Playing Catch-Up through Pictures

MS' Rugby Team played the alumni a couple of Saturdays ago.  Guess where they played?

The view on my way to work on Thursday:

You'll have to excuse the quality.  The sky was just incredibly pink; the picture doesn't do it justice at all.

New toys therapy materials!

I probably shouldn't mention this, but my intern & I haven't figured out how to play "Chuckit  Chicken" yet.  It can't be too complicated, right?

 The Small Town High School won their quarter-final game last Friday, beating the #2 team in the state 14-3.  We beat them the last week in October 55-33.  During half-time a former player who is now playing for an SEC Team was honored.  This is a picture of him (on the right) with a former high school teammate who is now his college teammate:

Picture taken from Facebook Small Town Booster 

You'd be hard pressed to find an athlete that's received the recognition he has but is still so humbled and an all around "good guy".  There had even been some Heisman talk.

Yesterday began a 2 week stint of bus duty.  Well, really just 1 1/2 weeks since this is a short week.  Here's what I saw when I went outside for my rotation with the buses:

Again, you'll have to excuse the quality.  This one was taken with my cell phone.  Bus duty was pretty uneventful, except for the 5th Grader telling on me.  He had cut the breakfast line, so I told him and the boy that was with him to go to the back of the line.  After he told me that he had been there, and the boys who he cut verified that he hadn't, I told him to go to the back of the line.  The principal came in at the time they got to the back, and he told Mr. Principal "she told me to go to the back of the line and we were all the way up there."  Mr. Principal asked him who told him, and he said "a teacher".  Mr. Principal told him that if that's what he was told to do, he needed to do it.  HA!  Take that, little 5th grader!  :0~

Saturday Rugby

MS should know how much CH & I love him:  we braved the cold weather Saturday morning to watch his last Fall Rugby Game.  After his game, we told him that we weren't staying, and he said something along the lines of, "Well, yeah, it's really cold out here."  The boy's a genius, I'm telling you. 
They didn't play on the same field where they usually play; the games on Saturday were sponsored by the rugby team in the big city.  Only the game wasn't played in the big city.  It was played out in the sticks, in the middle of nowhere.  Among the trees.  The name of the park:  Possum Park.  NO.LIE.  The Rugby Team's Name is...you guessed it...the Possums.  The name fits perfectly for their field.  I thought about getting a picture of the sign as we were leaving, but didn't ask CH to stop.  I did, however, manage to get a picture of this:

 Definitely a unique hat. Yes, that is a possum on top of his head.  Don't worry, he's not that crazy or redneck; it's not his pet, it's a stuffed animal.   Here are a couple of pictures of the game, so you can get an idea of the surroundings:

A field in the middle of the woods.  And you thought I was joking.
And, just to show you how classy of an establishment it is, check out this picture:

The final score was 54-0.  MS made 2 scores.  One of the opponents got a yellow card.  There was some cussing involved.  
Spring season starts February 5th in Tuscaloosa.  Apparently that's the real season.  I'm still learning; by this time next year I should be a pro at being a rugby mom!


**Sidenote:  For those of you missing the Random Dozen, go visit Joyce at From This Side of the Pond.  She's starting a new random; questions should be up Tuesday night (if I understood correctly). YAY, JOYCE!

Fall Break Faves

As Fall Break comes to a close, I wanted to share with you the faves for last week:

1.  Meeting new friends at the Rugby Reception.  Everybody was so incredibly nice and they made a point to come up to me at the match on Saturday and say hello!  I love making new friends!

2.  The high school football team wearing pink socks for Breast Cancer Awareness:
(I have no idea who to credit with these pictures; they were on the football team's Facebook page.)

Even the students who go shirtless and write letters on their bodies got into it:

One of last year's football players' mother past away a couple of weeks ago from breast cancer.  From what I understand, it was the boys' idea to wear pink, and, if I'm not mistaken, they will be wearing them again for the next game.  What a great group of boys!

3.  A nice surprise:  Tuesday MS came home to do laundry (yes, he did it himself!).  He had to go to practice before they were finished, so he brought 3 friends with him for dinner when he came back to get his clothes.  I know I've said this before, but it's really nice to see that he is choosing good boys for his friends.  (Maybe we did do something right with him!)

4. Another nice surprise:  Thursday OS called to let us know that he's coming home this weekend!  All boys under the same roof for 1 night! 

5.  Some major catching up on sleep.  And with the cooler weather, there's been some really good sleeping temps this week!

