Stories from the Weekend

After a long weekend of being away, with family members in three different cities, it is so nice to be all back together again.

As soon as one story is finished, someone else jumps in to tell another.  From the littlest one to the biggest one, each has his/her own favorite stories from the busy weekend.  Tales of good plays, of questionable refs, of good food, of birthday parties.  Basically, it's the kids' way of telling me they missed me without actually having to admit it.

It was Indiana Soccer's big State Cup weekend.  Just about every team in the state played this weekend, each hoping to do its best to win and move on to the finals in June.

Since Giant broke his thumb and can't play, it left us with only three kids to play.  I was in Ft. Wayne (NE Indiana) with Star, Hubby was in Elkart (NW Indiana) with Phoenix and Turken, and my mom with Buttercup, Giant, and Cuckoo, was in charge of getting Buttercup to her games 40 minutes away from our house. 

Favorite Stories For the Books:

Me (to Hubby):  Were you planning on going to church with (another soccer family) on Saturday?

Hubby:  No, I'm planning on taking the boys to a baseball game.  Unless it rains, then we'll go to church.  I'll leave it up to God.  If he want us to go to church, He'll make it rain.  (as he pantomimes) I wash my hands of the decision.

Me:  Shall I just start calling you Pontius Pilate?

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A text conversation between Hubby and me:

"One of the pitchers asked Turken if he wanted a basesball and he said no."

(After I stopped laughing.  I later learned that the pitcher laughed, too.) "So God decided you didn't need church this week?"

"Apparently, since it was a beautiful night."

(later, after telling the story of the rejected baseball to Phoenix's teammates) "Turken said the reason he said no to the baseball is because we already have some at home."

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To save money, Star and I shared a hotel room with our friends Always Random for our tournament in Ft. Wayne.  We've never done this before, and all of us can say we now know each other a whole lot better.  For example, we now know that one of the boys talks in his sleep, and I can't stop scolding children even in the middle of the night.

We were all sound asleep by 10:30, but at 12:30am, I clearly remember sitting bolt upright and whisper yelling to the boys sleeping in the other bed, "Boys!  What are you doing?  We're trying to sleep!  Star, do you have your iPod?  Turn that off and go to sleep!"  And then put my head back down on the pillow.  As I replayed it all in my head, I began to wonder.  I sat back up, and it seemed the boys were sound asleep.  I shrugged and went back to sleep myself.

The next morning, it was all explained to me.   Apparently, the 11 year old friend had been talking in his sleep.  It startled me awake, and I instinctively hollered at the boys. 

Who explained this all to me?  Mrs. Random awoke at the sound of her son's talking, thus seeing the whole thing go down.  Although, even she can't explain where the non-existent iPod came in.

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Buttercup:  It was freezing cold our first game, and it rained so hard our second game, we couldn't even see the ball.  Two of our defenders wear glasses, and they couldn't see a thing!  When we would chest the ball, it would bounce off of us, and when it did it made a sucking sound, pulling our wet jerseys off of our wet skin.  

(Shocking to us, as we up north had unseasonably warm (85+) and sunny weather the whole weekend.

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It seems we at the Coop can't leave a soccer tournament unless it is in a blaze of glory.  Star plays goalie and is very good at it.  He is not afraid of either the ball or players coming right at him.  Today, he jumped on top of the ball, and an opposing player didn't stop.  Poor Star got kicked right in the back of the head. 

It was quite scary, as he wouldn't move from his position of curled up on the ground, holding the back of his head, for quite some time.  Finally, he did get up and walk off the field.  Before I could say, "Where's the medical tent?" a medic was speeding over in his golf cart to examine him.  No signs of concussion, but a nasty bump on his head.  Plus, the force of the kick had sent his face right onto his knee.  The poor kid also has a split lip and a "rug" burn/bruise on his cheek. 

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At one point early in the weekend, I noticed Star on his iPod.   Our conversation:

Me:  Didn't you already check your Instagram 10 minutes ago?

Him:  Well, I was going to, but then you said, "AAACCCHH".

As soon as he said that, the entire family started laughing uncontrollably.  Of course, you don't know how absolutely hilarious this is, seeing as how you don't live with us.

When a child is about to head out of the room, and I am in the middle of something but need to tell the child something, I can't always get out what I want to say in a quick, coherent fashion.  It always comes out as a choke/holler/squeek.  There's too much to say and I need to hurry so the kid doesn't leave and I can't remember the kid's name, so it comes out, "AAACCCHHH". 

I didn't realize how bad I was or that the kids realized it until Star so perfectly mimicked me.  Clearly, not only does Star realize it, but Hubby, the rest of the kids, and my mom see it, too.  They all knew exactly what he meant.

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The kids were all in bed nice and early tonight.  So much excitement wears them all out.  Once they were all tucked in, Hubby and I had our own story-telling session in which we discussed all the things that happened which they were not to know about.  Sideline shenanigans, talk of how the kids played, things that irritated us, and a variety of other things that keep this marital communication wide open.

In the end, the only team that moved on to play in the championship weekend was Giant's.  The very team which has only won one game the entire season went and won both games this weekend.  Without Giant. 

Huh.

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Can't wait to catch up and see what you all were up to over the weekend!

Have a lovely day!