Sorry Mom

It has been a crazy week. In chaos, I missed blogging about my mom's birthday, which was on Friday. She is the same age as my dad. I guess technically she's a senior citizen, although she hasn't yet acknowledged that fact. Most of the time that's amusing, but on Wednesday, it ended with an overnight visit to the emergency room. I'll spare the details, but in a nutshell, she fell and broke her arm. The boys are looking forward to signing her cast.

She's been amazing. Oh sure, she still goes out of her way to embarrass all of us. That's ok--that's in the Mom's Handbook, so I understand. All of the neighborhood kids and my sons' friends call here Grandma Joan. She was active at the boys' elementary school throughout their years, as well as when my niece attended. Every year, there was a VIP day for parents or grandparents. One little boy in Matt's class was unable to have family members attend, so my mom always went as his VIP so that he could share all of what he had done with someone who cared. My mom has also lent the school several pieces from her rather extensive holiday collections (Hallowe'en and Christmas) for display in the lobby.

Mom rarely fails to attend one of the boys games. I've told her that she doesn't need to make the long trip up to places like Dexter or Chelsea, but she still likes to make the trip (another example of her refusing to grow old even as the calendar moves).

My young Logan is very attached to his GiGi. She takes care of him three days a week. I'm sure that she'll make it to all of his VIP days and sporting functions as well.

So Mom, Happy Belated Birthday.

A new season of DWTS

A new season of Dancing with the Stars began on Monday. I am not going to do the low-down of who is who. I'll just give some general reflections this time around.

• The first man out was the right one. Jeffery Ross couldn't dance and he wasn't particularly funny, although in the end, his praise for his partner was surprisingly touching.
• Ted McGinley was this year's Steve Guttenberg. I wish "Ace" would have lasted a bit longer, but oh well.
• I don't get the whole Brooke Burke thing.
• Warren Sapp is graceful. Who'd have thunk it?
• I have a soft spot for Cloris Leachman. She was Phyllis on the Mary Tyler Moore show and the subsequent spin-off. Mike Allen used to sing the theme song from "Phyllis" to me in Mr. Tienvieri's history class in 1977. Anyway, I about peed my pants laughing last night as I watched her dancing and dishing out the tom foolery (which was a great bar in Mt. Pleasant in the late 70's and early 80's). She won't go all the way, but she'll make it entertaining.
• I'm cheering for Toni Braxton or Misty May-Treanor this time. You girls rock.
• The others are fun, but eh.

On a side note, did you know that "thunk" doesn't come up as wrong on a spell-check?? Have to add that one to my pet peeves list.

Oh What A Night!

Actually, what a couple of nights. On Thursday, the Bedford Freshman and JV football teams travelled up to Ann Arbor to take on the Huron River Rats on their turf. Both teams emerged victorious, with similar scores--20 to 14 for the Frosh and 21-14 for the JV, although the games were paced very differently. The Freshmen were dominant--the game was nowhere near as closely played as the score indicates. Matt is the backup quarterback, and when his good friend Aaron went down with an injury, he had to step in. He did a very good job, but timing was a bit off on a couple of plays, which resulted in fumbles by either him or the RB, ending drives deep into River Rat territory. A field goal attempt by first year player Nick Harvey just missed as well. What a terrific group of kids! They all played well.

JV was a close game from start to finish. The great off-season conditioning Coach Wood ran really made the difference. The JV RR were visibly exhausted in the 4th quarter. The defense did their job when it counted most! Having watched all 3 games in this series, I'd have to say the Huron JV team was the best of the 3, and it was encouraging that our boys played as powerfully as they did.

Then there's varsity. It was a crazy day, but oh, what a night! It was a designated "white out" game, and the football moms sold over 1000 themed t-shirts for the occasion. We originally had ordered something like 600. We had to do several special orders. The last one arrived just in time for the pep rally. Trying to get them distributed was a circus. Then we had a lasagna malfunction when it came time to feeding the boys, so more chaos.

At game time, the stands were full. I went over to the other side to see the impact of the "white out." It was very cool--probably 85% of those in the stands were wearing white, and the home side of the field basically glowed. I took a couple of pictures, but they don't do it justice.

No one thought our boys could pull this one off--no one other than the families and the coaches seem to have confidence in the team. The first half was a defensive battle--the Mules scored pretty quickly and Huron answered, then the defenses held tight. The second half was a different matter. Nate Davis and Doug Harmon had the offense going on all cylinders. They put on quite a show. The O-line was impressive. While some think they are undersized, they did a good job of leveling the "big boys" across the ball. Our kids may not have the pounds or height of some of our opponents, but they are like a brick wall and they know how to execute!

