Cody's best football moment

Football is now over and Cody's team placed 3rd in the division - not bad! Next year his big rivals (Schmucker and Discovery) will all be together on the Penn field working as a team - everything will change and he's really excited about wearing the Black and Gold.

In a final tribute to his last time wearing the Grissom uniform, I had to post a picture of his best football moment.

This kid from West side's job is to take Cody out so that he can't get to the quarterback. Notice he's about half Cody's size.

Here's what happened 1 split second later after Cody hit him . . .

The kid is KNOCKED OUT - if you zoom in you can see that he is out cold.

He didnt' know what hit him. Cody just hit him and took off after the quarterback (which he did help make the sack). Keep in mind that Cody is bigger than a lot of adults I know - 5' 11" and 180 lbs! The poor kid!

Cody said when the kid got up he said (in a Napoleon Dynamite kind of voice) "dude, that big kid hit me"

There's an internal conflict going on inside me -part of me is like "yeah - that's my son!", and the other part is like "ooohhh - I hope he's ok. I wonder if we need to call and apolotize to his parents?" lol

OUCH!

OUCH! I had dental work done today and my jaw is killing me. This is the start of a long journey I will be on for 2 years! My jaws are shifting, making a severe crossbite that is going to get really bad as I get older, which will not only look bad, but will cause some health problems.

In order to fix it right, I have to have orthodontics to move my jaws back into place. I am not excited, but am happy that in the end the bonus will be that for the first time ever in my life I'll have a beautiful smile! That's what I'll think of through this entire painful and financially exhausting process!

Here's the schedule:

• Today - temporary crown on my back molar to support the orthodontics
• 2 Weeks - Put the permanent crown on
• 4 Week - Another temporary crown on the other back bottom molar
• 6 weeks - Put the permanent crown on
• January 8 - Go in the a.m. and have some of my cosmetic dentistry ground off and removed, in the afternoon go see Dr. Long and have my braces put on.
• January 2010 (are you kidding me?) - HOPEFULLY braces off, straight jaws, straight teeth and trip to Dr. Benefiel to put the veneers back on my front teeth and fill in all of my ugly silver fillings (that's my bonus to myself).

When all is said and done it'll set us back about $12,000 and I'll be 44 years old. Oh well, at least Cody and I can share appointments for awhile!

Pics from my Photography Workshop with Todd and Brad Reed

My first photography workshop

Wow - it was a gorgeous weekend up north along the Lake Michigan coastline.

I had the incredible opportunity to study with 2 of the best photographers EVER - Todd and Brad Reed. They live in Ludington and offer a weekend workshop where you get to go out on location with them and learn about how they see God's creation and how they capture it so beautifully. It was AMAZING and I learned so much.

Check out their photographs here.

It was held at a wonderful bed and breakfast in Ludington called The Cartier

Mansion and I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting a perfect get away in a charming lake side town. Gary and Sueanne, the owners, are delightful people and Sue ann is an amazing cook. Check out their website here.

Now I want to go back and redo all of my pictures that I've taken and apply the stuff I learned from Todd and Brad!

To see some of my photos I've taken before I took this class, click here. In a couple of days I'll post some that I took over the weekend.

P.S. I did not take the picture shown here at the top, it is one of Todd Reed's famous shots. In the second photo, Brad Reed is on the left and Todd is on the right - they are a father son team.

What a way to end the season!

Wednesday was the last B game of the season and I've never seen that team look so good. We had another show down with Schmucker and Cody played the entire game - I've never seen him play that aggressively!

Here he is #62 forcing a fumble

Look how big Cody is compared to this kid - it's hilarious! He's like a tank!

We were down 13 - 20 and in the last 7 seconds Reese Haithcox scored this amazing touchdown (it was a run of half the football field). That brought the score to 19-20 - YIKES!

Here's our good friend Austin Watson (#40) getting ready to receive the ball and hold it for the kicker. What pressure for a bunch of 8th graders - they had to get this kick to win!

IT"S GOOD! GRISSOM WINS 21 - 20!!!!! (Look at Reese the running back doing a flip - he's right by Cody #62)

The crowd and the team goes CRAZY!!!

Coach K - the Athletic Director and 8th grade football coach

A very happy team! (Look at Cody - isn't he so cute?!)

Airiana says "Good Job Cody"!

Results of the Big Game . . .

Grissom team looking pretty intense before the game starts

We played at the Penn High field under the lights - pretty exciting stuff!

Grissom scores the first touchdown of the night!

Go Guardsman!!

We were lookin' T-O-U-G-H but in the 3rd quarter Schmucker started pulling ahead
Touch down Brad Kitts

Final Score

Schmucker 32 - Grissom 20

It's a sad day! BUT . . .
We have the best cheerleaders!

The big game is tonight!

Well, tonight is the big game - Grissom Middle School vs. Schmucker Middle School. It's at Penn on the big field and the kids get an announcer through the whole game. It's very exciting!

From what I understand Schmucker is tough - they're undefeated. I am hoping for an upset from our boys here at Grissom! I'll let you know!