Peacock Boys Take Hardware Part 3

Indulge me one last time, this is for the grandparents! Last Sunday was Justin's football banquet. We were there for 5 1/2 hours! I have to say you almost don't want it to end when your son is a senior. I know he felt it. We were among the first to arrive and the last to leave! Our team does not put names on the jerseys. Partly economical (the jerseys are reused from year to year), but primarily because the coach feels like the emphasis should be on the team and not individuals. It is traditional that the seniors get their home jerseys with their name imprinted as a parting gift. Justin had a big night. He received recognition for:

• Cummulative GPA greater than 3.5 (in fact, he had the highest gpa among those who had played all 4 years!)
• A $500 scholarship awarded to the two 4-year players with the highest cummulative GPA (the other one went to his best friend, Mario Lara, on the right in the picture above)
• All-League 1st Team Offense
• Centurion Award: this was the last award of the night. The coach remarked that it was because Justin was the example of what he wanted from all of his players--he got it done in the classroom and on the field, he is a leader and a warrior.

We will miss watching Justin on the football field but look forward to more Friday Night Lights with Tyler and maybe someday Bryce. We couldn't be more proud to be Justin's parents. (Course, we all know where he gets his athletic abilities...yeah, ok, well maybe it skips a generation!)

Peacock Boys Take Hardware Part 2

Bryce's soccer team, Red Thunder, made it to playoffs. They lost their first game, which meant they played on 12/13 for third place. Unfortunately, Bryce fell at school 2 days before the game and broke his wrist so he was out of commission (1st piece of hardware)... However, we went to the game to cheer them on and what a game it was! They were tied 3-all at the end of the game so they played two more 5-minute periods. No one scored so they went to a shoot out. Our goalie played it perfectly and stopped two of their goals and our kickers all scored so we took 3rd place (2nd piece of hardware) and the wildcard spot in the area games in January. Hopefully Bryce will heal soon enough to play at least some of the games then!Bryce has also been working very hard at scouts. It doesn't hurt that his dad is scout leader extraordinairre. The goal is to get 11 year old scouts to earn their Tenderfoot, 2nd Class and 1st Class rank advancements by the time they turn 12 and they earn a special award. Bryce was able to earn all three rank advancements with six months to spare!! As a result, he was very happy to receive this multi-tool (3rd piece of hardware!) at his first Court of Honor last week.

Way to go!

P.S. Tyler's trophy (Dec. 16 post) was in recognition of the "Coach's Award" which is for a player that is coachable, reliable, helps other players (hence the hand out), and works hard!

20 Years and Counting!

1988

2008

Happy Anniversary honey!

The time has flown...I bet you really didn't know what you were getting into.

It looks like maybe you were getting your first inkling right about here:

Love you!

Peacock Boys Take Hardware Part 1

This picture was taken a few weeks ago at Tyler's football banquet for the JV team. These players, including Tyler, received individual awards at the banquet. Each trophy was a little different, and presumably, selected because it best represents the category the player was recognized for. Here is a close up of Tyler's trophy:

Based on the trophy, would you think Tyler was recognized for:

a) Visiting skid row where he handed out footballs and helmets to the needy,

b) Knocking over opposing football players who have, incidentally, recently been on chemotherapy,

c) Preaching fitness to the malnourished and downtrodden (while wearing his football uniform, because well, it is just part of who he is!), OR

d) Fill in the blank: ______________________________________

The real answer will be revealed in our next post but place your votes now! I'm curious to hear what creative caption you can imagine for this (somewhat frightening to small children) trophy that now adorns our home.

In all seriousness, Tyler and his parents are very grateful for the recognition he received and Tyler's parents are very proud of him for his performance on and off the field...we just can't ever take anything TOO seriously :)

So Long Football

Justin did his own blog entry after last week's game, so I was saving this one for him, but he said I should go ahead. Tough game. St. Bonaventure lived up to the hype--they are really good and deserved to win. On the bright side, Saugus played a great game and it was actually closer than the score indicates. (Saugus 8, St. Bonaventure 35) It's been a great run. Wish we could have gotten to the finals, but no regrets. They both had a fabulous season. Life goes on. Justin will now retire his helmet and shoulder pads and Tyler will get his shot.

Side note: we spent the first half of the game on the sidelines. Jeff struck up a conversation with the photographer from the LA Daily News. Jeff pointed out #55 (Justin) and suggested that he "shoot some good ones"! Well, check out the result (toward the later half of the selections) at the following link:

http://dailynews.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=649838&CategoryID=26370&ListSubAlbums=0

Toads and Twinkies

My mom emailed this video and it reminded me so much of a favorite family story that I had to share. It's been many years now so some of the details are fuzzy. Anyway...

