In case you missed it on Sportscenter!

It was the Dragons vs. Jack Rabbits as Andrew began his youth sports playing career. Andrew led the Dragons with approx. 4 goals scored. Apparently, Andrew's signature move (as seen in the picture of his very 1st goal) is to put his hands on his head. It may have been that the roar of the crowd made him think he did something wrong OR it is his creative way of letting people know he is playing mind games on them. Either way, we got to see the hands to the head about 4 or 5 times (it is hard to keep up with all of the scoring) in the 3 on 3 contest.

Andrew was up at 7:45 ready and dressed in his soccer gear...shin pads and all. As you can see, Avery was ready to cheer for her brother, all the while dressed in style as the game time temp was in the high 30's. Grandma Barb and Papa Jim were there to watch and cheer (and help keep Avery off of the soccer field). Andrew only left the field crying once as he hit his nose on another kids head. Other than that, he was all business. The kids liked playing soccer, but loved the Cheez-its and Juice Box they got afterward...will keep them coming back for more I suppose. After the game, the three of us (Jill had to work today) went to go get some hot chocolate and donut while discussing the game. Good time was had by all.

Until next time...

We love you Grandma!

My Grandma Greene is not in the best of health. She is in the hospital with the expecatation of going home with the help of hospice. It seems to be a matter of days or weeks, although considering it is in regards to Grandma we are probably talking about months or years! It is reassuring to know that she is in good hands, figuratively and literally! Thank you, we love you, and are praying for you!

Who needs a Spring Break?

It was the last day of Spring Break for me today...back to work tomorrow. Not only am I back to work tomorrow, we have conferences which mean I am there from 7:30am - until about 8:15pm. That's AWESOME! This morning we woke up, cleaned up around the Lakeside house, took Andrew to Pre-School, cleaned up OUR house, picked Andrew up, and went to the mall to buy shin guards (soccer socks & soccer shorts) as Andrew begins YMCA soccer this weekend with his first game! From there I went out to school to work for a little while and then we all went to see Horton Hears a Who movie. We were in a theater that seats approx 150 and there were 15 of us...that's the way to do it. Now I have do some more work to do before I get to bed.

Nothing new to report on the housing market in Omaha. Maybe now that Easter is over, temperatures are rising, maybe the 'home-buyers' will come out of their 'hibernation'.

Until next time...

Easter Day Family Picture

Happy Easter from the Swanson's! We woke up this morning to find many eggs filled with treats and several Easter baskets. Needless to say, the kids were pretty fired up. After breakfast we went to church at St. Timothy's for the 9:00am service. It was nice and it was good to hear the Easter story again. Dad, you may find it interesting to know that the pastor went with 'the bridge' analogy how the resurrection bridges the gap between us and God. Well done overall.

After church we came back to the 'Lakeside' house and enjoyed a great family dinner. Dinner consisted of company of 'us', Barb, Jim, Adam, Christi, Dolly, Kathleen, Jim, and Kathie. It was great. We talked, looked at pictures, and watched some great college basketball games. After everyone left, we settled down as we are on vacation and are going to stay out here again tonight. Barb & Jim are gone, so it is like a 'vacation home' for us tonight. I don't have school tomorrow as this is our 'Spring Break' having last Friday and tomorrow off. Enjoy the pictures and hope you all had a very festive Easter!

Until next time...

The Ressurection of Christ & the Easter Bunny

Okay, tomorrow we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ...his victory over the grave, thus giving us several lines/versus in both the Nicene and Apostle's Creed...letting us know it happened on the 3rd Day. In all seriousness, I have always chuckled at the connection that Christmas and Easter has in the secular society. Santa Claus - Jesus' Birth...the Easter Bunny - Jesus' Death. In celebrating Jesus' victory over the grave, my children went out and found as many easter eggs as they could at the Riverside Lakes community Easter Egg Hunt this afternoon. Of course, we commemorated the event with a picture or two of the kids with the actual Easter Bunny. The kids enjoyed it and found lots of eggs full of sugar and treats! Andrew only took one girl out in the pursuit of eggs (it truly was an accident), but he didn't slow down one bit...he had eggs to find!

