Chicago Connection

This Saturday we had another game and our team played better, and the other team wasn’t as good as the week before.  We won 5-4 and Connor scored four of our goals.  We got some good video of 3 of the goals, so that should make the grandparents happy.

Saturday night we went out to the Halloween party and it was a lot of fun.  Andrea and I ended up going as the PC and MAC like the commercials on TV.  Everybody thought it was really funny.  We had “Hi, I’m a MAC” printed on Andrea’s sweatshirt and I wore a nerdy striped shirt with a tie and had “I’m a PC” printed on it.  It was a fun time.

Well, the mighty Beagles had another big victory on Saturday and Connor scored three goals again!  The thing that made it kind of sweet was this one kid in Connor’s Sunday School class was on the other team.  He is really a nice boy, his dad is really cool, but the mom is a little different.  So she gets to the game and first thing she says is “You guys are going down!”  We were like, “Oh, fun to see you too.  Isn’t it fun to let the kids play.”  She just kept talking smack and sat right behind the goal barking out stuff.  So Connor put three right in the net in front of her and they didn’t score on us.  It has hard not to have a little smile on our faces after that game.

We didn’t get any pictures, but we have some nice video to share at Christmas!

Well, I was going to wait until we got some good costume ideas from our readers, but since that apparently isn’t going to happen I will go a head and post!

I think that most of you heard about Connor’s three goals last Saturday in his soccer match.  We will try to get some pictures to share this weekend.  It is kind of hard to coach and take good pictures of my son though!  Being the sportmanship advocate that I am, I have tried to remind him that is doesn’t matter if you score a goal every game, it just matters that somebody brings post-game treats.

After Connor’s game, we went over to an awesome new sports complex they are opening in Northbrook.  Players from the Chicago Machine (one of the professional Lacrosse teams) were there.  They showed Connor and I how to play and took a few pictures of us after they saw our skills.  (Apparently sweet nun-chuck skills are transferable!)  I also took a few swings in the batting cages.  The sign said “Medium Baseball” and there was no line, so I jumped in first thing.  8 swings later I had yet to touch a ball.  The guy later told me that the sign was wrong and that it was really throwing about 88.  Geez, just wanted to get in there and hit a few slow ones to impress my wife!

Other than that, we have had some serious storms.  I’ve never seen such big lightning storms on a continuous basis, but then it clears up the next day.  I think it is fun, but Andrea and Connor end up plastered next to me in the bed!

(Connor put a couple in the back of the net.  They were really cute with him and Andrea even got the team to give Connor a beginners stick to take home.) 

We need some help. Danny and I have been invited to a costume halloween party by someone at his office. We don’t want to be lame, so we need some good ideas on what to be. What do you think??

Hi everyone,
It’s been a while since I blogged so I thought I would take a turn. Connor is doing great in Kindergarten. His first few weeks of school were so precious.  The week before school started we had a visit day where Danny Connor and I got to see his room, desk and meet his teachers. We were told not to come on the first day, because real school starts on that day. Ouch! So first day of school Connor was bouncing down the steps and told Jill our apartment secretary “today is the big day!” He had been asking us how many more days for the past two weeks.

I know Danny talked about us standing out in the rain waiting for the bus. Well the bus was late and Connor was so excited. I was getting worried that the bus was not going to come and Connor would miss his first day (Danny had the car). So I started thinking, I could ask the apartment office for a ride to his school…but then, the bus showed up! When Connor saw the bus he turned around and squealed, “I’m so excited!” It was so cute my heart just melted. I was so glad the bus came because he would have been heartbroken if he did not get to ride it on the first day. When I walked back to the apartment I was a little sad. I stopped in the office to pick up my mail, and Jill said, “Connor is so independent, and self-assured, he is really ready for kindergarten.” Then she said, “You must be a good mom.” OK, I just about started crying right then. I told her thank you, and went up to my lonely apartment. For a while I sat in my living room chair not really knowing what to do. By the third day I got over a feeling of “sitting and waiting” for Connor to come home, and figured out how to get right into the work I have to do when he’s gone. (Only 3 hours a day).

Connor came home from school with all kinds of fun stories that week telling us about all the friends he had made and giving me the play by play details. When Danny and I would get excited, he would say, “guys, it’s just kindergarten.”

On the first day of school Connor came home and told us that he was not allowed to use tolliet paper in the toilets in their classroom because it would “flood the whole school!” He told me, “So, I just will never use the bathroom at school.” I told him there must be a misunderstanding and wrote a note to his teacher to please have it explained again to him.
 

Connor came home and here is what happened:
Connor: I gave my teacher the note.
Mom: Oh, good what did she say?
Connor: I misunderstood; she said that we could not flush paper towels down the toilet.
Mom: Oh that makes sense.
Connor: But I told her sometimes we use that for toilet paper too.
Mom:  WHAT???
Connor: You know… when we run out of toilet paper and we have to tear sheets of paper towels?
Mom: (Silence) Ok bud, I’m glad you got that one figured out.
OK, so sharing a car can be a bit tricky and we have on really rare occasions used paper towels. I just never thought it would be public information with school teachers; something for all of you that have young kids to keep in mind.

-Andrea
 

So Friday I was asked to help out with PlayBallMoto, which is the executive softball game at Motorola.  I was the base ump and had a fun time doing it.  The way that I look at it was I could have been one of the people assigned to serve hot dogs or something!  I was trying to work my way into the game for the last couple of weeks, and this was pretty much the only opportunity for an intern!  I did pitch to the VP of marketing before the game to get her warmed up though, so that was quality face time.  I didn’t make any horrible calls, although there was some confusion when I called the infield fly rule on a ball that the shortstop took off his head!

Friday night a bunch of T-Birds were in town on a Consulting tour of Chicago, so I met them downtown for dinner.  Andrea was a trooper and stayed home with coughing Connor so I could go out on the town.  Saturday my soccer team scored its first goals, even though we had to play without our star player (Connor!).  So much for coaching to spend more time with my son!  Saturday night our T-Bird friend Tomas Denemark stayed the night with us.  Tomas is a Czech-American and we became good friends during the semester in Prague.

If the Cougars could have just pulled off and over-time win, it would have been a perfect weekend!