Thursday, May 15, 2008

Moms, Soccer, & Track

Keeping this blog updated is going to be more difficult than I thought.....

Last weekend was Mother's Day. As has become a rather unfortunate tradition in our family, we had soccer tournaments scheduled for the big day. In order to ease the tension this caused, Nathan and I served breakfast in bed for Michele [Tim Horton's doughnuts with Caribou Coffee]. We also gave her gift certificates to Foertmeyers Nursery. A little birdie had told me that Michele wanted some flowers which she could plant for Mother's Day. We hope she forgives us, and realizes how much we love her.

Nathan's soccer team was playing in the Sidney Mayfest Soccer Classic, in Sidney, OH. Nathan had played exceptionally well as goalkeeper on Saturday, playing a full 60 minutes without giving up a goal. Nathan isn't the regular keeper on his team, but he had trained with Jon Busch for two years. For those who don't follow the sport, Jon Busch is currently the top goalie in Major League Soccer. He now plays for the Chicago Fire, but was our club trainer while he played with the Columbus Crew. I don't think that Nathan realizes what a great opportunity this was...for me, it would have been like training with Johnny Bench when I was 10 or 11 years old! In the photo, that's Nathan in the yellow keeper's jersey. He looks mean doesn't he?
















Anyway, for as splendidly as Nathan played, his team did not fare so well, losing both games on Saturday. As a sign [of His displeasure?], the Sunday games were completely rained out. The fields ended up under 3 inches of water! The cancellation of games gave Nathan and I some free time. We stopped for lunch at The Spot, which is an Ohio landmark. The Spot is an old original burger joint & malt shop [think Arnold's from Happy Days] right down to the sparkly vinyl stools at the counter. The restaurant gained some local fame in 2004, as President Bush spent some time there. They've documented the visit well, with numerous photos on the walls. I thought it was interesting that all of the employees in the photos were still working there last weekend. We also happened upon a small photo from the 1980's. In the photo, the owner of The Spot was shown sitting at a booth with his grandsons. The owner, from the 50's thru the 80's, was Bob Hepler. His grandsons were Rob, Chad, and Mika Lowe. That's right, those Lowes. OK, so it's not that exciting, but it's just not something I expected to find in Sidney, Ohio.

On our way home, Nathan and I had a chance to stop by Mom & Dad's, so that we could drop off gifts and cards. Mom looked great, and she showed off her new hair-do. Along with gifts and cards, Nathan gave her a Mother's Day corsage which he received at the soccer tournament. Mom looked beautiful and happy. Before we left, my brother Steve and Marge showed up with dinner for Mom & Dad. It was a nice Keller family day...but we sorely missed those family members who were not with us. While still at the house, the tornado sirens went off. We quickly turned on The Weather Channel and saw that a tornado had been spotted near our house in Dublin. In fact, the radar showed the line moving right up our road! I called Michele to make sure that she was taking precautions. Of course, she had heard the sirens too. However, Ian was in the backyard with the neighbor [Spence] scoping out the situation. They determined that the rotating clouds had already passed over, and had never really formed a funnel. It was good for a scare though....isn't Springtime in Ohio fun? Then we heard that parts of Georgia were hit with fierce storms again. Our thoughts turned to my niece Michelle, her husband Andrew, and their son, Toby Pieracini, who all live near Atlanta. The south has been hit hard this Spring. We hope that the Pieracini's have not been affected by the bad weather.

Finally, on Tuesday, we attended Ian's track team banquet. Ian ran track this Spring for his middle school team, the Grizzell 'Rocks. He ran the 100M High Hurdles, the 400M, and the High Jump. He did well in each event, but showed some real natural ability in the High Jump. His best jump was 4'10". We determined that this meant he could completely jump over Grandma Keller's head! He had great form [as you can see in the photo], and was awarded the "Coaches Award" for work ethic, dedication, and performance in field events [i.e. High Jump].







3 comments:

Diane said...

This was awesome! Keep it up, Ken. I'm going to start blogging again too....I've been a LONG hiatus. I love how you describe things. I'm kinda proud of my kid brother.
Come back soon for a visit and we can sit up and talk and laugh at youtube videos again. Love you, crazy man.

Diane said...

been ON a long hiatus, I mean.
geesh!

Michelle said...

I didn't know this was here! Jess just told me last night and I can't wait for you to continue updating it. We love you and see ya this weekend!!!!!