I will fill you in more as the weekend unfolds. We will spend the night here at the 'Lakeside' house as both Grandma Dolly (Watson) & Grandma Kathleen (Pollard) are here overnight. It is fun, plus, they have a 52" HDTV downstairs in the entertainment area which includes a bar. Watching NCAA games on a 52" TV with HD is glorious... not as miraculous as the resurrection of Christ, but dare I say...it is a sight that makes me want to say Alleluia!!!

Happy Easter everybody!

Until next time...

The Classics vs. Pop Culture

Last night was a rough night for sleep with Avery throwing a tantrum around 3:00am. She has been doing this lately & it is really 'inconvenient'. As I lay awake last night I was thinking of the Christian humanist Thomas More who wrote the fictional work Utopia. The Greek word: utopia actually means 'no place'. It is this work that More penned that gives us utopia meaning an imagined place or state of being perfect. Anyway, More used Utopia to comment on society and the problems he had with it. The propensity of war, government, religious intolerance were all addressed in the book as it was a fictional story about a character who traveled great distances and observed different functioning societies and in particular a place called - Utopia.

Obviously written work back then was quite different from the written word today, but last night I tried to think of present day examples of Thomas More's Utopia. One of the funniest versions that I came up with was the 80's sitcom Mork & Mindy starring a young Robin Williams and Pam Dawber. If you remember, towards the end of the series, they brought on comic Jonathan Winters as their child. Mork, being an alien from Ork (I believe) had children that were hatched from a giant egg and were elderly in appearance. They aged in reverse. The telling part of this was that our society tends to 'value' babies more than the elderly. So on the planet Ork, the babies are 'old', but as they get older they get cuter and 'cuddlier' and are taken care of 'better' as infants and babies. It is an interesting way of discussing the issue of geriatric issues. Another example I suppose would be the feature film Philadelphia with Tom Hanks in discussing AIDS in our society in the early 1990's. Again, it is interesting what your mind contemplates at 3:15am when your 2 year-old is throwing a tantrum and not letting you sleep.

More thoughts on other issues later...

Until next time...

The agony of defeat!

I am a 33-year-old man...yet I have moments where I lack maturity. My Oregon Ducks played a first round game in the NCAA Tournament tonight and it had all the makings of a perfect night!
Jill had the kids at her parents for dinner, I stopped by Burger King on the way home for my own 'game time meal' and watched the Duck game on the computer in peace & quiet! It was great for 30 minutes of 'game time'. The last 10 minutes were sheer agony. I wanted to break things - I embarrassed to even admit it...but I couldn't control my emotion. Fortunately, I got perspective and am fine with nothing broken, but my sanity.

I am proud to say that while watching the game (at halftime) I did get to watch some of the John Adams miniseries on HBO. It is awesome! It is times like that which make me value my job...knowing things I wouldn't have caught otherwise. It also makes me realize the danger of ignorance. How many things am I missing BECAUSE I don't know about 'it'? Anyway, if you haven't seen any of John Adams, you should try to catch it. He truly is an interesting figure in American history.

My version of Christmas Eve

Hello all...not much time to write, but wanted to acknowledge one of my favorite nights of the year...NCAA TOURNAMENT EVE! Instead of doing much needed school work, I am agonizing over my prognostication of the 2008 NCAA Tournament Bracket. The best day of the year is the First Thursday of the tourney when it is all new & exciting. I have my picks ready to go and already have: 'choosers remorse'. Before picking I KNEW UCLA would lose in the 2nd or 3rd round...by the time my bracket is filled out, I have them in the championship game. DAMN YOU BRACKET CHALLENGE!

Tonight proves yet another reason why I LOVE my wife...we have spent a couple of hours on the couch debating brackets, teams, games trying to 'choose wisely'. How many guys have a wife that is so cool? We were debating about going downtown to the Qwest Center to watch the practices of the Omaha First Round Teams that will be playing tomorrow. Unfortunately, I was held up at work and when I called to say that I wasn't going to get home in time to go to the practices to watch, she sounded disappointed...I LOVE THIS WOMAN!

Enough for now, looking forward to Easter weekend (my Spring Break). We get this Friday and Monday off...yeah. House still for sale, little interest as of late, but we are having success keeping it relatively clean. GO DUCKS - beat Mississippi State!

What a week...

It is Saturday evening and I am sitting at the Watson Retirement house overlooking the lake with ice quickly melting. I am feeling some self-pity today as I talked with both Kristen and Karlynn on the phone and made me wish that I could see them / hang out with them more often. Life is good out here in Nebraska & I trust that I am in the right place with my family - but it doesn't make the distance from my Swanson family (& Greene's, etc.) any easier.

