It has started...

FOOTBALL.

Right now 5 times per week, 2 hours a session.

Makes for one tired kid. But good for him.

Makes for one worn out car, mom and step-dad. But will sacrifice for him.

He is second kid from left in blue.

His best friend showed up last night and is on his team. Boy did that perk Vern up.  First game in about 3 weeks.

DA MOM can't wait!

Gearing up

Pun intended. Keep reading.

So the other night we headed down to the Sporting Goods Metropolis. Talk about a racket on gear - they get in good with the local teams and have you hooked.  They can charge whatever they'd like and you just smile and hand them your credit card. Sometimes I hate consumerism but that is for my other blog...

Somehow Vern just keeps on growing, as all kids do.  We needed to purchase a football helmet, shoes, mouth guard, water bottle and I didn't know at the time but do now black socks. Anyway I wanted to let you all know we are back to famous red shoes this year. Vern tried on a few different pairs and kept coming back to the red pair so we bought them. I hope Vern has great traction in his red shoes and has an awesome season.

Did I happen to mention how
E-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e
these things are?  Including a "generous" 15% discount on the helmet only.   Digressing again...  Of course as we are paying there is a cute Vern story.

Lady at checkout counter - henceforth known as CC - "How old are you?"

Vern "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....... 11"

Laughter amongst the adults, yes he really needed to think about it.

CC - "Was your birthday just yesterday?"

Vern "No"

CC - "When was it?"

Vern - "Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....another long pause and trying really really hard to remember....last November."

More laughter.

Vern is such a GREAT kid. He always can make people smile and laugh.

Serious car crashes

I am a mom and I worry. No big surprise if your a mother. It is like breathing or eating - you just do it. Now, I don't know if this is the norm or not but Vern has been in 2 very serious car crashes in his lifetime and he is only 11!

The first car crash was with me and the family. We were celebrating Ann's 9th birthday and as we were leaving the establishment (very cold February night) we were rear ended by a very drunk driver.  The minivan I was driving was totalled.

About a month ago, Vern was in a second crash. This was a side impact crash at only around 30mph or less yet it was bad enough to send some of the people to the hospital and totalled the car Vern was riding in.
On the positive side he has walked away from both these crashes with only neck/back injuries.  I worry because how many more crashes will he be involved in during his life and will one of them seriously hurt him or even kill him?

I know, I shouldn't worry about things I can't control but I am a mom and you find me a mom that doesn't worry about crazy things like this and I'll bet she is not a very involved or caring mother.

I guess the only thing I can do is pray every day and hope Vern makes good choices in driving and vehicles as he gets older.


The Worry Wort Mom.

Sex questions from an 11 year old

Driving always seems to bring out questions in Vern. The other day was no different.

V - "Mom?"
M - "Yes honey."

V - "Can you have more than one orgasm in a day?"

Luckily I was not driving or I may have driven into something.

M - "Yes, why do you ask?"

V - "Well you get so tired after I was just wondering."

Shocked look given to Superman who is loving that this is happening to me.

M - "What is making you think about all this now Vern?"

V - stammering trying to come up with an answer without telling mom the real reason - "Um, you know we went to health night during school and I was just wondering."

Pause in conversation.
V - "Do women have an orgasm?"

M - "Yes." Giving Superman a painful look who is looking over at me while driving and trying not to laugh.

V - "Well how does the stuff go into the man?"

M - "Ejaculation and orgasm are different between a man and woman. So do you have your stuff packed for camp Vern?"

I couldn't handle any more of those kind of questions!!! He is 11 for goodness sakes. I don't know where he was getting ideas to ask this stuff but I am glad he asked for the facts from me instead of some other kid.

We are back!

We almost melted while we were gone. I seriously thought we would all be a pool of melted gee by the time we were two days into the vacation.  The high temp on Monday or Tuesday (I can't remember) was 115 degrees!  To top it all off the only air conditioning we had was when we drove somewhere in the car. Not fun for pansies like us :-)

Anyway, I thought I would post some photos and give you a flavor for our laid back wild west week.

Here are the stair steppers. They are so grown up and special to me :-)

Signs like this were all over. We even went on a raft ride and were warned about them swimming in the creek by us!

Here is Vern in jail.

Vern is concentrating hard on painting his roadrunner. I thought it turned out well but Vern was not happy with the glaze. He wanted it shinier.

Yep, entire trip was in the middle of no where. Luckily our tire didn't go flat on this road!

Vern thought it would be cool to ride Superman's large bicycle. Yes he ended up racking himself...

Here is Vern and John riding up the buttes. John's horse was lazy and wanted to keep stopping the entire trip. Going up those buttes was something else. The poor horses were puffing and snorting up a storm and their hooves were slipping on the rocks. I just let my horse do his thing as he knew much better than I how to navigate the terrain.

Here is one of Vern's artistic shots. It is of an ant on a rock. It was so hot I don't know how that ant didn't immediate cook himself on the rock.

Vern being silly. Yes he is going for the cow's privates!

A serious pose but I liked it so wanted to include it.

Here is Vern with me. See how a Packer fan and a Vi queen fan can get along.

This photo has an interesting story behind it. As we pull up this is pretty far away. Everyone is looking and trying to figure out what kind of bird this is. Well Vern says it's an eagle and the rest of us say it is a turkey vulture. Vern goes ahead and snaps a couple shots. We get home and zoom the photo in to see what it is. Vern was correct. It was a young eagle just starting to get his white head.  I was surprised to see an eagle out in the middle of nowhere with no large rivers around.

We had a great time even if it was hot.