Ending the Football Season Victorious

One of the reasons that Brayden's been "edgier than normal" (beyond just being a 14 year old boy, dealing with high school academics, and getting through Homecoming) is his let-down in not being able to play in the last couple of football games.  With 33 players to pick from - playing teams that are tough - it means Brayden doesn't get on the field.  It's a bummer, because he really is talented, but a 90 pound kid is really only capable of so much in his attempts to block a kid twice his weight.  Much less a kid that barely reaches five feet can only jump so high to catch a pass or an interception when playing with kids that are easily a foot taller than him.  

The following two pics were taken at the field/stadium where my high school used to play.  It brought back memories.  It was a cold game - and so very long - like 2 and a half hours.  And, Brayden didn't play at all.  What great friends and family we have in Cully, the Whites, and John's mom for being there despite all that.

This week, thankfully, was Brayden's last game.  While the Varsity will continue playing and hopefully moving forward in play-offs, this team is done at the time I'm writing this.  Thank God!  Brayden will be definitely trying to improve his strength and speed in the off-season - the two things the coaches suggested - and, I think we'll all be praying for his growth spurt to kick in as that will make the biggest difference. 

This last game was the same night as our big pumpkin carving party and even as I drove over to the 4pm game, I found myself grumbling like crazy about potentially paying to attend another game that I wouldn't see my son play in - much less leaving behind potential "still-need-to-be-done-before-the-party-projects". 

I joined Cully, my mom and dad (Leona was in Vancouver for an antique convention), and, of course, John to watch from the bleachers.  We did our usual conversation chatter as Marist worked up the score, when, all of a sudden, Cully alerted us that Brayden was put on the field.  (Spotted easily by his height and the pink socks and receiving gloves he was sporting for Breast Cancer Awareness month).  Moments later, Marist scored a touchdown.  And, then, their team lined up for a two-point conversion....and......the pass was thrown to Brayden....and.....HE CAUGHT IT!!!!  He caught it behind the goal line too - so, there you go - two more points. 

This mom was going crazy in excitement in the stands - so unexpectedly delighted for our son.  But, it was actually what happened on the sidelines that meant even more - his whole team was so happy for him.  Brayden's heart has a tendency to endear himself to a lot of people - and they knew the effort he'd put in all season.  Ahhh, it makes me want to cry even writing this.  Thank you coaches for making this play call - and ending Brayden's freshman season with such a bang. 

Praying at the conclusion of the game...perfect way to end it.  

Not the Best Start to Our Week

It would be really nice to someday get to that point in our marriage that the first 20 minutes of an argument between John and I would actually be spent addressing the point of the disagreement vs. hashing through the hyperbole (mis)statements, list of irritations that have come up once we knew an argument was pending, and general anger at one another manifested through not listening, cutting in, or raising our voices. 

But, alas, even after 17 and a half years, we haven't gotten there.  Maybe if we practiced more.....

KIDDING!!!  Definitely wouldn't want to do that.

Last night I found myself at that stupid place of discontent that comes when you are just in "lazy mode" and find that having the opportunity to do absolutely nothing isn't even bringing satisfaction anymore.  That's a serious indication that I have the problem and no one else, and even though I knew that to be true, my attitude ignored the memo and therefore I let it start spewing over to others.

So, in my own view of what's fair and what's not, when I finally decided I ought to be productive with my time and start preparing for the week ahead, it only seemed right that every one else in the family ought to be at the same place.  How dare they continue to find satisfaction in their time of "doing nothing" and just relaxing?  (Something we are all supposed to have the right to do...especially on the "day of rest" that is Sunday!) 

That led to noticing issues that hadn't been addressed - that I felt ought to be.  Throw in a request by John to look over something he was really proud to have personally accomplished (that didn't fit into my value of what would benefit the family/house/cleaning projects), that I OUTRIGHT REFUSED TO HONOR HIM BY LOOKING AT IT....(I am such a bad wife!) - and there you go, the origins of an argument.

You know, one of the great mysteries of life that just keeps getting more and more proven as I get older is how two people can be in the same circumstance and see it from such a different perspective.  I understand when it's two people who are immensely different, but two people who love each other so much and deep down they know they only want what's best for each other?