Things of note that I am thinking about today:

1. As of right now, I have a good feeling that the Ducks will make the NCAA tournament. If they do, I have a belief that they might pull a few surprises.

2. I was teaching about Machiaveli and the Renaissance & humanism this week in world history and it put into play two contrasting viewpoints on 'people' in general.
*Humanism - that people have the capacity to be good and do good things.
*Machiaveli believed that for leaders, it is safer to be feared than loved. He wrote that it is natural to want to have both, but that it's near impossible to achieve both at the same time. He felt that we all talk about being of good moral character and being 'right', but those who truly want to be in power will use 'craft' (deception, trickery) to get around honest people...and those are the ones who will have all the power.

One of the things that I find so intriguing, is at the time when he published 'The Prince', it was counter to societies collective thought. It is interesting to see that 500-600 years later, that is still true. I don't have much of a point to writing about this, but for some reason keep 'gnawing' on this in my head. Feel free to add comment to this if possible.

3. On another note, this week was quite interesting as a colleague of mine 'resigned' (for personal reasons) on Monday afternoon. There has been A LOT of rumors and inuendo, but it seems as though he was caught having a relationship with a former student. I haven't heard anything concrete and don't know if this relationship happened while this girl was a student or not, but it must have been pretty severe, one would think, for the Administration/District to move as they did. He was a Social Studies teacher and a friend of mine...we weren't that close, but did lunch anytime we had a staff inservice. I have caught myself thinking about what it must be like to go from teaching one day with a wife, new job as a varsity baseball coach (first year), future wide open to having no teaching job, no coaching job, possibly no wife (haven't heard how this has gone over), and possibly no where to live (again, no idea on the home life situation) in a matter of a day or two. Not good. I am not sure of news coverage because I don't know if there are any 'criminal' charges to be filed...statutory rape is 16 which means that would not be an issue in NE from what I have been told. I will keep you posted.

4. Last point and then I need to get to work...several times today I have found myself watching the NCAA broadcasts of games and analysis. It is absolutely staggering to think about ALL of the media and mind-power that we spend on the institution of 'leisure' or 'play'. There is a committee at work right now struggling to put together a field of 65 teams for a tournament to be played. They talk about the excruciatingly difficult job members have of comparing teams, RPI's, wins/losses, etc. Billions of dollars will be spent on this when you include network payouts to own broadcast rights to air the NCAA tourney. Isn't it amazing when you stop and think about the importance of this issue when compared to the larger issue of feeding the hungry, housing for the homeless, and other issues...not so much worldwide, but even in our own communities. Think about what a difference all of this money and brainpower could do...staggering. Don't get me wrong, we as a people need entertainment in many different forms, but that doesn't mean we cannot question our 'perspective'. If we are talking about World History - compare present day 'culture' with that of the Ancient Roman Empire...uh, didn't the Roman Empire eventually collapse? (Karlynn, that question is somewhat rhetorical...but the answer is YES) Should we be concerned?

That being said, I will be glued to my TV tomorrow watching and hoping the Ducks make the field of 65...and watching as much of the games as possible....filling out my 10 different brackets. Seriously, this is my favorite time of year. GO DUCKS and Portland State Vikings! Scott...hopefully you can put our family bracket challenge together again...the Nebraska Swanson's want to show you how we roll in the land of corn!

Okay, needed to 'purge' some ideas and really, isn't that what a blog is all about? More thoughts about other stuff another time.

Until next time...

Forget Ducks vs. Cougars, bring on Cowgirls vs. Longhornettes

I was looking forward to watching the Ducks / Cougars, but instead the Omaha market gets the Big XII Women's Tournament Semi-Final featuring: Oklahoma State vs. Texas. AWESOME! After listening to the first half on the radio maybe it was a blessing in disguise. I am afraid that with a loss Oregon will not get into the NCAA tourney...I suppose they don't necessarily deserve it either. Unfortunately, they win - I think they are in...they just have to make it happen!

School is still crazy...more on that later. Last night I was up until approx. 1:00am correcting American History tests. It is amazing how little you care whether students can fully explain the terms of the Compromise 1850 or the Underground Railroad at 12:45 at night.

