fall flying by

hard to believe it is already almost the end of september. a huge couple of weeks. terri back and forth from LA; multiple football and soccer games; the start of band, school, and choir (ben and doug singing in the hope choir last few weeks.)

today marked the end of fall softball for emma. they had a very good extra season, lots of close, well played games including an extra inning win in the tourney this morning and then a 2-1 loss in the afternoon that knocked them out. emma gave her usual super solid effort at short, and is wishing the season wasn't over. fortunately, she's got soccer still going (team undefeated so far) and hockey starting soon. she's also thinking about running for 7th grade rep on the new student council. (two of her 8th grade friends from softball got Pres and VP this last week).

Ben is getting all the football he can handle--dressing right now for 3 games a week, varsity, JV and C team. Varsity results a bit mixed--2 and 2 at this point with the big homecoming game against arch rival Central this thursday night. a win would get them back into the hunt for the city title. he's also having to play O-line for the C games b/c not enough 9th grade big men are available. he's had some very solid efforts there but mostly seems to be enjoying the JV games now that that unit has come together. they had a big, 38-22 win against Minneapolis South this past Weds. Ben had a real test on the line going up against a kid who was at least 5 inches taller, 25 pounds heavy and probably a little faster much of the time. he more than held his own on offense, as a number of the big plays were to his side in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. of course, not everything is football: he's got a bunch of tough classes (including AP European History), is playing in the band (a small group of them played a fund raiser this weekend at the Park), and still working at Connie's for 3 more weeks (when the season ends). oh, and can't forget his weekly bass lessons which he loves.

what else? oh, today's biggest news is that terri had a tryout for a hockey team this morning. we spent the day yesterday getting her gear. she skated this morning, with drills and a scrimmage. seems like she had a lot of fun, and it sounds like she will play on a C3 ladies team out of Bloomington. they'll play twice a week with games on the weekend. emma is already giving her pointers. also, earlier in the week she took Doug (for his birthday) to see the writer Jonathan Franzen, author of the new book Freedom, to the talking volumes series at Minnesota Public Radio.