Spring Soccer in Utah

 

Five years and one job ago I worked with someone whose wife coached soccer. While he was supportive of his wife, every spring he would comment that he hated the spring soccer season because it was always cold and/or rainy and/or windy. At the time, I didn't think much about what he said. Our boys were two young to play organized sports and I was leaning more toward putting them in other sports.

Years have passed. The older boys have gravitated toward basketball and football. Our oldest daughter prefers gymnastics and tumbling. The five year old watches with insane jealously every time they go to practice or compete at their games. Last fall we put in him soccer because that's the only sport they allow pre-kindergarten students to play. He loved it and enjoyed every moment of it. All winter he talked about wanting to play it again. February rolled around and so it was time for spring soccer signups. While I was in the process of registering him, the thought flashed through my mind what my co-worker said about the weather. I looked at the calendar and realized games didn't start until April and figured the weather wouldn't be much of an issue.

April rolled around and the season started. All the practices have been ice cold. All the games have been rainy or windy. My five year old has had a blast but it's been less than enjoyable for me and the other parents to watch the games and practices in such conditions. Last Saturday was his only bye week. That day it was 80 degrees and sunny. The forecast for his game tomorrow is 58 degrees with a 60% chance of rain.

The gods look down and laugh.

Playground from the Past

Yesterday Marathon Girl and I decided to take the kids to park to eat dinner. We drove around for a bit and stumbled upon a park that was like something I remember from childhood. There was a merry-go-round, teeter-totter and big tires. In addition there was fine gravel on the ground. I haven't seen any of this in playgrounds in at least 20 years and was kind of surprised that this park still had them. Best of all, my kids enjoyed playing on these "new" toys. Kind of glad we found the park and the kids had a chance to play on them. Probably just a matter of time before someone gets hurt and the city is forced to get rid of them.  Photos below.

Tremors

Wednesday night Marathon Girl and I are in bed reading when the house starts shaking and something that sounds like a large truck barreling down the street fills the house. Even though it's late that it was a large construction truck barreling down the main road (a common occurrence with all the new homes going up nearby) we go back to our books. About 30 seconds later the same thing happens. This time we look at each other and wonder what is going on. I get online to see if anyone else has felt the shaking. Twitter starts to light up from people in our area who felt it. People in neighborhood groups on Facebook are saying the same thing. Everyone concludes an earthquake has just taken place.

There's only one problem: the US Geological Survey never recorded an earthquake during that time. And, days later, no one seems to know what caused the two tremors despite the fact that everyone felt them.

Baring any scientific explanation, I can only think of one other thing that might be the source of the tremors.

If anyone has alternate theories, let me know. :-)

Wearing Shorts in the Winter: A Utah Thing?

I took the above photograph at a college football game I attended with my kids on Saturday. Please note that the person wearing a hoodie near the bottom is also wearing shorts.

While some people may be surprised at seeing someone wearing shorts in such conditions, it’s not an uncommon site in Utah. In fact I counted three people at the game who were dressed in a similar fashion.

Wearing shorts in the winter was something that became popular back when I was high school. (I never did it simply because my mom would have killed me for dressing like that in the winter.) Based on the way I see teenagers dressed when out in public, apparently is still is. If it was just the kid in the photograph, I would have chalked it up to being young and fashionable. But the other two people I saw had to be in their late twenties or early thirties. And when I posted the picture on Twitter, another Utahan mentioned that she saw someone wearing flip-flops during the storm.

While I can kind of see being able to justify wearing shorts in the winter when one is going to spend their the day in school or some other warm place indoors, wearing them to a football game when there’s a foot of snow on the ground, temperatures are near freezing, and it snowed during half the game is very perplexing.

On the way home from the game I started wondering whether or not wearing shorts in freezing weather is a Utah thing or part of a larger trend I don’t know about. When I lived in Wyoming for two years immediately after high school, I don’t recall seeing anyone wearing shorts in the winter whether at college or anywhere else in public. So, readers, I want to hear from you. Do they do this North Dakota or Canada when there’s a blizzard outside? What about New Hampshire? Is Utah the only place where this is cool? Let me know in the comments below.

