In My Neck of The Woods- Football: Get your hands off my baby

This is one of several great action shots I captured at Saturday's game.

 It was USA Football's #youthfbkick Saturday. We lost in OT by "virtue of a turnover"! 

Long explanation!

See the red hand on the boy above. Yeah, that's MY baby boy who is getting his head taken off.

Get your hands off my boy before I come down there!

That's what going on in my neck of the woods, and that is only week two of football....

link up today at The RHOK!!

In My Neck of The Woods

At my nest this week...MOM things/Me Week!

Yep, my nest is pretty much resolving around Moma Crow.

I am doing my in-service training at work. The kids are out of school, but I am certainly working doing training and cleaning for the 2011-2012 year. On Monday I became officially certified by the American Heart Association in CPR! I had CPR in both high school and college, but it is amazing how much you forget. I highly recommend that any of my readers look into this. The AHA is a great organization. They support the Go Red for Women Campaign and if you become certified and move out of state, your certification follows you, unlike local certifications. Check into it on their site!

Most of you know that I LOVE me some football- especially when it comes to watching my little man play! I am now serving the second year as our team's treasurer. We take pride in our BA Black Tigers family! Monday night we had  mom's night out with the mom's on our team. We met at Chili's in BA! We chatted. Ate. And of course there were door prizes involved. Three of them. Two pairs of FlipFlops that I made and a necklace that Ms. Ann made- sorry Ann I didn't get a picture.

The door prizes were won based on votes tallied by the individual mom's based on creative name tags. The tags had to meet the following criteria.

1. The Mom's Name

2. Their Player's Name

3. Be Creative

Me & Kortney-the Team Mom, one of my BFF's!
 Before one of us finishes thinking of it, the other one does it, that's just how we roll and throw!

My nametag- oops, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I  sewed Braden's name on it in beads and had a daisy behind it and of course had it hung around my neck on my BA lanyard! The $130?- LOL, what else but our team dues.

We gave away a pair of Tata FlipFlops of course!

And of course we gave away a pair of BA Tiger FlipFlops.
Go BA Tigers!!!

That's what is going on in my neck of the woods this week. I am so ready for Friday. First football scrimmage! Go BA Black!! 

So tell us at The RHOK what is going on in your neck of the woods. We want to know!

Today's Post....

is at The RHOK!

Yes, Mrs. Hart cooked up a little competition in bloggerland for today's MckLinky Monday!

Superbowl XLV is coming up and housewives across the country know that the most memorable of all the event will not be the game, or even the commercials, but the food! So The RHOK has invited bloggers from across the country to link up their recipes until January 21, 2011 for an opportunity to be featured as a winner on February 4th! How cool is that? Now don't you want to be the talk of the block? Get on over to The RHOK and link up!

WW: The Crow Wagging Tongue !?!?

Football practice started this week in Oklahoma and of course with it came the very HOT temperatures! I heard one person say 111*, but I only saw 106* in my car!  Our 4th grade team looks good so far, of course we are only two days into practice!

I caught the above picture in Tuesday nights practice, I just thought it was a cute Daddy/Son

Coach Crow/ Player moment but realized once I got home that it was a little more of a family trait moment that I hadn't noticed of my husband before. You see I've noticed that Kaybrie sticks her tongue out when she is focused on something and my MIL told me that her other son Marc does this as well. So now it is caught on digital camera: The Crow's have a Wagging Tongue!

My Son the All-Star!

In a past post, I told you that my dear 8 year old son had been chosen to play in the Sooner Classic All-Star Football Tournament in Muskogee. We wrapped it up this weekend. Secretly, I am so glad, but then again, I can't believe I'm gonna say this- I really enjoyed football this year, and I might, just might know what is going on before his senior year, LOL! The All-Star team consisted of players from four teams, Braden's team, BA Black, BA Silver, Pryor and Union. These boys only had two weeks to practice together and come together as a team. And, they did! They played a total of 4 games together and came in 3rd place in the tournament and let me tell you the last two games they played AWESOME! My son, know as "Hutch" on the team or by Mom as the "B'ster" or "Baby" actually scored an extra point on a pass, made two first down's on two passes and tackled like a mad man! I am so proud of him. And I might add I did miss his extra point, because I wasn't looking for it, tournament rules let him actually touch the ball where regular season rules didn't- I know BAD BAD Moma! (I'll get the video later!)

Here are the All-Star's

Only a True Football Player could take pride in these bruises.......

.........and this one from a helmet.............

.....honestly, his parents spent $30 on arm pads to protect our baby boy from these blocking bruises, but according to the Coaches and the other players the more bruises like this you have the more evidence that your doing your job on the line! Oh dear, sure hope DHS is not called on me! But a blog is a blog and it is to document these important moments in our children's lives and the B'ster is so proud!

WooooPigSoooie!

Our Annual Arkansas Game November 7, 2009! We Beat South Carolina! Great Game, Great Seats! Loved it! Way to go Razorbacks!