Andrew is going to Prairie Wind Elementary Kindergarten Roundup tomorrow afternoon. We figure that we might as well prepare for life in Cherry Hills until we sell the house. We will see what happens.

Time for me to get to work...with 10:00 minutes left in the Oregon game and the Ducks down by 10 points I need to get 'focused'. GO DUCKS!

Until next time...

Dude, I am tired!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I am incredibly busy! The end of 3rd Quarter is on Friday with grades due the following Wednesday and I have about 115 tests to grade. I am not smart.

I have been up until at least 12:15-12:30 and up by 6am the last 4 nights. This is when it seems fair that teachers get the summers off. Speaking of summer, we have had 2 days that have gotten into the 60's...bring on spring. It is apparently going to get cold again this week, go figure.

Time for dinner - more to write later when I have more time...April or May perhaps!

Until next time...

Buy This House

Quick note...we had our first realtor call and want to show our house today. We got the call at 2:45pm and they wanted to walk through at 3:30pm. Fortunately the house was pretty much cleaned up so tidied up a bit and got the kids up from nap so we could get out of the house. Apparently the realtor has another family who wants to walk through the house another time as well. The more 'traffic' the better we suppose! We will keep you posted!

Until next time...

Another Sunday, another sick kid

Good morning! Happy Daylight Savings Time...I love that it will be lighter later...bring on spring! I should be at church right now, but unfortunately Andrew is the one who is running the fever and not feeling well this Sunday. Jill is working & the kids are lying on the couch while I blog...what a parent!

Jim & Barb are in town working at the 'lake house'...that is how I am going to refer to their new purchase until we come up with a name for their Schaller Getaway house. I will post one or two pictures so you can see it. Pretty awesome. They got possession last night and are already hard at work 'Watsonizing' it.

I have quite a bit of work to do today: correct quite a few assignments, edit and put together a World History test for tomorrow for my freshman, and enter grades in the computer so I can give grade sheets to my students Monday so they can get any missing assingments in to me by the end of the week. It is hard to imagine that 3rd Quarter is over on Friday. I am just about to begin 4th Quarter...yahoo!

Talked to just about everyone yesterday...even David. FYI the pictures of the kids on the couch are from iPhoto, DG, and I didn't flip the image...that is right...you are awesome!

Until next time...

Oregon Wins, Oregon Wins...

Very short post. I got to watch the game, and it made Daylight Savings Time a little less painful...although I guess technically it is 1:15am as I blog. Will post some pictures of the 'in-laws' new house tomorrow hopefully. Andrew is running a fever and having some bad 'fever' dreams...we have all had them. There is nothing quite as frustrating or heartbreaking as having a kid who is not feeling well and there isn't much you can do to make it better. I think back to mom and dad and what it must have been like when I was going through my vertigo issues in elementary school...that must have been pretty tough. Off to bed to dream of Tajuan Porter raining threes, Maarty collecting double-doubles, and the Ducks making a run in the PAC 10 tourney AND the NCAA tourney! GO DUCKS!

Friday night- the week's way of saying Thank You!

The week has come to an end, sort of. What a week & what a wonderful feeling. I have this belief that retirement is the feeling a school teacher (or any Monday - Friday worker) has on Friday night...perpetually!

Jill surprised me today and brought the kids along to the Nebraska Boy's State Basketball Class B Tournament Semi-final game in Lincoln: Gretna vs. Beatrice. Gretna lost by 3 in a close contest. Fun to watch - bring on my favorite time of year: March Madness! Besides the usual - wife's birthday, kids birthday, anniversary, etc...my favorite time of year: the first four days of the NCAA tournament! Those are followed by the rest of the tourney - AWESOME!

Andrew now has a fever and easily went to bed tonight which truly means he isn't feeling well. Avery is feeling better, but greeting people by showing them her tongue...we don't really know what that is all about. Jill is doing well. She is 25 weeks along today...approx 14-15 weeks to go until baby Swanson 3 is to arrive. Here is a current picture of mommy-to-be...isn't she beautiful! We seem to have a consensus for a 'girl' name, but are still trying to find common ground on a 'boy' name...feel free to leave any suggestions in the comment section of the blog!

Big game on Saturday night for the Ducks...you better believe I will be watching!

Until next time...

Always something...

