A goal, an assist, the world's longest tennis match and some big wins!

Well, the Koontz household has been super busy the past few days. Not any busier than other times but it seems that most everything has been centered on sports. Strange.

Saturday morning Madison and Brennan had a soccer jamboree at the YMCA. The morning started with the Red Lobsters running down the hill and bursting through their team banner. Brennan said that since he was number 4 and they are playing on field 4 that it was his job to tear the banner up first. He thought that running through the banner was fantastic!

Following the banner running we had another soccer game. David told the kids if they scored a goal then they would have a banana split. So midway through the game Madison passed the ball to Brennan and he kicked it into the goal! An assist and a goal all wrapped up in one! So Saturday evening we headed to the ice cream shop for a banana split after some football watching.

Speaking of football watching ...hope you all caught the Wake Forest vs. Maryland game on Saturday. If you missed it, don't have ESPNU or simply turned it off at halftime since it looked so bad--buddy you missed some good ball. Wake was down 24-3 at halftime and were seriously getting creamed. I went to go pick up some BBQ and just get out of the house and away from the terrible ballgame (while worrying that maybe the Vols would lose to Arkansas State--EEK!). When I came home David had paused the TiVo. He said "Okay so we are getting our butts kicked but you have to see this." Maryland was lined up on the 3, the QB passed the ball to score what was certain to be the final nail in Wake's coffin. Instead Alphonso Smith intercepts the ball on the goal line and runs it back 100 yards for a touchdown. It was totally the Game Changing Performance of the week. Wake came back and with 3 seconds left tied up the game and sent it into overtime. Wake has never won an overtime game, ever. They even lost the toss and had to take the first posession. This was bad, bad, bad. Well, holy cow, the Deacs scored a TD! And then the defense not only stopped MD but sacked the QB more than once. Wake wins 31-24!!!

Can't do much of a recap of the UT game since it wasn't on television but the most dramatic thing of that ballgame is that the VOLS won! Hallelluia!!!

Monday I had a tennis match. I just started playing tennis 18 months ago. I never played as a kid and you all know that I have no athletic skills. In the spring we formed a 2.5 team at the country club. I played about 5 doubles matches in the spring and I never won a match which was fine since I don't know what in the world I am doing. On Monday I played my first doubles match of the fall season with my friend Carey. It was about 98 degrees outside and we were playing at our competitors courts which were all hard courts--not fun. Anyway, our match lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes and I went through about 4 bottles of Gatorade. But, we won--finally! 2-6, 7-6 and 6-4. Yep, we even had to do a tiebreaker. When I picked up Brennan, I told him we won and he cheered and said "now we get to have bannana splits again!"

Tuesday night, the kids had another soccer game and Brennan scored another goal. After the game we went to get pizza and ice cream to celebrate!

Wake Forest Homecoming, ugly losses and a visit to the lake

We woke up Saturday morning and decided that since we had nothing else to do we should drive to Winston-Salem for Wake Forest Homecoming. We arrived in town in just enough time to drop off Birdie at grandma's house, borrow the handheld television so I could watch the UT game and to pick up our very own Wake Forest tailgate tent. Yippee!

After a very lesiurely tailgate in much cooler weather than the previous Saturday, we headed in to watch Wake Forest take on Army. Well, David and Brennan watched Wake. Madison sat with her aunt Dana, uncle Mark and cousins and was fed all kinds of junk food from uncle Mark's friends Jimmy and Bill.

I watched as much of the Tennessee Florida game as I could stand on a 2.5 inch television. Lucky for me, I couldn't really see how terrible Tennessee looked on that itty bitty screen. When I took a break from the game to save batteries so I wouldn't miss the Vols big comeback in the second half I was busy being cold. Yes, last week I nearly passed out due to heat and this week I was freezing. What a difference 7 days can make!

All that battery saving was for naught, as the Vols didn't ever mount that big comeback. Tennessee lost by 39 points. 39 points??!!??!!?!?!?! What in the world? How is that even possible??!!?? Good thing we were at a different ballgame for distraction. Our other option was to go to a party for all of David's partners. I don't do well at parties when football is on and I am sure I would not have been very charming at that party on Sat.

Following the game we picked up Birdie and headed to the lake for the night. David's parents have over 50 acres at High Rock Lake in NC. Birdie was in heaven. She had fields to run in with lots of tall grass, leaves to dive in and a lake to swim in. Birdie and Madison caught some frogs, Madison's frogs fared better than Birdie's, and Madison was thrilled to find that Birdie would participate in her favorite lake activity--minus the dead frog thing.

First Soccer game

Last Tuesday Madison and Brennan had their very first soccer game. They play at the neighborhood YMCA. The team was designated the maroon jerseys and after much deliberation among the kids they chose the team name "The Red Lobsters." The game was not nearly as chaotic as we assumed it would be and was fun to watch. No goals scored by our kids, but they were close! Birdie came along as the team mascot. Maybe we should get her a lobster costume!

Wake Forest vs Nebraska?

Wake Forest has gotten serious about football. So serious, in fact, that they decided to invite Nebraska to Groves Stadium to check out the gameday atmosphere and meet the Demon Deacons on the gridiron.

