WTF?!

First off, WTF stands for "What the Fudge," not whatever other bad things you were thinking ;-). I found out the other day that Tay's friend can't come over because I live here now. The parents don't like me and think I'm "a bad person." How the heck is that?!? What have I ever done to them? Heck! I've even stopped in front of their house when biking by, and we talked for like 10 minutes! And now I'm the bad guy? If you've followed everything I've blogged about, would you honestly think I was an aweful person?? I mean, does the volunteer work and everything else I do really a bad thing?? I just don't get some people... All I have to say is to heck with the parents that don't like me, but don't punish your kid like that. Just ask anyone around who I am/what I'm like, and they'll tell you...

Why Saying "Good Luck!" Gives You, Well. Good Luck!

Every day since Ben moved in, I've been telling him "Good Luck!" before he leaves for school.Every time I do, Ben tells me that he's afraid somone is going to try to kill him. So far, he's been attacked by a goose, cut off on the way to McDonald's, and other stuff. I can't list them all. Don't tell him, but I hired a kid in my class whose dad is a goose breeder to let the angry goose out in the middle of the road in front of him. Just kidding, heh heh heh..........
So, annyway, this one day Ben had a test. I didn't tell him "good luck" to prove that saying good luck gives you good luck.He hasn't told me his grade yet so.....
Speaking of good luck, I've been on a search at school. I looking for four leafed clovers! :)! So far, no luck. :(! However I found out that some clovers can grow up to the height of my waist. True! I had been looking partly for a ball, partly for a four leafed clover. Suddenly my friend called out "The school really needs too mow this grass! Look how high it is!"
Do you know how when you say something then are reminded of something else? That's what's happened to me!
Speaking of grass, have you seen a flower that looks like this description? It has lots of yellow petals that are shaped like rectangles, with fuzzy stems. If you know what this flower is e-mail me at jordancousineau@gmail.com.
Thank you, and Good Luck!

"Good Luck!"

I've fallen into a new routine each morning at my new home. Back when I lived with my parents, I would wake at 4am, put in my contacts, change into my gym clothes and make toast with peanut butter for breakfast. Then I'd bike down to the gym for a 5am-6am workout. Now that I'm farther away from the gym, I just go for a run at 5am around the lake. Sometimes Mrs Cousineau joins me, sometimes she doesn't. After we get back, I hop in the shower while Mrs Cousineau wakes up Taylor. Tay heads out at 6:35am, and then I go and wake up the rest of the rugrats. If I'm not running late, sometimes I'll make them breakfast (only if it's cold cereal with milk or something else really easy ;-)). Then I finish getting ready for school and head out the door somewhere from 7:10am-7:20am.

Here's where the "Good Luck" title comes in. As I'm ready to head out the door, the kids all give me a hug and tell me "bye," "have a good day," etc.. Jordan, is different. Instead of saying "have a good day," she says "Good luck!"

Every time she's told me "good luck," something unfortunate happens to me either on my way to school or at some point during the day. With my record on the road (riding my bike, cars trying to hit me), when Jordan says good luck I tell her that now I'm afraid I'm going to get hit by a car or something, because I think Jordan has paid someone to run me off the road/take me out.

Yesterday was the most memorable, so far. I left at 7:15am and had to turn around to go back for my lunch, so I was already running a little late. I was flying down the street on my way to school, and at the same time I was holding my mp3 player, searching for a song I wanted to listen to. (Eyes off road and on mp3 player while biking is just as bad as talking on a cell while driving! :-P). I look up and the first thing I see is a large bird walking back and forth right in front of me. I was like "CRAP! A FRIGGIN DUCK!!" I slammed on my brakes with the 1 hand I had still on the handlebars but they didn't work because they brakepads and rims were wet, and I need new brakepads. So I swerved out into the middle of the street and around the crazy animal. As I went around it, it spread its wings and started yelling at me. I guess I really pissed it off! Lol. Everyone at school thought it was really funny when I told them a duck tried to kill me this morning. Though I don't know what kind of bird it was. I said duck because that's the first thing that came to mind when I saw it, but everyone here thinks it was a Canadian goose. Either way, the crazy bird tried to kill me and I put the blame on Jordan for jinxing me ;-).

