Homecoming weekend at UNL

Jason came in last night around midnight and at 4.30am he and Jacob went hunting.  Jacob is rather careful about his hunting and showers with special soap that takes away his human scent and washes his hunting clothes in special soap to take away any human scent.  Jason, his brother, does not seem to do the same things so I wonder about how successful they are at hunting.  This is bow season here in Nebraska so I guess the deer are safe.

We took Lyla to her swim class at the YMCA and saw her bobbing around in the pool with the other children.  I am sure she has gills because she swims like a fish.  Oliver tried out the climbing wall and was hooked up pretty good by the lady in attendance.  He got half way up the wall and then came back down.  Not too bad for a 6yr old.

We came back to the house and picked up Ethan and off we went to the goodwill store for their 99cent sale.  We took the three children and it was a total circus there.  The little kids and Bill took turns wearing a skull mask and running around the store trying to scare each other.  The store is loaded with clothing that people have donated.  I am amazed at the amount and range of clothing that they had in the store.  It begs the question of whether  people lost weight and donated their big clothes or gained weight and donated their now little clothes.  Nevertheless, there are lots of pieces of clothing that have been donated to Goodwill and so they have the 99cent sale in an effort to reduce the amount of stock.  I wandered down the other aisles and found pieces of Heartwood Acres figurines and other figurines from home party type activities, loads of tumblers and dinnerware and cookware that speaks of people who have graduated to prepared meals and do not cook for themselves any more etc.  Oliver found two swords from a Star Wars outfit and he was happy as a clam.  He still had them with him when we went to McDonalds for lunch and he left them in the maze at the McDonalds so we had to stop our exit from the parking lot long enough for him to race back in and retrieve his swords.  We were late getting to McDonalds because two tractor trailers had a rear-end collision and it closed down a couple of arterial roads.

 We then took Ethan to his gymnastics class.  He is quite good at doing the activities that they ask the boys to perform.   They have quite a few girls doing gymnastics there and most of them are really skinny and very young.  The new uniforms for a meet arrived and they are filled with sparkles and spandex.  Not the kind of outfit that people my size should wear in public that’s for sure.  But then I do not see any 68 yr old gymnasts performing in the Olympics anyway.  So I said as much to Sara and she found a lady in Germany who is 86 years old and still doing gymnastics.  Totally Amazing, but I still do not think that spandex and I would be a good match.

Sara went out to Little Cesar’s and got Pizza to feed bill and the children while she and I went to the church to attend the Women’s Broadcast from Salt Lake.  We heard from the newly called President of the Relief society and her two counselors.

 President Eyring, of the first presidency of the church, spoke about his daughter and the problems that arose with her pregnancy and of the visiting teaching companion who felt inspired to go to her house.  Unbeknownst to the companion, his daughter was having problems with her pregnancy and needed to be taken to the hospital immediately.  The baby was delivered by cesarean section at a little over 1 pound weight.  The Relief Society President of her ward organized the sisters of Relief Society to take care of the small children at home while the mother went daily to be at the Neonatal unit to be with her new baby.  Pres. Eyring used this as an example of the commitment to service.  I think I will have to go online in a few days to be able to read the talks and be able to absorb more of what was said.  During the talks it is hard to hang onto each thought as it is presented but to read the text allows me time to internalize what was said.

When we came home the children were still up and having a blast with Poppa.  The football game was on TV – between Nebraska (Go! Big Red!) and Wisconsin…….being played here in Lincoln at the stadium.  As we watch the TV they show an overview of the stadium and it is one sea of RED with one patch of white which was the Nebraska Band.  This is the homecoming game and they won 30-27.  I guess Bo Pellini gets to keep his job as head coach – the team is now 4wins and 1 loss for the season.  Jacob went to the play but we had little hope of seeing him in that mass of red shirts.  Of course, with so many people now wanting to get out of the stadium and drive home, we won’t see him for an hour or more.  It is said of the Nebraska football games, that the stadium is the largest city in Nebraska on game night.