Emotional Rollercoaster

Rewind to Friday night. Saddest football game of my football-mom career. It's an all defense game. We enter the half tied at 7 and it was a fight for either side to even make that. Somehow we made the non-intelligent choice of sitting next to Chantilly's student section. Well...let's just say it was a "white out" (everyone wears white to support the team) and along with the white clothes, baby powder is apparently a necessity. Every good play by Chantilly's stellar team, called for a shaking of baby powder like you wouldn't believe. At the end of it all, we sure did smell good.

We were tickled pink by a young friend of Oldest's finding us in the stands and sitting with us. It took half a minute to realize she had his football number plastered on her beautiful face. The Hub took every opportunity to grill her about that and about her intentions with our boy! Youngest, being the ever-popular person he is, had no less than 5 of his own high school friends who came up to the stands to greet and hug him, high fives and "what's up man?" all around. The kid is ridiculously popular at 4.

Chantilly was able to fight for a second touchdown putting us at 13 with the wind stripping us of our field goal for the extra point. With 40 seconds left on the clock, our only job is to hold them back and keep our lead and win the most intense game ever. The fans are on their feet. Thank God I had an ex-high school footballer behind me, telling his girlfriend the play-by-play of what's what. Let's just say the Hub is too engrossed to do that for us. With those puny 40 seconds left, Centreville drives for a touchdown. It's 4th down and they are on no more than the 10 yard line. You know my eyesight is bad, so don't quote me on the yardage. 4th down and it looks to me, my family, the entire student section, all of Centreville, all of Chantilly, that this Centreville guy has failed. We are all celebrating! Louder than loud, Chantilly is literally jumping on top of each other with joy. When wait- what's that? The ref says it's a touchdown. I know that every parent facing a devastating blow would say the ref cheated. But friends, we're all in agreement the refs cheated here. Everyone-I mean everyone (including Centreville) felt like this boy did not make it into the endzone. I take as my evidence the fact that the opposing team was sporting their disappointed loss all over their hung faces. Yet, 2 seconds later, Centreville is elated. The ref's got his hands in the air like his life depends on it and it's a touchdown Centreville. You gotta be kidding me.

So we're going into overtime folks. Each team gets 4 downs to make a touchdown. We are now tied at 13 and Chantilly is on offense. We fight for a touchdown and miss the field goal. We stand at 19. Let me interrupt the playback by amusing you with the sight of all the student body (completely in white remember) rushing from the stands to the end zone fence. It was like a stampede. Remember we were sitting close to them. We quickly held our loved ones close and let them scamper by!

Centreville's turn and they manage to score. They also miss the field goal, so friends, we are tied again at 19. Friends! Think of the emotional exhausting time we were having. Our turn again and we score. So we're at 25. Sadly, we miss the field goal again. And this is from a kicker who hasn't missed all year. It was, in his defense, an extremely windy night. If it was me, the pressure alone would have done me in. It's Centreville's turn, they fight hard for another touchdown and we are tied at 25. What do they do? What would you do, Coach Reader? They go for 2. They are going to push to run the ball in for 2 points rather than risk a field goal and the wind have it's way with them.

Everything lies in the hands of our incredible defense right now-everything. They have played an incredible game (almost the entire game) and have to be exhausted. Yet, they know what's on the line. Sadly, friends, they rush and within inches make the end zone. My stomach dropped out of my feet. Centreville goes crazy, rushes the field. And incredible win for them. They fought for it all night, on their home field, senior night, and coming off a record of 4 wins for the previous 2 seasons combined. This is the first year they have played well in the last three years and they take the lead with the 7-0 record. While we, on the other hand, walk home with our heads hung down, and stand at 6-1. It was the saddest, most ridiculously called, game ever. You know the Hub was looking for one, just one, of those refs after the game. By God's intelligent grace, we didn't see any on the way out.

Oldest came home with the saddest looking face I have ever seen. The Hub and I surrounded him and gave him condolence hugs; told him how proud we were and did our after-the-game ritual of dissecting what went right and wrong. Oldest says they lost the game themselves with those missed field goals. That and those lovely refs. The best part of this tragedy would have to be Oldest's after-game-shake-hands-with-the-other-team thing. He's got tears streaming down his disappointed face and, for the first time ever, he had opposing players surrounding him telling him what an incredible job he and the defense did. That's right, they recognize our ferocity. It was a defining moment for him.

