Hometown boys

This photo is from one of the other mom's camera. She takes way better pictures than I do-even if I would have remembered my camera. In this pic you can see #99-Drew Berebe. Next to him is #52-Nate. And to the very right is #1-Joe Vear. All three of these young men went to Hillsdale High School and played football together. What are the odds that they would be playing on the same college team and be on the field at the same time? Pretty impressive I think.

If you want to see more Charger photos - click here

What a nice day for a football game

The weather was a bit on the cool side, but with the sun shining in the sky the breeze was manageable. Now that Nate is a junior, (sophomore status in football) he knows it time to prove himself. He did a very nice job yesterday. A few weeks ago he was moved to the middle linebacker, and so far is sharing the duties with with his friend David Baker. His stats looked good. He was credited with three tackies one TFL (tackle for a loss). On one play the ball was tipped by another Hillsdale player and Nate ALMOST intercepted the ball.

At the end of the game the final score was Hillsdale 37-St. Joseph 7.

After the game Nate was able to come over to the tailgate and sing Sto Lat to Ben. Brian did take lots of pictures, but I forgot my camera. So if you want to see pictures from the game go to Brian and Heather's blog. I was able to find a video of the Charger fight song. You can see and hear Nate #52

Find more videos like this on Chargerblue Space

Next weeks game is a home game and Nate's birthday. Gametime is 12:00.

End of summer

Well, summer is officially over. Dan and I return to work on Tuesday and this weekend is the first weekend of football. We leave tonight for Rensselaer Indiana to watch Nate's team play tomorrow. We are very excited about doing the parent thing. For years high school football has come first; now that Dan is not coaching we can be like all the other parents.

Busia and Papa, Brian and Ben, and Megan are coming to watch the Chargers play St. Joes. Good luck to the Hornets tonight and good luck to the Chargers tomorrow afternoon.

Newest addition to the family

I'm sure that title got your attention. No we are not adding a child to the family. We added another dog. For as long as I have known Dan he has always wanted a Bulldog. We weren't looking to add another dog, but a situation similar to when we got Butch(rescue)presented itself.

Daisy is the newest member of the English family. She is 14 weeks old. So far in the 3 hours that she has been here things are going well. Dan is in heaven.

We have known for about a week that we were getting this dog. When we told the boys of the newest addition Nathan thought we were adopting a baby. I'm sure you can imagine his relief when he found out he was getting a puppy sister and not a baby sister.

Our dog is Nuts!!

Dan has been reading up on dogs this past week. One of the things he read was how dogs shouldn't be fed from plastic bowls because the plastic taste can penetrate into the food. Being the good dog owners that we are, we went to the pet store and bought two new aluminum bowls, throwing the plastic ones in the trash cans.

This morning when Dan got up with Butch he put the dog food in the shiny new bowl and then came back to bed. As we were lying there (at 5:00 am) we heard something coming from the garage. Dan went out and found Butch standing there staring at his food bowl. Not wanting the dog to get the better of us, he came in the house, leaving Butch to figure out that the food is the same, the bowl is just different.

As soon as the garage door shut, Butch started barking. Then the barking turned to whining, then the whining turned into crying. And yes, Dan did go outside and fish the plastic bowl out of the garbage. Once the food was transferred to the "bad" bowl Butch was a happy dog again.

As of today these are a few of Butch's quirks:
Hides under the bed when there is thunder or lightning

Won't walk on the kitchen floor

Runs away when I get baking sheets out of the cupboard

Jumps when the phone rings

Won't walk across the basement floor by himself - if he is in the TV room he'll stay there until we walk him safely across the basement

Moving out is a process

When the boys were younger and needed me to help them pack the procedure was: find what you need, bring it to the living room, double check, and then pack it away. This was always a big production before football camp or vacations.

Well, I noticed that Matt still packs this way. Before he left for DC his clothes went from his room, to the spare room, to the living room, to the suit case. I didn't think anything of it at the time. When he did this again as he was packing to go back to school, all I could do was smile. At least I don't have to help him anymore.

I can't even imagine

Not many people can say they know a professional football player, let alone be friends with them. Nate can. One of Nate's friends, Tom Korte, is now playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He signed as a free agent this spring.

It was so exciting for Dan and I to watch the pre-season game on TV last night and see him play. The Hillsdale Chargers are in camp now and last night after practice the team went to the bowling alley. I bet the place erupted with Tommy went in and all his former teammates started cheering.

As Dan and I were watching I could only imagine how his parents must have felt: proud to have a son who has made it that far, and worried for his safety. Have you seen the size of some of those athletes?!

As of today Tom Korte #47 is still a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. If he makes it out of training camp we have a new team to root for-if not we will continue to support the Lions :) Also as of today Nate is replacing Tommy as the starting Mike (middle) Linebacker for the Chargers. He as some pretty big shoes to fill.


This is a picture of Tommy from last football season when he played for the Chargers.

Weekend at Aunt Donna's house

One every summer the girls come out for the weekend while Allen and Sarah go somewhere. This year is no exception. We kind of have a routine.


Swimming
Movie
Bon Fire
Staying up at late as you want
Eating whatever you want
Playing video games to your heart's content.

