Slept like a rock last night, needless to say. Cleaned the house, then went to work.

The soccer field is really coming along. When Bill was a freshman it was only a fenced in soccer field. That first season the parents got together their money and building skills and put together a very nice two story shed. It is for storage, and they use the balcony to film the games. It also displays the electric scoreboard. The second season they added little covered benches so the players can sit out of the rain and snow. They also have shelves and lots of hooks so that there is plenty of storage for gear bags and hoodies. This year they added a concessions building, which is very nice.  The boys play soccer in the fall, the girls in the spring...

Bill played well, got an assist, and did his usual of knocking opponents flying...he's on junior varsity again ths year, along with nearly all of the other juniors. That group was j.v. as freshmen...last year they were j.v. as sophomores...this year the coach made the seniors and sophomores the varsity team, and the poor juniors get to be j.v. one more year. I think its because the coach's son is a junior, and he is bending over backwards to not show favoritism to his own child. Last year the j.v. team had a better record than the varsity team, and they looked a lot better yesterday...

Should be a busy weekend. Friday is the home football opener, and I know the kids will want to go. Saturday Bill has a soccer game at Lincoln High School...and I really want to find time and weather to weed the garden...and plant some tulip bulbs for the squirrels to eat.

 

Here is a message  I sent out to some friends earlier today:

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Oh, what a day...its 5PM here now, and my day started yesterday morning...

Got up yesterday and worked second shift...came home after midnight, picked up Californiababy and took him to University Hospital for his MRI appointment at 2AM (there is so much demand they schedule them 24-7)...came home and got the kids ready for the first day of school (their bus comes before 7AM)...got a couple of hours sleep, but it was a half day and my younger son got home all too soon...then we drove to town because my older son had a soccer game after school...then brought the kids home after the game...ran some errands (bought school supplies, etc.)...now have a few minutes before running younger son to his soccer practice...then can finally come home and make dinner, then sleep....

thank God they let me have the day off from work...

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Home now, safe and sound. Dinner is in the oven, Steven is in one shower, Dan in the other. After dinner I can have my shower, then blessed sleep.  :)

 Today is going to be a very long day...

I am working second shift. I will get home around 12:30AM, then turn around and take Dan into Ann Arbor for his MRI, which is scheduled for 2AM. We will be there who knows how long. At some point I will have to get home and make sure the kids get on the school bus for the first day of school. The bus comes before 7AM. If Dan was not able to come home with me, at that point I will go back and get him. I can try to get a couple of hours sleep then, but its a half day of school, and Steven will be home on the bus sometime in the morning. I then immedicately must get himself and me (and Dan if he is awake enough) into the Jeep and head down into town to see Bill's soccer game which is right after school, then bring him home after the game. By the time the game is over, it would be about time to get ready for work...

I have requested tomorrow off from work, as I do not function on a couple of hours of sleep, and I should not be making iv's for real live human patients, but the supervisors have not yet approved it. I will call in sick if need be, as I do not want to be making any errors that can hurt a patient, and that is possible with the serious lack of sleep...

I suppose after getting home from the soccer game,  I will collapse...

We are continuing to take great joy in watching the Olympics.  I am especially enjoying things like the women's shot-put from ancient Olympia, and watching the women's marathon today, as it was run along the ancient route from Marathon to Athens.

Last night the Tigers game was a lot of fun. It was a high scoring game that went into extra innings, with the Tigers winning. For once they did not slip their fans one of these: . We sat in an odd area of the stadium, like nothing I have seen before...it was a small area behind the regular seats of the main bowl, tucked underneath the luxery boxes. It was perhaps ten rows deep, and ran quite a ways along the stadium. Rather than having stadium seats, they had oversized and comfortably padded large wooden lawn chairs, and litttle wooden tables for you to put your food and pop on. People can (and do) move around the furniture as required by their group. It was very relaxing, and happy there. It was like watching a baseball game from a back yard deck, or while attending a picnic. And the chairs were infinately more comfortable than the usual stadium seats.

In addition, Ticketmaster had sent us a coupon for a free bobblehead when they sent us our tickets, and they were giving away backpacks to all of the kids Steven was pretty happy to get those.. They also had a very nice foreworks show after the game. All in all, it was a good experience, and Stevie especially seemed to have a wonderful time.

Before the game we ate dinner in Greektown, at Hellas restaurant. The food was good, and we enjoyed the flaming cheese. It is a short walk to both Comerica Park and Ford Field fron Greektown, so that is where we parked.

Bill's high school soccer season begins tomorrow, and the first day of school is Tuesday. It will be a half day...and there will be a soccer game right after school at 11AM...

A cold and rainy day, wore a turtleneck today, it was so chilly. Took the kids out to breakfast, then run a multitude of errands, including buying train tickets for our weekend in Chicago.

Bill is off now for a soccer scrimmage in the rain and cold. I was so glad Dan volunteered to take him! I really don't like getting soaking wet in a cold rain!

Tomorrow, for our baseball game, it will be cold, but it is not supposed to be raining.

Bill's ring worm is nearly invivible now. I am so glad it is getting better!

Watched the movie Chicago last night. The singing and dancing were great -- I didn't have any idea that Richard Gere, Rene Zelwenger, and Catherine Zeta-Jones were capable of that (though I suspected Quenn Latifah was, coming from a more musical background). But the satiric message of the movie -- that with a bit of celebrity and a slick lawyer you can literally get away with murder -- left me cold.

Took the dog out for his bed time "business" a little while ago, and the back yard was filled with fireflies, and the singing of crickets and tree frogs. Very very nice.

We've been watching the Olympics as much as we can. Steven gets very happy and excited whenever they mention the US training center in Colorado Springs. We have been having fun watching the sorts of sports you rarely get a chance to watch, such as the women's shot-put (from the ancient ruins at Olympia itself), the women's long distance bike rode race, and equestrian dressage.

They sprayed for fleas at work again tonight. I fear that it is a helpless battle until the person who brings them in is identified, and actions are taken to deflea the person, that person's home and car, and that person's poor pets.

This is the last full week the kids have off from school. I will miss them when they are back in school. We will be going to a Detroit Tigers game this Saturday and hopefully having dinner in Greektown in Detroit, to celebrate the last "free weekend"...and we've never had a chance, in this rainy summer, to set off those Roman candles from Boomland, either...hopefully the weather will cooperate with us!!!!!!!!!!!

One breakfast and a can of diet Coke later, and I am feeling much more human and much less grouchy than I did earlier this morning. Ah, the miracle of caffeine.

All of the rain this summer has done wonderful things for wildflowers. I have never seen so many in my life. The black eyed susans are blooming everywhere right now...very pretty. Our garden is filled with tiger lillies and tall perenniel phlox. The blooms smell so sweet, the odor from the garden fills our whole house whenever it is warm enough to open up the windows.