Foosball

Did any of you watch the movie Waterboy, with Adam Sandler and Kathy Bates?  (Yes. I adore cornball movies.  Wanna make something of it?)  Kathy Bates is Mama Boucher (pronounced Boo-SHAY) and she doesn't want her baby playin' "foosball" (football) because it's of the devil...

She might be right.
It's pretty addictive....like pretzels dipped in Nutella. 

The Farmer had to sit on the ambulance crew last night at the last home football game of the year, and I decided to take the kids, since we hadn't had a good, cold community event in just ages.  The last time I took them, Maggie was 3 and she wanted to play, too.  We spent most of our time on the sidelines, tackling her.  And then Rowena Fitzgerald (I love that girl) took pity on us and hauled her off with the big girls, so we could THEN deal with Angus who at age 1 was not impressed with any part of this football experience.  Let's just say it wasn't a really fun evening, back then.

A couple years can really make a difference!

It was a gorgeous fall evening...crisp, but no wind to speak of....and it was Senior Night (not to be confused with Senior Citizen's Night), so there were a lot of folks there that might not've come out, otherwise.  You all know I love football on TV, but there's really nothing like high school football in your hometown.  I had to keep reminding myself that I was NOT still 18 years old, because along the sidelines and in the stands were basically the same people that were there 20-some years ago....wearing, I think, the same black'n'orange booster club jackets.  There were teenagers squirrelling around in the stands and working the concession booth, as cool as they could muster.  Mobs of little and big kids, playing little mock football games in the grass beside the field....they were pretty tough! Neighbors visited, occasionally cheering mid-sentence, then returning to the story. 

I remembered that I had my camera in the car, so I hauled it out, but I felt a wee bit conspicuous since I wasn't a regular attendee and didn't have a kid playing.  Most of the pictures are a bit blurry, because I didn't take the time to re-set the exposure and fine tune it to the situation!  The whole evening I was framing images up in my head, though...seeing the world as through a viewfinder, always. 

The official enrollment in the high school is 57, total.  When you think that only about 20 of those kids are male and there are 14 of those 20 on the football team, it's pretty remarkable, really.  I love it when all these young men line up in their uniforms, waiting for the national anthem.

Refs....the heroic and hated, often times. 

Not last night! 

Six man football is FAST. 

College football moves right along, but six man high school football is lightening speed....go get a hotdog and you miss three possessions! Not three downs...three possessions.

It's wild.

The "chain gang" in Jordan are guys I went to high school with who now have kids playing! This particular pic is of #10's dad; he never misses a chance to give me a hard time, so I retaliate with an image on the Chronicles.  We're even.  :)

This is how I think it must seem, sometimes, in the middle of the action....

#10....our favorite player.

One of Maggie's Bow-eez.

He's SO strong....

(His family babysat for us, one afternoon, and as he was lifting Maggie on the 4 wheeler or something, she looked at him with deep admiration and said, "Oh, --------, you're SO strong!")

(Ever since then, the kid sorta disappears when he sees us coming up the drive...)

It was a rough night for the Mustangs.

Although they put the first score up, they were trounced pretty hard.

I won't put the score up, here, but let's just say it was a decisive victory for the Richey-Lambert Fusions.

(Yeah. I don't know what to call them, either....)

TODAY is college foosball!

Lucky shirt and mug....

Lucky nail polish....

It didn't work so well last weekend, and I can't figure out what I neglected to do!

Hmmmm....

Anyway, it's a Guns Up sort of day!

Bring on the foosball!!!

It's hard to disguise weird...

I doubt it...

The word "doubt" is defined in the dictionary as "Uncertainty, disbelief; To lack confidence in; to disbelieve, question, or suspect; To fear; to suspect"   It's an uneasy, murky place to reside in, an uncomfortable fence rail to ride. 

Those who know me well, know that I'm a person of pretty strong ideas and convictions.  Generally they're wrong (according, also, to those who know me well) but be that as it may, they are strong!  I don't waver on choices.  Where should we eat? Mexican.  Go to the event or stay home? Go!  Paper or plastic? (or, as I once read, "Kill a tree or strangle a bird?)  Paper for cold stuff, plastic for the rest.  Dessert or appetizers? Yes.  Democrat or Republican? Let me speak to my political counsel (Sara H.) and get back to you. 

I am impatient with wishy-washy-ness in others, wondering how a person could exist with no really strong opinions about life and its many components.  It's called easy-going, and it's really a great sort of way to live life, I guess; especially if one must live with a competitive, opinionated person such as myself. I don't understand that sort of wiring....at all. I'm not from easy-going stock and quite frankly, it's a little disturbing to be around; they don't argue or debate or challenge or ANY of those fun things!


