Cat's Soccer Season, continued

In addition to being a group of talented girls led by a great coach, this soccer team gets along really well and they have a lot of fun together.

I think we can attribute at least some of their chemistry to the extra-curricular activities the coaches put together.  In addition to the camping trip in Roosevelt, the girls helped with a big corporate service project where they assembled aid packages.

When there was a long stretch of time during the season without a game, coach scheduled a time for the girls to do team-building activities at a nearby ropes course and took everyone out for ice cream afterwards.

After the last game, most of the families who were there went out for ice cream at a famous burger joint called Dairy Keen.  The kids loved the train motif with all of the cool things to see in the restaurant and the train table outside.

This weekend, coach hosted a cookout at his house and we found out that the team's record was good enough that they will be moving up one or two levels of competition for the spring season.  They are currently in the lowest of 6(?) state competition divisions, so they will be in either #5 or #4 in the spring.  He's concerned that they haven't been challenged enough in their current bracket and wants to have to really push the girls so they don't get lazy.  One of his favorite sayings is "I'd rather reign in a wild stallion than whoop a jackass" and he thinks he's been doing too much whooping, haha.

Speaking of Coach Scott Quotes, Cat likes this one: "Excuses are like armpits.  Everyone has one, and they all stink."  And I took a picture of Cat's white board over the summer when she wrote down a third Coach Scott Quote, so that I could share it with him.

I still feel so lucky that Scott found Cat and wanted her on his team.  It's worked out great for her and is really helping her to develop as an athlete and as a person.

Cat's Soccer Season

Cat's soccer team had a great fall season!  They smoked everyone so much in the first three games (winning 12-0, 9-0, 9-0) that they switched things around a lot to try to give other girls a chance to score in the fourth game.  That time they only won 1-0.  Coach also jokingly blamed the close game on the fact that the game was right after the Saturday afternoon session of conference and told the girls "not to watch any more conference!" before the next game, haha.  (Though there's probably some truth to it.  I'm guessing most of the team had spent a significant portion of the day sitting around watching TV and eating junk food.  I know Cat had..)

The next game will live in infamy as the worst game of the season not only because it was their only loss (0-2), but because it was played in cold, rainy, windy weather.  The temperatures had to be in the 30s and it was just miserable.  We played the same team again a few days later on our own field and won 2-0, so we felt great about that.  Cat scored one of those goals.  The next two games were wins also (4-0, 5-1).

Cat had really great ball handling, good passes, and lots of shots on goal.  She scored 6 goals total this fall.  She also has the distinction of being the only player on the team to get a yellow card, haha.  The ref called a legitimate foul on her at the beginning of the game, but the second foul that earned her the yellow card was completely ridiculous.  She was dribbling the ball toward the goal and the defender was running alongside her and fell.  I'm not sure how Cat would have tripped an opponent while controlling the ball, but oh well.  At least she was able to play the rest of the game.

Cat still mostly played forward, but was a back-up keeper and spent time at defense and midfield too.  Her teammates also elected her to be a team captain again this year.

(I shared this video once already but it's the only one we have of Cat scoring this season,

and this seems an appropriate place to include it...)

A New Sport

A friend of mine, whom I became acquainted with as her Visiting Teacher, is an officer for the Northern Utah Horseshoe Pitching Association.  Her husband is a champion pitcher, regularly bringing home cash prizes and trophies.  And if you're anything like me, you might be surprised that this really is a thing.

I don't remember who initiated it, but we decided to get together to try our hand at horseshoe pitching once the couple's competitive season ended.  It was a chilly Monday evening to have a picnic and training session at a park, but it was fun to learn about this sport.  It came in handy that this couple knows where the good pits are and always keep a set of horseshoes in the trunk of their car "in case an emergency game breaks out."  I love it.

The first thing I learned about horseshoes is this: it's just as hard as it looks.  I tried pitching a few times and never even managed to get a horseshoe in the pit.  Cat got close to the stake a few times, Ben got close also, and Jack and Eliza mostly just made us all really nervous.  Somehow, we all escaped unscathed, though.

