First Flag Football games

Last Thursday I had my first day back to work after being a stay-at-home mom for five years, and on Saturday all three kids had their very first game of flag football. The boys' team (Panthers) defeated the 49ers 18-12. Nadia's team (Chargers) lost to the Texans (18-25). Including half-time and having each child announced as they run through the tunnel, each game lasts about one hour. The boys' game was at 9:00. Nadia's game was supposed to start at 11:00, but it didn't really start until 11:30. Although it was only September 2, it was rather cold out that morning. At least it seemed cold to us coming off of warm weather. Those temps will feel balmy to us in the early days of spring next year. It sprinkled a little at one point, but thankfully it didn't rain the vast majority of the four hours we were there. Thankfully this Saturday their games are back to back so we won't be there as long. I used the gap in between the games as a chance for me to drop the van off at Sears to get two new tires put on during Nadia's game. The van is due for inspection this month and wouldn't have passed without me replacing two of the tires. Ian was playing the position of wide receiver. He ran his routes very quickly, but there were two other taller boys also playing that position, and all but one of the balls were thrown their direction. One time the quarterback did throw the ball to Ian, but he overthrew him.

There are seven kids on each team, and five play at a time while the other two are on the sidelines. It often worked out that each team had one possession during each quarter of the game. When Oliver was on the field playing defense, he was the nose tackle. The center on the opposing team was a girl who was much bigger than him, and it was so funny watching him give her "the eye." There aren't any girls on the Panthers team. Nadia is the only girl on her team, and the Texans and 49ers each had one girl on their teams. Oliver did much better with this flag football game than he did with soccer in the spring. Nadia was a bit confused at first, as when she played defense she kept pulling the flag off the girl on the opposing team, even when the girl didn't have the ball. Oops! Now she understands not to do that again. Paul's parents were there for both games, and Paul was there for Nadia's game. This meant although he still left for work at 2AM, he worked a much shorter day than usual. It would be awesome if was home more on Saturdays this month and next month because of flag football games!

The kids were supposed to pick nicknames to be used when announcing their names. They thought they were supposed to start with the same letter (or sound) as their first name, but in reality many other kids' nicknames didn't follow that pattern. My three are Nifty Nadia, Invisible Ian, and Awesome Oliver. They thought Oliver got lost in the tunnel; they filled it with theatrical smoke, but really his flag belt was falling down and he was trying to fix it. They didn't have the smoke going when Nadia came through the tunnel. One game down and seven to go this season! I've been so busy that I didn't even pop the memory card into the computer until this evening. It was ever so wonderful to be back in the classroom. I do really love teaching! However I have wondered the last few days if I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. Time will tell. I wish I had more time to write about my first day back at the university, but as been the case for the last five nights, my desire for sleep is greater than my desire to blog. I was only planning to give up Facebook (and I did give that up), but I might be giving up blogging too. We shall see. I am a very, very busy lady these days with homeschooling three kids, mowing the lawn, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. all on top of a full-time job at the university, which has been very demanding of me as I am trying to prepare three courses - two brand new ones plus one I haven't taught since 2010. I am teaching four classes, but in one instance I am teaching two sections of the same course. I did get a parking permit on Thursday morning and an email address and access to the course management system on Friday. I still need to get a key to my office and an ID card so I can check things out at the library. Once I finish preparing my PowerPoints and course notes for the semester, I will feel a lot more relaxed. I haven't edited all the pictures from Saturday's games, but I've included a few in this post.