I have been pretty lax on writing for the past…oh…3 months or so. It’s all because of soccer. Particularly when we started the season at the beginning of August, we had something soccer related 6 days a week. Even in the middle of the season, we were running at least 5. Since I was one of the middle school coaches for Isaac’s team, I was at every practice with the boy so everything else sort of fell by the wayside. I loved spending the time with Isaac but we are all tired I think.
Kinda looks like Friday night lights but it’s better…it’s soccer!
So, Monday night was his last game and Wednesday night is the overall last game for the team (we have one varsity and two jv teams). To say the least, we will be dancing when the season ends (oh yeah, except the fact that we are in the play-offs). I am proud of the team for which I was responsible. Our season ended 7-0-2 which is pretty great I think. It’s all in the coaching of course.
Abigail is in recreation league soccer which is much less demanding but that season ends this weekend too! Hooray for freedom. Now we can enjoy the short rainy days and sinus infections we all seem to get! At least we can all huddle under blankets on the couch as a family, watching the weather channel hoping for nice weather…and the return of soccer season.
Isaac was born early and under very hard conditions. You can read most of the details here. We had to make many hard decisions and face many hard realities when he was born. We were told that he would likely have a variety of issues that might present themselves as a result of his premature birth and the subsequent treatment to save his life.
His hearing aids came in a cool box!
As it turns out, Isaac does have one issue that resulted from some of his treatments. During his time in the NICU when he was most critical, we had to sign several releases acknowledging that some of the meds they were giving Isaac may result in his being deaf. In fact, he does have moderate hearing loss in both ears and it centers around higher frequencies…right where most voices tend to fall. As you can imagine, that makes school and sports teams and even home life sort of interesting.
You can barely see the wire into his ear
Now Isaac has never been a particularly organized kid. He loses his shoes almost daily. Sometimes he even misplaces his toothbrush if you can imagine. We were hesitant to get him hearing aids when he was younger for that reason. Now that he is in middle school though, he seems to be rounding the corner on keeping track of himself. The school situation was becoming more of an issue as well. The county had been making accommodations for him and provided in-school sound systems in his classrooms but it became hard to manage and he didn’t enjoy the extra attention that went along with it.
The only visible part and he may just grow his hair out some
So, we decided it was time to do something. Last week, Isaac was fitted for new hearing aids for both ears. They are very inconspicuous and work super well. I think the best thing was when we first walked outside from the doctor’s office. The office is near an interstate and Isaac stepped out and immediately looked around, sort of confused. He asked me what the hum was. He was truly shocked and neither of us realized how much he had been missing…I only wish his first “sound realization” had been something other than the traffic noise from the interstate. Still, it sort of made me happy just to see that he was finally going to hear like me!
I guess most couples have funny phrases or things they say that only they get. Actually, lots of times, many couples have the same set of things they say. My blog friend Capri-Kel is a master of funny words and statements and I think we probably share a lot of the same phrases. In our case, many come from a handful of movies we really enjoy. For instance, the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice is loaded with awesomeness and also many good lines that we use as they appropriate situation arises. Another favorite is Good Morning Vietnam. Most of you who have seen it know the line when Robin Williams gives the weather report…”it’s hot, #$@% hot…so hot you could fry a snake’s @ss”. That’s a line that Emily and I use pretty much every time that one or the other of us asks about the upcoming weather.
That’s a long bunch of rambling just to say I bought a kerosene heater this weekend. There is a church about a quarter mile down the road that has a junk sale every year. It’s sort of locally famous and with good reason…there is a little bit of everything there. So, I was among the early birds this year. I woke before the rest of the family on Saturday and decided to walk in the rain over to see the stuff in this year’s sale. I walked in and immediately spotted a poor, lonesome kerosene heater and they only wanted $10 for it!
Of course, new, such a heater would go for $100 or more so I was pretty pleased with myself. Of course, since I wasn’t thinking properly at 8 am on a weekend, I didn’t think about the fact that I had to walk a quarter mile home in the rain carrying a kerosene heater that seemed to grow increasingly heavy.
This silly manual came with the heater…it’s so goofy I am tempted to actually read it!
We didn’t have to own a kerosene heater but this winter when the power eventually goes out, we will have some heat. That’s way better than burning the dining room table in our questionable fireplace. I love to go junkin’ (that’s a word I picked up from my friend Granny Sue). Mostly I am not a packrat and I do not usually buy anything when I go to a yard sale but I really like to check out other people’s junk and occasionally find a deal that is hot, dang hot!
Edit: Emily just reminded me of alternate meanings for the word “junk”. It gives new meaning to “I really like to check out other people’s junk”. She is not amused…she also took the opportunity to use some of her favorite phrases…I’ll spare your sensibilities…
We do soccer. Since the kids were 4 or 5, we have played spring and fall ball and the last few years, we have played indoor winter soccer. It’s funny how soccer works in our house. A few weeks before each season starts, we are ready to go! Soccer can’t come soon enough. About midway through, I (for one) am done with it. I mean, we finish it off, but I am ready to play the last game usually about the time we still have 5 games left. This year is taking even more energy as I am one of the middle school coaches for Isaac’s team.
