Author: alicewgold

I would like to state that I am a brunette, but now I am a mix of grey, white, brown, and blonde. I would also like to say that I am 150 pounds, but that would be a boldfaced lie. How about I say I am work in progress because that is the truth? A beautiful work in progress. I love the sound of my fingers tapping on the keyboard and my greatest hope is that something that I write will lift someone else on their journey.

Soccer Skills

After posting about Sophia’s eight goals, I have been feeling guilty for not showing Bella out on the field. To tell the truth, I had picked out some pictures the other night, but I just got sick of waiting on upload time.

Here are a few of my fav’s of Bella. I guess I will have to get to Abigail later.

While Abigail plays offense and defense, Sophia is our offensive player. But, Bella , well she is most definitely our defensive player. We have been bragging on her abilities to “get that ball out of there” for the past couple of weeks. She never runs as fast as she does when she is trying to beat the opponent to the net.

At the last game, LG and I laughed so hard when we realized Bella’s motivation for getting to the net. I know she likes to stop the goals, but we figured out that she really loves to fish the ball out and hand it to the ref. Really we think that she only runs THAT hard to put herself to good use. She is such a good helper. She is such a hard worker. She loves to be useful. She is so much like her mom it is pathetic. Should we start her in therapy now or later?

So much to celebrate

We have been really watching our eat out budget lately. I have to say that I have been impressed with my ability to live by a shoe string budget. LG is a budget nazi!!

So, as many of you know, we are taking on this great new adventure in our lives. LG is starting his own law practice. I guess the shoe string budget will stay in place for a while. I finally convinced LG to quit working as a clerk and start helping me find a commercial location for lease.

This morning, after getting the kids off to school, we were waiting for Bella to get up (she likes to sleep like her mom) and for Brayden to get up from his nap. We snuck back to bed for a good nap. (really, just a nap) We laid there and talked about all the life decisions that seem to be put on the back burner repeatedly.

I, at one point, wanted to give LG the chance to truly celebrate his first day as a self-employed man. I said, “So, it’s your first day not working for the man, you’re finally free, what do you want to do?” I thought he may say, “let’s take those two minutes.” (if you know what I mean)

I guess that extra hour of sleep and his skipped breakfast had gotten to his head and stomach. Without one second for a thought, he replied, “Let’s celebrate Siesta de Mayo and go to Taco Bell for lunch.” I don’t think we will have any problem with the man’s newly acquired “white collar” career going to his head, will we?

And, celebrate, we did. We ate out for a whoppin’ ten bucks today. Where? Taco Bell of course. We couldn’t let Siesta de Mayo go by unnoticed, could we?
P.S. I just realized that LG was using the wrong Spanish word for six….Six is not siesta (which means nap and may fit in the story in a round about way since we were lying in bed) but six is seis. LG’s bad Spanish is even funnier if you’ve read this previous post keeping in mind that LG is a TN Native. And I am laughing even harder that it took me a whole 12 hours, writing out a blog post, and reading someone’s comment about “seis de mayo” to realize what LG really meant this morning when he misused siesta in place of seis.

Non-twirly coach
LG expressed the sentiment today that he really misses coaching the girls in soccer. We suckered Clint into the coaching gig this season. Because our lives have been so hectic, we thought we deserved a little break. Clint was so gracious to embrace his new responsibility and he has been a great coach.
But, he is a non-twirly coach…in fact, he is an anti-twirly coach. What is a non-twirly coach, you ask? It’s the kind of coach that picks his team players up one by one and twirls them around in the air every time a player scores.
Now any of you that are “real” athletes know how ridiculous this is. Clint is an “athlete”. What does he do when the girls score? What any real athletic coach should do. And, look, how happy the girls are to join in the ritual. Forget this twirly thing!!! We all could live a lot happier with a good old fashioned Hi-five from time to time.

See, I do pay attention
Let’s just say I get a little excited when watching my girls play soccer.
Let’s just say I get a LITTLE excited and leave it at that.
LG accused me today of only watching Abigail’s team and ignoring Sophia and Bella’s.
He seems to think that the competition with the little ones
just isn’t fierce enough for me.
LG accused me wrongly!
I have pictures to prove it.

Here’s one goal:



Here’s two:





Here’s three:


And, if I showed any more, that would just be bragging!
P.S. “LG, you should be glad that I don’t get overly excited for both age groups.
I am already trying to round up some valium for Abigail’s future games.”

What could possibly…
…tear such a devoted mother from watching two (yeah, count it, two at the same time) of her daughter’s play in soccer game?
Pick your favorite.

You’d think they’d be glad to have a break from mom’s camera in their face?
But, even though they complain about my camera and my blogging,
I am convinced that they really do love it! (secretly, of course)
But just in case they are serious with their detest,
I choose to take pictures of things that are a lot less interesting.

Jackpot
Cally brought over mom’s prize today.
It’s cute and it’s great to have it, but I want to share it with Abigail and Sophia.


Mom: Bella, what do you want to say about these people?
Bella: I want to call them John, Jake….Mom, I can’t think of any good names!
Mom: It’s o.k. (waiting, waiting, waiting)
Bella: Dillia, Wanda, Speranza. A boy named Sean and one named Jack.
Mom: Do you have a name for the last girl?
Bella: I can name it whatever I want, but I don’t have any idea.
Mom: Maybe blogging isn’t so bad now, huh?
Bella: (can’t hear me the first three times because she has dad’s headphones hooked up to Sesame Street) “Yeah”, distracted and uninterested.

After she dies.

The girls and I have a little game that we always play. The girls grab silk flowers from the flower tower and pretend they have picked them for me. I always act surprised and say a huge thank you, and from my prior instructions, they always go and put them right back. They don’t know it, but I always think about how gracious my mom was whenever I did the same thing with her real geraniums. I often will also think of the little church song that I sang to my mom:

“I often go walking in meadows of clover, And I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue. I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over; Dear mother, all flowers remind me of you. “

So, on with the funny story. We were at Wal-Mart yesterday. As I approached the craft section, I was trying to herd the girls in and said to Bella and Sophia that they needed to help me find a Mother’s Day gift for Grammy. (I already got something for my mom.)

Bella and Sophia are very obedient children and they love their Grammy and so they immediately began to look around for something to give her. Right as I said this we just happened to pass by the flower arrangements for Memorial Day. In answer to my plea for help with Grammy’s mother’s day gift. Sophia grabbed the one below and said: “Here mom, Grammy will love this.”

You should have seen the innocent bystanders face when she heard me reply, “Oh wow, Sophia, Grammy would love that, let’s wait and give it to her after she dies.”

Sophia got shy when I pulled the camera out. Here is Bella showing the flowers to me.