Friendlies

The second tournament of the weekend wasn’t really a tournament….just a series of games against other teams in the club.  Matthew, again, ran hot and cold.  Just not sure what the deal here is.  Not sure he knows what the problem is.  At times, he is in full denial that things aren’t quite where they should be (and that’s frustrating!)

(spending way too much time here right now)

Finally went and talked with his coach for a long time to see if he was seeing the same thing we were seeing.  Yes and no. 

1)  It’s not fitness.  He lost 9 pounds over the summer….even Matthew will tell you that he feels great and he looks really good out there, especially in the late parts of games.

2)  It is confidence.  Matthew, on almost everything, is deferring to other players.  Letting them make the plays instead of him.  And this means that he is playing like a butterfly (oh, did he not like that comparison!).  He goes here there and everywhere but isn’t doing anything.  And because he isn’t making an impact, he goes to the bench more often.  You can’t work on your confidence or making an impact when you are sitting on the bench….

3)  We played four games.  In the first game it wasn’t good…in the second, maybe because he got moved back to defense, it was better.  Forced him to be aggressive.  On Sunday, the first game wasn’t good….and the second was the best of the weekend.  Had a great assist for a goal against the best team we faced and was really chasing after it in the second half when everyone else had given up.

The solution?  Not sure….I taped him, but, we haven’t watched it.  Need to find the time to do that…maybe that will help.  Just seeing the video of him deferring like that I think will be a large part of it.  I do know if he wants to ‘defer’ like that in football he’s going to get creamed.

The other noteworthy thing about the weekend was that three of the four games were played on the new turf field.  Looked nice.  Field is huge; it’s championship size so way bigger than the normal 11v11 fields we play on.

Two Updates and Two Endings

Blog Update:  Still want to document some of the things that happened over the summer so will probably mix those posts in with more current ones.

Wiley Update:  Well we are in Boston and he is still alive and kicking at home.  In mid-July I wouldn’t have thought that would happen.  Seems to be doing well with our new pet sitter, so, we will see.  Kevin spent a long time saying goodbye to Wiley as we left…..because it is certainly a lot to expect that we will make it to November.

(a lot of people ask how Holly is dealing with Wiley’s ‘condition’.   And it is like she could care less….just more opportunities to eat his food!  This is one of the few occasions where she decided to go lie down near him recently)

Ending #1:  Multiple years of orthodontia came to an end for Kevin before we left home….

He still has to wear a retainer BUT only at night! 

Ending #2:  One boy at college means that the need for three cars has come to an end.  So….

(we liked this car…just don’t need it anymore.  Think we would go this route again, especially since we have the 240V charger now.  Will be interested to see what newer versions of the Volt look like in terms of performance)

Suzanne would dearly love to drop the Odyssey like a bad habit…I argue, and she reluctantly agrees, that we need that van for boy transport and boy-stuff storage and transport.  

Paddling Down the Grand River

One of the many events I didn’t properly ‘document’ over the last month or two was our canoeing trip down the Grand River.  So let me hit the highlights:

1)  We probably overdid it.  We’ve gone in at McNamara Landing before and that is only about 90 minutes to where you pull out.  This time we went in further up and weren’t going all that fast and well….it took forever.

2)  Cpher either alternatively had a great time or the worst time ever.  There was no middle ground and at times he was just awful to deal with.  Not sure what his main problem was.   Wanted to stop to swim constantly….even when that seemed difficult given shore conditions.  Tipped his kayak once and had some problems getting back in.

3)  Speaking of that…the first time we were all in kayaks instead of some people in a canoe.  Given Cpher issues, probably best this way.  Certainly better for Kevin and Matthew; they were all over the place. 

 

    

The Sad Story of Ryan

Wiley Update #6 – We are one week from heading to Boston….and about a week ago I was sure that one of the things that we would be doing was taking Wiley to the vet one last time before we go.

But…..I think both Suzanne and I are in agreement that we just can’t do it if he is living life like he is now (he is alert, he rises to walk around and interact with us).   This is Saturday.  I’d say he was worse Thursday but better Friday and Saturday. 

The biggest unknown is how he will interact with our pet sitter while we are gone….will he get up and get outside?   The last thing I want to do is leave the girl in a very bad spot with a very sick dog.  

Just don’t know what to do……..

 

 

Our neighborhood tends to have a transient nature about it….kids come, and kids go, and well, some of those kids aren’t the best of kids and that can present some challenges.

