Saturday Sports: Part Two

So, when I left off, Jett's soccer game was finished and we were headed to watch Doc and his teammates.  Anyone guess Dragon Boat Racing as the sport?  Yea, I wouldn't have either. Doc got roped into being a member of his company's Dragon Boat team.  This is the inaugural year for the Dragon Boat Races in our area and 33 teams participated.  There were several different divisions: banking, hospitals, etc.  Doc's team was called the Bond Blasters.

Now, maybe you're thinking, "What the heck is a Dragon Boat Race?"  At least that was my response when he told me about it.  You can read about the history and it's real definition here, but to me, it's a really long canoe with a whole bunch of people in it.  The event was sponsored by Duncan Williams and the boats came with the event (I actually don't know who the belong to). During the week leading up to the races, each team was given an allotted hour and a half time slot to practice with one of the boats.  Because there were so many teams and only 6 boats, the races ran in heats of three.  Each team got to race in two heats, and then the 4 lowest combined scores competed in the finals.

I missed Doc's first heat, but Jett and I made it with a few minutes to spare for the second heat.  We watched from the mainland instead of going to the other side of the river where the event tents were.  That was a good call because we had front row seats and didn't have to fight any crowds.  I'm kicking myself, though, for not bringing my telephoto lens.  This would've been the perfect opportunity to use it.  Darn!  Maybe next year...

I'm so glad I saw Doc's uniform before he left the house; it made spotting his team much, much easier.  They're the group of little blue dots at the top of the hill in this picture.

When it was their turn to start getting ready, the filed down the boat ramp in their seat order.

This is about the time Jett looked up at me and told me he needed to use the bathroom and he needed to go bad.  We were sitting dead center on a grassy knoll with no bathrooms nearby, and every tree had someone sitting underneath it.  I looked to my left, looked to my right, and then decided eh, what the heck, and told him to go for it.

Boys have it so easy sometimes.

Back to the race.  The boat that Doc's team was going to use was now empty and ready for them.  Safety first though; they all suited up with life jackets.

Each team consisted of twenty coed rowers and a drummer in the front.  The oarsman in the back was provided by the event organizers.  Once everyone was in the boat, they pushed off and headed towards the start line.

In this shot, you can see the dragon on the front of the boat.  Doc is in the front seat on the opposite side.  When I told Jett that Doc was sitting up front, he thought it meant that he was the drummer.  That probably would've gotten Doc more cool points from Jett.

With a boat long enough to hold 22 people, it takes a lot of maneuvering to get turned around and lined up in the right spot.  There was lots of going forward and going backward and holding still until everyone was perfectly lined up.  While Doc's team waited, he gave us a wave.

Finally, it was time to get set!  If you look closely in this picture you can see that their oars are up as they wait for the buzzer.

And they're off!

According to Doc, the drummer beats out the rhythym of the two rowers in the front seat so that everyone else can listen and stay in sync.  I initially thought they were just there to provide musical entertainment.  My bad.

Doc had texted me after his first heat and told me they smoked the competition.  That made me nervous during this race because they seemed so close together.  It was neck and neck at first.

But slowly and surely, Doc's team started edging ahead.

The red ball in the water was the halfway mark.  This is where they really started taking over the lead.

Look at that reach!  That's my boy!

Here's a zoomed out shot so you can see the distance between the boats.

And the distance between their boat and the others grew and grew.

But that didn't mean they could take it easy.  The finals were based on the lowest combined times, so they had to go fast.  They kept those heads down and paddled!

Winners!!

To give you an idea of how long these races were, their winning times for their two heats were both 1:05.  Yes, a whopping one minute, five seconds.  I have a LOT of pictures for one minute worth of action.

Their combined score of 2:10 put them in the final race.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay for it but Doc says they had the 4th lowest time going into it.  Even though they bettered their time by one second and finished at 1:04, they came in 4th place in the final race.  But they won the banking division!  Woo hoo!

I have a feeling this is going to be a much bigger deal next year, especially since now there's a first place title to defend.  Maybe then I'll remember to bring my super zoom lens...

Saturday Sports: Part One

I spent the better part of my day Saturday cheering on a couple of my favorite guys.  The morning started bright and early with a couple of Doc's friends showing up for breakfast before their sporting event.  Their menu request?  Bacon and orange juice.  Easy enough - even though I sometimes hate bacon mornings because then the house smells like bacon for days.  Doc cooked three slabs of bacon - the thick meaty kind, not the thin crispy kind - and those boys knocked it out!  I've never seen a pile of bacon disappear so quickly. After getting fueled up, the boys headed out and I left the house for my first event of the day - Jett's soccer match.  Like last year, he's playing in a church league.  My brother (his dad) is the head coach and Jett's pretty much be the star of the team (although I am way biased).