The arrival of the Cornhuskers in Winston-Salem did not go unnoticed. How could they? People walking around in red from head to toe with large hats shaped like corncobs on their heads. Hate I didn't get a picture of that. Especially the guy in the red jersey, red and white striped pants a la Indiana basketball and a huge corncob on his head. I need to do better with my documenting!

We had to tailgate early as kickoff was at noon. Not a big deal normally (since we are out of college and have kids waking us up at 630am every morning) but since the weather had been hanging around 104 for weeks it was great planning. Thanks ESPN.

Lucky for us it was only predicted to be a cool 97 degrees on Saturday and Wake had requested that all fans wear black to the game. We weren't too hungry at 1oam when we arrived but we did the best we could to eat and drink something. Before the game ever started Madison was scrambling for shade as it was super hot in the parking lot. It was a shame we had never bought that Wake Forest tailgate tent!

The Deacs played well, but not well enough to beat the Huskers. The defending ACC champions lost 17-20. There were easily 10,000 Nebraska fans there. That wouldn't be much in Neyland stadium but Groves only holds just over 30,000 so it was a big presence. The fans were just as great as they were when Tennessee played Nebraska in the Orange Bowl in 1997 (got our butts beat then too).

Way beyond the Blue Ridge Parkway ...

David was on call this Sunday so we were unable to go anywhere interesting for Labor Day weekend. We got up this morning and over a great breakfast of Snow Creek sausage and blueberry pancakes we decided to take a drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway . So we put together a little picnic and gathered many, many supplies for Birdie and set out on an adventure to take advantage of the cooler weather.

While driving and perusing the map of the southern part of the parkway we decided to head north (we usually go south to the Pisgah National Forest) and check out the Folk Art Center, Craggy Gardens and Mount Mitchell. The first stop was the Folk Art Center on the parkway. This is the home of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and when they refer to folk art, they are not talking stuff like Ernest "Chicken Man" Lee--this is serious "craft" stuff with quilts for over $3000! No Madison you cannot have that for your bedspread!

We had a picnic at the art center, checked out the art shop and listened to a Park Ranger talk about Beavers and how they build dams. We also met a lady who made really cool rag dolls and talked to the kids about always being brave enough to use their fairy wings. Brennan looked at her matter of factly and said "I don't have any wings."

Next we headed about 15 miles further north on the parkway to Craggy Gardens with a couple of overlook stopovers on the way. We pulled into the Craggy Gardens Picnic Area, not knowing that another 3 miles up the parkway is the Welcome Center for Craggy Gardens. Oops!

We decided to go on a leisurly 0.84 mile hike only to discover that it was quite steep. However the kids and Birdie were real troopers! They had a great time walking, smelling flowers, picking blueberries and exploring a cave. Birdie was the Energizer Bunny and just kept going and going and going .... Periodically she would slow down and turn around just to make sure everyone was together. It was very cute, she is already very aware of who is in her family.

And of course, everyone we ran into wanted to pet our puppy! One little boy named Noah (his father was a Gator fan--but seemed to be nice. He was originally from Minnesota so maybe that was why he was sane) refused to let Birdie out of his sight. Noah is 3 years old and if he lost Birdie he would ask--in his cute baby voice--where did the doggy go? He reminded me of Howie Mandel doing his Bobby impressions!

After a great hike we decided to treat ourselves to a great dinner at the Moose Cafe at the Western North Carolina Farmers Market located right off both I-40 and I-26. We filled our bellies with salisbury steak, chicken and dumplins, fried chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, collards, green beans and the biggest biscuits with the best apple butter you have ever had. Upon leaving we bought our obligatory case of apple butter (don't worry, we don't eat it all ourselves).

The long hike worked to our advantage as everyone was very tired and even Birdie slept all night last night! What a great day!

What a weekend!

We have a friend, Travis Fortson, who stopped to help an accident victim on I-85 this summer. Travis was hit by a semi, airlifted to the hospital and had his entire right leg amputated. He also had a crushed pelvis, and injured right arm and injured right eye. Travis is doing very well now, but will face many medical needs for a very long time as you can imagine.

Not long after his accident Madison suggested that she can have a lemonade stand to raise money for the Fortsons. I told her that was a great idea and we got to work encouraging other kids to have their own lemonade stand for the Fortson Family! Our first lemonade stand was rained out and we only raised about $10 but this Saturday we had a stand at the Saturday Market in downtown Greenville. Many of our friends came to help out and we had a great time. We raised over $300 on Saturday! Birdie even came as our mascot. David couldn't walk three feet without the requisite "What a cute puppy! Can we pet her?"

So far with all of our friends lemonade stands over $600 has been raised by children for the Fortson family!

Sunday my neighbor called to find out when she could see the baby. I told her Birdie was napping but I would bring her over when she woke up. So, Birdie went to visit or neighbor's chocolate Lab named Moose. Moose is a male lab that weighs over 100 pounds on most days. Moose drooled all over Birdie and Birdie bit Moose's tail--oops! That was a fun visit and amazing to think that Moose was ever as small as Birdie.

This morning Madison was reading an American Girl book about Addy, a slave girl. She was asking me about slaves and reuniting our nation. Then she said "slavery is bad mom, that is what happened during the silverware." HA!