Mail Call

We continue to get mail and new attention for Kirk as the highlight DVD's find their destinations. The coach from Ohio University came by the school to talk with him personally today. He's gotten a personal phonecall from the coach at Holy Cross and the coach from Bucknell is coming to see him in action next week at a senior combine. Combines are like talent shows for football players, maybe even more like a debutant ball where all the seniors "come out" and wait to be courted by coaches.

Batter Up

Jake had his first baseball game of the season. He played catcher and third base. They won and have since continued to be undefeated so far!

Dance the Night Away

Danielle attended her first Saturday Night church dance. One of the teachers from our ward, Spencer Vance, asked her to dance the first dance. She was swept away and had a terrific time. She said it was a 50/50 between being asked to dance and asking others, you know...boys. She seemed to really enjoy hanging with her friends and even the cookies they served weren't totally stale. She said church dances were better than school dances because people actually danced! What a novel idea, huh?

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

Well, I can say that we survived the Pinewood Derby once again. Of course this was Jacob's first race and of course, it came down to days before the race before we started ("we" meaning Julie and Jake) working on the block of wood that would become Jacob's entry. Thank goodness we have a guy in the ward, Brother Husted, who has cool tools. With his help we were able to cut out the shape of the car, sand it and then bring it home for fine tuning and paint.

Probably one of the toughest parts of the night was that there were seventeen boys and only four lanes for racing. We did heat after heat, but families grew very restless. Cubmaster Brian was not the picture of calm and fun that should be the hallmark of this kind of event. It's great that so many boys participated, but next year I think we'll run different nights or have different times.

Jake took fourth overall and was very pleased. So was Julie after there had been some contention over whether or not the car was exactly five ounces or just a smidge over, depending on which scale as used. No matter what happens, it's always fun to see a pack of cub scouts allowed to just be boys

Ditzy Blondes

A Star is Born!

Danielle made her acting debut today as one of the Bonwitz Sisters in the Loveland Middle School production of M*A*S*H. Rest assured that it was not either of the movie or TV series nurse-chasing versions. Local servicemen and women have been invited free of charge to any of the performances and they are collecting stuffs for care packages to send to Iraq. The director's own son shipped out last week and all of the crew members wore his name on their dogtags so he'd be "close to their heart."

Of her own character Dani said, "I have to play a ditzy blonde, not much of a stretch." Costuming her was more difficult than the other characters because most cast members simply needed standard army surplus. The Bonwitz Sisters, however, are entertainers from Special Services and costuming them required, a leotard, striped skirts which had to be made (by another mother, not me this time!), sequined jackets, hair bows, a kimono and boots. A neighbor just happens to do a lot of work in China and we enlisted him to pick up a kimono for Dani on his last buisness trip. The boots were hard to track down.

After several phone calls I finally found a pair in her size in a military memorabilia shop in Milford, Ohio. I was excited to discover they were standard issue for the Vietnam War, until Brian reminded me that M*A*S*H was set during the Korean War. Now who's the ditzy blonde?!?

There is no force quite as formidable as a legion of suburban moms; the school looked fantastic. In the parking lot they manged to get an army jeep and truck from one of the nearby stations. The entrance was full of tents courtesy of the Boy Scouts of America and American flags. Once inside the school, the lobby was decked out in flags from all the different branches of the military. The trophy case had been transformed like a department store window, complete with maniquens in authentic military uniforms. Pictures of graduates of Loveland High School currently on active duty were on the walls. Camouflage painted booths received care package donations and let you buy flowers for your favorite cast members. Inside the auditorium, helicopters were projected on the walls and a large screen hung infront of the curtains. On it played a looping powerpointe of the cast, crew, and family members in pre-production creating sets, practicing, and goofing off. One of my favorite pictures was of Dani painting sets. She paid special attention to the multi-direction road signs including one for Whippy Dip, the local ice cream place where everyone gathers after every school and sporting event.

Dani was fabulous as a ditzy blonde and we were surprised to discover the bishop's daughter had been cast as "Hot Lips" Hullehan. Danielle's part required her to kiss a boy on the cheek. After the performance, the bishop winked at us and pulled her aside saying, "Danielle, I think we need to have a talk about kissing boys." She was horrified for one brief moment until the bishop broke out in a grin from ear to ear. It was a very fun night

Recruiting Madness

Someone Give This Boy a Scholarship

The craziness has begun. The blessing is that Kirk did really well on his college exams. The curse is that most days Kirk gets more mail than we do. A dozen colleges a day are inviting him to come spend our money on the superior education only to be had at their campuses. But what's an education when compared to college football? This weekend has been devoted to preparing Kirk's football resume, e-mailing head coaches, and creating labels for his highlights DVD. Those will go out this week once we have the final version of his DVD produced. Yes, I said "produced." Gone are the days when you said, "Hey, I want to play football." Now coaches must be courted who then, in turn, court you. I did mention this was madness, right? We've got his amateur status cleared through the NCAA clearinghouse, but this will be a long crazy road and there's no getting off now!