Anyhow, this season has only a few weeks left and it sort of shows in my mood. This season, however, we had a little bit of a mid-season bump (in a good way). Abigail plays on a pretty good all-girl team. At her age level, all teams in the area play in a pretty big tournament mid-way through the season. It’s sort of a weekend of chaotic soccer, and, if we are lucky, rain and mud (but not this year!)
So, she played all weekend, last weekend. The team won and then won again, etc. When it all shook out in the end, Abigail’s team was the first place team! I think her favorite part was the cool trophy she got!
It’s super fun to watch the girls’ games because they provide their own cheerleading corps! Whoever is not actively playing at a given moment cheers on the sidelines. Sometimes they build pyramids and sometimes they just vibrate. Soccer season is long and sometimes tiring, but once in a while, we catch a little bit of the vibration as parents and it is soccerific!
Emily works at one of the year round schools here in West-by-God-Virginia. In general, their schedule is 9 weeks on, 3 weeks off. So, the school recently was out on break. It’s pretty nice because Emily gets 3 weeks for running around doing errands, catching up on appointments, etc. Well…it’s nice for me, but not so much for her. Anyhow, many days while she is off on break, we grab a bite to eat together. Some days she just brings a sandwich and some days we go out to eat at some fast food joint.
Last week, as her break was winding down, we decided to eat at a fast food place. Emily picked me up and we headed out. We did the usual…we ordered, ate, talked, got refills. As we finished up, Emily stood to dump her tray and noticed that she had on identical shoes in different colors. Apparently she had been doing her thing all over town with mismatched shoes!
Evidently that is looked down upon in the world of women. I never would have even noticed but I was assured that other women noticed. I only have three pairs of shoes so that sort of mistake is not ever going to happen for me. Imelda Marcos I am not. Emily isn’t a shoe person either but she does have more than I do…and sometimes accidents happen. Still, the recent gaffe makes my wife a dork…but she’s my dork!
The saga of our building a foundation after we built a house continues…in this latest episode, our heroes are positioned to build a wooden wall atop the block wall that they completed in our last episode. Will they get splinters? Will the Mrs. pummel the Mr. because of his stupidity? Stay tuned viewers and find out!
Ok, so we built a wall on the back side of the building. Of course, the idea is to eventually frame in all four sides with wooden framed walls on top of the block base. We could have blocked the walls all of the way up but we both decided that we do not like lifting blocks any higher than we have to and that I am better and faster with wood. We added a sill plate on top of the blocks and secured it with j-bolts embedded in concrete we used to fill in the holes in the blocks. On top of that, we used treated 2x4s to build a traditional wall. I made the fit tight for the wall boards so it will, in fact, provide a level of support to the entire structure as well. The bulk of the weight of the building will remain on the posts and piers but the outer walls will have additional support.
Did you know that the outer walls carry the bulk of the weight of a building? All of the weight of the roof (in our style building, anyhow), is evenly spread between the outer walls opposite the gable ends? I learned all sorts of stuff building this house, and, in particular, the way loads are carried and how to balance the weight of the house. In reality, the house is not all that heavy. Of course, you wouldn’t want to be under it if it fell, but spread out over its base, the pressure in a given area is not as bad as I expected when I first started ciphering on this place. There are all sorts of calculations one needs to do related to live and dead loads, soil bearing capacity and component strengths when you build a house. I had no idea but it’s pretty interesting to read and makes sense when you even realize these things are indeed things.
Anyhow, we finished the tallest of the “basement” walls and have blocks laid for half of each side wall. We now need to dig additional footer space at the front of the building and the remaining halves of each side. It should not be a terrible job but it will have to be done by hand as the excavator arm will not fit under the building in the remaining spots.
Our heroes have an interesting (not really) weekend ahead of them. Stay tuned to our next episode…”Human backhoes”
Time has been flying lately and I have been remiss in keeping up with writing about things. Take for instance, Dralion, the cool Cirque du Soleil show we say 9 days ago. That’s good stuff and I haven’t written about it for 9 DAYS! Well, as I mentioned in July, Emily and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary and our gift to each other was tickets for the family to see the show. We got incredible tickets in the second row back. They were acrobatting right in front of us!
So, I don’t know if you have ever seen a Cirque show but they are amazing acrobatic shows where the audience is left wondering if the laws of physics apply to the performers. I am not kidding…the performers fly through the air and do things that people should not be able to do. And they do it every day and somehow, apparently, survive to fly day after day.
