Meet Sadie

The newest member of our family.

Jay got her at a ballgame Monday night. We've been talking about Charlie needing a friend and when Jay saw her he couldn't resist. She's also marked very similar to Charlie so they'll make a cute pair. She is about 7-8 weeks old and she is very very tiny. She is so tiny she makes Charlie look like Godzilla. So far Sadie and Charlie haven't spent much time together, she's still to small to leave her alone with him, but they seem to be getting along fine. Charlie's just been doing a lot of sniffing but no biting or growling which is good. I think last night Jay really realized how tiny she was, about the size of a kitten, and so now we're wondering how big she'll get. I asked Jay if we had gotten one of those dogs who are so tiny and cold all the time that they need a sweater in the winter? I can imagine Jay's routine in the morning - get Cade ready, feed the dog, dress the dog, etc... I've never been a dog person but Miss Sadie is hard to resist. I could almost make her a lap dog. My heart wants to, but my head says "you'll hate having a dog in the house within 24 hours". Best to leave Sadie in the garage.

Saturday & Tuesday Night Lights

In the world of Flag Football in our little town the big nights of the week are Saturday and Tuesdays. Actually these are probably bigger nights to the coaches than to the kids, at least our kids. As far as Cade's concerned it's just another night he gets to see Neilson. For us (the parents) it's another night that's becoming more and more embarrassing because our team is so terrible. You all know Jay and I aren't the type who cares more about sports than we do the feelings of our child, we would never yell and scream at him because he didn't do something right on the field (yes, I have witnessed a father screaming at his 6-7 year old because he didn't like the way he threw the ball). BUT, our team stinks and it's not the kids fault. Our coach has not worked with the kids like he should've been so every game we are getting skunked. We have not even scored one touchdown. What's embarrassing is that we are in a league of 5 other teams all from Mt Vernon. In Mt Vernon's eyes Miller is the "bad" town. The Mt Vernon paper always picks up on the bad stories from the town/school and they make the front page. Our good stories are always buried at the back of the paper. I know that's typical of newspapers everywhere but it is so irritating. So then when our team plays bad everyone thinks "well that's typical of someone from Miller". I get angry because we as parents and the coach are feeding into that way of thinking. Then the town will wonder why these boys High School team isn't any better. Maybe if we'd start at age 6 instilling a little school/town spirit into them and help them to change their way of thinking things would be better when they're older? Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now. I don't care if we win I just want the boys to be able to give it a decent effort. At least their still too young to realize.

Here are some pictures from Saturday night. The sun was shining right in my eyes so I couldn't tell what I was taking pictures of so they aren't the best.

Here is some of the other team practicing before the game. Their coach was calling out plays and all sorts of things.


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Our coach was late...here's our kids playing with tires before the game


Cade is the snapper and Neilson is the quarterback. Neilson isn't much better than Cade. One time Saturday night Neilson tossed the ball to Cade like it was the Hot Potato Game. It was funny.

Here's another one of the two of them.

We have another game tonight (insert big sigh). I hope we can at least score 1 touchdown before the end of the season.

4-H

I thought about combining a 4-H post with the Flag Ball post but decided 4-H needed it's own post. I was teasing Jay that our first 4-H meeting was the day that Jay had waitied for since we found out in July 2001 that we were having a baby.

When we were first dating and first married we had talked about having kids, Jay was always positive that he wanted them and I was never quite as sure. I knew that we'd have them, I just wasn't as sure as Jay. Finally after those rough months of infancy and toddlerhood I asked Jay exactly what he imagined having kids would be like in our earlier discussions. Part of my hesitation was because of the sleepless nights and the constant watching and the fear of something happening to them and all of those other things that scare you to death as a parent. I also though could imagine me pushing my cart through Wal-Mart with the cute little baby drooling all over the handle and having a cute little baby toddling around at the mall and thought that would be fun. Jay's imagination went straight to the baby being about 7 and standing in a show ring. He really never imagined what the baby/toddler stage of being a parent was like. Since Cade wasn't born with a show stick it's taken awhile for Jay's imagination to catch up with real life. We finally reached that point Tuesday. Cade is now officially a Clover Kid and will be showing a pen of broilers at our County Fair next summer. Showing the bovine variety will happen when he's a tad bit older (and to not cause me as much stress hopefully a whole lot bigger).

