I came back to my office after lunch today to find this:
One of my co-workers has been paying attention to my likes.
Dr. Pepper lives!
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Tag Archives: News
A few pictures
Sometimes I have something witty to say. Sometimes I don’t.
The family on Christmas eve
Grandma recieved an electric blower for Christmas
Petr on the receiving end of the blower.
A great weekend
Petr had two playoff games on Saturday. The early one they did not play at their best and came away with a draw. The afternoon game they played way above themselves and won 3-2 over a great team. After adding up the AYSO tournament scoring numbers, Petr’s team had made it to the Semifinals to be played Sunday morning.
This weekend also marked a record 7th time in the calendar year that Real Madrid met Barcelona. Every time they meet it is known in Spain as “El Clasico.” Real Madrid has had a bad run as of late, and Saturday showed their fortune has not changed, as they lost 3-1 at home. Not the makings of a great weekend for me, a Real fan.
Sunday was a better day. I was asked to teach the High School group at church because the youth pastor is on a missions trip to Uganda. That went really well, but I did miss one of Petr’s soccer games in the morning.
They won the morning game which meant they were going to play in the AYSO East County Final. Of all the teams from Alpine, Jamul, Lakeside, Santee, El Cajon and La Mesa it had come down to these two.
At around the 2 minute mark, they gave up a penalty on a handball inside the area. The boy from the other team struck it hard and right into the net off a slight deflection from the keepers hands after a great dive. Knowing that Petr’s team had been playing a bit above themselves for most of the tournament, I feared that would be a tough goal to overcome. I was wrong! Good coaching, great defending, awesome goalkeeping and constant passes forward left the other team exposed to the counter attack, time after time. The game ended 5-1. So Petr’s team is now the regional AYSO champion U10 team.
That is a great weekend. (Now we get to go play in the Southern California tournament in February.)
Another week of Slurpees
Petr has really picked up his game in the last few weeks. I think he is learning he can actually do it. This means more things for me to learn as a parent. He has become a bit more aggressive and seems to have an interest in making things happen.
Petr played in the regional AYSO playoffs this weekend. His team played against Alpine. The run of play was mostly one way for Petr’s team with close to 70% of the possession. The other team had one player who was a constant threat to counter attack, but they did not produce any real scoring chances in the first half.
The first half also had Petr’s great shot, probably his best of the season. It came at the end of a great play, which at this level is quite rare. Most goals come from the outstanding play of a single player. One of his teammates gathered the ball around midfield and moved down the field, eventually laying it off to his right, where Petr, in his regular form, was excellently positioned. He tapped it forward and finished with a strong strike. Unfortunately it was straight at the keeper who made the save.
The second half saw more of the same, Petr’s team enjoying the majority of the possession, but no goals were coming. Off of a goal kick, the ball bounced to Petr. He was near the right sideline about even with the center circle, just inside the offensive half. He wound up his leg and struck the ball on a half volley. It soared over everyone, including the keeper, finding the upper left corner of the net, 1-0.
He was really excited. He continued to play with a renewed sense of passion. They went on to win 2-1. They got another good goal from their best player and gave one up on a counter by the other teams best player.
After the game he said to me, “I thought that kind of goal could only be scored by someone on Real Madrid or something!” Sometimes it just takes a taste of success for us to grasp God’s design in our lives. The hard work never seems like it is going to pay off, so graciously He lets us score from time to time. Sometimes He also rewards us when we do well. Petr will be getting slurpees every day this week.
Corrected?
If you read the comments on my earlier post, you would have known there was a typo (my fault, no Swahili spell checker and I was typing too fast) on my license plate frame. I ordered replacement ones. Somehow they produced the two plates I ordered and omitted the “Mungu” at the top of one of them. It reminds me of working with more than one company in Kenya. I guess that is appropriate.
Thanksgiving
We had a wonderful time for Thanksgiving with my family yesterday. It was the first time we had Thanksgiving with them since 2007. I am very thankful for the way that God has provided for our family over those last four years.
The basis for most of the world’s economy is that workers create wealth, either for themselves or for someone else and are compensated for that creation of wealth. The last three years God supported us with all we needed all while I was not creating wealth in an economic sense.
We returned to the USA during the worst economic conditions in my lifetime. In spite of that, God provided a very great job for me to do. I enjoy the work, I enjoy my coworkers and I am compensated enough to provide for all our family’s needs, even a few of our wants.
I am even thankful for tender meat, even if it is a bird.
Where are the Swahili speakers?
I ordered a couple of license plate frames for our cars. They read Mungu ni mwema… wakati wote. It will be interesting to see if anyone comments on them to us.
Brrrr
I spent the weekend on Mount San Gorgonio. The first weekend in November is often cold up there, but I have never seen so much snow, and so low. We started seeing snow on the ground at around 4,000′ and it was about the same amount, 4″-6″ as it was much higher. Once we got above 7,000′ I do not think it ever got above freezing, which was actually really nice because it meant everything was very dry, and beautiful.
My dad agreed to go along on the trip over a month ago. We even contemplated what clothes to wear and I talked him out of bringing shorts. The weather got all crazy, but having already committed to go, he ended up on his first (and probably last) snow trip. We had a great time.
We were also with both of Cammy’s brothers, Charlie and Brandon, as well as Mason, Brandon’s oldest, and Brandon’s brother-in-law Art and his son Josh. At 7, we were a big group that headed up into the snow at Vivian’s Creek above Forest Falls. We did not summit, but we made a good go of it. We did not have a lot of time to plan and prepare for and adventure in that kind of weather.
We made it out on Sunday just before they were going to need snow plows. Which was fortunate since only Art had 4×4 and chains.
Finished
The first goal = Slurpees
As I have posted about the boys soccer you may get the idea that I am more than a little frustrated with their drive to accomplish something. So I wanted to give them an incentive to play harder, a carrot to give them a taste for winning. I said that if they won their game, I would buy them a Slurpee. I wanted to be careful to make sure they were learning the game, so I did not want to incentivize any particular stat or action, just win.
Cammy, in the heat of the moment, said, “If you score a goal I will buy you a Slurpee every day of the week!” I mumbled, “What if they are playing keeper?”
Andrej played keeper on Saturday, but only for the final quarter. He never touched the ball. In the first half though, he played midfield. He had his most aggressive match yet, and guess what. Cammy is buying him a Slurpee today, and tomorrow, and… well you can figure it out.
This is a great encouragement for me, in my life, as it should be for you. We can change the way we live life, we can become proactive where we have been reactive. It should also encourage Petr. He will have to ride home Slurpee-less every day this week.