Yesterday was filled with 3 hours of swimming, 4 hours of unpacking, packing and lifting wine and 3 hours of football. The highlight of the day was the latter. The littlest guys football game was at 6:30 where he played a stellar game of defense and made an impromptu cut and reversed his direction on the whole field to almost score on a long run up through the middle of the other teams defense, he really played well. However it was the oldest who was the star of the day. He was such a force on defense he had the other team reduced to fear and wild throws by halftime. It got so bad that the other team was allowed to add an extra player since they fell behind by so many touchdowns. His new defensive coach has given him the freedom to play defense wherever he wants, in other words, he gets to choose his own position on every play. Much to our surprise, and his teammates, when he would line up to rush the opposing quarterback, he would start at a full sprint charging hard and then growling like a wild man as he exploded into the other teams backfield. If it was a pass he would be charging in with his hands raised and jump so high the quarterback had to just throw it almost straight up in the air as he couldn’t see over the oldest ones outstretched arms. All his teammates were thrilled with this new tactic and would congratulate him on the sidelines after each series. He looked like something out of a football movie. This resulted in a number of interceptions for our team with more than one resulting in a touchdown. But wait there’s more….. the play of the game was a 25 yard (which is a long way) pass route by our boy to get open and catch a long pass from his quarterback and calmly take two steps backwards into the end zone for a touchdown! The tragedy of the whole thing was that the misses and I both missed the play! Mom was pulling into the parking lot and wouldn’t you know it, I was in the bathroom! All our friends (parents of other kids) and the coach described the play in detail but it was too bad we missed it. I told him not to worry as he’ll catch many more, at least his little brother watched it from high on the monkey bars. Those of you that have seen him play before would have thought it wasn’t the same player in the game. Looks like all those recent afternoons playing catch have paid off, as they say, practice makes perfect. Although many players played really well, both coaches singled out our guy for his exemplary play. In fact, they decided to take the whole team to Dairy Queen for a post game celebration. We were all really proud and happy for him and you could see him beaming. I told him after the game that while it was great to score a touchdown, I was more proud of his great defense and how it actually contributed much more to the win than his touchdown. The entire game was really a magical life altering moment which I’m sure he’ll remember forever. Look out as he’s starting to grow into those long legs and is becoming a real force to contend with.
It’s now 5am and I’ve been up for about an hour. I have a number of calls starting around 6:30 my time so I need to hurry to get to the gym, maybe I’ll just workout here as I’m a little sore from carrying all the wine. Today is Aunt B’s birthday and we’re all going to lunch to celebrate. I do have a few more cases to get out today but not nearly as much as yesterday. Mom had a hard day of work yesterday and I could tell she was tired. We hope we can come up with something else by the fall as they’ve already told her that everyone has to work all holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. $10 an hour is not worth missing family holidays in my opinion. The real point is that she’s way overqualified for this job. Right now though, she’s doing what she can do to help, even though I know she really doesn’t like it. It’s not so much the actual job but all the wacky people and fellow employees. Everyday I hear of some other strange event that happened during her shift. Sometimes I worry she’s not safe as she’ll share stories of some strange guy coming through her line time after time trying to create some personal conversation with her. Mind you this is not a particular strange guy but multiple strange guys almost everyday. I guess that’s the price you pay when you’re as beautiful and attractive as the misses. I need to get her out of retail.
Time to run as I’m running out of time and my morning is packed. I’m really looking forward to the weekend. Even though last weekend was a holiday, it was full of a lot of stuff. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun but every minute seemed rushed with something going on, such is life. This weekend I’m just looking forward to a few days with less going on and a little less excitement.
Hope all’s well, take care and God Bless and give the oldest a call to congratulate him on his great game! I know he’d really appreciate it.
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