And what can you say about our defense??? AWESOME, AWESOME evening boys!!! Big plays when things got tight (the interception on the 1 yard line changed the whole rhythm of the game!) and consistent pressure kept the Huron offense on the sideline for most of the game.

Go Mules, and thank you! You made us proud!

BUZZZZ OFF!!!

Earlier this year, I read an article about the hazards of a dying bee population. Well, I can tell the beekeepers of the world where all the bees have gone...they are residing in my attic. Um, that is, they were residing in my attic until I waged chemical warfare earlier this afternoon. I swear, there were several MILLION (well, ok, seriously, several hundred) swarming around the window, and at least a hundred more dead on the floor from the stifling heat of the attic. Apparently there is a nest under the eaves, and they are coming in through the vents. What makes it worse is the fact that I have two kids who have very nasty allergic reactions to bee stings--not life threatening thus far, but enough that we've made trips to the emergency room because the localized swelling is so bad. I understand the role bees playing in making my gardens look lovely and can tolerate bees in that environment. I refuse, however, to share my overall living space with them. Yuck.

I'm also starting to see spiders...big, hairy spiders. I whacked one that was crawling on the ceiling in my family room the other day. I was pretty sure that I had put it out of its misery, but all I managed to do was to knock it into the crevice in my couch. The vacuum cleaner eventually swallowed it. Yuck again.

Well, I suppose I could have the birds in the attic or the field mice in the family room or the groundhogs under deck as I've had in the past. Regardless, I'll going out to restock my creepy crawly removal arsenal.

Cheer, Cheer for Ol' Bedford High

We are now one-third of the way through the high school football season. It has been an exciting season thus far--at all levels.

The Freshman team is doing well. Thursday's game was especially exciting! As the game wound down, the score was tied 20-20. Adrian went for the bomb with 4 seconds left and missed, but alas, there was a pass interference call against our young Mules, so Adrian got another shot with an expired clock. Their QB lofted it toward the end zone, where it was tipped into the hands of "T", who returned it 80 yards for a touchdown and the win. There are a few more gray hairs today among freshmen parents!

JV are also looking strong. They've played 3 tight games, but have managed a winning record. The teams that they have played against certainly know they've been in a battle--this is a VERY physical, hard-hitting group of kids.

Varsity is 1-2, but they have played to the very end in every game, and it has made for some heart-pounding action. The Airport game was disappointing, but the kids NEVER gave up. Saline was a game for the ages! A TD with 44 seconds to go, then the gutsy decision to go for 2 and the win (which was successfully executed!). Good stuff! Last night's game at Adrian was also exciting although our boys couldn't quite pull it off. Take 4 plays away (or even 1 of the 5 turnovers), and the score could have gone the opposite direction. Adrian is a highly ranked team, and people around the state didn't have very high expectations for our boys, but the Mules managed to hang with the Maples until the final seconds. The guts will bring glory. We have faith!

So, here's to the remainder of the season. Good Luck boys. Win or lose, we will always support you--but we think you can win the rest!

school days... or is it school daze?

The boys are back to school. While both protest about the agony of it all, they seemed to have enjoyed their first day back yesterday. I'm feeling a bit sleep deprived because the idea of a regular routine is still a few weeks off. Consequently, I'm getting up an hour earlier than usual to make sure THEY get up on time. I try to go back to sleep, but the ensuing chaos precludes that.

Matt came home with Geometry homework on day one. He had to find the next elements in several series, then explain how he derived the solution. Here's a sampling. (I expect Angie to have them in a snap. I got the two with names quickly. The one with letters took longer, and when we figured it out, it was one of those "doh" moments.)

What are the next two letters/names in each sequence?

OTTFFSSE

George, John, Thomas, James

George, Thomas, Abraham, Alexander...

Here's some first day of school pictures over time (2004, 2006, 2007, 2008)

Unofficial End of Summer

Labor Day is waning and the boys are getting their stuff together for the first day of school tomorrow. I guess this marks the unofficial end of summer, although the calendar still gives us another few weeks. It's hard to believe it's over--it seems like it just started.

It began with baseball and is ending with football. Views of Matt at the AA U14 State Tournament in Canton, plus a few from Thursday's Freshman Game and Friday's Varsity dinner.

We also had some landscaping done. It was beautiful before, now it's spectacular.