Summer Tournaments: Part I

Our summers are defined by how many days until our next soccer tournament and how far along we are in packing. Luckily our first tournament this year wasn't so far away that we couldn't sleep in our own beds at night. However, since both girls have the same coach, both girls went to this tournament. In order for the coach to make all the games, they schedule them every 3 hours. When you add warmup time in there, we had about 30 minutes between each game. Meaning we were never able to leave the field.

Meaning we were there for 11 straight hours on the first day and 10 hours on the second day.

I still can't believe how we were able to survive.

Did I survive?

Those 21 hours equal Mom having to pack a Ginormous amount of food for 4 people over 2 days. Plus, the food has to be really tasty, otherwise everyone will whine that they want the fries being offered in the food tent. It's not easy, especially when Mom is preoccupied with making sure the first aid kit is extensively outfitted.

What?

We have had everything from contacts popping out, face balls, sprained ankles, bloody noses, sunburns, you name it. And that is just my kids, I worry about ALL of the girls on their team. I like to be prepared.

Today, we will be reviewing Maria's experience at the tournament.

I consider myself pretty smart in regards to soccer and everything that has to do with soccer and anything that sounds like it might be related to soccer.

But I don't think you are supposed to have this much fun on the bench:



Her shoes are really bright and colorful this year, and that means she can run really fast in them.

The ball likes to stay close to shoes like that:

Can we take a second to discuss these freckles?

I think they are super adorable.

I'm sorry, I got off topic.

Back to soccer: I have noticed that she likes to play with her forearms out- creating a protective bubble of space that no one should dare to enter.

Even if she can't see you, she will put her arms out.

Sometimes I put my arms out to help make that protective bubble, but she always asks me to stop embarrassing her.



Why do I even worry? She will just shove people out of her way.

Her team scored 20 goals in the tournament (over 4 games) and only had 1 goal against them. They don't even have a goalkeeper, they just all take turns every 15 minutes. You can imagine how much Maria loves to be goalkeeper. Especially when her turn came in the championship game!

You know me...

I was having a heart attack and wanted to throw up when she was in goal.


She was probably keeping calm by visualizing this memory from earlier in the day:

They were taking pictures of this:

CUTE! She was squealing like a 12 year old girl.

Not the dog, my daughter.


I am telling you this- if you try to push her off the ball, she will not take it well.

She will make you sorry, even if you are wearing matching headbands.

They are so cute when they pose all professional like.

Especially when they sweep their division.

But they also smell really NOT GOOD when they play soccer all weekend and the sun comes out and makes them even hotter and then they take their shoes off in the car.

Then they wonder why we always have to drive home with all the windows rolled down.

Going 60 mph.

We are open to additional suggestions.

Best Videos Ever

Mayeb I spend too much time looking for videos that make me cry. Maybe I value the companionship of others who also cry while watching videos of people they don't know.

If you too would like to join this elite club, then please, click on a link below.

Here you will find video montages of soldiers coming home to surpirse their families:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkGzqpGx1KU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSTKoKjJ5XA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJi1v15yhlM&feature=related

Here you will find a blog devoted to people sharing homecoming surprises, wedding proposals and couples sharing pregnancy news.

http://feelgoodblogs.com/
(the BEST wedding proposal was posted on 5/23/2011)

(Honest, it's the coolest thing I never knew I always wanted to see)

Can I get you some tissue?

Facing Reality

I haven't really wanted to talk about Isabelle's graduation. Let's face it, I'm not the biggest fan of the girls getting older and moving forward in their lives. I prefer to bury the facts deep under some heavy blankets in the dark corners of my heart and pretend they are still 4 and 6.

Seriously.

Case in point:
This girl looks way too old for me to know what to do with. Those blue eyes! The straight teeth! That fantastic brain of hers!

Facts: Her teachers love her. I went up to one teacher to thank him for being so fantastic and passionate about history and geography and he tells me that he thinks Isabelle is "wicked smart"
and wants to keep track of her and where she is going.

Then I started tearing up and he was faced with a speechless, weepy mother and was looking over my shoulder for someone to come and save him.

I can't handle it.

When Isabelle told me her all time favorite teacher, the one she couldn't have done it without, I had to thank this woman. I grabbed her at graduation and before I finished my first sentence, I was choked up. I quickly handed her the card I had written since I pretty much knew I wouldn't be able to get the words out. It was too much for me.

