Cross Country and Horse shows.

Friday September 7, 2007.

It has been a busy week. School starting, getting into a routine, cross country practice, equestrian practice, cross country meets, equestrian meets, we have had something going on every night this week. Tonight a football game. Tomorrow the first equestrian meet. Wow, and I thought I was through with all this running around.

Anna had her second Cross Country meet on Wednesday, the Springport invitational, I would guess there were about 350 kids competing. She finished in the top half of the pack and cut about 2 (TWO) MINUTES off her time from last week, but now her knee is bothering her (an old injury that she has had surgery on.)

Saturday September 8, 2007

Our first equestrian meet today- WOW. We got there about 8:00 AM and didn’t get home until after 6:00. Anna was supposed to compete in 6 different classes, or events but the horse she has borrowed, was not cooperating today. He was good in the first event, showmanship. In the first riding event, he was “being very uncooperative, he was bucking and jumping around, they had to take him out of the ring so he would not endanger other horses and riders. They managed to get him calmed down and a little more cooperative, in time for her to ride in one of her scheduled events. She placed third in showmanship. The event she competed in they had to split, (two heats) then called back the top 12. She was called back for the final group but did not place. At least now, she knows what to work on and we know what to expect at our next horse show Satruday and Sunday next week.

That's why I don't ride horses- arguing with a 2,000 pound animal does not sound like fun to me.

Friday Night Football

11:45 PM.
GO BLUE-
I just got home from what has to be one of the longest High School Football games on record. 4 hours and 10 minutes.
First, with 2:34 left in the first half they called a lightening delay- not rain just lightening, that took and an hour and twenty minutes. Then Homer had 2, 3, 4 injured players that took several minutes to get up and walk off the field. I think at least one of them was just tired and wanted to rest.


Half time was during the weather delay, so they had to come out and finish the second quarter. Springport's Tyler Tarpley made a 93 yard run for a touch down. Springport got another touch down at the begining of the third quarter, then it got really boring for most of the rest of the game. Fianlly Springport over Homer 39-28.

Horses

Anna-Lena had her first Cross Country meet on Wednesday, she finished 19, out of about 50. She ran 3 miles in less than 30 minutes. I don't think I can walk 3 miles without resting.

We decided not to go Up North this weekend; Anna-Lena had a cross-country practice and some horse stuff to do. She will be riding with the Springport Equestrian team, riding the horse of a friend, who teaches riding. We spent most of yesterday doing horse stuff, took her to see a horse show in Mason, she is a little confused by some of the terms and how they do things differently here than in Germany.

The picture on the left is Anna-Lena practicing in Finney. The horse she will be riding next week-end. The picture on the left is her riding in Germany.

Anna-Lena will be riding in the Hunt seat, Saddle Seat and Bareback class. I have no idea what that means except that bareback is without a saddle, the riders yesterday were wearing, derby hats and what looked almost like tuxedos. Most of the other Springport team members ride western, I believe this is the first time Springport has had anyone ride in these classes.

Then we picked up the horse, took her to another friends house who helped Anna with the showmanship part, leading the horse around the arena. That is a little different in Germany too.

The team’s first competition of the year is next Saturday, at the Ingham county fair grounds in Mason. I think they will be taking the horses over on Friday night, and the show is on Saturday. She is excited about being able to at the fair grounds with the coaches and other girls. More later. JB

Week-end Wanderings

It has been a pretty busy week-end. It started on Friday evening when Shonda called, on her way home, from her new job, said she had had a scare when she was the only person in the office, and someone came in told them there was a tornado warning and neither of them new where to go, they finally found the rest of the staff.

Brian, Shonda’s boy friend, called in from his way home from Muskegon said there were houses with the roofs torn of in Charlotte. I called Jenn, to find out they were OK but Arthur’s cousins were not as lucky. Check out his blog at http://www.arthurandjenn.com/?page=1, As he says thank God no one was hurt.

