JP's team fell behind 4-1 to a rival school in a blazing fast opening half of soccer.
They seem to be unable to come up with a good defensive scheme to match a blitzkrieg offensive scheme being used by the better schools that utilize fast strikers being fed the ball on crosses from the wing with the strikers simply outrunning the full backs and leading to open shots on goal.
Late in the second half, the Birds were at least able to get the ball upfield, and when the ball got deflected from a bit of a scrum, Jonathan was able to get in mighty boot that cleared the defenders and went through the outstretched goalie for a nice goal.
They scored again shortly after and it was a race against time.
Unfortunately they were not able to score again and they lost 4-3.
(At least they didn't miss miss 4 straight free throws to lose the national championship.
Although of course it was ten years ago yesterday that we were 5 minutes from glory and couldn't find quite enough in the tank to hold on...still that season was one of my greatest memories of our time in Utah. Sadly I'm submitting an application for a position at UK. Not sure how I can live with myself.)
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Sleep Science
I was sitting in a required department seminar where the speaker started talking about one of the largest medical concerns of parents with autistic kids is that the child's sleep is really messed up, which of course puts even more strain on the parents. She then talked about how similar this was to kids with epilepsy. Of course my ears pricked up at this. She talked about how these kids are sleep resistant, take a long time (1-2 hrs) to go to sleep, often wake up in the night with some anxiety, wake early in the morning, and just generally have a difficult time with sleep. Until that moment it had never occurred to me that ME's strange sleep habits (she is fully awake and actively running around the house as I write at 10:30 pm, and often wakes up once or twice in the middle of the night and then tries to sneak into our bedroom around 5 am) were related to her epilepsy.
The lecturer talked quite a bit about their studies using sleep behavioral therapy rather than using drugs to treat sleep disorders in these kids. We have not done a very good job of keeping constant bedtime routines, which apparently is extremely important. I am going to try to get more info from her to see what we can do.
The lecturer talked quite a bit about their studies using sleep behavioral therapy rather than using drugs to treat sleep disorders in these kids. We have not done a very good job of keeping constant bedtime routines, which apparently is extremely important. I am going to try to get more info from her to see what we can do.
More soccer
JP's middle school soccer team has won their last two games, both 5-0. One was against his old middle school. This last game he moved to midfielder and saw more playing time and got more touches. I will try to post some video soon.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
New Dresses
AM has been using the serger and her sewing machine to turn out some new dresses. The green dress is a farewell present for the little girl. Their family moved this week.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Out Like A Lion
The temperature took a big drop this weekend, with lots of rain, just in time for the girls soccer games. EM's game was especially miserable because of the wind. All the girls were cold and most of them didn't want to play, but rather snuggle in their blankets on the sidelines. EM found the muddy field especially challenging because any dirt on her clothes or shoes really bothers her, so she mostly spent her time checking whether she had gotten dirty.
Since the other team seemed less bothered by the cold and mud, mostly they moved the ball directly to their goal without any opposition from our team who were huddled together crying or shivering. After three quarters and the score around 25-0, the other team's coach and the referee tried to talk our coach into calling the game. Now while our coach is normally a friendly and sane person, for some reason she insisted that the game continue to the end. EM refused to go back out on the field for the last quarter. At last the game ended and we could go home for some hot chocolate.
This reminds me of a time many, many years ago when I was teaching swimming lessons. The heater on the pool went out in early spring and the pool temperature was so cold that it was miserable for teacher and students alike. Our management insisted that we still have lessons that day because they didn't want to refund money for a lost day. Some teachers refused to get in the water to teach, but made their students swim anyway (only older ones) and some of us suffered through the four hours of being in the water that day. Whenever I had first aid classes on hypothermia after that, it was easy to name off all the symptoms for second degree hypothermia because of my personal experience with them. The silly thing is that in the end, there were so many complaints from parents, that the managers had to refund anyway. The bottom line for me is that when the kids are shivering and not having fun, its time to call it a day.