Proof of the ENEMY at work is how I define it all playing out.  John and I have been in such a good place lately - proud of the team we've been as we weather obstacles that we didn't see coming and being of one accord.  Of course, it's not going to last indefinitely.

The saddest thing about it all though - is that any pent up frustrations over "quirks in his character" that I felt the need to point out last night don't ever add up to the same level of misery I feel in hindsight when I know my words have wounded him.  I've hurt my best friend, my life partner, the man I love with all my heart.  It sucks.  I wish I could take it back.  But, I know God will ultimately use it all for some bit of good - even if it's just another cautionary tale I have in my armory to pass on to the gals I meet with so that they may prevent the same thing from happening someday.

The Family That Fights Evil Together...

One thing about working with "young adults" is that you often find yourself agreeing to things outside of your comfort zone.   Meeting with a "stranger" and agreeing to be a mentor, giving "talks", sitting on panels - stuff like that.  What I didn't see coming was being asked to participate in a Disney costume party.  That's one of those things you find in the mail and go, "Ohhhhh...what do we have already going on that night?  Anything?  Nothing to use as an excuse?!!"  Especially, when I read the invite more carefully and discovered that our family was being asked to come dressed as "The Incredibles".  Well, that's a fun choice, alright.  That Disney hit might just be behind "Tangled" as my all time favorite from Disney movie.  It never gets old.  But, let me just say that this body of mine does not resemble "Elasta-Girl".  And, John did find himself a little at odds with posing as "Mr. Incredible".  But, we knew "Violet" could pull it off easily enough.  (Though, if there's ever a next time, I think it would be worth it to use a "one wash coloring" to have her hair black....then she'd be spot on!)  Sadly, "Dash" would not be able to be in attendance as that was the same night and time as his Homecoming Dance.

It really came down to who asked us to attend - I just can't say no to Alysha - much less her two housemates, Joanna and Taylor, who have had the idea of a dress up Disney party in the works for years.  I did mention we'd not be staying long - the Washington State/UO Game was also taking place at the same time - a late decision by the athletic dept. as far as game-time, which resulted in us selling the tickets since Brayden wouldn't have been able to make it anyway.  

As far as costumes, we were pretty certain we wouldn't be doing the "jumpsuit" kind - not enough Spandex to ever make that ever happen.  But, we were able to find t-shirts that fit all of us online, and with the help of a box of $4 foam masks from Target, and some gold material purchased at Walmart - we were able to pull a semi-decent costume out of it all.  John was even brave enough to wear his Underarmour Thermal tights - yes, he's a man's man.  We were literally hot-glue-gunning the gold sashes around our waists right before leaving to the party (immediately after returning from the Meyers where we took pics for Homecoming....we thought it appropriate to don our costumes AFTER that experience.  While Brayden's been a bit of a pill this last week, even he doesn't deserve that kind of parental mortification!)

So - this is how it turned out - picture taken in the room that they put together as a photo-booth spot.

Doesn't Mikayla have her impersonation nailed?  We'd already ordered a costume for her for Halloween (Alice in Wonderland...she kind of has that look-alike down too) - otherwise, we might have made a "Family Act" out of it on October 31st...maybe next year if we still feel brave enough!

With the Riley smiles in place...

I still need to download a picture of all three of them together, but our hostesses were the three girls on the right side of these pictures.  "Snow White" (Joanna), "Jasmine" (Taylor), and "Rapunzel" (Tangled) was Alysha.  What they did to make this party happen - with all of the backdrops, treats, props, and decor was amazing.  But, the way they looked - WOW!  And, I'm not sure if anyone that we saw arrive actually purchased a pre-made outfit.  This crew is a crafty and creative bunch - lots of thrift store finds were pieced together resulting in dramatic transformations.   It was like the old "House of Mouse" show, where all of the heroes and villains came together in one place. 

In the left picture, those four girls are all sisters - whew!  What proud parents they must have!  "Esmerelda" (Hunchback of Notre Dame), "Pocahontas", "Princess Kida" (The Lost City of Atlantis), all joined their sister, "Snow". 

