Raise your hand and repeat after me...

"I promise to never be one of those parents at my child's sporting events. I will not coach from the sidelines, I will not continually yell at my child to do this or that. I will sit back, take pictures, be supportive and cheer when appropriate."

I had the privilege of taking my favorite 6 year old to soccer practice tonight. It was so much fun watching all of them run around, having such a wonderful time. The under 8 crowd is my crowd, I coached this age for two years and loved every minute of it (well maybe not every minute but pretty darn close). 

Tonight, I was reliving those great memories when this guy started yelling at his kid from the sidelines. Remember this kid is 6 years old, dad is yelling things "like cover your mark, run up field, now down field," my question is three fold. First, do you know how old your child is? Second, are you the coach? And finally, do you realize how big a jerk you are being right now (and that you are ruining for the rest of us)? 

As a coach I have kicked parents off the field (thankfully none of them retaliated violently), but given that it was not my child enrolled in the program I kept my mouth shut. 

But seriously people, IT IS JUST A GAME! 

Once again, raise your hand and repeat after me...

Harry Potter is so applicable to real life! (or so this blogger thinks)

"Okay, so you know that one part in the Order of the Phoenix where Kinglsey and Mad Eye were discussing Dumbledore's choice in prefects (Ron vs. Harry) and Ron walked over and Mad Eye said you him, 'Obviously Dumbledore thinks you can withstand most of the minor jinxes that authority figures tend to attract.'"

Yep, that is the example that I used in class today to explain why I don't think that I would be a supervisor. Nope, that is not the first time that I found the perfect Harry Potter reference for a current situation.

Maybe it is time to put the Harry Potter down and back away slowly.

For all things Harry Potter visit the Harry Potter Lexicon.

Becoming a professional juggler

This semester is proving to be as crazy as the last. I am loving my classes, well, two of them at least. As for the third, at least I've got great people to keep me company in it.

It's been an interesting juggling act, with the most death deifying feat being trying to wedge a paying job into all of it (versus the required 12 hours a week for a non-paid internship). But hopefully I've found my fit. I will be starting at the end of the month as a Home and Community Support Staff with Saint David's. I will be working with two families, one with a 7 year old boy, and another with a 12 year old girl.

Great way to get experience with EBD, and possibly a great way to lose the shred of sanity I have left. I am excited to start, but breaking in new families is always a bit of a challenge (that some times leads to hilarious results).

And we're done

It is official, I received the letter in the mail that says I am permanently but only partially disabled (3% to be exact).

Okay, so let me back up for those of you who haven't been following the drama. 15 months ago to the day I separated my shoulder playing kick ball (yes, kick ball, with 4th graders). Rounding 3rd base gravity got the better of me and 190 pounds plummeted to the earth with only my left shoulder to break the fall. 

For whatever reason my  body simply didn't like the hardware that they attempted to use. The first attempt with two buttons and fiber wire failed when one of the buttons cracked the bone. The second attempt was a screw (see picture). Well, 10 days after surgery I went in for a recheck and my bone had started to spit the screw out (four threads were now out of the bone). My surgeon, who is one of the best orthopedists in the country, could do nothing more than shake his head. He had never seen either of these occurrences in any one else before. 

So after two surgeries and 2 hardware removals, plus a failed ligament graft and having about an inch of my clavicle removed I am back to doing everything that I did before the injury, which in itself is amazing. No one was sure I would have normal use of my shoulder again. 

New Camera

Well, I broke down and bought a (another) camera. While I LOVE my two Canons (Digital Rebel XTi and 40D) that have each taken thousands of pictures each. I just really needed a camera that I can keep in my bag. So I broke down and bought a Nikon (eek!) CoolPix S550. 

With this camera I will be ready to capture any and all random moments from tattoo getting to game playing and birthday partying. 

For my high end photography fix I am still Canon all the way, but this Nikon is pretty nice.