Yellow Card, Yellow Jersey

It's been a few weeks since I posted.  I must be getting old and tired or something.  Or, maybe I'm just busy.  Let's just call it that, and I won't feel so lazy and vaguely guilty.  (My mom and dad are serving a mission in Bulgaria right now, and Mike's parents are in Mexico.  This  blog is mainly for them, so when I don't post regularly, I feel like I am neglecting them.)

I have a few things to post about, but I don't want this to get too long.  I'll hit a couple of high points tonight and hopefully get to the rest later in the week.  There.  Now I feel committed to actually follow through.

A couple of weeks ago after the Vallivue game, Matt arrived home with a yellow jersey.  I'd never seen it before.  He said it was a "player of the game" award that the team and coaches voted on.  Matt is usually pretty laidback about life, but I could tell that he was excited about this award.  He did play well in that game, and I guess his teammates and coaches thought so as well.  He got to keep it and wear it at practice until the next game when it was passed on to another player.  I forgot to ask if it got him special privileges at practice or anything.  Maybe it just makes you a marked man, kind of like the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

A couple of games later, Matt's fortunes turned, and he was awarded a YELLOW card.  Oh my!  Now this caused some very good-natured ribbing from some of the parents who have watched Matt play club soccer for the last six or seven years.  Matt is known as "the good kid."  He has never played on Sunday, and he doesn't swear or do things he shouldn't (at least to my knowledge).  He even finds a way to attend church when he is away at tournaments.  So when he got a yellow card, we were all a little surprised.  I pulled the picture off of one of the other parents' shared albums.  The photographer captioned it, "Never say never."  His original caption was different, but his wife told him not to use it.  I won't share that one with you. 

Anyway, we were all a little surprised but amused as well.  I'll have to say that the call was a little suspect and aggressive on the referee's part, but he's the guy in charge.  Matt is kind of laughing in the picture because the ref actually had to run him down to card him.  He honestly didn't know he was being carded. 

In the very same game, Matt somehow scored a goal from his defensive position.  He was not far past midfield when he saw one of the forwards, Will, in the box.  He played an excellent ball towards the goal, and Will missed it.  However, Will did manage to distract the goalkeeper enough that the ball happened to go in without anyone touching it.  GOOOAAALLLLL!!!  That was even more amusing than the yellow card.

You Say Tomato; I Say "Finally!"

This year has been somewhat of a disappointment in the garden.  We had a very cool, wet spring, and all the plants had a hard time getting established.  We even had to replant some seeds and starts after a freeze.  Then we went on vacation, and it got super hot while we were gone.  The garden didn't get watered enough, was somewhat overtaken by weeds, and generally looked pretty sorry when we returned.

I'd almost written off a good harvest on anything.  We've gotten some beans, some peppers, some onions, and other things.  But my tomatoes were taking forever to grow and ripen.  We were low on home-canned tomatoes, so I was feeling pretty bummed.  Much to my surprise, I went out about ten days ago and started picking and digging through the vines.  Jackpot!  There is nothing so delicious as a fresh-from-the-garden tomato, and it's even more fun when we have enough to can.  I've had one more similar picking since then and have canned about thirty quarts of tomatoes.  There's still more out there, too.  Awesome!

I'll post more later in the week about cross country, soccer, and homecoming festivities.  Now, I'm going to go relax with my men on Sunday night--one of my favorite times of the week!