This was what the back of Alysha's hair looked like - there's no doubt when you see that who she is supposed to be.  So pretty!

Taylor said that she picked her character ("Jasmine") based entirely on the fact that her fiancee, Phillip, already looks so much like "Aladdin".  Yup, he nailed that.  

This couple, Emily and Matthew were "Meg" and "Hercules" from the movie, "Hercules".  

"Anastasia" joined the princesses in this picture.

The two characters in between "Hercules" and "Meg" are "Zeus" and "Helena" - appropriate as they are the real life parents of those four sisters above.

 One of the "101 Dalmations" along with "Cruella De Ville"

"Maid Marion" (Robin Hood), and "Prince Eric" (The Little Mermaid) joined the crew in the photo booth.

Right before we left, "Silver Mist" (Tinkerbelle) - aka Ashley Krause and "Alice in Wonderland", aka Alli Mertz showed up and took pics with us.

At the point we left (about an hour after the party started), the house was overflowing with Disney characters.  They had invited about 115 people and researched enough to assign characters to every single invitee.  As it turned out, about 50 or more folks ended up coming.  Based on the pics from Facebook, it looked like a fantastic time was had by all - full of Disney re-enactment skits and other activities.  I think John and I had felt like we'd stretched ourselves enough by that point, and were happy enough to retreat to the safety zone of the Whites house to watch the Duck game.  =)

Here's a pic I put on Instagram giving some of the broad effect of the evening.  We were definitely honored to have attended...as it was an "Incredible" evening!  =)

Homecoming!

So, a couple of weeks ago, this happened...

That young lady hugging our son agreed to be his date for Homecoming.  He kind of held out asking her until later than he ought to have, and kept his intentions secret from us as well until the week he asked her.  I have to say that the day he asked her, his plan didn't unfold like he wanted to and the ride to school was MIGHTY tense.  This is new territory for our guy - and while he and this girl are "just friends" - he wanted it to go right.  His plan involved writing on a balloon "Homecoming" and having her blow it up to read it.  But, being the HORRIBLE mom that I am, I didn't happen to have balloons just sitting around the house (had he told me five minutes before leaving for school that morning, I would have moved mountains to accommodate....but, oh no, that would have been too easy).  Fortunately, one of his friends came to his rescue at school.  He asked this girl to blow the balloon up for him (to give to another buddy), while he tied his shoe.  But, she can't blow balloons up - she ended up asking her friend to do it for him, while Brayden spent five minutes crouched down tying his shoe.  She knew what he was up to - and said, "Yes" - before the balloon was fully blown up.

As for this girl's name....well, it's "Riley".  Spelled the same way as our last name.  That amusing fact doesn't get past anyone.  We don't know her very well as she attended another school than Brayden before Marist, but all who do know her seem to love her.  She's very nice, apparently very funny and goofy, and, well....short.  PERFECT!!!!!!  

So, a week and a half later, we were dropping him off at the Meyers' house for his first high school Homecoming.  The guys all arrived first - and took some dashing pics before the girls got there.  (Left to right:  Brayden, Jack, Andrew, Ian, and Nicholas)

A few of the girls - Riley and Grace (Andrew's girlfriend) - and I've forgotten the names of the other two gals.  I love that Tom's and Converse shoes were among their footwear choices.

Then came the giving and pinning of the flowers. 

So, the word "Adorable" has been thrown around with these two.  I'm sure that's not the word they were going for, but you kind of just can't help it - as they are so LITTLE - and both have very youthful looks to them for being 14.

You couldn't have asked for better weather for the evening - unseasonably warm - and the backdrop of autumn leaves was gorgeous.

All of these guys and gals are really quality people - we consider it such a blessing that he's been included with these guys and feels so comfortable fitting in with a group that largely attended a private school before Marist.  

