Jrs vs Srs

I've been catching up on housework and emails today. Things at school seem to be easing up. Powder Puff football game tonight -- helped Jesse set up the tunnel for the sr. girls to run through. Corky ran the chains on the jr's side, and Justin was the coach for the sr. girls. Also worked in the concession stand for all 4 qtrs of a playoff game for a 1A team at our stadium last night -- I was totally exhausted last night!!!!!

7-on-7 Football

The boys played 7-on-7 football in Lampasas.
Here are a couple of links to the Highlander News Stories that were done for the season:

Gridiron Relief for MF Hopeful
Mustangs Storm the Field in 7-on-7 Games

Expensive, Busy Summer

I've been dealing with Corky and his track stuff - almost made it to the Junior Olympics! but we were in San Antonio 5 times in a 3-week period for meets and qualifiers - and helping with the 7 on 7 football team. Here's the thing about 7 on 7 - I'm helping coach (believe it or not) because when the head coach resigned at the HS, the guy who was his old buddy that was coaching 7 on 7 just quit coaching the 7 on 7 kids. They were meeting only every so often, the guy had not called anyone back about tournaments or games, and we were stuck with no one to play and only a few kids practicing every other day. Jesse and I called the LAST tournament available in the state and tried to get into a canceled spot but the people NEVER CALLED US BACK! Then this week we thought we were going to play the Drip, but we NEVER GOT CALLED BACK! Here's a word to all you MEN who are coaching 7 on 7 - GET SOME TELEPHONE MANNERS! RETURN YOUR PHONE CALLS! Anyway, hopefully we will be playing somewhere next week. The boys are chomping at the bit. We have Tshirts ready to be printed, play sheets, and wristbands with the plays on them for a no-huddle offense. Well, we went down to my dad's for the 4th of July - I told him that I was pseudo-coaching the 7 on 7 football and he started offering all kinds of ideas for plays and offenses.

Went to Jesse's parents last weekend and left Landon down there.Jesse's brother is living there now, and since it has been so long since he's seen him, we went.

My cat is laying here exhausted from his night out - I swear I'm going to put one of those mini-cams on him to see where he goes and what he does all night -- he comes in SO TIRED every day, if he comes home at all! There are some stretches that we go 2 or 3 days without seeing him. Bad little boy. But he has that purr/meow thing that he does that sounds like the Magwai song off of Gremlins and I have to put up with him.

Ok, I'm outta here - just got a call from one of the tech people at school about webpage stuff.
Duty calls...

Poe and Football

Jesse was a little behind on his research paper about Poe, but he went to class and the prof is going to let him turn it in late. He has like a B average in there -

Other stuff: 7on7 is still "on hold" The guy said that the first team didn't drop out but he has another team that might go to the JV division and let us have their spot.

I have a TON of stuff to do to get ready if we are going. Otherwise I have to get on the phone and try to arrange some scrimmages. But I'm hoping hoping hoping for the boys' sakes...

Manual Labor

Waiting on 7on7 guy to call us back. In the meantime, I returned from our 4th of July break from visiting family with some new energy. This morning (at least) I have so much I want to accomplish. AND I have the energy to do it!
Fought with Justin much of the weekend. He is getting Senioritis - and too big for his britches. Going to make a list of stuff I want to get done around the house - including the little nitpicky jobs needed to accomplish it all. My kids are fixing to do some stuff for ME for a change. I lost my entire month of June to track, GT camp, football workouts, and meetings. Time to get my house in order. I want my pool back up, and I want the yard cleaned. Yep! Gonna be some manual labor happenin'!

4th of July - 2004

We always have a big BLOW-OUT at Granny B's on the 4th of July!
It's not considered successful unless we set her yard on fire at least once...

Brenda gets the party started




Corky and Aaron look over the boxes of fireworks

Justin stops for a sip of soda before the festivities begin

Jennifer and Michaela

Banny and Kateri stay cool in the shade

Kateri gets passed around

Michaela heads for the house

McKenna nibbles on some corn on the cob

Ty has BBQ sauce on his wifebeater shirt!

Pappy helps Michaela stomp on some poppers

Aaron and Justin get ready to light it up!

Aaron, Randy, Justin, and Corky - Ready, Light, RUN!

Yes, Mickey, we see the fire....

Like father, like son - Ty sets a fire of his own

Collin and Ty sweep poppers off the porch

Landon and Ty are wiped out!

walk walk walk

I danced Fancy Shawl at the powwow on Thursday and Friday.
Corky did long jump and triple jump at the track meet in San Antonio Saturday, and the shot put and discus rings were across the stadium parking lot, across a footbridge that went over the highway, down some stairs that went down the hill from the footbridge and across a field to get to the ring area. Dadgum!

Rebuilding Plan

After the meeting deal last night we all got to talking and decided that my dad would be the best person for the position of head coach at our HS. The program has to be rebuilt after 4-5 years of destruction by the former admin/super that we had. I called him last night and told him that his grandsons NEEDED him. This TOWN needs him. (It needs an enema!) He and one other person that I can think of would be ideal - they both would have to come out of retirement and prove that they are teaching in a teaching field where there is a shortage. I may go to central office today and snoop out some more info and drop it in his lap this weekend. I told him last night to bring interview clothes and a tie and at least come over here and see what was up. I know he misses coaching-- he said my alma mater had called him and asked him to come coach for them --- so the idea of coming out of retirement isn't a complete shock. I spent the rest of the day sewing. Still have a couple of things left to sew and I have to clean house before we leave AND make a grocery list, buy groceries, pick up Justin's TIHA trophy and clean/pack the trailer. BEFORE 4pm!!!!!!!!!!Ok--I'm off.

