Time Flies

It seems like it was only yesterday that this photo (above) was taken. Actually, it was snapped over 10 years ago. The occasion was the Indian Run Pre-School picnic at Coffman Park. In the photo, Ian has his arm around his best friend at the time, Sarah. Yet, when he was very young, Ian had a strong fascination with little red-haired girls. In fact, Michele used to jokingly call him Charlie Brown because of this fascination. The little red-haired girl standing in front of him is Britt...

Ten years later, the occasion was the Dublin Jerome High School homecoming dance. We discovered that Ian had asked Britt to the dance less than two days before the big day. Up until that time, Ian had told us that he wasn't planning to go. I must admit that I was happy to hear that he had changed his mind, and even happier to learn that he had asked Britt.

Time flies by so quickly, and experiences like homecoming dances are precious, largely because of the evanescent nature of those memories. This blog was created with the intent of documenting those life experiences or glory days.

Ian and Britt joined more than a dozen other freshmen & sophomores on a party bus that whisked them off to Buca di Beppo for dinner. They all agreed that this time together was their favorite part of the night. After dining, they asked the driver to take his time returning to the high school so that they could arrive fashionably late for the dance. The actual homecoming dance received lukewarm reviews from most of the kids. Afterward, they all partied at a friends home. When I picked up Ian at the end of the night, the size of the smile on his face told the story of lifelong memories made, and shared, with friends.

At age 4

Karma

As Ian had handled some recent bad luck with an extraordinarily positive attitude, it was only a matter of time before karma sent some better luck his way.

Two weeks ago, Ian made it back onto the soccer pitch following a quick recovery from a broken collar bone. It didn't take him long to get back in stride. His touch was spot on and he was able to put a couple of balls in the net during the last three games of the JV season. On an extremely cold and rainy night, following his last JV game, he was asked to join the VARSITY team for their game that night against the number one team in the state: the St. Francis DeSales Stallions.

Michele and I were very happy for him, but I must admit that we were really looking forward to getting out of the cold...and Ian playing with the varsity meant we would sit on the those cold hard bleachers for another two hours. We thought that, as a freshman, he would simply sit on the bench and watch the upperclassmen play. However, after the starting center midfielder left the game with a concussion, Ian was called into the game. He played well. On the bus ride home, the coach asked him to join the varsity team for their run into the state playoffs! Last night, he played a good 60 minutes in the first playoff game against Marion-Franklin. He scored two goals and had two assists from his center midfield position. The next game will take place on Wednesday against the winner of the contest between Marysville and Pickerington.

UPDATE: Dublin Jerome beat Pickerington by a score of 6-0
UPDATE: Dublin wins District Championship by a score of 2-1

GO CELTICS!

Some action photos taken by another soccer dad:

Freak of nature

As described in a previous post, Ian broke his collar bone four weeks ago. After an initial x-ray on September 3rd, he was told that he would be unable to play soccer for another six to eight weeks. He quickly did the math and determined that this prognosis would essentially end his high school soccer season. Ian asked if there might be any chance that he could play yet this season. The doctor told him, "well, I suppose that you could be some freak of nature whom completely heals in four weeks."

Fast forward four weeks: A follow up x-ray showed that Ian's right clavicle had completely healed. The area around the break was now almost twice the size of his left clavicle! I guess there is a benefit to drinking nearly a gallon of milk a day.... and it doesn't hurt to be a freak of nature either.

Needless to say, Ian is happy to be playing again.

Wish him luck.