*Incidentally, I married a BRILLIANT fence rider, peacekeeping, take-whatever-comes, I-don't-care-who-wins-as-long-as-the-game-is-over-so-I-can-stop-hearing-about-it sort of person.  If you think this drives me up a wall, you would be absolutely correct...especially in the area of "where should we eat?"*   
 
Lately, though, I've been spending a lot of time in the company of doubt....lacking confidence and feeling uncertain.  When I sit down to write a blog post, I think, "This is interesting to no-one.  I have nothing to say. And no way to say it that would make it readable...."  When I think about calling a friend, I worry about bothering them. Even as I try to email, I feel an uneasy sense of "I send the silliest things.  I fill their box with nonsense. I don't want them to dread seeing my name there..."  Mostly, it's in the area of communication, but it's starting to spill over into other areas of my life; parenting, fitness, spirituality, wardrobe, and...this is the rough one...menu.  I don't know what to cook!  Or what to wear! Or whether I should've held firm on that little issue with my daughter!
 
One thing I've learned, though, is that the longer something like this is allowed to remain and influence, kept inside and incubated,  the more it grows and eats the good out of a person.  That's why I'm writing this to you....I'm weary of second-guessing and smashing down the creativity out of some odd fear that has no grounds!  As far as I know, everyone who comes to the Chronicles comes kindly.  I'm pretty sure the malicious readers, if there ever were any, gave up around the fly-killing post a couple years ago.  Self-deprecation is way stronger than anything they could come up with. 
 
Do you know....I changed the background on this blog, hoping to shake things up a little, but it doesn't feel like the Chronicles, does it?  Let's live with it for a week or two and see if it doesn't get more comfortable. 
 
I'm working on getting rid of this doubting spirit, but I don't want to miss something, either.  I think God allows things like this in my life to (a.) get my attention, (b.) humble me, (c.) baffle me into study, (d.) give the Farmer a chance to make a decision, or (e.) all of the above.  I don't want to be so intent on stomping out the doubt that I miss a lesson, you know? 
 
*I do NOT doubt that Texas Tech will win this weekend, redeeming themselves from that tragic loss last weekend, and I do NOT doubt that the Broncos will lose...AGAIN...even with Tebow in the pocket. 
 

Like a Rhinestone Cowboy...

*Are you already singing that in your head, now? Yeah...me, too....

When I hear this song, I'm five years old, again; Glen Campbell singing through the countertop radio, right before lunch when it would change to Paul Harvey and the livestock reports. 

The kids and I were in Miles City last weekend and as we were going through Walmart (otherwise known as Retail Hell for me), I glanced over at a big bin of cheap music cds.  There, lying amongst Eminem and Cher, was Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits, so I reached over and checked out the back.  Sure enough, all my favorites!  It was five bucks, so I decided to get it for the ride home...a nice break from the endless Blake Shelton and that scraggly guy that married Nicole Kidman (what's his name?). 

I slid the cd in the player, as we left town, and right away I was a kid again.  Isn't it amazing how music can transport a person through years and drop her back in the 70's?  Gentle on My Mind was the first song; perfect for driving.  Maggie was entranced by Dreams of the Everyday Housewife and we had to play it three times. (I squirmed, listening to it....hit a little too close to home, you know? I can't tell you how I fear ending up in a housedress, looking at the wrinkles on my face and wondering where the girl went! It's the housedress that makes me shudder...)

We drove on through the brown and tan October-in-Montana prairie, with The Witcheta Lineman and Galveston carrying us northward.  I had to play Country Boy (You've Got Your Feet in L.A.) a couple times because it's fun to sing. 

And then Rhinestone Cowboy.  I laughed, because I'd forgotten some of the lyrics and it's funny listening as a grown up; the song is something totally different with adult ears!  I wished my sissie was in the car with me, to belt out the chorus at the top of our lungs like we did, to my Mom's great annoyance. I looked down, to see if maybe I WAS 6 years old, in polyester bellbottoms, accidentally driving a car, but no...I'm still grown up....just with a little kid heart, singing "...riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo..."

In case you've forgotten the song, OR (and this would be tragic) have never heard it, here's a link to the youtube video:

*Caution!!! The video is perhaps the cheesiest thing I've ever seen!  Don't watch if you're someplace you can't laugh out loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atHY8rDBhtI

Ah, Glen...thanks for the great music.  Quintessential 1970's country...
Now.
Who likes Tanya Tucker?

Under construction...

I'm sorry this is SUCH a mess, but I wanted a change for this raggedy old blog!  It's going to take me awhile to get everything in order....like taking apart a room and putting it back together differently.  So...this is like my living room; same old furniture in different corners with new throw pillows! Or something.

Thanks!