Cheer 2012

Fall is Here....I think!

The weather has been perfect for the last week. We have had the windows open most of the day and all night. The day time high has been around 78. Today it's supposed to get up to around 85 so I guess we might have the ac on for part of the day. In the morning it is downright chilly about 53 degrees most days. I do have to admit that I am loving the weather for the fall sports. I have barely even needed a jacket and haven't used blankets at all yet!

Our fall sports are gradually wrapping up. Zach has two more football games and then he is done. The jury is still out on whether he will return to football playing next year or not. He says no but I am desperately hoping he changes his mind. After all it has taken me my entire life to understand most of the game and now that I finally do I would like to use all that knowledge! Especially, since the Steelers are having a lack luster year so far! I think the coaches of his football team have recognized the error of their ways to an extent. The team Zach is playing on is undefeated while the other team has lost all but one game. I have grown to respect Zachs coach. His team is winning because he has raised the bar and he actually knows what plays to call during the game. This guy is head coach material. The head coach needs to take a hike! Along with the other daddy ball coaches!

Kirsten's first high school softball season has ended. Her team went 14-3. All of the teams they beat they beAt in three innings which means they were 15 runs ahead by the third inning. Pretty sad right? Lets just say all of the team are excellent hitters and have good defense too. The three games they lost were all error fests. Not sure what happened on those days. They were all teams they were favored to win. Kirsten overall enjoyed the season and made several good friends. It was a good thing she did the team this year it really helped her socially.

Lauren is in the midst of her first competitive cheer season. She is enjoying it a lot. Most importantly, the uniform is really cute! Instead of the two piece top that is used up North. They have a one piece top that sort of feels like the underarm or material. She says they are much easier to get on and much easier to move around in. They also look very sharp in their school colors. She has another competition today so hopefully I will be able to get an individual picture of her in her uniform. In fact, maybe today will be the day I make them all put on their uniforms for a photo shoot they will love that. Her first competition went well. The team placed fourth out of 11 teams so that was pretty good. We shall see what today brings. Overall, the level of cheering that we see here is not on par with the teams in PA. Tumbling is outstanding. Every girl knows how to tumble. But the stunting is sad. Some teams were doing preps! And I think most teams had drops or safety violations. Lauren's team didn't have any drops and their stunting was pretty good. Lauren's been telling her coaches how to do some harder stunts so that helped them. Unfortunately, their dance and transitions in the routine were what hurt them. They have two girls injured that wont be returning for the rest of the season so they had to do the routine all over again to eliminate the spots of those girls. I don't think they were ready for last week but hopefully they bring it today!

Just a newsy update...

It's a beautiful day here in North Georgia. I think it's the first day since we moved that the humidity is gone! There's a great breeze and sky is so blue. It reminds me of autumn in Pennsylvania.

I'm sitting at day 2 of softball practice with Kirsten's travel ball team. Although, choosing a team was a difficult decision I think we have chosen wisely. Kirsten already feels more welcome with this team then she has with her high school team and tee are over halfway through the season. This week will be a busy week with school ball 8 games in 6 games. I will need a vacation after this week. And hopefully that vacation will be in PA!

Lauren has decided to give softball a try. She's playing rec slow pitch with a bunch of kids from school. She thinks she will be playing short stop. Her first game will be tomorrow night. Of course, Kirsten has an away game and Zac has a home game tomorrow night too! Sometimes I wish I could just arrange all the sports so I could make to every kids games!

Just about all of our belongings have arrived here in Georgia. Now it's just a matter of figuring out where to put it all. We had Bills parents visiting all week so I put it all on hold until they left. Why would I want to unpack boxes when I have someone to visit with? His mom and I visited all the quilt stores within an hours drive of our house. His mom is big into her quilting so I had to show her what Georgia has to offer so she comes back real soon. . Bill and his dad ran wiring to the two unfinished rooms in the basement. So the guest bedroom is ready for finishing now. We also picked out a paint color for Coles room since his room is hot pink. He also wants to have a mural painted somewhere in his room. There's some discussion on what that will look like. He wants a yellow lab with flames. I'm thinking it will be something a little tamer than a devil dog.

Coaches...

All of the kids have come up against brick walls in their individual sports. It hasn't been easy proving themselves down here in Georgia. After all, they are Yankees. However, at least two of the kids have followed the things we have always taught them about succeeding in life and sports and those principles have paid off for them. What have we taught them? We've taught them that first of all you show up on time for every single game and team activity. That you show your coaches and team mates respect. We've taught them to support their team mates even if they're playing your position and you're warming the bench. We have told them that at every practice and every single game you give 110%. That you push yourself to do your best without exception. We have taught them that they don't let their team down. Whether that team is your family or your sports team. We taught them to be a good sport and tell the other team good game whether they won or lost. At the end of every game and practice we would ask them if they thanked their coaches. And the most important thing we taught them is that hard work pays off. In the past my kids have been blessed to have great coaches that not only coached with these same principles but seemed to live them in their everyday lives. Unfortunately, one of my kids is learning a different set of principles this year. He's learning that it doesn't matter when or even if you show up for practice. It only matters who you know. He's learning that hard work doesn't pay off that knowing the right people pays off. It's sad to watch a group of adults take everything you have taught your child and destroy it. To take the sport that he loves the most and turn it into pure torture. To take his future dreams and crush them. They held a true athlete in the palm of their hands and let him fall to the ground. But what is worse? Watching them take his confidence and self esteem and step on it leaving him feeling worthless. So, coaches and even teachers when we lend our children to you we have high expectations for you. We have spent our lives doing the best job we can to raise good, contributing members of society. Be a role model for these kids. If not don't do the job.

