I do do girly things

You would think that with all the guy type stuff on my blog that I don't do any girly girl things. Well last night I did. Every Sunday night there are coaches meetings; the football coaches get together and go over things for the upcoming week. Well this week we decided that we needed a coaches wives meeting. Eight of us got together and watched Sex and the City. I have never seen the show, so that part wasn't all that interesting to me. But the laughing, drinking, eating, talking, and laughing some more was wonderful. Here are just a few pics from the evening.





(For those of you who have seen the movie the crayon will make sense, for those who have not seen the move-not so much. By the way, I will never look at this painting-done by Nate-hanging in our basement the same way again)

Win some/lose some

We were 2-1 this weekend. Dan's team and Matt's team both came out victorious. Sadly, Nate's team did not. The Chargers lost 24-17 to the Ashland Eagles yesterday. I guess what makes this lose so difficult was that the defense did everything it could do. On the offensive side of the ball there were 6 turn-overs in the red zone. As Nate came to me after the game his comment was, "If we would have kicked field goals each of those six times we would have won." I don't envy the young men on offense this week!!


This lovely woman with Nate is Mary Clare. She is from Scotland and is visiting friends. Mary Clare has never seen American football so my friends brought her to the game. Nate let her check out his helmet; she couldn't get over how heavy the thing was or how big Nate is. She was quite taken with the sport. I was quite taken with Mary's accent. I haven't heard a Scottish accent like hers since my grandmother, and I didn't realize how much I missed hearing it. We were so taken with each other that we are planning on communicating via email.



Dan and Matt had a wonderful time with Busia and Papa. The game went well and the four of them had a lovely time at dinner after the game. Next week is homecoming for both boys. We will be doing two games, since Nate's game is in the afternoon and Matt's at night. We will start the tailgate at HC around 11:00 and finish at AC after Matt's game.

Another great weekend-weather wise

I wonder how many more of these gorgeous weekends we have left? Instead of looking in the closet deciding which sweatshirt to wear, I'm looking at shorts to wear.

Today Dan and I are doing a split shift. I am staying in Hillsdale to cheer Nate and the Chargers to victory and Dan (along with Busia and Papa) are traveling to Cleveland to cheer Matt and the Bulldogs to vidtory. We will be 4 hours and 215 miles from each other. Thank god for text messaging!!

If anyone is interested you can listen to the Adrian game - start time 12:45

Guess what I did this weekend!!

I'm sure that wasn't hard to figure out. Friday night Gloria and I traveled to Leslie to watch the Hornets beat the Leslie Blackhawks. Saturday Dan and I traveled to Adrian to watch the Bulldogs pound on the Bluffton Beavers. Saturday night Dan and I hurried home to listen to the Hillsdale Chargers battle it out against the Indianapolis Greyhounds. Happily all three games were in the win column.


Matt had an awesome game. He switched over to defense two weeks ago. WOW - he's loving it. He hits like no other. He is on three special teams and is now second string free safety. The Bulldogs were beating the beavers so badly, Matt saw tons of playing time. After two years of struggling on offense, I think Matt has finally found his place as a defender.


Nate is also on three special teams. It was hard telling how much he played from the radio's broadcast. We weren't able to make both games - so we thought. There was a 90 minute rain delay in Indy. If we would have known that at 3:30 when Matt's game got over with, we would have had time to drive to watch Nate. We did hear that he had a tackle and then we heard the announcer say, "Nate English is leaving the field." We didn't even know he was on the field. We felt bad for Nate after the game though.

Hillsdale College travels with a lot of fans, and Nate said he felt a bit lonely standing on the field after the game without a parent there. Luckily for him the Yassay's adopted him that game, and made him a part of their family. Because of this, Dan and I have decided to split up for next week's games. I'm staying in Hillsdale to cheer for Nate and Dan is going to Cleveland to cheer for Matt.

Let's see before next week here's our schedule:
Tonight Dan has football practice; then he is going to Spring Arbor College and guest lecture in an education class.I have to read Oedipus for my class.
Tuesday I have class from 6-9.
Wednesday there is a middle school football game and volleyball game that I want to get to. There is also a hs volleyball game that I would like to stop in and watch.
Thursday the JV football team is at home and we both will be there. I also have a doctor's appointment - maintenance on my back.
Friday the Hornets travel to Albion for their game.
This is Fair Week in Hillsdale - we would like to get to the fair one night this week. The kids love it when they see their teachers out and about - especially at the Hillsdale County Fair.

I hope you all have a wonderful week - enjoy the summer like weather.

Rain, rain, go away come again another day (during the week)

Last weekend we covered the pool. Boy are we glad we did. With all the rain this weekend it would have been impossible to do that. In case you're wondering why no picture - it was so wet at the games I didn't want to ruin my camera.

In football this weekend the boys were 4 and 0: the Hornets won on Friday, the Chargers won on Saturday afternoon, the Bulldogs won on Saturday night, and the Irish also won. I guess I was pushing my luck when I thought we could go 5-0 and have a win on Sunday with the Lions.

For every up comes a down

Last week the English family enjoyed a winning football weekend. This week not so much. All the English boys suffered losses this week. Usually the Hillsdale Hornets have a running clock against the other team. Not this week. Muskegeon Catholic Central took it to the Hornets. (I'm sure Sr. Ann is smiling). I don't even know what the score was - let's just say a lot to a little. Dan did say after the game that there were scouts there from ND, Michigan, MSU and other DI college schools watching two players from CC.

On Saturday Matt went south and Nate went North. At game time, the boys were 17 hours away from one another. I felt like they should be in two different time zones. Nathan was in Houghton playing Michigan Tech, Matt was in Columbus playing a school called Capital (Ranked 8th in the country). Matt's action was limited to special teams. I thought he did well - getting close a few times to blocking a punt.


As we made the trip to support Matt, our friends were texting us with updates from the UP. For Dan and I it was frustrating; we really wanted to be in two places at one time. From what we heard from the HC game - the weather was terrible: wind, rain - left over from Gustav - and cold.

At least ND ended up winning. Next week both boys play at home. Nate in the afternoon and Matt at night, so Dan and I will be able to make both games.

Labor Day

20 years ago Labor Day fell on September 5th. On that day I labored while giving birth to Nathan. We won't be able to celebrate Nate's birthday on the actual day this year. He will be making the 13 hour bus ride to Houghton that day, where the Chargers will play Michigan Tech. So we had a little impromptu birthday celebration for Nate yesterday. He came home with five friends from college: they swam, ate, ate some more, and had Chocolate Eclair Cake for dessert.


Dan, Nate and I were in total shock when one of his friends started singing Sto Lat with us!!!