Cathy returned home and the boys and I went to UT to watch the Orange and White game with their grandfather and uncle.

I wasn't really looking forward to this as I'm not sports buff but I do enjoy watching the game. However, this event turned out to be a very special treat. In college I was a huge fan and went to all the games. I never went down on the field. This was my first time ever on the grass. It was pretty cool. I stood as center in the stadium as I could (players were signing autographers dead center) and imagined myself as a football player. Funny thing is all I could imagine is how fun it would be to be playing the game and the rest would seem so irrelevant. I remember playing shirtless, tackle football as a teenager. It felt good.

We let the kids run all over the stadium unattended. I was never nervous and they handled themselves well. Tommy eventually got bored and started being mean to his brother so he was separated. Bill let Tommy hold the money then would let the kids run around the stadium and after they left would remember "oh! Tommy's got the money!" which was quite humorous. Despite frequent restroom breaks Noah still wet his pants. I don't understand why or when it happened. He did have a 20 oz Coke which was probably a mistake but there weren't many other options.

We returned home and I had a moment of upset with Tommy for his rudeness and sent him to chill out on the porch and I got mad at Noah for lying about his pants. He doesn't understand that I don't get upsetting over the wetting of the pants but I get furious over lying. I need to take a lighter approach with all the kids. Overall I have backed off tremendously but I still have my moments.

A moment of forgetfulness
Just a note on parking. Right now we park the station wagon (which is beginning to have a transmission problem) in a gravel parking space level with the road in the front side yard. The Jeep (which has a dead starter) gets parked at the top of the driveway so that I can roll it down the hill, pop the clutch and get the engine going. Right now, we are borrowing one of Cathy's parents cars because they insisted I have something that started with a key for my last business trip (we haven't returned it yet because its been convenient and I want to wash it); that car moves twice a day. In the morning it blocks the station wagon so that the postman can get to the mailbox; in the afternoon it blocks the mailbox so that the station wagon can be used. Having it in the road has reducing the amount of traffic using our cove as a turn-a-round. Yesterday that car was parked in the grass in the middle of the cove.

After Cathy and Amy returned we had a break then loaded everyone back into the car. Started the Jeep and parked it on the other side of the loaner car in the grass (engine running of course or it wouldn't move again until I put a starter in it). We backed the station wagon down the driveway and attached the trailer then sped off to try to go to Sam's Wholesale club. Cathy realized that most things we would buy would be frozen and that it was a silly trip so we re-routed to meet her mother at Lowe's where she was buying a new grill. We decided to make a quick stop at Walmart for dry goods which proved a convenient rest stop for Noah then met Cathy's mother at Lowe's and secured the new grill in the Jeep. About .4 kilometers (1/4 mile) from Lowe's a piece of the grill blew off. Fortunely Cathy's mom was behind us and recovered the piece. Even more fortunately it did not hit her car. I am still furious with myself for allowing it to happen. I'm a much more skilled mover than that to make such a stupid mistake. The damage was superficial and to a hidden part so it is kinda irrelevant. We visited with Cathy's brother and sister in law (in town for the weekend) and her parents briefly then headed home. We arrived home and backed the trailer down the driveway, parked the station wagon then moved the Jeep back from the center of the cove to its position at the top of the driveway note: It sat in the middle of the road with the keys in the iginition and the engine running for about 4 hours unattended! Thank goodness we live in a low crime area!

Was too exhausted to do anything productive or even recreational and just passed out. Tis a shame as it was "Nosy Neighbor Awareness Day" and I could think of a couple of adult activities in the front and/or back windows or out on the trampoline that would have made for a fun celebration of just such a day!