They have built her up, encouraged her education, celebrated her accomplishments and held her hand through her losses (I think she got a B one time in 5th grade, she was devestated).

Fact: Images of future moments in life really make my heart gummy. Wasn't she just 4 and dancing with her daddy? Now she is almost 14? Someday she will dance with him at her wedding, and look just as radiant and I will be in the corner sobbing. Life's big moments are sometimes just too big for me to wrap my arms around.

Fact: She is gorgeous and doesn't know it. Makes her mom think that she needs to be even more protective of her little girl.

I'll just keep her in my arms a little longer, okay?

Does someone have a tissue?

A demonstration in exhaustion

I asked our dog Annie to please demonstrate how tired we have all been lately.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

Thank you Annie.

Isabelle's class had a volleyball game versus the teachers at an all school assembly last week. The cheering was so extreme and intense that I think I lost the hearing in my right ear. That is what happens when the first graders sit right behind you!

This picture is right before the 8th graders smashed through the paper and sprinted around the gym a few times really getting the younger kids amped up. You would have thought the crowd had main lined sugar and caffeine right before they entered the gym.

In a more subdued environment the next day, Isabelle had her last handbell performance to which the parents were invited. They played some great music including Amazing Grace. I didn't cry. Honest!

Okay, maybe a little.

Then the kids had to pick someone from the audience to get up and perform a group song. Luckily Morrie and my sister also had to get up and play! Isabelle is teaching me how to work a chime.

I am really doubting that I can in fact work the chime.

The play! The play! This is outside the theatre, where 2 very excited girls let me snap their picture.

Our motto: "Stage Crew Rocks!"

Mostly because we look like a lot of stealth ninja's in all black, running around in the dark carrying furniture.

This morning: One last picture with her braces on!!

No way!!!!! Look!!!

I can't tell you the extreme joy that this kid had today. She came out of the orthodontist's office giggling and exclaiming "This is so awesome!!" and "This is the BEST DAY EVER!!!".

Well, at least until Thursday when she graduates.

Boggled Mind

I can't tell you how many times in the last month, I have gone to my blog and looked at it with a blank stare. I didn't know what to write.

I was in a black hole of writer's block.

At the beginning on the month, I was a nervous wreck as I was interviewing for a new job and gave notice at my old job. Each day I was a bundle of sweaty nerves. It wasn't pretty. I couldn't sleep most nights, which doesn't help when I want to write some profoundly funny item for my blog. Nothing funny was going through my mind.

At all.

By the time I wrapped up my last day of work, I had a To-Do list that was a mile long for my first few days home. There were things that had been piling up during the previous month that I couldn't get to. Instead of taking care of them in a timely manner, I was spending my days at work clenching my nervous stomach (have I mentioned I don't prefer interviews?). The rest of my "free time" was spent volunteering at Isabelle's play practice as a stage crew manager and then I would come home late at night and try to get in some more work. Thus, a pile of things to do at home, that was a mile long and 3 stories high.

I knew the enormousness of this list.

Yes, that is a word. Enormousness. It expresses great girth and giant awesomeness.

The first week I spent tackling the phone calls that had to be done, the grocery shopping that was in dire need and attending to my inbox. Part of the list was consumed with Isabelle's graduation items- parties to plan and countless "last events" to go to at school and turn in money for, and drop off goodies for, and go to school to watch. I was starting to sleep better (how can you not when you are totally exhausted?), especially as things were getting crossed off.

I still found myself opening up my blog, and my mind was still, sadly, blank. I was trying to wrap my mind around Oprah leaving my living room forever and Isabelle graduating and it was just too much to handle. Why were they doing this to me at the same time??

The second week was spent almost 100% at the theater as we were in final rehearsals for the play. In the last 7 days, we put in 50 hours of time for the play. I was sleeping like a rock. However, every night before I fell asleep and every morning when I woke up, the songs from the play would go through my head. Then, by some miracle, there would be a moment during my day when the music stopped. It was a peaceful silence.

It lasted about 4 seconds until Isabelle would start humming one of the songs and I would try not to grind my teeth in frustration.

The play finally wrapped up yesterday and I slept today. Then I slept some more.

It was nice.

