November 16 at Olivet

Saturday:  I have only gone to one other Olivet game this season--I intended to attend ALL home games this year; but "the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry ..." to quote Robert Burns from 200 years ago (or more). One thing or another prevented me going to other home games--but today was free and clear! My only hesitation was driving ALONE for 90 minutes to and from Olivet. I have a terrible malady of falling asleep while driving -- well, not ACTUALLY falling asleep -- but ALMOST. It's a terrible feeling to not be able to stay awake while driving 70 mph on a highway.

BUT ... I committed the drive to the Lord and asked for His protection there and back. Other than getting terribly lost (no surprises there!) on the WAY to the game, everything worked out fine. I had handwritten the directions, every turn at every single road (according to Mapquest on my computer), but somewhere along the way, I took a wrong turn. Olivet is out in the middle of NOWHERE. Farm roads for miles and endless miles. Gorgeous farm country I might add. Hardly any gas stations. No road signs (well ... hardly any!). I finally pulled into a drive and decided I would look at the map program on my phone to see where on earth I was. Unfortunately, however, I had deleted that APP months ago because I decided it was worthless.

Thankfully, I have watched other people add "apps" on their phones, so I just went to the App Store and selected Google Maps and installed it! Hah! The map showed me that I hadn't strayed too far off course (thankfully) and I showed up to the game at exactly 1:00 (when the game began). I had to park quite a long way from the stadium, but I finally got to the stands only to find that Hope University was already leading 14-0 and it was only 5 minutes into the game (per the game clock). Jeeps.

By the end of the first quarter, it was 35-ZERO. Sigh. 

I have a gripe with coaches who do not play their guys. This was the last game of the season. Do you mean to tell me when the score was something like 41 to 6 that you can't put in your second string to give them some experience and confidence at playing in a LIVE game? Disgusting that this coach does not do that. Obviously, I am NOT a coach ... so what do I really know? But STILL ...

And look who came with Kaity to the game? Ayden!!! These two are so funny together ...

And look! Emma was there too! I was SUPER happy to see her. It was about 50 degrees and very windy during the game ... so we were COLD. Emma had these cool hand warmers with her and she let me use one of them. I'm going to have to check into getting some of my own--they are wonderful! And it was so nice to sit near Emma and have the JOY of being with her during the game.

As half time was being called, I heard some people in the stands say that you could go down to the field and the team would High-5 you on their way to the locker room ... so I wandered on in beyond the fenced-in area and stood and waited ...

... but it turns out that no one told the TEAM about high-5-ing anyone ... so they all just went into the locker room, bypassing all of the folk who had gathered for the honor of greeting the players. Oh well.

This is the Comets mascot. I haven't the slightest idea WHO it is supposed to be. Perhaps a totally made-up character.

See the picture of Kaity below? See the smudge on her face? Rats. I had no idea there was a smudge on my camera lens and henceforth the remaining pictures ALL have smudges on them.

Kaity had just eaten a rather large portion of BLUE cotton candy. It's difficult to determine in these "bad" photos, but the result of eating BLUE cotton candy was that Kaity had BLUE teeth and BLUE lips.

The second half of the game wasn't much better than the first--well ... Hope didn't score as many points at least. If they had scored 35 points in each quarter, they would have had 140 points total. Unheard of.

Olivet through a stinking amount of intercepts and just could not stop Hope from much of anything.

You have to admire these Comets though. And I DO. It's a lot of hard work to be on a college football team. I am proud of Chris for all the work he puts into it.

After the game, we all waited to greet Chris. Here he is, looking like a red mummy.

I love these pictures ...

I think Chris and Ella make such a nice couple ... four years now ... wow. Chris speaks very highly of Ella. I remember one time this summer when Chris came over to see me and I asked him how it was that he and Ella maintained a long-distance relationship! I told him how rare it was that this ever worked. He answered: "Where am I going to find a great girl like Ella?" Ah. Good answer, Chris. 

Mmmmm. Regretful that Matt isn't here with us today. I love these pictures of these three ... would have been better, though, with Matt here too.

We talked Ayden into getting into a picture with Chris too. I'm not sure what this goofy smile is about ... Ayden is a crack-up.

It was good to be here today, Christopher! I love you so much.

Diana took this picture of Chris and I and was kind enough to forward it over to me. 

 

November 15 Lovely Kiddos

Friday:  Sir Callaghan was intent on playing basketball today. I usually have this little hoop in my laundry hallway, hanging high on the door that leads to the spare room. But that hallway is so narrow and the hoop is so far beyond Cal's reach that he continually requests that I LIFT him up closer to the hoop so that he can dunk it. This, however, is a bit of a problem for ME. Last I knew, Cal weighed 38 pounds--and these are SOLID pounds. This kid is one tough little kid. I'm finding it more and more difficult to actually lift him. I can still ride him on my back, but lifting from the front just doesn't work anymore.

SO ... I moved our little hoop into the kitchen area and put it lower on one of the cupboards. Cal was very pleased; except it was WAY TOO EASY for him to just stand next to the hoop, lift his body up on his tippy-toes, and very simply place the ball in the hoop. And I did let him do this for awhile--but really! This isn't any way to learn how to shoot hoops!

I eventually moved the hoop up one cupboard higher, which made it more difficult--but not impossible for Cal to shoot the ball and every now and again actually have it go through the hoop. I found that Cal enjoyed playing more in the wide open space than he does in the hallway, and it was easier for me too.

Cal insisted that each time we actually "scored" some sort of fanfare ought to happen; so we settled on my whistle and blew it with great gusto when either of us made a basket.

Here is Cal after running around shooting hoops for 10 solid minutes. He was exhausted.

The picture below: Look at his face!!! Isn't he a scream?

After we had exhausted basketball, we were looking for something interesting to do around here and I got to thinking that Cal had never played with either "Rat" or "Charlie" -- with good reason, too! These two puppets are marionettes and are a bit fragile because of how easy it is to tangle up their strings. Knowing that Cal is a rather rambunctious little guy, I haven't shown these to him! He's a roughian! 

SO ... he and I had a little talk. I told Cal all about "Rat" and "Charlie", explaining how careful one must be to play with them and his dear little soul assented to "being VERY careful". 

Cal was SO PLEASED! He did an excellent job of taking care of "Huskie" (we changed his name from "Rat" to "Huskie" because Cal insisted that this puppet was NOT A RAT!!!). I agree! So, he is now "Huskie."

Cal was quite taken with him!

Then I fetched "Charlie" and showed Cal how to make him walk one foot at a time, which cracked Cal up.

But, being VERY careful, little Cal managed to make "Charlie" walk!

Doesn't Cal completely crack you up???

He even took a 2 second nap with his new friends. Since it was nearly 3:00 by then, I relented and put a "Hot Wheels" video on for Cal while I cleaned the place up a bit. Animated cartoons are NOT what they used to be in even my boys' day. Terrible art! Stupid story lines! And VIOLENCE in every single story. No wonder Cal has to make every toy of mine enter into a war to the finish! He even does this with PlayDoh!

Cal slept in my car on the way to his house and then we played with the other kids when they came home from school.

Aidan set up an area in the basement to play "I SPY." [note the items in the cleared out area.]

I brought along my game of "Sleeping Queens" for Erin and I to play because last week she mentioned playing the game with one of her neighbor friends. We played two games. Erin won both of them!!!

We went back downstairs and played until Dylan and Kelly texted me to bring the kiddos over to Holy Trinity by 6:00. Erin was showing me all of her unicorns that her mom had found while cleaning the basement! Yay, Kelly!