Talk to the Hand

I made a terrible mistake on Saturday that made the whole family feel plain lousy. On Thursday, Joseph and Grant's soccer coach gave us a piece of paper announcing a time change for their game on Saturday. I thought she meant Saturday the 18th, and didn't even bother to look at the date on the paper. When we arrived at the field (over an hour after their original game time) nobody was there except a lone soccer coordinator cleaning up the field. He told us the time change wasn't until next week's game and that their game had just ended. Oops.

My heart sunk for Joseph and Grant. They LOVE soccer. They were so pumped up for this game in particular because it was the only time they were going to get to play against their friend at church and they wanted to win--BADLY. So we drove away from the field an extremely depressed lot. Grant started bawling (he's like me and can't hide his emotion), Joseph bit his lip to keep from crying (he hides his emotion like his dad), I had a lump in my throat because I felt miserable for making my boys miserable, Jennabee was screaming in the back seat because her shoe fell off, Austin was making fun of her by mimicking her cry, Hans was very solemn sitting between his two older brothers, and Ada cried herself to sleep listening to everyone else cry. It was pretty comical looking back on it, but at the time it was impossible to crack a smile.





I wanted to go home so we could all wallow in our grief, but Joe decided there was only one thing that could take the edge off the sadness...



MINI GOLF!

I'm so glad he thought of it. By the end of our golfing session we were all feeling a lot better. He topped it off by taking us to lunch at Wingers where we watched the Coug game. Even though the Cougs got creamed, going to a restaurant as a family is always a fun treat!

The Latest

The soccer season ended this week. At Joseph and Grant's last game, Austin wandered away from the family and went the goal and started pulling on the net. We didn't notice he was gone until we heard gasps from the fans and saw them pointing towards the goal. There was Austin tangled in the net of the recently collapsed soccer goal. Joe ran out there and he and the ref tried to put the goal back together. But, one of the connectors, made of PVC, had snapped, so they ended up having to use medical tape to hold the goal together for the rest of the game. To make things worse, at the end of the game, I remembered we were assigned to bring treats and had forgotten to bring any. That's a BIG "whoops"! Especially because we lost the game and the kids were looking forward to the treats as their consolation prize.

Hans' last game was on Wednesday and he went out with a bang! Before the game I thought he was being a little too hopeful when he said he wanted to score four goals. But sure enough, he got his four goals! When he puts his mind to something, he certainly gets it done.

The last little bit of news is that we took Jennabee to the ER last night. She was riding on her little foot propelled bike (no pedals) while her big brothers rode their bikes. While they were riding, Hans crashed into her, causing her to fly off her bike and land on the side of her head on the pavement. Two of her brothers tried to help her up, while another one ran inside to get me, but she was so upset she pulled back from their grip, falling this time on the back of her head. I brought her inside and tried to comfort her. Within five minutes she was vomiting and afterwards almost immediately fell asleep. I kept asking her if she could hear me and she kept nodding. Joe came home soon after the accident, and after she threw up for the fourth time, Joe took her to the ER. She continued to throw up in the hospital, so they gave her some anti-nausea medicine. She had a CT scan done and we were relieved that it showed no bleeding in the brain. She eventually started to perk up and become more her normal self. She really liked her hospital gown, getting stickers, and eating popsicles. We were also lucky that the ER nurse is from our church and took extra special care of Jennabee. At about 10 p.m., the doc said she could go home and told us to wake up in the middle of the night a few times and make sure she stirred in her sleep. He also told us to keep her from participating in activities that could reinjure her brain for at least a week (wrestling, playgrounds, bike riding, etc.). Somehow I have to keep her from trying to tackle Austin for a WEEK! This is going to be interesting.

One thing the doc told Joe that seems kind of scary, is that Jennabee now has a 1 in 200 chance of getting cancer in the next 30 years because of her CT scan. Those chances aren't small enough to make me comfortable, but knowing that the doc still thought she should have the scan done, I assume it was worth it to make sure there was no trauma to the brain.

Decisions, Decisions

This past Saturday, Grant had to choose between participating in the district races for the Pinewood Derby or playing in two (double header) soccer games. He struggled with the decision for a while but in the end chose to go to the district races. He figured he might not make it to districts next year, so this year might be his only chance. He had fun and was happy he chose to go.

While Grant was out racing, Joseph was playing in two really tough soccer games. He missed not having his soccer buddy there, especially since they know each other's moves and make great passes to one another. But Joseph managed to score a goal and had two assists, helping his team win both games.

Humph!

Hans' first soccer game was on Saturday. His game was at 8:30 a.m. and the temp outside was 32 degrees with a bit of a breeze, so Joe made him wear three layers (short sleeve, long sleeve, sweatshirt), a coat, gloves, and a hat. After getting dressed, Hans was really grumpy and said he didn't want to play soccer with all those layers on. Joe told him he could take off some of the layers once he warmed up, but Hans had already decided to fix a permanent scowl on his face.

Somehow Joe got him out the door and about an hour later Hans came in wearing a huge smile and carrying a 2 liter bottle of pop. He had scored two goals, and Joe let him pick out a treat to celebrate. He also told me he was happy to have all those layers after all.

