Ramblin' Maniacs

I decided that the page needed to be more festive for the holidays, so I mixed that with my discerning sense of what is good and came up with the new header. I think it fits nicely with my personality, yet still gives that certain nostalgic sense of holiday spirit.

written by RamblinDad

So I took a look at the page and am surprised (not really) that I haven’t been diligently keeping this page up to date. I like to write, so that isn’t the problem and subject matter is never in short supply. How could it be, being the dad of an active 10, soon to be 11 year old? The answer is simple, too many Irons in the fire. There is Soccer (now over), Scouts, camping, attempts at exercising, church, church groups, family to entertainment, and ungodly hours of work. This doesn’t even touch the online crapola. The blogs I read and respond too, the forums I post and even help run, and the attempts at writing my own stories that are hardly ever good enough for release because they never quite meet what I am looking for. What this means is here is another recap of events.

Soccer season went well. We had a great team. Jeremy had fun playing and I had a blast coaching. He is finally in a high enough age group to get interesting, playing with a full 11 player team, learning much more strategy than skills, and honing the skills they have aquired over the years. We made it through tournament well but just couldn’t pull it off to the finals. The teams were so well balanced that there was never a sure thing for all the games, which made it an awesome season of close games and hard work.

This is Jeremy’s last year in Cub Scouts. His Webelos 2 patrol is doing really well. It has been a pleasure helping and leading them. I’m not out of the woods as far as involvement goes either. The Scout Master for the Boy Scout Troop he is going into has asked that I move over into the adult leadership in the troop. He want’s me to be an Assistant Scout Master. He’s nuts, but then so am I, as I will be doing just that. I wanted to be involved with Jeremy in scouts after Cubs any way.

We just finished one of the COLDEST camp outs I have ever been on. The Boy Scout Troop invited my Webelos Patrol on a Webelos Woods Camp Out to introduce the boys to boy scouting. They all mostly knew each other from before when the older boys were cubs and from when the Boy Scouts have helped us with Pack Meetings and such, so they were all comfortable around each other. The activities were fun and the food was great. The biggest deal was the cold. It dropped into the teens at night. Thank God I brought the heavy sleeping bags. Getting in and out of them was rough though. When I got up in the morning I almost could finish dressing because my fingers stopped working because if the cold (a first for me and a weird sensation!).

written by RamblinDad

Wow time sure did fly this summer. It’s hard to believe that I haven’t been in to update. Not Really. It has been so busy with all the scout stuff and work stuff and every other thing in life stuff.

Let’s see, the first part of July was Cub Scout Adventure Camp! This years theme was “Library”. When I first saw this I was a little less than impressed. I thought how on earth can a theme like library be exciting in camp. To me the library is the place you go to jump into the realm of your imagination, not to jump into the realm of camping and cub scout adventure. It turns out I was happily mistaken. I just had to wrap my mind around it. Each section of the camp had something to do with books, and yes most of them were adventure books so we got the adventure part in.

Jeremy passed his Boy Scout swim test for the first time this year and was able to take a Kayak out on the lake by himself. He was stoked! I also have to admit I was pretty proud of him too.

The rest of July flew by with work and overtime. It’s all a blur and I think there is a mental block in that part of my mind.

The First part of August we had our annual Webelos Den Family Camp. We went to Antelope Lake. It was a nice campground and we had a relaxing time.

Can you feel the love for me as I was taking this pic.

Here’s a pic of my motley crew and their brothers at the entrance to the camp just after our little scavenger hunt/hike.

We tried a new thing this year, Zip-Lock omelets. The gist of it is you take a quart sized freezer zip-lock bag, with the name sharpeed on, and have a boy crack two eggs into it. He then mooshes up the eggs scrambling them well. The good stuff is then added. We had a selection of mushrooms, onions, cheese, peppers, salsa, seasonings, and other good stuff. The boys add what they want to their bag, then the bags are boiled for 15 minutes. Pull them out and you have the perfect homemade omelet in a bag. Just pour it out onto the plate.

This makes for some good Eats!

So that brings us up to the middle of this month. Soccer season is here and we are thick into it. I’m coaching Jeremy again in U12 boys with AYSO. We’ve had three games, one tie, one loss, and one win.

written by RamblinDad

Peggy beet me to posting about today, but I know that everyone wants to hear my spin on things!

I got home this morning not sure how my Father’s Day was going to be with having to sleep all day and then go back into work in the evening. All I could do is make the best of it, so I went to sleep with the intention of getting up early to spend some time with the family and maybe get some gaming in as DaddyPlace was hosting a Playdate on x-box Live.

I woke up to this!

What a great thing to wake up too!  Jeremy made this in Church for me. Cool huh?

I didn’t get a chance to get on the x-box as I chose to get some sleep. Yeah, I know sleep is overated! We did get outside though to spend some of what I like to think of as quality time doing three things I love; being with family, geting some walking in, and enjoying God’s creation.

RamblinKid rode circles around us, showing us his moves.

It was a glorious day and we had a comfortable, yet invigorating walk around the Marina here in Sparks. I got to spend some time talking to my best half and watching my son show off and have fun.

Here is a pic of my two favorite people in the world.

I also have to add a pretty good pic of me and the boy!

Turned out to be a pretty darned good Father’s Day.

written by RamblinDad

We had a pretty good day, considering.  It was Father’s Day, today, but John is working nights tonight, so while Jeremy and I went to church, John was sleeping.  He got up a bit earlier than usual so that we could walk around the Sparks Marina.  It was gorgeous outside - not hot, not cold.  Took a couple of pictures on our way around.

We stopped to take this picture out on the point. Too Handsome!

The little boy on the right was riding his bike around the Marina and just had to pop into our picture.  He would have followed us around the entire 2 mile walk if it hadn’t been for his Dad stopping him!  lol

The scooter goes with us, and he rides circles around us!!!

written by RamblinMom