Goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maroonies - 2012

I took my coaching to a new level this past April and May as I volunteered to coach my daughter's U6 soccer team, the mighty Maroonies.  As opposed to the 3-4 year old set that I had coached in the past, these girls were able to understand me when I spoke, laughed at my goofiness, but fortunagely, they still had no expectations of greatness on my part.

I had a blast coming up with drills, watching them improve week to week and seeing their confidence grow day by day.  Sure, sometimes they were more interested in the "special treat" that was provided at the end of the game and at other times they wanted to practice cartwheels, but at the end of the day they seemed to have fun.  No score was kept and whenever they inquired or tried to keep track, it was discouraged (as an aside they dominated every team they played) as all I wanted them to do was have fun.

There are a few weeks left in my boy's 3-4 year old's season, and back I go to point them in the right direction, determine when they need to go potty, and try my hardest to make out just what they are saying......but one day they will be six and I hope I have laid the ground work for continued soccer fun.

Shark!!!!!!!!!

When I was a child I was into all things sports, especially baseball.  I was Rainman when it came to citing statistics of my home team, the Minnesota Twins.  I would drag my parents out to the old Metropolitan Stadium early so I could watch batting practice.  We then moved to Seattle and my love of baseball disappeared thanks in large part to the awful Kingdome and the awful Mariners.

It is with great pleasure that I now watch my little four year old and his love for......sharks.  I should say obession with sharks.  Long-nose chimera, thresher, lemon, black/white tip reef, goblin, and bull shark (just to name a few) are incorporated into every day activities and conversations.  Whether we are crossing the I-90 bridge ("I just saw a bull shark"), brushing our teeth ("This water goes to the ocean for the sharks"), or swiming at the YMCA ("Let's scuba dive with the sharks"), he finds a way to keep sharks in the mix.

Courtesy of a tip from an old high school friend (thank you Lorraine), we headed to the Point Defiance Zoo & Acquarium the other day where there is a shark tank.....jackpot!  While our little guy watched nurse sharks, lemon sharks and black tip reef sharks (as well as some very scared fish) swim around for a very long time, my wife and I simply watched the look of amazement on his face knowing it will not last forever.

Because of a great gift from our good friend Cathy, he now can also sleep every night with sharks - ok, it is a shark puppet, but every night it keeps our little guy company.  I believe the other half dozen stuffed animals sleep with one eye open now that there is a shark in the bed.

Three Year Plumber

It was a simple request that my wife made in mid-2008, fix the handle to the shower.  Mind you, the shower still worked just fine, it was aesthetically in need of some love.

I tried the patchwork approach - glue - but that failed within hours of application.  I then took the bold step and went to Lowe's and ordered a replacement of the entire unit.  The date on that order was November 2008.  I remember how excited Deborah was when the part arrived.  That excitement had to be tempered for three years.

I found a nice place for the box to sit and collect dust.  Each time Deborah asked me to fix the shower handle, I would mumble something and let her know that the current state of the shower handle had no effect on her beauty....or something like that.

Believe me, every time I showered I was reminded that I needed to get to the project, but just like electricity, water issues scare me (I will never do an outdoor lighting project).  I believe the fear comes from watching too many Three's Company episodes where Mr. Roper would attempt to fix something only for it to go awry.

Something finally froze over and I would like to say that as I type this, I hear the hum of the shower.  And yeah, it sounds a little different thanks to my handy work.

I was a High School Basketball'er

As many people know, because I find a way to wind it into conversations, I played high school basketball at Newport High School in Bellevue (Go Knights!).  We were awful as in pathetic, as in horrible, as in embarrassingly bad.  We won one game and lost nineteen.

Attendance at our games was spotty, we rarely made it into the local newspaper and ESPN never really showed must interest in us either.

While working out today, looking at the little television screen in front of me for inspiration ("can a 43 year old make it in the NBA," I wonder as the calorie counter slowly clicks off calories), I see a promo for an upcoming televised double-header.....for high school basketball on ESPN this evening.  What?!

