hollywood ending

This morning was a divide-and-conquer kind of morning.  Kent and Luke were going to their big Destination ImagiNation competition (very exciting, the kids were great!) and Sam, Olivia, & I were going to go to Sam's last basketball game of the season at 11:00.  Sam was so looking forward to his last game- running through the tunnel, hoping for a basket, relishing being part of an amazing team. He was a little sad that the season was ending, and so are we- Coach Todd Vestal is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of coach that cares for more for character than wins, more for relationships than baskets. He coached Sam's first team experience almost 4 years ago with Upward soccer and when Sam expressed wanting to play basketball, we begged for Coach Todd (he was coaching Cade's 2nd grade team but luckily Cottonwood made an exception for us & put us with him on 2nd, thank you Taunya Vestal :) ).  Our assistant coaches Todd (also super nice) and Paul (wonderful man, sweet family friends) were also incredibly positive and patient with Sam all season and helped create such a great experience.
So it's about 10:15, I just took a shower and I notice my phone flash. I check it and there's a text from Natalie- "where r u we miss u at the game".  ???? Panic sets in as I type back "I thought it was at 11?????" and she immediately writes back "No now it's halftime come now" I throw on clothes & wet hair in a pony tail and yelled for Sam to "COME BRUSH YOUR TEETH THE GAME HAS ALREADY STARTED!" He came in and I immediately realized that I needed to calm down and not be stressed- that was only going to stress him out more. "You are making me nervous" Sam told me as he puts toothpaste on his toothbrush. I apologized and told him that we were wrong, the game started at 9:45 and I am so, so sorry, fully expecting a meltdown  and he says "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed that I missed most of the game.  Since I can't run through the tunnel for my last game, I really hope I can make a basket."  First, wow. I feel guilty and proud at the same time. He is really growing up! He was so flexible, understanding, and positive!  I also started getting nervous thinking "I hope he makes a basket!" but since he's only made 2 baskets the whole season, knew it wasn't likely and reminded him as we loaded the car how we don't always make baskets, we don't always get to shoot the ball or even touch the ball and that's ok, etc and to just enjoy his last game and have fun... not knowing that God obviously had something else in mind. 
We arrived at church in one piece and Sam ran in (I reminded him to walk in quickly but calmly to his team) and when Olivia and I ran in a few minutes after him, my friends and fellow moms on the team cheered for me quite loudly, laughing and lovingly teasing about "Mom of the Year" and how ironic that the mom of the Asperger's boy who needs a schedule is the one who messed up the schedule. I love these women- they are so real and funny and quickly diffused my stress!  I sat and after Taunya grabbed Olivia to hold, I looked out and Sam was playing in the last 6 minutes of the game. 
Now for the Hollywood moment.  The boys, who are all really great players, several exceptionally good, and played together last year, began going out of their way to pass the ball to Sam.... everyone cheered for Sam the second his hands touched the ball, and within a few minutes, Sam made a basket! Our little crowd made a TON of noise and he literally jumped up and down, shaking his hands in the air. Amazing!  Sam was beaming. The boys continued to purposely pass the ball to Sam and didn't even get angry or frustrated when he started dribbling toward the wrong basket or when the other team stole the ball from him. The timer went off, everyone cheered, and we made our way to the devotional room for stars.
Coach Todd talked to the boys about how proud he is of their teamwork and how every boy made a basket today- that was because they really worked as a team and they were unselfish, meaning they made a conscious effort to pass the ball to each other and didn't just keep the ball for themselves. He told the boys how basketball doesn't really matter- PEOPLE matter.  What matters in this room is the people and the relationships that we have and the relationship we have with Jesus.  Todd shared how his best friend had died this past summer and that he met Matt on the basketball court years and years ago, and that he hopes our boys have the opportunity to meet and cultivate a close relationship with a friend, maybe even a friend in this room. This was incredible- he shared with the boys that he started the season ready to teach our boys about basketball, but he, the coach, was the one who really learned from them, the players.  And he talked to each boy individually about what they had taught him- one's perseverance, one's positive attitude, one's selflessness who always puts others before himself, and when he came to Sam, he said "And Sam Potter. You have taught me about being joyful and finding joy in life. Joy is happiness. You bring happiness to our lives and find happiness in every thing." Tears, smiles, and God working through basketball. 
Natalie nailed it when she texted me tonight about how happy they were about "the Sam Lifetime movie that was our last 15 minutes today...talk about Hollywood endings."  I was so happy & full of joy for my Sam who experienced the love of Christ through 2nd grade boys and coaches who truly care and basketball- a Hollywood ending indeed.
My heart is full.

already behind but enjoying today!

It seems as though every day I think of something I really want to blog about and can't seem to carve out the time to do it. I'm going to try to actually write "blog" on my daily & weekly schedules to make sure that I fit it in our day...now, I just need to get back to making daily and weekly to do lists! Some days just seem to fly by! Since I wrote last Kent and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary (will blog about that later) and we enjoyed Valentine's day (another blog post to come!).
Today was a fun day with Olivia.  Olivia is now 9 months old and just so much fun! She lights up the room with her smile and laugh and absolutely loves being around people.  Today we met two of our "baby friends" from play group at the library for baby story time and she loved it! It was fun watching her watch the other babies.  She loves music and books so the story time was perfect.  At story time also played with fun colorful rubber balls and watched Ms. Melody blow bubbles. We will definitely go every week that we can. I am trying to expose her to as much as possible and give Olivia her "own" special time instead of just carting her around to her brother's activities.  I'm thrilled that we have a neighborhood play group of babies and very sweet moms to connect with.  Olivia is just such a joyful child and I can truly say that I'm enjoying every moment with her.  After seeing Kent briefly at lunch I took her to A Real Bookstore and just enjoyed looking at books with her.  At her age everything is exciting and new. She likes to find the textured parts on pages and open flaps. It's cute to see her chubby little hands turn pages.  We met Luke's DI group to watch them practice before their performance tomorrow and competition on Saturday, then had a quick play date at the Judd's house before picking Sam up from school. Now she is exhausted and asleep - one of those days that she sleeps and nurses in the car.  But, it doesn't seem to bother her :) She is a happy girl!

perfect...

This is perfect... I've been talking about starting a blog for a few years so that I could document these moments that are so funny, so fast, so fleeting!  I just wanted my blog to be perfect and cute and could never make the time to find the perfect or cute blog... how funny... so the moments & memories continued to fly by, some days fading into the next, and before I knew it, Sam is in 4th grade with feet bigger than mine & a perfect smile bigger than Texas, Luke started Kindergarten with several missing teeth, can dance the "worm" perfectly & is reading Harry Potter books, and now we have a 3rd!  A precious baby girl who is perfectly beautiful & belly laughs at Bounce, dances to Black Eyed Peas, and is growing way, way too fast... my perfect husband is amazing and loves me perfectly & completely with or without make up... so it dawned on me tonight.  I won't have the perfectly cute blog, but I have a perfect for me perfect life right this second, this moment... so why not start now? Why wait for more amazing moments to fly by without taking a few minutes to document them?  I can barely remember what I did yesterday and never seem to remember what I walked upstairs to get ;) so what makes me think I will remember these beautiful days unless I document them? So right now, I'm thankful for this perfect moment to breathe, listening to Olivia laugh in the other room while her daddy tickles her, while she is up way past her bedtime, enjoying this perfect blog that is not and will never be perfect :) That's how life rolls, and thank you, God, that it's NOT perfect, but that is perfect for me!