And I wouldn't be surprised if certain members of the family seek out opportunities to play again.

I will have to add this to yesterday's post:

"I locked the door!"

On the way home from school yesterday Luke tried to kick the girls out of the car.  It was to be Boys Only.  But when Eliza was reading to Luke the other morning when I was hoping to sleep in a bit, he really appreciated her company.

More from Luke

Toward the beginning of the school year, Luke and I had a little lesson where I taught him about the letter A.  He quickly grasped the concept and started identifying capital A's all over the place, repeating the motions I taught him for how to form the letter.  "Up!  Down!  Cross!"  When he and I made sugar cookies a few weeks ago, he wanted to make some A cookies and I happily obliged.

"Don't talk to me!" is what I often hear from Luke when he's about to do something he knows he shouldn't do and doesn't want me to tell him to stop.  Other times, he revels in his mischievous success.  For example, sneaking a juice box and bag of Goldfish and hiding on the far side of the couch long enough to enjoy a private snack before anyone finds him.

 

After hearing Jack's enthusiastic dinosaur-heavy conversation for a few days, Luke asked me, "Mom, do you want to meet a Utahraptor in a dark alley?"

"Smile, Luke!"

One day when I was driving him around running errands, we approached a stoplight and he informed me, "Blue means go."

Something else I've heard in the car - on multiple occasions - is that Luke doesn't want me to pick up the big kids, doesn't want to have the big kids anymore, or doesn't like them.  This is usually after being forced to go with me to pick them up after insisting that we not leave the house.  And he's usually screaming and crying.  (Then again, when they're playing with him, reading to him, sharing snacks with him, etc., he likes them a whole lot.  So I'm not too worried about it.)

Somebody was playing with Eliza's lip gloss...

I can't be positive, because I was jogging in the canyon and he was talking to me from the seat of the jogging stroller, which makes it hard to hear.  But I'm pretty sure that the other day he said, "I'm the king of Google!"

Ben: What's that kid's pet?

Luke: A fish!

Ben: What's that kid's pet?

Luke: A bear!

Ben: What's that kid's pet?
Luke: A octopus!

Ben: What's that kid's pet?

Luke: A monkey!

Ben: What's that kid's pet?
Luke: A pine cone!

After some attempts at correcting this last one,

Luke now uses the hybrid term "pikey-pones" to refer to porcupines.

I think I might start using that name myself.

The biggest bit of news from my favorite three-nager is that he is officially using the potty!  It all started about a month ago when I started letting the other kids have the gummy bears I'd bought Luke as potty treats, since he wasn't interested in using the potty.  Well before I knew it, he was peeing on the potty, wearing underwear all the time, and happily giving all of his "old" diapers to a neighbor boy.

He stays dry during naps and at bedtime (he's only woken up wet once in the night, and will usually sleep all the way through the night without having to get up to use the bathroom) and is starting to figure out about #2.  

Overall, he's been very easy to potty train (after two failed attempts over the last year and a half, cough cough) and I'm SO EXCITED.  I'll even show you a picture of Luke modeling his underwear (Blake Shelton-style) while using powdered milk as a pillow: 

Reality Check

I want to share something that's been on my mind lately.

I have a close friend who read my blog when I started it, then quickly stopped.  As well as she knows me, with my many many shortcomings and frustrations, the blog presented a facade that was so perfect she couldn't handle it.  Even when I saw her recently, we talked about it again.  She said that when she reads my blog, or just about anyone else's, she immediately compares herself to the blogger and comes up with a list of her own faults.  She talked about how even though she's never had an interest in decorating cakes, if she sees a friend of hers with a beautifully decorated cake, she thinks, "I really should know how to decorate cakes."  I've had this exact experience and understand perfectly why this amazing, talented woman prefers to avoid blogs altogether than risk having a pity-party because the temptation to compare herself is just too strong.

