April? May?

I know, everyone is busy this time of year. But WHOA. 

This is insane. Every single day of the week I go from soccer practice to baseball game. Plus lots and lots in between. You know. It's just April/May. 

One day Andrew caught a baseball with his eye socket. 

It has been fun watching the colors evolve. 

Avery's soccer team has been interesting. I don't know. I don't want to talk about it. 

It's been a crazy season figuring out how to work with all the girls that came out, 

but my 7th grade team is so great (mostly! depending on the day/hour/minute) and they are so good. 

I have this one girl who is super shy and reclusive and wears her hair in front of her face and a mask, and she never talks or interacts with anyone, and she is super lazy and slow...she's just not my very favorite, you know? Anyway, the other day her mom emailed me and said "thank you for playing my daughter. You may not know it, but soccer is saving her."

The email came around the same time as Mother's Day, so it made me think about the INSTITUTION of soccer is saving her just like the institution of motherhood will save us all. I don't know. Remember I don't know anything. 

Avery's coach is new and young and confusing, impossible to communicate with. 

I don't know. I don't know. 

We are just focusing on positive things. 

Look at all my giant babies. They took good care of me all Mother's Day. Jim had to work in the morning. 

Andrew made me a quick coupon book, and I cashed them in before he could forget about it. 

One of the coupons was a "spagetaway" and that is when you lay face down on a neck pillow while he bends your legs and pokes at your back. Any time I raised my head to take a breath, he would shove it back into the pillow. He also said things like "clear your mind" and "relax your legs, hun."

One day we had a neighborhood baby shower for Jessica. It started with Gus dragging Woody behind his motorcycle...

The night evolved and soon the kids were in clown costumes.

Cut to Friday night, Jessica was in labor. She has her babies at home, so around 9:30 after baseball games, me and Lisa went down and stood in front of their house, listening for any kind of progressive noises. We were so curious about how everything was going.

Dane's dad was in the kitchen talking on his phone...every now and then a midwife would walk into the living room...finally Dane walked into view, so we waved our arms to get his attention. We asked how things were going? and he said "she's here! come see her!"

So we went in and saw the sweetie little baby, teeny tiny little thing. We only stayed for a minute; the baby had only been born one hour ago! They were still in the fog of war - they didn't even know how long ago it was. The midwife looked through their records to report when she was born. They hadn't even weighed her yet. 

So we left to let them continue in all the fun new baby things. 

Evan's team is great.

One day he pitched and I about had a heart attack. 

He did mostly well! But eventually the coach swapped him out because Evan gets so frustrated and can't get back on track. 

One day there wasn't an umpire, so Jim umped.

One day we didn't have a ref for soccer, so I reffed. 

There is a shortage of everything these days, including officials to officiate the kids' sports. 

Last week I subbed all entire week long for Andrew's class. It was fun, but also so crazy: Sub, soccer practice, baseball game. Sun up to sun down. 

When the week was over, my body gave up and I got a wicked cold. I've been recouping all weekend, and finally tonight I can smell again.