Larry Life

Mitchell Lehmann

! I dedicate this book to all of my my parents, Marv and Kari, and my brothers, Matt and Sam.

Table of Contents

.........................................................................................................Young Football! Page 5

...................................................................................................Jackson Lehmann! Page 6

................................................................................................................Christmas! Page 7

.........................................................................................................................Jugg! Page 8

....................................................................................................My Neighborhood! Page 9

.....................................................................................................................Haiku! Page 10

..................................................................................................................Hockey! Page 11

....................................................................................................Life in Wisconsin! Page 12

...............................................................................................................My Name! Page 13

....................................................................................................The Hockey Life! Page 14

Young Football

! I have been involved in football almost as long as I have been involved in hockey. When I was only a few years old, my mother asked me what my last name was. I said, “Mitchell?” She said, ”No, what is your last name?” Once again, I responded, “Mitchell?” She said, “No, your first name is Mitchell. What is your last name?” Finally, I said, “Mitchell Football Guy?” From that day, both of my brothers call me Mitchell Football Guy a lot now.! When my brothers played football in high school, I went to almost every single one of their games. I would always bring one of my footballs to their games, and I would play kill the carrier. I broke my nose once and dislocated my left shoulder. I believe that my shoulder injury still affects me today because I injured my left shoulder in hockey, but they didn’t know what was wrong with it. But it is still popping randomly and hurts to lift heavy weights. I remember the time when my brother, Matt, went to state for football his senior year. They played the Lancaster Flying Arrows. They ended up losing, but I thought that the flying arrows was such a cool name, that when I played football with myself, I would always say, “And the Flying Arrows win!” But my brother would always glare at me with extreme anger. I also remember when Sam went to state for football his senior year. He played Kettle-Moraine Luther. We completely destroyed them. I also remember that I was also mad because my father made me wear snow pants and extra layers, but I was as hot as the sun.

Jackson Lehmann

I remember when I first heard that my brother, Matt, was having a baby. My entire close family but my other brother, sam, was upstairs in the living room. My mom and dad were on the couch, Matt was sitting on a rocking chair adjacent to Ashley who was on a recliner, and I was sitting on a rocking chair opposite from them. Matt said that he had a really good joke to tell, but it seemed strange to me because it was very random. He said, “Knock, knock.” My mom replies, “Who’s there?” Then Matt said, “Ashley’s pregnant.” Everyone paused in silence, and it took a long four or five seconds before anyone realized what he said. Out of nowhere, my mom starts screaming and almost crying for about a minute. The rest of us, including Matt and Ashley, laughed the entire time, mostly at my mom.! Nine months later, Ashley was having the baby, but I wasn’t able to go because I was as sick as a dog. They named him Jackson, Jackson was born on January 5, 2013. He weighed 8 pounds and ten ounces, and was twenty-one and a half inches long. ! The first time I saw him was one week later, January 12. He was very observant. He seemed interested to look at everything. When I got to hold him, He would stare at my shoulder or at my chin. Every once and a while he would look at me for a couple minutes, then he would go back to looking at my shoulder. I get to visit him twice a month now.

Christmas

! My favorite holiday is Christmas. I wake up at around 9:00 or whenever my dog, Jugg, wakes me up. I go upstairs and my dad is on the recliner and my mom is on the couch. Usually my brother Sam is home for Christmas, but he’s sleeping until 10:30. Once Sam wakes up, we carry the presents upstairs for us to open. Since I’m the youngest, I have to hand out the presents. After we open the presents, we get ready to go to a family get-together at the Hokah fire department. On Christmas day it is my dad’s side of the family, but on Christmas Eve, we go to my mom’s side of the family at my Grandparents’ house. At my grandparents’ house we open presents and eat a lot of appetizers, then we eat whatever they serve us. We also eat a family tradition of oyster stew. At the Hokah fire department, we always eat ham, cheesy potatoes, bread, and a lot of extra treats. Of course, my favorite drink during Christmas is egg nog. We always get at least 3 large jugs of egg nog on Christmas and Christmas Eve. We stay there until six or seven p.m. Once we get home, we usually lay down downstairs and either sleep or watch television because we ate like pigs. The next morning after a nice and long nap that feels like we were just hibernating, we relax and play with our presents if it is possible.

Jugg

! Ever since my dog, Jazz, died when I was 10, I’ve wanted another dog. I had been begging my parents to get another dog for a couple years, and they finally gave in. We looked for a dog for a few months. Finally my parents found a family that kept stray animals safe and near Black River Falls. His mom was a stray dog that was found on the side of a road. He has four siblings and were kept in a corner of a barn. They all looked like Jugg, except one that was all white. The white one was very calm and cuddly. Jugg kept on hiding from us under some ATVs. The other three siblings were jumping around and were full of energy. Once we got ahold of Jugg, he was calm and was actually letting us hold him. We ended up choosing Jugg for some strange reason, but I’m happy we did.! These days, Jugg almost never runs out of energy. He could be sprinting around the house for five minutes straight, stop to get a drink of water, then start sprinting again. He is extremely fast too. He gets really low to the ground when he runs so he can take tight turns, and when he does run, you can never catch him. But when he wants to sleep, he sleeps like a rock. If he is sleeping, and you nudge him, he will barely open his eyes, and go back to sleep. Whenever Jugg has been home alone for over a couple of hours and we come home, he leaps at us as if it has been 10 years. ! I also taught Jugg how to do tricks. I taught him how to lay down, crawl, sit, roll over, jump, and how to do “kangaroo”. Kangaroo is when he stands on his heels of his legs and can balance there for a long time. If I tell him to, he can spin and go back into kangaroo. But sometimes when I tell him to lay down, he just rolls over right away because my parents would always tell him to roll over right when he would lay down.! In conclusion, Jugg ended up being the perfect dog for me and am grateful that we picked him. My average day would be way different without him.