I first saw the Cirque show called KA in Las Vegas (if you ever get the chance, see the show!). It was amazing so I was so excited to see how the kids would react, seeing this show for themselves. As much as I enjoyed seeing the show this time, I enjoyed even more seeing the look on Abigail’s face. She couldn’t stay seated. She perched in her seat, she sat cross-legged. Her eyes lit up and she smiled and frowned and clapped. It was so much fun to see her watch the show!
Even with things being so hectic, it was so wonderful to be able to share such a cool time as a family. I don’t figure that things will slow down in the next month or two but it’s all in a day’s work around here! We aren’t defying the laws of gravity around here but we are squeezing more into 24 hours that I ever thought possible!
Aside from our cabin, soccer has been keeping us busy. Isaac is on the middle school team this year, just like he was last year. The difference this year is that I am one of the coaches. Two of the coaches from last year had kids on the team that moved to high-school so I am one of two new victims coaches this year. Middle school soccer is a little different from rec-league that I have coached before. In particular, it takes a lot more time. We practice 5-6 days a week for 2 hours at a time, especially at the beginning of the season. I mostly enjoy the whole deal and it is a great opportunity to hang out some with Isaac and some of his friends. It’s a good game too and I like to see the kids get in shape as they move from lazy-summer-existence to lean-mean-soccer machines.
Kanawha county makes it really though to be a volunteer though. I do not get paid for my work which is fine. I had to pay $250 out of my own pocket to take a 3-day class to become a certified coach. Fine. I then had to pay for my own finger printing ($38), do a ton of paperwork, show a college diploma (or HS), take a drug test, take 2 hours off from work to watch a really stupid video series for “orientation”. The only show the videos during the day at a certain time…exactly when I needed to be at my job that actually does pay money. It sucks and was ridiculous. It is amazing to me that I can buy a gun with less trouble and faster than I can become a coach. I get that we need to make sure that kids are safe and that creeps are not allowed access to them, but there has to be a cheaper and better way to make this convenient for people who work and simply do this to help kids out.
Anyhow, I am done with all of the paperwork (not really, I just got a new form Wednesday night, but it is simple) so I should be able to enjoy the actual coaching part. The teams are great this year and it is of course, more fun to win that lose (though I can handle it either way). When I was in school, I remember playing in the snow on several occasions. I hate that global warming is upon us, but if there is a chance that we won’t play in the snow, I guess I have to accept that benefit! Anyhow, cheers to soccer!
We were out at the land this weekend and Emily happened upon this huge mushroom! I do not think I have ever seen a mushroom this big before. I have seen shelf mushrooms on trees and hen-of-the-woods before, but of traditionally shaped mushrooms, I do not think I have ever seen one bigger!
I looked through my mushroom books and nothing caught my eye so I do not know what sort of mushroom this is. Does anyone else know? It had seen better days but I loved the little triangular ridges with the yellow triangles inside. It looked sort of pretty which I know is sort of strange to say about fungus. I don’t know about you, but I am continually amazed at the diversity of life that I have in my little corner of the world. Simply amazing!
I know, I have been posting way too much about the (slow) progress we have been making on the deluxe deer stand. Sorry but that’s been a large part of what we have been doing lately. So, we have been digging and concreting and cussing like mad to build a foundation under our already-built house. Originally, we built the place on a post-and-pier foundation and that will remain the true foundation but we decided to add a traditional foundation (sort of) to give us some storage under the place and to cut the wind/cold in the winter. So, we have been adding footers and new concrete block walls. The first day of concrete, Emily and I mixed around 3200 pounds of concrete which I had to carry, bucket at a time, from the mixer (electric…thank goodness) to the footer form we dug/built. We double handled the weight and that was a drag…
Footer!I was a mess!Isaac was more inspiration that perspiration
Those of you who know about foundations know that the footer is traditionally poured in one pour so there are no joints. That was not an option for us and since this isn’t a true foundation (except we are building it to spec aside from the joints), it should work for us. We will have a few cold joints but they will be connected by rebar and buried well below the frost-line.
Emily’s granddad…87 years old and hardly slowing down!
Emily’s grandfather, Emily and I set the corner last weekend. The corner blocks have to be level/square/plumb and can be a pain the the hind-end. So, it took us 5 hours to lay 5 blocks (also, see cussing mentioned above…there were a few missteps), but our corner is excellent! Emily’s grandfather is 87 and worked every bit as hard as we did. He slung block around and stood in the ditch all day helping us get things right…it was amazing!
The rainbow had to be good news!Emily cleaning up the joints
This weekend, Emily and I went back and laid 50-some more blocks and got the bottom third of the footer above grade. I have to tell you, if I had it to do over again, I would definitely build my foundation before the house. I am still quite pleased with the post-and-pier foundation but traditional foundations should definitely be built where there is plenty of room to work!
We got a lot done before we finally stopped
Setting block is tough work and I cannot wait to have this part done. It’s hard and I wish I had dishpan hands! Concrete is hard on my delicate digits! I’ll show some more details of how we plan to enclose this bottom part later but I promise to get off of this kick for a little while…bear with me?
