Growing up in Middle School

It's beginning to happen. He's growing up. The other day he told me that he could no longer play with the littler kids as now that he's in Middle School that's no longer cool and he doesn't want to be caught and be the laughing stock.

Also, the other day I was fiercely trying to get him to sign up for the after school robotics program. He was thinking of all sorts reasons not to, which I couldn't understand why. So I finally told him "Well, you are signing up for Robotics." Of which his reply was "I have rights to you know, and I don't have to sign up for it if I don't want to."

Well, I sent in the registration and his first Robotics meeting is on Tues. I told him to at least give it a chance and see what it's all about before he decides. I'd hate for him to miss out on an opportunity he actually might enjoy. He's just so cautious to try new things and put himself out on a limb.

He's been enjoying Middle School a lot, and we are starting the growing up process. It'll definitely be an interesting year of 6th grade.

Remembering 9/11

It is hard to believe it was 8 years ago that the horrible terrorist attack was taken upon the USA. I remember the day vividly, as do many people. I was sitting at work when some one came running through the building telling people to turn on their radios, a plane hit the World Trade Center. Everyone thought, hmmm…some stupid person hit the Center in their little Buddy Holly plane. All the TV's in the building were tuning in. Employees throughout the building dropped everything and got to a TV. The employee break room was packed. We saw the second plane hit & couldn't believe what we were seeing. It was like some bad nightmare, or really good special effect movie. It seemed so unreal. How could something that awful really be happening? Employees looked at each other to see if they were seeing the same thing. Then we saw the Towers collapse. Faces of shock & disbelief filled the room. Complete silence. No one knew what to say or how to feel. It was so much for us to consume in our minds.

We somberly went back to work, with sadness in our hearts and minds coming to terms that this indeed was reality. Our country was under attack. We got back to our desks and listened to our radios. It was all you could hear through out the building. No office chatter, no keyboards plunking, no phones ringing. Then we heard that the Pentagon had been attacked. Fear was in us. What was next? How could this be happening? Who was responsible? We kept listening as the news came in and we just listened. Then the news of the 4th plane crashing in a field came through. It was unbelievable. Was it going to end? How many more planes? How many more people? And most of all where? Where would the next bad explosion occur?

Planes were grounded. People stranded at airports. Everyone's lives forever changed not matter how attached or detached to the people involved.

I went home for lunch and it was odd. Not one single plane in the sky. The sky was quiet and still. I work, live, and drive on the landing and take off path near the airport, so seeing and hearing planes is an every day, let alone every hour occurrence. It's a part of my daily life. To have it suddenly still was a strange reality of it all. I felt numb the rest of the day. How will I explain this to my children? How will I explain to them that such horror was true to life? How will their young minds even understand? How would this event impact them? I decided at home we would not have the TV on and I would keep the horror from my children at least for that day. Plus I could not watch it over and over and over. It was too horrible.

I contacted the airport and offered up my home to house displaced air travelers. It was the most I could do to help out. I felt we needed to pull together as a society and I needed to do my part. They declined and said things were taken care of but thanks for offering. All I could think of was how lucky I was to be with my family safe and how many people's family were suddenly torn apart and how many families were worried about loved ones stranded in airports around the world on what was supposed to be just an ordinary Monday morning.

The whole week following the Attack of 9/11 adults and children were waving flags on street corners and on bridges. Flags at businesses were at half mast. A feeling of coming together, patriotism, and how much we really do love our country was overwhelming.

As, we take a moment to reflect upon the events of Sept 11, 2001, let's remember that Freedom comes with a heavy price. When you see a soldier on the street, at the store, at the airport…make sure to say THANK YOU. They are making the ultimate sacrifice for the people of America. They put their lives at risk for freedom. They make sacrifices you and I could never know. They deserve respect and honor. THANK YOU!!

Living La Vida Kickball

Kickball has pretty much been my life the past few weeks. I am coaching 2 teams. One team made up of 7th-9th graders and one team made up of 4th-6th graders. Kevin & Sam are both on my 4th-6th grade team.

