A birthday of ups and downs

Nate's birthday started out great. Lots of family came to Hillsdale to watch him play. He was doing great until the middle of the second quarter. On a play Nate got hit and went down wrong on his ankle.

I knew it must be bad when he didn't get up right away. When they finally got him to the sidelines and Dan and I got close enough to talk to him and the trainer-he told us it felt like his foot was detached from the rest of his body.

Earlier this year one if his teammates actually did have a break in his leg that detached his lower calf and foot from the rest of his body. And for all football players and football parents, that is one of the biggest fears.

At half time Nate went into the locker room to be evaluated by the team doctor. When he returned for the second half he was wearing a walking boot to help keep the swelling down. After the game (a BIG win for the Chargers) Dan took Nate to the hospital for an X-ray.

We had big plans for a "Happy Birthday To You" for Nate after the game. After a while everyone did get back into the festive mood and we had a lovely afternoon and evening.

Nate goes for injury check later today and will hopefully have some information about his injury. One of the bad things about having a child 21 is that you are no longer the "go to" person when it comes to their personal health and welfare-they are. I'm sure if Nate's injury was anything more serious than a sprain the trainer would have already called him.

Interesting Fact:
Allen wrote in Nate's card that he was 21 when Nate was born. We started calculating about how old people will be when so and so is 21. Here's a good one. Nate will be 40 when Neil is 21!!!

From Vertical to Horizontal

Tomorrow is the day that every 20 year old looks forward to-the day they turn 21. Today in the mail Nate got his new license. Tomorrow he goes from the vertical license for those drivers under 21 to the horizontal license for those drivers over 21. Eventhough he is a grown a** man, he's still my baby.

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