Thursday Thirteen #11

Sometimes I have lots of energy and creativity to put into my T13, sometimes I don't. SO in the spirit of the latter, I give you...

Thirteen reasons I'm tired tonight

1. Christmas was two days ago

2. I've eaten more in the last three days than I probably have in the last three months. Shame on me.

3. My parents are here and

4. My mom and I are avid, vigorous shoppers. So, therefore...

5. We've been to Walmart like three times in the past two days AND

6. Matt and I took them out for their 33rd wedding anniversary tonight.

7. Micah misplaced his DS and we spent WAAAY too much time and energy today looking for it.

8. I don't feel totally great. My nose is drippy.

9. The dog woke me up before the sun was up because he, apparently, had to pee or just had an overwhelming urge to chase squirrels

10. Matt and I drive to Shrewsbury, PA this morning to have breakfast with some friends we hadn't seen in awhile

11. Josh had a friend over today and it takes a lot of energy to be a cool mom (without looking like you're trying to be a cool mom)

12. Still a little salty about that darn DS being lost all day.

13. Is Christmas break over yet?

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Merry Christmas

Awesome Graphics at pYzam.com

Well...

Tree is up, shopping is done, cookies are baked, snowmen are out, fire is in the fireplace, parents are coming, boys are wound up...

It's actually starting to feel like Christmas. Finally.

Thursday Thirteen #10

(Yes, I know it's Friday. I had to crochet another scarf last night)

Thirteen Obscure Christmas songs that I enjoy...

Know any of these?

1. The Little Jesus Came to Town

2. Wind Through the Olive Trees

3. Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming

4. All is Well

5. The Boar's Head (I sang in a Madrigal group in college)

6. Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne

7. The Jesus Gift

8. Christ was Born on Christmas Day

9. Pat-a-pan

10. Christmas Waltz

11. In the Bleak Midwinter (one of my favorites)

12. Bethlehem Morning

and the final one (drum roll)......

13. Crabs for Christmas (It's a Baltimore thing!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants



My thoughts in numbers...

5 - days until Christmas
1 - day I've shopped
6ish - more gifts left to get
90 - minutes it takes to crochet a scarf for my kid's teacher
90 - minutes (ironically) it takes to watch Clash of the Choirs while I crochet said scarf
3 - choirs left on Clash of the Choirs (my money is on Team Lachey)
2 - days of school left
5 - piano/voice students stand between me and a nice, long break
20 - things trying to stress me out
45 - minutes until I need to be out the door this morning
1 - kid is out the door already
2 - kids are still in bed
15 - angels and flower pot snowmen we are going to make at MOPS today
1 - toilet I just heard flushing. Guess that makes only
1 - kid still in bed
42 - minutes until I need to be out the door

OK, OK. That's it for now.

Christmas is a week from today.

Holy crap. We don't even have our tree up yet!

We are the champions, my friend.

I still don't get football completely, but I will try, in my non-football girly language, to describe Saturday's Maryland Youth Football Championship game between the Howard County Bruins and the often-imitated, never-duplicated Hamilton Tigers!

Even walking into the M&T Bank Stadium was cool. (we've never been there before). It was even cooler knowing that our son would be on the field shortly thereafter! Our crew consisted of Matt, the boys and I; Josh's friend, Caitlin; and Matt's brother, Dave, and our nephew, Blake, who drove in from Ohio just for this event. It was cold and so we were all appropriately bundled in triplicate.

We swung by the concession stand to get some goodies. I don't think I ever paid $4 for a hot chocolate before, but considering it also doubled as a hand-warmer, it was almost worth it! Micah chose popcorn, which he obviously enjoyed! ------->

The boys came out on the field as the announcer called their names and jersey numbers and we were joined by two more fans -- Sean and Christy volunteer with the middle school youth at our church. Josh is in Sean's small group. We really appreciated them coming to help us cheer on the Tigers!

The game started. We scored the first touchdown, but didn't get the extra point (which is strange because we usually do, but whatever). The Bruins, however, were proving themselves to be a formidable opponent, scoring after our touchdown AND making their extra points. The score: 6-8.

Mr. Mike joined us at this point. Mike and Hazel are very dear friends to our family and his presence was greatly appreciated. Plus, he held my hot chocolate while I put my gloves back on -- very necessary!

