Football....

The PAL Football season is over for us! Saige played Junior Varsity for the 49ers. Of course his team didn't win one game this year, but they improved so much over the season. I enjoyed watching him play and practice, but I am so glad that it's over. Three days a week for several hours each day he would have practice on the Snyder practice field, and every Saturday from 8-12 at alternate highschools, would be game day. It would of been much more fun for me if I didn't have to drag the little ones to every practice and game. Wil and Ash are clearly not into sports at this point of time in their lives and they let me know that at every practice and game.
They weren't bad just bored. The picture above is from his last game vs the Vikings. They lost but when my boy played he looked good. Saige is #80 and he's running the ball in the photo. The poor kid was so beat up this season that I actually think that he's glad it's over. He wants to play for PAL next year instead of playing for middle school. We weren't too sure about that, but he has been pretty insistant about it. The coaches asked Bryan to let him back. If he does, he'll be on Varsity. JV is 9 & 10 year olds and Varsity is 11-12 year olds. This year over 3/4 of their team were first timers, they really need a lot of the kids to return so they have a team that has been working together and already knows how to play. Hopefully the 49ers have a better year next year!

It has to be Him.....

The last five days have been a whirlwind....I just now feel like I'm settling down from the weekend. This last weekend our church held a women's retreat, 'Captivating - Unveiling the mystery of a women's soul'. The women's minstry team puts the whole thing together, and since I'm a part of the women's ministry team--well, need I say more? Thursday we spent all day decorating, putting together the games, and making sure that everything was going to run smoothly. Our conference started Friday night, which I was the speaker for the evening. It was the first time that I ever taught a lesson for adults...it wasn't too bad. We met back at the church Saturday morning for another session and I was in charge of the games for Saturday morning and had to help another lady go pick up our lunch (chinese - it was soooo good). We had our last session Saturday afternoon and then left the church together. The women went to Samaritan's House for a tour and then we met at Chari's House at 3:30 for another tour and to see what all these places do and what help they might need. Around 4:30 the women left for their 'Adventure'. My friend Lisa and I put together a Downtown Adventure for the ladies. We had around 30 women and put them on teams of five. Each team had a quote that they had to solve, there were ten clues prompting them to go to ten different locations to find there word -the library, Summit Square, Lincoln Tower, the Court House to name a few. We had them decoding messages and looking up information. We ended the 'Adventure' at the bus station where they had to do an act of kindness to a stranger. It was very hectic but overall went over rather well. They had a lot of fun and Lisa and I were exhausted! We then all walked to Don Hall's on Superior and we had a fabulous dinner!

So far it sounds like a fun weekend huh? Yeah....well what I didn't mention was that ......let's start on Friday morning.

