Suckers for Soccer

On Tuesday, August 14, I decided to take "Body Combat" in the afternoon and invited three of Jen's kiddos to ride along since the boys asked if they could take their cousins. They seemed to have fun together. After dropping them off, I headed to our favorite Amish produce stand to pick up our .25 cantaloupe & 1.00 watermelon and head to the one almost directly across the street for inexpensive cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, etc.

The next morning, I went to the gym for ATTACK at 8:30 in the morning and then left there to meet my friends Julie (with her son Jude and daughter Kate) and Kelley (with her son Lincoln) at Oregon Dairy. I was literally a sweaty mess, but I warned them in advance that I was going to be and they didn't seem to mind. My friend Julie drank only coffee (she's lost over 100 pounds and I'm so impressed with her!) while I indulged in the pancakes (my favorite!). The kids all ate extremely well, and it was a little bit of "breakfast mayhem" as it usually is when we get all the kids together. Joshua saw his preschool teacher Mrs. Zimmerman there eating breakfast with the mom of his preschool friend Simeon. I agreed to let him go say hi for a few moments before going back to our seats. After we finished eating, we let the kids play on the playground. Ryan showed off standing, cruising and clapping for himself. They were all COVERED in mud until the end of our time together, but they had a blast! I enjoyed catching up with my former co-workers too. FUN!

That night (Wednesday, August 15), Shawn & I finally got to go on our date to the Conestoga House & Gardens. We had asked Miranda to watch the boys again, and it was overcast and drizzly most of the afternoon. I feared we wouldn't be able to go and we discussed other options. But, when we went to leave it was relatively sunny, and Shawn said "Let's try it!" Woohoo! It was the right call to make (and we weren't sure when we made it!). We picked up take-out from Isaac's using a BOGO coupon we had, and ate at the beautiful tables there. A woman brought us seat cushions that they had taken inside before the rain, so they were nice and dry. The evening was gorgeous, the gardens were beautiful, and having time with my husband was priceless. It was a really great night!

Thursday began my first night back-to-school. I also heard from a friend of mine that her daughter had died (not sure if it was in the womb, during birth, or shortly thereafter). It grieved my heart to hear of their loss. :( :( :( Please keep her and her family in your prayers! I made them a meal and took it to her house on Sunday afternoon.

One of the days around that weekend, I saw a pair of all-but brand new soccer cleats on Craig's List, along with two pairs of soccer socks for $13. They were a size 13, which I thought would fit Joshua well. We drove to go pick them up, and they were in fantastic condition (even better than I was expecting!). But, when we got home, we realized cleats must run small because they fit Caleb perfectly and were too tight on Joshua. Joshua had shin guards for soccer (which were required) but didn't have cleats. I was a little sad, but Caleb was thrilled to wear them.

Then in looking on Craig's List again, I saw a pair of Youth Size 2 cleats (again looking great!) for...FREE!!! I thought they would probably be too big, but I thought the price was sure right (and understatement). I thought they probably smelled bad or were worn out, but since they were free, the only thing it cost us was a car trip to find out. We got to the home and picked them up, and they were in GREAT shape. I tried them on Joshua and they fit perfectly! While the thought of used shoes may not appeal to everyone, I know that kids barely wear them, and obviously cleats run on the small side. So, I'm not sure how much either of these were actually worn. PERFECT for us!

Once we picked up Joshua's cleats, I put on a pair of the socks (that I had washed) on each of them over the shin guards and we went outside to take pictures. They had fun kicking the balls around and enjoying their new cleats. FUN!

On Tuesday evening, September 21, Mom offered to watch the boys in the evening. She said that she hadn't had them spend the night all summer, and this might be their only opportunity since school was back in session. I agreed! And we asked if Ryan could come to play in the evening just long enough for us to take advantage of another opportunity to go out and spend some quality time just the two of us. She said yes, and we were off!
 
We started heading toward outdoor dining (since the weather was beautiful) BUT there was a major traffic backlog. Rather than sit there even longer (it had been over 20 minutes) we turned around and headed to the Longhorn Steakhouse.We were hungry by that point and just ready to eat! We sat down, and our server didn't come for another 20 minutes. Just then, my sister Becky and her husband Tim came in and saw us. They suggested joining us, and we said okay. It wasn't "alone" time, but we don't get to see them all that often. I warned them that our service so far had been awful. It continued to be, unfortunately. Becky & Tim had tickets to see a show in an hour and a half, and the show was starting when we still were waiting for our check to come. The food took forever to come out, but I think it was more of an issue of the server not taking and putting in our order, etc. But, our steaks were good. Becky had a coupon for a free dessert for her birthday, and she offered us a bite to try. It was heavenly! We enjoyed chatting with them and left to go pick up our little Schnook and head home.

It was strange just having Ryan to put to bed that night (as we watched some TV with overly stuffed bellies, wishing we hadn't eaten so much). It was just him & me the next morning until I dropped him off at Mamaw's and picked up Joshua for his haircut at JCPenny's, which I will blog about separately.