Now, while riding my bike, I've been attacked by a duck/goose, a rabid racoon, a squirrel, and a turkey. What's next, huh Jordan? :-P

Frustrated

I'm a licensed Grade 8 soccer referee for PVJSL. I first got licensed back in 2006 because no reffs ever showed up to my little brother's games, so I reffed. Since I was always reffing, I figured I may as well get certified and be assigned games and make more money. I got recertified in 2007, but took the 2008 season off because the league owed me money, I was getting irritated with PVJSL, and I couldn't take the parents yelling at me, who didn't even know the game, any longer. I heard that referee pay had been bumped up from $16/game for the youngest age group to $24/game in 2009, so I took the Grade 9 to Grade 8 bridge recertification course.

At the beginning of the season, I was being assigned 2-3 games/day, 3-4 times/week. I was making the good money. Then Lou, President of PVJSL, started assigning me to the older games, like U12, U13. I didn't really mind at first. But then I was being assigned fewer and fewer games. I guess the more you accept the older games, the less you get assigned games, period. And you shouldn't cross Lou's authority, either. I've heard stories that a referee emailed Lou, saying she didn't like one of Lou's ideas. She didn't get assigned to referee any games the rest of the season! My dad is also a Grade 8 PVJSL soccer referee. He turned down 3 games one day a few weeks ago, and went from getting assigned a few games a week to maybe only a single game every few weeks.

Refereeing is one of my 3 current jobs. I am also a tutor at Pathfinder Regional High School, but I only get paid $30/week, for an hour on Tuesday and an hour on Thursday. Plus, this Thursday is the last day for tutoring for the rest of the school year. I manage palmersoccer.org, too. That pays $25/month. Coaching a Palmer Soccer team and being a Tech Teen at the Palmer Public Library is just extra volunteer work, so I need the money I get from reffing to pay for groceries each week!

Lou hasn't assigned me any games in a while. At the beginning of the season, I told him that I could not referee on Saturdays because I coach on Saturdays. This Saturday I have to coach a game at 11:00am in Palmer. I just recieved an email from PVJSL, requesting that I referee games in Ware, beginning at noon. Now, as a licensed referee, I'm required to get to the field a half hour to an hour early to inspect the field's conditions, which means I'd have to be in Ware at 11:00am, the same time that my team is scheduled to play! I can't be in two places at once! And my only source of transportation is my 10-speed, worn-down, Motobecane Mirage road bike! But I can't turn down reffing the games because I NEED the money! And if I turn them down, then I'll be done for the season, reffing! Another reason I have to be at my game is to distribute the candle fundraiser that I just convinced the President of Palmer Soccer to bring to Saturday's game to distribute because I have no car to carry them in! Curses!! What am I supposed to do?!?!

Looks like I'll HAVE to accept the games in Ware on Saturday... Darn you rotten PVJSL! This really frustrates me >_<

The Reds

Nathan and Madison were born only a few weeks apart, and both are trouble! But, we love them anyway! So here is a pictures of "The Reds," Nathan is the red head Ben mentioned in his post.

We started to call them "The Reds" because they were both wearing red shirts, and Nathan's hair color is just a bonus.

Jordan and Christian are shown "throwing gang signs" before the paddle boat ride.

Memorial Day

We took a minute at about 3pm to have a moment of prayer or silence for the those we have lost. It was really nice adn no one wanted to talk afterwards. Not even Madison! Shocker! I have a few pictures I'm going to put up, but I have to get my camera first. We had a picnic at the park, played soccer until ben and I were too sore to play anymore, the kids flew a kite and played in a stream. Pictures coming soon!