Football Rant

We are a 4A school in Texas - you would think that football was king, right? This town is SO messed up. For years (when we first moved down here 15 years ago), this town had a championship-winning football team and everyone was pretty happy except the non-football crowd who claimed that football got all the funds, preferential treatment, the football players were druggies (more on that later), etc. The usual.
Enter a new super about 7 years ago - she told the head football coach that he was no longer the athletic director. I heard that she said she didn't want anyone in the district to have more power than she, but that is a small-town rumor, however her actions later turned out to make everyone believe it! Anyway, the coach left. We then had a series of 1 or 2 year stints of coaches with little say-so and the football program began a decline. To address the issue of drug use by athletes, band members, drama club actors, our district implemented mandatory drug testing (much needed - the admin had been burying their heads in the sand about this for years!) Well, of course, we lost half the football team. This confirmed what everyone had been saying about drug use, but this was FOUR YEARS AGO! I had a person comment to me the other day that the football team was full of drug addicts! I asked her how she thought that was possible when the team was practically cut in half by the drug testing. She said, oh well, it used to be that way. We ended up with the 6th longest losing streak in the state last year - our stands were half empty...the visitors side had more people on it than us for all the games except homecoming. I had people in town tell me that they wished they could see my kids play, but they drove to the town 10 miles away to watch THEIR team play on Friday nights so that they could see a team win. People even wore THAT school's colors around town instead of ours.
We had a staff of 12 coaches (most also coached other sports and taught content - area classes - they were strictly ASSISTANT coaches) 6 left or retired at the end of this year. Last week our new superintendent/school board reinstated the head football coach as athletic director. The girls basketball coach HAD been the athletic director (mostly in name only - remember our past super had "issues"). The kids started talking about how the head coach was getting phone calls and threats from a few of the girls' parents.
Monday night our head football coach had a heart attack. He resigned last night. The 35 boys on varsity (we had NO JV -not enough kids) started calling each other and have called a meeting at the field house tonight. I am so upset for these kids who went out every day for practice, stayed away from drugs, played their hearts out every Friday night against teams that outmanned them in size and number (3 of these teams moved up to 5A this year)...
We have 5 football coaches left - and NO head coach.
My sons feel hurt and deserted by the town, and now by the coaches.

Rant over.

TIHA

Going to work on grass dance for TIHA today - most of that SHOULD be done and I am also finding EVERYTHING I need for a jingle dress for me is DONE I just need to string jingles. I have already sewn the dress and have all the lids and bias tape. This year, I'm going to jingle dance because I am going to make those boys string jingles for me!!!!!!!!!!

Had to email the Jonathan Edwards sermon/piece to Jesse- I hope he gets it. He has a test tonight. I also have to make him start on his essay and get the outline finished tonight so that he can write the draft tomorrow. That way I can type the final draft on Thursday and he can email it to his teacher or whatever before class on Thursday, since we will be at the powwow. House is still dirty - well, messy - We have to get all this TIHA stuff finished so that we can get the trailer cleaned out TOO!!!!!!!!!!!

I might have some energy if there weren't so many people in this house! I spent last week getting the website stuff done for Jesse's college class. I have been driving him to work and driving the kids to track every morning. Picking up the kids at 10 then taking lunch to Jesse at 12. Then I pick up Jesse at 4:30 and take the boys to weight workout at 6pm on MWF - I take the boys to 7on7 football on TTh at 4pm, pick them up at 6pm and drop Jesse off at 6pm for class.
On top of this - this week I am sewing for TIHA....God bless Justin, I love him, but every time we have a powwow he wants a complete total new outfit. I STILL don't have a jingle dress, and I still don't have a set done forJesse . Today I am sewing a vest for his traditional set. Tomorrow I will be making cuffs for his grass dance (and I assume I will be finding a way to decorate his new sneakers that he bought to turn into grass dance moccasins.
On the up side - The house isn't too dirty because I made Corky clean it since he refuses to do any TIHA regalia! BUT I have Randy and Landon coming to me every hour or so trying to get rid of popups on their computers (DUH quit downloading CRAP and you won't have this problem!!!!)
OK, rant over.
Going to get started on that vest! I guess if I get the chance to do any workout at all I can come back and edit later. I am eating better...we'll see what that does for me!

Update: 5pm and still don't have all the TIHA stuff loaded and packed.

update

Justin and Corky both went to a friend's house for a birthday party tonight (even though Corky is technically grounded and I'm frustrated that Justin's room is not clean). But I will enjoy the house having some peace & quiet - Jesse has class tonight - Randy and Landon have pretty much been just playing video games so far this summer.
Saturday the boys' had a track meet...busy busy still!

Movies

probably going to go to see Shrek at the movies with Landon today!

busy busy

I need a break - Thursday was busy because I had to leave school and go decorate for the soccer banquet, then yesterday I left school and went to Landon's Field Day at the primary school. Whew!