My Girls

Tetherball

There is something about tetherball in the 5th grade here in Lake Dallas. It becomes more than a fun game at lunch, it becomes an obsession. Kids line up and wait their lunch break away to be able to have a chance to play tetherball. If you win the game, you continue on until you loose. I remember when Declan used to come home with bruised hands and arms, and the occasional swollen lip from a tetherball game. Then Decota started informing us on the state of the weather in terms of if the tetherball courts would be opened to play on or not. Tetherball just became a part of 5th grade everyday life with them. Yet we had no idea of how much of an obsession it would become for Cambria! As soon as she got out of school we would get the update on how many games she had won or who she had beaten that day. Her arm would often ache at night from playing so intensely. When she was at a friend's house that had a tetherball pole, she wanted to play it the whole time. She loved it so much that her friend Melissa gave her a ball and a rope for Christmas. Since we did not have a pole, and she did not want to wait for her parents to get one and figure out where to put it and how to get it up, she took it outside, climbed a tree, and hung it up in the tree tops. There was a tree in the way so when she would hit it right the other tree would hit it back. She thought it was wonderful because she did not have to have anyone in order to play, she could just play the tree. It did, however, cause a problem when others wanted to play against her, so one day daddy went out and cleared some limbs off another tree and moved it into a better location. The tree became our natural tetherball pole. When Cambria would come home after school her routine consisted of putting up her notebook, grabbing a snack, and heading straight out to the tetherball. She would practice for hours with no one but herself. She always loved it when Declan or Decota decided to go out and play with her. Her all time favorite challenges, however, were when dad would head out and play with her. I always knew when he was out there because I could hear them both laughing from inside the house. I think it became a great tension reliever for Rodney to be out there punching the ball and laughing. I think Cambria just loved to CRUSH her daddy. The teatherball became one of the best and most used gifts that anyone has ever given Cambria. Who would have known that a little yellow ball tied to a rope would become such an important part of her 5th grade year!

Scrapblog

OK! I have completed my first scrapblog page- twice (I accidentally deleted it once- oops). Hopefully I will get a bit done here and there, so if you want to check it out got to www.scrapblog.com/auntnelly or click here!!! :)

Indoor Soccer

This winter Cambria decided she did not want to take a break from soccer and wanted to play indoor. We forced her to play basketball last winter and, even though she was good at it, she did not want to play it again. So what do you do when a child loves something so much she does not want to take a couple month break- SIGN HER UP!!!! So every week for 8 weeks we took her to Carrollton to play in the American Indoor facility. She played with the Ace's Soccer Club and loved it. Indoor is a whole other world of soccer. It is like soccer/hockey. You play for 20 min, take a 1minute half-time break, and then play 20 minutes more. There are no out of bounds, no off sides, and you don't stop to substitute players. It is VERY fast paced and exciting. Cambria played in a league that was a year older, so a couple of the teams were A LOT bigger (like Declan size bigger). In indoor you play really rough and push your opponents into the walls. The ball also comes very hard and very fast at you. The first time Cambria got hit in the face with the ball I thought she was going to cry (it was a HARD kick straight to the face); however, her face turned red, she got mad, and she played one heck of an aggressive game. It was nerve racking for me, I was sure one of the monstrous girls was going to hurt my little Cambria. Rodney, however, loved watching his feisty little girl ram the bigger girls into the wall. In the end, we got creamed by the 2 biggest teams, but took 3rd place overall. Cambria loved it and decided that she wanted to get on a club team and play year round. Thus one season of indoor soccer opens up a whole new chapter in our lives.......

Playing the catch up game

I am trying to play a bit of the catch up game. In order to do some of it I am going to post things in a not so chronological order. I have started to try a new thing called scrapblog, so as I create my pages I will also post about it here. There is some way to also share my Scrapblog posts- but I am not that advanced yet. Hopefully all this will help with 2 things- catching me up on my posts for my journal and catching up on my scrapbooks!!! Don't hold your breath though, you might pass out!

My not so Primary song moment

So Rodney is back in town after only one night away. Sometimes he gets so wound up on these short trips that it is a bit hard to be around him. He is on all of us like a fly on stink about everything. So after he just went on his 100th rampage of the night, this one because I asked him to take out the trash and when he did he discovered something "wet" in it, we were all feeling a little bit like pulling out our hair. I looked at the kids and you could see it in their faces that they were DONE with the lectures tonight. All of the sudden I started humming "I'm so glad when daddy comes home". Before I knew it I was singing my own little version:

I'm so glad when daddy comes home
Glad as I can be
Clap my hands and shout "OH NO!
Stay away from me!"

Wrap my hands around his thought
Squeeze it tight like this
Slap his cheek and give him what?
A great, big KICK!

I know it is mean, but everyone must have been feeling it because the kids started cracking up. When he walked in he had no idea why we were all smiling and our mood seemed to be a bit lighter, but we did not tell. It just felt good to have one under our belts after he has been such a nag all evening. Tomorrow will be better, and I know I am ornery, but OH WELL! Tonight I think I am pretty dang funny! And the kids think I should be on "Whose line is it Anyway".

I almost killed the dog

Poor puppy! He is one big, fat mutt, and so I decided he needed to start working out with me. I took him to the pond to run with me, and he thought it was great for about 3 min. His pace started to slow after that, but it was not until about 10 min into the run/walk that he started dropping back. I was pulling him by about 15 min, an added bonus of a workout on my right side. At 19 min I looked back at him and his tongue was nearly touching the ground, he was limping, and he looked like he was about to pass out. I decided I could stop for a minute to take him to the pond for a quick drink. He decided to just jump all the way in. I had to let him, or I was going in the stinky pond with him. After about 3 min I decided he was stinky and muddy enough, so I pulled him out and made him finish the last 11 minutes with me. He was not loving it. At one point he almost killed me when he just laid down right in the middle of full stride. The landscape crew that was working on the pond got a kick out of me literally dragging this huge dog behind me. By 30 min he was done, and I was a little afraid he might have a heart attack. I let him lie in the pond a bit more. After I finally pulled him out, walked him home, bathed him, and let him back in the house, it took him about 2 hours to stop panting. He just laid on the floor the whole rest of the day. The next day was a walking day, and I worried about taking him, but I did it any way. He got a little pooped at the end, but handled it a lot better. I really felt bad for the little, big guy- But at least I am in better shape than someone!