Number 21 in the program, number one in the heart.

When I arrived, Jett was coming off the field for his turn to sit out.  I was glad because that meant he could tell me all about his Friday night when he saw Disney On Ice.  I hear his little sister loved it (new obsession? Tinkerbell) but it sounded like he had a pretty good time watching all the characters dance on the ice too.

Also during his time out he showed me his loose tooth.  He may be days away from his first tooth fairy visit!

After a few minutes of rest, Jett made his way back into the game and I hopped up to snap some photos.  I'll admit that I don't know the first thing about soccer.  I've never played it and I really haven't watched much of it.  I've pieced together, though, that this (falling down) is bad...

...but this (kicking the ball in the goal) is good.

And that's pretty much the gist of soccer, right?

Well, I guess occasionally you have to kick the ball in from the side, too.

With these little players, I can't ever really tell what's going on.  The ball switches between teams with just about every kick, so I don't know if I should yell for offense or defense.  And sometimes the whistle blows but they keep going.  They're funny to watch!

I have no idea what the final score was - or even if they keep score - but Jett says his team won, so there ya go.

About an hour later, Jett went with me to watch Doc in his sporting event.  Betcha can't guess what it was...it's definitely not something I thought I'd ever spend a Saturday watching...

Before and After: Nursery

As I said in a recent post, my mom and I got the fun job of picking out fabrics for my soon-to-be-here nephew's room.  With as many cute baby fabrics as there are out there, this could have been a really daunting task.  Luckily for us, we knew that Erin had already spotted one print that she liked earlier in the summer, and we decided that print would be our starting point. The fabric that Erin had said she liked was turquoise and white stripes with stripes of bright green dots lining the turquoise.  My mom and I quickly found it at the fabric store where she found it.  Only problem?  There wasn't very much of it left.  We knew going into the store that we'd be looking for coordinating fabrics to go with it, we just didn't realize that our "main print" was going to become just an accent print.  After making a couple laps around the store, we were able to conclude that the only fabric that perfectly matched the shade of turquoise in the stripes was minky dot, so we needed to focus on the green.  We planned on using the minky dot too, but it wouldn't work for curtains or a bed skirt.

We pulled bolts of fabric from multiple aisles, until we finally had it narrowed down to the ones we wanted to buy.  Before we had any cut, though, I sent this picture to Erin to get her approval.  The turquoise stripe on the left was our starting point, and we planned to use it mostly with the green and white striped and polka dot, with the elephants just being an accent.

She approved!  We purchased!  My mom sewed!

That's the quick way of saying that I really got the best end of this deal.  I voiced my opinions (which I usually do anyway) and helped select fabrics (which I love to do) and then got to sit back while my mom did all the hard work.  Then I got to show up on "installation day" and get partial credit.  Winning!

We had a lot going on last week and weren't really sure when we'd be ready to take everything over to my brother's house.  We ended up giving Ben and Erin very little notice to clear out the room before we showed up knocking at their door.  They moved into their current house just earlier this year, and while all of Parker's old nursery furniture did land in this room on move-in day, so did all of his toys.  So for the last few months, it's been his space to spread out and play with all his toys.  Let's hope he still likes his little brother after he realizes the little squirt took away his playroom.

That said, here's how the room looked when we arrived.  This is the view from the door.

This is the front corner of the room, with all of Parker's toys lined neatly in a row.

On the opposite side of the room is the changing table - already stocked with diapers - and Parker's pirate tent and toy box.

Obviously our first move after taking Before pictures was to clear out all the toys.  Parker was napping in his bedroom across the hall, so we carried them down the hall to the guest room.  My mom and I decided to leave the furniture where it already was, and that Ben and Erin could rearrange later if they wanted.  So, with toys gone and furniture in place, we just had to dress the room with all our new fabrics.  We put Dad to work hanging curtain rods while we tackled the bed.

An hour or so later, our work was done.  The room is still not 100% complete, but it is 100% baby room now, as opposed to half nursery, half playroom.

Here's the crib with its new bedding.  We used the original inspiration fabric for the bedskirt (looks short now, but will kiss the floor when the mattress is lowered), and put a solid white sheet on the matress.  (Still need something to hang over the bed, so ignore the blank wall...)

