Football and other things

OK if I don't write this stuff down I know I will forget it. I always want to remember it because it is priceless. Caleb has started playing football this year. He is so funny. I love to hear the stories he comes home telling everyday! Ok on Monday they didn't do much except watch a UIL video on safety and get helmets. UIL requires them to wear helmets for 3 or 4 days before they can put on pads. So Caleb gets his helmet and says, "Mom, you always said I had a big head and really an X-Large helmet doesn't fit right. I guess you were right!". The next day, Tuesday they put on the helmets and worked out. He said, "they just told me to follow the guy in front of me and do what he was doing....I got so dizzy I almost fell down". I don't have a clue what the guy in front was doing but Caleb wasn't understanding it at all. I think they must have been doing drills, grapevines, and such. He said he keep crossing his feet and getting all mixed up. He cracked me up. My consolation to him was that, "Caleb honey you have size 10 1/2 men's feet, you are a big kid, and you are going to play on the line, kids your size DON'T grapevine very easy!" OK so today he comes home from the third practice and can hardly walk. His thighs are killing him! I just laughed and gave him some Motrin! He then reported he is getting better on the drills part and actually did them good today. He also said he got to hit the tackling pad today that a kid was holding up for him. I said well how did it feel. He said, "It was much more cushy than I thought!" He also said he knocked the kid backward so I guess he did OK for his first time hitting anything! I can't wait to see what the future holds for him. I think he may really like football. If not, then at lease he is having fun and meeting people. He also told me, as a wrap up of the day, "we did drills, hit the tackling dummy, learned plays, and THEN they made us run a WHOLE lap on the track! Three people threw up MOM!" I asked if he was one of them, he said no but he did drink 5 gallons of water after that!!!! He cracks me up. I wish you could see him tell about it!
Jared is doing very good after a rough little start. He is playing kick ball on the playground everyday and loves it. He is liking the whole "no homework" for the first week of school. I think he has always had it before.
Aaron is having fun but did get into the nurses office already. With a country school you get massive weeds. Well, the school cut the weeds down before school started but left the huge roots and stalks. Aaron fell right into a clump of dried weed stalks and poked holes all in both knees. He looks like he has a skin disease. He also fell off the seesaw! Oh well, what's a little blood when starting a new school! At least he is having fun!
Well, I'll run for now. More football posts to come! Caleb plays every Thursday night at 5:30 for the next two months starting on the 10th of September. Come check him out! It will be a hoot!

Love to all!
JJ

First Day of School at Miles!

The first day as Bulldogs!

The night before......

Hi everyone....I'm sitting here on the big night before.....you know the night before school starts. The boys are a nervous wreck. They are always nervous though! Jared is the biggest worrier. He is really very shy and is always worried about meeting new people. However, after the initial shock of meeting them he quickly becomes their best friend within about 10 minutes. He is so funny. Caleb is the least worried. That is funny to me because he really is going into a hard situation. He's in 8th grade, hormones are changing, boys are weird, and he doesn't know a soul hardly! Here you go son...have fun! No, but really he isn't worried. He spent all last week playing with the band and preparing for the new year. Did I tell you he gets to march with the high school band this year! That is one benefit of a small school. He is one of 3 alto sax players and is having a blast with it. He will march with them every Friday night and will get to go to all the games. He can't wait! Also, a double perk is that he doesn't have to fill out and turn in band logs this year. He loves to play in the band but really hated the band logs he had to fill out. He would rather just practice when he gets a chance and go for however long he wants to. Caleb is also looking forward to playing junior high football. I went with him to by cleats the other day. Let me say, I have NO IDEA about how to buy cleats! I just picked a pair that was his size and made him run up and down the aisle at Academy. It was quite funny really! Right after the selection of the cleats the High school football coaches from Miles walked up. Kelly Granzin is one of them. He talked to us for a while and met Caleb and approved the shoes. He was funny. I think they really were happy to meet such a big kid! I saw football stars dancing in their eyes. Hee Hee
So for the next 2 1/2 months we will be on the road every Thursday and Friday nights. Caleb plays football on Thursday and then plays in the band Friday. I need a raise just to pay for gas! Boy we will have fun and broke all at the same time. Caleb will be so busy with after school practices and homework we will hardly get to see him. I have a feeling it will be a very good year for him though. He needs this. To feel contected, to feel important, to feel alive and free to get some space and have things of his own. He is growing up so fast and I know that we need to let him experience everything he can. However, you know that Brian and I will be right there for the ride. I don't want to miss a single beat of it! They will be gone far to soon to miss anything!
Well, I feel like I am wandering and not making much sense, so I will close for now. We went to the Women of Faith conference this weekend with the girls and I am still brain dead from lack of sleep. The stupid hotel pillow tried to smother me all night long. I will NEVER go on another trip without my own pillow! It was a blast though! I'll post more on it later!!!

