I Found Myself A Cheerleader

One of my favorite questions to ask young children is "What do you want to be when they grow up?" Their responses are so honest, simple and telling. When The Short Chic was little she wanted to be three things when she grew up, "A fisher-girl, a cheerleader, and a pilot." I still giggle at her selection.

Multiple events lead us to providing The Short Chic with an opportunity to be a cheerleader this fall. One of those was The Boy leaving for college. I needed a distraction from how much I missed him and since cheer required a three day a week commitment, it sounded about perfect. We selected a competitive football league that also has a strong cheer component. Our chosen team has ten different youth football divisions ranging from K-2 flag football though 8th Grade Tackle. The Short Chic is a flag cheerleader.

We have been pretty impressed with the organization and structure of the team we have selected, The Northland Chiefs. We have practiced twice a week since the beginning of August and have had games every Saturday this fall. Watching our child gain mastery over new skills is really a a proud parenting moment for The Husband and I. Our last game is nearing and then we will hopefully find ourselves playing in some post season play.

This past weekend was The Northland Chiefs homecoming game. Being newbies to this process, The Husband and I learned quickly how big a production homecoming is to this team. The organizers really want the kids to be honored for their hard work and feel special on this day!

We started our day out at 6:45 a.m. with a homecoming parade. Each football team and cheer squad had a float in the parade. The Husband volunteered us to pull a trailer in the parade. It was forecasted to be below 40 degrees the morning of our parade but thankfully Mother Nature was nice to us and it was not that cold.

We were told that someone would be decorating the float for us but we went ahead and made some simple decorations. A piece of fencing became a black and red "NLC" sign made out of solo cups. We also purchased inexpensive plastic table cloths from the dollar store and cut them to create a fringe skirting around the trailer. I wanted to make a PVC Goal Post or do a balloon arch but The Husband enforced some editing and said no. It all worked out because the volunteer for decoration brought balloons and an awesome paper banner.

We followed a six or so mile parade route to our home field with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even siblings lining the route. Normally when you are in a parade you throw candy out to the parade watchers. In this parade, several parade watchers threw candy at the football players and cheerleaders in the parade.

Once we arrived at the park, the entire entryway to the football field was lined with cheer posters for every player and cheerleader. Many veteran parents had warned me about making a homemade poster. They said, "the wind rips them apart," "the rain destroys them." I was advised to purchase a vinyl poster that would with stand the unpredictable fall weather. So, I did. Then the crafty DIY'er in me screamed in revolt! So I added the stress of a homemade cheer poster to my pre-homecoming schedule. Thankfully for this newbie mom, the fall weather was perfect and in the end, The Short Chic had two posters. One professionally done and one crafted with love by her mom.

The kids loved the posters. All day I would see kids looking at their posters, taking time to find their friends or teammates. Even the parents had a great time checking out all the cheer/fan posters.

The organization is heavily dependent upon volunteers. The Husband has volunteered to be a part of the chain game several weeks. He has also made his "world famous" sausage gravy to be served at early morning games. He even volunteered me to make breakfast burritos. This en-devour has been a positive experience for us and The Short Chic. We have found ourselves a cheerleader. She has fulfilled a dream.

Homecoming came and went. It was a long, exhausting day. All that remains are the memories. Oh, and the photo booth film strip. We have that to make us laugh for some time!

My Weekend Project: A PVC Camping Lamp Post and Flag Holder

I have seen a few of these around campsites and I knew I would like to have one. The only problem that I had is The Husband. He already thinks we drag too much stuff with us when we go camping and if I had told him my desire to have a PVC Camping Light Pole he would have shut it down quickly! So, that leaves a girl with only one choice: Figure out how to do it by herself. I did some internet searching and found a few road maps on RV forums. They seemed easy enough! I visited the local hardware store for the supplies: An exterior post lantern light 2 inch PVC pipe (I used 5 feet but had to purchase a 10 foot piece) A 3 inch toilet flange A 3 inch to 2 inch Reducer PVC Glue A 12 foot electric cord kit 2 - 3/4 inch PVC Caps I also used a few supplies we already had on hand: White Spray Paint 3 1/2 foot - 3/4 inch PVC Pipe Drill Bits (1 inch and 1/2 inch) Tent Stakes The first step was preparing the lantern light. I could only find black i

Tonsillectomy (Warning Photos!)

The Short Chic came down with a pretty nasty case of strep throat back in April. So, when The Boy started complaining about his throat hurting about 12 days later, I was pretty confident that he had inherited his sister's strep. Instead, The Boy was diagnosed with a peritonsillar abscess growing on his right tonsil. We had to immediately see an ENT Physician who took a needle and drained the abscess. He removed about 5.5 cc of puss from The Boys throat.and then told us that once you have a peritonsillar abscess you were high risk to keep getting them. The Boy's tonsils were now compromised and needed to be removed. We were told to plan for a two week recovery so we worked a surgery into our summer plans. Between family vacations, summer sports, and the beginning of school The Boy had his second surgery. A tonsillectomy. Pre-surgery prepping went well. It must be nice to be young and have healthy veins for an IV! The Boy had lots of pre-surgery visitors. My

Liver Cheese: A Family Tradition

Today is an anniversary date. One of those dates you wish you did not have to remember but there is no way you can forget. Fifteen years ago today,two days after his birthday, my father died of lung cancer. He was a lifelong smoker and his cancer was aggressive. His battle was short. He fought for six short months after his diagnosis. He knew the chemo was not working and that his time was limited. When he came to this realization he became the best dad in the world. In the days before my father's passing, my family shared some memorable moments. One of those moments centers around the deli meat: Liver Cheese.I would not be surprised if you have never heard of it, or even never tasted it. But I was raised on it as it was one of my Dad's favorite things. What is it? Well, it is a German food that is actually called Leberkase. It is bacon, corned beef, pork, and onion that is ground together and baked. It comes with a

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