My teams are great!!! The kids are so fantastic and the past few weeks have been so extremely rewarding. It is so nice to see the smiling faces of these kids having so much fun on the kickball field. I have had many parents thank me for bringing the sport into action and how much fun their child is having. Did I mention how great the kids are? I wish I could bring them all home with me. Well...I take that back. I'll just settle for the one hour each week I get with them listening to me. Did I just say kids listen me? Wow, now that is a new concept. Just add Coach Bonnie to my never ending list of titles.

Besides life on the kickball field....(Yes, I do have a life outside of kickball believe it or not)

I was in a wedding this past weekend. My good friend Jo that goes on my girls trips with me got married. I was one of her bridesmaids. The evening before the wedding we had rehearsal and went to dinner at the couple's favorite Mexican restaurant. It was good.

The day of the wedding I had my eyebrows waxed, my eyelashes tinted, and my hair done up really pretty. My hair stylist is awesome. She's young and energetic when it comes to hair. She knows hair! I told her she's the hair expert, have at it. I had no idea how I wanted to wear it. So she went against traditional updo style and gave me a really rocking updo off to the side. It was so adorable. I absolutely loved it. And wow, I got so many compliments on it.

The wedding was a complete blast. One of the most fun weddings I've been to. I've been to a lot of fun weddings. This one makes the top 5 (mine of course is number 1). But now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever been to a bad or boring wedding. Or wedding reception for that matter.

Yesterday my oldest caveboy had Middle School orientation. Yikes!! MIDDLE SCHOOL! Orientation was all day long. He met his teacher and class mates. He got his locker assignment and learned his combination. Their lockers are tiny! I'm not sure how they are supposed to fit all their books, hats, coats, ect. in there. When I went to school you should shove a person in your locker. I guess they are moving away from that? Nobody will be fitting in these lockers. I don't think they even a full 2 feet wide. They are only about 3 1/2 feet tall too.

Here is the little big man's daily schedule, which rotates on a cycle day. Blue & Green Cycle Days.

General Music / Phy Ed - Health
Math Lab / Phy Ed Health
Art / Science
Art / Science
Math
American History
Reading
English
Homebase (Study Hall/Homeroom)

He also got a map of the school. Yes, his school is quite large. It is 2 levels and I got lost going through there when I went to pick him up from orientation. Kevin seemed to know his way around, so apparently they navigated their way around a few times during orientation too.

Kickball Kick Off

Monday night I had my first Kickball practice with the 7-9 graders. It went really well. I had another coach helping me and he knew most of the kids and had a bigger voice than me, so I was really glad he was there. I got a good feel for what positions they can play and how well they can kick the ball. They were a really nice group of kids. I can tell it's going to be a good season with them.

Tonight I was supposed to have practice with my 4-6 grade team, but we got rained out. I'm hoping the field will be available this weekend, so we can get a practice in before our first game next week.

Tonight I help an umpire training. It was supposed to take place right after practice on the field, but since the city closed the fields, I had the umpires meet at my house instead. There are only 4 umpires I'm working with. It quit raining by the time they showed up, so I was able to take them to the backyard to go over the rules (all 6 pages of them). The had lots of good questions and we went through every single rule. I was able to show them legal vs. illegal pitches, and how the catcher can play. Umpire training took 1 hour.

Tomorrow night I have my adult league kickball game. That should be fun. We are on a less competitive league this season, so that will make for a fun season.

My Poor Neglected Blog

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. Kickball has been all consuming. I picked up my uniforms that I had made and they look fantastic! I'm so happy with how they turned out. I've been really busy finalizing things for kickball; schedules, late registrations, fields, equipment, ect...

My coaches meeting was on Thursday. It went really well and it was nice to meet everyone I'd working with this season. We met at Old Chicago. There are only 13 coaches, so it didn't seem practical to rent out a lecture room. I wasn't going to give any big speeches anyway, so I just wanted something laid back and practical. I gave out their equipment, and went over the official rules with them. Answered questions they had and that was about it.