This was the pic taken with John's I-Phone that hit my Instagram and Facebook account, and just maybe earned more "likes" than any other Instagram pic I've ever put up.  Not hard to see why - you can't help but smile when you look at it.  =)

Mark and Amy were our heroes for the evening as they carted the crew to McMennamin's Restaurant where the group of 10 had reservations (Mark and Amy disappeared for a while during that time), then took them back to their house for a while to kill time to be "fashionably late" for Homecoming (instead of proving they're freshmen by getting there when the doors open).  :)  Upon finally getting there, though - they weren't super impressed with the dance playlists so they only stayed for an hour.  Mark and Amy brought them back to their house again where they all hung out and watched "Now You See Me".  John waited for Brayden's phone call as to when to pick him up....which finally happened at 2:30am.  As it was a group of them and we knew exactly where he was at, it being that late at night wasn't an issue.   He did end up sleeping until noon the next day, however!

So, Freshman Homecoming earned two thumbs up for Brayden - and I think, for the "other Riley" too.  It's just so wild that we are even at a point to write a post about such things.  HOLD ON!....This ride is going way too fast!

Harvest Time at Lone Pine Farms

Sometimes the images I put on my blog report the full story.  It really is as fun as the pictures make it look.   Today, however, was not one of those days.  Almost everyone was in "one of their moods".  Brayden was in full-on exasperation mode - I literally wanted to throttle him.  Mikayla was inpatient and irritable with Brayden.  When Michele arrived with her kids, we found Traig to be in his "authority mode".  By the conclusion of our visit, Nati was pushed to her "bite back" mode, and Ellie was pulling the youngest child card.  Michele and I were both fed up (and irritable ourselves).  Fortunately, Whitley was really rather agreeable - while she wasn't thrilled getting strapped into the backpack, once she was in it, I think she found herself pleasantly surprised with the constant attention, birds-eye view, and exciting ride.

We anticipated Lone Pine Farms to be crazy busy on this State-wide Inservice Day.  Fortunately, we pulled in before most of the crowds had arrived.

After purchasing tickets for the corn maze and the tractor train to get our pumpkins, we took some pics while waiting for the ride to start.

Even in this pic, Brayden is leaning out of his "head slot" to give Mikayla a piece of his mind telling her she doesn't belong in this pose. Grrr.....

That-a-way Whitley, suck on your binkie and stay mellow. 

On the tractor train - Nati was not happy that it wasn't the horse-drawn ride.

I decided I'm not a fan of the sunflowers in the midst of the pumpkin patch.  They look out of place and ominous.

Because we were following behind a horse-drawn ride, our tractor was pulling the hay wagon very, very slow.  So, Brayden found it amusing to continuously hop on and off the wagon.  I wasn't happy with him at all - he'd been pushing it with me all day and this was another instance.  

But then, Whitley started giggling hilariously at his antics and it made it somewhat okay.  I will add the video Michele took at the end of this post - it is priceless. 

Prior to this pic, I was literally saying, "Brayden, get over here and I'm going to act like I love you" (which, of course I do...but "like" is sometimes a variable....)

My little otter did find a good pumpkin though.

And I found a beautiful "Cinderella" pumpkin.

 
A few more pics on the ride back.

Off to the corn maze.   Brayden had done this maze in its nighttime "haunted version" last weekend, so he and Traig were confident they'd find their way swiftly enough on their own.  Right after this pic, the girls also broke off. 

Michele and I (and Whitley) were all smiles to get a little bit of time to just relax a bit as we traversed in peace through the corn maze.

Michele and I switched off in carrying Whitley about halfway through the maze.  Both of us were mindful of keeping her weight off of our shoulders and more on our hips (hence the awkward strap location on my bicep).

A little selfie in the neon tunnel.

A parting shot of the "ghost town" look in front of the maze.

As we pulled away from Lone Pine, I think we agreed we'll be going someplace else next year - a little bit too expensive and too much "forced fun" at this place.  But, everyone's moods had thankfully improved.  By three, Michele and I hopped in the car with our boys to drop them off at the church to head off to Antelope, Oregon - where they'll spend the weekend at YoungLife's Washington Family Ranch for a Discipleship Retreat.  They're happy they are going, we are happy they are going.  =)  As for the rest of the Rileys, we headed up last night to the Schillings house as we'll be attending the wedding of some of our former collegiate pals Saturday night in Portland.  We wanted to be closer to the wedding so it wouldn't be as far to return "home" after the late start of it, but also, so we could finish watching the 1pm Duck game before departing....you know, priorities.  =)

Now, about that adorable video-