Football Fever Wherein we discover we miss Coach Armstrong a LOT and the SACHSA SAINTS too. LOL

First Football Game of the season.......

From football et al

Head Coach on the left...Jared is number 16. I was too far away to get good shots. Mike would have been down on the field...but I wasn't sure Jared would want his Mommy doing the same thing. 

There was a  helmet mishap after a hard hit. Some folks behind me were talking about it and I piped up with the fact that that was my son, we've spent several nights tightening the helmet after it does this at practice, that this is reaching the level of a "deployment emergency" because we can't seem to get it to stay tight. At that point one of the dads told me to send it home with his son the next time it did this, and he'd fix it with some super glue and duct tape. ::snort::  One of the coaches told Jared he was a "smart kid, you can figure it out." Yeah.....but obviously....if it keeps coming loose and falling apart in practice..... oh well....I may go buy an electric screwdriver...or put superglue on the end of the screws before we tighten them. ::snort:: 

At one point Jared was hit with the face mask of someone's helmet. The doc and coach were checking out his chin and I feared he'd split his newly stitched chin open - but all is fine. It was the exact  spot and it was noted by the tech who had prepped him for stitches, that he's still not shaved.  LOL 

No, I won't give this many details of each game - but then again I know Michael is missing being here to participate.   It wasn't a great first game....I mean they played a much bigger team, they always lose to this team...or so we were later told. We didn't realize that at first...Jared said when they made 3 touchdowns in a row he began to suspect something bad was up. 

Jared had quite a bit of field time. He made a couple good hits, retrieved the ball at the kick off. This is about the limit of my football knowledge here, Michael. 

Stacia seemed a bit confused. She was perplexed that there were no hoops at Jared's game. Her conclusion: "Hummph. In America Jared always won his games." One last comment Stacia made several times, "Jared needs his love hug". She's taken to giving us all Love Hugs.....and he said the best thing about getting stomped in football was knowing there was a love hug waiting from his 5 yo sister. ::sweet::

I learned not to wear blue when the Edgren Eagles play Yokota. ::snort:: 

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Blueberry Coffee Cake (Sue Gregg)

Mix (can sponge for 12 – 24 hours):

1/3 C yogurt + ¼ C warm water (or ½ C dairy)

¼ C melted butter (or oil)

1/3 C honey

1 ½ C whole wheat pastry flour (soft white wheat berries)

If not sponging – add 2 eggs (if sponging add right before baking and adding leavenings)

Topping:

2 T melted butter

1/3 C Rapadura (or Sucanat, brown sugar I suppose)

½ C uncooked rolled oats

½ C chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Sift and add to moist mixture (I didn’t sift):

2 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325*. Grease 8 x 8 pan.

Add eggs (if you are sponging and haven't already added them) and leavenings. Give it a few quick stirs.

Pour batter in pan. Spread 1 Cup frozen  blueberries over top.  Sprinkle topping over all. Bake 30 – 40 min until toothpick comes out clean.

Says best hot….I eat it cooled fine. LOL   216 calories – 1 piece of 12.

For more yummy eats visit my Recipe Index. 

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Forty-four!

Forty-four dinosaurs...some faithfully serving children for over 18 years. ::snort:: All faithfully guarding the playroom and our residence as they wait......wait....wait....


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Shew....

I haven't a clue why I'm so exhausted this week, but I am. I'm having many Hashimoto moments.  Time for a bit more self-care me thinks. 


Today was a 3 trip to base day.  It looks like tomorrow will be too. 


Gym. Feels like sludge this week, but I'm burning calories, upping my distance...has to be good...regardless of what it feels like. 


School. Discovered that we somehow misplaced Year 4 Redesign of our curriculum.....so we have books but no syllabus. ::snort:: 


Worked on local Fall Rally. It turns out that I'll be speaking at two sessions of this. Pray for my dear friend, Renee. She and her sweet boy are heading home to spend some time with her family.  Her Dad could use your prayers for a healing touch. 


MOPS Kick-off! This means fall is in the air. Always fun to get a baby fix and spend time with young moms. I'm a MOPS Mentor Mom (member too come to think of it). 


Roast wasn't done in the 30 min we had between MOPS and Japanese lesson......so we had our lesson. We spent quite a bit of time talking about our upcoming road trip. I think we're nearly ready. I hope. Akikosan promises to be our GPS. 


I ran to get Jared from football practice. He hung out at the library after practice as he was done in the middle of our lessons. 


Back home - everyone but me has eaten. I'm too tired and think I'll skip it. Eating is over-rated. 


All are heading to bed. I will too. One last thing......Akikosan brought hanabi for us tonight!

Fireworks! She read the directions for us. How cool is it that Japanese children put fireworks off any ole night of the summer they take a fancy to? I asked what festival the fireworks were for and she said, "No special day. We put them off whenever we like in the summer."

 I love it. My kids love it. We're armed.....but she stressed to get a bucket of water first.....


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Forty-five!

FORTY-FIVE mismatched socks. Don't judge me. Buying new socks helps the American economy....and lately the Japanese economy too. 

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Photo Countdown.....

We won't be saying much about countdowns as the days go by.....long time readers know the drill.....but we decided today to begin a photo countdown. That way when we are too close to mention the excitement in our lives...you may be able to pick it out by various photos on the blog. 


BTW Jared and Arielle would like to surprise at least the younger two when Michael finally does come home. We did that for the olders once....and they think it would be fun. I wonder how the countdown will play into that.....maybe we'll have to be sly so the younger two don't figure it out. LOL Maybe Nolan too....hmmmm....I wonder if we can surprise him. 


The countdown begins.....

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Adventures....

I discovered something new about the kids today...they love adventures and trying new things. Hmmm...given their parents, and our lifestyle, this is not a surprise.  This came out when we were talking about going to the Swim Beach again today. It seems that they'd like to do different things and think twice a week is fine for the swim beach. ::snort:: I really should have guessed as earlier in the summer they were tired of the lake and that is what led to the discovery of the swim beach. ::snort::

We ran errands on base - including several related to getting this errant sign to STAY on the fence. ::snort:: I heard from another that she had to repair it tonight...I'm guessing this thing is not going to survive the stormy weather.  We'll see.

We headed for the City Pool .....but alas....the slides are being repaired. They say they'll be fixed by Sunday. We'll go back. It looks like a lot of fun.

I decided to head down a different route on our way home...then saw this road. Doesn't it scream at you to try it out? Since we had 2 hours before we needed to pick Jared up from football....we explored.

We ended up at the Veedol Memorial Beach.....had the whole beach to ourselves. We've not been hunting for sea glass since we discovered the swim beach. We tried our luck....found a few pieces. 

I LOVED the big, crashing waves (the swim beach is a little blocked off cove). The kids loved finding barnacles and limpets and such.

Stacia knows I want to find glass floats.....but she thinks these will be "just as nice". She insisted on collecting all she found and plans to paint on them. 

We arrived back on base to pick up Jared just as the team broke up (30 min late). It was a great adventure considering the pool we meant to go to didn't work out. LOL

n other news, I'm going to have a bit more responsibility than I was planning for our Fall Rally. I need to refocus my to do list and settle in. Prayers appreciated.


Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...