Castle in the Clouds

I knew it was going to be insane this weekend and I was right. Saturday morning I had to be up to the fields by 10:30 to help out at the souvenir stand. Immediately afterward the boys' games started. The youngest played defense during his two scrimmages and the oldest played both offense and defense for both of his. A welcome improvement over our first year of football! For those of you who are new to the blog and just tuning in, our first year with the program (2006) was rather discouraging. At that time the oldest boy was just old enough to get onto a team. Unfortunately, he had a coach who didn't really believe in giving the kids fair time on the field. He had his favorites and he played them. Our boy, who was admittedly not a star player, was put on the field the bare minimum of plays allowed at each and every game. When confronted, the coach always seemed to have an excuse. It was beyond frustrating. So, kudos to the coaches this year. I don't know if the ru

It's all about the football. The boys have practice four nights a week. We're lucky in that my nephew, who is seventeen and has a driver's license, is dropping the kids off at the fields while we're still at work. For a few blessed weeks we don't have to worry about getting out of work early. Of course, once school starts, this reprieve will come to an end. Until the end of the season it'll be shorter lunch hours so we can get out a half-hour early Monday through Thursday. I doubt my hubby will even notice. I get the sense his lunch is interrupted or exercised through on most days. Me? I enjoy reading, writing, or watching whatever is on Hulu or Netflix for that brief little siesta in the middle of my work day. Weekends from now until the end of the season - which is what? October? - will be planned around their games. Our hope is that the boys will play on the same fields and not in different towns. The hubby and I would like to be able to watch both b

Back in 2006 I was lucky enough to get into Holly Lisle's Breakout Novel class. Holly was still an active member of Forward Motion back then , which is how and why I came to be in her class. It was a huge honor to get to work with a professional writer in such a small group setting. Although we had several people "auditing" the class, there were only six of us that Holly agreed to mentor through the creative process. Holly shaped our course around Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass . After reading assigned chapters, we would have to complete our weekly homework assignments and turn them in for review. We had to come up with something new to work on, something fresh. We outlined scenes, discussed personal and world stakes, and filled in character sheets. Holly would comment and guide, ask questions and challenge plot holes. Trust me when I tell you it was hard work. We didn't get a chance to finish the course, though. Real life interfered and Holly h

1. Put your iTunes/Mp3 Player on shuffle. 2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer. 3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS! 4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing this. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL? Maneater - Nelly Fertado HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? My Love - Justin Timberlake WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE? Chestnuts Roading on an Open Fire - Nat King Cole WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Rollin' – Big & Rich WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? If I Had - Eminem WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? Welcome to the Jungle - Guns N' Roses WHAT IS 2+2? Drips - Eminem WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND? Celebration - Kanye West WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE? I Want You - Bon Jovi WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY? Shake That - Eminem WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? Rap Superstar - Eminem WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE? Maru's boychild - Thijs Van Lerr WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU? Boom - P.O

Look! I've been nominated! How sweet is that? Many thanks to Zoe from Le Chateau de Chiffon .

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned the fact that the boys are at home during the day now. While the hubby and I are off at work, they're enjoying their computers, DS games, and playing basketball with their cousin in the driveway. Of course, it can't all be fun and games. They're getting a dollar-a-day allowance for doing small chores around the house. Chores that need to be done before Mom and Dad get home from work. These tasks range from cleaning their bedrooms, to sweeping and vacuuming, disinfecting their bathroom, and doing the dishes. Before Ken and I left for our little mini-vacation on Friday, I opened the cupboard door to find this... What a disaster! Not only were things not stacked very well, they weren't even put away in the right cupboard. Sure evidence that the kids had taken care of the dishes. When confronted with the mess, my little guy, the guilty party, could only offer a teasing smile. He wasn't smiling quite so much after I had him h

Jodie at MCP Actions is hosting another giveaway. Don't miss out on this opportunity to win a new lens for your SLR! More info here: Win a Lensbaby Composer .

Last night we took the boys shopping for school shoes and football cleats. We ran to the Outlet Mall and ended up visiting three stores before finally settling on soccer cleats instead of football cleats. That's right. Neither Nike, Reebok, nor Adidas carry football cleats for anyone with a foot under a size 9. And, to be fair, only Nike carried those. The other two stores only had soccer and baseball cleats on their shelves. Craziness! We'd have been better off driving into the city and visiting Dunham's . While we were there looking for football cleats, we decided to get the boys their school shoes, too. We spent more on three pairs of shoes than I did on eight pairs of jeans. I can't imagine how much the bill would have come to if we hadn't insisted on buying sale-priced merchandise. With their jeans and shoes out of the way that leaves backpacks, lunch boxes, shirts, underwear, and socks. I'm hoping if I wait until the weekend before they head back

What? It's not healthy? Might lead to impaired hearing in the near future? Too late! Already there! Here's just a small sampling of why (imagine me in that crowd, screaming my fool head off). Nickelback - BURN IT TO THE GROUND from Nickelback on Vimeo .

I love the fact that I'm not taking classes this fall semester. Knowing that I'm going to have a few more months to enjoy my favorite pastimes is so very, very sweet. While on vacation I managed to sneak in quite a few books in between our touristy moments. I read romance novels (2), historical fiction (1), and science fiction (1), and fantasy (1). Yes, five books in two weeks. And it was glorious! Right now I'm reading One Hundred Years of Solitud e by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I've tried reading this book before but only managed to make it about halfway through. I blamed my lack of progress on school last time. We'll see if that was true now that I don't have that particular excuse to pull out of my magic hat of excuses. This book is challenging not because of it's content, but because the author used character names that are easily confused. Of course, this isn't the only thing I'm reading right now. Remember that Writers' Conference I

I meant to post these a day or so after the week 1 pictures. Sorry they're a little late! Our second week of camping was at Tahquamenon State Park near Paradise, MI. While the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, the mosquitoes were outrageously numerous and persistent. We couldn't be outside without a thick layer of bug spray coating every exposed inch of our skin. Still, the Tahquamenon River was picturesque and the falls were amazing. Here are just a few of the pictures from our trips to the lower and upper falls. The scenery wasn't the only thing worth looking at, either. The last time we vacationed in this area we visisted Oswald's Bear Farm (see old pictures here and here ). After that first adventure, how could we not revisit the bear cubs and the older bears? We just had to go back! A day or so later we took a nice long ride through back country roads to get to this lighthouse on Lake Superior. The climb to the top was very narrow but the view was well wort

Just hanging around our campsite. We were lucky enough to be right on the lake. The Big Springs (a.k.a. Kitch-iti-kipi) was a just a couple miles down the road from our campsite. The pictures here don't do the spring justice - of course - but I hope you get a sense of just how clear the water was. Our most memorable trip to the Springs was our first. A beautiful adult male Bald Eagle landed in a tree overlooking the springs. I'd show you a picture if I could, but I hadn't thought to grab my camera for that particular road trip! I know! I'm shocked, too. We visited a "ghost town". Fayette was once a prosperous community built around the iron ore market. Now it's ruins are protected by the State and visitors can wander around its abandoned buildings with the purchase of a State Park sticker. Since we already needed one of those for our campground, this was free! And those are just a few of the animals we saw at the zoo. Along the boardwalk in Manis