Spring sports

Tyler and Hunter have both been busy with sports, of course. Hunter been working on pole vaulting in Track this Spring. He hasn't had much of a chance to really pole vault because they don't do that everyday in morning practice. I hate that for him. He's got good form, he just needs to keep working on propelling himself up and over the pole.

He got out in the first round at his first track meet at the starting height. He was disappointed but I wasn't considering that's how his brother started out when he first tried to pole vault.

Tyler also decided just yesterday to join Track again this Spring and pole vault. He hadn't started out the Track season with the Track team but on a whim the other night said he was going to ask Coach Miller if he could. I think he might be doing it just to join his best friend, also named Hunter, at all the track meets. That way they get to pole vault in the morning, then have the rest of the track meet day to just hang out and watch all the races.

I just talked to Tyler and the track meet today didn't go that well. He and Hunter both got out at the starting height. We are having forty mile an hour winds so that might be a slight factor in their unsuccessful day.

Tyler had a soccer game on Monday night against the town that the boys Dad lives in. It was a very rough game with a lot of mouthing and shoving. Two of our boys got yellow cards and both teams almost got into it at the end of the game. One of the other teams players actually came over to the stands and was yelling an obscenity at a Grandma on our team. It was crazy. I hate confrontation so it completely freaked me out. Soccer can be a crazy game with crazy players and fans. We suffered our first loss that game so our boys were mad anyway. Hopefully, we'll take some lessons from our loss and go on to win big the rest of the season.

Pork Carnitas

Monday I put a pork butt in the crockpot with a Pot Roast seasoning packet, I believe it was McCormick. I added about a cup of beef broth and cooked the roast all day on low in the crockpot.

It was phenomenal. So tender and yummy. We ate it with buttered white rice and green beans. Very simple dinner but so tasty. 

Tonight I decided we would eat the rest of the pork roast as pork carnitas. I simply put the shredded pork in a small skillet and let it crisp and develop a crust on the bottom before stirring it. The crust on the pork made all the difference in the world. I added taco seasoning to the pork for a spiced up flavor. We ate them in flour tortillas.  I love anything Mexican!  

I cooked a box of Mexican style Rice-a-Roni to serve with the carnitas. 

We ate the carnitas plain with the tortillas but in the past, I've served them with all the taco fixings-lettuce, cheese, guacamole, salsa, chopped onions,diced  tomatoes.  

My favorite salsa actually comes in a can in the Mexican food aisle. It is the brightest, freshest flavor of any salsa I've tried. You will love it!

A triumph

Last night the hubs and I decided to take Allie the Boxer on a walk. We headed to the nature trail and told Jim that I'd probably not be able to walk very far since I hadn't done any exercise since last summer. For the past two years, when I'd walk, I'd get a horrible aching pain in my rib cage and have to spend the rest of the walk holding my sides and my back. I just thought I was fat and feeling the effects and wouldn’t think another thing about it. Well…last night was the first night in a very long time that the feeling of pain didn’t hit me right after beginning my walk. It was a realization I had about three quarters of the way. I didn’t have that pesky pain feeling. I couldn’t believe it. The pain must have been from my Connective Tissue Disease all this time. I don’t know if anyone that doesn’t have Lupus will ever understand what I triumph that walk was for me. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like quitting. I could keep walking without having to hold my ribs. It was the best feeling in the world. Slowly by surely, I’m thinking of more and more symptoms or pains I’ve suffered from in the last three years that were probably Lupus. All the times I thought I was really out of shape or just overweight, I felt bad because I was actually sick. In a twisted sort of way, that’s such a relief. Now, at least, I can take one pill everyday and all of my pains go away. All the times I thought I was going crazy because I never felt good are slowly being explained and I love it. Thank God for Rheumatologists!

Our soccer team is #4 in the state

Class 5A Soccer (Boys) Week 2 Rankings as of 3/17/2014 Rank School (#1 Rankings) W-L Points 1 EAST CENTRAL (5) 5-0 121 2 HERITAGE HALL (4) 2-0 110 3 NORTHWEST CLASSEN 4-2 86 4 SKIATOOK 4-0 70 5 CLAREMORE 2-0 62 6 CASCIA HALL 4-2 56 7 PIEDMONT 3-0 53 8 COWETA 3-2 52 9 DEL CITY 2-1 44 9 MEMORIAL 2-2 44 11 PRYOR 2-1 42 12 DEER CREEK (EDMOND) 1-3 33 13 WESTERN HEIGHTS0-0 31 14 EDISON PREP 1-2 27 15 EISENHOWER 1-0 21

We won the Oologah tournament this past weekend and the boys were so pumped about it!

I copied the listing of rankings on the OSSAA website and we are number 4 in the state! That is unbelievable! We are so proud of our Bulldog soccer team! They are doing terrific! Tyler's on the team with his two best friends, which makes it even more exciting. They are the only three Freshmen on the team. Our soccer schedule really kicks into gear soon so we will a busy soccer family. I don't mind, I love watching soccer. We are on our tenth year of soccer so it's all we've ever known practically.