Take Me Back Tuesday- This is Why He Went to Tackle This Year!

The 2009 Football Season has officially started in the Crow household. Not only is our DS 4'11 and 89lbs, he also has two years of flag football experience. During the 2008 football season Braden played for the Steelers. Braden's friend E. played for the Cowboys and he decided to get a little aggressive when they played against each other (see picture below)! Anyone who knows anything about flag football knows that you are not to "grab" anything but the flags! BTW, both players got away with no penalty being called and they are both playing tackle football for opposite teams this year!

(picture provided by E's parent's)

Body Image, Discrimination, Child/Adult- BIG Subject

I don't generally jump on a soapbox, especially on my blog. Nor do I purposely lash out at society and throw my opinions out there to be lashed back at, but I'm going to do it now. Sunday, my brother was openly discriminated against by an airline for being 6'5" and 380lbs. I encourage you to read the complete story at my SIL's blog at LizzyDear's Life Review's before you continue on with my post.

On Monday, after almost 5 weeks of me being cooped up inside the house unable to walk due to a sports injury (a fractured ankle), that I got from trying to lose weight and keep in shape because I deal with my own weight issues since having Kaybrie, at 5'9" and 190lbs, my family takes my dear son to get his football equipment.

Braden is playing his first year of tackle football. He is an 8 year old, 3rd grader this year. He will be 9 in December. He has two years of flag football behind him and we feel as a family that it is time for him to move up. He will be playing by the rules of the INFC. The first things done when Braden arrived was being measured and weighed. He is 4'11 and 89lbs. Whoa, they said, this boy can't touch the football, he can only play on the defensive line, to play offense he must weigh less than 75lbs. What? He's too big to play offense, he might hurt someone. Well, so what if we let him play with the 4th graders, um that'll work as long as he doesn't gain 1lb and weigh in at 90lbs before each game.

So, does anyone see where I am going with this post? I certainly do not want my 4'11", 89lb son to hurt any of your smaller children, but really, his heart is still the same size and when my baby boy makes the comment to me on his way to take his sports physical yesterday about how is he going to stay under 90lbs so he can play the sport he loves, with kids that he does not even go to school with because he's a 3rd grader playing on a team of 4th graders, my response is "Baby, you are not going to go on a diet, if anything you can quit drinking Dr. Pepper"!

BTW, at the Dr's office, fully clothed he weighed in at 91lbs, and the doctor said once practice started and school started chances are, Braden will drop 1 to 2lbs and have no problems weighing in at requirements in his skivvies and also next Tuesday at the Combine, due to Braden's height and size, those Broken Arrow coaches are gonna be blown away!

Does weight discrimination truly start at such a young age? And why 2x in one week in MY family? I mean come on. My Braden is not an obese kid. I have the growth charts to prove it. He has been in the 95th percentile his entire life. And, I do not want to hear the comment from another persons mouth that DEFENSE wins ballgames, that was not the point of my sons weight issue with the so-called rules. And also, I know that in 7th grade, size, won't matter anymore because Broken Arrow will have already picked its chosen players, but that is 4 years away. No, I don't expect an apology or anything big out of my post, just an awareness of how comments/rules make kids/adults feel. No, there is no guarantee that Braden will be a fantastic offensive player, but he should be given a chance just like any other young player who has the heart to go out after something.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: AT THE COMBINE ON 7/28/09, WE DECIDED TO LET BRADEN PLAY ON THE 3RD GRADE LEVEL.

Lucky Pop-Tart is going to be framed....

Well, Guess what? Arkansas pulled it off. A 25-22 victory over Auburn. Was it the Pop-Tart? Wonder what specials Hobby Lobby runs on framing Pop-Tarts?

Pop-Tarts: Could it be the Breakfast of Champions?

The breakfast of choice for the Crow Family, primarily Jason, is Pop-Tarts! I know, I know not a healthy choice and his doctor would die, but telling a 38 year old man what to eat.........I don't go there! Anyway when I bought groceries this week, Pop-Tarts were on the list, with Jason's writing specifically telling me "no strawberry". So, I found the only brown sugar they had. They all have college logos on them, and the box showed the Razorback. I got two boxes. Well, finally today, we found our "Hog". Could this be a sign? Could the Razorbacks possibly beat a ranked Auburn? Well, we have placed our Pop-Tart in a baggy, uneaten for fear of bad luck! We'll see........

Braden's 1st Game: Steelers vs. Bulldogs

Season Opener, 67 degrees outside, can you feel it? It is football weather! Braden did not get a TD this game, he was about 3 yards from one when he got poked in the eye and then he stopped. I told him after the game that next time "don't stop, get the touchdown, and then we would worry about his eye or other injury"! Am I really becoming a competitive Mom? Aaaaah.... The Steelers walked away w/ a victory, and Braden gets to keep his eye, it seemed like the boys were really hungry after the game........