On the way home from the meeting we asked Cade what he thought of his first meeting. He said "it was just awful". Out of the three of us in the car Jay definitely was the most excited about the first 4-H meeting.

Flag Ball

Flag Football is the name known by 99.9% of the world's population. In our house Cade refers to it at Flag Ball, sometimes it's easier not to argue. Our first Flag Ball game was last Saturday and it was quite an experience. It rained during most of the game which made it highly enjoyable (not) for the spectators. Cade didn't know what he was doing, but either did most of the rest of the team. As a highly protective mother I was comforted by that fact....if my baby doesn't know what he's doing I don't want anyone else to know either! The one time Cade got his hands on the ball he proceeded to run straight out of bounds. He had no idea what the white boundary lines meant. Towards the end of the game he got to snap the ball - we were so far behind and so close to the end of the game that when he picked the ball up and moved it about 5 feet no one cared. The ref's ignored it, the parents had a good laugh. But one thing that Cade did better than anyone else on the the team, then probably anyone else in the history of Flag Ball was he could pick up the flags. It didn't matter how far away he was from the action, once that flag hit the ground he was there picking it up for the person it got ripped off of. It didn't matter who's flag is was - our players or the other teams - Cade picked up the flag. He may not be the best player but he could win the award for most courteous. I laughed so hard I almost cried.

Game #2 was Tuesday night, but we took Cade to a 4-H meeting instead. We heard the outcome wasn't much better than Game #1. Game #3 is tomorrow evening so maybe it will be better?

Trip to the Dress Store

I haven’t posted much lately for many reasons, but none are because I didn’t have anything to post, believe me I’ve had plenty stories to tell….I just haven’t had the time or the Internet (our brand new Internet was down for 3 days this week) to write everything down. Now I’m to the point where I have so many to tell that I don’t know which one to start with……Since I think some of the best stories are the ones with Jay and Cade in them I’ll tell yesterdays story. The stories of those two are even better when there’s a little Charlie thrown into the mix…this one doesn’t have a dog but it does involve a dress store which is almost as entertaining.

Monday night we had a message on our machine from Terry telling Jay he needed to be measured for his tux. Since Cade is also in the wedding we verified with Terry that Cade needed to be measured. The tux place is where the wedding is taking place so we needed to find a tux place around here and have then measure the guys. There is a dress place in Aurora and we figured they were the lucky ones who could do the measuring. I assumed the three of us would go together to get the measuring done and that we’d do it our next free weekend. Jay had another idea, which was great because I didn’t have to be involved but afterwards he was probably wishing he hadn’t done it.

Yesterday I had a meeting and was going to be home a little later and Jay had to deliver a trailer somewhere around the Aurora area. He decided to do it after school. Cade is now in the after school program, mostly to keep me from losing my mind those handful of times Jay isn’t at school. Which means we’ll really need it maybe 10 times the whole school year, but to participate in it you have to go 3 times a week. So far Cade is loving it, in fact he gets mad every time Jay picks him up because it’s too early and he doesn’t get to do any of the fun stuff. Yesterday Jay called to the elementary to tell them he was coming over to pick up Cade and asked that they have him ready when he got there. When Jay got there the secretary was messing with her walkie talkie....Secretary: “Mrs S could you send Cade to the office” (static) Mrs S: “huh” Secretary: “Mrs S could you send Cade to the office” (static) Mrs S: “huh”. It probably took Jay 10 minutes to get from the High School to the elementary so the Secretary and Mrs S had been playing that back and forth game for awhile. Jay and the secretary had to walk to Cade’s class to get him. Cade of course was ticked because Jay picked him up too early. Then Cade needed a drink and Jay told him they’d stop. Jay passed their usual gas station because of the enormous trailer he was hauling and Cade had a breakdown. Then he got stopped two different times for about 10 minutes because of road construction. Finally they got their drinks and were on their way.

