Cow Dreams

Keagan has one chore around the house: pick up dog poop before Evan mows the lawn. This inevitably leads to a fight. Evan finds something that Keagan missed, Keagan thinks Evan should just drive over it. Boys yell. Doors slam. Chaos ensues.

It’s no secret that when we build our forever home, I want pet Longhorns. Wes thinks this is odd, but nothing reminds me of home more than cattle and nothing says Texas like longhorn cattle. I think I need only three, maybe a pair, but I want to be able to sit on my porch, look out at the pasture, and see cows. 

Today, while I was out of earshot, Keagan confided to Wes that this is the worst idea ever. He’s against my cow dreams. When Wes asked why, Keagan said, “There’s no way I’m cleaning up that huge cow poop.”

And he was serious. 

I’m still laughing. 

Soccer Sunday

Church of Soccer was Sunday where Keagan played in his first state league game of the season. 

CSC played Aris and tied 2-2.

Keagan played CDM for most of the game, and he did a great job winning 50/50 balls. Next weekend is the first tournament. Can’t wait!

Silver Lining

Evan is still not playing soccer; we are nine weeks post injury and his Achilles is still too weak for him to run without pain. We have seen countless doctors, had an MRI done, had ice massages, and he does daily stretches. Yet, he’s making very little progress. We should be at training tonight. Instead, he’s studying for a chemistry test, reading his novel for English class, and helping his brother solve two-step equations. 

 

We are trying to find the silver lining while it rains:

He has plenty of time to study. 

He’s not sleep deprived. 

I am much less stressed trying to fit it all in before it’s time to hit the road.

We are getting more nights at home together.

Meanwhile, it’s still raining. Evan meets his new physical therapist next month. We are hoping she’s the magic we need to find the rainbow.

Hard Work

Both boys spent their Saturday mornings reffing U7 boys and girls games. Neither was happy about getting up early, but the fat wallets at the end of the day made up for it. I also loved the high-fives Keagan gave the girls after each shot - whether it went in or not - and the “coaching” he provided during the game when one girl got a hand ball or another kicked the ball out causing a corner. Evan was just as great with the kids smiling ear-to-ear when the boy with obvious talent dribbled the ball the length of the field to score a goal.

One day they will appreciate my efforts to teach them the value of hard work and the value of a dollar. It’s not today but it’s coming. I hope. One day soon. 

School Fail

Evan is the only kid in his circle of friends in Tennessee who can read and write cursive. That’s because his fourth grade teacher in Georgia taught it. Keagan got one day of cursive handwriting on the last day of fifth grade. All 52 letters crammed into one handwriting lesson. To this day, Keagan can’t read or write in cursive. I had big plans to teach him two summers ago, but one mention of “teach” and I received all kinds of push back. I don’t think he came out of the playroom for 72 hours the first few days of summer in fear I’d corner him at the breakfast table and start with cursive lessons. 

This week all of his birthday cards have had sweet messages written in cursive. Today he’d had it! He opened a card, couldn’t read the message, threw the card to the side and exclaimed, “I feel like an African slave unable to read or write.”

Happy #14

Happy birthday, Baby Boy! You are 14 today, but it seems like yesterday we were celebrating your fourth birthday in Virginia with a Go, Diego, Go themed party.

There are so many reasons to celebrate you, but here’s fourteen of the very best reasons!

1. There is no lack of laughs when you are in the room. You can make the mundane hilarious! 

2. Your love for shoes - and your quirky way of smelling brand new shoes when they come out of the box. Don’t forget to save the shoe box, too. 

3. Your no-nonsense-say-what’s-on-your-mind-no -matter-what-attitude. You were three years old and told the wife of the Sec Def she had crazy hair, and I’m pretty sure you’d do that again today if given the opportunity (and some strong wind gusts).

4.Your affinity for wearing your green Hugh Hefner robe anytime the temp falls below 70 degrees. 

5. You still have no concept of time, the calendar, or the sequence of events.. It’s 6:15. We leave for soccer in ten minutes. In ten minutes, you still haven’t changed into practice gear. Some would call that frustrating, but I think it’s endearing (unless we are late). Or last year’s question: which month is Thanksgiving? Or how long do we get out of school for Labor Day? When is soccer practice?

6. I love your desire to have everything neat and organized. God forbid I open a folder for school and move one piece of paper. Don’t even think about throwing dirty clothes your bedroom floor. And all those shoes boxes are stacked neatly in the closet.