A final note on the soccer games. Later in the day the temperature rose a bit. JA's team quickly took a commanding lead and she got to play goalie all of the second half. Most of the girls on her team are also on a travel team with the same coach, but fortunately, as long a JA and the other non-travel girl are playing hard, they still get in playing time.
Since the other team seemed less bothered by the cold and mud, mostly they moved the ball directly to their goal without any opposition from our team who were huddled together crying or shivering. After three quarters and the score around 25-0, the other team's coach and the referee tried to talk our coach into calling the game. Now while our coach is normally a friendly and sane person, for some reason she insisted that the game continue to the end. EM refused to go back out on the field for the last quarter. At last the game ended and we could go home for some hot chocolate.
This reminds me of a time many, many years ago when I was teaching swimming lessons. The heater on the pool went out in early spring and the pool temperature was so cold that it was miserable for teacher and students alike. Our management insisted that we still have lessons that day because they didn't want to refund money for a lost day. Some teachers refused to get in the water to teach, but made their students swim anyway (only older ones) and some of us suffered through the four hours of being in the water that day. Whenever I had first aid classes on hypothermia after that, it was easy to name off all the symptoms for second degree hypothermia because of my personal experience with them. The silly thing is that in the end, there were so many complaints from parents, that the managers had to refund anyway. The bottom line for me is that when the kids are shivering and not having fun, its time to call it a day.
A final note on the soccer games. Later in the day the temperature rose a bit. JA's team quickly took a commanding lead and she got to play goalie all of the second half. Most of the girls on her team are also on a travel team with the same coach, but fortunately, as long a JA and the other non-travel girl are playing hard, they still get in playing time.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Defeat
JP's middle school soccer team went down 3-2 in a hard fought battle. The final score came on a penalty kick with only a few minutes remaining. JP had a shot on goal in the first half, but missed right.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Surprise!
AM hit the big 4-0 this week. To celebrate we visited a local pancake house where "rain, sleet, or shine there is always a line" for breakfast and then for dinner a little italian. Her big over-the-hill birthday present was a serger. Now to non-sewers like myself, a serger and a sewing machine seem like pretty much the same machine, but apparently they are entirely different, sort of like a road bike and a mountain bike, except of course its more obvious why you need two bikes to have fun that two sewing machines...
Then on Saturday, we had a surprise party. I had smuggled decorations and food to our friend's houses and the playhouse for safekeeping. (I even got up in the middle of the night once to transfer things from the wagon to the playhouse because I realized that AM was likely to drive the wagon the next morning and might get suspicious about the towels covering stuff up in the back. Fortunately there was a big windstorm that night so when she asked why I got up, I could say I was checking on our trashcan that had in fact been blown over in the storm.) On Saturday, one of AM's friends invited her to lunch to get her out of the house so I could decorate. I then picked her up directly from the restaurant on our way to a juggling show that we as a family had tickets too. (Which by the way was fantastic.) This provided the cover for people to assemble at our house. Then when we came home, I made sure she was the first to enter the house. She was quite surprised when everyone jumped out. I was trying to follow along with the camera to get video coverage, but my video feed turned out real jumpy, so I won't post it. Anyway it turned out well and was lots of fun. Thanks to any of you out in the blogosphere who participated.
Then on Saturday, we had a surprise party. I had smuggled decorations and food to our friend's houses and the playhouse for safekeeping. (I even got up in the middle of the night once to transfer things from the wagon to the playhouse because I realized that AM was likely to drive the wagon the next morning and might get suspicious about the towels covering stuff up in the back. Fortunately there was a big windstorm that night so when she asked why I got up, I could say I was checking on our trashcan that had in fact been blown over in the storm.) On Saturday, one of AM's friends invited her to lunch to get her out of the house so I could decorate. I then picked her up directly from the restaurant on our way to a juggling show that we as a family had tickets too. (Which by the way was fantastic.) This provided the cover for people to assemble at our house. Then when we came home, I made sure she was the first to enter the house. She was quite surprised when everyone jumped out. I was trying to follow along with the camera to get video coverage, but my video feed turned out real jumpy, so I won't post it. Anyway it turned out well and was lots of fun. Thanks to any of you out in the blogosphere who participated.