| 3-30-02 Hello All, Well it's Spring Break here in Oregon. All the students in the State have the week off. I am taking a couple of days off to spend with the family and also to get caught up on some stuff around the place. The posts are being set for a fence to contain the ducks, there are piles of debris to burn, the boys want to work on the tree house and the list goes on. Last week we picked up the three ducklings we ordered. They grow so fast it's incredible. We have them in the shop in a brooder that we built. It has a flood light bulb in it to keep them warm. The boys take them out during the day if it's warm enough. Cody insisted on naming his duck himself. He got a male Pekin (yellow when young, turns white as adult, large breed of duck), the name of his duck is Tozy. I have not a clue where that came from, but Cody is very pleased with it. Adam puts the ducklings down near the two adult ducks that we have, the adults take one look at the babies and run the opposite direction! Maybe they are not ready for parenthood! The rest of the animals are fine. The chickens are laying well, I think we have about seven dozen eggs in the fridge, egg salad sandwiches anyone? We had another snowstorm about two weeks ago. It was Saturday morning and Jon had a 10 a.m. soccer game. It was cloudy, rain mixed with snow. Jon and I got ready and headed out. Lorelei and Cody would drive in and meet us at the game later. As Jon and I drove up to the field, the sun came out. I paused at the truck, debating to leave my heavy coat or bring it. I looked off to the southwest and decided to bring it. As the players warmed up, the parents started gathering on the sidelines. As we talked the rain fell intermittently, I made the comment "well at least it isn't snowing''. Well guess what, about ten minutes later the wind picked up and it started snowing! It was just warm enough so the snow did not stick on the ground. The game began. With the wind blowing, the wind chill had to be down in the low 20's. The field was a soggy mess, with huge puddles near the goals. The snow fell heavier and all the players were soon soaked through. Many, including Jon had on shorts, their legs were now a bright red from the cold. Lorelei and Cody came walking up and surveyed the situation. Nearing half time (they play 30 minute halves) many of the players including Jon were visibly shaking and cold. All this time right behind us was a "small fry" game going on. These are 5 and 6 year olds. They play on a small field and the coaches can run around on the field and help and they are also the referees. What caught my attention was the two coaches had the 12 or so players gathered in the middle of the field. They asked "who wants to stop the game, raise your hands", three tiny hands went up, as the soccer moms and dads huddled under a make-shift tarp on the sidelines looked on. The question was then "who wants to keep playing", 5 or 6 little hands go up! After some additional words, most of which I could not make out, the coaches announced " OK that's it the game is over", the parents cheered, the kids looked confused, I wondered, what the kids would learn from this? Back to our game. I went to the truck at half time and grabbed a dry sweat shirt for Jon. I hustled back and Lorelei helped Jon pull off his wet clothes, we put on the sweat shirt and then his jersey on over it. As the second half started, we noticed that the other soccer fields were empty! Usually there are 6 or 8 other games going on. All of them had been cancelled! The boys finished up the game with a victory. It has been a wet soccer season so far. We don't have any games during spring break, so hopefully the fields will dry out! Adam went to the state finals chess tournament. Two FULL days of chess. He went with his team on the Friday of the tournament, he had to be at school at 7 a.m. and I picked him up at 7:30 that evening when they got back to the school. We got up the next morning and had to leave about 6:30 and we returned at about 8 p.m. Adam won 3 out of 5 matches on Friday, and he had 2 wins, 2 losses, and 1 draw on Saturday. He had a tough draw, playing the 3 time state champ in the second round. The team got a write up in the local newspaper. The teams picture was in the school bulletin, Adam also made the school bulletin, being named 6th grade student of the month. Adam has decided to join the middle school track team. He started practice last week. I asked him how many kids were there, and he said "about fifty" I said "no way". There are only about 220 kids in the whole school! A few days later I attended a meeting for the parents and coaches of the track team and the coach announced that there were 44 kids that came out for track, 1/5 of the school! They practice nearly every day, rain or shine. Jon is doing great in school. He is going to do a science project. The hardest part is deciding what subject for a project. He needs to decide this week. His teacher approached me at a soccer game the other day, seems she has been teaching the kids basketball at school. She said that Jon wanted to know if she would teach the group the "pick and roll". She was confused for a moment that a 4th grader would know about that, until he explained that he had been playing with the 6th graders. We both chuckled. Cody is his wild man self. Wanting to help with everything. He is quite independent. He has been asking for two weeks about the Easter Egg Hunt. There is one in town every year at the city park. He gets upset when we tell him how many days it is until the hunt. He wants to do it now. He says "fine, I wont go to the Easter egg hunt", I say "great, then don't ask about it anymore" there is usually a pause, and then "OK I will go to the Easter egg hunt". Lorelei is singing in the Easter Choir on Sunday. Her group is also traveling to Vancouver Washington in a couple of weeks to give a performance. That's about it for now, Happy Easter! Glynn Jr. |