7. It goes without saying that I love little more in life than watching you play sports. Your fierce competitive spirit gets me every time!

8. Freckles. Oh, how they make me smile in the summertimes.

9. Your love for blueberries. Muffins, cake, pie, cereal. You will eat anything with a blueberry. 

10. The hair. Oh the hair! It can cause angst and the  slamming of doors on rainy days, but on a good day, when it falls just right, it’s good. Real good.

11. Junk food. You can get all kinds of mad if the pantry only contains cans of vegetables or soup. I like to buy chips, cookies, and processed junk just to see your happy dance.

12. Speaking of dance. You haven’t lost your moves. They just get better with time!

13. Video games. Not unlike most 14 year olds, you and the PS4 have a special relationship. I’m pretty sure you are one step away from a medical diagnosis of “Fortnite Addiction.” You’re always lookin’ for the next win - even at 0300!

14. Leaving the house without shoes. Refer to #5 (time) and #13 (video games) to draw conclusions for why a 14 year old leaves the house not fully clothed. It’s so much fun (even if I don’t see anything fun about it until about an hour later) turning around to go back to the house for a forgotten pair of cleats, slides, or street shoes. 

Happy birthday, Keagan! Love you BIG!

Friendly Fight?

 

Keagan’s new team had its first friendly on Sunday, but by the second half, we had a full on brawl in the middle of the field. The other team was kicked out of the park, and we left with a 1-1 tie. During the fight, Keagan said, “I just pulled a Lonzo and walked away. I’m an eighth grader and not about to mix it up with sophomores.”  He did try to stop a mom from running across the field, but she spit out some Spanish and just kept on moving.

Keagan started out playing up top but that was short lived. He moved back playing CDM and did much better playing defense. He’s playing up and this team had players all Evan’s age. They tried to body him up, but Keagan was still able to use his smarts to shield and keep them from moving up field. 

Ryker

The cleaning lady was at our house Thursday. Friday afternoon Ryker chased the cat into the kitchen and fell flat on the hip he broke he May. He immediately started crying, but a few minutes later, he was up and walking. Saturday I noticed he was limping around the house. Sunday he refused to put weight on his hind foot, so Wes took him to the vet in Nashville. $100 later we learned he cracked his plate. Monday Wes returned to the vet for a surgical consult. Another $100 and the vet recommended we put him on strict bed rest for three weeks. To aide in this impossible endeavor, we were given an Rx for sedatives.

We are now at the end of week one of bed rest. The poor puppy cries in his sleep, sighs when we leave to go on walks without him, and carries the saddest eyes. No amount of his favorite meal or endless supplies of bully sticks make up for his lack of freedom. Ryker has no idea how much we have done to save his life!

Girl Crush

Keagan is never short of a school story. His funny stories usually involve a teacher (more like poking fun at a teacher), but this time the main character is Shirley. Shirley likes Keagan. They are not on the same team, but their paths cross. When he walks in the halls in between classes, she yells, “Keagan is so hot!” She texts him several times a day to tell him random parts of her day or to ask what he’s doing. She does not know soft spoken and she is unfamiliar playing hard-to-get. They do have exploratory arts together and on the second day of school, Keagan was the last to arrive to class. All of the seats were taken, the room was crowded, and Keagan stopped in the doorway scanning the room looking for a seat. Shirley exclaims in front of all, “Move aside! Make room for the king. Keagan has finally arrived.” The aisles cleared and Keagan made his way to the far corner of the room while shaking his head.

Kaylee also has a crush on Keagan and has since they were in third grade together five years ago. She is a special needs girl and goes to church with us. She writes notes to him, passes them to him in the hallway, and just recently got a Snapchat account so she sends messages, too. She was so excited last week to tell him she was going to Atlanta to watch a Braves game. She told Keagan it was a long drive - a very long drive - and she wanted to know if she could text him while she was in the car so to make the time go by faster. Keagan, the boy with unrivaled compassion for others, agreed. 

The girl he really likes, the girl he dated most of last year, has moved on to highschool. She won’t dare date a middle schooler (and shouldn’t), but as soon as May rolls around, you better believe Keagan will make his move. 

Meanwhile I told him to keep the Shirley stories coming; it will make the time go by faster. 