The year our next door neighbors went on sabbatical was a challenge.  Five kids from an Iranian family….the oldest trying to pick fights with Matthew to the smallest walking around the neighborhood in a diaper without any parental supervision.  It was a good thing when they finally left.  

There have been more than our fair share of kids (Obada, Noah, and now Lucas) with decidedly anti-social traits that have had made Mom and Dad have talks with the boys and lay down a few laws about engagement.   Lucas, for example, seems to want to spit on Matthew…..Matthew has been patient twice but has let Lucas know that if he should do it again Matthew is just gong to deck him.

And every once in a while there is a kid who lives in the apartments who comes down here looking for friends and causes issues and friction.  It’s this situation that brings Ryan into the picture.

My initial impressions of Ryan were that a) he was a little weird but b) he was also very polite when talking to me.  He would come by at strange times (when the boys were in school) and ask for them, and at first, didn’t even know the boys names when he came to the door and asked for them.   At first, the boys really didn’t want to play with him but that changed over time.   And so it went through this spring and into the summer.  Ryan would be around at times, but I didn’t see anything in the ‘play’ that really troubled me, and quite frankly, the boys are more than big enough to take care of themselves.  Would check in now and again but there wasn’t one thing that happened to make me think “Oh, this is trouble.”   There are other kids (Lucas) I watch a lot more when he is hanging around our house.

When we are off to Las Vegas and the boys are off to Spring Hill apparently all heck broke loose around here.  Ryan came over to the neighborhood but nobody was home.  He, apparently, circled around one of the other houses looking for something…the mom called the police, and so, when we return, half the neighborhood can’t play with Ryan anymore.   The boy have been steadfast that they see nothing wrong with Ryan, I don’t have any issues with him.  So, Fric and Frac are now caught in the middle….if they play with one group of friends and Ryan comes around he can’t play (and the best part is these kids, all several years younger than Fric and Frac, have now taken to teasing Ryan) with them.  And if Ryan is playing with them, the other friends can’t come over.

Sigh.

It’s a month after all of this drama.  I am happy(?) to report that the neighborhood ban on Ryan has passed.   After one tense evening I stopped his Dad (or foster Dad….I don’t know and really don’t care) and said, hey, you can’t just drop Ryan over here and drive away…you need to at least make sure he gets a response when he knocks on a door and is playing with someone.   Happy the boys ‘judgment’ about Ryan seems to be vindicated; glad they got to see how their younger friends (and the younger friends parents!) behaved….which was pretty damned shameful. 

The Last Christopher Concert

Christopher, when the choices for 8th grade electives came ‘round last spring, said he wanted to give up string bass to start taking a language.  I was disappointed (I’m still disappointed!) in this….but I understand it; I think Cpher knows that he’s not the best string player.  And even though I think he liked jazz ensemble at the end of the year-of-jazz he certainly complained up a storm about practices and concerts as they happened.

So, even though it was obvious that if I pushed he would have stayed in, he let it go.  There are bigger battles to fight (most of those revolve around athletics and body shape).

Cpher has chosen French as his language of choice.  The only reason given was “Aunt Melanie teaches it”.  We figured there had to be somebody taking French that he wanted to be in the same class with but that has proven to be off the mark.

Anyway, you can see the last concert by clicking below.  The last piece of the concert, well, that was pretty cool with the guest drummer.  Always a sucker for that song.   Starts at about the 15:50 mark of the video.

From The Sports Desk – Rush Kickoff Classic

The first tournament of the U13 year is, well, the same as the tournament last year. 

Heading into it….well, I wasn’t sure what to think.  I thought well, we could go 0-3 and that wouldn’t surprise me much.  I could see us making the finals.  The schedule absolutely sucks….we play at 10:40 am and then not again until 8 pm Saturday night.  And then again at 7:50 Sunday morning.  Not much choice but to stay the night down in Novi….

Anyway…..

Game 1:  There are four teams in our bracket.  We’ll play the other three, and the top two will move on to the final.  Our first game, while against a team on the schedule as a Michigan team, PSG Nova, in fact is against a Canadian team, Ciociaro, that plays, when they play in the US, under that name.  Kinda weird but whatever.  They won this tournament last year (we didn’t play them).  And they beat us 2-1.

