If you like pina coladas

Many are the events going on...

Joyce finished her Junior year at CMU and her summer classes she took, and she got a co-op job at Dow Corning, so she is doing super good. She also bought a motorcycle. More on that later...

Mike's taking summer classes, too, which keep him busy first thing every morning, and he was fortunate to get a job working 2nd shift, so it accommodates his class schedule, though it is kind of a crappy job. But it is a job. A JOB. Times are pretty tough; we're a lucky family in that both Joyce and Mike found jobs. Whew.

Sammy got done with his Freshman year in high school and immediately started a 2-week basketball camp. Third day in, he was tripped up at a scrimmage and hurt his knee. Partial tear of his PCL. Yes, I said PCL, not ACL. It is AWFUL. Sam's in physical therapy 3 times per week now, and we go back to see the orthopedic surgeon in 3 weeks. The doc said that for Sam to have done that injury, it was like several things had to be just in the right (er, wrong) place and timing... kinda like a Perfect Storm. It isn't a common sports injury, particularly in high school, more commonly seen in things like car accidents. Sam is pretty darn strong and determined, so we will see what the future brings. All we can do. And pray. A LOT.

I took Monday off from work and had a dental appt at 7:30 am to get my permanent bridge put in. I now have a bridge in my mouth! Tolls, please. So anyway, Sam and I spent the day together and I let him drive most all day long. Made him drive to Goodwill and Salvation Army stores in Bay City, and I found a Coach purse for six bucks! Score!

At one point, around lunchtime, Sam asked if I had seen that truck. What truck?, says I. He had seen a big pickup that had the company name "External Landscaping" on it, which cracked us both up. What a dumb name for a landscaping company, ha ha! And then about a half hour later, we saw the same truck again... I said, "Sam, that reads Eternal Landscaping." Oh. What's eternal? Sam asked. Really, his vocabulary kinda sucks. I think mine was better at age 9 than his is now. Oy. (And Sam gets pretty much straight A's! Well, except for that B+ in Wood Shop his last semester. Wood Shop. The teacher gave him a so-so grade for the most beautiful and creative wooden bowl I've ever seen. Photos sometime soon. Boo hiss wood shop.)

What was Sammy driving on Monday you ask? Well... this, my new old car:



She's a 1999... here's a hint...



Yep!



a...



and she's a pretty thing. Loaded with way too many options. The owner's manual is leather bound and it came with a VHS instructional tape! Only about 80,000 miles on her, too. Darn good for a '99. Beautiful condition and runs great. Especially now since I had to put a new radiator in her... she is pretty...



I'm happy. But for some reason, whenever I'm in her, I feel a strange urge to drive straight to the casino. Hmmm...

Sammy will get his driver's license early in November, and we all are looking forward to that happy event. He will be driving my old Le Sabre, and he didn't seem to be as appreciative as he should be, at first, but he is now. Much preferable to walking. Especially since we live about a 25-minute drive to the high school.

I got this email from my BFF, Sandy, the other morning:

My tire yesterday at 7 a.m.



Kinda makes your day seem a little better, huh?! Poor Sandy.

It has been so hot and humid here in mid-Michigan lately that I have wanted to move way northward. Ugh. Everything is growing like CRAZY. My sisters are harvesting garden treasures already... this, the year we decided not to plant a vegetable garden coz we're all too busy.

I've been totally fasinated with the ditch along our road, though. The plants and the bugs. The weeds and wild flowers are all like a month ahead of schedule. I'm lovin' the bugs. Like this one...



which is a Phantom Crane Fly in flight. (Discovered what it is called due to the Googling diligence of my friend, Megan, from the pottery studio.) And oh, baby, I have plenty more photos from where that came from! Bug close-ups, lots and lots of bug close-ups.

Thankfully the last couple of evenings have been very nice and cool. I love me a cool summer evening. I drove home yesterday with the air off in the car, all the windows down, my hair up in a crazy pony-tail like I was Pebbles Flintstone or something, radio screaming loud and weaving my hand out the window up and down in the wind. Bliss. Singing along with the radio at the top of my lungs to the Beatles' Twist and Shout, "You know you twist so fine!"... But, unfortunately, what's stuck in my head is...
If you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain,
If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain...

Basketball jones

This is Sammy, all sweaty after the day's 2nd game of basketball, outside cooling off & talking to his daddy who was at work, missing all the basketball fun.

The boys won their first game in a nail-biter. Down by 2 and one of the boys hit a 3-pointer in the last few seconds of the game. Very fun to watch.

They lost the 2nd game, again a nail-biter. They were up most of the game, tied at the very end and lost it at the last second. Sammy had a one-hand hook or tip in basket on which he got fouled and got another point at the free throw line. Very cool. The boys all played great. Good match.

The 3rd and final game was also exciting. The other team took an early lead, but our boys hung in there and played strong. Tied at the end, and so they did a 2-minute overtime. Still tied, so they went into a 2-minute sudden death... the first team to get 2 points would win the game. In the first few seconds of sudden death, the other team fouled one of our boys... who happens to be one of the best free throw shooters, and he sunk 'em both. And the crowd went wild!

