The Good and the Bad

Oh this week has just been CR-AAAZY! Once again, I find myself in awe of how single parents out there who work full time make life with busy kids happen.

I've spent the last three days subbing in the same classroom I'd previously visited. So far, I've had six days subbing, and they've all been for this dream class - that I absolutely ADORE. Sure, there's a couple of kids who aren't always paying attention, but there's almost a total absence of mean-spiritedness in the whole lot of 28 of them. I could go down the rows of where they sit in my mind and list all of their names and something significant about each of them, they are this year's "favorite class" for sure. I'm thankful their real teacher is also so exceptional - and also soon to be a grandma, so I get to come in quite soon to cover when she helps her daughter out with their first baby. =)

I already detailed the experiences of Wednesday night's football - the good and the bad about that. I'm pleased to report that Tanner was already back to school the very next day - and according to Brayden, probably playing rougher than he should. =) Tanner is "all boy"....it's pretty hard to tie that kid down.

On to a little bit of the "bad". We had Thursday Night Lights around here last night as John and I went to the Duck game (as always, with Travis and Stephie...). The kids spent the evening catching up with Andrew, Christina, and Jackson - an all-around great thing. There was a "chance" of rain, but we had no idea that we'd get poured on to the extent that we did during the first half. Thank God we all knew to dress warm, and bless John for - at the last minute - grabbing the extra pair of rain pants for me and having an additional weather-proof jacket for me to wear over top of my down coat.

While the rain tempered down and disappeared by halftime, some of the neighbors in our section certainly did not. I was AGHAST at the language, gestures, and aggressive behavior being demonstrated by "normal-looking" people. We all talked about it on the way out to the car - "are we living in such a bubble that we don't realize there exists so many people who demonstrate regularly such abhorrent moral character?". It's one thing to yell an expletive when a ball is fumbled or the opposing team scores - while I'm not a fan of that behavior, I recognize the "why" it's done. But, this one couple was non-stop yelling expletives to the camera man from ESPN because his camera-lift apparatus was impeding our view. Are you serious? It was ugly, and ultimately left me just so saddened and ashamed that these people have such negativity and feel the need to express it so freely - especially when a young little girl was sitting two rows down just staring at them....UGH!

The other bad that happened at the game was our star running back LaMichael James getting injured. Near the end zone, a player attempted to knock the ball from his hand and between the hit or the ground, somehow his elbow got dislocated. However, based on the camera footage we all saw on the big screen, it looked even worse - and unbelievably painful. Apparently, this happened to LMJ when he was in high school, and just like then, he was able to "pop it back in" on his own before the trainers even reached his side. The crowd didn't know that though, so there was an ominous silence which morphed into a stadium-wide chant of "LaMichael James" and standing ovation when he left. That's the "good" to this story, the community wide support of this young player when he got hurt - not to mention that the injury wasn't as bad as it could have been. Hopefully, he'll be back in no time and breaking more records once again....

On another good note, our Kenjon Barner scored one of the touchdowns again - now that we know him, it's made watching the games even that much more fun....so proud of that guy. There was a wonderful article written about him in Wednesday's paper about how blessed he considers himself to be. As LaMichael James' best friend, LMJ will be blessed by Kenjon through his time of healing, I'm sure of it.

Clearly, based on my early afternoon typing, I'm not working today. Another huge "Thank God". My house, our laundry (sopping wet clothing all over the kitchen), groceries, and so much more needs attention. In fact, our whole family, still coughing and sounding hoarse from a cold we've all shared, is desperately thankful for the weekend. Thank God it's here!!!!!