I watch a little girl in the morning (she goes to school with the boys) and she gets to my house around 7:15. Of course the night before I was trying to finish my lesson for Friday night and didn't get to bed until 2:00 am - setting an alarm when you're exhausted - you're bound to mess it up. I accidently set my alarm for pm and I woke up late at 7:45 - I was freaking out thinking that I'm going to have to call her mom and really apologize. I run downstairs to the phone and I see her sitting on my couch. Evidently Bryan never locked the door (he's up all night now because of his shift change) when he came to bed at 5 or 6 in the morning. That poor little girl had been sitting alone on the couch all morning. I felt terrible. Of course now I'm scrambling to get all of the kids ready and feed them breakfast and get them to school on time. Wheww!! That's out of the way, now I can focus on finishing my lesson.....phone rings.....it's the school....no one is there to change Wil and he's leaking.....okay.....I get there and he has leaked all over his clothes, it was a mess. I noticed though that he seemed to be stooling out (it would be similar to when normal people have diarrhea). He was looking pretty lethargic too -----NOT THIS WEEKEND---NOOOOOO! I clean him up and then pick up the little girl that I watch 3 days a week from the pre-school at the boys' school. I tell her that I'll take her to McDonalds for lunch. I figured that before lunch I'd stop by the bank and deposit some money, plus I needed to order some checks. When I get to my bank they tell me that normally they could give me checks but that my account was in a negative balance. WHAT!!!!!!! IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!! I had just been online two days before and I had plenty of money in my account ---Oh wait---snap-----there are several bills that I pay that come out automatically every month - it's a good system unless you forget - which I did! Of course I was only $10 short and I should be thankful that we have overdraft protection - of course we keep our bulk savings at another bank so we don't spend it -- it's not helping me now---We had over $90 of fees for this 'little' error! I've been kicking myself over and over and over. It's one thing if you don't have the money but entirely another when you do but you forget about your automatic withdrawals and then forget to cover them you must deposit the money you have! I make it back home just wanting to cry - I pick the kids up from school - Wil isn't looking too good. My parents come over around 4:00 to pick up the boys and take them to their house for the night. I send some powerade with Wil and tell my parents to make sure that he drinks it. After they leave I go into the computer room to finish my lesson that I have to give in about 3 hours! When Bryan got up for work I told him about my error and of course he's not happy - but he's not mad at me. He's a typical male - well if I made more money we wouldn't ever have to worry about little errors like that. Between lack of sleep, wondering about Wil, not being prepared, and kicking myself for the financial error - I did what any other woman would do ----I started crying----I couldn't stop----great, now my eyes look like I've been in a boxing match and I have to get up in front of women and speak. As always, God comes through and lightens the load, which He did. My lesson went rather well and it was all Him. As the women's conference was coming to a close Saturday evening I called my parents to tell them that I was on my way to pick up the kids. My mom said that Wil had just vomited. NOOOOOO!!!! It's bad enough when he stools out, and usually we can monitor it and get him back on track but once he vomits while stooling out, well, there is nothing we can do. I pick the kids up - Wil looks terrible - he lost about 2 pounds in 2 days, his eyes are sunk in and he's super weak. I call my sister-in-law and tell her meet me at my house and take Saige and Asher with her for the night. On the way home Wil vomits all over himself and the truck. Poor guy! I get home pack the boys bags and pack a bag for me and Wil and we truck into the ER at 10:00 pm. We got into a room around 2:30 am. He was dehydrated - though ironically his levels weren't that bad-his sodium was the lowest.
Bryan came up to the hospital when he got off work and stayed until about 10:30 Sunday morning - he had to go home and sleep because he had to work that evening. Sunday morning my sis-n-law brought the boys to the hospital and did a switch with me because I'm heading up a Christmas musical in Children's Ministry and that Sunday happened to be our first rehearsal and I was the only one who had all the scripts and CDs. On Kim's way to the hospital she picked up breakfast for the boys and to make all of our lives just a little more interesting, Asher vomited all over her car. YEAH!!!!!! I LOVE BEING ME!!!! Wil was released Sunday night and today was his first day back at school. He's still not up to par but is doing much better, Asher too.

The most wonderful thing about the last five days is that after my crying fit, I gave it all to God. Some of the things that were going on were in my control and I messed up and then some were not. I remeber praying, "God it has to be You, I can't do this, it has to be You! Keep my attitude light and my disposition cheery. I need Your help." Guess what......I haven't been stressed like I usually am during these situations. My attitude has been really good. Our finances are cleared up, the women's retreat went really well, and Wil and Asher are getting better. I say ALL this ( I just proofread and saw how much I wrote-sorry) I say ALL this to just let all of you know that; It has to be Him, you can't do it, it has to be Him.

October is here?

The other day the kids just started school and summer wasn't quite over...when did October get here? Someone told me the other day that the Christmas is only 12 weeks away! It can't be....I'm not ready!! I don't want to get out the coats, hats, and gloves yet!! Autumn is my favorite season but I'm not ready for it yet!
This summer just seemed to fly by - the older I get the quicker it goes! The saying is true - time flies by! Well enjoy this fall, hopefully it won't go by as quickly as the summer did!