I was a little leery of Isaac making it on the High School soccer team.  There were so many kids trying out and he isn't the fastest, but he's smart on the field. I think he will make a great coach someday. The coaches told the kids that there would be cuts after the second week.  He ran 3 miles every night for two weeks before tryouts even started.  I asked if he wanted to go out for golf but he tried out for soccer anyway.  Apparently they didn't make any cuts other than cutting kids who weren't eligible due to grades.  He didn't make varsity but that takes an extremely talented freshman to do that.  He didn't make JV but again he's only a freshman and there is time for that.





He made the C team. It has been a good fit for him.  Unfortunately his team has tied only one game and lost the rest but he's getting some good experience.  Last week, I was able to make the game and I took out my camera.  I've got to record at least one game on film.  It was a tough team, and I mean football tough because for a second or two I thought that was the game they were playing.  At one point Isaac had the ball when the opponent came up and did a full on football tackle.  Isaac went up and over and landed on his back.  The ref didn't call anything.  The parents were yelling about the kid being out of control and the coach pointed at Isaac on the ground and said, "Come on ref."  The ref responded, "Calm down Coach, play on."  I didn't know whether to walk over and hug Isaac or leave him a lone.  I was concerned as a parent.  This same player had done the same thing earlier to a couple of other kids but not as hard.  I'm all for a physical game but when it gets out of hand, I'm not so good.  They have one more game before the end of the season hopefully it will be nicer than that game.

This is a much look forward to event at our Awana.  It is a huge deal.  For me, it's all about logistics and getting bikes or whatever to the church for a 1/2 hour event.  One year Isaac brought a Pogo stick. Last year Job brought a chair that he jerry-rigged roller blades to it, and this year Lona brought Job's unicycle.  I think that the leaders are always a little fearful of what will come out of our van or truck. It turns out that Lona wasn't the only one to bring a unicycle.  The children's pastor, Steve, brought his unicycle too.  I'm going to have to learn how to ride one.  Even though I only have one child in Awana, I bring other kids and so the van was packed with bikes and kids. I am so glad that this program exist. There are some wonderful kids and leaders in this program.

There are these two boys that come over sometimes.  They absolutely love to tease Isaac.  They say all kinds of things to him. They try to tease him about their oldest sister but he doesn't bite.  However they really like to hang out with Job.  They Rollerblade with him and ride bikes with him, they like to throw the football or play baseball and can kind of be talked into playing Frisbee.  They are hilariously funny and I love to tease them back.  They aren't keen on getting their picture taken but sometimes I can coerce them into posing for me.  The other day though we were at their house and I looked out to see one boy following Isaac all over their field just chatting with him.  Oh how I wished for my camera at that point.  I almost grabbed my friend's camera just so I would have a memory of this 8 year old and 15 year old hanging out. 

With all I said about spring break, I tried to do something with just the kids to make break fun.  The original plan was to ski.  I picked Lona up early from a sleep over on the way to the ski hill.  It wasn't looking good as we driving up.  I thought that if it was icy in the morning it would be OK.  But it was slushy on the hill.  I wasn't going to spend $150 to ski in slush.  Maybe if they had 1/2 price tickets it would have been OK but not full price.  We turned around and headed home.  I hit a robin with the car.  Bummer.  We threw out all different possibilities of what to do with our day.  Job had practice at 5:30 so what ever it was he has to be back by then.  Tulip fields, hiking, swimming, aquarium.  The aquarium won out.  Not with everyone but enough.  We dropped off the skis at home, grabbed some lunch, called John to get a permission slip, found our passports and all the cameras and headed out.  We needed to stop at BP first and on our way, hit a deer.  Hmm, the animals are getting larger, is a sign.  Nope.  Breezed through customs, no need for a permission slip. Took forever to get to the aquarium, we went a round about way but less stop lights then we've done in the past.  Once at the aquarium, we spent at least an hour before we even walked outside looking at the inside animals.  Isaac was the odd man out - no camera.  We saw all kinds of tropical fish.  They had all kinds of creatures from our area as well.  It was pretty neat.  Job is my animal kid.  He reads all the plaques and stores that information in his head.  Wandering outside, we saw the beluga whales, white crest dolphines, sea otters and sea lions.  The kids talked me into staying for the last beluga whale show and found a place front and center in the splash zone.  They were ready to get wet.  I played it say in the no splash zone with all of the cameras.  And they didn't get wet.  They were so disappointed.  However it was better that way.  We left the park at a different point then when we went in and I had to guess how to get back.  I asked one person and his information was "You need to go to Surrey."  Yes, thank you I know that, which street do I take to get to 99.  He wasn't very forth coming with that information.  I did know that I needed to go south and not north.  The map we bought for Vancouver was still in John's truck so that was no help, but we found our streets and headed back.  The border crossing wasn't bad but we were 1/2 hour late to practice.  Good thing I had Job's soccer stuff in the car.  Four hours at the aquarium was a good amount of time.

