Sad but True

This Ain't New York: Dear Uncle Sam,

Melanie is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite bloggers. I can't post new material because I'm too busy repeating hers...too good not to read!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This weekend has been an extremely busy one for me. It is only Saturday night and I am so tired I can hardly hold my head up. Last night we went to our high school's playoff game. I am so totally addicted to high school football. When I taught in the other county, and the new high school opened, I had every intention of going to their football games. You know what they say about good intentions. When we moved to the country, and they opened the new state-of-the-art-stadium for the old high school, we wanted to become season ticket holders. See sentence above about good intentions.

But now that Oldest Child is in high school, oh, my word, she has to be at the football games. And I can't let her go alone, so we turned it into family night. So every home football game this year, we have cheered out team to victory. At the beginning of the season, we were predicted to be 5-5 at best. When we ended the season 9-1, everyone was shocked. So we had home-field advantage for the first round. Our high school hasn't been to the playoffs since 1991 and now we have home-field advantage! (I wasn't even married in 1991!)

All week long, they've been predicting rain for Friday night. All week long, I've been gathering up all of our camping rain gear. Coats. Check. Blankets. Check. Towels. Check. Gloves. Check. By watching us walk into the stadium, you'd of thought we were spending the weekend there. But we are serious about our football. And it only drizzled and misted (and fog-ed...if that's a word).

And our team looked really good. And they played good ball. And we cheered very loudly. For the first three and a half quarters. At the end of the third quarter, we had a 21-12 lead. Then DH had to leave to go to work. Then the other team started coming back. And they scored. And they intercepted. And they scored. And they scored again. And no one will ever convince me that it's not his fault we won't be playing football next Friday night. He's in the stands, we are winning. He leaves to go make money, we start losing. I see a connection. But the final, heartbreaking score: 27-21.

And then this morning, Oldest Child had her first high school swim meet. She thought she stunk; I thought she rocked. She wants to be the best and gets frustrated when she's not. Even when I explained to her she was swimming against seniors and has only been back in the pool just over 2 weeks and her times were strong enough to put her in the top third of the heats...that wasn't good enough. She swam her heart out.

I'm ready for a nice, quiet, sit-at-home-in-your-pj's kind of weekend!

Thank You

Red, White and You

Have you hugged a veteran today?

If you don't know one to hug, take a minute to pray for them, thank God for their courage. They are honored once, maybe twice a year for their sacrifice. The rest of the year, we tend to forget them while we enjoy the freedoms they've so unselfishly provided.

And while you're at it, take a moment to watch a flag wave. Watch as it freely unfolds in the air we breath. Those colors represent so much of our great nation's history.

Give pause. Give thanks.

I was trying to link directly to this post, but I'm also trying to figure out my new computer and this whole new Vista thing and I'm tired and it's not working like I think it should. But you really do need to go over to thisaintnewyork.blogspot.com for some other fabulous reading. She has some good, thought provoking food for thought.

So thank you, Dude, for giving unselfishly. Thank you, Dude, for doing what you do so well. Thank you, Dude, for being you. You rock!