When Bryce was a preschooler, we had this black felt cowboy hat that he used to wear around. I don't know where we were, but wherever it was there were twinkies. They each had one and we went on our merry way. Well, Bryce was wearing this cowboy hat and later that day the hat fell off and spilled about a dozen twinkie packages (it was a twelve twinkie hat!). Apparently he'd been saving his twinkies for a rainy day when he might not have twinkies otherwise readily available. We were just laughing about this story the other day (much to Bryce's consternation!) when I got this toad clip from my mom.

What I Won't Miss:

Football laundry.

Southern California Fires

While these fires are, for now anyway, behind us, many of you know that these fires came perilously close to my (Jeff's) place of work Spectrolab, in Sylmar. What we had not known was that a security guard swept the building on the morning of the fires to insure that everyone got out and he took some pictures of the fires as he went. These pictures were taken between 5:30 a.m. and about 5:45 a.m. on the morning of October 16, 2008. The first picture (looking SE) below shows the wall of flames approaching Spectrolab about 5:30 a.m. on October 16th.

The next four shots are taken just a few minutes apart, and show how intense a fire fanned by 40 to 60 mph winds can be.

Then, the fire burns down to just behind the fenceline (note the burning embers being propelled by the winds)

Then, the entire hillside due east is ablaze. This picture was taken from my office window! The fire moved so fast, neither the early arriving employees or the UPS lot directly behind the fence had a chance to fully vacate all their vehicles. Fortunately the fire moved so fast that they were spared further damage.

And 15 minutes later it moves on to burn something else. No serious damage is done here anyway.

What I learned is that when fire comes knocking, get out. I have abandoned my heretofore held belief that I'd stand my ground with a garden hose, sprinklers and a shovel. No more. Better yet is call Uncle Bob and get more fire insurance coverage.

Saugus outlasts Thousand Oaks..Moves on to Semis

In what will be the last home game of the season, the Centurions came out on top 35-28. Despite Zirbel being hampered with an ankle injury which limited him to 58 yards on the night, the Saugus offense was able to move up and down the field all night. Quarterback Desi Rodriguez carried the load with 38 carries and 258 yards rushing. Justin had his name called by the announcer on multiple plays much to his surprise. He also threw a huge block that decleated a T.O. player and had the crowd going "oohhhhhhhh". Bryce said of the play "Dude, Justin you made that guy pee his pants." Thousand Oaks moved up and down the field much of the night as well, but effectively lost the game on a fumbled reverse handoff with under 2 minutes to play. We will now move on to play St. Bonaventure in the semi-finals, who ended the Saugus playoff run last year. Hopefully this year will turn out differently. The game is in Ventura this Friday.

Story of My Life

I am a relatively mellow mom (in my humble opinion). However, there is one hot button that gets me absolutely, positively STEAMED! My kids never answer the house phone. I can have meatloaf up to my elbows or be gone and need to tell them something, it doesn't matter. It can be sitting right next to them and they won't even NOTICE that it is ringing. When I showed this to the kids, Justin's comment was, "Yeah, and your face looks just like that too!" Incidentally, the artist (Jerry Scott) also does Baby Blues which was my favorite comic when my kids were little, but now I've moved on to Zits since it's about teenagers. He just gets it. The funny thing is, I went to school with his wife and I don't think they ever had kids which just slays me because his comics are always a slice of life.

A Great Way to Say Thanks!

I am so grateful to live in this land of freedom. Thank a serviceman today, any day or every day:

http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html

Making Bread with Grandpa

I think this is the sweetest picture ever! Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Joyce came down for the weekend and Grandpa brought his bread making supplies. Bryce and Grandpa spent all morning making 5 loaves of the most delicious bread! I think a cookbook must be in the works... Bruce is continually impressing with his newfound talents in the kitchen! He was astounded that we couldn't find an apron in the house, however. Hmmm...Christmas list?

Saugus Survives Righetti

Friday, November 21, 2008 Week one of the 2008 CIF Northern Division of the Southern Section ended with a "W" for the Peacock offensive linemen. I say linemen, as Tyler was brought up to Varsity for the playoffs. I suspect his role is to stand during games on the sideline and serve as a tackling dummy during the week on the scout team. They were able to give him the same number he had on JV this year, but...a size 3XL! His numbers are extra shiny because it's a brand new jersey, which seems to be very annoying to him. He asked me how to get them to be less shiny and I said, "play!"