The storm and rain stopped in time for the Football, game. We took Anna-Lena and a neighbor girl. Neither one of them were familiar with the game. It was not very exciting. The first have wasn’t too bad, 14-14., In the third quarter it was like Springport couldn’t figure out what was happening. Vandercook made a touch down in the third but after that there wasn’t much happening until late in the fourth quarter when Srpingport got the ball back and Shane Trudell made a couple of good runs. Oh for those of you who might recognize them. There is a Negus on the Vandercook football team. There were Neguses on the team when I was going to school, must be grand kids huh?

I did find out that there are probably 3 guys who have "eyes" for Anna already and school hasn't even started.

Saturday we did boring house stuff. Laundry, groceries, etc. Anna needed some things for cross country and we bought a replacement mini blind to replace a broken one, and a pay as you go cell phone so Anna has it for emergencies.

Buying that phone was annoying, I knew what I wanted, but had to have a clerk unlock the phone, Anna and Charlie were with me, someone asked a question and the clerk who had not much of an idea what he was talking about tried to sell me smoothing I didn’t want, and created a whole lot of unnecessary confusion with 4 us trying to decide. Geeze I hate that.

Got home the shade was not wide enough, and we couldn’t activate the phone (they are only open during regular Monday-Friday business hours. I have to take the blinds back today and activate the phone today too. Not a big deal, just seems like everything goes haywire at once.

Anna went to watch a member of the equestrian team take her horse to jumping lessons, the coach from the Eaton Rapids team said she really should be on the Springport team, but we don’t have horse that is trained for shows and competition. When Charlie talked to the Springport Coach last spring, she indicated that they don’t want “kids or horses that aren’t trained.” A neighbor offered one of his horses. Anna rode it but it isn’t trained for that kind of riding. We finally made a contact with someone who knew someone else that might be willing to help. Charlie and Anna talked to her last night, she has a couple of horses that may work. Now they have to see if they have “room” on the Springport team.

We attended a Lansing Lugnuts game on Sunday, a beautiful day. This was supposed to be a library employee/family outing, but there were only 6 of us total, (2 employees) Anna and her friend had never seen a baseball game, so the first few innings were spent explaining the game to them. The game was a little slow during innings 4-8 when with a seven run lead, the lugnuts almost lost the game to the loons but managed to pull of a win by 1 run. http://www.lansinglugnuts.com/press_box/press_release_archive/8_26_07.html )

One young man (no more than 6 years old) who was standing in the front row almost caught a foul ball, but missed, because it hit him in the head and bounced off to a the kids in the next seat. He went to dad, crying with a big head ache. The head ache seemed to stop when his friend gave him the ball, later he really made out when one of the players walked out and gave him a bat apparently to help him recover from the pain.

We all had an opportunity to do the chicken dance and the hokey pokey. Yeah ;-)

The weather was beautiful and we had great seats, row 11, and right at first base. a good time was had by all (see the pictures)

Like I said a busy week-end- I’ll keep you posted.

Welcome to Michigan USA

Well, we picked up our new foreign exchange student from the Airport in Detroit, on Friday morning. The plane was right on time. Anna-Lena is the one on the right, Charlie is in the middle, and Lesley is a girl from the high school we took along so Anna-Lena would be able to make a friend early.

We took her to Cabala’s to show her around, it has been several years since I had been there and it was the original one in Nebraska., I had forgotten how really big it is.

She and Charlie started out riding on Saturday afternoon, but weren’t gone very long before they ran into an hornets nest, the ones who build nests in the ground. The horses went crazy, Anna-Lena jumped off her horse, tore off her sweatshirt, and headed for the house. She was stung about a dozen times. Luckily no major adverse reactions. Charlie went back to get his horse and said her shirt was covered with the bees. When he looked later, he surmised that the horses has stepped right on the nest and pretty much tore it up.

We had invited a few kids over to meet her on Saturday night. We were going to have a bonfire but couldn’t because of the burning ban.

Ok Plan B do hotdogs on the grill, while the kids hung out in the yard.

It poured rain.

Ok Plan C – move the grill to the carport, - and we made roasted marshmallows, for s’mores over the propane flame.

On Saturday Charlie took her to Katie’s house, another horse person, she came home all excited about watching the equestrian competition today.

Shonda Starts a new semester at JCC today. She will be working regular hours and not weekends, and makes more money. Yeah!