My new look

Ninja parade a huge success

LOL!! "The best part of the parade is when I found this candy in my pocket. The ninjas must have snuck it in there".


Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

Random people popping into your head

I just had a weird moment of two people pop into my head. I have no idea why or how, but it made me sad.

When we were younger and growing up, there was a brother (Clifford) and sister (Holly) that lived down the street from us (we lived in a somewhat rural country setting) who lived in a home with a mother that looked like a spooked-out crack addict (I'm pretty sure she was) and many different men (Biker-types) coming and going.

We played with them quite a bit growing up. Holly was my age and Clifford was a year younger (so, he was Russ' age). Considering their hard life (poor/on welfare), they both seemed to be very happy kids, but you could tell they desperately wanted out of the lives they lived and knew it was not normal. My parents were always encouraging us to play them, I think knowing that if they were with us, they were in a better/safer place.

One day their mom came to our house yelling for them. Their mom was REALLY scary/intimidating to us. Anyway, I guess she wanted them home at a certain time and they forgot (like every 10 year old does) and she grabbed them both by the hair and started dragging them home, saying she was going to kill them. We were scared to death. My mom got home a bit later and we told her what happened. She wouldn't stand for it.

She immediately marched down to their house to confront her about what she was doing. I stood at the end of our dirt road, about 200' away (I was scared to death) as she and my mom were yelling/arguing about something (I think my mom was just upset about her actions around us, and about how she was treating her own kids). This lady finally charged at my mom to hit her, but she just bounced off my mom like my mom was a brick wall. It was awesome. Right at that time a guy from our church was driving by and saw the whole thing happen. He immediately stopped and by then, this lady was on the ground crying. He asked if my mom needed help, but she said no. He drove down the road some more by me to ask what was going on and then waited to make sure everything was OK.

I can't remember what my mom said to the lady (mom...maybe you can chime in here?) but I know my mom put her arm around her and tried to comfort her, immediately forgiving her.

Anyway, as far as the kids go, I just wonder what happened to them. I know a couple of years later they moved away. I can't remember if it was with their mom, or with their grandmother. I remember as we got older (into my teens) every once in a while Holly would come to visit my family (I think she would call my mom and then my mom would pick her up???), just for the day. For some reason I was really cold to her and I have no idea why. I wasn't flat out mean, but I just kind of came in the house, said "hi", then went on my way, like I had better things to do. I think she really just wanted to be around us and loved our family, but I had to be an idiot. I feel really badly for it now. So badly that I wish I could find them and see if they're OK and just let them know I'm sorry that I wasn't a good friend later on in life.

It's weird how these things just pop in your mind....

Meaning what you say

I consider myself pretty good at figuring out if someone is full of BS or not, especially in the coaching world. I get so tired of hearing coach-speak or when I hear a coach trying to rally his troops with borrowed cliche's and nothing from the heart. I get motivated myself when I hear certain coaches speak and know that every letter of every word that comes out of their mouths, are words that they truly believe.

In the political world, I get so tired of the same things, but also so motivated when I know someone truly believes what they are saying. Newt Gingrich got a great applause for his response to this question. Some like to think he's trying to create fear and sometimes I think those in favor of the war and are in charge, just might be. However, after hearing him describe the war, I too feel SOMETHING has to be done. This doesn't mean I support what we are doing, but I know that SOMETHING must be done to prevent innocent people from being harmed.

Here is his 5 minute reply. I think it's really good.

44 Days

44 Days until I'm on the beach with Alene, sipping virgin pina colada's and basking in the clear blue carribean ocean.

I can't wait.

Here is a picture of where we'll be:

Proving my manhood

I was sitting and talking with our 75 year old security guard this morning. Somehow we got on the topic of him remembering his dad breaking in horses and I realized that breaking in a horse is a big fear of mine, but also something I would choose to do to prove that I was a man.

I think breaking in a horse has to be so scary, but would definitely prove that you have power to control something bigger and stronger than you.

I think breaking in a bear or an exotic cat would be stupid.

I remember growing up, we had 2 horses, one pony and one full-sized horse. I used to ride the pony a TON (I was about 9-10 years old) and I finally manned up to start riding our horse, which wasn't ridden as much. I had to use a stool just to get up on her. One day I was riding her and a dog spooked her and made her jump up, throw me, then roll over the top of my leg. I was scared to death and was hurt (mostly just ligament damage) and never rode a horse since then. I regret it now. It was about the time I was graduating from riding horses to riding bikes and motorcycles, so maybe that was a natural progression for a boy. I also remember one time Russ and my friend were jumping up onto our pony from behind (like the Lone Ranger) while she was eating. She finally got tired of it and bucked him off her and into the fence. I remember his back was all scratched up and he was bawling his head off.

Football

Alene gave me a hard time last night about why I don't blog much anymore. I guess I'm just totally burned out and tired from Football, that I have nothing left in my brain. I have this stupid air-vent cover that requires two screws to be screwed into a wall and it's sat all season, not screwed into the wall. That's how tired I am.

Alene is awesome. I love her support for me coaching football and her encouragement for me to blog about the team I coach, so he5re it goes:

Football is going OK. The team I coach (East HS Sophomores) struggled early on, but we've won 3 of 8 games and have one more left which we should win. We will end the season 4-5 and on a winning note (hopefully). As I pondered how the season went, I thought of what we dealt with (hazing/arrest of players, losing players to grades, etc.) and it's been pretty good. However, there are a few games I wish we could get back and play again. I believe there are two games we could have won if we played them again in the shape we're in now, so this team should/could have been 6-3, which isn't too bad.

As a Sophomore coach, you're basically teaching these kids the Varsity offense and defense so they're prepared for the next couple of years. Last year's sophomore team went 1-8 on the season, so we've definitely made great strides from the previous team, but I think it's amazing that the JV team (mostly this years Juniors) are 7-1.

Anyway, the Varsity team is still doing great. They're 6-2 with one game left. They're currently tied for first with 2 other schools in the conference (if it weren't for losing to one of those schools by a point, they would have first place locked up for themselves). They will make the playoffs and should go deep into it. I'll be helping coach the Varsity during the playoffs, so that should be a lot of fun.

I really love coaching, but it is a lot of hard work and really stressful. Sometimes I wonder how I could love something so much that stresses me out. I guess I can just say, "that's life I guess". I love life.

Got a new TV

Alene and I were gearing up to watch the BYU-New Mexico game, and on a spur of the moment we decided to go out and purchase a new TV to watch it on.

It's a 55" Sony Grand Wega rear projection HDTV. This thing is HUGE, but seriously lighter than our older 27" TV. The picture is AMAZING.

We were actually looking at the 50" TV's, but the one we wanted was a display only, so the sales guy immediately offered to sell us the 55" for the same price, so we jumped at it.

Anyone want to come over and watch some football??