What I didn't know what that these list of fun things would get out to everybody. Apparently Kate has already posted on her Facebook that she spent 5 hours playing Zelda. I do not have Facebook, but Busia does. I thought Aunt Donna's house was like Las Vegas - what ever happens there stays there.


This must be hardwired into every kid. It doesn't matter who the kid - boy or girl - if they're under 9 years old they're making a fort with chairs and towels.

Happy Birthday Sarah

For those of you who don't know Sarah - she has a way of "twisting" the truth so that people believe her. She has been shaving three years off her age for years now. It wasn't until Thursday that her girls found our how old she really is. Hey-June and I shouldn't be the only ones in the 45 Club. For at least another month we are three strong.


The Anthony sisters - June, Marcia and Sharon
I will say one thing about the Roden clan - we make visitors feel welcome. I think it's impossible to have a boring time when your around us. Even though we don't see Marcia and Sharon very often (or June for that matter) we had a great time, picking up right from where we left off during our last visit.


Since Matt is back from DC he came along. He went on the boat with the intention of water skiing, but he realized that the water was cold and he would have to sit in a wet bathing suit. He quickly changed his mind and stayed dry. He must be getting older-3 years ago he wouldn't have cared how wet he got. While he didn't ski, Gwen, Kate, Meg, and Paige all went tubing.

Hey - I do this

Many a day I get on the scale and have some choice words.

What a change

When I posted the photo of Dan and I on our anniversary two people told me how that didn't look like me. Because I look at myself every day I wasn't quite sure what that meant.

The photo on the left was taken two years ago at one of Matt's football games. It was that picture that changed my life. I was horrified at how I looked. In looking at the photo to the right - I'm pretty happy with the progress I have made.

I even tried on my wedding dress and yes it did fit. Pretty good for a 45 - all most 46 year old woman. Matt was also impressed with his mom. He came to the gym with me the other day and was pretty proud of how I "got my swell on." I guess that means working hard.

Nate's last day

Well, for Nate today is his last day of summer vacation. Tomorrow he has to report for football. His bags are packed and he's ready to go. It's much different sending a junior back to college as opposed to freshman. Taking a freshman involves a lot of "mommy" stuff - getting school supplies, making sure everything is clean and packed properly, etc. Sending a junior off to college involves giving him the keys to the truck and giving him a hug in the driveway. (He's only a mile away it's not like we can't see him whenever we want)

I have attacked a link to the 2009 Media Guide

Anniversary Celebration

One of the reasons we went out to DC a bit early was to celebrate our anniversary. The one splurge that we had was a dinner cruise up and down the Potomac. Every year when I take the 8th graders to Chicago I see boats along Navy Pier that do dinner cruises, and I have always wanted to do one. When I saw this I jumped at the chance.


It was a three hour cruise with dinner, drinks and dessert. There was a live band that was very good. We ate, we drank, we danced, and we enjoyed the view. There were even rose petals on our table when we got there. It was definitely a night to remember.

This is our hotel-the most northern end of the ride

End of the internship

Matt is second row 3rd from the right



On Friday morning there was a "graduation" ceremony. It was very lovely. There were four different groups of interns. Each group had a group photo taken on the steps of Georgetown. The program had guest speakers, talking about the importance of service to one's country. It was very good.

What I loved most was seeing all those young people so optimistic about their future and the future of their country. I noticed a big change in Matt. He now has some worldly knowledge. He seems to have a better focus on what he wants to do after he graduates.


On his last day of work we met him for lunch and he took us to his "regular" lunch counter. After two months he was a regular - the cashiers even knew him by name, and didn't hide the fact that they flirted with him.

While his internship seemed to start off a bit slow, in the end it was a great experience. His supervisor had nothing but praise during his exit interview, and according to Matt, "gave me a big hug and told me she would miss me."

Matt was so excited for us to see him all dressed up. When he was younger he always had to wear dress shoes to preschool. He called them Papa Shoes, because Papa wore those types of shoes when he went to work. The first thing Matt said to us when we saw him on Friday morning was, "How do you like my Papa shirt and Papa tie?"

This past Christmas Papa gave Matt a box of his old ties. And yes, Matt was wearing one of Papa's ties. A few years ago Papa gave the boys all his old dress shirts, and yes, Matt was wearing one of Papa's shirts. So I guess we owe Papa a big thanks for helping Matt look so good.

What a nice trip

We got home around 8:00 on Saturday. The trip was wonderful. Dan and I got there on Wednesday night and met up with Matt. We spent the day Thursday sightseeing. We went to the Capitol, the Supreme Court Building and the Folger Museum. While we loved the Capitol and the Supreme Court Building we were disappointed with the Folger Museum.

For those of you who don't know what the Folger Museum is - it is a museum dedicated to William Shakespeare. And since I teach Shakespeare, I thought it would be a good stop. There was nothing even remotely connected to Shakespeare-except the bookstore. It's a good thing there was no charge, or else we would have been upset.






Dan and I were both awestruck with the size of the Mall. The first picture is taken at the base of the Capitol looking out into the Mall. We couldn't even begin to imagine how that must have looked on Inauguration Day. The second picture is of a security officer standing where the President must have stood when he was sworn in - notice the M-16. Even though the officer had an assault weapon in his possession, he still waved to me after I took his picture.