With us being in California last weekend for the big birthday bash, our eldest missed his first flag football game. (the previous week was snowed out) He’s super excited for the game and he’s pretty good at throwing, catching, running (he’s super fast with those long legs) and making people miss. Both boys played great at soccer yesterday. The oldest had his game first and by halftime were down 3 to 0. Then he took over as goalie and his team stormed back out scoring the other team 4 to 1 in the second half for a 4/4 tie. The only goal he allowed was virtually impossible to stop as the player from the other team just made a great cross field pass to another player who then kicked it in. Other than that, nothing got by him. Then 2 hours later, the youngest one was up. The coach on the other team (for some reason, he must have been a frustrated athlete when he was a kid) decided he was going to make one of his kids a goalie. This is against the rules for the age group the littlest one plays in, but oh well, what can you do. He (the opposing coach) was also way too strict trying to enforce everything he could against our team. (if a kid put his hand up and even waved at the ball when it was going by, he called a hand ball even though it was never touched) On top of that, he actually cheated to help his team. All of us parents on our side of the field were in shock! The misses just told me to let it go and our coach being a good christian just smiled and said whatever every time the opposing coach would “cheat”. He’s not helping his kids at all teaching them in this way. I suggested we have our women go across the field and beat up their women! Anyhow the littlest played the best game of his life! He didn’t score a goal but had 4 near misses. He was great on offense and defense and would steal the ball every time their goalie had a goal kick. He would kind of hunch down like he was getting ready for a sneak attack, standing just a bit off to the side. (I think he thought no one could see him if he hunched down a few inches, he looked like a mountain lion or cat ready to pounce on his prey) When the goalie would begin to run to kick the ball, he too would begin to run to where he thought the goalie would kick it. He’d then intercept the ball as soon as the kid kicked it. Now this really didn’t make the other coach happy at all but was just a smart legal play. It was just that no one would expect anyone in the 7 year old league to anticipate the goalies kick like our littlest one did. Time after time he’d stop the ball or it would actually bounce off him and head right back towards the other teams goal. He really should have scored at least 4 times, once on a deflection from being in the right spot at the right time (he now calls this his sneak attack move) and 3 others that he kicked right into the goal but bounced off their goalie. If the other coach was following the rules (no goalies!) he would have scored 3 times. Anyhow you’re not supposed to keep score at this age either but their coach was doing this as well. So when it was all said and done, we won 5 to 3 and that includes 1 goal for them that one of our players scored. (he got turned around and ran down the field the wrong way and kicked it right into his own goal!)
So, great play by both of our little athletes. On the way home we swung by this great mexican restaurant (La Loma) to pick up some green chili to put on our hamburgers for dinner. Boy was it a hot batch. We just had some on eggs this morning and my mouth is still burning. We also picked up one order of fried ice cream (they somehow deep fry ice cream in a cinnamon corn flake coating) for the boys to split. The kids of course wanted to go in and eat dinner there but that would have cost at least $75, so instead we picked up our green chili and ice cream for $12, a $63 savings! The rest of the day was spent with some cleaning, a few work phone calls with my partner who had just landed in Rome, and some laundry. Mom was wiped out and needed a nap for a few hours which was well deserved. She works today from 11 to 6. She and the oldest are disappointed she’ll miss the first football game.
The dog woke me at 1am to go outside and then again at 5am for the day. I’m not very happy about being awaken at 1am but am used to getting up around 5 each morning anyhow. After reading the paper, I headed off to the gym. My back is almost all better, knock on wood, and I’m glad to be able to get back into my exercise routine. This has been the worst episode I’ve had with my back. It’s taken almost a month to fully heal. Must be getting old but now I’m more determined than ever to fight off this aging thing or whatever it’s called. I know a few people who are on HGH (human growth hormone) and they’re losing weight, getting much stronger and appear super fit, BUT their noses and ear lobes are really growing too! Just doesn’t seem natural, I’m sure either months or years from now they’ll find something wrong or some weird side effect.
The oldest one just bounded down the stairs and has no voice. We’ll see in an hour or so if he’s faking or really lost his voice. He did have a sore throat last night, must be allergies. The youngest one’s little friend is already over (8am) and they’re upstairs watching the new Harry Potter movie. Mom’s at the L.O.L.’s house shooting up the little dog with insulin and it looks like a nice day.
I made pretty good progress on the basement the other day but have a long way to go. I have a meeting at 9:30 in the morning in Vail and 2:30 in the afternoon in Boulder so we’ll be putting some miles on tomorrow. The Denver Nuggets (our basketball team) begin their playoff games tonight so we’re all excited for that! Too bad it’s on at 7:30 as the oldest really wants to see it but will need to get to bed as it’s back to school tomorrow.
Scooby Doo is on the boob tube right now so I’m missing all the political talking heads and their propaganda. Lucky for all of you as there will be no political musings today.
It is Palm Sunday though so say a prayer and be thankful for everything you have in life. I was in Barcelona a few years ago on Palm Sunday and remember the festivities in the public squares. All the little kids were carrying 10 to 15 foot tall palm frawns while the elder folks were all celebrating by dancing some centuries old dance passed down from generation to generation in these big groups, it was quite a sight. I can only imagine Rome today with all the crowds to see and hear the Pope. We’ll miss church today but will be there next Sunday am for sure.
Speaking of passing things down from generation to generation, this seems to be all but forgotten with todays generation. You see, years ago, the elders or oldest people were most revered for their knowledge and wisdom. Somewhere in the past 20 or 30 years, (probably due to television and/or technology) the younger generation all of a sudden thought they knew it all and were smarter than the “old people”and ignored learning from the life experiences of their elders. If you think about it, we never listen to our parents when we’re young but there comes a point in life when you have that “aha” moment and realize they were right all along.
So as an exercise for our family (all of you that read our blog), I challenge each of you elders (you know who you are) to share some bit of wisdom with the younger ones in our family. This can be anything you’ve learned in life that you think will help. Failure to do so will result in some sort of penalty, probably financial to the administrator, me. So let’s get it done.
As they say, Praise God and ask forgiveness for your sins and you’ll be saved. I have an Italian partner whose grandfather never really much believed in God but went to church every Sunday. When asked why he went if he didn’t believe, his response was, “what if I’m wrong”. The oldest came home the other day telling us that one of his classmates didn’t believe in God which prompted the little one to say, “how can that be, God made us and everything”. Both boys have a good belief foundation but we need to keep getting them to church when we can. Oh well, see what you get, I give you a break from politics and now you get religion.
Have a great day and stay safe and enjoy Holy Week, God bless