Everybody Gets Knocked Down

I saw this on another blog I read. I thought this was really cool. It is true, everybody gets knocked down, but the degree to which we allow ourselves to stay down is our choice.  I chose to get up and move forward. 

Right now, I can think of one young man who chose not to stay down, and is fighting to stay up.  He is only 26 years old and has more conviction and courage than anyone I know.  He's not staying down and never would.  Blue, stay cool and keep kicking some butt!  I look forward to seeing you soon!




If you're interested, the song in the video is called "Ali In The Jungle" by The Hours.

The sound heard all over.........

The day is grey, full of anticipation of an event in its 40th year of existence.  The male of the species has gathered in mini clusters for the viewing of a spectacle of intense anticipation.  Three and half long quarters have passed, the score is CLOSE, very close.

There is a flicker, then the powering down of appliances.  I step outside to see if there are others in the same boat.  As I open the door and walk outside I hear very clearly a collective ......."NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"

I swear every male in the neighborhood began to howl all at once.  That must have been the longest 30 seconds of the day to create the sound heard all over the neighborhood. 

The forgiveness power of tuna fish

Tuna, for centuries has given its eaters pleasure of taste and nourishment. Tuna has another purpose, forgiveness, at least for a cat. See my cat, she was dirty. She would look at me with golden eyes taunting me with the arrogant look that I would never think of bathing her. She was wrong. So today, with the purpose of tidying up loose ends, I filled the kitchen sink with warm water. The titan struggle began between me and my cat.

The cat weighing in at 10 pounds, and me, well I won’t say what I weigh in at, struggled for control. Thank goodness for opposable thumbs, that really gave me the advantage. Not to mention my cunning wit and keen sense of strategy. The cat and I engage.

The first moments of realization for her that the sink was filled with water was a shock to say the least and the deep guttural meows of displeasure of her predicament yielded to the end result of a rather wet and clean cat.

After a good towel drying, I knew I must make peace with the cat. What could that be? Talking wasn’t working; the promise of a good brushing was not working either. Ah HA! Tuna, a cat’s weakness will be the ultimate bribe.  She still will not look me straight in the eye but I know I made a dent in the forgiveness wall with the offering of tuna fish.  So folks, if you have a cat and the animal needs a bath, have a can of tuna at your fingertips.  I will let you know if she plots my demise tonight while I am sleeping.  I may have to lock the bedroom door. 

The Kids are Alright

These kids are alright!  We had a break in the weather where the sun actually made an appearance, so we took the opportunity to do some old fashioned puddle splashing.  I grabbed the camera, which I have not done in awhile, and the kids graced me with standing still for a millisecond.

They make me laugh, they make me smile, I am grateful for their silliness. The best part of puddle splashing is the warm chocolate milk, a bath, warm snuggly clothes and good movie.

How to Wrap a Cat

We all need a laugh sometime

Look out Pele, here comes "The Kat"

So I am going to be upfront with this information. I am COMPETITIVE! I can't help it, especially when it comes to sports. No one is harder on me than myself. The push to perform consistently and well. I played sports, intramural and in community leagues. Softball was my main thing but I dabbled in volleyball, broomball, and everything else in between. Well except golf. Golf is a whole other post.

So what I am trying to say is that with the excessive competitiveness comes the ugly triple headed sports mom. Now, I have seen them, watched them and told myself "pfheww, I will NOT be like that with my kids", however that little monster peeked her ugly head out of the shell last night. I scared myself.

That realization that I had just made a complete ASS of myself in front of others (it is bad when you do that in front of the people you love, but a whole different matter when it is people you don't know) I felt the hot eyes. And I fully deserved every bit of disdain I received. I own the ridicule.

I was a hard on the Kat. I forgot that this is her first year playing, I forgot she is not physically conditioned yet to keep running, I forgot she does not know about protocol and procedures.

Luckily this league is forgiving to these young athletes and are more understanding of a young six year old and her propensity to over dramatized her fatigue for the masses. Not all of it was pure exhaustion. Learn from my mistake and turn the lesson into how can I help her and keep the triple headed sports mom in the van.

Here are some shots of the last two games. In the end, they had fun and so did I. The Kat is a great defender, she has had two halves of playing the goalie and kick some rumpus. These kids make this game sooo much more exciting than any sporting event with adults. Pure joy of being a kid let loose and kicking a ball. Autopilot all the way, and they always travel in a pack, aka "bunch ball".

I need to work on my action photography.

Excellent job, my dear. I am soooo very proud of you and all the hard work.