Matthew has been ‘sick’ the two days leading up to this game.  Stomach is queasy, lots of gastro-issues.  We have to make an emergency stop on the drive down for a bathroom break.  He doesn’t play much in the first half and frankly doesn’t play very well….but that’s I guess to be expected for the first game of the season(?).  I don’t know….thought he had worked hard to be ready, and this weekend, illness aside, wasn’t one of his finest moments.

The challenge in playing this Canadian team is that they are in mid-season form….and it showed.  The were crisp and they were, by and large, small and fast.  We (and Matthew was not alone in this) had a lot of turnovers and gave them plenty of chances.  And the two they converted were, sadly, cheap.  The first goal was a free kick off of a very questionable hand call.  The second, they earned a corner kick, and Matthew, as Matthew does, gets his head on it AND THE BALL GOES THE WRONG WAY.  Instead of out, it heads towards the goal and our team doesn’t clear it out.  And that was that.

 

 

Game 2:  Another Canadian team.  This time, they are from east of Toronto….that’s a long way so I’m thinking they are pretty good.  But not so much….we dominate play and win 4-0.  It’s 0-0 at halftime and I’m really hoping that we aren’t going to live to regret not scoring on some great chances in the first half.  But we score four in about eighteen minutes to put the game away. 

One nice thing about this new year is that we have new uniforms.  And the club has decided that the colors for home and away are going to be mixed up….away uniforms are the blue with white shorts, and home is vice versa.  Suzanne and I were getting quite sick of the all white uniforms we seemed to wear almost every game last winter and spring.

 

(A little better with this header…at least it went away from our goal.  As a theme though, Matthew’s headers were ‘off’ all weekend.  Not his usual self.)

 

(can’t really argue if he lost the ball here.  In the NFL that might be holding)

Game Three:  The goal this season is to do well enough in the fall to earn promotion to the MSPSL Premier One division in the spring.  So, of all the games we play, the early morning clash against Rush Northville might be the most important.  They are not in our division, so, not a direct competitor for one of those Prem One spots, but, I think this game is a good benchmark, since we tied them twice last year and they would be one of the four teams in their division that I think would advance.

The game, even though it is a 2-0 win for us, is even more lopsided than Saturday night’s game.   The score is more a testament to their goalie making some great saves and our ineptitude in the offensive zone.  They are never in it…we are never threatened.  Winning this game means we are in the finals.

 

Finals:  Against the team we lost to in the first game….a chance for revenge.  And it is an even game….we miss two great scoring chances in the first half and it is tied 0-0.

Last year we rostered 18 players; this year we have 16.  We were shorthanded going in since we were missing two kids to injury.  One of our kids goes down with a very obvious hamstring injury in the first half…..we’ll play with two subs the rest of the way.  This is our first game outside in the heat….and the other team has 18 kids.  They are subbing in a player every chance they get in the second half.

And while we don’t think Matthew had a great weekend, the coach specifically pointed to the last 20 minutes of this game where Matthew played his best.  He didn’t fade…he played smart, he made the right plays and seemed to get stronger the deeper into the game we got.

We’re all looking at our watches near the end…three minutes to go, two minutes to go, and then with about 30 seconds left we break through and get the goal (‘at the death’ is the soccer phrase).  They kickoff after the goal and the ref gives the other team until they lose possession to us and blows the whistle….that’s it.

(three straight shutouts?  I’ll take it!)

(another trophy for the collection!)

(the obligatory happy team photo)

Seasonal Strategic Support Associate

While some kids flip burgers at McDonalds, Kevin has a pretty decent summer job, courtesy of Mom’s employer.  Apparently a great many folk with the above title have last names matching current JNL employees.  That’s not a bad thing I guess.

The job pays well and, well, here’s the official description:

Seasonal Strategic Support Associate

JNL is one of the nation’s fastest-growing financial services companies. Our associates are proud to work for a company that is forward-thinking, as well as a multi-faceted industry leader in the areas of customer service, product design, distribution and technology. JNL has openings for Seasonal Strategic Support Associates at our Home Office in Lansing, MI and at the “The Zone” in East Lansing, MI. Our fast-paced, innovative company is looking for candidates who are interested in:  Gaining corporate experience and exposure with a dynamic and growing organization.  Learning more about the financial services industry.  Flexible, part-time work with self designated schedules. We are looking for individuals who are able to work:  At least 15 to 20 hours per week between the hours of 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. (Monday through Friday) and 7 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Saturday).  Flexible work schedules generated a week in advance based on associate's availability, in addition to business needs of JNL.

