Three Little Monkeys Sittin' In The Tree...

Ok. About a third of the wood is stacked. Ran out of daylight. And as promised, here are the boy's school pictures. Aaron kinda looks like an innocent little orphan. He looks like he's saying "Please take me home". Matthew, in case you can't tell, is wearing his New York Giants jersey. He was adopted. Collin, on the other hand, is wearing a Redskins t-shirt. Smart boy. But that hair. Sheesh. What a mop. He's since got it cut. He no longer looks like a founding member of The Monkeys. Although he does still like to monkey around. Sorry. Couldn't resist. Talk to you soon.

8-0 Baby!

Well, it's official. The Cape Vikings Pee Wees are 8-0! They beat Laurel today 16-0. Sixth shut-out of the season. We play again Saturday to see who is top dog in the state and moves on to regionals. Depending on who wins a game Wednesday night, we may play the same Laurel team again Saturday. We'll have to wait and see. Matthew blocked his tail off today. Really proud of him. If anyone wants to see some smash mouth football, be at Milford High School at 3:00 on Saturday. If you live in, oh I don't know, Maine, you may want to leave a little early to get there on time. If you can't make it, I'll let you know how it goes.

We got this year's school pictures for all the boys. I'll try to post them later tonight. Right now, I've got to go stack all the firewood I split last Sunday. If I don't get it all done today, I'll be hosting a wood stacking party tomorrow. All the fresh air and sunshine you can handle. Party starts promptly at 9:00 a.m. Bring a friend. Or two.

Interesting Week. And It's Only Thursday

Matthew's team won Saturday. We beat Milford 24-0. Our defense's fifth shut-out of the season. One game to go against arch rival Laurel. Laurel's pee-wee team hasn't lost a regular season game in like eleven seasons. They were the eastern region champs last season. The boys' goal is to be the team to break the streak. I'll let you know how it goes.



BREAKING NEWS!!



This just in. Collin's formerly underachieving football team (0-4 record) won their first game today! It wasn't pretty, but we'll take it. Hopefully this will give them some much needed confidence. We'll have to wait and see.


Tuesday I went on a field trip with Matthew to Philadelphia. We went to the Franklin Institute. Good trip, but a two and a half hour school bus ride, each way, with a bunch of sixth graders, it was a long day. The best part, for me anyway, was on the way there. We were still on I-76 and had just entered Philly. We were passing some pretty run down row houses. Graffiti on the buildings, old cars, trash, the usual. All the kids were looking out the windows when one of them yelled out, "Look, it's the ghetto!" I almost fell off my seat. You can really tell we live in the country.


One more story and I'll leave you alone. I promise. After dinner tonight, Aaron decided he wanted to play a game on the Wii. He picked out a game that he saw his brothers frequently play. You're an alien and you go around shooting all the humans. Not the most educational game in the world, but whatever. Anyway, he told Linda that he'll turn down the sound so he can't hear the bad words that they say in the game. Mind you, the rating on this game is teen, not mature. Linda asked him "What words do they say?" Aaron said "I can't say them. It's words that Daddy says". Ok. Now before you go on the "see I told you so" kick, the word they say is dumbass. Not the most offensive word I've ever used. In fact, it's kind of a term of endearment in our house. When one of the boys does something stupid that we all get a good laugh at, sometimes I'll say, jokingly of course, "You little dumbass!" And then we all laugh some more. I'm going to chalk it up to having all boys. I don't think a little girl would take her Dad calling her a little dumbass very well. But with boys, it's like "Yeah, I AM a little dumbass! Now who wants to pull my finger?"

Ok. I lied. I do have one more story. Not really a story. More of a gripe. Tuesday, after the field trip, Matthew and I were on our way to football practice. We were flicking through the stations, when I came across a slow song. It sounded familiar when I first heard it, so I stopped on it for a second. That's when we realized. It was a really bad version of Silent Night! That's right. Christmas music! It was Tuesday, OCTOBER 18TH!!! Are you kidding me?! It was like I was living in Bizarro World or something. Who in the world would want to listen to Christmas music in October? Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas music. We play it a lot in our house. But not until December! Hopefully the program manager of that station will look back in January, after listening to three months of Christmas music and say, "Man, that WAS a bad idea. Everyone was right. I really AM a dumbass." We can only hope. Happy Holidays everyone!!

Kickin' Butts and Humpin' Mutts

Ok. Time for an update. The last time I posted, the Cape Vikings were 4-0. Fast forward two weeks or so, and viola! 6-0. Two games to go. The boys are playing well. When I say "boys" I'm referring to Matthew's team. Collin's middle school team? Not so much. 0-3. Game number four in about two hours. This season has been a whole new experience for Collin. In school ball, unlike Pop Warner, there's no weight limit. Some of these boys, and I use the term "boys" lightly, that Collins is playing against are six feet something two hundred plus pounds. Some of them have mustaches. I think I saw one of Collin's teammates kiss his wife and kids goodbye before the last game. Then he drove them all home after the game in his SUV. Ok, maybe I exaggerate just a little, but you get my point. Kind of hard to throw the ball when you've got a six foot something tall, two ton wall of beef closing in on you from all sides. Oh, yeah. Did I mention nobody likes to block on Collin's team? Makes for a LONG day. Good experience for him though. He actually didn't do so well in their first game and his coach benched him and now he's second string QB instead of first. But I think he's feeling a little redeemed because the now starting QB is having the same issues Collin did. Nowhere to run, nowhere to throw! Oh well. It's only week four. There's still time for improvement.

In other news, Matthew once again qualified for Pop Warner Scholastic All-American. This year the banquet is being held at Walt Disney World instead of crappy old Chicago like last year. We didn't go to last year's in Chicago because, well, it's Chicago. Eeesh. No thanks. We'll have to see about this year's banquet. Disney World sounds mighty tempting. We've never taken the kids there. They REALLY want to go. We'll see. Depends on work and paying off some bills.


Izzy, the ever growing, constantly chewing, never stops running, and now as an added bonus, frequently humping, golden retriever is doing well. But man is he getting LARGE. Just shy of six months old and he's fifty-seven pounds. We thought we were safe as far as his size was concerned because the breeder told us that his dad was sixty-five pounds and his mom was sixty. Well, he's just three pounds shy of his mom's weight already. He'll probably put that on before I finish this post. I think we were dooped. We didn't get a golden retriever. We got a mutt. Half golden, half miniature pony. I'm going to start renting him out for kid's birthday parties. But seriously, the only bad thing right now is he's got the body of an adult, but the mind of a puppy. And no, Linda, that does not accurately describe me too. He'll do things just playing around, not realizing how strong, big and clumsy his is, and knock you on your butt. The other day, Linda was standing in the kitchen and Izzy walked up and stood behind her. I know you probably think this is where the humping comes in, but it's not. Sorry. Linda, not knowing he was even there, took a step back, fell over him, and dislocated her shoulder. Luckily, she was able to pop it back in place. Then two days later, he did the same thing to Dianne. Only without dislocating anything. Eventually, I'm sure he will grow into his body. Until then, if you come to our house, wear some football gear. You may need it.



Well, that's all for now. Have to get ready to go to Collin's football game. See ya!