Soccer, Flying, Marley and Exercise

I have decided to make a weekly blog rather than smaller numerous ones.  I will warn you that with everything that goes on in this house, my blog entries will be long, but entertaining!

Soccer Saturday's have begun again!  Saturday, September 11th, the season began for Rachel and Carmen. 

Carmen's games are in the morning and Rachel's games are in the late afternoon.  This is means Abram and I get to see both games, but also our entire Saturday is filled with travel soccer.

Carmen was used as a forward at the beginning of the game. She is not used to this position, but I believe that she can be a great forward with her speed. It took me awhile to realize that the ball is in the air in this picture.















Towards the end of the game Carmen's coach put her in as a defender.  She was able to take on this player in green.  As she is trying to outrun her, the girl in green still is trying to push or hold onto Carmen!

Carmen used her left foot to kick the ball away.


The race for the ball was on!  Their team lost this game.  Hopefully next Saturday is better.

Carmen came to Rachel's game later in the day.  She is hanging out with Skye, an old teammate.  One of Skye's sisters is playing with Rachel this year.

Abram was taking pictures during Rachel's game because I am the assistant coach.  Carmen's last year's coach is Rachel's coach now.  I was an assistant for him last spring as well.  


 Rachel performed her signature move this year.  She loves to play in defense, gain control of the ball and move it up the field and score if none of her teammates are open. She did this move multiple times this game.














I believe she actually scored this time.  This was the second attempt on goal.  Rachel had at least two attempts and 1 goal within the first 5 minutes of the game.



Rachel is fearless when playing.  She takes shots and blocks them with her chest.  She takes on any charging player.  Her team won their first game. 



Sunday, September 12th, I went with Abram during his lesson.

 Here he is taking the tarp off the plane.  Abram has a badge that approves him to be out with planes, checking the engine and prepping the plane before his lesson.

You have to check the oil before a flight, gas, spark plugs, wiring, flaps, steering wheels, wheels, rudder and more.  I feel as if we should all be doing this before we get into our cars.  When was the last time you looked under the hood to see if the alternator belt was in good shape? You have to do this before every flight!

This is a good view of the plane we flew in.  It has four seats.  The plane is a Piper Warrior.  It is designed to be a forgiving plane for training.

It thought this truck was cool.  This is what comes to fill up the gas in planes.  He kept the truck running the whole time though.

There's a tank in each wing.  I learned that plane gas is blue, jet gas is clear and car gas is orange/red. 

Abram is flying around the airport in this photo.  He was doing "touch and goes," which means he lands and takes off right away.  He recently bought sound canceling headphones for flying.  They have a microphone for talking on the radio and intercom.  We all tried them on  at home.  Once the noise cancellation turns on you feel as if you are in an empty room.  Cool and freaky at the same time.  I had my own set of headphones from the flight school so I could listen to them talk and respond back.

This is the airport.  It looked like a lego model from the airplane.

Boston skyline from the plane. 

The center left ramp is where we had walked onto to get the plane.  From here it again looks like I took a picture of toys.  

It was amazing to fly with Abram!  The first time we took off I was a bit frightened, but that quickly wore off.  Abram is a great pilot.  He is working on making the landings more smooth.  The instructor asked if I was scared when we landed once with two bumps.  I replied, "he's scared me more on the tandem than he did ever during the 2 hours of flying!". 

Many people are afraid of me flying with Abram.  Yes, there are plane crashes, but how many more car accidents happen every day?  (Actually, there have only been two fatalities in MA aviation this year. One involved a helicopter and the other when the instructor walked out of the plane while the prop was still rotating.  So really, no plane crashes!)  We get in our cars without checking if all parts are working.  We "trust" that we won't get into an accident.   When you are learning to fly the instructor has all the same controls as you and will take over if things are not going correctly.  How many of you have gotten in the car, as a passenger, and not been able to aid your new driving teen?  I believe people feel comfortable with what they know, whether there are inherent dangers or not (i.e. driving every day).  But they fear the unknown, like flying.   OK, I'm done with my rant!

I left the lesson wanting to get my pilot license as well!  It will take me much longer to get my license than it will Abram, though.

Tues was the day Tobin had his great and fastest race yet.  Tobin's coach predicts that he has more time to take off.  His race time on our course is comparable to low 16s on a flatter course.  He races in another week at Wachusett against their fastest rivals.  We'll see how he does then.

Marley loves Abram!  Most nights he snuggles up against him while Abram is using the laptop or reading his flying books.  A few nights ago, there wasn't much room he liked so he lied across Abram's arms and used them as a bed!

Marley snuggled between Abram's arms at first.  he was at times watching the mouse move around the screen.  



















Marley soon fell asleep on Abram's arms.  It is good Abram is good with his left hand.  It was more free than the right one!

I honestly cannot remember how long Marley slept on Abram's arms, but I do know it was at least a half of an hour. Tonight as I write this blog, Marley had lots of room near me to sleep, but he chose space next to Abram, squeezing between books and Abram's side! I guess we may chose to bring home animals into our house, but they then choose the people they connect with most.

Friday afternoon Abram and I biked 30 miles around the Wachusett Reservoir.  When we take that route we pass these statues.  I love that the owners dress them up seasonally.  I believe I posted during the summer that they were wearing bathing suits.  Now they have rakes and shovels.  That night, we also played in our co-ed soccer league.  Abram sent a text saying "You know it is an over 40 soccer league when everyone plays hard but hobbles off the turf when the game's done!"  We aren't over 40 yet, but we did hobble off with bruises, bumps and a torn quad.  Time to celebrate Freedom of Movement/Hobbling!

Every day at our house is filled with excitement and events.  I forgot to mention that Rachel is taking up the cello!  We rented a 1/4 cello on Thursday evening.  Her first lesson is this Wednesday night.  I will take a picture of her with it and post it with next weeks' blog. 

Thanks for taking time to read what's happening at the Dancy clan's house.