Hero in Waiting

In between soccer, church camp, and vacations, Evan and Madalyn spent hours this summer in her nana’s  pool. Two weeks ago the two were in the pool when Evan spotted a reptile head peaking out of Madalyn’s hair. A head! Evan knew he had to do something before she was bitten! He thought it was a snake and calmly told Madalyn to not move. He then got out of the pool (so long with the hero grabbing the snake with his bare hands) and went to grab a net. Just as he got across the pool a lizard jumped off her head and ran into the mulch. Evan was so relieved he wasn’t tasked with saving her from a snake. 

Ironically, later that same day Nana found a snake in her yard and killed it with a shovel. She reached down to pick the dead snake up and Evan yelled, “No, Nana!” She jumped back a bit startled and asked why. Evan told her the snake could still bite even though it was dead. He grabbed a stick and put it near the mouth to show her. Nana looked up at Evan and said, “Well, Evan, I’m sure glad you are here. I might be in the hospital otherwise.” Nana took him to lunch a couple of days later as a thank you. 

Friday Family Fun

We survived the first week of school. It’s Friday night and we barely have the energy to get off the couch.  Evan is already stressed about his workload. Keagan is already tired and says he misses his day naps. I’m already over cooking dinner. I came home to cheese sticks, cilantro, and one tortilla. So Wes ordered Chinese take out and then we drove to Nashville for a NSC game.

Evan talked constantly during the game about everything and anything. Did you know eating one piece of pizza is equivalent to drinking two cups of grease? Did you know the saying “using 10% of your brain” is a myth? Using 90% even means certain death. How about the myth that children don’t have a preferred learning style, or that psychology is an unscientific science but still believable? One more. Earth may really be two parallel plains instead of a sphere. I can’t forget this one. The Bible never claims that marrying a cousin is a sin but it should since you are playing Russian roulette with your offspring.

After three hours of this, Keagan completely exasperated asked, “Just how many facts do you know? And when do you find the time to learn them?” 

Then just as we were pulling off the interstate and back to the Farm, Keagan made the comment that he’s been thinking about the cause for the Hiroshima shadows ever since he learned about them last year in history class. Crickets. Evan was stumped; he could not contribute an opinion because he was not familiar with the WW2 event. Finally! Keagan couldn’t wait to pull out his phone (who am I kidding? They had to pull out Evan’s phone because Keagan’s screen is so badly cracked - again) and teach Evan something new! Evan was duly impressed. 

Who needs to watch soccer when you have these two to entertain you?

Never Say Never

Never say never. We’ve learned old friends are truer friends.

Keagan has accepted a roster spot and is returning to Clarksville. He will be playing up on an 03 team with some of Evan’s closest friends from highschool. He’s fighting for a starting CDM position or playing as a winger. These boys may not be technical, but they are very physical. I hope this opportunity will fill the gap until he can get back on a D1 team in June. Either way, this fall will be great for him because the alternative was playing soccer on the PS4. 

Third Day of Third Grade

It’s my third day of third grade. And I’m going to school smiling! And the boys are dressed a little better today!

Vegan Yeese

Today Keagan had an appointment to renew his military ID. He’s been nervous about this rather meaningless errand, and today we learned it was because he didn’t know how to sign his name in cursive. While awaiting his number to be called, he practiced. 

It looks like he has renamed himself Vegan Yeese. 🤣

First Day of School

Last night Evan asked me to take him to the mall so he could look for a yellow shirt. He said sophomores had to wear yellow on the first day of school for color wars. The mall was closed. I pulled out his bright yellow soccer jersey, but Evan said that was too yellow. I pulled out a Gap shirt with yellow stripes, but that was not bright enough. Evan pulled out a basketball T-shirt that was thrown into the stands during halftime. I reminded him he doesn’t play basketball, but that didn’t matter because it was just the right amount of yellow. 

I guess it could have been worse. Evan could have decided to wear this to school instead of the aisles at WalMart. 

Keagan had to wear an outfit that matched his new black shoes. I picked out black shorts and a gray polo. Keagan told me he doesn’t wear polos. So why did I buy you two new polos last week just for school? He picked out a soccer camp T-shirt that he got for free two summers ago. That was a no-go for sure! Then he changed into this Thrasher shirt (only mildly better, in my opinion.)

What he might lack in fashion sense, he totally makes up for with his sense of humor. On our way outside for the traditional first day photo, he stopped off at the telescope and said, “Lookin’ into my bright future, right here.”