Love to all,
JJ

Finally time to post...

Good morning everyone! I am sitting at home on a Sunday morning finding time to update my blog. Why am I home on a Sunday morning you ask???? We are always at church during this time! Well, once again fate has caught up with the McGuire's. Yesterday afternoon, I was peacefully enjoying a nap after having to be at a seminar all day long, when Brian woke me up to come and check Jared's arm. Yep, sometime during my nap Jared fell off the top bunk of his bunk bed and broke his arm. I don't have a clue what the child was doing. Neither does he! From what we can tell, he was sitting on it one minute watching TV and the next he was falling through the air 6ft below. In my mind I think he was concentrating on the TV so much, that he didn't realize he had perched himself on the rail of the bunkbed. I've seen him do that before. You know sit on the matress, then slide up to the rail and slide back down to the matress. He hooks his feet around the ladder and just does it over and over. Anyway, at one point I guess his bottom just slipped off and down he went. After it happened we iced it down and watched it a while to see what it was going to do. It wasn't a bad enough break to tell it was broken (thankfully). After about 30 minutes the swelling started pretty good and we knew he had to go in. He was very calm through the whole thing and only cried a little while then just looked at us and said, "yep, this time I think I broke it". He broke his wrist when he was 3 years old so he thinks it felt the same way. Hee Hee, he was so tiny back then I don't think he remembers anything about it but this one he will remember! Anyway, at the ER we were the only ones there and we were in and out in 1 1/2 hours. The doctor stood and talked to us forever and even showed us the X-ray. We think he broke it right at the elbow. You know the long bone in your arm right before it connects to the elbow anyway. They couldn't really see the break all that well on the X-ray but we saw the swelling and the brusing around that area, big time. He is referred to the orth doctor for an appointment next week to get the cast on. He has a splint on right now and wrapped in an ace bandage with a sling on. It didn't hurt too much last night but today it's very painful for him. He is on pain medicine as seems to be doing OK for right now.

So that is the excitment around here now. What else has been going on....? Well, the kids went the Harriett's VBS and had a great time. There VBS is at night and by Friday night they were wiped out and and stayed home. It's so funny to see how a night VBS can do this. Caleb helped with recreation and I even helped with a group for a few nights. We met a lot of good people and had fun there.

Speaking of Caleb, he is enjoying some time with my brother Evie, my sister in law Cathy and their son Curtis in San Antonio. Cathy temorarily lost her mind and invited Caleb and her great nephew to spend 10 DAYS with them. Caleb is in Heaven! Cathy has been taking them to walk and hike everyday on different trails around the area, as well as swimming, going to the movies, to church, and has even planned a trip to Schliterban next week. She is doing a really cool thing and sponsoring a back to school 5K walk/run and party next Friday for their community. They are getting in shape now to make it on the 5K walk. It sound like a blast and I know Caleb is loving it. He has really been trying to workout and get in shape because he has decided he wants to try football in junior high this year. I took him to get his physical for it the other day and he is 5'8" and is 185 lbs. Really though he was wearing shoes, and his 5 lbs pair of shorts though so he is a little lighter than that. He really wanted to do football, basketball, and maybe baseball next year so I think we will let him try everything he wants. He never wanted to even try in middle school the last couple of years because he was afraid he wouldn't make the team. I don't know why really but now he wants to try so we are going to let him.

Well, I guess I will run for now. I'm still enjoying my summer and have now started my 12th book. I don't want to go back to work at all right now. I have had several seminars lately but that as much as I have thought about it. I don't have to go back until the 31st so I have time to work myself up for it!

Love to all,
JJ