Weekend Update - March 2008

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Weekend Update

My weekend was extra busy as IK and I were involved in a large sports competition for all of the Nazarene churches on our district. I decided to sponsor a soccer team for some of our students, which meant I paid the team sponsorship fee and served as the coach for the team. The weekend was plagued with a ton of frustration in many areas due to a big lack of organization, which is pretty important when 450 people are involved, but overall it went well.

We spent time Fri. evening listening to a great guest speaker who used to play for Boise State, and a little later we had our first soccer game. They were shortened, 20 min. halves on very shortened makeshift fields (due to a fire earlier in the week on the campus where the events were supposed to be held). We tied the first game 2-2 and were very happy to be off to a great start.

After the Fri. evening games we had to wait around for 3 hours while many of the students and other delegates voted for several various council & other church positions. It was hot, tiring, and VERY grueling to simply have to sit there and wait...to have over 200 people just sitting there, waiting. Many of us couldn't understand why there weren't any planned activities during that timeframe for all the non-delegates, an opportunity to practice with your teams (basketball, football, soccer, dodgeball, and volleyball), or at least an open gym time at a minimum.

But no, instead it was a VERY long wait, but at the end we took several students to a local YMCA for a couple hours of play. Many student played basketball and dodgeball in the gyms, many others enjoyed a lot of rock climbing, and IK spent all of his time playing in the many pools. I took advantage of the hot tub since I didn't have any of my younger kids with me. It was very relaxing, which help offset the fact that we were there until midnight.

The next morning we had another soccer game schedule at 8:50am and we had a problem. Four of the students on our soccer team also had volleyball and dodgeball games overlapping the schedules at the same time. Another student had to work and couldn't change his schedule, so that left us with only 3 boys ready to play.

On these shortened fields we only used 7 players on the field at a time, but again we only had 3 people. So we decided to do some recruiting from other teams standing around and found several students willing to play with us. We won that game 1-0, but unfortunately we were disqualified since all of the students weren't from our church team. It was a really devastating blow...and even more horrible to learn our 3rd and final game later that afternoon would result the same way because the other sports games were again scheduled at the same time.

It was so disheartening for the students who were signed up only to play soccer and were not only faced with the possibility of not being able to play at all, but already knowing that no matter whether or not we won, we would still be disqualified and have no chance to play in the finals or move on to the regional competitions next month. So the common thought was "why should we even bother to play if we can't even have a chance of winning?" To say we were depressed just doesn't cover it. But we decided to be good sports about it and chose to play regardless of the circumstances just for the fun of it.

And as it turned out the next team we were scheduled to play had an awesome attitude and sense of understanding about our circumstances. We decided to borrow several of their players and just scrimmage for fun. We had just enough players to place on each team with no substitutes, so the other coach and I decided to serve as subs if needed. About halfway through the game, the other coach told me we should both just join in and play for fun along with our students, making the game 8 players per team. And that's exactly what we did, and it was a TON of fun!!!

Later I realized it's been over 16 years since I played soccer back in the stone ages during the years I was actually in jr. high and high school, which made it even more enjoyable to have a chance to play again. Some friends of mine who were watching the game said I still look about 17 years old anyway, so I could easily fit right in. So while we faced some obstacles getting through our games, and some really down spirits at first, we ended the day feeling awesome just getting a chance to play for FUN...taking the competition part out of it.

IN OTHER WEEKEND NEWS...

Since I was so busy with the sporting events this weekend, I really haven't spent much time on schoolwork, so I'll have to do some catching up tomorrow. I'm about to end the first week of this new class and I just haven't been able to find much motivation in this course yet. This makes my 6th class (out of 15 total) needed to complete my degree. I waived 2 courses, so this is technically the 4th class I've taken, and I'm just far enough into the program to be thoroughly sick of it and questioning why I'm even doing this anymore, yet far enough in the program to know I can't quit now. Still the end looks sooooo far away.

In the last 1-2 weeks I've had the "opportunity" to weigh myself at a doctor's office and on the scale at the Y and both scales told me I was 15 pounds heavier than the scale I have in my bathroom at home. A 15 lb. spread????!!!!!! Seriously???!!!!! Are you kidding me???!!!!!! I could understand a 5 lb. flux either way, but 15???!!!! So when I got home I took an unopened 10 lb. bag of sugar out of the pantry and weighed it on my scale...it was only off by 3 pounds. So either the 10 lb. bag of sugar really isn't 10 lbs., or those other scales need some serious updating! I prefer to believe that my scale is the one that's correct. :o)

Today the weather finally began to cooperate long enough for SD to begin some of the MUCH needed, highly overdue yard work. He did a lot of general cleaning along with some help from IK and EJ, and in particular cleared out all the old bark and dying (dead) plants from the front entry way along the sidewalk. After clearing it all out he laid down a fresh layer of black tarp.

And when I returned home from church a few hours later, he had bought all new bark and put back all the swings/benches. It's dark outside now and he still needs to add a few more bags of bark, but you can get the idea of the huge improvement. $30 really makes a HUGE difference in our curb appeal.

I heard recently that over 70% of home buyers make their decisions to buy a home based on the first impression they see from looking at the front of the house from the street. So I guess every little bit helps!