Dog Bowl Champions

Alaskans do a lot of online ordering and we pay some serious postage. When a company advertises "free shipping" the small print always states "the Continuous States". It's a conspiracy. Well, Elijah needed new cleats for football. He had been wearing his brother's worn out soccer cleats. Nothing in a size 12 here (especially when one waits until a few games into the season). We ordered from Eastbay and paid the $35 one day UPS shipping. Can you believe it? They actually made it from Wisconsin to my front door in 24 hours.....but my cell phone won't work in my house. *sigh*

The whole "all the kids in school" thing isn't working out so well. It seems I have less time than before. I get Elijah up at 6:45am, then O & L at 7:30am, then Em at 8:00. I drop Nick at work at 8:55am (his van still doesn't have brakes and it won't until he helps) then Emily at 9:20am and then I go to the gym (that's almost three hours of morning routine). Yes. You heard me right, I am exercising. After years of avoidance I've decided I'd like to be stronger and have more stamina (weight is not the reason I am doing this.... being heavier is okay with me, I want to be healthier). By the time I get home it is 11:30am. That gives me 4 hours and 15 minutes to shower, clean, do 400 chores and solve the world's problems. Okay, I don't really solve world problems and I don't get my chores done either. Add the extras... and well, the day is mostly a bust. 

Yesterday I had to pick Nick up for lunch, but then he had to ride my 4-wheeler back to work because I wouldn't be available to pick him up in the afternoon. Elijah had games yesterday. Of course, he carefully wrapped his new shoes in towels and then left them on the floor so it was a big scramble of racing him his shoes and getting the Little's to Debbi's. My day never runs smoothly. I did go to the school yesterday and wrote on his back window "Go Wolfpack #10" and put some snacks on the seat. Brought him Subway between games. Drove him back to his car after the game. And he still was rude, cussed at me and basically acted like his biological father. *sigh* The genetics sure run deep. 

The JV game was awful. It was 40-0 (them) at the half when he went to dress for Varsity. The final was 50-something to 2. His defensive job was to shoot through and get the quarterback (he's #21).

He was met by two players every single time. He worked hard and was beat up by the half.

The Varsity is running a different offense that doesn't really include him. Hard to watch him on the sidelines. He got a couple plays as players dropped with injuries and here he is the man in motion.

He continues to be the long snapper (see his hands on the ball?) and he was perfect last night.

He's also the guy that sprints out to hit the punt return catcher and he was very successful with his tackles. See the orange shoes? That's him wrapping the guy up.

The Varsity won a very good game. This is called the Dog Bowl... we are the Wolfpack and they are the Malemutes. There's a trophy that the winning team gets to keep in their school. This is our 5th year in a row winning  under three different coaches!

It was raining this morning when I got up, but I see the sun peeking through so I need to get busy. I hate working in the damp, but rain is in the forecast for the next ten days and then we know snow won't be long after that. The leaves are turning quickly and summer is over. I can't believe how much did not get done, how much has to be picked up/done and I know it isn't possible to finish on my own. It really depresses me and then will eat at me all winter long. I wish I had another month.