Keep your eyes on Bulldogs #10

This is the first year Steven's games have been available online to watch the film at home.  I'm liking that I can share them with an 'embed' option.

Steven plays Cornerback.  Skip forward to 2min50secs where Steven took the feet out from under the ball carrier for the Stampeders.



Against the Eagles Steven was a game-day captain, not that I can pick him out in the coin toss at the beginning.  Skip forward to 11min50secs for Steven's best play of the game.  Or watch the whole game - it was a good one!

The only problem with football film is that other teams watch Steven's team film and it seems like the better Steven gets the less likely the opposing team is to send a play to his side of the field.  It's like he's working himself out of a job!

Musical Number

Jaclyn wrote an arrangement of Nearer, Dear Savior, to Thee (Hymn #99) and played it in Sacrament meeting today.


Nearer, Dear Savior, to Thee

1. Nearer, dear Savior, to thee,
Nearer, nearer to thee—
Ever I’m striving to be
Nearer, yet nearer to thee!
Trusting, in thee I confide;
Hoping, in thee I abide.

[Chorus]
Take, oh, take, and cherish me,
Nearer, dear Savior, to thee.

2. Nearer, dear Savior, to thee,
Nearer, nearer to thee—
Proved by my trials, I’ll be
Nearer, yet nearer to thee!
Humbly I come to thee now;
Earnest, I prayerfully bow.

3. Nearer, dear Savior, to thee,
Nearer, nearer to thee—
Ever my anthem will be
Nearer, yet nearer to thee!
Loving thee, ever I pray,
Aid me thy will to obey.

4. Nearer, dear Savior, to thee,
Nearer, nearer to thee—
Let me by holiness be
Nearer, yet nearer to thee!
When all my trials are done,
When my reward I have won,

Text: Joseph L. Townsend, 1849–1942

Music: William Clayson, 1840–1887

Winter Embroidery

On like the second day of school Steven came out to the car and told me Carmen wasn't coming yet because she'd lost her shoes.  (Her outdoor shoes. Like the rest of the world, I'm sure, our school has a two-shoe policy.)  She'd found a pair of shoes similar to her's, but smaller, so we figured someone had taken her shoes home by mistake.  A nearby teacher told me this doesn't usually become a problem till winter when everybody has the same Ugg-type boots.  I was instantly concerned since I'd already bought Carmen's Kirkland brand Ugg knock-off's for this year.

Well, today was the day that Carmen asked to wear her new boots (I said "not yet") and we talked about what could we do to make her boots more identifiable.  Here's what we came up with:

Today I whip-stitched over the back, already whip-stitched, seam in pink embroidery floss finishing it off with a little X on the bottom.  It's actually pretty cute - I hope I haven't made them a boot-swiping target. (I'd prefer to have started a 6th-grade trend.)

Cross-country races are held way a-cross the city.

Jaclyn is running on the school cross-country team this year, and I'm feeling a little sorry for myself because I don't think I'm going to be able to go to any of her races.

(My friend was at the race this week to watch her own daughter and snapped this photo for me.)

The races are all at beautiful park locations not in our area of the city, and if there's a football practise I need to get Steven to, or a RS meeting I have to set up for (or both as was the case this week), watching Jaclyn run isn't doable.  I am glad she can drive herself and participate even though I can't be there.

The races conflict with Jaclyn's piano lessons, so I suggested she trade lesson days with Carmen and Chloe the rest of the season.  Only Carmen and Chloe need me to drive them to piano lessons - I shot myself in the foot with that one.  The piano switch works well for making Jaclyn available on race days, just not me!

So I know Jaclyn feels like this week wasn't her best race, but judging from the picture she wasn't last with all the bystanders in the photo looking behind her . . .

That's all I've got since I couldn't be there.  The identities of Jaclyn's teammates are trickling in gradually.  Like when she tells me she is giving Auburn a ride to the race and I say
'I didn't know Auburn was on the team'.  Then Jaclyn tells me that she just assumed I assumed Auburn was running cross country.  (Which is why she didn't mention Auburn when I specifically asked who else is running cross country.)  This morning over breakfast I was telling Jaclyn a story about learning about the seating plan in physics class at meet-the-teacher last night, which reminded Jaclyn of the fact that Matthew won his category at cross-country this week.  'Matthew is in cross-country?' I asked.  Well, I don't know for sure, but maybe she mentioned  that one to me back when I asked her who was on the team.

One other thing about cross-country is Jaclyn is organizing the team to dedicate their long-run practise next week as a Terry Fox Run.  It was something she noticed when she got to high school - that the Canadian school tradition of running to raise money for cancer research disappears after grade 9.  She actually asked the Leadership teacher back in grade 10 about organizing a Terry Fox Run, but he declined. ( I find the committees she's on at school a little frustrating.  It seems like Student Voice, Social Justice Club, and the Environmental Club are all there to teach kids to take 'no' for an answer.)  So rather than organizing a school-wide event, Jaclyn is distributing sponsor sheets to the cross-country kids today and together they'll see how much they can raise as a team.  Hopefully in years to come the event will grow and expand to include more of the school.

BTW: Here's a little tidbit I learned:  I shouldn't be double spacing between sentences anymore.  That was a typewriter thing; it no longer applies with modern typography on computers.  But I just can't help myself!  It's a reflex!

Short to-do list

There was only one thing I wanted to make sure I got done on Wednesday night:  make Rice Crispie treats with Chloe.  She wanted to make them together for treats for school lunches.  She didn't want store-bought, and she didn't want me to make them without her.  It should have been easy - I mean we're talking Rice Crispies.

Right after school Chloe had homework.  While she worked at the island in the kitchen I got set to make biscuits to go with the pot roast in the crock pot.  But then Jaclyn called, and her car wouldn't start and she was supposed to be driving straight from cross country running practise to piano lessons.  So I abandoned the biscuits (toasted whole wheat bread is healthier anyways) and drove Jaclyn to her piano lesson - no time to deal with the car, Ken went back with her later and jumped it.

After supper Carmen made her Grade 6 Government election posters with Photo Booth:

And if she wanted them printed that night (she did) I had to hustle to Staples right away (Ken had hockey) before I picked up Steven from football practise.  Printing went smoothly, and I was on time to pick Steven up (and then some, considering practise went 15 minutes late).

So I got home with Steven at 9pm and found Chloe all curled up on the couch waiting for me.  I decided that even if she was grumpy in the morning (and was she ever) we would stay up and microwave some Rice Crispie treats.  Glad I did, but sheesh!  At 3pm I had thought there was nothing going on that night!

Facebook: My new source for photos of my own children

(Not the first time I've retrieved 'tagged' pictures of my kids.)

My football photos will never be this good, and not just because I don't have a pass to come out of the stands & down to the field.

Steven is #10

I always miss Steven's tackles with my camera (though I have plenty of pictures of him standing up afterwards).

Forcing opposing running backs out of bounds is worth saving, I think.

Thanks, Facebook!  I think I'll just watch the games from now on.

(Just to be clear:  the football dad who posts these pictures on Facebook does it for this very reason.  I'm not infringing on somebody's copyright.)

My cousin, Sean, and I.

Last weekend I climbed a mountain with some of my cousins, aunts, and uncles to scatter the ashes of my Aunt Marlene according to her wishes.  I've heard it said that it is a shame extended families often only gather together for sad occasions such as funerals.  However, that day my thoughts were that it is a lovely thing when our final act in this life is to bring together our loved ones in remembrance.