Home Sweet Home

We’ve finally moved into our home or at least feel like we’ve moved into it. Ninety percent of the boxes are unpacked, there are pictures on the wall, and I think it’s been three or four days since I had to ask Marathon Girl where something was. It’s nice to feel like we’re actually moved in.

One thing you never really know when you buy a home is what the neighborhood is like. You can get a rough idea buy driving through it and talking to a neighbor or two but you never really know how friendly everyone is going to be or what the neighborhood culture is like until you actually move in and meet everyone. Over the years I’ve moved into places where everyone was friendly and welcoming and others where the only contact you ever had with the neighbors is when they pulled out of their driveway every morning.

Fortunately, we’ve moved into the friendliest neighborhood I’ve ever lived in. A bunch of people came over and helped us move in the first day. While that was going on, neighborhood kids swarmed our house looking to see if we had kids to play with. Within two days we’ve met everyone on the street. All the older kids have new friends who they play with all the time. (The baby seems to be indifferent to all this. Go figure.) Even Marathon Girl, who tends to be shy and quiet in new surroundings, feels like she has neighbor she can talk to or call on if she needs something. Everyone in the family seems happy with the new home, the new neighborhood, and has quickly adjusted to our new surroundings.

Then on Saturday Marathon Girl and I were outside working on our yard. A lady drove up and introduced herself as the person who just bought the house for sale on the far end of the street. We talked for a few minutes about the neighborhood and our families. When we were done she drove up the street and introduced herself to another neighbor who was out watching her kids play in the front yard.

I think she’ll fit right in.

This House Thing Might Finally Happen

We signed the papers to buy our home this morning. Assuming all goes well, we should have the keys on Monday and move into our place sometime next week.

Finally, we can have a place of our own again. I haven't seen Marathon Girl this happy in weeks.

Crossing our fingers that all goes according to plan.

Living with the In-Laws: Week 11

We had hopes that we’d be ready to move into our new home this coming weekend. ‘Tis not to be. The construction is running, as of now, about a week behind schedule. But things should have picked up again yesterday and are scheduled to be completed next Tuesday. Assuming that the inspection and everything else goes as planned our tentative closing date is now August 17. That means at least one extra week with the in-laws.

It also means that our kids will be starting school in their new four days after we move in. We were hoping to give them a week or so to adjust to the new house and meet some kids in the new neighborhood (which there are plenty of). ‘Tis not to be. Instead we’re moving in and they’re going to go through everything at once. But they’re troopers and will handle it just fine.

Oh, and for those who ever put all their stuff in storage until their house closes, don’t store important documents you might need for, say, a mortgage in the very back. It’s not fun to have to dig through an entire storage until just to find things.

Living with the In-Laws: Week 10

You know the novelty has worn off of living with grandma and grandpa when the kids start asking when we can move into our own house again.

Heading over to the house on my lunch break to make sure the construction is on progress.

Eleven days and counting. . . I hope.

Living with the In-Laws: Week #9

This last week was a week of positive moves forward. First, the in-laws went on a well deserved vacation thus giving us the run of the house for the better part of a week. I think this did everyone a bit of good as we all got to relax albeit in different ways. Hopefully this brief respite will making the remaining time there more bearable for everyone.

The second piece of good news is that we finally have a close date of August 10. Yes, that’s right in 18 days we could officially have a home and a place to live again. Of course, this is assuming that the construction that they’re doing on the home before we move in gets done on time. We’re hoping to hear and update on that today. Cross your fingers that the contractors hit their deadline so we can hit ours.

Even though I hate moving I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to move as I am right now. It will be nice to have our own place again and get the kids settled in to our new place before school starts. I don’t care if our first night there is in sleeping bags and we’re eating out of a cooler for the first day. It will just be nice to have a place to call home.

Eighteen days and counting. . . .

Living with the In-Laws: Week 8

I kind of reached a breaking point this weekend. I won't go into detail other than to say it's just a combination of little things that are really grating on me. I'm glad things are moving forward with the house. If all goes well, we should be in our new home by mid-August. I"ll be happier, the kids will be happier, and all will be right with the universe.

Until then doing a lot of running, writing, and excursions with the kids to get by. I'm hunkering down and counting down the days until we close and move in to our new place.