6.  (Yep, I've got more!) How many of you have tried this:

If you haven't, be very, very careful.  It is addictive.  Dry roasted peanuts mixed with candy corn.  The mixture of salty & crunchy with sweet & soft.  It tastes a lot like a Payday candy bar without the chewiness of the caramel.

7.  My princess went to the "beauty parlor":

We know it's time for her to get groomed when she gets "velcro toes".  That's when her toenails get stuck/caught on the rugs.

After I dropped her off, I saw a little dog that looked a lot like a schnuazer, but her coat felt a lot coarser than Ally's.  Her owner said that they found her on the side of the road when she was a puppy.  It's so sad that people actually do that.  She was such a cute, happy, friendly dog.  Then, when I was going in to pick her up, I ran into another really cute little  dog.  She was a Brussels Griffon.  Talk about cute and friendly!  Here's kind of what she looked like:

I had never heard of that breed before, but she looked like a cross between a schnauzer and a pug.  Very cute!

8.  (This is the last one...promise!)  The best thing about being on Fall Break is getting a break from a schedule.  Sometimes it's nice to just be able to catch up on blog reading, being able to clean up the blog a little, and relax by watching movies.  Movies watched this week:  Dear John (It's based on a Nicholas Sparks' novel so you know it's gotta be good!), Bounty Hunter  ( a little disappointing, but looking at Gerard Butler is never disappointing!  I missed his accent, though!), and Killers (I thought it was very good.).

Since it's fall and football season, this weekend will be filled with...what else but...football!  YS' band has a competition on Saturday, but it's local.  If I'm really lucky, I'll be able to go, get in free (one of the county high schools is hosting the competition), watch the band perform, then get home in time to see most of the UT/Ga. game!

GO BIG ORANGE!

Fall...Finally!

The weather finally feels like fall!  I love walking into the grocery store and seeing the fall decorations in the front.  I love the smell of fall:  crisp and clean.  I love the feel of fall:  cool in the mornings, warm in the afternoons, changing back to cool in the evenings.  Football weather...definitely. 

Here are some of the first signs of fall in the yard:

This is the tree in the front yard that looks like a big stick sticking out of the ground when the leaves fall off:

A Dogwood in my neighbor's yard:

And, I got a few decorations in the planter on the front porch:

I need to get some mums to put in the planter to complete the decorating for that part.  I usually just keep them in the pots they come in since they need direct sunlight and it won't get very much (if any at all) right there.  Does anybody have any suggestions for a fall plant that needs to be in the shade?

Last Friday I went to the Rugby Reception at one of the coach's house.  Everybody was extremely nice...I'm always kind of nervous when I go to an event like this that I'll just stand there and won't have anything to say to anybody.  The coaches were there to meet everybody when we came in, and then some of the parents came over and introduced themselves.  MS was given one name at birth, but when we moved to the small  town, he told everybody to call him another name since there were already 3 boys in his class with the same name.  His "second" name stuck, and that's what everybody in high school knew him as.  So, when the parents asked me who my son was, I was at a lost.  I wasn't sure if people are calling him Name 1 or Name 2.  And, the coach was no help:  He said they usually just call him by his last name.  So you can see my dilemma.  Once I explained, the weird looks stopped.   Then, I would be asked how long MS has been playing Rugby.  Uh...that would be 4 or 5 weeks.  I think there's only 1 other boy on the team who hasn't played before, and he got a concussion during last week's game.  I'm told that injuries are few and far between, however, another  player (who is on a different team - there are 3 teams in this club) tore some ligaments in the game before that.  
Saturday I got to watch my first Rugby Match.  Interesting.  Very interesting.  But, I liked it!  It had a much faster pace than football.  MS is on the "Developmental Team"; hopefully he'll progress to the "Reserve Team" and then the "Varsity Team".  One of the freshmen moms & I met on Friday night, then sat together during the game.  When the Varsity Team was playing, I commented to her that they looked  like  men.  She said, "Yes, they are men...real men.  That's what our babies are going to look like in 4 years."   Exactly what I was thinking. Anyway, the football team may not be doing too well, but the Rugby Teams are all undefeated!  And, MS scored/got/made (not sure what to say!) a Try!  It was so exciting!
Here's a picture of MS during the match/game:

After the game:

And my souvenir from the game:

It looks a lot worse than it feels.  It's more of an itch than a hurt.  Mental note:  wear sunscreen on my neck next time!

Recap:  Fall decorations are almost all out, weather is cool (for a couple of days anyway!), I survived Friday night (got condiments ready for the concessions, wrapped a few hamburgers, and went to reception), and saw my first Rugby Match.