He did it!

Hallelujah! He made the "A" team. I was on pins and needles and obsessively checked the website every fifteen minutes for updates. Once I saw that his number was posted, I started to shake. WHAT? Shake? I think I was one hundred times more nervous about this than Brock was. I had no idea that as a parent I would take on the kid's nerves. And this is just the tip of the iceberg....what happens when we are waiting for SAT scores, college acceptance letters, marriage proposals and birth announcements? I think I will need to be heavily medicated.

Thanks for all the well wishes!

Eyes on Goal.

My son spent the weekend trying out for select soccer.  I know, I know, why put an 11 year old through such stress?  Well, because soccer has become his life.  It's all he wants to do.  If we would let him, he would like to join a professional soccer team tomorrow.  He practically has a soccer ball with him at all times, he would like to use one as a pillow.

The "soccer bug" has definitely caught him. He played on the "B" team last year and has been training for months in hopes of making the "A" team.  His try outs went well....however every time he would make a good play, I would look over at the evaluators, and their backs would be to my son.  I don't know how accurate of a look they got of him.

Tonight, my daughter said, "Mom, I really hope he makes the Blue Team.  He is such a good player that if there was a team even higher than the Blue Team, like a Green Team, he would make that one."   What a loving sister.

Here's a video that Brian put together of the soccer stud's moves.

For once, I would like the cards to fall in his favor.

Everything old is new again.

We are down to one working hand set for our home telephone.....and now it's on its last leg.  This morning Brian and I were discussing purchasing new phones.  My son over heard the conversation and chimed in:

"You know what would be really cool?" he said as he crossed the kitchen floor to the wall, "If we got one of those phones that hangs on the wall and has a really long cord."  

Yes.  Please bring me back to my childhood when I would be tethered to the wall.  I so miss wrapping the cord around my fingers, over-stretching the cord and having it knot.  

That kind of phone would dramatically cut down on my phone calls.  

As long as we are going retro, we could go back to TVs that you have to PHYSICALLY get up and turn the dial.....and if you missed the station you were looking for, you would have to patiently turn the knob again.  

Oh the good ol' days.  Maybe my son is onto something.  Maybe we need old technology to make a come back in order to make us slow down.

Home sweet home.

My daughter spent a good deal of Sunday morning sad, crying and upset at the thought of one day leaving us and going out on her own.  She cried and cried.  It was actually sweet at how much she loves all of us and doesn't want things to ever change.  She even cried at the thought of her brother going away to college.

I'm posting this for two reasons.  One, it was a tender, sweet moment.  One I will always remember.  Two, I want to be able to give her proof in about 5 years (in the thick of teenage times) that at one point, she loved us and wanted to be with us.

That's my boy.

My son is playing in the "majors" of Little League.  It is much more intense then in past years.  They are out to win and learn the in's and out's of the game.

Last night my son was on second base and his teammate hit the ball hard and his third base coach waved him to run to third base and then to home.  Well, my son was rounding third base and the opposing team's third baseman was in the way, so my son didn't touch the base.  Half way between third base and home plate, he realized what he had done and turned back to touch third.  He got stuck on third and wasn't able to make it safely home.

His coach asked him what happened and why did he do that and my son's reply was, "I didn't touch the base and I didn't want to cheat."

I swelled with pride.  A win doesn't feel good if you cheated getting there.

Really?

I stopped in my tracks yesterday at the grocery store when I noticed this in the cereal aisle.  Are you kidding me?  Finally someone has invented a product to make my life easier.  Slicing bananas can be so tricky and dangerous....I often have to use a butter knife.

The man with a really long fingernail.

Last night before bed, all four of us were hanging out in my son's bedroom.  I picked up a piece of plastic that had fallen off a trophy.  It fit perfectly on my middle finger and it looked like a super long finger nail claw.  No one else had seen it so I said, 

"Have you ever heard the legend about the man with a really long fingernail?"  Both kids eyes got wide and they scooted closer to me.

"Well," I continued, "the story goes that there is a man with no hand, but just a long fingernail that comes out of his arm.  He travels around looking for kids with really soft skin.  He doesn't hurt them, he just likes to scratch their skin."  (I was trying to be as tame as possible.  I thought, HEY!  No blood, no guts, no death, perfectly harmless.)

"I heard that on Saturday, he was down south and traveling up this way.  I think he's probably around our neighborhood tonight.  Close your eyes and let's see if he's near."  (Both kids obey me and close their eyes....just about the only time they have followed my directions in the past week.)

I reached over and scratched their face with the plastic toy.  My daughter began to laugh but then it turned into sobs.  

I had to sleep with her last night.  

I was trying to be funny and I ended up scaring them. My husband claims that the way I told the story made it really scary because it was so odd.

Watch out "Clown Killer".  There is a new legend in town...."The Man with the really Long Fingernail".  

An amazing tribute.

Yesterday was the memorial service for the son of one of my closest friends.  It was a wonderful tribute to him.  The service was held in the school gym.  They had set up 550 chairs and when the service began, there was standing room only!

I was asked by my friend to read something that she and her husband wrote about their child.  It was a touching, moving and funny piece.  They captured him really well.

At the closing of the service, they opened up the mike to people who would like to share a story or memory.  Imagine my surprise when my son stood in line to say something.  He shared two sweet stories and delivered his impromtu speech really well.  I had a hard enough time standing up in front of the crowd....I was very proud that my son handled himself so well.

Instead of signing a guest book, they had a bunch of Sharpies, and the attendees signed the Scooby-Doo van.  (The little boy who died loved Scooby-Doo and his artistic mom painted their old van to resemble the Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo).

All in all, an emotional day, but an amazing outpouring of love.

2009

2009 was going to be fine.

So far, 2009 has been a big wad of slime.

Together they make a masterpiece.

So, I'm a bit behind.....life has been life and for some reason it's chosen to be in super-over-drive with turbo-injections.  

This is the class art work I "won" at our school's auction.  I just love it.  I had the good fortune of helping out in the classroom when they worked on the project.  Each child was give a square of "Starry Night" and then asked to reproduce it on a different piece of paper.  I walked around the classroom that day wondering how in the world it would ever turn out.....but it is just breath-taking beautiful.  It reminds me that when we stand alone we can be ordinary, but together we can be a work of art.