Fun on campus

The weekends are a huge thing around here - especially the first weekend of every semester when all the kids can be together again and head off campus to the malls and movies. We had 4 kids away at the Middle School Retreat (Annie was one of them) and the remaining seven high school students had plans. In the end, one didn't go so I stayed with her and Tim took a bunch to Gurney Mall to the movies. As an aside, the new M. Night Shyamalan movie, Lady in the Water, was a big hit with Kaleb, Tim and Jon. And The Lake House was a huge hit with the girls from Ziemer dorm.

Those of us who were left on campus ate supper on at the picnic tables on upper campus. It was nice and relaxing and the wind off the ocean felt so good. Aunt Julia, our dorm assistant, got the idea to stuff one of the middle school teacher's cars full of balloons while he was away at the retreat. So, in front of a bunch of dorm students, the adults broke into Steve's car!! Great role models, hey?? He took it very well when he arrived home the next day. We could hear the balloons exploding when he popped them all with a pin so he could drive home and get some sleep.

For those that don't go out on Fridays, the evenings can be long so Uncle Brian instituted an indoor soccer get together. It begins at 10 pm and goes til the "lights out" time of midnight. Not a lot of females play since it is quite intense - I was told when I asked if I could play "there won't be any crying"!! That was more of challenge than a discouragement even though I have never played before so I went. Here's how it works: everyone forms teams of five. The leftover three or four people wait on the bleachers- I was one of them. Two teams play until one scores a goal. The losing team exits the court and another team comes on. Zach, Eric, Herman and Josh formed a team and then called out for a fifth player. I jumped down from the bleachers and ran on to the court.

My stellar indoor soccer lasted a whole thirty seconds since the other team scored on us right away. We left the court, waiting our turn again. Just before our team was up, Josh turns to me and says, "Um, Aunt Shauna, um, like no offense, we don't want to hurt your feelings or anything but Scott's here now and we'd kinda like him to be on our team. Are you OK with that?" No offense taken - I mean who wants a 40 year old, out of shape, soccer illiterate woman when you can have a 16 year old star offense player??????

I never made it back onto the court so just before midnight I went for a mile run. It was good to move and push myself physically. Today, I priced out a membership at a local gym and treadmills at the mall. Nothing in my price range yet so I'll keep going to Friday night soccer - maybe I'll even form a woman's "no crying" team!