Bike riding

Our boys love little other than being on their bikes from the time their heads come off the pillow in the morning until we are dragging them in at bedtime.
I love bike riding season aswell, it just feels like I spend a LOT of it fixing bikes. This summer our goal is for Shel and I to join these little expeditions.

A few years ago when the farmer whose fields surround our house took down all the trees, he moved some grain bins onto our property. He asked if he could and told us he was selling them and they would be taken away. He did sell them. They were removed. Left behind however were four large cement pads which initially was a huge frustration to us but has since turned into quite an adventure for the boys.

 

I cannot BELIEVE how tall my oldest boy is getting. He has the most adorable smile.

When a tree falls in the forest. I mean, yard.

It seems like one week we are under a snowfall warning, then the next week we are under flood watch. Most recently we have had wind like you wouldn't believe.
The trees around our house have taken a beating. We have SO much yard work to do it is a bit overwhelming and when the healthy trees come down in the wind it is a big discouragement. THANKFULLY the tree fell at an angle or it would have taken out part of the roof.

Soccer season

Last year was the first year I had kids in soccer. I volunteered to coach the under six team. This year the minor soccer association in our town was in danger of folding and a desperate plea went out to ask for volunteers. I helped with three of the four registrations, volunteered to coach under six again and somehow ended up vice president of the minor soccer association. WOW.

Soccer was scheduled to start on Tuesday night. On Monday the president sent me a text message to say she was not going to be able to attend and was going to drop everything off to me on Tuesday at work.

She came and gave me all of the lists for each of the coaches of the kids on each team. (I think the coaches NEED to have this info before the night they are showing up the first night to coach but maybe that's for me to work on for next near?!)

I went early to the first field where the under four and under six teams start. I put up colours on each goal post and then I hung up lists in the same colours on the fence for people to see. If their kids name was on a yellow sheet they went to the yellow goal etc. It was MUCH better than last year when all 100 plus kids showed up and went from field to field to see if their kid was on that pitch.

Last year I started to practise right away and so parents who saw I was actually playing with kids already all just came and put their kid on my field and I had a WHACK of kids that were not mine for the first few weeks. At least THAT was an improvement over last year.

The president had apparently told people that they could still register on the field the first night and so people were showing up to register and pay and I had NO help at ALL to take money, put kids on to teams equally AND coach at the same time. I started my kids with help of a parent to watch them and tried to finish up registration. I think it is a BIG mistake to take registration on the field especially when we had FOUR registrations before hand and they were advertised in the paper, and on the town notice board AND with sandwich boards on main street (also a change for next year!)

THEN (and this is the real kick in the teeth) A lady showed up to put her kid into the under four team and her name was on the board as a coach. She said " I never volunteered to be a coach!"

I have NO idea why the president just put names down as coaches and never bothered to confirm with people that they were doing it. It is VERY intimidating to parents, especially parents who have no knowledge of soccer to be thrown in like that and I felt HORRIBLE.

 I found an older boy who plays lots to coach the u-4 for Monday and he said he would do it every week and the mom said she would be happy to help him but she had not signed up to be a coach, nor had anyone called her to let her know she was coaching. It was the president who put all the lists together and I just assumed she had contacted everyone?

 I managed to get everything sorted and get some time with my little group of under sixes, then the time ended and the under eights started to arrive and I had 15 minutes to get them sorted AND get to the next field to get the lists to the coaches of the under ten teams and lo and behold a dad walks over to me and says - my wife's name is on that board to be a coach and she is not even here tonight. He had sent her a text message and she said she didn't volunteer OR have anyone call her! We have two under 8 teams and the one guy showed up with his son from college to coach the one team and they agreed to take all the kids and coach them all together which was a HUGE relief but I still had people coming to register. I got through as fast as I could, I didn't write anyone a receipt but told them I would get to them later. I went as fast as I could to the school to the under ten field and got the coaches there the lists and did the late registrations and had a few minutes to breathe. The man who came to coach the one under ten teams was on my list as being the coach of the under 16 team and so I asked him about it and he said...... wait for it.... no-one had asked him to coach the under 16 team and he has a son on the under ten team and so that was where he wanted to be! Shocker of all shockers.

I now had no coach for the under 16 team!

I went over to the fields where the under 14 and under 16 teams were, and took registrations for the under 14 team. There are very few under 16 kids to play - not even enough to field one team - and they said they would just play together and they were all thinking of car pooling and going to Peace River teams anyway, so they were good for the night just to kick some balls around alone.
So we waited and waited and waited for the under 14 coach to show up and I finally called her but only got her message machine. I left a message to let her know we were at the field waiting and a minute later she called me back and said........... No-one had called her to let her know that she was supposed to start coaching Tuesday night! She said she would be there on Thursday. So I stayed and coached the under 14 kids for an hour and a half so that they could play. (she wasn't able to be there on Thursday as it turns out and then the following Tuesday called me to say she was willing to be an assistant coach but not coach the team full time and alone. This has yet to be resolved.)


On Wednesday I spoke to the president VERY briefly and took all the stuff back to her and she asked why I wasn't writing receipts as I was getting money :(

And the water started to flow

It has felt like a LONG winter. We had snow on the ground that has stayed since before the end of October and here we are at the end of April/beginning  of May and this week we had a heavy snow fall warning.

On April 21 when we walked to the corner and looked back at our yard it looked like this.



 

 

Then on Saturday April 27th the wind started to blow and the snow started to melt and all of a sudden the fields were deep with water.

 The wind was blowing so hard the water in the field had whitecaps! WE were out watching the water and realized it was rising FAST. It was coming up over the road in places.

 Here Max is walking along the road that is being covered by water. It was getting deeper and deeper and flowing faster and faster and we decided it was a good time to head home. The wind was BITTERLY cold and the water was ICE cold.

 As we got home we realized the dugout had overflowed, the ditch had overflowed and the water was now flowing over our driveway!!!!

 

We kept a close eye on the water levels and thankfully they didnt get any higher, although we do have what appears to be a lakefront property now!

 

The water rose and rose and then froze overnight and then started to receed. It has left some interesting ice formations in the fields now.