In any event, the final score at CoC stadium was 29-17. Better than even that, all four grandparents were in attendance (just in case you're confused, yes, they're lined up with the wrong partners!).

I would not actually tell you Righetti (from Santa Maria) was as challenging as the score might indicate. The Saugus "Sausages" as Uncle Brad likes to call them, were more than challenged by their own lack of execution and follow through giving up at least more 28 points with silly turnovers in the red zone and turning the ball over on downs in a very uncharacteristic fashion.

We suppose it is either an omen, or it's get all the kinks out for the next game or two. Oh well, brackets don't change for close calls or blowouts. It's Thousand Oaks next. Then the University of St. Bonny next.

Not all bad news about the economy.

Suburban. Gas light. $60. Yes, only $60. Wow. 'Nuff said.

Was he at a clambake?

I love XM (now Sirius/XM) radio. One reason is that you can see the artist and song title. So, this song title comes up, "Pulling Mussels from the Shell", and I'm thinking what a weird title. Then the song comes on and it's really familiar, only I always thought the words were "pulling muscles for Michelle". Granted, my version doesn't really make sense but I thought it was definitely a more likely subject matter for a song. This isn't the first time I've been surprised to find out the actual words, for instance I always thought that the Rolling Stones' "Angie" was the lament, "I in jail". Really, Mick should learn to enunciate.

Saugus Centurions finish perfect 2008 Foothill League Campaign

Cougar Stadium at the College of the Canyons was a memory in the making tonight. With the Santa Anas blowing a steady southerly warm wind, the Varsity Saugus Centurions defeated their last league foe. Final score Saugus 56 - Canyon 28. It wouldn't have been that close except the 2nd string gave up two late touchdowns. We would have had awesome photos of the game, the ringing of the bell and of the post game festivities, but someone left the camera's memory card in the computer! So now we wait. Sometime Sunday p.m. the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs brackets will be announced. All we know is we want the University of St. Bonaventure to be in the other bracket. (posted by Jeff)

That's Our Boy!

The Signal (the local Santa Clarita newspaper) ran a story on Justin in the Sports section today. It's a very nice article, you can read it here:

http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/5963/

His father did get a chortle out of the line, "Peacock is humble". We thought it should be his new mantra!

Would you like syrup with that pancake?

Justin said I missed his pancake...

Sentimental Journey

Forgive me. I'm going to wax a little sentimental. We are a sports family. I don't know how it happened. I was born a princess (my mom was hoping for a cowgirl, but she got me). Somehow, Heavenly Father saw fit to send me three sons. So I adjusted. Now I'm a sports mom. Our lives are dictated by a coach's schedule. It has been this way for years now. Six years is a long time when you really only have about 18 with any particular kid.

We started small, park & rec and AYSO. That wasn't so demanding. Sure, it cut into our ability to travel on weekends, but the vacations and summers were ours. We told the coach when we would be there and when we would not.

Six years ago, Justin started Pop Warner football. Now the coaches started telling US when and where we would be. Tyler started playing the next year. I really didn't think they'd like it. They got better and they liked that. They liked being part of a team. I think they even liked the challenge and the discipline. Even when they weren't winning, somehow they kept going. Then on to high school football, where there really is no "off" season. Justin originally tried to play basketball and football but learned by his junior year that he'd have to choose if he wanted to be successful. He surprised us all by choosing football.

When he started playing varsity, we finally figured out how intoxicating the "Friday night lights" could be. Now we're nearing the end of his last year of football. His team went into last Friday's game 3-0 in league playing against a cross-town rival that was also 3-0. This was it. This was the game he'd waited his whole football career for. I don't even think a post season game will mean as much (unless by some miracle we get to the championship). 48 minutes of play and they were able to decisively and convincingly earn the Foothill League title for the first time in the school's history. It doesn't get better than that!

This is Justin's good friend Justin Wells, our outstanding center. I think his face says it all so I included it because I like this picture so much!

Here are some action pictures for Justin!

So, for the 20+ senior football players and their families on our team, it was the highest of highs. I can't help thinking about the other 100+ throughout our valley whose senior season was less than they'd hoped. It has been a road we will always remember.

He's In!

Yes, he won his seat. Congratulations, dad!

Vote for George!