My Neighborhood

! Most of the people that live in my neighborhood are fifty plus years old. There are only two other people that are my age that live on my street. Most of the “younger people” that live on my street are either four to eight years older than me, or four to eight years younger than me. When I was a little boy, I would always go over to my neighbors house that is right across the street. We would always play football, race each other, or go sledding on the hill behind his house. I went over there almost every-other day for four or five years. ! After a while, I started hanging out more with my “corner neighbor”. We both played hockey so during the winter, his dad would clear out a part of Lake Neshonoc, and we would play hockey on it. One time, his father left all of these trails on the Lake, and we played tag with a couple other friends on the trails. But a majority of the time, we played floor hockey. We would play for hours. The first year, we were very competitive, so we actually got mad at each other and would complain about if the ball went in the net or not. He lives near a small “forest” so we would build bases of walls made of sticks and dirt, secret passages, and fox holes so we couldn’t be seen. We would also play air soft in the forest.! He also lives right next to the Neshonoc Campground, and couple of my friends had campers down there, so we would go down there almost every day of the summer. We could go swimming, biking, and tubing, but most of the time we made up our own games, and when I was down there, it was one of the most fun times of my life.

Haiku

Hockey equals funpucks are running at the netGoing really fast

Stopping and startingWorking as hard as you canConstantly moving

When the goal is madeEverybody celebratesTime for the next shift

Hockey

HockeySportFun BandMusicMarchingArmyFightingSioux

HockeyIceFallSpringTrackRunFootballHitCheck

HockeyStickWoodHouseFamilyDogEnergetic5-year-oldCryingSoccer“sport”

Life in Wisconsin

! I am blessed to have been born in Wisconsin. Being able to have a state that supports and plays hockey. If I were to live anywhere that isn’t near Wisconsin, I probably wouldn’t be playing hockey. I also love snow and cold weather. I don’t get cold very easily, so i like being in cold weather. But after a long time of consistent cold weather, I get “annoyed” by cold weather, and here comes summer. That’s also why I love Wisconsin because we have decently cold winters, but warm summers. When summer comes, it is very warm and relaxing. We don’t have constant storms, droughts, or cloudy days. ! I also love the food here. Cheese curds are like little pieces of heaven. I could never get bored by cheese curds, almost every cheese curds has a different taste and are just so good. The bacon, burgers, steaks, and other meats are so delicious and are almost always a large meal. Brats are one of my favorites. They are good enough by themselves, but add a brat bun, sauerkraut, and ketchup; my day is made. ! I also love that in Wisconsin, most of the state is full of small towns/cities. My life has been shaped by living in a small town. I like big cities, but I wouldn’t want to live there for a long time because I just prefer smaller towns! All in all, Wisconsin has shaped my life and who I am from nature to sports I play.

My Name

! Mitchell (or Mitch) means “Gift from God” in both Scottish and Irish. In English and Hebrew, Mitchell means “One who is like God”. It originated from the name Michael and it has been used as a first name since the beginning of the 19th century. ! My Father originally wanted to name me Wayne after John Wayne, but the rest of my family urged him to change minds. One of my Mom’s friends came up with a little jingle for me if my name would’ve been Wayne: “My name is Wayne Wehmann and I Wiv in West Sawem.” My mother thought of Jackson, which came in a close 2nd place. My brothers eventually came up with Mitchell, and it eventually grew on my parents. My mother asked me, when I was about 5 years old, what my last name was. I said Mitchell. She repeated the question several more times. Crescendoing in pitch until the end, I finally said, “Mitchell Football Guy?” My brothers still call me that every once and a while.! Mitchell describes a person that is very creative, and try’s to solve problems in the most efficient way possible. I believe that describes me very well because I’m a very good problem solver and calm when I’m faced with the problem. I also try to be efficient time-wise and doing activities. The more efficient you are at something, the less time and energy you spend on it, like running in a straight line instead of running in a weaving like motion.! To me it’s a rather childish name. I’ve only heard a few adults with the name Mitchell as if it was banned before my generation. Mitch doesn’t rhyme with anything that has a good meaning either, so no good nicknames that don’t need an explanation.

The Hockey Life

! I have been involved in hockey even before I was born. I had went to over 70 hockey games when my mom was pregnant with me. My parents said that I carried a floor-hockey stick around with me at all times when I began to crawl. Having a floor-hockey stick to me was a part of surviving to me. My brothers and I would always play floor hockey near living room. Our “rink” was almost ten yards long and about two yards wide. If we had any friends over, we would have floor hockey tournaments. The winner got either bragging rights or got extra food. We played with tightly taped tape-balls that stung very bad if they were hit hard enough in the right place. One time, I got hit in the eye twice in the same game, the next day it was noticeably swollen. If I stayed in a hotel because we had a hockey tournament, my teammates and I would play almost non-stop floor hockey. I played hockey because my brothers played hockey. Matt was the one to first play it, He had to choose between hockey and wrestling. Obviously he chose hockey, and I’m happy he did.

I started skating when I was three years old. My dad coached me more than 5 years until my first year of pee-wees. We got third place twice and second place once before my first pee-wee year. My first pee-wee year, we ended up winning state against spooner in quadruple overtime. We only lost a few games that year with over 25 wins.

Hockey has shaped my entire life from when I was young, until this day. I hope to play hockey for many more years after high school.