Tell ya what... it was a heck of an exciting day of basketball watching these 6th graders play with all their hearts.

Seemed like a good group of parents and fans, good refs. The only bad spot in the day was the coach of the boys we played in the 3rd game. One of those very loud, excessively bossy coaches who lets fly with the criticisms loudly. Yelling at the boys & chewing them out while they're on the floor. I think of those type of guys who coach kids' teams as "negative coaches," aka assholes. At one point, the ref had called an out of bounds on one of our boys, so the other team got possession of the ball, and then I'm not real sure what happened, but a friend of mine was sitting at the time clock table and heard the whole thing... negative coach said loudly (not really sure why) "the f---ing asshole" and the ref heard it. Technical. Duh. (Also, a very ironic choice of words.) Our boys got the ball back, but first one of them got to shoot twice from the free throw line (made one, I think). The whole thing was weird. Then while our boy was shooting the free throws, my friend heard the woman who was the assistant coach, and we think the negative coach's wife, say something to him about calming down, and he turned to her and barked, "shut up, bitch, or leave the bench." So I'm hoping it was his wife, because I can't imagine him saying that to a mother of one of the other boys he is coaching... but I felt so sorry for their son, even if he didn't hear it when it happened, there were about 6 boys sitting on their bench... so he'll likely hear all about it, along with everyone else... How sad.

I asked my friend what the woman did, and she said the woman quietly and carefully sat down on the bench.

How sad.

You hear all the horror stories about coaches and parents who can't behave at their kid's sporting events... but I have to say that I really haven't seen that much poor behavior through the many years of Joycie's and now Sam's games in the various sports. Once in a great while... I've never seen really poor behavior from our teams, the kids, parents, coaches... the really bad stuff has always been the other teams. We're a pretty good group of folk, I guess. It's all about the kids, and that's our focus. I'm proud of us.

I'm really proud of our Sammy, too... he did great today, played hard & tried his best, he was a good sport all day and he was a sweetheart to me.

I love that boy.

Thankful

Yesterday's Thanksgiving celebration with my family was wonderful. We all had such a great time together. Lots of laughter through the day. Good food, too. Beautiful sunny weather, warm enough to walk outside after dinner without a jacket.

I borrowed some folding tables and chairs from Janet & Bob, so we all sat down to dinner together at one loooong table...



Not sure what Sammy's face is about, but it isn't about a mouthful of bad food... we had all scrumtious stuff. I think he was probably fixin' to bust out a laugh. Notice all the camoflage hats on the men's heads... yep, we're heathens!



Joycie's 4 pumpkin pies turned out perfect. She did the crusts from scratch, and they were perfect.



Later in the afternoon, we celebrated Joycie's 18th birthday. She finally got her evil camera (read her blog post here), and she's happy with it. Also happy with her Sims pets add-on thing, whatever it's called... she's a Sims freak, that girl. Lots of generous gifts from her family.



I'm looking forward to seeing the photos she'll be taking with that cute, little camera.

Today will be a day of basketball for Sam & I, because he has an all-day tournament. He will have a blast; I will enjoy seeing him play, but I will also be doing a lot of sitting around and waiting. Not my favorite part. Especially since neither Kev nor Joyce will be with me. Kev has to work today, and Joyce has a paper to write (which she has known about for weeks, but it HAS to be worked on today... yep, she doesn't wanna spend all day at Sammy's tournament... I don't blame her...).

We have tons of leftovers from yesterday, and I showed the family where the key to the front door is hidden, so they all better come over and help eat this food... though since Joyce will be here, I guess they don't need the key. There is actually not so much turkey left. I cooked a 23-pound turkey, and there's very little left. Everyone in our family likes turkey, and we were dipping into it later yesterday evening... cold turkey in leftover rolls makes a perfect little sandwich.

I did the picking of the bird carcass, which seems kind of gross... but I enjoy that part. My hands were all greasy and covered in turkey bits. After I get all the nice white and dark meat off and into a container for the fridge, I really pick that bird clean, and I give all those juicy (i.e., gross) bits to Betty and Barney. They LOVE me.

The wish bone is drying on the kitchen windowsill.

No bowl of cherries

Since I was too sick to go to Sammy's first basketball game of the season, Kev took him alone... Joyce to stay home with me to "take care of me."

Kev sat with another dad at the game. This dad has 2 sons, one the same age as Sam & on the team with Sam, and his other son is 2 years younger. This other dad was telling Kev how lucky Kev is to have a daughter and a son, not 2 sons, because 2 sons are sure a handful. I've been with his boys before, and they're wonderful kids... but he's right, I'm sure they can be a handful... super active. And siblings that close in age usually bicker from time to time... Joyce & Sam are 6 years apart, and they still have their bicker-filled moments.

So this other dad was going on about how difficult his boys have been lately, and Kev said, "I'll tell ya what, raising a daughter is no bowl of cherries, either."

The other dad laughed, shook his head and told Kev he was right... then he said to Kev, "Yeah, when I married my wife, her dad came up to me and said 'she's your problem now, son.'"