 

So, what does that mean really?  Kevin does data entry all day.  He’s getting about 30 to 35 hours a week, mostly 8 or 9 to 5.  He can ask for a 30 minute lunch break but he typically does not and has been pretty good about packing his lunch.   Dress is extremely casual; shorts and a t-shirt are ok.  He is over at the Zone in East Lansing so does not see Mom except once or twice this summer.  Headphones and music make the day go by quicker, but, he describes the work as “more boring than boring”. 

(the one picture of Kevin at work…when Mom was over there for the day and grabbed this photo of the animal in his native environment)

He can come back over winter (he doesn’t have a lot of time to do that, but, any little bit helps) and next summer, and in the end, putting JNL on the resume instead of McDonalds?  A big plus.  Plus your hands don’t smell like onions for days after your shifts…..

Spring Hill 2014

Wiley Update #5:  It is not a good sign when the vet is wondering why you are not seriously considering putting the dog down within the first two minutes of your appointment.

While Wiley does the basics and is more ‘interactive’ with us now, there has been no improvement in the back and it seems like the ‘paralysis’?…who knows what the heck is going on…is creeping forward.  He walks with a stoop and, well, it’s not pretty.  Probably won’t make it through this month.  Lost 10 pounds since his last visit a month ago.  Would only take a very quick and simple downturn in the picture to make the decision come sooner than later.  As long as he is responsive (and he follows us around the house…a positive sign) and not a burden and we don’t think he is in pain, we are content to let him be for a while.

(asked the vet “Should we be taking him on walks?”…..she said, well, if he likes walks, yeah, go ahead, I don’t think anything at this point is going to hurt him more and he might regain some muscle mass.)

Spring Hill:  The boys headed north for their annual visit to Spring Hill with their good buddies Henry and Sam.  This might be the last year for Spring Hill for the boys

1)  This is the third year in a row, and while they had a blast (again) it is probably time to move on.

2)  I really want Cpher to play summer lacrosse next year.  That will make Spring Hill difficult, if not impossible (hey, does Cpher want to do summer lacrosse? like everything….he would prefer not to.  It is always a struggle pushing him and not pushing him to do things.  I surrendered on the String Bass….not sure I’m going to so easily give up on this point).

3)  For some reason, and I don’t think it was advertent, Henry’s best friend from school ended up at Spring Hill the same week, and so, ended up requesting the same cabin.  This was good for Henry, but, it was good that Sam and Christopher were there because Matthew said he felt very much like a third wheel all of a sudden. 

     

(these are the Camper Connect photos….we get an email per day with a picture and a “quote from your camper”.  I’m not copying the quotes…you can’t convince me the boys uttered them)

      

 

      

(the boys wore sweatshirts, because it protects them from paintball hits, but, also because it was pretty cold.  The summer version of the polar vortex hit this week and the lows were in the high 40’s)

      

      

The camp photographer took pictures as well.  There are more action shots here and there are two absolute classic photos in the bunch.  Happily, downloads are 99 cents.

     

(the photos have dates on them, but, didn’t seem to import in chronological order and I’m not fixing them at this point)

      

 

      

(if it isn’t crazy obvious by now…there was a big focus on paintball this week!)

      

(the pictures from drop-off day)

     

(the first of the absolutely classic photos)

      

 

 

(absolutely classic photo #2)

Kevin’s Final High School Concert

*Not* listed in Coming Attractions because I forgot…but I had done all of the groundwork to make this post and just didn’t finish it up.

I’ve told Kevin that a priority (for me at least) is to be able to get recordings of the NUSO concerts he participates in.  I think audio is a certainty….not so sure about video and really would be happy with just the audio; I convert all of my video to audio anyway.

Click on the pictures below to see the different videos from the final concert at OHS in May 2014.

One of the features of the last concert is the Senior Collage….each senior gets a baby picture and then his or her senior picture.  Kevin appears at about the 2 minute mark.  The audio sucks…this is bad and good….bad, because it is very hard to hear the songs they’ve chosen to accompany the pictures and good because you can hear the crowd reaction.  Cute baby pictures get good responses and not surprisingly, popular kids get good responses.

The video for this concert?  Does pretty well on the screen time….maybe not so much during the last Chamber Orchestra piece, the Finale (Russian Theme) from the Serenade for Strings by Tchaikovsky, but, you see a lot of him in the Philharmonic selections.

