Andrew

This post is mainly for me. I know, I'm supposed to be posting about ds, but I'll do that later.

My Andrew plays football for his high school. If you know me, you know that. He played soccer and tball when he was little, but he's not played organized sports since probably 3rd grade. So when he originally wanted to play football as a freshman, my first thought was "cool!" followed by "oh no - you might get hurt!" but we let him play anyway. And he LOVES it! He's not been very athletically inclined before now, but he goes to every practice, every game, every early morning weight lifting session, every Sun morning film. It takes time away from other things our family could do. He's not the very best player on the team so he doesn't get to play every minute. As a matter of fact, he hasn't gotten to play in a varsity game this whole season. He's a junior. He did get asked to play down on jv, which is fine and great with us because he gets to play in the games (I guess some players or parents were upset by getting asked to play down but we were happy he'd get field time!)

I was starting to get discouraged and sad about this varsity season and Andrew's lack of playing time. But last night changed all that! We were playing our biggest rival - the other team here in our town. And we were winning! It was a great game; touchdowns and terrific plays by both teams. We sat on the 50 yd line right behind our guys, high enough up to see well but close enough so we could hear the coaches and guys on the team. (We, meaning dh and I and lots of other parents of players.) During the 4th quarter, I heard it - "Smith! Where's Smith?!" yelled by the lineman coach. Holy cow! Where is he? My eyes were going back and forth on the line, my heart was pounding, and there he is, running toward the coach. There he goes, my #65, running into the game on the d line. We got the ball so o line was up and I thought it was over. By this time I was so excited for him I almost cried! Stupid Mom emotions! But then he stayed in for the offense and played 'til the end of the game! I don't think my eyes have been open that wide before! I didn't want to miss a second!

So of course I made a scene at the bus but by the time the guys were back at school I had myself under control. I was on some kind of weird "I'm sooo psyched for my kid" high that I'm still feeling a little of it today. (Just breathe Julie!) So now all the laundry, running around to far away places (twice a week sometimes because of jv), stress over homework and all these practices finally feels okay. The AMAZING smile on my kid's face is worth it ALL! (He, for the record, thinks I'm outta control too but he's riding his own high so lets me get away with it!)

Like I said, this was just for me. I finally "got" it - why all the hard work is worth it. And it only gets better from here. Pics ARE coming!