Bulldog Football

Football season has begun! Brady is playing on the freshman football team. He has never played organized football ever (most players start out on a little-league type of team when they are kids then play in middle school). He's always been a baseball guy, but our baseball coach suggested he play football for the conditioning work (much harder than fall baseball).

So he started August 10th, and he's been working out at receiver. Our goal was that he play as little as possible to avoid getting hurt, preferably on the second team (we have two freshman teams). He's grown a bit, but he's all of 5'5" and around 115 lbs, on a team with guys bigger than me. So naturally he fell in love with the sport and made the first team, backup receiver. So he plays way more than I hoped, mostly blocking for our really good running back. Thankfully, three games in and he's still standing (keep your fingers crossed).

Here he is lined up at his position. He runs to the line and points at the referee on the sidelines who points back to make sure he's up on the line of scrimmage. That's really my favorite part of the game, the pointing and pointing back - cracks me up. I'll try to get a picture sometime (they've been playing at 7pm and the light is fading, so the pictures are blurry).



His really important job (besides the pointing) is he's one of the guys who the coach tells the play to and he runs in and tells everyone else. That's a tough job because you have to actually remember the play. Not everyone can do that apparently - LOL.

When the team is on defense, he gets to do his other favorite thing - hang out at the water cart.


So far, they are a really fun group to watch. The varsity football coach says that this is one of the best freshman teams to come through in a long while. They are 0-1-0 so far, with two rainouts. They only lost 22-20 last week (our varsity lost to the same team 45-10) so there's hope for a victory.

The scariest statistic is that 7 guys went to the ER last game. From the opponents we had a torn ACL, broken finger, and a dislocated shoulder. From our team we had a dislocated/broken wrist (two separate injuries on one play - yikes), a concussion, a broken hand, and a calf injury.

I'm just hoping that he stays healthy! Go dawgs! Be nice!

A new school year!

A new school year has started!

Here's Brady on the first day of school. I had to drop the girls off, so I couldn't go with him the first day. It's really hard to get him to smile these days because of his braces.

We'll call this picture, "At least look pleasantly at me or I'll show up in your 3rd period and take your picture in front of all your buddies . . . "

The girls are much more cooperative. Abby curled her hair for the first day of school and looked just lovely. She's a big fifth grader this year - the oldest kids in her school. Very exciting!

The biggest challenge for me is getting pictures of the middle schoolers because it's hard to snap a picture while driving the car. I asked KC to make sure to smile and she suggested I just park and take a picture. So much more cooperative than her brother . . .

Three kids in three different schools - it's going to be a long year - LOL!

We've been going for almost 4 weeks now. All is going fine.

Brady is a bit overwhelmed with high school, keeping extremely busy with football and all his academic classes, but he's doing well. He's mostly at peace these days with being in school with mom and dad, but he does appreciate running by to get a snack after second period.

KC is doing very well in 7th grade, working very hard, and socializing with her 7th grade buddies. She's read 3 books already since school started, just on her own, and she has started writing her own novel!

Abby is doing well in 5th grade. This is her first year to switch between teachers, so she has to carry a big old backpack with all her school stuff in it. It's almost as big as she is! She's especially enjoying her reading class this year! They are on their first novel of the year and she's really into it. :-)

Hope everyone is enjoying the start of school!