Thank You

Yesterday was the BEST day of my life. I joined my new family, going to the Cousineau Family Reunion. I wasn't sure what to expect. The only family reunion I had been to before was for my mom's side of the family. And all they did was sit around the bar with drinks and smoke. Those who didn't sit at the bar walked around, so I could smell that awful cigarette smoke anywhere I went. The food wreaked of smoke too! The only "fun" we had was a game of baseball, and the pitcher had a beer on the mound!! During the game, the sun had begun to go down so I took off my sunglasses and put them on the rock wall above the bench. Then my rotten little cousin chooses to come over, pick them up, and chuck them at the gound. They got all scratched up. They were an expensive pair that I had just gotten about a week ago. What made it worse was I had been babysitting this little brat and was already fed up with him and his parents. So I went and yelled at his mother that I quit and left the reunion while my parents and brother stayed. So yeah, yesterday was MUCH better.

We arrived at Look Park right around noon, I think. Everyone there seemed to be in a great mood. The first thing we did was eat. The food was unbelieveably GOOD! I wish I could eat like I did yesterday, everyday! Next, I think, were the kid-events. First up were the sack-races. I wanted to have a good time, so I joined all the kids. Taylor and her cousin were "too cool" to participate, so they stood as the finish line. I wish they had joined us. It was really fun! Me winning going fowards and backwards didn't count, but I didn't care. I just wanted to be a part of the event. In the first race, the sack was to small for me and I was off balance as soon as I started jumping. I neared the finish line and Taylor was yelling "He's gonna fall! He's gonna fall!" I yelled to Mrs. Cousineau "MOVE! Get outta the way!" but she apparently didn't hear me, and I landed on her toe. She got a swollen toe from this event; I got first place, and a bruised side, which hurts like heck right now. Sorry Mrs. C.! O:-)

The second event was the egg race. Like usual, I won :-D. But I wasn't part of the competition, but I don't care. As I said before, I'm just happy to be a part of the events, part of the family. I've never had the chance to have fun like this. After the race, Tay asked if she could smash my egg against the ground, so I let her. She seemed to have way too much fun doing that lol. But I liked seeing her have a good time.

I think the next event was the 3-legged race. I couldn't get anyone to partner with me, so I had to sit this event out. Mrs. Cousineau and I participated in the next event though, the water balloon toss. We didn't win, but had fun anyways.

The kid events had ended now, so we began a game of wiffleball. I'm not sure who ended up winning the game, or if we were even keeping score :-P. Almost every hit I had, somebody caught. Then towards then end of the game, I hit a line-drive single, and the next batter up hit me home. It was much better than the game at the Smith Family Reunion. There, the pitcher would throw the ball, then take another sip of their beer that they had with them on the mound.

Paddle-boats were up next, and everyone seemed to want me in their boat. First, Jordan and Christian (sp.?) came up and asked me to be in their boat. Then Taylor wanted me to come with her and Melaney (sp.?) in their boat, and Bailey wanted me in her's. (I'm not sure how to spell the names, so I'm sorry if they're mispelled.) I ended up with Christian and Jordan, and they made me do almost all of the work! The lady in a canoe kept yelling at us, first because Tay and Mel splashed us, so I splashed them back. Then Jordan kept getting out of her seat, standing in the back of the boat or leaning over the edge. She said "This is the LAST time I'm gonna ask you guys to stay seated and stop fooling around. Next time I'm going to have to ask you to leave." It was funny. Oh, and I learned not to let Jordan steer the boat. First she crashed us into the rocks, and then wanted to make us go off the little waterfall. In the end, I had to steer and pedal, on my own, because the kids were too lazy. Eh, figures :-P

There were a few more events that day, but I don't feel like listing them all. At the end of the day, after dinner, we headed over to the volleyball court. Mrs C stacked the team against me and put Nathan on my team. The kid is a little jumping bean, and I, along with another adult, thought he was going to get landed on and crushed. I fell over him twice, and knocked the ball out of bounds a few times because if I followed through I would've knocked the kid in the face!

Well, I think that pretty much sums up the day. Thank you, Cousineau Family, for letting me take part in a real family reunion. It sure beats a bunch of old people sitting around drinking and smoking and blowing the smoke in you face :-P. I feel more and more like part of the family each and every day I spend here. Thank you so much. I love you guys :-D