We scored another touchdown and (thankfully) made our extra point this time, bringing the Hamilton fans to their numb, little feet and the score to 13-8. That brought us to halftime. No marching band, no dancing girls, but halftime all the same.

The third quarter, unfortunately, brought us a lot of penalties and the Bruins another touchdown complete with extra points. The score: 13-16 in favor of the Bruins.

By the fourth quarter, things were not looking up for the Tigers. We were working toward our goal line but hadn't quite made it yet. If I had to name the breaking point of the game, I would probably have to call it this play: We were on about the 40 yard line headed toward out goal. It was the 4th down -- make it or break it. Though there was no clock (which was driving us crazy!) we knew there wasn't much time left. Sure enough, the refs gave us the four-minute warning. OK. Focus. Don't forget it was the fourth down. The play ensued, ending with a tackle and the ball being set down so they could see if we made it. It was SO CLOSE that they had to move the chains out to where the ball was so they could measure it. Miraculously, the refs called it -- 1st down Tigers! We continued to work our way toward the goal line, and as the announcer told us there were on :59 on the clock, the Hamilton Tigers scored our final touchdown AND the extra point! Score: 20-16

The Bruins regained control of the ball and tried to pull something out with :47 on the clock, but to no avail. The Hamilton Tigers became the winners of the Maryland State Youth Football Championship, unlimited division.
Needless to say, Josh and his team were (and still are) thrilled. This was especially significant for Josh because last year, his first year of football, the team that he played on didn't win any games. This year, his team was undefeated! I have to give a plug for the Hamilton football program, though. They have a tremendous coaching staff and really teach the skills these kids need to succeed at this game. I think Baltimore will be hearing from this program for championships to come.
After the game, we went to grab a bite to eat (in the rain -- it held out until the game was over) and then headed home as the exhaustion of the day caught up with us!

This was a real landmark event for our family. We remain thankful for everything God brings to us in the way of excitement and opportunity. I ask for support in prayer for those of you who are willing. We're in the process of figuring out where we are going to send Josh to high school next year. To explain all of our options and reasons would take too long, so if you don't mind keeping us in your prayers, we'd appreciate it!

Thanks for taking the time to read this! And one last time -- GO TIGERS!!

God does understand...

Wow. I will adopt this as my thought of the day. View with a tissue... this is touching ;-)

Are you ready for some football?!

Well, it was quite an exciting weekend around here in Stevensland - and BUSY, too I might add. The big news of the weekend concerns Josh and his football team, the Hamilton Tigers. They had the last of their playoff games on Saturday night. After a challenging game the previous weekend, our victory over the Cumberland Patriots was a somewhat easy win. At the end of the game, it was Tigers 28, Patriots 8.

You know what this means, don't you?

MY son will be playing at the M&T Bank Stadium (where the Ravens play) this coming Saturday! Yea! It's the Maryland Youth Football Championship.

Wanna come?

You can get tickets online here and Josh would be thrilled (as would we). His game is at 6:00pm.

As far as the rest of the weekend goes, there was scrapbooking, a birthday party to attend, dinner with friends, Matt had some preaching "gigs" downtown and I had my annual Christmas recital for my students. It was a full weekend and a reminder of how rich and blessed our life is. This coming weekend promises to be pretty much equally as busy. Then, believe it or not, things slow down a smidge heading into Christmas.

OK. That's it for now. I'll hopefully get in my Thursday Thirteen this week. Thursdays are much busier than they used to be!!

I heart presents

Please feel free to leave me one!!

I'm mad at WRBS...

... because they have been playing Christmas music since BEFORE Thanksgiving and I'm getting sick of Christmas music and I don't want to be because I LIKE Christmas music. I mean, Christmas is still like several weeks away and I'm going to be listening to Zepplin by then just to get away from 50 versions of "Silent Night".

Oh, and while we're on the topic, "My Favorite Things" is NOT a Christmas song. I heard some station playing a Barbra Streisand-crooned version of it while I was in a coffee shop today. It's from the Sound of Music and has nothing at all to do with Christmas or even winter for that matter. Just because a song has the word "snowflakes" in it doesn't make it a holiday song.

Sigh.

I'm in quite a mood today. I think I need a nap.