Somehow we managed to arouse on Saturday morning for a new round of games. Youngest played a soccer game like I have never seen before. Sadly, they lost 10-3. I am not sure how in pee wee soccer it can be so easy for them to score goal after goal and so easy for us to just watch it go in...over and over and over... Youngest has developed a kick jump that is out of this world. Every single kick is a performance and involves some sort of dramatic leap in the air and landing twisted around. It's incredible. So, soccer may not be his thing...His team did score three. As Youngest approached us for some water, he was elated at the score. "YES! WE GOT A GOAL!!! But it wasn't me though!" Hilarious.

On to Soccer Chick's game. I almost yanked her out of the game myself for her sullen attitude when put on defense. I mean, so you don't want to play defense...so what? Suck it up and go where the coach tells you. But that, in fact, was not what she did. She pouted, let the ball roll by her and was surrounded by "Soccer Chick! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?" The team they played was far, far less than great and we dominated the field the entire time. It was a windy day and we hit no less than 8 attempts and still no goal. I must remind you her team stands at a season of 0-3. They seriously needed to win this game. With Soccer Chick on offense, she fights, literally fights, for a goal. Parents go crazy! Somehow they manage to come back and score again. We score again and friends, we take the win. Superb! Favorite part of this game would have to be when Soccer Chick ran over, literally ran over, an opposing player near my sideline. "That's right Soccer Chick! You run her over if you have to!", says her wild mother. And the poor child stands up...and she's small. Half the size of Soccer Chick. She looks over at me, thinking what kind of mom would tell her daughter that? So I mouth, "oh! sorry..." to her and try to save face. In my defense, I had no idea the child was small.

On to Baseball Chick's game. She hit three singles and had a great game from what I caught of it, that being only about 15 minutes near the end. All in all, it was a busy, terrific weekend for games. Except for that devastating loss on Friday night. I'm still shaking my head. This Friday, is our biggest rival. Westfields. This is a game to win. They HAVE to win this game to reclaim their dignity and ranking. It's a must. It's a home game and while we won't be bringing baby powder, we will be plenty fired up.

Youngest antic to set your week off right: In children's church yesterday the lesson was on becoming a better giver. After a thorough explanation of what we can do to be more giving (i.e. our time, our hugs, our help, our things, etc) I worked with Youngest to create his "Giving Chart". We came up with some good ideas: "Give my shirt to my neighbor friend."
"Um...okay."
I say to Youngest, "What about your mouth? Can you be a bigger giver with your mouth?" I'm thinking give away compliments and kind words, right?
A puzzled look is stricken on his face as he replies matter of factly, "I think I'd like to keep my mouth mom."

Game Day!

I would be remiss if I didn't stress to you that today is GAME DAY. Big, big game against Centreville. Big game. Both teams are 6-0 and only one will walk away with a win. Who will be it be? Why, Chantilly of course. Super excited to see these boys take Centreville downnnn... They are going downnnn, I tell you!

This morning as Oldest left the house: "You excited about the game Rach?"
"Yup. Very excited. Are you going to do something?"
"Yup. I'm going to kill somebody. We're going to kill them."
"That's my boy." as I pat him on the those big, hulking shoulders.
"Now go to school, and kill some people this evening, like a good boy."
"Okay, Rach. I'll do that. And don't wear my jerseys tonight. I'm so serious. I'll be so ticked if you do. How embarrassing. The world doesn't need to know you are #92's family. How seriously embarrassing."

Question is, folks...Will the jersey get worn tonight???

Wisdom From Youngest

Standing in line at a checkout, Baseball Chick says "I HATE long lines...wait - mom I already know what you are going to say 'don't say HATE'...I don't LIKE long lines."
"Great," I say, "glad you fixed it."
Youngest replies, "Yes, don't say ‘hate’. Or else you're life will be NO GOOD."

Baseball Chick: “Dad, how did you make that ice tea that fast? I didn’t see anything but water in there.”
The Hub: “Easy, I just scrubbed some of my skin off into the container and tah-dah! It turned to from water to ice-tea.” He says, as he demonstrates scraping his skin into the pitcher.
Baseball Chick: “No! Dad, really!”
Youngest, as he stares intently at the Hub and and his hands: “No. not possible. You still have skin left. If you scrapped your skin off you would be white.”

Youngest jumps onto an escalator going down, finds himself balancing between two steps, and remarks: “whoa! That was dramatic!”