One team I am co-coaching with is the Director of Traveling basketball and Inhouse volleyball. She also coaches those sports. She encouraged some of her kids to go out for kickball and is helping me coach so it is really nice that I have her support. So, she stayed at Old Chicago with me after everyone left and gave me some helpful tips.

The kickball season starts up on Monday. I'm pretty excited about it really.

Kickball, Kickball, and more Kickball

My youth kickball league is coming along rather nicely at the last minute. I've had some later registrations which helped out a lot. I ordered the uniforms the other day and those will be in next week in time for my coaches meeting. I'm excited to see how they look. I didn't have a logo design that I really liked. So I told the guy at the uniform store, what I was thinking. Turns out he is the designer, so he ran with my idea and threw in a few things of his own, and is going to design it for me. They should be pretty neat.

Tomorrow, the equipment I ordered is getting delivered to my house. I ordered it locally and the sales rep is going to deliver it personally. It was the easiest shopping I've ever done. I emailed the sales rep at Metro Sports, told him what I needed. I called him today to see if he had my order and he said "yep, we have everything you need, when do you want me to bring it to you?" WOW, now that's what I call service!

Today I got my teams formed and finalized. I'm still waiting on a couple late registrations, but I have some of their info already. I have to wait for the people's registrations to get uploaded to one program, that uploads to another program, then gets to me. So my information is a day or two old by the time I get it. I did order extra uniforms for just that reason.

I also got the schedules formed today. I sent a copy of the schedules off to the lady who runs the fields of the city, so those are reserved for me. I've got some pretty nice fields to play on. The city has over 100 parks, so I had a few to choose from. I had to be careful with that as I'm head coaching two teams. One team for grades 4-6 (my kids are on) and one team 7-9. I needed extra coaches. I still have one team that is coachless, but I think I'll be able to find one for them before next week and it won't be me.

My coaches meeting is next Thursday. That's where I get to give them all their team stuff and hand out all sorts of paperwork. Should be fun, we're meeting at Old Chicago so it'll be less formal.

The season officially starts the week of Aug 17. I'm pretty excited that I got this program up & running. I was nervous I wouldn't have enough kids to participate, but things really picked up the last two weeks and it looks like a promising first season.

Another Week in Review

Wed. night I went to see Kevin Costner & Modern West. They were performing at the MN Zoo. I took my camera with me,but it got confiscated by security (it was returned safely to me after the concert) before I could get into the concert. They were banning all cameras except cell phone cameras and small handhelds. Bummer...I was hoping to get good photos. Oh well...it didn't ruin any fun.

The concert was great. The group wrote and performed some new songs that were pretty good. Can't wait for a new cd to come out. My seats were great too. 10 rows up, right smack in center stage.

At the end of the concert Kevin decided to sign autographs up by the stage. By the time I got down there, he was done and went backstage. I did get down there in time for some weirdo to ask for a bottle from the stage that Kevin had drank from during the concert. WEIRDO!

Some people had back stage passes (the lucky ducks!), but not me. :(



I have 72 kids signed up for kickball! I've had lots of last minute registrants. It's pretty exciting to see it grow. I've got all my coaches lined up too. The season starts in 2 weeks, so this week I have lots to do in order to be ready for the season.

Today we took Kevin up to Roseville to catch his bus for summer camp. This is his 4th year going to CYC (Catholic Youth Camp). We drove up to Roseville, ate out at Perkins and then dropped him off. After he got loaded on the bus, we drove over to Half Price Books. I bought a couple of books on photography, a couple of John Saul books, and a WW2 book for Kevin. He's going to love it. It is all about the different battles with tactical maps. I didn't find anything that Sam would be interested in, so he didn't get one. I think I'll take Sam out to see a movie this week while Kevin is gone. One thing for sure, is this is going to be a really quiet week with out him around.