Heart Happy

This happened a year ago, but I must share it because it made my heart happy, as I think it would make the heart of most women happy.

My daughter, Emmy, has played soccer for 3 seasons now. At first she was a bit uncoordinated and we giggled slightly on the sidelines when we watched her play. She was cute and she tried as hard as she could but her feet and brain just didn't communicate all the time. Then something happened in the second season; it was like a big light switch turned on in the soccer department of her brain and it all clicked and synchronized. Besides getting very winded and not liking to play when its cold (and TN had some very cold soccer seasons!!) she started playing very, very well.

Last season we had all three children in soccer so on a Saturday we would spend 3-5 hours at the soccer park, depending on if the games were timed together or spread out. One particular day Emmy had her game to play (1 hour, no substitutes) and then Jacob had his shortly thereafter. Jacob's team didn't have enough players and the coaches were desperate for more players so they wouldn't have to forfeit the game. Emily was standing there with us so Jeramie offered her up to play for the all-boys team (after asking her if she would). The coach agreed and then the boys all looked at her with those "she's not playing with us, is she?" looks. Now, Emily is tall and was the same height as the boys 2 years older than her so they didn't actually know that she wasn't their age or the looks probably would have been much, much worse. We told Emily to not be intimidated to play with an entire field of boys, just to "get in there" and go after the ball. While we were pumping her up, we overheard the boys asking Jacob "so, is your sister any good?"

The game starts and Emily played with 2 teams of boys and was not intimidated at all. She played better than most of the boys out there who were 2 years older than she was. By the end the boys were cheering for her, as were all of their parents. My heart was so big and proud I just wanted to cry by the end of the game. The next week when we came to Jacob's game the first thing his teammates said to him was "Is your sister going to play with us again this week?" I couldn't stop smiling.

Falling back

Finally it feels like fall here in Georgia. We woke up to a brisk 53°, the kids ran around here for the third morning in a row wondering if I'd somehow shut off the sun's rays to this part of the Earth and we even watched a woman walking in the neighborhood with a coat and stocking cap on. I literally had to chuckle at that; it was 60° by that time and the people this far south think we might actually see some frost soon. The projected low for tonight is 45°, I wonder if we will see bed sheets covering the flower beds tomorrow morning on the way to church. I should watch the news tonight, they might tell me to keep an eye on my pets and ederly. Try out MO and IA folks, they walk when it's freezing...literally.

Emmy had a soccer game this morning and they finally got in the groove and spanked the other team. Emmy played well and got a goal of her own; I think the soccer Em of last year finally showed up. We spent the afternoon enjoying fall activities. We made our own caramel apples and the kids reminisced the entire time about the times we made the apples in TN with our wonderful friends. After that we moved on to homemade pizza and we enjoyed a blanket picnic in the living room while watching a movie.

Our moments with chaos today:
*Jacob freaking out after putting on a pair of jeans. These are the same exact jeans he wore all last spring. We tried every brand and the boy can only wear 10S, Levi Loose Straight. (I buy my underwear a K Mart) But now they are too baggy in the groin region and we watched and snickered as he ran around the house in his own world grabbing his crotch while attempting to hold the jeans off the nether region. Reasoning didn't work; he wore shorts to the soccer game and then complained he was cold.
*All the kids were told to brush their teeth before bed. Instead, Jacob was waving his arms and shaking the glutes like a drunk 21 year old girl at a club. Yea, great visual.
*Before bed Matthew was building with Lincoln Logs, Jeramie and Emmy were taking turns setting up dominoes and I look over and see Jacob on his back with both legs straight in the air doing the synchronized swim routine, except out of water. I just had to watch; maybe he'll be a choreographer some day.