Spring Break is a little bit hard for me.  I get to this point in the school year and I am so looking forward to the end of school that I don't want to take a break, not with the end in site.  I want to push through and then enjoy the summer starting in May.  I get burnt out, the kids get burnt out and the days get nicer and nicer.  It becomes hard to concentrate on school with nice weather.  About spring break time we take a look at what needs to get done before the end of school and we map out ending dates for various subjects.  Some subjects get done sooner than others and so when one is finished then lessons are doubled for other subjects to cut down even more time until all the subjects are completed and we are done, done, done. However there is spring break and it isn't often that the weather is good enough to do things outside.  I realize that it's a great time to get together with friends and have sleep overs and play dates but it's hard for me.  The play dates I can handle because they are in the afternoons.  It's the sleep overs I have a hard time with.  I just want to be done with the nagging about school work. With sleep overs we don't get in school the next day and so the end drags on and on.  When we take a break, it is just that much harder to get back into the groove of getting up, chores, and school time.  A week break means two weeks of catch up and return to normal routine.  I don't want to say no and cut off time with friends because it is important but spring break for others doesn't mean its spring break for us.  Every year I try to figure this out. Then throw in the fact that all the kids are together because two go to school.  I want to have a day to do something as a family too.  In years past we've participated in soccer camps so it made it that much more hectic.  This year I said no hoping to cut down on the hecticness, but it didn't help it just became crazier because things were unscheduled.  I struggle and end up hating spring break. I don't understand why we have a week of it.  Why not a Friday and Monday and then cut off that much more time at the end of school?  I guess spring break is something that is breaking me.  It's a struggle that I'm working on finding balance. I'm not trying to be a downer just articulate how I feel.  I am trying to be real about my life, it's not all roses and bon bons.  It ups and downs. 


 

I participated in a photography class for the last couple of months and through the class, I met a gal who lives in Vancouver.  We decided to meet for the day and wander around Grainville Island and Gastown.  It was so much fun.  Her photos are amazing.  Mine, well, they were good but not extraordinary.  I think for me it was about connecting with another woman with my particular interests and with a similar background.  Mom of three kids spaced the same apart.  They are just a little older.  She has so much wisdom that I just soaked it up.  It was just what I needed.  Looking forward to another adventure like this.

Job is our first child that is involved with band.  He has decided to play the trombone.  He's our smallest child and he just couldn't choose anything smaller.  At least he didn't choose the tuba.  What would we have done.  I wouldn't have been able to carry and neither would he have been able to.  So the trombone it is.  His first band concert I was at home sicker than a dog.  John came home with video for me to watch.  Job came home pumped up and excited.  He thought participating in a band concert was awesome.  Fast forward to a couple of months and he's involved in an all school (every school in the district) concert.  They had all the elementary, middle school and high school band kids present.  It was in the gym which doesn't have the best accoustics.  Then the middle school jazz band  were facing two different directions and the conductor was behind the kids.  How do you conduct when you can't see the conductor?  I thought the elementary kids did great. 
How many photos can you take of a band concert?  Really Job did the same thing - blow into his trombone to create a sound that should be a note.  Actually he did do good and there are notes that come out of his instrument, its just that having a couple hundred elementary school kids playing a couple of songs and never having practiced before as a large group can stretch the listener.  I thought the best part of the concert was not when one of the band members dressed as a Star Trek vulcan complete with ears to introduce the Star Trek theme song or world of war craft song, the best part of the concert was the drum section.  They were awesome.  However the percusions should be enjoyed outside at a football game.