I don’t think I’m ready for this. High school. Volleyball.
Turning 15. Cars. Can’t we go back to grade school?
Life just keeps marching on. Next week summer vacation ends
and the kids go back to school.
Joe will be in 7th grade at St. Marks Lutheran.
It will be his first year at a school without his sister to watch out for him.
Of course, as a 171-pound, 12-year-old linebacker, I don’t think he needs his sister’s
protection anymore. (Although I did find a note in his backpack this summer
signed by several of the little girls at his school saying they were in love
with him. He said the little kindergartener who gave it to him couldn’t stop
giggling. I guess he is pretty much on his own with that one from now on.)
His dad bought him a weight lifting bench a few weeks ago
with all the dumbbells, bars, and free weights. He’s been building up the
muscles in his arms and pushing up his “reps.” He was showing me how to
properly use the bar this week. He thought it was about the funniest thing ever
to see his mom try to keep up with him. I pretty much learned my lesson there
the next day. My shoulders may never forgive me.
Joe can’t do much weight training on his legs just yet. He’d
been limping around this summer and complaining about his knees. If he would
play catcher an inning or two during baseball, he would actually cry in the dugout
about the pain in his knees. The doctor says he has Osgood Schaulters disease,
which has to do with one of the tendons or ligaments pulling away from the
tibia where it is attached. So his knees have been all inflamed and now he has
to ice them every night. He also wears Kinisio tape on his knees (just like all
those Olympians with the stuff slapped all over their backs, legs, or
shoulders). The doctor says it happens to kids around 10-15 when they are going
through a growth spurt, and may last for a couple years. I’m sure he will milk
it for all its worth, asking me to go down to his bedroom to get his socks for
him the next year or two.
But it doesn’t seem to affect him when he is pushing the
sled at football practice. He still does a number on that thing and I’m pretty
sure his football coach is pretty excited he is going to play down on the B
team again. He may have a double dot on the back of his helmet and only get to
play on the line for either the offense or defense, but he finally gets to play
with some of the boys his own age. This will be the first year he isn’t moved
up with the older boys because of his size. It’s fun to go and listen to the
boys joke around with one another while they are in line for the next drill. He
has a bunch of friends on his team and I’m not so afraid that he will get hurt.
This year it will be some other mom who says “oh no” when her boy has to line up
across the line from Joe. Watch out for those choppy feet.
Rick says every once in a while at football practice (yes, he
is coaching yet again for the Assurity midget football C team) he will hear
them yell at Krush from across the practice field. Generally it’s to tell him
good job – way to give the quarterback three more seconds – and stuff like
that. And sometimes it’s to tell him to run a little harder during the sprints.
Yes, running is a lineman’s nemesis. But Rick says Joe is the only one on the
practice field who doesn’t have his whole last name written on the front of his
helmet. He is just “Krush,” which I find pretty appropriate for a double-dot
linebacker. Rick says it takes him back to his own good ole days (although I’m
pretty sure old skin-and-bones Rick was never a linebacker).
And then there is Mandy. I heard someone once say “you are
only as happy as your unhappiest child.” I completely understand that statement,
although I can’t say Mandy is unhappy. She always has a ready smile. I could
say she is pretty anxious and stressed out, however.
Next week starts with volleyball tryouts. And volleyball
tryouts start with running a timed mile. Normally, I would not be anxious about
this. However she ran the mile a week ago at the end of her kickboxing class.
She took half a minute off her time from earlier this summer, but she puked at
the end of it. I told her she cannot puke at volleyball tryouts. We want the
coach to notice her, but not for puking on her shoe.
To be honest, I just want volleyball tryouts over and done
with. If she’s going to play volleyball, let’s play volleyball. If she is not
going to make the team, let’s get on with life. The girl has been working her
butt off all summer. She did summer training at the Magic volleyball club twice
a week. She went to kickboxing four times a week at 7am in the morning during
her summer “vacation.” She did individual training sessions for an hour once a
week. She played on a sand volleyball team. She also played on a Southwest High
School recreational soccer team two nights a week. Sometimes the games were
played in the 100+ temperature. Those were the worst. She even went to the
weight room two or three times a week to lift weights. (Although I don’t know
if that was for the weight training or the boy watching.)
She did get a couple of special treats. (Yes, prepare for
the proud mom bragging.) She got asked to play on a Greater Nebraska volleyball
team with a bunch of other Southwest girls. They played at the junior varsity
level. Southwest had two junior varsity teams and the team she was on won all
their games only losing one set the whole season. She also got asked to be a
demonstrator at the Nebraska Coaches Association summer clinic along with four
other Southwest girls and five North Star girls. The high school coaches met at
North Star high school and they brought in college coaches to show them new
drills and techniques. The schools can’t use past high school players because
it gives girls an unfair advantage with these college coaches, so they have to
use future freshman. Mandy said she did pretty well and had a lot of fun doing
it.
