Day 123

Day 116

Day 60

Today, my sweet man turned 33.  He's been through so much these last few years and he continues to amaze me with his strength.  I'm very proud of him and love him more each day.

We celebrated by going to watch the girls play 3 soccer games.  Oh, the life with kids.  He was such a trooper!  After soccer games, the girls and Nana made him cupcakes and he opened a few presents.

I love you, Mr. Hill.  Happy, happy birthday!

hot shots soccer

this spring we really wanted to find something for mykah to do.  something active.  something busy.  she really wanted to play soccer, but wasn't old enough for any of our leagues here.  i really didn't want to do dance or gymnastics because i'm weird and felt guilty that karsyn wouldn't be able to do dance or gymnastics too (cost, time, etc).  we stumbled across hot shots soccer and decided to give it a try.

here's our little poser before we left for her first practice ...

i really think she's going to be an athlete.  it seemed to all come naturally to her and she did really well.  i was shocked!!

i think her favorite part is when they play this game where they all have a flag tucked in the back of their shorts and they run around trying to take everyone's flags while keeping theirs.  you can see it in her face ..

another favorite part ... the huddle ... counting to 3 and shouting "HOT SHOTS!"  this really isn't a good picture of her because all you can see is her hot pink socks and shoes, but the team shot is great!

there she is ... all smiles!

56/365

my sassy girls have somehow changed gears and actually let me take their pictures.  and they pose.  i'm not sure what the change has been, but let's not complain, right? 

we learned that monday nights at a local soccer complex, there are free soccer trainings where kids can go do drills and scrimmage with other kids in their age group with soccer coaches who actually know what they're doing.  it's a short 45 minute practice, but the girls have loved it.  mykah went for the first time tonight.  we're still undecided if she actually likes soccer, but she wanted to go, so we went with it. 

and, yes, i let them pick out what they wore.  whatever.

yep, i'm the coach

here's how it started.  we signed her up.  we waited.  we never heard from her coach.  then we got word ... there is no coach for her team.  they needed someone to volunteer so that the team wouldn't have to be split up and they would end up on a team with more kids, meaning less playing time. 

we signed up with CSSC so that she would actually LEARN soccer.  and now there's no coach.  it came to the night before the first game and if no one volunteered by noon that day, they would have to combine teams.  i thought and prayed about it all day.  and i volunteered.

so she may not really learn much.  but she has a coach.  and a team.  and gets to play. 

today was our first game.  our first time to even see our team.  and meet our players.  needless to say, it's going to be a HUGE learning experience for all of us.  i made the other parents fully aware that i had no clue what i was doing, but i wanted our children to be able to get playing time.  so here i was.  there are also several families from other countries on our team.  yep.  big language barrier.  we have spanish speakers. indian. and korean.  most speak english to some extent, but i have to make sure my ears are listening good!  today was a lot of fun!!!  i cannot wait to see how the season turns out.

54/365

first soccer game of the season.  first game with college station soccer club.  we're excited!

. 146/365 .

tonight was upward soccer award night.  this is karsyn and her friend ally sporting their backpacks.

. 134/365 .

she absolutely loves soccer these days.  she's really come a long way since game 1.

. upward soccer .

i absolutely love that our church has upward sports programs.  i was involved in basketball and cheerleading when i worked at the church, but since then, they have added flag football and soccer.  soccer is the only one karsyn is able to play at this point, because of her age.  i imagine when she's in first grade, we'll be doing basketball (or cheerleading, i guess.). 

i love the whole concept of upward sports.  and now i love that my girl gets to be a part of it.  and she loves it.  today, however, she played with her braid more than with the soccer ball i think, but she did great!  and now i'm so very glad we stuck with it after the terrible first game she had.

i think her favorite part is getting to throw the ball in.

and she does a mighty fine job at it, too.