I realize it is not 1986 (despite my musical tastes and sense of style) but to raise high school basketball to the level of being worthy of a national broadcast on ESPN seems to be just one more example of society making our children grow up faster and faster... and putting extreme, adult pressure on kids who should still just enjoy being part of a team.  We were lucky to have enough basketballs for everyone to use.  Nowadays, there are multiple assistant coaches, student trainers, flashy sweatsuits, and now television cameras showing up at regular season games.  Maybe I am just jealous and I reserve the right to change my tune when my children make varsity, but shouldn't we let kids just enjoy playing the game in front of the pep band, student body and adoring parents?

Such an Angry Bird

For the past several days we have had a very good friend of ours stay with us.  He is the perfect guest - incredible cook, generous in every sense of the word, kids adore him, and most importantly, he comes with an Ipad.

Since his arrival on Sunday evening we have not seen or really heard from our children except for the occasional call out for food and beverage.  If we could feed them intravenously, they would be happier.  They are addicted to Angry Birds and it is not pretty.

The first words uttered each morning relate to Angry Birds and access to the Ipad.  Bedtime routines are thrown out the window and negotiations center around how many more turns each child gets.
Yes, I will admit that I enjoy sending birds flying through the air, but when my little guy uttered that he likes Angry Birds more than Batman, I knew we had a problem.

Our friend's visit is a gentle wake-up call/reminder that as much fun as Xbox-Ipad-Wii would be (mostly for me), the rapid disappearance of children into a technological void where they barely recognize if it is night or day leaves some very lonely parents behind.

Guess and Go

Our first child has entered the wonderful world of academia (see earlier post) and is now a seasoned veteran of Kindergarten.  I am hoping it is only a one year experience and based on what she is learning and regurgitating at home, I think she is doing well.

One aspect of Kindergarten that I wish I could apply in my everyday life is what is known as Guess and Go.  It is a simple concept - teaching children how to spell and write based on intuition.  They simply sound out the word they want to spell and put letters that they think make those sounds.  For example, if one were to say "I played baseball today," the Guess and Go would look like "I plad bsbal tuda." 

When our daughter brings home her sentences from school, it is kind of like trying to read someone elses vanity license plate, and when you finally figure it out, you feel like you just solved the puzzle on Wheel of Fortune. 

Today where everything has a spell check, thesaurus and grammar check at the click of a mouse, it is nice to see old school teaching still exists.  I know it will not be long before we are fighting over using the computer.  Until then, I wil smpley uz mi Ges n Go.

Eating our way to Fairhaven

Our kids love an unplanned adventure, and so do we.  Despite the downpour, we all packed into the car, cranked on the Wiggles tunes and headed north with a general sense of what we wanted to see, fall color, but no idea just where to see it.

Before we knew it, we were exiting I-5 and heading to LaConner with a quick stop at Skagit River Produce, where we picked up organic Honey Crisp apples for $1.50/pound, some of the sweetest corn at 5/$1.00 and met two (Brownie and Maggie) sweet labradorfs (as our little guy calls them), one of whom peels her own corn and eats the kernels off, leaving a very clean cobb.

With a brief stop in LaConner for nourishment we were off to Chuckanut Drive on our way to Fairhaven.  On the way, we passed through thet tiny town of Edison, where the bakery (neither my wife nor her family has ever driven by a bakery without stopping) pulled us in like a magnet.  Two loaves of bread later, we were back on the road only to stumble upon Taylor Shellfish Farms' tiny little store front down a one lane road, nestled on Samish Bay.  Two pounds of mussels and a dozen Kusshi oysters later, we were finally getting closer to Fairhaven and the famous double-decker bus, home to some of the best fish and chips in the Pacific Northwest.

The last time we had visited the Fairhaven Fish & Chips bus was years ago, so it was fun to introduce the kids to an old favorite spot. Summed up, the day was a great one. We saw some of the beloved spots we hadn't seen in years, and were thrilled when the kids had a positive response as well. The long car ride went surprisingly well with minimum fuss, and the kids even embraced the "assignment" of drawing pictures when they got home of some of the things they saw during  the day.  We're looking forward to our next family adventure day... and this time the kids are, too.