“Pnut, your other name is Pnut. Do you know what that means?”
“No, boy. What does that mean?”
“It means that when you grow up you will turn into a peanut. Because that’s what happens when someone is named Pnut. They have to turn into a real peanut.”

Riding in the backseat home from daycare, Youngest ponders: “Mom, how come the car goes by itself sometimes.”
“When do you see the car going by itself, Youngest?”“You know, sometimes the car is moving and your hands aren’t on it. How come it does that?”
“Where would my hands be, Youngest?”
“You know, on your cell phone, reading a book, you know…when your hands are not on the car.”
“OH! Ummm… (haha) well, um. UM…there’s this thing called a pedal and when you push the pedal…” – my weak attempt at changing the way this conversation was going…

“Oh! Mom! There’s that store…Five Below. Can we go in and buy something?”
“No, Youngest. Not today. We’re not shopping today.”
“No, mom. Not ‘shop’…’buy’. ‘Buy’, I said. I don’t want to shop, just buy something.”
“That’s the same thing, Youngest. Two words that are the same.”
“No, mom. Shopping is when you go to the mall and you walk around. Buy is when we go to five below and ‘buy’ something I want. See, you understand now?”

Around the dinner table, Soccer Chick shares a story she read about an 8 year old girl who is a fantastically gifted artist, selling her works of art for up to $25,000 a piece.
I say, “My only question is with all of you here at this table, who’s got something that can make us some money? Surely, one of you has something.”
Soccer Chick – “You know I can sing mom.”
Baseball Chick – “I can play baseball and I love to read. Will that work?”
I say, “Youngest, I am going to put you on TV.”
“Okay mom. I am sneaky. I can sneak around and take people’s money when they aren’t looking.”
“um. Okay, No!”

Yesterday afternoon I get a phone call at work from Soccer Chick. "Mom! You have got to stop with these yard signs! Enough already." I promise you I had no idea what she was talking about. Apparently some mysterious Chantilly fan went around and delivered yard signs (like the kind my realtor husband uses) that say "Go Chargers. 6-0. We're on a Thunder Roll." So that you understand the reference, when the mighty chargers are walking from the locker room to the field for a game, they walk down an open corridor between two tennis courts. Aka...Thunder Alley. There is always some crazy "Thunder" song playing and it does the trick in getting everyone, including the boys super hyped. Thus, the "Thunder Roll" sign in my yard. Containing my excitement over the phone, I calmly and sweetly told my darling Soccer Chick, that while, yes, I did purchase the first yard sign, a beautiful flag with my boy's varsity jersey number on it, I did not purchase this additional sign. But I am sure am excited it's there.

When Oldest returned home from football practice he promptly scooped it up and carried it to his room. To our perplexed expressions, he states: "I don't like cocky parents." The boy takes shy and stay in the background to a whole new level. Okay, we shrug. Whatever you want. It's about support, but take how you want. Hey, I didn't pay for the sign, so if he doesn't want it there...cool. After all eyes are closed and sleeping is ensuing, we hear the garage door open. Oldest puts the sign back. Some things we just need a moment to wrap our head around to be comfortable with. Most of all, I'm just glad to see others equally pumped so the Hub can lessen the fun-making of me!

So this game on Friday is big. As in REALLY big. The opposing team is also 6-0. They are, apparently, being carried by their running back who is single-handily racking up wins for them. If Chantilly wins, not only does that put them at 7-0 (which is amazing) but it also breaks the winning streak of the only other team in the Concorde district. The game is sure to be packed as the excitement mounts. You just might hear us cheering from where you sit on Friday night. If it's not at the Chantilly-Centreville game you are missing out! Friends, Centreville is going downnnn. Does that sound "cocky"?