Once they got to Aurora Jay thought it would be good to get their measurements done. The store is pretty easy to get to even with the trailer so they stopped. Cade got measured first and then they started on Jay. After a couple of Jay’s measurements Cade said he needed to go to the bathroom. I know Cade may read this someday and it will embarrass him so all I’ll say is it wasn’t the easy one. Jay sent him to the bathroom and finished with his measurements. He then went to the bathroom to check on Cade. Cade hadn’t even started going yet, he was staring at a spider and it’s web. He’s got quite an infatuation with spiders right now. He wouldn’t go to the bathroom until Jay took care of the spider. Then he went into the stall and tried to lock it about 15 times and it wouldn’t lock. Jay yelled at him to just go to the bathroom, there wasn’t anyone else in the store but them. Then Cade came out because there was no toilet paper, so Jay had to track some down. Then there was something on the toilet and Jay had to take care of that. Finally Cade was able to start on the real issue at hand. That meant Jay was trapped in a women’s dress store with a kid in the bathroom doing the big job.

When I say dress store, I mean it’s a wedding dress, glittery, beaded dress kind of store. Since Jay hasn’t had any need for a wedding or prom dress this was a new experience for him. He was pretty amazed at everything in there, and because of Cade he had plenty of time to look everything over. I’m still needing shoes for my dress and he told me to go in there and look. He wants me to at least see the store to tell him if all dress stores are like this one or if this one is something different. Anyway, most of you know Jay, most of you know what he looks like – can’t you see him standing around with a bunch of sparkly dresses waiting on his boy to get out of the bathroom. Yes, it was probably uncomfortable for all. I called Jay's cell phone right when he and Cade got back in the truck and I asked what he was doing. When he told me he was going to deliver the trailer I said "You mean you're just now delivering the trailer?" I know, he's so under appreciated.

Jay told me this whole story this morning and then ended with "I'm getting a little tired of this spider obsession". When he and Cade were walking out the door I heard Cade say "Daddy look at this spider web" as Jay was yelling at him to get in the truck.

Guess What Wii Got Cade

I bet you can't guess what Wii got Cade. Wii think he will really love it. Wii are going to have to keep it hidden until Christmas. Since Wii found a place that had them in stock Wii thought Wii had better get it. It is going to be hard for Mii to keep it in the box. ii will have to hide it away and maybe ii'll forget about it. Wii or at least Mii is excited about us being able to play it together. Yes ii have some nice family images of the three of us bowling in our living room or watching Jay and Cade box. Wii think it will be fun!

Since Cade doesn't read the blog ii figured it was safe to post the secret here. And by the way if he asks......Santa, not Wii, was the one who got the Wii.

Big Things In The Shepherd Household

No,it doesn't have anything to do with pink or blue. But it's still pretty exciting......

Yesterday we got wireless internet. I'll be able to work on the blog at home and many other things. I'm so so so very excited. We have finally moved into 2008!

The other big thing is that we are getting a new roof and it should be finished today. God took care of us on that (which isn't surprising). We needed a new roof and we had hail damage. Even with subtracting out our deductible the money from the insurance company covered the cost of the roof. Yeah!!

Cade started football practice last Thursday. If it's anything like baseball I'll have several posts over the next 6 or 7 weeks about it. I know absolutely nothing about football and when I say nothing I mean nothing. I'm not exagerating on that one little bit. I have no idea how many players you need, I can not comprehend the first down, second down stuff and since flag football is not something I've ever seen I really am going to be lost. Really, it's a wonder Jay's been able to put up with me all these years! I think it comes from the fact I went to a high school that did not have football. Gasp! Until we moved to Miller in 2001 I had no idea what Friday Night Football meant. I know, Gasp again. I can't say that I've even tried to learn, I guess it's time to start.

A Day With My Boy and a Tailgriller

Yesterday Jay attended his Uncle David’s funeral and I stayed home to be the chauffeur for a 6 year old who sometimes acts like he’s going on 12. I wish I could carry around a recorder to tape the conversations he and I have and to show the voice influxes and eye movements. Anymore, especially in the mornings, Cade and I are not getting along so well. We seem to be mixing about like oil and water for some reason. Yesterday's drama started over a jacket. It looked like rain so I asked Cade if he wanted to take a jacket. He said he didn’t want to. I told him he didn’t have to wear it yesterday morning but he could put it in his bag in case he needed it. That seemed to make him mad and he informed me that if it rained they wouldn’t go outside and so he did not need his jacket. I let it go and we headed out to the truck. My car had to go back to the shop yesterday (that’s a whole other post) So I’m putting Mr Snotty Pants in the truck and I realize that Jay’s Tailgriller is still attached to the back of the truck. Great – I hate driving the truck around anyway, now I had another two feet hanging off the back of it.

