Bittersweet

Today officially ended our football/cheer season. As happy as I am that we play this sport as a family, I am always even happier to have the break that the end of the season brings.

I seem to be unique in this view within my family.

The end of the season, as it turns out, is an unhappy thing for just about everyone else in my family who mope around, feeling at odds around the house, wistfully tossing a football in the back yard. Worst of all is Jay for whom football is almost a required sanity. I will watch him, over the next few weeks (and I know this from experience) slip into a funk that will not end until about February. Now, of course he will still be cheerful and helpful and wonderful, but I will see through it. Every once in awhile he'll sigh and mention what a great season we had. Which is true.

Bella ended her gig as mascot to Lindsey's team with a lovely tribute from her team, as you can see above. She hammed it up in front of her very own banner and was completely adorable (says her mother). She was blessed to have a squad full of classy, mentor-worthy girls and amazing coaches who took her and formed her as a little cheerleader. We have been blessed again and again by our football league and we are so thankful for all the leadership and parents and players. We will miss you but July will come again soon enough! Enjoy your baseball season...thank goodness we don't play that.

This completes Joey's time in the Golden Valley Youth Football League. The next time he dons a jersey it will be for his high school. Scary. Lindsey and Sam will continue on and Tony will start next year, so I have about six months to recover before beginning again. It is definitely worth it, but a girl can look forward to a break, can't she?

Joey's team took home the Superbowl trophy last night (in the freezing cold, under the lights) in a high-scoring, take your breath away kind of a game. The team Lindsey and Bella cheer for also took home the trophy so everyone was happy.

Today was the cheer competition for the girls. I did not know if Bella would be brave enough to compete, but she did and she got her medal and was so proud of herself.

Lindsey's team had an amazing performance. I was sure they were going to take first place, but to my surprise they did not even place. Everyone thought that was odd, so the coaches asked for a score audit and found that they reason they had lost was that they were over time. The DJ was handed an MP3 with the exact time on it and he kept stopping and starting it instead of letting it run through, so they disqualified them. If the coaches had not stood up for the girls, we never would have known this. So, after filing a complaint with the league, Lindsey's team brought home the first place trophy. It is a beautiful day when all your children succeed at the same time!

I had a pretty strong week physically overall (with a few exceptions), so I made it to all of these events. I did more this weekend that I have in three months. And I am OK. Tired, but OK. Here's to doing more with the family, and a recovery of some kind, even if it is not as fast as I would like it to be!

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone!