together. So, Sunday morning, this is what my kitchen table looked like.

Don't they look serious? I will say that this was the SHORTEST draft in history! I think they are finally working out the kinks. So the funny thing to me about this (other than the whole pretend football thing) is how normal it is for me to think a 9 year old would know enough to have a team. Bryant has wanted to be at the draft for at least the last 3 years. In fact, he's wanted to have his own league the last 2 years, but unfortunately he never thinks of this until about now. It is hard to find enough kids close to his age with the interest and knowledge to draft a fantasy team. I take it as normal for 9 year old boys, but when I start to think about kids to participate in a league, I realize it's not so normal after all. So, I guess somehow I have managed to raise a child who is going to grow into a man with lots of sports trivia in his head. I just hope we are managing to get other info up there as well. You know, that God loves him, has a plan for his life, responsibility, the importance of education, being a good friend, becoming a man of God, learning to comb his hair (did you notice that?). Just a few things beyond baseball, football, Olympic sports, etc.

Labor Day

At the last minute, we decided to have the Legers come hang out with us on Labor Day. It was such a nice evening! For me, it was the kind of easy evening you dream of when thinking of being a parent. The adults were able to sit, talk and just hang out. All the kids just played. That is Ladi and Brady with Ann Bennett in the jeep. Brady was the official driver, but the girls seemed content with the idea. Brady is such a funny guy! Ladi was only adopted from Russia in late May, and she turned 5 a few days after coming home. But, boy has her English exploded this summer! It is amazing how quickly she is learning English. What a privilege it is to get to be a part of her life.

Bryant, Bryson and Blake (though he's just outside the picture) navigated to the Xbox, but they played football, boccie ball, and who knows what else outside for quite a while. Bryant and Bryson are both in 4th grade this year - which still sounds so old! Blake is in 8th grade, and Bryant LOVES having him around.

Thank you Legers for joining us and making it such a nice, easy, relaxing evening.