A is better than B or is it

Ok, so last week my oldest was in the middle of middle school basketball tryouts. She made the A team last year as a seventh grader. That whole week I kept running down the girls and thinking about where she would get placed. Figured she would make the A team, but just was hoping that would happen for her. I never did make an "A" team and I guess I just wanted that for her. Well, she made it and actually had a very good season. Unfortunately, her extra playing time came because one of the other posts on the team got hurt. She took advantage of her opportunity and was awarded "the Most Improved Player" on the team. Proud moment for dad and a very reassuring feeling for her as a player.

This year, bigger stakes...8th grade basketball. LOL. There were a lot fewer girls this year and the coach, a personal friend, decided to have two teams. Again, I went through all the names and worried about how her placement would affect her mentally. I figured that by knowing her work ethic and her ability, she would make the A team again, but just didn't know if the numbers would work in her favor. The coach delayed the posting of teams 3 extra days! I don't know if it was harder on me or my daughter. Anyways, when that day came, I just gave it up to God and said He knows what is best for her. If the B team, great. If the A team, great.

Turns out it ended up being the best of both worlds! She was one of two players selected to play on both teams. She will gets lots of playing time on the B team and still be able to contribute on the A team. It even went further in that our friend, her coach, pulled her aside and said she wants her to step up and lead the B team! Ok, I say that to her all the time! Know what she does? She rolls her eyes at me! Know what she says when her coach says it? I am really going to step up because that team will need me!

So the moral of the story? Stop obsessing over things you can't control, Mike! They are keeping you from thinking about things that are actually important! I don't know why, but these posts always turn into a learning experience for me. Some people keep a journal...I just blog about it. I will keep you posted on how her season progresses. Hopefully I won't yell at any refs.(See previous posting)

Boys where prohibited

Sunday afternoon I was performing my normal duties as unpaid taxi driver when something was said that made me stop and realize that not everyone is as old as I am. My daughter, Madison was riding "shotgun" because she is now old enough to do so. She had switched off my "80's on 8"(for those XM subscribers, you know what I am talking about) and turned on Radio Disney. Atleast that is better than some of the crap she likes to listen to and since my 7 year old Logan was in the car too, I reluctantly approved the music choice. By this point, Logan had already put on his headphones and was watching some random movie I had thrown into the van DVD player earlier that week and was no longer available for conversation. We had finished up with basketball for the day, church was a distant memory for the kids and the two had just finished a couple hours of dance practice...yes on a Sunday. I had turned my attention to making conversation with Madison. This can be a hard task as she is 12 and doesn't always want to talk to her dad. "How did dance go today?" "Fine" She answers a text. "Are you two getting the hang of it?" "Yes" Another text comes in and she answers that. More questions and same one word answers. I decide I will try again after my favorite Taylor Swift song, "Hey Stephen" comes on. We both start singing and she doesn't mind my rendition. We have a connection! Yes! After the song ends and both of us are laughing and I decide I need to concentrate on the road...yah right! Some kind of Radio Disney contest comes on and I half listen, but really I am thinking about what I am going to do when I get home. Then the question comes that can turn the tide, how will I handle this? I really want to laugh, but if I do, what will she feel? It is a honest question and I don't want to embarrass her. I keep my cool and take everything in stride.

"Dad, what does it mean when they say 'Boys where prohibited'?" Oh, you mean "void where prohibited." I went on the explain what void meant and what the context of that statement meant in relation to the contest. I was actually surprised that I was able to pull that off without any laughter or kidding involved. Guess I knew how I would have felt if someone had laughed at me for saying something like that.

I think at that moment, I experienced a God moment in my life. He was saying to me that I can't make assumptions about what my kids know. He was saying to be a father and teacher first and a jokester second. He was saying even though our kids are getting older, they are still kids and we have to treat them as such. Not expect or demand so much. Love them for who they are and not for what we want them to be. Although church had ended hours ago and God wasn't in the kids minds, at that point, He was in mine!

Cold sweats....not good!

Well, kids started back to school Monday and I was thrown back into the routine. No more staying under the heating blanket until I couldn't take it anymore in the morning, no more days of nothing to do and no where to go and no more hanging out with my kids and wife all day. Back to reality! So I thought. The kids have a snow day already! It is Wednesday and the kids have been watching TV for about an hour and a half already. Time to crack the whip...Well, I'll wait until I finish the posting.

As I type, I find myself again guilty about my lack of consistency in these posts. I thank those of you who are still coming around to read my random thoughts of my life and I promise to be more consistent with my postings in 2010.

I am happy this is a blog and not some organized paper as I would really get marked down for not being on subject. What I want to talk about today is my oldest daughter and the cold sweat I experienced last week. Between Christmas and New Years, she was scheduled(atleast she thought) to get her braces off. It all started with her last appointment before Christmas when they said, in 2 weeks when the retainers come in, you can get your braces off. Well, 2 weeks was right after Christmas and she began asking me when her appointment would be. I started calling the ortho. 2 days after Christmas to find out if they had gotten her retainers in. After 2 days of calling, they finally called us and said the retainers were in and they could fit her in on January 11th to remove them. January 11th! That wasn't going to work! They had another office about a half hour away and they could take them off on December 31st. Much better, but the time was 8:20 in the morning, which she was not thrilled about, but she wanted them off, so we took it! Luckily that day was one of the few "no new snow days" that we have had in Nebraska this winter which made the trip possible.

We got there on time, which in itself was good news, with the early arrival time. They took her back right away and I busied myself by cleaning up my iphoto, which I don't think I had done all year. After about an hour, she was all done and she and the hygienist came out. She had retainers in both the top and bottom. She talked funny as her tongue was trying to get used to the retainers in her mouth. I didn't notice that as much as I noticed my young daughter didn't look so much like my little girl anymore, she looked like a young women.

This "young women" concept was illustrated more fully for me that night when we were having friends over for New Years Eve. As we were preparing food and drinks for the night, she was showering and getting ready. When she came down and walked into the kitchen, the cold sweat began immediately for me! I couldn't believe what I was seeing! She looked atleast 16 to me and more beautiful than I had ever seen her. I tried to keep my composure, but the sweats had taken over my body. My thoughts went immediately to what boys would think of her new look and the thoughts in general of boys. Cold sweats consumed every part of me. Trying to make a taco dip being consumed by cold sweats is a hard task. "Do the green onions come next or the tomatoes?" She is never dating! I was somehow able to keep my composure, finish the taco dip and not let on to my wife or my daughter all the thoughts I was having about boys her age!

Not sure how to end this blog because no matter what I do, she isn't going to stop growing up. At least at this point, she really isn't that interested in boys, so I have that going for me. Maybe I can forget about all this stuff for awhile, oh wait...there is an 8th grade dance this spring! I'm screwed.