But now tryouts are around the corner and volleyball keeps
playing with her mind. She had volleyball camp a week or two ago, right after
church camp. She was told to go to the upper grade camp with the older girls.
But, she was pretty tired after church camp. She said she did OK, but they had
her on the middle court the first day of camp, and the lower court the second
day. She hopes that means she didn’t blow it. She doesn’t know if that means
she will be on the Reserve team or the freshman team. She just really hopes to
be on a team. Her club coach told her he would like to see her on the Reserve
team because she would get a lot of playing time. I pray he is right.
It’s super hard to sit back and watch your kid suffer and
stress out. As a mom, you know what your kid is capable of – you’ve seen them
do it. But you also have seen them psych themselves out and struggle. I wish I
could do something to help. I just pray that all the hard work she has done
this summer pays off. I just want her to see that if you work hard, you can
reach your goals. Rick says that if she worked that hard this summer and only
makes the freshman team, well then, that means she might not have even made a
team had she not worked this summer on her skills. And if she doesn’t make a
team, that’s God’s way of saving me from all the stress. Ack. I just wish it
all was over.
And that’s just volleyball. This afternoon we are going to
the Southwest open house. Mandy is nervous about finding her classes and
getting the lock open on her locker when school starts. I think out of the
dozen tries she only opened it twice on locker day last week. Perhaps she might
want to keep all her books in her backpack, just in case.
But one thing I am definitely not worried about is Mandy
making friends. Oh my goodness. When we went to locker days, she met one friend
at the front door, and ended up walking around with a pack of girls she had met
through various sports. She makes a lot of friends. When I introduced myself to
someone’s dad at volleyball last night, we pointed out our daughters while they
were running drills. After he pointed out his daughter, I said my daughter was
Mandy, the one over there with the red hair. He said “Oh, of course,
Mannnndddddyyyy.” That was nice. But I think the thing that I was most pleased about
happened before the practice even started. Mandy was chatting it up in the middle
of a group of friends on the bleachers, and there was a girl sitting by herself
a couple of rows down. She looked scared to death to be there. I felt sorry for
her because she obviously was nervous and shy. Everyone else was there with
their friends, but she was there all alone. I didn’t have to feel bad for long.
Mandy quickly noticed her and screeched “Hi Kaitlyn.” And before I knew it, she
pulled her up with the other girls and Kaitlyn was made part of the group. I
just love Mandy.
Everywhere we went at locker days, Mandy knew girls from
volleyball. And when we went back to the commons area, a bunch of soccer girls
were screechingly happy to see her there. Clearly she was acting her goofy self
during summer soccer, just like she does at volleyball. I foresee a lot of
screeching in her future. Boys – well that’s another story.
She has several boys who are her friends. Mandy texts back
and forth with them wherever we go. She has no problem talking to regular boys.
She makes friends with boys very easily. But boys who she likes, that’s another
story. She may be strong and she may be intelligent, but she runs scared and
stupid when a cute boy looks her way. Mandy does not chase boys. She is too
afraid she might catch one. She would rather spend the rest of her life going
to the movies with her mother than risk saying the wrong thing to a boy she
likes. She gets sad because she says lots of boys look at her, but boys never come
over and talk to her. She says no one will ever ask her out on a date, no less
to Homecoming. Rick, of course, says there is nothing wrong with that. In fact,
that is just the way he likes it. Forget about the concealed carry permit. He
is wearing his guns holstered at his sides, out where all the high school boys
can see them. Evidently Lincoln, Nebraska has re-entered the days of the Wild
West.
Rick does make me laugh. But sometimes I don’t understand
him. He is over-protective when it comes to boys, but he just went out and
bought Mandy a school car. WHAT? When did we start thinking she would start
learning how to drive? I knew the Alzheimer’s was starting to kick in, but I didn’t
know he had completely lost his mind.
In about two months Mandy will turn 15. Yes, 15. I remember
when I was 15. Let’s just say I am concerned. Hopefully Mandy is nothing like
her mother. I remember dating at least two boys who had motorcycles when I was
that age, just because I liked motorcycles. 15. Oh dear.
So, I intend to do a lot of praying the next several months.
Praying for volleyball tryouts, easily opened locker locks, and for the DMV to
magically be shut down in October when we go for a learner’s permit.
No matter what happens with Mandy, I’ve always got my Joe to
lean on. He’s always there to lend me some sensible words of wisdom.
But, alas, that too may soon come to an end. When I came
home from church camp this year I was telling Joe how boy- and girl-crazy the
kids all were his age. I told him he would have laughed. All the seventh grade
girls were following around his best friend Ben, admiring the muscles he
developed over the summer at swim meets and calling him “hot.” But instead of
laughing, Joe’s response was “Really. How much does he bench press?” When I
said I didn’t know, Joe said, “Well may be I ought to go to camp next year.” Noooooooooo,
not my Joe.
Just wake me when it’s over. I’m totally not ready for this.
