Something is happening…almost

Why is it I am always so surprised when life is hard? What, like I don’t expect it to challenge me or something? I’ve got to stop playing all these Disney movies for my kids, they need to watch Where the Red Fern Grows a few more times (worst movie ever).

This has been my least favorite week of the summer and very possibly one of my least favorite weeks of my life. I have felt so unfortunately helpless, everything is out of my control. We are still living out of suitcases so the only thing we have is laundry and of course, my dryer has remained broken (a gas leak?!) for two weeks straight. They finally sent two different repairmen out yesterday.

It was a five minute fix.

The good news is that as of yesterday things are finally starting to unkink. First the dryer, then the ice machine got fixed. And miracle of miracles it looks like my car made it to Seattle this week and they are shipping it to LA. I’ll have to fly in, taxi to the shipping yard and Excursion my way home as fast as I can to try and do it in one day. Six weeks late is better than never.

Lucky for me we seem to be in a phenomenal ward. Honestly, what a huge blessing. I love these people, to all my girlfriends who insisted that Vegas has the best Mormons I have to say hat’s off, you are right. So many friendly calls and offers to help with kids.

We are already running all over town with fall activities. Harry started his first season of flag football and it is giving me hives. I can’t stand to watch the practices because we all know that I’m a closet side liner who secretly wants to coach–in heels. But he’s kind of struggling. He’s in a 6-7th grade league and he’s not only the youngest on his team but the only kid who hasn’t played before. These guys take their football seriously too.

I have to give the kid credit. He invented a “routine” that he wants to do to get in shape for football. He takes the dog for a 20 minute jog every morning and then does 10 push ups, 10 sit ups,  10 seconds of wall sits and 10 burpees. We have also started going to the park and running drills while the little kids play in the splash pad. I feel like Mick trying to get Rocky to run suicides. Thank you, Newell boys, for making sure I could throw a football and understand the game. I had no idea that I would actually need this knowledge. I think it’s going to save my boy this season, with his Dad gone I’m The One.

Last night I finally made myself talk to the coach after practice to see how he was doing. It gave me so much mommy anxiety. This is Jason’s area and I don’t like to talk to coaches, period. It was okay, his coach is apparently the top coach in the entire league, I’ve heard that a lot of parents have tried to get their kids on his team because this guy is so good. I can see it in practice, there is absolutely nothing juvenile about this league.

I appreciate that he didn’t mince words. He said Harry is getting there but he needs to take practice more seriously.  He will learn a big lesson this year working with this team. It’s just about time for him to realize that if you want to be good at something you have to work at it outside of practice, and practice isn’t social hour.

Ah, raising kids is so exhausting.