Well, here we are in the 11th hour, and I have to say of all the races, this is the one I'm most interested in! My dad (and mom as pseudo-campaign manager) has worked really hard. He doesn't do anything half way. And, I can't think of anyone who has more integrity and clarity--Yucca Valley will be lucky to get him. In fact, I say Huntington for the white house in '12! Although, Jeff wouldn't mind seeing him lose since Nancy's promised him consolation superbowl tickets to take his mind off the loss should that happen (I guess for some reason Jeff thinks he'd be going too!). Love you dad, good luck!

Them is Fightin' Words!

OK, I admit that I'm a bit of an overzealous football mom, but I was a offended by The Signal's subtitle to last Friday's Valencia game, "Rout of Hart almost assures Valencia of league crown ". http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/5475/ Now, as I do the math, Saugus is 3-0 in league and Valencia is 3-0 in league. Saugus plays at Valencia on Friday. There is one league game after that. Seems to me, we should let Saugus play Valencia before we assure anyone of anything...just saying! Anyway, it promises to be a fabulously offensive game. Last week was a snoozer. It was Halloween and only the truly faithful were in attendance so the energy level was low. The photographer was so bored that he took 50 pictures of the band during halftime and only a few of the game. Oh yeah, we won both games. Justin said I should add action pictures this week, but since he doesn't play in the band, there aren't any. Stay tuned next week!

Now a pause for this brief message...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwZVK8Dz0mQ This was a hit with the Peacock boys!

How Do You Spell Fun? F-O-N-D-U-E

I think this was the best birthday ever! As has become a tradition of sorts, my mom and I got to spend some quality time in the morning shopping. Well, me shopping, her buying--it's really a great system! It's always brief (before we can do too much damage) since, of course, there's always another game to get to. In the evening, we had dinner at the Melting Pot in Pasadena, which is a fondue restaurant we love!

I wasn't sure how the boys would like it but I think this picture speaks for itself! They just kept saying how fun it was and grinning. Justin developed a system (aided by the fact that he was able to commandeer an extra set of fondue forks) whereby he never had to pause in his eating. He would fill his forks (4 of them) with items to cook and then put them in the pot. When they were done, he would empty all the forks on his plate, refill and dunk them again. He then ate what was on his plate. By the time he was done swallowing, the next batch was ready for eating, so he would repeat. Of course, we all had to bring our "A" game (and handicapped by only having 2 forks!) in order to assure our fair share. The waitress said that we were the fastest group she'd ever had. Hmmm, I wonder if that's a good thing?

Our Rocket Scientist

After weeks of research, here's Bryce off to school for the big annual 6th grade bottle rocket competition...

Here he is, preparing to launch. The rocket is propelled using water pressure. Notice our kindly librarian, Mrs. Lund in her protective gear as she prepares to be soaked for the 64th time that day. She is a good sport! Good thing it was over 90 degrees this day.

What? You can't tell what this picture is of? You can't see Bryce's rocket? Well, you can see by following the eyes of the students that this was one excellent rocket! Good job Bryce (and Jeff)! Too bad it moved too quickly for the photographer to record its flight.

Another Winning Weekend!

This is actually Tyler after the JV team beat Hart the week before, but we didn't get any post-West Ranch-win-still sweaty pictures this week. He looked pretty much the same though, especially the smile and holding a gatorade!

Although she's grinning, Grandma Nancy is actually trying really hard not to breathe through her nose in this picture and I think it's about this time when she said, "Wow! You're butt is really wet!"

I don't care what they say, winning is really alot more fun. Look at the proud grandparents in Centurion blue.

Bryce is a killer goalie! He saved countless goals and had a goal assist. Go Red Thunder!

Look What Daleen Taught Me How to Do!

Ok, now Jeff knows that I am certifiably crazy, between spending an hour and half on the phone with AT&T U-verse and cooking dinner I had time to fancy up my blog! My mom even asked me why I might need a blog, to which I didn't have an excellent answer. But, if I'm going to have a blog, well then it will need to be the best darn blog! Oh good, a new obsession!

Bryce's Choice Video

This is totally out of date sequence, but being a novice blogger and all, I couldn't figure out how to put it in the margin. Bryce got a kick out of it anyway.

Justin Gets a New 'Do

The whole Saugus High football team got mohawks to hype them up for the beginning of league play last Friday. It must have worked--Saugus beat arch-nemesis Hart for the first time in 16 or 17 years (there seems to be some debate among long-time Saugus fans). It was a good weekend all around--Tyler's JV team also won, as did Bryce's soccer team the next day. A Peacock boy trifecta, a rarity! Now Justin tells me they've all committed to the haircut until they lose. Hmmm....