Soccer tryouts...repeat performance.

So, today was soccer tryouts for Jake and Nate. Well, sort of try-outs. We know already that they would be placed on a team, so tryouts are more for the benefit of possible incoming players. Usually returning players have nothing to worry about. They will be placed somewhere.

Well, Nathan has been rather flip-floppy (my own word, I think) about deciding if he even wants to play travel soccer again next year. One week he is "just tired of it" and he wants to play rec soccer with his school friends. The next week he is "TOTALLY going to do travel again". Back and forth, week to week. All last week he was trying to convince us that he was SURE that travel was for him. We kept asking, "are you really sure?"--mainly because he has been so flip-floppy. Yes, yes he was POSITIVE.
Sooooo, we pre-registered him. Yesterday. When he was still SURE.

Fast forward to today. Tryouts are from 6-7:30. Nathan walks through the door after school at 3:30, and loudly yells first thing, "I am not going to try out today. I decided not to play travel." What? This SAME EXACT thing happened last year. Of course, last year, since it was the first we heard of him not wanting to try out the day of.....we forced him to do it. I figured he was nervous or something, and he didn't know what he wanted. This year, has been a good year...he has improved a lot. He has enjoyed playing on his team. He likes the kids. So, this year was fine. The only thing we noticed was that he just wasn't passionate about it.

We were fine with him playing rec ball...except that we thought it would most likely frustrate him. Rec ball is just not played at the same level as he's been used to playing at.

We are not going to push it. Not this time. Whatever he decides...he will have to live with it. And so, there you have it. It will save us a serious amount of money. So there is that. I just don't want him to regret letting this opportunity for development go by. He has one more day to change his mind--tomorrow is the second day for tryouts. After that....it is what it is.

Teenagers! ARGH!

Can I tell you how frustrating it is to have a stubborn teenager around? I tell you--we have had a very hard year with Ben. He has made a lot of poor decisions. We have found ourselves sadly lowering expectations and saying good-bye to dreams we may have had for him in his childhood years. We struggle with the way he is choosing to live his life day to day. We try to make loving and right decisions regarding everything in his life that we have an control of. We are down on our knees daily for him for protection and for a softened heart. AND-it is still hard. Everyday presents new challenges.

He gets sooooo aggravated with us when we say no to him......no matter what the question. Today, it was him asking permission to stay at a friend's house for the night. Everything in my gut told me it was fishy....that something just wasn't right. Ben is VERY mad that I chose to say no. He thinks I assume the bad all the time, and that I don't trust him. I won't go into all the reasons why we have had a difficult time trusting him, or why this situation seems like not the best idea......but no matter what I said to him about this, he replied with "Oh MY GOSH.", HUGE sighs of frustration....and a couple of "You are CRAZY"'s. I end up rambling about how we don't say no just to be mean or controlling....how we love him, and it's our job to make the best decisions with the information we are working with, etc. Although, I start feeling a little crazy myself--mainly because no matter what I say, I feel it is falling on deaf ears.

It is draining to be his mother right now. I am just trying to make sure he does not find himself in regrettable situations. (He has already been in a few of those....). I am trying to make sure he realizes that just because he is almost 17, doesn't mean he knows what is best for himself. (Also, something that has been obvious--to us, anyway.) All the while wondering if what I am saying to him is making him pull more and more away from us. I am convinced he thinks we are unreasonable, and uncompromising. While I feel the truth of the matter is we have already bent for him and listened to him more than he will ever know.

I have decided that raising a teenager is much more difficult than I ever thought it would be. I have great respect for any set of parents who have made it through the teenage years with their family in tact and still loving each other!! We are trying to get there. We are trying with much prayer and humbleness.

The thought that we will be going through these tough years two more times just makes me shudder some days. (I now know why wrinkles deepen.) We will make it, I know we will...... but I won't be mistaken and believe it will be for any reason other than by the grace of God!

Thank You...

Thank you to all the men and women who have served our country in the military-- defending and preserving our freedom....



Giving your lives unselfishly, so we can live peacefully....



We appreciate and remember you today.

new blog layout

trying out a new look....although I don't think it will last very long. I like it, but the pink and brown actually feels dreary rather than cheery to me. I am definitely more of a blue/green kind of girl. I will be working on that, I guess. Anyway, hope you enjoy the new look.
I am sure much more blogging will be coming from me, now that summer is right around the corner. June 9th is our last day of school. I SHOULD have much more time on my hands after that. Which translates into more time to spend blogging. I miss it.

So...stay tuned!

Spring Break

Well....Spring Break is almost over. How very sad. It is just too short. I wish we could have just one more week. I have just started to feel relaxed.

I have been doing a lot of running around this last week. Between carting the boys to friend's houses, running errands, and doing "must-do" tasks, I feel I have had absolutely NO time to myself. Today was the first time I have sat down for more than an hour. It feels good, let me tell you!

Tomorrow, our family is going to Medieval Times. We decided that we needed to do SOMETHING different and fun with the kids while we had vacation. We have never gone, so I hope it is worth the money. We need some good family "laugh-it-up" time.

Maybe I will take some pictures and post.

Hello???

I haven't written in sooooo long, I felt I should at least say hello.

Anyone out there?

Hello?

Hello?

Okay, so that is it for now. I'll try and write more when I am feeling more inspired. If I am not inspired, I will just type some sort of nonsense, just so I am writing SOMETHING. I need to get back in the habit of popping in at least once a week. Ever since I got onto Facebook, that has been eating up my computer time. But, I was just reading past blog entries, and it was good to read them. It was fun to read about our house sale/purchase....funny things the kids did...the whole saga of trying to get a job....etc.

I'll be back.

Title-less entry

Haven't posted in a while, so I decided I would.
Matt and I are going to go out to dinner this evening. Not sure where yet. We need to pick up Nate first from soccer practice at 7pm. The practices have already been ending sooner due to the shortened daylight. How sad is that?
We have a tournament for nathan this weekend. Next weekend is Jake's tournament. Mom also comes to visit us next weekend. I am looking forward to that.
Both boys are excited about Grandma seeing them play.

Nathan hurt his hand yesterday on the playground. Something about hitting it against a metal pole. He has complained about it since. With him being his team's goalie, it may not be so pretty at the tourney this weekend! He also has a bruise on his cheekbone, that he got today. I asked him what happened to his face, and he said, "Emily kicked me!" I said, "She kicked you in your FACE? How did she manage that?" So, he said, "I was just walking under the Monkey Bars, minding my own business, and Wham!...here she comes swinging her legs and knocks me down! " (I should mention that he said this all like it was HER fault, like she is a mean and terrible person, and he had nothing to do with it.) So, I said, "Uh, did it ever occur to you that you shouldn't be walking under the playground equipment?" He responded very matter-of-factly...."Nobody was going across". To which I responded, "Well, Emily obviously was." Anyway- Nathan is battered and bruised.

I also took Ben driving today for the first time. That was an adventure. We went in a local parking lot. Let's just say, he is not ready for the road yet. :0)