Have to say….really happy with the selection that Kevin’s orchestra ended his ‘career’ on, the fourth movement from Dvorak’s 9th “From The New World”.  Might only be topped by what Cpher’s 7th grade orchestra ended on (that’s for another post!).

And the traditional ending, “Nimrod” from Elgar’s Enigma Variations.  Traditionally, the parents stand behind their kids, but, the new director wasn’t big on that idea and tried to not have the parents on stage at all.  The compromise was on stage, but, not positioned where it would affect the musicians.  Bah.

Coming Attractions 2:  Things I forgot in the last post and want to remember for later:

Cpher’s Final Concert (still not thrilled that he is stopping playing String Bass to take French)

Kevin’s Yearbook

Iphone Photo Dump

Instagram Postings

Soccer Camp

Really need to try and post once a day here for the next two weeks to catch up!

Wiley Update #4:  It’s been a slow climb towards recovery and I’m still not convinced we’ll ever get there.  But…..

 

(the Selfie King)

1)  We’ve dialed the medicine back to one steroid pill and one pain pill a day.  We had tried, a week or two ago, to dial down the steroids to two every other day but couldn’t maintain it…by the end of the second day he was in a bad way.

2)  He struggles to his feet and is much more mobile day by day; has gone back to the old habit of going into the backyard to do his business.  But, it is a struggle to walk around the yard to get back to the front yard…..his gait turns into bunny-rabbit-style….can’t seem to put pressure consistently on that left leg.  Can go down the stairs to the basement; that’s been a pain in the ass because he certainly can’t do more than one step at a time and so has to be escorted around the house to get back to the front yard and the main level.  He’s attempted the two steps from the garage into the house twice that we’ve seen…both times his back end has collapsed out from under him.

3)  Going to the vet Friday.  We’ll see…..

Soccer Camp:  Last year we sent Matthew to soccer camp up in Alma.  The camp was run by the ( T ) coach and he did a nice job for what he wanted to do…bring in HS girls to look at for college recruiting.  We thought it was pretty crappy if you were a boy since there were less than ten of you and you weren’t going to get much out of it.  Reports from that camp this year say that things haven’t changed much.

So this year, we decided to try the camp at Hope College.  It was more expensive, but, it’s longer, and has the repetition of having a lot more kids.  And that was correct….Matthew is playing on a team with 15 kids and there are 6 other teams!

Highlights:  Well, Mom and Dad drove out on Monday to watch the scrimmages and Dad was there Wednesday and Mom and Dad on Thursday to watch the playoffs.  Matthew’s team won the championship and the boy had a big week, 2 goals and 8 assists in 7 games. 

(in the middle, in the red)

There was not one game that we observed that Matthew did not dominate the middle of the field in…..and he looked for his friends who came to the camp and got them the ball for a bunch of assists.  Just carved the other team up.  He’s been really working on soccer this summer and I hope it shows up in the next few weeks as the season begins.

In the final they won 3-1; Matthew had the first assist and the last assist, this one off of a perfectly placed corner kick.  So, on the soccer front, he had a great time and enjoyed the environment and competition.  A huge improvement on Alma.  Got a great evaluation at the end of it with something he can take forward and really work on; switching the ball (asked him why they think he didn’t switch the ball in his games and he said ‘because the opportunities were all on my side of the field”).  Ok…..we’ve talked a bunch about trying to ‘over’ switch the ball for a while until he feels more comfortable with it…if he isn’t.

The bad?  The boys were allowed to take electronic devices….and while this was good during rain delays it was bad because it enabled a huge case of homesickness that all of Matthew’s friends noticed.  Lesson learned; if he takes the phone again it only comes out at lights out.

He’ll be heading back next year; Matthew really had a lot of fun

Coming Attractions:

Spring Hill 2014 (boys)

Seasonal Support Associate (Kevin))

Las Vegas (Mom and Dad)

The sad tale of Ryan (boys)

Orientation (Kevin and Dad)

Kayaking (Dad and the boys)

Football Camp and Operation Fitness (the boys)

Lansing United (the season)

From The Sports Desk – Rush Kickoff Classic (that will happen this weekend)

From the Sports Desk – ( C ) Friendlies (two weekends away!)

Job, or lack thereof, Update

Sports Politics Update – I’ve volunteered to be on the youth football Board….and some discussion of the current soccer politics is probably worthwhile