May Madness

After a crazy few weeks this Momma is breathing a sigh of relief that life has finally settled down some.  May is wonderful but I think any Mom would agree that it is beautiful and brutal all at the same time.  I will add that our May has been way less stressful since Mike's job change!  I will never stop praising God for blessing us all with a different job for Mike.

One of the blessings of May was a Challenger "away" game hosted by Bristol Challenger league.  They invited us down for a double header game and we had a great time considering how hot it was!  Here are our Marion Challenger players!  These kids bless my heart and watching them have fun playing ball made it all worth while.

I ran across a tweet last week that made me laugh because it is so true.  It said "If you do not want to be criticized, don't lead or start something new."  This has been a challenging year for Challenger because Mike has been little league president, the rain has been relentless and we have had a hard time getting our games in.  Despite the challenges this season, watching these kids play ball has made it all worthwhile.

Challenger is a family affair for us and that hot day in Bristol watching our kids take the field for their first ever "away" game was awesome!

These kids teach us all what matters most in life and love, acceptance, sportsmanship, and fun are at the heart of every Challenger game.  Here is Miss Emily with her new friend from Bristol!

We also celebrated the last day of school with a boat ride and tubing at Claytor Lake per our tradition.  We have never gotten out this early but thanks to a mild winter we said hello summer on May 19th this year!

We also enjoyed lots of tennis as Kyle ended the regular season as #2 seed for MSHS tennis team and played in the conference tournament.  Kyle had a great season as a freshman!

Thanks to Sarah Martin we got some amazing tennis pictures!  Their season ended when they lost to Galax in the conference tournament at the indoor facility at Virginia Tech.

We as a family have worked so hard in our new garden and it is finally all planted and has a fence up to keep out deer and rabbits.  We have learned so much, gotten a few sunburns and we are so excited to check our garden each day for changes.  I am surprised at how much joy this little garden has brought to our family.  We have chatted with neighbors who have stopped by to check our progress, and we have learned from them.  This has been a blessing for us all.

After a busy week of MSHS basketball camp for all three of our kids, we loaded up and headed to Charlotte for a big weekend of Big Shots basketball. We styaed downtown with the team and it was a great weekend of basketball.  This team has been a blessing for Kyle.  He adores his coaches, he loves his teammates, and we are having fun traveling and cheering these guys on against some stiff competition.

This weekend we lost in the championship game.  It was rough and Kyle came away from the game scratched up after another player scratched and pinched him the entire game.  The refs never saw it of course, but I was so frustrated that I started yelling Michelle Obama quotes!!  Crazy mom but it is hard to see your baby take abuse play after play and the refs ignore it.  Kyle would not let me take a picture of his arms after the game but I did yell "play with class, when they go low we go high!"  Mike even yelled at the refs which he rarely does!  Hilarious memories for sure! We had gone to church between games at Elevation church down the street from the gym.  The refs made some horrible calls but I could not yell at them after leaving church so I said very loudly "I strongly disagree with that questionable call!"  I will forever laugh when I think about that championship game!

Kyle is learning that he can play against anyone in the gym, class matters, play tough because refs ignore half the blatant fouls, the game is fast and hard work pays off.  This past weekend was the hardest competition we have seen all season.  These guys were fast and physical.

God has blessed Kyle with lots of great coaches in his life and Coach Kevin is one we are truly thankful for.  He is invested in these kids basketball lives but he is also trying to train them to be men.  Two little darlings broke curfew and visited a diner down the street from the hotel late night and when coach found out about it, both the 9th and 10th grade team had to run in the parking lot.  After their game. In the heat, In front of everybody.  I bet those boys wont break curfew again!

It is starting to sort of feel like summer.  We are thankful the May madness is behind us and we can focus on our little garden, read good books, work on this house, and finish the Little League baseball season.  Welcome summer 2017!!

Mother's Day

After returning from Chicago we as a family hit the ground running.  It has been an incredibly busy and challenging week.  God is teaching us lots of life lessons and we are so thankful even if the lessons hurt a little bit.

This little lady was invovled in a musical at church called It's Cool in the Furnace based on the bible story of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel.  The show was really amazing!

We are learning with Hope that there are things like piano and basketball that are in her comfort zones.  Solos in musicals and dancing at a dance are way out of her comfort zone.

I do love seeing her little smile and I love that she is growing up in a church with lots of opportunities for kids to learn and grow in their faith.

