Rugby

Joshua started playing with the Lehigh Valley Rugby Club, the Hooligans, a few weeks ago.  Alma and I are already becoming champs of the sideline, clocking in our second match this afternoon.

Today I noticed very small freckles on the tops of her cheeks.  It made me think, "Get ready for a lifetime of sun and sports, kiddo."

Rugby photo from the game this past weekend

This is why watching rugby is exciting.

RUGBY!

A video of Joshua's rugby team (Media Rugby Football Club) playing against Pittsburgh.

Joshua is the far left winger who runs really fast.

Winter Coat Time! And the Death of the 'Stash

Here at Casa de Chisholms, we celebrate the little things. Like the official switching from our fleeces to our winter coats! Doesn't get better. The other day we decorated the house -- ornaments hang from the chandelier and the ceiling fan due to our noticeable lack of tree (next year, next year ...) -- and went out for a drink to celebrate the occasion. May not seem like a big celebration but, for us, it was perfect.

Unfortunately, folks, this is the last photo you will see of Joshua's mustache. It died in a fit of frustration at how much it obstructed the eating process -- "och, that hurt" was a common theme as the mustache tried to be consumed along with dinner. While I loved the 'stache for the first five months, by month six I missed seeing my husbands lovely smile (*ahhhh*).

That mustache first joined us when we were visiting Seattle in July.

It stayed for our first anniversary.

It helped with the house rehab and move.

It stayed for an entire rugby season, a community action, a few tennis matches, a birthday and visit, the creation of four povitisas, a hockey game and a football game.

(Not pictured, a high school reunion, multiple family functions and meeting everyone from the Geography Department ... yup, all those people think that Joshua is a "guy who has a mustache." Pretty funny stuff.)

We went through a lot together, but it was time ... knowing Joshua, I'm sure we are moving into another stage of wonderful hair creation.

Public Speaking Advice from J. Chisholm

Today I had to give a 2.5 hour class presentation ... yeah, really. Luckily I have a helpful husband who sent me a bunch of pointers before I gave the presentation. Here they are:

1. If you don't know the answer to a question, like our commander and chief, make a joke about something completely unrelated and hope the questioner forgets what he or she asked.

2. You own the room, feel free to throw anyone out ... even the teacher!

3. If you are unsure how to pronounce something, either say it quickly and mumbled or just skip the word entirely.

4. Beat your fists against the table and shake them in the air

5. Hide behind the podium

6. Avoid eye contact with the audience

7. If someone is asking a hard question, act like you do not understand what they are saying and have them rephrase the questions over and over, then answer a question you want and just skip over theirs

8. Bribery is a helpful tool

9. Follow Jesus' lead and conduct some miracles, or at least some neat magic tricks

10. If all else fails, just be yourself, and trust that you are awesome, your work is brilliant and you are more then prepared for this beeeaatch!

Needless to say, the presentation went very well. When I allowed the professor to come back into the room, I did the rabbit out of the hat trick again for him. He was obviously impressed. This school business is easier than I was expecting.

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On a completely different note, here's a photo from one of Joshua's recent matches.

(Note: Joshua is on the bottom left of the photo)

These Doctors ROCK!!!

We had an awesome time visiting Pittsburgh this past weekend.

While Joshua played almost two full rugby matches, we sat around in the sunshine eating, drinking and gabbing. Joshua's team ended up dominating the other team ... not sure of the score, but it was awesome.

Then, since we had only been outside for 5 hours that day, we decided to go to a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game. The stadium is right along the water and across from the city = neat location!

Then back at their house, Kate and Neal introduced us to Guitar Hero!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is always so fun to hang out with Kate and Neal. They are the bestest!!!

(If you are ever having issues seeing the details of these photos, just click up them and they will become HUGE.)

New! New! New!

We have been gaining a few awesome possessions/people/items/time, which we thought we should share. In no certain order ...

• Cutting board shaped like Pennsylvania. Hooray for Joshua's best man Scott and for engraved wedding gifts! If you cannot see it well, it says "Laura and Joshua August 19, 2006" Then it marks out Carlisle on the map with a dot. How awesome is that?!
  
  


• Weight bench and a full set of weights that are located in our very full and extremely organized basement. We traded our gym membership at Sweat Fitness (known for its meatheads and bikini models) for a much more economical home gym.
  
  


• A new Thompson, but you will have to ask Brian and Bridgette for the details on that one. We couldn't be more excited!


• Play Station 2 to keep Joshua out of trouble while I am doing schoolwork. Although it probably gets him in more trouble because all he does is yell at Madden "for being stupid" while he plays that football game.


• An island for the kitchen (Ikea's Ensta), which we have been wanting since we moved here. Now we can sit on our stools again as we eat breakfast and watch each other cook. Those stools were a favorite part of our apartment so we wanted to reincorporate them back into our lives.


• A mustache, which is getting progressively bigger and "twistable" much to our enjoyment. Joshua's Halloween costume this year is going to be awesome. Although there are almost too many options!

• Mr. Bento, which is a Japanese-style lunch box that is already causing some marital strife as Joshua is suspicious that I might love it more than him. (Laura Bento has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?)
• A BBQ grill as a housewarming gift from M&D Thompson. It has been providing plenty of quick and yummy meals.



• Lots of time to read about the things that interest me. It is so wonderful that I have this time to read and think in such an intense way again. (I always look so studious, don't I?!)

• Since we are still slowly building our base of friends in Philadelphia, we have had the joy of spending a ton of time together. We went to Hershey Park together a few weekends ago, have been taking more walks around our neighborhood, and have just generally enjoyed being married to one another. Even though our motto was going to be "First year for love, the rest for spite" we aren't living that out very well! (Obviously, that wasn't going to be our motto. Our real motto is something like "Try to act older than toddlers.")


• The return of rugby season! Saturday's match featured a guy whose nose was moved closer to his ear than the center of his face. It was pretty amazing ... and pretty awesome that it wasn't Joshua in that situation.

Next: A rugby trip to Pittsburgh to visit Kate and Neal!

Second Rugby Match ... more mud, more goosepoo

Media Rugby won our second match against Quantico Marines. Highlight of the game was the kilted Marine who played the Marine Anthem on the bagpipes at every kick-off. We scored often so we were able to hear the pipes quite a bit.

Final score: I never remember this ... we scored more than they did.


(I'm the one on the far right. The joy of being a back = being far from the scrum, but I still earned my mud and bruises.)

Let the Rugby Games Begin ...

Joshua's first rugby match could be summed up as follows:

Wow, that was a lot of goose poop.
Joshua is not pictured because he always had the ball and was running too fast to be captured by modern day technology ... and because it is so exciting to watch him play that it becomes difficult to take photos -- even for me! Needless to say, the game was a blow-out with Joshua's team dominating.