"Cording" is somewhat of a 4-letter-word to my mom, so she generally avoids projects that require it.  I think she was probably dreading making the bumper because of that, but I think she did a really good job!  (Her sewing job is better than my picture taking...) The bumper is green and white polka dots on the outside, the turquoise minky dot on the inside, and tied together with green and white striped cording.

Here's a shot of the simple curtain panels my mom made.  Ignore the toy box to the left, it got moved out of the room right after I took this picture.

Up close, you can see that there's a herd of marching elephants guarding the window.

Erin and Ben have a rocking chair that I think they plan on bringing into the nursery.  My mom used leftover fabric to make a couple pillows to sit in the chair, but since the chair wasn't there and we didn't have accessories yet for the corner shelf, we put the pillows there.  I love this elephant one on top.  If you look closely you can see that she used turquoise thread to trim the squares.

My mom found this "It's A Boy!" rattle at a gift shop.  She saw it was the perfect color combination and snagged it.  There was already a nail in the wall between the two windows we just stuck it there for the time being.

My mom also sewed some curtains for the changing table, so all those diapers and other baby things could be concealed.  They have marching elephants on them, too.  My easy art is hanging above the changing table for now, even though it's a little small for the space.

The small white set of drawers that was already in the room happened to match perfectly, so it got to stay in the room.

We topped it with a new white lamp.

So that's the nursery.  While it could definitely use some more things on the wall and maybe some personalized things when he gets a name, the thing it's really missing is a little baby!  Even without art on the walls, Baby Boy will complete the room.  I can't wait for him to get here!

My husband...

...folds laundry when I'm not home. ...empties the dishwasher when the dishes are clean.

...packs me a delicous lunch on a regular basis.

...gets up early to take Lolli out every morning.

...brings fresh flowers home from the grocery store, and sometimes a card too.

...squeezes my hand during church.

...cooks dinner every night.

...donates his Saturdays to help friends move.

...cheers loudly at middle school football games.

...passes dollar bills down the pew so that everyone has something to put in the offering plate.

...works hard in his new job position.

...gives praise for good schoolwork.

...is an all-around good, good guy.

I'm so lucky to have him, for so many more reasons than just those listed above.

Easy Art

As you may or may not know, I have a new nephew on the way that should arrive within the next month.  My sister-in-law, Erin, has had her hands full with a brand new job and a busy, busy three-year-old, so she told me and my mom that we could be in charge of the new baby's nursery and do whatever we want.  So, to the fabric store we went... We picked out fabric and Mom got busy sewing curtains and bedding and we have already put everything up in the new room.  I'll show you those pics as soon as they're uploaded.  For now, I'll just quickly show you how I quickly made some really easy art for the walls.

First, here's one of the accent fabrics we used.  Bright green with white elephants.

The last time I was at Michael's, their canvases were marked 40% off and I snagged a small package of four.  I can always use canvases for something, and might as well get 'em while they're on sale, right?  I had no idea if Erin already had anything for Still Nameless Baby Boy's room or not, but I figured these canvases were small enough that even if she did, they could be worked in somewhere.  So I contributed them to the nursery.

The fabrics we were using in the room were bright green (like pictured above) and turquoise.  We had a lot more of the green than the turquoise, so I wanted my canvases to pull in more of the blue shade.  My first step in making my easy art was painting the four squares solid turquoise.  I just used craft paint and it took two coats.

The plan was to draw one of the elephants from the fabric onto the squares.  I really didn't want to mess up drawing over my freshly-painted backgrounds, so I laid a piece of paper over the canvases (to get the size right) and drew the elephant on it.

Not perfect, but good enough.  Next, I cut out the elephant so that I could get it centered on my four squares and trace around it.

Then all that was left to do was fill the outline in with white paint.  I opted to keep all the sides of the canvases blue, instead of letting the white paint bleed over onto them.

After filling in the body of the elephant, I freehanded the tail with my paintbrush.

At this point, I got to take a nice little break because I wanted the white to be good and dry before I came back and added in the last details.

I was kinda nervous about freehanding the ear, so I took the stencil I had used for the outlined and colored the back of the ear with a pencil.  I was able to carefully lay the stencil back on top of the canvases and draw over the ear so that a small line transferred onto the canvas.  Then it was as simple as using the turquoise paint to cover over my pencil line.  I also added a small dot for the eye.

To completely finish it, I added a quick coat of water-based polyurethane to seal the paint and give it just a little bit of shine.

Super easy and, in my opinion, super cute.  Nothing about it is perfect, but I think it's great for a baby's room.  I'll show you where we hung it soon!