On Friday not only did we pull of a Mother's Day Tea at preschool (thank you Christy)  but with the help of Teri at church we pulled off the first ever Daddy Daughter Dance at FUMC.  Here is Hope with her Daddy:)  Check out the chandelier behind them made by Teri-it is hula hoops, white duck tape, and christmas lights.  It was so pretty!! We served the couples dinner and then opened the dance floor for lots and lots of dancing!  Our church fellowship hall was ROCKING! For desssert we also set up a milk and cookie bar!  

Our little lady was not up for dancing but she did dance for a few special people including her brother.  Our youth worked this event to raise money for their mission trip.  It was really a fun night!  I will admit that after pulling off those two events on Friday I did not leave the couch Saturday!  Ha!  This gal is getting old.

Today is Mother's Day and I have enjoyed a special day with my people.  We met my parents for dinner to celebrate Mothers Day.  My Mom and I are very different-she is way girly and "fru fru" and I live for jeans and my Jesus shirts.  She is a shopper and I try to be but I am soooo not.  She always looks put together with matching jewelry and lets just say I try.  Sometime I will blog about the Sabika jewelry story at the alligator farm!  She is a riot!

My Mom has dealt gracefully with a few hard hands she and my Dad have been dealt lately.  My Mom is still healing from a nasty fall she took after Christmas and she and my Dad caretake on a daily basis my grandmother who can be a wee bit of a challenge.  Bless her.

I also find it ironic and a God thing that in my life that days that I have received the two hardest pieces of news which included the day David was diagnosed with Down Syndrome and and the day he was diagnosed with cancer my Mom was with me.  Both times.  I will never forget coming home from the ER to pack a bag for an extended time period at UVA while waiting on the ambulance to transport me and Dave to UVA and my Mom was here.  She felt as helpless as I did and I am sure that was torture for her to stay back but she did.  It is ironic that my Mom has been here with me through the hardest times-not sure why God designed it that way but it is something I will never forget.  She is tougher than her tiny and bony frame shows!  She and my Dad both exude grace when times are hard.  Happy Mother's Day you sabika jewelry-wearing, days of our lives watching, Jesus loving, momma!!!

This post is out of order again but here is the song that the Daddies and Daughers dance their first dance to.  It is my new favorite song and I was introduced to it from one of our clinic nurses at UVA.  I so hope Hope and her Daddy dance to this at her wedding one day.  The lyrics get me everytime.

I wish that I could be your everything
Be the One to give you all the things you need.  
Sometimes I am going to let you down.
But There's the One and if You'll Just believe
He'll be your hero like He's always been for me
Darling Jesus is the one you need.  

As a Mom when one day down the road when I measure how successful my children will be the size of their house, the number of degreees they obtain, or their bank account will not mean much to me.  I will measure their success on how much they love and serve the Lord as well as how deeply they love others around them.  Jesus is the One they need.  Happy Mother's Day!

Chicago!

Oh Chicago how much fun you provided the Robinson family  over the most few days!! We knew

All along that Adidas Select in Chicago was on Team Xplosion schedule but we did not know how awesome it would be for our family schedule! We realized that the boys SOLs would be done and that we could actually go and make a family trip of it!! We of course had to hit all the iconic sports spots in the Windy City and the Yankees were in town!!  We also visited Soldier Stadium and the United Center. 
We were so impressed with how beautiful Lake Michigan is! this beach front was down the road from our team hotel. It was so chilly and windy but so beautiful! I cannot even put into words how thankful we are for family time together where Mike is not tied to his phone and for the opportunities that God has blessed us with.
The Windy City is certainly a beauty with the down town part of the city on the shores of  Lake Michigan. The navy pier was a fun place to explore around even if the wind was brutal! The  Lincoln park zoo was a hit for Hope and her Daddy. We were blessed with early morning games on Saturday which then gifted us the rest of the day to explore and have fun.  

Both the freshman team and Sophomore team played in Chicago this weekend and so Saturday night we had a family dinner downtown for some real Chicago pizza . David was in heaven! 

 
Downtown Chicago after our big team dinner! 

I love watching some basketball and our Xplosion guys did awesome! We went 3-0 but sadly still got  knocked out due to stupid point differential. We could not even be happy for the wins because we got knocked out even though we won the last game by 50 😩😩😩 it does not seem fair especially because a trip to Las Vegas was on the line. I kept looking for the tournament director to discuss this with him but Mike felt that was not in my best interest! Ha!  I am thankful for the opportunities that God has given us and I am thankful that we can enjoy time together in a new city to explore. Chicago I think you are awesome but take me home to our beautiful mountains and no traffic or tolls!