At the same time, this makes me think about friends I have who post seemingly everything on social media - the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I've seen over-sharing posts that make me physically cringe or cause me to wonder if I actually know certain people as well as I think I do.  What if a potential employer saw these posts?  A graduate school admissions officer?  Your child's teacher?  What if you want to run for political office one day?

Yes, being real is a good thing.  Being honest is a good thing.  We can help people through hard times when we are forthcoming about our own challenges.  We can let others know how to help us in our times of need.  But being real and honest can be taken too far in public settings, in my opinion.

It's a tough balancing act, isn't it?  When it comes to things that go online, which can never be completely removed from public access, I tend to err on the side of "put your best foot forward."  I don't intentionally attempt to give the false impression that I have everything figured out, that my life and family are perfect.  I hope nobody who reads this blog actually thinks those things.  But I admit that there are times when I gloss over or completely omit the less-pleasant aspects of my life.  Perhaps that approach presents a risk of coming across as being better than I really am.  But I am blessed that there are enough good, or at least funny, things happening in our family that I have a lot of positive material to work with.  I am truly grateful for that.

The other thing to remember about this blog is that I didn't start it in an effort to memorialize every aspect of our lives - there are plenty of things that only appear in my journal.  I started the blog because I wanted to share things with family and friends who aren't around us very much.  I wanted to see frustrating/funny things my kids were doing from those readers' perspectives.  I also wanted to give myself another reason to go the extra mile with the kids.  Because for some reason, being able to share fun things with all of you helps me have the right attitude and requisite energy to carry out those fun things.

All of that being said, I know that an occasional reality check is healthy.  So.  I will tell you about our disastrous dinner the other night.  We were having beautiful weather and at dinner time the kids wanted to eat at the picnic table in our back yard.  I quickly agreed and we started getting everything set up.  That's about where the "good" ended.  I tried to keep things under control (Ben was out of town), but the kids were rowdy during dinner.  They were worse after dinner.  They got very rambunctious, they didn't want to clean up (which is part of our nightly dinner routine), and they disturbed our neighbors, who were also outside trying to enjoy the weather.

I was so upset with two kids in particular that I gave them writing assignments which had to be completed before they could be re-admitted into my company (though, to be completely honest, I'm not sure why they would want to be around me because I was pretty peeved).

This is one of the papers I received.  I told this child to write down five things that happened during dinner that shouldn't have happened.

Translation:

Calling each other names.

Throwing water.

Climbing the fence.

Not cleaning up when it was time.

Agreeing to play soccer.

The reality is, we don't go on exciting adventures every weekend.  We don't sit down and play board games after a fun and healthy dinner and happy, effortless baths every night.  Truthfully, there are plenty of times when things are normal, mundane, or downright bad.  There are times when we don't even get along.  But I prefer to share the good, for my sanity, for the enjoyment of my readers, and also for the protection of my family's cyber-reputation.

"Mom, come see my masterpiece!"

And then he proceeded to shoot down the dangerous dragon which was terrorizing the royal family.  The knight just wasn't cutting it with his sword.  (Thank you very much.  I'll be here all night.)

The New Playground

Cat started to feel better yesterday afternoon, and everyone needed to get outside, so early in the evening I took the kids to a brand-new playground in Orem.  One of our favorite playgrounds was torn down over the summer and a great big handicap-friendly playground was built in its place.  It's been open for a week, and it was plenty crowded from still being so new, but we were excited to finally check it out.

One of my favorite little spots in the playground.

"I'm just watching  a little show."

Eliza was so excited to see TWO friends from school and she played with them the whole time.

Look who climbed a mountain.

Merry-go-Rounding is serious business.

The plaque on this wall said that there was a man in Orem who found
an entire Woolly Mammoth skeleton in his yard about 80 years ago.  Crazy.

Luke wasn't happy when Cat squeezed in with him and Jack.

I'm hoping the crowds die down before the warm weather does, so we can go back and enjoy this again soon!