This needs to be short, as there are always things that need to be done. It is safe to say that growing up my family always suggested that if I would only apply myself, the sky would be the limit or some general cliche to that end. I always knew it was true and have struggled with it my whole life. Some call it procrastination, some call it laziness, but whatever it is - it is an affliction of constant proportions. I compare it to an obese person who cannot stop eating the Twinkies, the anorexic who always wants to lose that one or two extra pounds even though they are literally skin & bones, or perhaps the obsessive compulsive who can never get rid of all the germs...I always have great ideas/intentions, just never seem to find the time/inspiration to get it done. I have a mountain of paperwork to do for school, yet here I am blogging. What chromosome did my parents not give me? Really, it isn't my fault - there must be some organic enzyme that my brain doesn't produce at a strong enough measure to get my act in gear. I cannot wait for science to catch up with my 'syndrome'...I imagine some scientist has the cure, he is just too busy playing SIMS, solitaire, or Dungeons and Dragons and hasn't quite gotten around to publish their findings. As the bumper sticker says: Procrastinators unite...later!

Just a quick look at what is going on in my teaching world for those who are curious:

American History - 10th Graders: Studying the 1850's and will focus on the Dred Scott Decision, the South's Secession, and Election of Lincoln. Next week we will be starting on our Civil War iMovie Projects.

World History - 9th Graders: Finishing up our unit on the late-Middle Ages focusing on the development of England, France, the Magna Carta, Richard the Lionhearted, Saladin, the Crusades, William the Conqueror and more.

Enough for now...on to the mountain of grading/paperwork...maybe I should check in briefly with my Oregon Duck websites/blog sites to see the latest on my Duck hoop squad.

Until next time!

Manic Monday

In case ESPN Sportscenter doesn't carry the score from the Gretna Middle School 7th Grade Girls 'B' Team basketball matchup vs. the mighty Elkhorn Antlers - The Dragons pulled it out 19-18 with a fairly last second lay-in to pull it out. We were the better team, but we didn't play too well - my expert opinion is that this was a result of it being a Monday game. Jill, Andrew, and Avery made the trip and were big hits with my 7th grade 'ballers'. In case you were curious, the 7th grade A Team and C Team's also won.

Avery is doing a little better this evening...yesterday afternoon/evening Avery went down for a nap at 2:00pm...we had to wake her up at 6:00pm so she would eat dinner. We were afraid she may be up until midnight or so. Actually, she ASKED to go to bed at 8:30pm and slept pretty much through the night. She ended up sleeping in our bed with Jill since she was waking up on and off with a fever. This meant I slept in Avery's twin bed - as you can imagine I slept secure in the knowledge that I would not roll off the bed as I had her 'roll bars' keeping me on the matress...thank goodness!

Last night I went to put ear drops in her ear...gave the ear drops to Jill so she could do it while I was getting dinner on the table. She put the ear drops in and later went to put the medicine away and realized that I had given her EYE DROPS instead of the EAR DROPS...fortunately, I would like to believe that her ears can see very well right now. Jill may stay home tomorrow if Avery is still running a slight fever.

Until next time...

Lazy Sunday Morning

It is Sunday am and was hoping to get to church this morning. Unfortunately, Avery is running a fever and has eyes and nose running. She looks pretty miserable. It is 10:15 and Andrew is still sleeping...after the day he had yesterday, this is probably not a bad thing. So, today will be spent cleaning the house and doing schoolwork.

Today is also Oregon Duck gameday...big game versus the Beavers. If the Ducks are to make it to the NCAA's as an at large team...they have to win today and both games next week. Otherwise, they have to win the PAC 10 Tournament...which is not likely.

Last night I also watched the Vallivue Falcons win the Idaho 5A Boys State Basketball Championship. It is fun to see because I coached the seniors while coaching the Vallivue Middle School 8th Grade A Team about 4 years ago. Great for them and clearly they would not have been able to succeed without the basketball knowledge that I passed onto them years ago! : ) As a matter of fact, one of the kids I coached as an 8th graders signed a DI Letter of Intent with the University of Mississippi Rebels. I hope he has continued success and a great experience at Ole Miss!

Until next time...

Let's start this party...

My sister Kristen convinced me to do this, to pass along fun tidbits of info along to friends and family who don't live in or around the land of corn (Iowa or Nebraska). Enjoy the thrill ride that is life in Omaha...or Gretna, Nebraska!