I need to post a picture of those of you who are wondering what a Tailgriller is. It is a creation of Jay’s that is a grill on a movable arm that attaches to his trailer hitch. It’s not a separate trailer hauling a grill, it’s a grill hooked onto his truck. He hauled it to Fayetteville last weekend and he hadn’t gotten it unhooked yet. I guess this thing is extremely heavy and it’s not something that can be easily hooked and unhooked. He’s trying to sell them, which is a good idea. There’s a lot of money floating around those Razorback games and I think he’s got a good shot at selling at least one. I wouldn’t mind driving/riding in a truck with it on there headed to a game. I’m just not crazy about the idea around home.

So I got to school to drop off Cade and there was some miscommunication between us and he thought I had locked the truck door when in fact I had unlocked the door. There was some accusations thrown towards me and then finally he got out of the truck. I don’t know what I do to him in the mornings, but he does not like it when I take him to school. He didn’t even tell me goodbye and I sure as heck didn’t get an “I love you Mommy”. All I got was a door slam and then got to watch a huffy 6 year old walk into the school. I said a little prayer for his teacher, I knew she was going to need it.

When I went to pick Cade up from school I was a little nervous. We are building a new elementary so the parking/picking up from school is a disaster. I knew things had changed since last year, but I wasn’t sure what the new protocol would be. If any of you remember watching Mr Mom there was a part where he was dropping off at school and he created a mess. People were yelling at him that he was going the wrong way. Anyway, that’s what I was afraid I would do – in a truck I hate driving with the Tailgriller on the back. I was able to park at our church to monitor the situation. Once the buses got loaded I started the truck to back into line. Luckily there was plenty of room and I did just fine. I waited and then got up to the door to get Cade and I hopped out to help him in. That’s when I realized that the car behind me spent 10 minutes staring at the Tailgriller which is complete with a metal sign with flames shooting out and our phone number. I was embarrassed. It’s one thing to market in Fayetteville, it’s another thing in the school pick-up line.

Cade and I talked some about his day. He told me since it rained they watched a movie during recess. We made a quick trip to the grocery store and on the way out Cade spotted the Tailgriller. He told me it looked embarrassing on the truck. Nothing like having my child make fun of what I was already embarrassed about. It was a great experience.

I then took him to Taco Bell and watched him gnaw on a crunchy taco. He lost his other front tooth last weekend so he has to gum his food. Actually, if his teeth wouldn’t grow in until Halloween he’d make a good Dracula. I asked if the taco was hard to eat and he pointed to his fangs and said no. Then trying to make conversation (this is when I would’ve liked the video camera) I asked if he had played with Neilson. He arched his eyebrows and said “Um it is raining (really drew out that word) or did you forget”. As soon as I said it I realized that they didn’t have recess. See I’m from one of the only schools in America who’s elementary and high school are in one building. If it rained we played in the gym. Cade’s school doesn’t have that so sometimes I forget. Cade’s has a Gymacafetorium – which is one room that serves as a gymnasium/cafeteria/auditorium. Since the older kids would’ve been eating it had to be a cafeteria yesterday and not a gymnasium.

I don’t know if I don’t know how to communicate with him or if he’s going through a stage where Mom is stupid. I just don’t know. This morning it was raining again and I thought I do something he really liked – I laid out pants for him to wear. He’s always preferred pants to shorts. I thought it would make his day. Instead he decided he wanted to wear shorts and he didn’t even wear the same shirt I had laid out. Which is fine, it didn’t bother me. BUT as we were walking out the door Jay asked him if he wanted a jacket. I tried to make eye contact with him to warn him not to bring it up, that it would put Cade in a foul mood. Guess what…..the little traitor took the jacket and Jay looked at me like I was absolutely crazy. I flashed back to when Cade was a baby and how lovingly he would look at me while I gave him a bottle. It was like I was his whole world (which of course anyone holding the bottle would’ve been). Now he regards me as the nutty Mom who asks too many questions and doesn’t understand anything. I’ve only got what about 14 years left of this phase? But a bright spot to my day, Jay did remove the Tailgriller so I’m no longer a driving billboard.