. soccer game #2 .

what a game.  and i'm sitting here a proud mama.  we talked it up all week and discussed how our behavior was going to be this week.  we got up early.  had a great breakfast.  took our time.  and all was well.  there was never any doubt that she would react the same way she did last week.  she did amazing! 

she even did this ...

SHE SCORED!  twice.  her teammate maely and her worked together to finish two points and she was so excited.  as was i.  she played great the entire game.  got to kick off a few times and even throw the ball in.

we were EXTREMELY proud of her.  and we did our best to show her how proud.  we did have a list of bribes we had to fulfill, but i think our outpouring of excitement, congratulations, and good-job's did way more for her than the sno cone or movie could ever do.

here's an action shot.  with the boys. 

and, for the record, there was lots of this ....

we have recently discovered a new hairstyle that she is in love with.  for now.  the little side braid into a ponytail.  but she plays with the ponytail all day.  i'm loving it.  because of her curly hair, the little ponytail in the back turns into one big ringlet.  super duper cute.  between all the twiddling of the hair, she did amazing.  and i couldn't be more proud.

. 92/365 .

my favorite moment from the soccer game today ...

pregame prayer.

. first soccer game .

i also thought that it would be our last.  here's the WHOLE story (because i want to remember it for what it's worth.)  the day started out a little crazy.  we were running a little later than what i wanted.  i had already fought with karsyn about the thickness of her soccer socks.  yes, it was real.  yes, i won.  i think she just likes to argue with me.  so, we were late, we were tense b/c of the socks, but we made it.  we rushed, which always throws things off.

she did great.  at first.  this was the day she had waited for for at least a year now.  seriously.  she has ALWAYS talked about getting to play soccer.  and we played it up big time.  we pumped her up, we were all excited.

in line warming up before the game.  i think the little boy on the left was trying to be funny for the girls.  
 

i could tell she was getting a little nervous, but we were still cheering her on. 

she even got to do the first kick off!  i was so excited and thought that would get her pumped up.

 
the whole team looked a little lost at first.  they were very unsure about what to do, but they've only practiced twice and this is a whole new world for all of them.

and then the mood changed.  and it changed drastically.  FAST.  nothing happened.  she didn't get hurt.  nothing.  this is how she does things.  it happens all the time at dance.  she gets this face.  freezes a little bit.  then it's over.  it went from this ...

to this ...

in no time.  i tried to talk to her, but the soccer mom in me went overboard.  i don't handle well when she pulls this act.  i sent her to daddy.  he tried and tried to talk to her.  she screamed and screamed and ended up sitting in the car.  i went to check on them and she was still screaming.  said she didn't want to play.  so i stripped her uniform off of her in the parking lot and put her back in the car in her undies.  she was VERY unhappy with me.  this is what we ended up with ...

 
we ended up having another meltdown shortly after.  i was in charge of snacks for the team and wouldn't let her have a snack because she didn't play.  ok, the 2 seconds she did play didn't count in my mind.  i had my mind made up that she wasn't going to get a reward of any kind because of her behavior.  it escalated out of control fast.  we went straight home from there, which was the quietest ride ever.  i was very angry with her.

NOW ... i admit that i went overboard.  i wasn't the encouraging mom i should have been.  the whole day started off on the wrong foot and went downhill from there.  we have talked and talked and talked about it until we can talk no more and we have agreed to have another shot at it.  i am working on being the encourager for her, which is what she needs.  we shall see where this goes ...

. 66/365 .

and we have our first soccer injury ..

after practice tonight, karsyn was playing around with her friends and bit the dust.  she got a pretty good scratch on her face and cried, but she said she had so much fun at her first practice.

after she got out of the bath and her hair dried, this is what we got ...

{yay, you got a 2pher ... but i took this picture and HAD to share it.}

look at those curls!!  i hope they stay forever.  although, my hair used to look like that not too long ago and i keep straightening it.  maybe i should go curly again too! 

. and so it begins ...

 
I'M A SOCCER MOM!!!