Grant's Big Game

Joseph is on the far left; Grant is on the far right

Grant and Joseph signed up for basketball in January and Joe was able to coach. Unfortunately, Joseph broke his arm after the first game, and was bummed to have to quit, but Grant stuck with it and had a great time even though his team was killed every game. Our team's average score was 6 points to the other teams' average of 40 or so. Talk about slaughter!

Grant's team consisted mostly of 4th graders with a couple of fifth graders, while every other team consisted mostly of 5th graders with a couple of fourth graders. That year of experience proved to make a HUGE difference. That, and the fact that the other teams had several players that were taller than me. Okay, so I'm not very tall to begin with, but Grant's team didn't have anybody that was taller than me.

As the weeks wore on, Grant improved greatly as a defender. He even blocked a couple of shots against guys over a foot taller than him. But the day of the last game arrived and he had not yet scored a basket, which was something he REALLY wanted to do. The first three quarters came and went, the fourth quarter began, and his chances of getting to score got smaller and smaller.

The other team had been playing zone defense a lot which is illegal in this league. They were only supposed to use man-to-man defense, but the refs refused to call the double (and sometimes triple) teaming that was going on. (This happened every game and every week Joe got more vocal with the refs until he almost got thrown out of one game.) Usually the double teaming resulted in our guy with the ball getting stuck, the ball being grabbed out of his hands by one of the many boys on the other team that surrounded him, the other team running down the court, laying it in and scoring. But during the fourth quarter of the last game, the guy guarding Grant left him near the basket in order to double team our guy with the ball. The guy with the ball saw the double team coming, saw Grant open, thought quickly, and passed it to Grant. Grant had a clear shot, he took it, the ball bounced on the rim and FELL IN!!!!

Grant's reaction was priceless. Words can not describe the shock, excitement, thrill, joy and many other emotions that were on his face after that play. He skipped down the court while punching the air and he grinned literally from ear to ear. Happy tears came to my eyes as I watched him and I couldn't stop them. Grant, I love you. Not because you scored a basket, but because you always fight hard in everything you do and never give up (and lots of other reasons too)!

Doba Gone

WSU fires head coach Doba

GO COUGS!

At the WSU Stanford game with Hans and Uncle Jeffy. Cougs won!

At the WSU v. Idaho Game. Thanks Aunt T!

Hans Soccer Video

Joseph and Grant Soccer Video

Spring Fever

When I was a little girl I remember watching a Berenstain bears movie where Brother and Sister Bear got little leauge "spring fever". I always thought it was completely unrealistic that kids would get so excited over baseball, but I have been proven wrong. We have a case of full blown little leauge "spring fever" in our home.

Joseph and Grant tried out for baseball this year and made it onto the Marlins team. Ever since practices started in April, all they think about is baseball. They stay awake at night because they can't get it out of their heads and when they finally fall asleep they dream about it. During the day they beg me to tie the dog up so they can practice pitching, catching, and hitting. If I'm busy and won't tie the dog up I often catch them practicing inside which is a BIG no-no.

Last Saturday they received their uniforms. They immediately put them on and slept in them that night. They wore them Sunday until it was time to get ready for church and as soon as we got home they put them right back on. I had to force them to take the uniforms off after their game Monday night. Yesterday they had their final soccer practice of the season and I asked them to get dressed while I worked on getting the little ones ready. Can you guess which uniforms they put on? As they walked out the door I stuck my hand out in true stop sign fashion and said "Wrong Uniforms!" They looked so bummed, but it was time to nip some of this spring fever in the bud. It's very contagious and I can already see signs that their little brothers are coming down with it. Hans' eyes were glued to the entire two hours of their first game and Austin has been swinging baseball bats around the house like a wild maniac. Who knows what would happen to our home if I were to catch this fever!?!

Soccer Pushing Update

Hans had another soccer practice and reported that the pushing kid was VERY nice to him this time. Hooray!

This Kid has GUTS!

Hans, our six year old attended his first soccer practice yesterday. He is pretty small for his age so I got nervous when it looked like another kid who was at least two heads taller than him was pushing him around and yelling something at him during practice. I was sitting in the car (it was cold outside) and couldn't tell for sure but it looked like Hans yelled something back at him. Then the scuffle seemed to be over so I quit watching and kept Austin and Jennabee occupied in the car.

After practice I asked Hans if the other kids were nice, hoping to get him to talk about the incident. He said that one kid was pushing him around, so he yelled (in his deep and tough voice), "Quit pushing me around!" The kid kept pushing, so Hans asked, "Why are you pushing me around!?" The kid said that his mom told him to do it. At this point in the story I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. But it gets better. Hans said he asked the kid where his mom was. The kid pointed out his mom and Hans went up to his mom and asked her if she told her son to push other kids around. She told Hans she never said that, Hans told the kid what the mom said, and the kid stopped pushing.

Holy Cow! I couldn't believe my tiny little kindergartener son had the maturity and courage to go to the mother and ask that kind of question! He's my hero!