Now I have a final "final" list of to-do's for Isabelle's graduation week and one of them is to buy kleenex at Costco. At least 2 carts full should do nicely. I am going to wake up on Thursday and still not know what I am wearing that day because I haven't had the time to figure it out. I still need to bring juice to school for the picnic tomorrow, order the cake, get the dog nails clipped (before I go insane from them clacking on the floor), take the kids to 2 doctor appointments this week, and hit the grocery store no less than 3 times. Because I will forget something. Twice.

Does anyone ever need time off from being a mom? I feel like I do.

So, my mind is still void of anything funny, but I felt it was time to get something posted. A "Diary Entry" of why my life is crazy no matter what it is currently consumed by.

Will I feel calm and collected next week? No, but that is another story for another day.

Thoughts

Sometimes I think that I need to go back to 1998 and hang out with this girl more...

Because when I see her like this, I FREAK OUT:

In all honesty, this picture was a little joke we pulled on Dad. I took it with my phone, and came home and told Morrie we found the perfect graduation dress. Then I showed him this picture. He says to me "Don't you...Don't you think it's a little LOW in the front???" as he started to hyperventilate.

It was the best 3 minutes of my life.

This is how perfectly beautiful she really will be. She had graduation photos at school already. I may have cried.

Unless you think that makes me ridiculous, then I definitely DID NOT cry.

Really.

Hand me a tissue please.

Then I dried my tears and we went to a Sounders game and all was right with the universe (it's funny how that works).

They gave us free stuff.

You can ignore the fact that the stadium looks empty. We were there 2 days early. We REALLY don't' want to miss anything.

Although, sometimes when it is really cold and rainy at the game, and I have a poncho on, and I can't even clap because my arms are inside the poncho, I wish I was curled up at home in front of the heater like this:

Or playing cards with this girl:

Who decidedly has NO poker face.

I like to play her for quarters.

Semi finals = Break out the Defibrillator!!

I can't take it! Maria had Semi finals for soccer, then tryouts and now Izzy has to go to Semi finals too? It's too much for my pounding heart to take.

Give me some antacids.

Roalids?

Asprin?

Anesthesia?

This girl only wishes someone had given her mom some sleepy anesthesia.

"Mom, stop talking to me".

"We're busy being cool. And nervous".

Their coach brought them all flowers.

The girls loved it.

Maybe it was a gift for the parents as we have spent the last year driving around in a very smelly car. Teenage girls do NOT actually smell good.

They had to walk out with the 4 officials very professional like.

Did you hear me? I said FOUR officials!

I expected a news crew to roll in any minute.

Izzy is at the end of the line hoping that nobody is looking at her. Wishing the sun would go down so nobody could see her. Wanting to dig a hole and bury herself in it. That's what happens when you play where the Sounders play. It's overwhelming.

Hey! Who is THAT hot guy???

I had an official press pass to be on the field to take pictures. It may have been completely awesome.

Or Isabelle may have been completely awesome.

Either one.

She played a team that expected to come out and kill Izzy's team. You know what happened?

Izzy's team held them.

I was having small but frequent heart attacks on the sideline.

Why is my heart racing?

Hey! Who are these YO-YO'S???

Soccer is not, I repeat NOT a laughing matter.

Hey Isabelle! Stop growing up already. Your mom can't handle it!

The other team couldn't score for 69 minutes. I think their parents were in awe.

It happens.

Then, the other team scored int he last 20 seconds of the game. No I am not making it up.

You thought I was exaggerating last week when I said Maria lost in double overtime? Now Izzy lost in the last 20 seconds?

I know. It's unbelievable. It's unfair. One moment, one pass, one goal is what separates soccer teams.

It is brutal.

Then you go eat lunch and the parents of the other team compliment how well your team played.

Shucks..

Then Izzy goes and stands in line for a smoothie. She sees other players from the winning team. She tells them they did a good job. Then they tell her how well her team played.

You just don't hear this stuff every day.

Then Izzy tells her mom what just happened in the smoothie line. Her mom wanted to cry because Isabelle is nice enough to compliment other players. Her mom wanted to cry because it was heart wrenching to see 14 girls come off the field with tear stained cheeks, wishing they could have just done a little better, wishing they could be jumping up and down screaming like the other team.

It was kind of hard.

Then Izzy and her mom went to the Sounders game where they SERVED Toronto 3-0 and all was right in the universe.