Ian (who is almost 3) hates his hands being dirty while eating or anything on his face. He is watching tv and has a sippy cup of water. There was a bit of water on his chin and he starts his usual grunts and pointing about water dripping on him.
I tell him to wipe it off with his hand. He says no. Then I tell him to use his shirt and wipe it off. He said no. I told him to come to me and I would take care of it. Instead, he puts his face on my marble floor and wipes.
Kids are funny.
Well, I have been a bad, bad blogger lately. But, luckily, I have taken some pictures this past month to share with you.
So, today was a very sad day for Spencer. It was the finale for the School Soccer Tournament.
There were a total of 8 teams today. It was broken up into 2 groups. There are 4 teams in each group. They played each team in their group. That was 3 games. They won two of the games, and then tied in the last game. That put them in first place in their group. And with those games, still not one score made against Spencer.
Then it was the semi final match. It also ended in a tie. But this time, it went to a shoot out. After the 5 team mates kicked, it was still a tie breaker. So it came to sudden death. It was a nerve racking 5 minutes for this mom. But Spencer prevailed and his team came into the finals.
The finals..........for first place or second place. The game was a very good one. Lots of action, but no scoring for either team. The 2nd half of the game seemed to go longer. And then I noticed one ref signaling to the other ref that time was up. But the whistle never blew. I saw him make this same gesture three times.
Finally, someone called last minute. At that point, the other team scored. I thought Spencer's team would have one more chance to tie it up, but then they called the game. Spencer just cried. As well has his team mates.
Normally, one would be so thrilled to get 2nd place. It is a great accomplishment. the tournament started out with 15 teams.
But, they have a trophy that the winning school gets to keep for the year. Our school has won it the last two years. And if you win it three years in a row, you get to keep this trophy forever. So there was lots of pressure on these boys to win so the school could keep this trophy.
Spencer cried all day long. I felt so bad for him. There are so many what ifs. I mean, if the game had ended when it should have and it gone to a shoot out, would Spencer have been able to come up with the win for his team?
Goalie is such a stressful position for a mother. :)
Here are some shots of Spencer. Some are during the shoot out and others with the 2nd place trophy.
Today Spencer had the School Soccer Tournament. The school team has been practicing all year for this one tournament. It started out with two big groups of boys who wanted to be on the team. After 4 months, they cut half the boys. Then in March, they cut the group again. Finally in April, the boys found out who actually made the team to go to tournament.
Today, It lasted all day. And they played a total of 6 games. Each game was 10 minutes each. Spencer's position was Goalie. This is a position he normally does not play on the city league. He usually plays defense. But he loves Goalie and really wanted to play that position. And he was the best in the group.
Out of the 6 games, his team won 5 of them. The 6th game ended in a tie. There was not one goal scored by the other team. Spencer was able to shut them out, with the help of his team mates a few times. He did a fabulous job and it was so fun to watch him.
His team made it further in the tournament. They will be going back and playing again tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day. They are hoping for a first place finish. But there are some really good teams that are coming back tomorrow.
But Spencer was real funny today when he came home.
First he was telling me how much harder being Goalie is than he originally thought. But he still enjoyed playing that position.
Second, he had asked me if we could bake some Chocolate Chip Cookies tonight for the team tomorrow. The first story I heard from him was, he wanted to offer who ever made a goal tomorrow to help his team win, would get a cookie. Like Bribery.
But the last thing I heard as he was going to bed tonight, was that each person was going to get a cookie or two. So we will see what happens tomorrow.
I am sure Gardner has a few stories to share from the day. Since he isn't working right now, He was also able to go to the tournament. And he was able to stay for all 6 games. I only got to see 4 of them.
Here are some pictures I took today. Hopefully tomorrow I get some good shots. I need to move my camera settings to sport and then maybe, my pictures will turn out better. So many of them were blurry because Spencer was moving. 
So many of you know that we are having issues with Gardner's work. He has a job but currently does not have a project that he is assigned to. It has been this way for over a month now.
Three things have happened that we know of:
1. People go to work and do odd jobs for others. (gardner has been doing this).
2. people have been laid off
3. People have been put on what is called Kurz Arbeit.
It is where you do not come into work. You are guaranteed your job and are being paid 80% of your net income. And then when they need people, they call you and you start work back up. It is a government program and the government pays 60% of the net income and the company is adding in 20%.
We have been worried about the Kurz Arbeit because it isn't enough money for our family monthly. But Gardner just received an email a few minutes ago and he will be put on Kurz Arbeit starting Monday.
In one way, it is a nice thing. Gardner will be home everyday. He doesn't go to work at all. It is almost like being unemployed, only with income at the same time. Plus we have the company car and they pay for our gas. So it is a big help.
The down side: Gardner will be home everyday. I don't mean that badly, although it probably sounds that way. It is just that Life will be different for everyone involved....schedules totally different than what we are used to. When it is just me and the kids, I do things a certain way. And when Gardner is home with us, things get done a different way. Both are good. But right now, morning and daytime don't have Gardner in the mix.
The biggest negative is the money that we are used to having is not coming in every month.
Anyway, things are happening here. Let the fun begin!
