Random Things

I seem to only write on my blog when a major event happens. Nothing major has happened directly to me, but several random things have happened. And, I can't sleep, so I thought I write some of them down.

First, a good thing. I passed my trainer certification. I got a 96% on the written part and 100% on the practical part. That was the part that was worrying me for 5 weeks, and turns out I did fine. So, I may be able to start working at the gym soon. If any clients want to work out with me. We'll see. I am really looking forward to taking a few more classes. I'm going to do a Pilates Mat class instructor course, a "floor, core, and more" class, and a group exercise instructor class. The cool thing is that the gym pays for all of them for me, so it is GREAT.

We leave for the Wheel of Fortune trip to Hawaii in a few weeks. I am kind of nervous about leaving the kids. N is 8 1/2 years old, and S and I have never spent the night alone since he was born. I have actually only been away from the kids overnight for 4 nights TOTAL, other than being in the hospital to have another baby. So, it will be scary, but it will be fun to have some time to just pay attention to each other. We so rarely even get to finish a whole conversation. And, the conversations are usually about who is going to give baths and who is going to wash dishes--rarely anything meaningful. So, it will be good.

N continues to be an outstanding athlete. This weekend he played GREAT at his basketball game. The whole team did really well. They won 20-19, but I was just really amazed at the improvement that they made since last week! The coach was really excited too. He was pretty down last week when he realized that the other coaches were teaching the kids things like picks, screens, etc. He is VERY in to basketball and has been trying hard not to put too much pressure on the kids. So, after last week's game, he felt really guilty because the other team had done that stuff, and ours hadn't. This week, they worked on it in practice, and they were awesome.

About an hour after the game ended, N had baseball tryouts. He actually tried out for a league one year above his age group. He didn't know that. We decided that for him. We didn't tell him, though--so technically it isn't really parents pushing their kids to overachieve, right?

S left the day before to go to Japan, so the little boys and I took him to the tryout. I was really worried that he would be embarrassed to be there with his mom. Everyone else was warming up with their dads. As we were walking up, I said "Hey, if you want to warm up, I'll throw the ball with you, but you won't hurt my feelings if you don't want to." He said he didn't, but as we got closer, I found a dad from the soccer team, and he let N throw the ball with him and his son.

They ended up calling all the 9 year olds first, and making the 8 year olds wait until the end. That was hard for the little guys, because we had left their chicken nuggets in the car. The tryout was supposed to be an hour, so I figured they would be hungry by then. Well, it ended up being 2 1/2 hours before N was done, but by the time we realized it was going to be longer I couldn't go get the food, because it kept SEEMING like he would be up any minute! They did great though. J said he was hungry several times, and wanted to be held, but they were really really good.

A few minutes after they all lined up, N had a sudden flash of insight as to what the word "tryout" actually meant. He turned around and said "Mom, what does that mean--tryout? Does it mean I might not get to be on a team?"

I was trying to leave him alone, and only talk to him in casual conversation (not act all "motherly.") So, I walked over and explained that it was really more of an "evaluation" so that they would know how everyone played, so the teams would be as even as possible when they did the draft. I also said "This is actually the league for 9 year olds. Only a few 8 year olds were invited to tryout." That was kind of a stretch, since each kid's parents (and the kid, I guess) decided if they would tryout up or not, but it still made him feel good, He looked around and saw how few 8 year olds there were, and he was pretty excited. I didn't tell him that if they have too many 9 year olds, they will move the 8 year olds back down. I heard that is not likely to happen, but I guess it COULD, so I just didn't mention it either way.

He did really great. He hit 3 out of 5 pitches off the machine (55 MPH pitches!), ran the bases fast and had an excellent slide into 3rd base, stopped all 3 grounders at shortstop and threw straight to the 1st baseman, caught all 3 pop flies in the outfield and threw directly to the 2nd baseman, and then he was done. So, he really couldn't have done better!

Here is a really cool thing that happened. While the tryouts were going on, I walked over to N (he was sitting on the ground) and knelt down. I told him that I was watching the pop flies. the kids had to start at one cone and catch a pop up, then they moved forward about 4 feet to the next cone and caught one, then back 4 feet behind the center one to catch the third. I told N that they were making the pop flies go directly to them at the center cone, in front of them at the back cone so that they had to run up on it, and behind them when they were at the front cone so they had to back up. We talked about getting his feet ready to move in that direction as he got to each cone.

So, as we were walking to the car, he said "Mom, thanks for the advice about the cones. It really helped." I totally played it cool. I just said "I'm glad. Thanks for saying thanks. That's a really cool thing for you to say, because I didn't want to embarrass you today, and I didn't want to make you crazy telling you what to do." But, I really wanted to pick him up and kiss him for being the SWEETEST kid on earth! What a nice thing to say to your mom! Especially the mom of 3 boys. . .I'm not going to get many chances to be the advice giver. I will honestly never forget it.

Well, there are several other minor things to write about, but now, I actually AM tired, so I'm off to bed. I hope everyone is doing well!