Ben and his buddy making W signs before a game (for Warriors – or maybe WIN?).

We were in Portland over the Thanksgiving weekend for a hockey tournament. It was a lot of fun! Not so great driving back on Sunday, but we managed just fine and even squeezed in a trip to some outlets to get the kids new shoes. They go through them about every three months.

Here is the video of the first game, including the first goal of the tournament which I happened to grab! Enjoy! (Dave wasn’t able to come so I did film quite a bit of Sam’s ice time so he could see some of it at least.) You might want to turn your volume down…

Ben helping recruit customers to buy eggs donated to a roller hockey team fundraiser!

Here they are talking to a neighbor and team mate, and the car behind them is one of the coaches! Wow – pretty good publicity!

This seemed like a decent way to offload a huge pile-up of eggs in our fridge (since I finally went to the market and needed some real estate back!). Turns out Ben is an amazing sales person! He helped pull in the customers, while Sam did the math checking (one person said how much are they and Ben said “Five cents!” – Sam jumped in and corrected that one!). A friend came down in his gear and helped out, too. They were awesome together. Ben was so enthusiastic that one customer turned around and came back. He said “I turned around because of YOU (Ben) and your enthusiasm.” He tipped Ben an extra $2. Isn’t that so nice? He is a science teacher in the district. Another lady bought two dozen but gave the kids $40 – essentially donating $30!!! I wish I could have thanked her but I was inside washing up another two dozen! I was watching Ben from the shadows to be sure his enthusiasm didn’t propel him into the road…we set up a hockey stick on the ground so he wouldn’t get too close. Needless to say…I did not get the office time today that I needed. Oh well. They raised $74!

Enjoy this video 🙂

My dressage instructor has a colleague who created a video for husbands regarding dressage. It describes several analogies for watching someone practice the discipline of dressage – one of them resonated with me because it pertained to dough. Well – here’s the latest installment from Emmy’s owner, Steve, who graciously comes to lessons with me and manages to film the good, the bad and the ugly. This is a shorter one so I’ll post it. You can find other ones at Steve’s channel if you REALLY like watching the dough rise 🙂 Seriously – there is a lot of good learning going on and I can’t wait to work on it some more. It’s fun being “off leash” as my dear husband calls it (not on the longe line) but it is also much more challenging. I’m working on rein aids but I can feel my seat falling apart under me. More saddle time… Thanks to Steve for filming (and the great horse!) and Janet for her excellent instruction.

Uncle Steve loved to mess with the boys while he was here, and they sure loved it! Here is Ben in the “bird cage”! We soon got Sam in there and covered it up – that is supposed to make birds go quiet. Having a big strong man around during the day to mess with the boys (while I was working, writing papers and such) sure made it a very interesting and boisterous house! We have so many funny memories.

Here are a couple things Steve always said, which we find ourselves saying all the time…

“Ahoy there!”

“How was school, Sam? Gooood?”

“You kids like stickers? Ah know ah do!”

“STOOOOOP!”

We miss you, Uncle Steve! Miss all of your humor, wit, insights into the world around us, your quiet browsing on your laptop at the table, bringing new farmer friends over, homemade pizza to die for, fires that are robust AND a work of art, and more Beatles documentaries (and Miles Davis) than one man should have ever endured. “HEY! My friends call me whiskers, becuz ah’m a worrier!” (that is a funny SNL episode – Harry Carray).

We have been reading about Shakespeare in another really great Landmark Series book – Will Shakespeare and The Globe Theater. The boys have been captivated. They started acting out the fall of Caesar – with me, and baseball bats, out on the driveway, in the dark and cold, after playing football. They didn’t care that they were falling down and lying in the gravel. It has been so fun to watch them. Ben has a very natural way of dying – he oozes down, one leg lingering in the air, then flops to his side, motionless. He won’t come to, either. But Sam figured out how to make him come alive – he tickles his cheek! Sam is very different when he dies – very calculated, deliberate hands reaching back, ensuring it won’t hurt. Ben totally commits – he’s closer to the ground, after all. When Sam pretended to be Caesar and said “Et tu, Brute?” it sounded like he was laughing. It was really hard for him to find a last gasping breath sort of voice. When they are a bit at each other at the end of the day, it is very interesting to watch the chemistry totally change when they act. We brought it inside tonight to show Dad, who Sam suggested be Mark Antony. Enjoy this video…

This is The Globe Theatre – in sand. Click to see video of the fall of Caesar by Ben and Sam.

Here we are going on another hike with mom - she is getting in good shape! But take a look at what made the boys get whip-lash. Can you see it? She went up and down several times like this!

So the lady in the background had a coffee thermos balanced on her head and two balls, one in each hand, as she worked her way up and down the trail and stairs, going backwards for some of it. Unbelievable! She does this every day. She says you just “stay in the core” to keep your balance like this. Amazing. On so many levels ;0

I am also posting video of the boys playing – Ben playing Sam’s uke and Sam playing both sets of drums 🙂 Our neighbors have kindly donated drums when they’re done with them, and when one side gets punctured we flip it over and use the other side. Sam doesn’t care. He lines up all the mismatched drums around him in a huge array and goes at it. He’s even got a bongo out there that we found at Salvation Army. He is tooooo funny – he asks if he can play drums because we have quiet hours around here – it is, after all, a bit like camping. Don’t want to make the neighbors totally crazy. When Ben plays the uke, his tongue flicks in and out like a lizard – hope you can see it. We think maybe he’s trying to sing? We don’t know. The end of this movie is HILARIOUS. I was laughing out loud when i came outside and found Sam playing like this! VIDEO: Krug brothers band!