First Fact, Then Football

Oldest shared a story with me the other night that made my heart just a little proud. All of us parents, mentors and all-around good folk can only hope that when we try to share the "how to be a good person" lessons, that these kids are listening. I had a moment when God really let me see that inside this huge, 17 year old, 210 frame, a boy is listening, and, as my mother would say, he "has a good heart". Here's the scene:

Oldest is walking down the hall at school and sees a "fat, white kid" get thrown up against the locker by the throat by some other kid. Following the neck-love, the poor boy falls to the ground and the bully walks off. Oldest approaches and helps the poor bullied kid off the floor. "Hey man, you okay?", he says as he helps him to his feet. The boy, looking petrified (wonder if he was thinking if this football player is going to assault him next?), says "it's okay. I'm fine". Oldest replies, "no man, it's not fine." At which point Oldest yells for the bully to come back. Petrified boy, takes off running and bully boy comes back. Oldest asks, "Hey, what did you do that for?" Bully boy offers some lame excuse about how petrified boy pushed his backpack off the desk. Oldest says, "Dude, don't do that. You don't treat anybody like that. If I find out you are picking on this boy again I'll shove my fist down your throat." Awww, it's enough to make a mama proud. Bully boy gets the message and now becomes petrified boy number 2, replies okay and takes off running himself. If Oldest had of come at me like that I think I would get the message too. Loud and clear.

Now, you would think this was a scene out of a movie. That's what I thought as Oldest was relaying it to me. I asked him several times to leave out the exaggerations and enhancements, but he swears it happened just like that. He said that was the first time he had ever witnessed bullying first-hand. I told him I was really proud of him standing up for this poor kid. Oldest felt bad for the boy who, obviously, according to Oldest, was just a kid that was going to get picked on. Oldest used his physical and social stature to help this kid. Bully boy and Petrified boy will never forget that experience. Who knows, that moment could be life-changing for both boys.

And on to more exciting news...I wish, friends, you could be with us at just one Chantilly football game. We're talking major, major excitement. Last night, Chantilly faced Robinson. Robinson, who just the week before, took down the number one ranked team in the Region, Lake Braddock. Robinson, feeling high and mighty off that previous week's win, came out to play some serious ball. Chantilly knew they would have to play hard, no mistakes, and come prepared to fight for a win. When we reached second quarter and Robinson was the first to score, I became a little concerned for the first time. I'm very confident in our boys, but Robinson was showing us a little something-something. I'm happy to say Oldest was back out on the field and because it was an away game, I can't report to you how many times Oldest's name was called by the announcer. Although we couldn't hear the play-by-play from the announcer's microphone on the other side of the field, we could see that the Defense was doing big things. I would venture to say that the amazing Defense is what won that game. One teammate did get a beautiful interception that led to a run stopping quite near the end zone. That one play led to a touchdown for us. And with that change of momentum, Chantilly was in it to win it. Final score 24-14 and Robinson, try as they might, just could not come back from Chantilly's lead.

The boys played well and won only because their heart was in it, Defense (my boy!) was outstanding and Offense was able to make some plays. We gotta work on that offense, especially leading into next week's game, which no doubt will be THE game of the season. Next week we face Centreville is the last team in our district to be 6-0, just like Chantilly. This is going to be a serious match-up and only one team can win, so no doubt both teams will be fighting for it. The boy's 6-0 record is a first time in Chantilly football history. Oldest says he didn't play as well as he could have, but I tell you friends, he was in some serious tackles. He was double-teamed with two big guys facing him. Still he managed to get through them, get into the quarterback's zone, and take him down a few times. Very nice.

And lest you think this boy is a perfect teenager, living a happy, gleeful life, I must tell you he pouted his way to his this morning. Just like a sullen, 17 year old, pouty teenager would be, he didn't disappoint his tribe. Grumpy and grouchy he went. Not happy to sit for a 4 hour test after that exciting high last night. My loving, empathetic motherly response: "get over it."

Guys, perhaps I didn't do a bang up job describing how fun this weekend was. As I have been reminiscing over the last few days I realized in my blog post I left out the perfectly timed disgruntled answer of my in-her-90s grandma griping that she only had 5 minutes to write something to my mother. Really? You've known her for 60 years. You need more than 5 minutes to say what you love about her? Classic and yet, still amazing.

I also left out Youngest rolling on the floor in genuine glee. Something like this:

Just that good old, belly-aching kind of fun. I also left out how neat it was to sit with my favorite aunt (only aunt? - never mind that...FAVORITE) and chat about stuff. Just chat about nothing and everything. With the Hub standing nearby, eyes just a rollin' as we discussed some tv shows that have captured our hearts.

Speaking of which, I want to advise you that if you haven't already, you might want to check out Modern Family. Few shows make me chuckle out loud but this one does. The Office always has, and will continue to but Modern Family is quickly becoming a favorite. My facebook post last night was so good. Classic mom response to raising pre-teens and teens. The mom, Claire, is hilarious. Check this show out. I think you won't regret it.

