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.