I always tried to remember to thank the coaches that worked with our kids but in case i missed you. Thank you for giving up your evenings and weekends to spend with my kids. Thank you for standing in the pouring rain and freezing cold so the game or practice could go on. Thank you for guiding through their individual sports with encouragement and helpful critiquing. Thank you for always rewarding hard work and dedication because when you did it encouraged more hard work and dedication. It earned you respect. Thank you for biting your tongue when you wanted to scream at them. Most importantly, thank you for being a role model. It takes a strong person to be a role model to today's kids. Lets face it, it isn't always the most fun way to live life. There's a lot of pressure that goes with having those kids look at you as their role models. It required you to not always say the first thing that came to mind. It meant you congratulated the other team even when you felt as though they played unfairly because you knew the kids were watching and learning not just from the game but from your actions. You're pride and commitment made wearing those royal blue and white uniforms mean something. They were proud to wear them and be seen in their uniforms. Their teams may not always have won and some seasons they might even have lost every game. But a losing season with a coach that is a winner in life is a win regardless of the score of the game.
I am dedicating this post to all the coaches from Etown. We miss you all and appreciate the life lessons you taught all four of our kids. I will try to name them all but I will probably miss some of them.
Rockie Wilkinson
Eric Heisey
Brian Schoenenberger
Dan Shutt
Mike Laverty
Jeff Quinn
Chas Alessi
Ronnie Quinto
Amy Longenecker
Scott Fitzgerald
Coach Troy(I forget his last name)
Chris Rich
Heather Prichard
Debbie Dice
And I'm sure there were many more coaches and volunteers and moms and dads that helped out. Thank you to all of you. You all became like family to us and we miss that feeling the most.

A Week of Firsts...

Well, since I have four kids I'm pretty sure you know that I'm talking about that "first". I did have a much more interesting post all ready to go but somehow that one got deleted so we'll just go with a newsy update for now and I'll redo the other one later.

So the first thing that I experienced for the first time was a red ant bite yesterday. I feel fortunate to be able to say "a red bite ant" instead of many. I was standing in the grass watching Kirsten's softball game when I felt something crawling on my foot. I looked down and saw an ant crawling on my foot. Since it was only one and I didn't see an army behind it I figure I just brush it off and be done with it. WRONG! Those little suckers pack a powerful punch. In case you've never r experienced one it is a lot like a bee sting only it hurts for about an hour. I am so glad it was just one I can't imagine more than one! I just keep thinking if it were a little kid with multiple stings how awful it would be!
Well, I recovered from it but not after a sufficient amount of whining. Hey! Ya gotta work it for what it's worth! Us moms don't get sympathy very often!

The second first happened right after that and it was Zach's first touchdown as a Grizzly. So proud of that kid for sticking it to his coaches! I wanted to jump up and down and yell! HA! I'll full y'all in a little later on why that was such a big deal.

The third thing that happened was Kirsten was offered a spot on a travel team! Take that Etown travel team coaches because not only was she offered one but every team she has tried out for has offered her a spot. And softball down here is soooo much bigger than in Etown! At least one kid isn't going to be the victim of small town mindsets!

And the last thing that is happening is that I am making boiled peanuts for the first time. My kids and my dad both love them and they are ridiculously expense to buy already made so I figured I'd do it myself. It isn't too hard really you just buy green peanuts, which would be the hard part for you northerners because I never knew there was such a thing until I came down here. Then you boil three quarts water and 1/3 cup salt. Then put the peanuts in to boil for an hour and a half. I'll let you know how they turn out. I hope they taste like the real thing!

Arm Farts

That title got your attention didn't it? Well, while I was at Kirsten's softball game I left directions for Lauren to supervise Cole doing his homework. Well, the homework was finished but the supervision must not have happened. He had to write each word in a sentence. One word he had to use was "try". The sentence he wrote? "Try to arm fart it's easy!". While we all thought it was hysterical I'm not sure if his teacher would have seen the humor in it. Especially since she doesn't know us very well yet. We changed it to "Try to eat sausage.". I know boring right? Oh well we are the newbies so we have to make a good impression for a little while.

Kirsten had a softball game again tonight. It was disappointing because errors by several players lost the game for the team. Something as simple as calling the catch. Hello! We're in high school you learned that in U8!!!