The last thing I want to tell you today may weigh heavily on your heart. As we get into this school year, I am starting to think there is a conspiracy to make me suffer. It's October, people. OCTOBER. And we have already received senior pictures, of which we get the supreme delight of paying what amounts to a car payment to see his smiling face plastered largely around the house. And last night, he plopped, literally plopped, down a package for graduation announcements. Um...it's OCTOBER. Took my poor breath right away. Just sucked it right out of me. Good grief...really? We have to begin our savings for another bit of what amounts to a car payment for graduation announcements...already? It's OCTOBER!

Alas, senior year is here. Did I mention that when he was doing that plopping of that said graduation announcement package I was busy at my desk working with the three others on what we want to submit for his yearbook senior ad. You know, that space in the back of the book where you get to submit all sorts of embarrassing kid pictures of him and write something sappy. I asked Youngest what he wanted to say and he said "hmmm...let me think about it." as he thumped his head with his pointer finger. "Well, I think I want to say he is the one who broke up my drum set when I was 2. Now that my birthday is soon...in like 40 days...I think I need a new drum set." Does it matter that this is not true? That what really happened is Youngest, with his engineering mind, figured out how to unscrew the bolts and stick toys inside the drums, poke holes into the drums, and otherwise literally beat the seat to death? I guess that doesn't much matter when he's looking towards his 40 day away birthday. It's actually just next month but the boy loves the number 40, apparently.

Happy 60th Jos

Not trying to put my mama out there and broadcast her age to the world. But in light of this weekend's festivities, it's completely necessary. My dear sisters and I, and our husbands and boyfriend put together the neatest surprise party ever. My dear mama, sweet as she can be, had a full morning of manicures and pedicures and was breathing those deep sighs of satisfaction as we trotted on over to her house. She was, to say the least, completely surprised. So much love and good feelings in that air. It was really sweet. The food wasn't bad either.

It was especially nice for me to see people I hadn't seen in a long, long time. Like the CPS worker who once investigated us in a situation with Oldest, prior to our having custody days, when his mama was, oh...let's just say not a happy camper. So neat to see her, and say "hey, you wouldn't believe how great Oldest is doing!" And to see my other "big sister". The big sister of my best friend who died when she and I were just young middle schoolers. I could have sat with her for hours and just thrown memories out on the floor one by one. Picked each one up and turned it around; studied it from every angle. Fascinating. But, alas, time was not on my side. And to sit with my crazy niece who is me in a much more beautiful package and hear her rant and rave, in her description manner that only she and I (and maybe Baseball Chick) have the gift to do. It's like watching a home video of me. I've always been me so while it's interesting for me to watch this girl do her thing, for those who have known me since I was her age, it must be like deja vu. or maybe just creepy.

I must, however, recap Friday night's football game for ya. If you're my facebook friend, then you should know that Chantilly now stands a tall 5-0. It's so neat to see these boys have this season in front of them. I can remember way too many youth football games when Oldest was given the secure position of Left Bench. And many, many games when he didn't see 1 minute of playing time. Not one minute. So here we are Friday night, at Hayfield in Alexandria and we're thinking this will be a tough one. It became clear very early on these referrees were on dope. Seriously doped out. I'm kidding, of course. They weren't really under any influence, except the influence of bitterness. We couldn't figure out why we were getting flags left and right. Literally every other play was a flag. Those of us fans in the stands had a few choice words to say. From our perspective all we could see was the referees kept throwing a flag and then taking 2 or 3 minutes in a huddle like they were deciding what the penalty would be. It was certainly frustrating.

The inside scoop goes like this: Pre-season our coach apparently black-balled at least 2 of these referees from ref'ing his games. Whatever the history and basis for that move, I don't know. So here we are Friday night with 2 refs that know they have been ousted from our friendship huddle. They were thinking payback time. A teammate of Oldest's informed him that a few times he walked by the ref huddle to see what was going on...and heard one ref say "I saw this..." and another ref say "What? When? I didn't see that." And that is pretty much how the night progressed. But, even with that ridiculous drama our boys were unstoppable. Final score 24-6. Oldest did not play as his coach was concerned about him getting re-injured. You already know Oldest is not happy about this and is working diligently to get back into action.

As far back as we can think and research Chantilly has never had a 5-0 season of football. This Friday: Robinson. Can we make it 6-0? I believe we can. I believe we can. Let's Go Chargers.