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!!