We're Number Two

We are number two. Woohoo!

We seem to be saying this quite a bit lately. (And I don’t mean that in a potty mouth way. I feel I have to clarify for those people who still think like a 12-year-old boy. In this case number two means second place. That is all. Bunch of 12-year-olds.) Mandy’s soccer team started off the fall season coming in second in their league. Joe’s basketball team just earned second place in their league. Mandy’s club volleyball team has come in second in two of their tournaments. And just recently the school basketball team that both kids played on came in second in their division.

So we have been number two quite a bit this year. I suppose some people would be bothered by not being first, but we actually don’t mind. I know, I know, Mandy’s friend Megan would say that second place is just the first loser. (She doesn’t take after her father at all. Ha.)

But we like second place. True, there is somebody better than you, but at least you are not last. For example, Joe’s basketball team started the season 1 and 4. It was no fun to be on the bottom and lose all those games. But the boys battled back and worked their way into the second place spot in their 6^th grade division of Spirit basketball. The last game of the season they beat a team by more than 20 points; this same team beat them by four points in the beginning of the season.

Mandy’s club volleyball team played in two elite Gold tournaments and didn’t win a match. However, they played in two other tournaments and came in second. The last tournament they played in, they won the consolation round. Mandy played fantastic. She only missed one serve the whole day and had tons of great hits. But, well, I have a lot of issues. (Although I don’t have any issues with any specific players.) I am keeping my mouth shut on this one. I will say, however, I am confused why the team takes out its two best passers when they get to the back row just because they are middle hitters. But I don’t evidently understand volleyball. Sooooo, moving on.

We were disappointed that Mandy’s fall soccer team came in second in the Spirit league for the 13-15 year olds. We sure thought they had first place locked up. But that is the way sports go. Oh well. Spring soccer starts in a week or two and we are returning with a lot of the same players. Should be another awesome season. I just hope Mandy doesn’t get any yellow cards. She has spent her basketball season perfecting her shoulder shove, knocking other players to the ground. I will stay on the sideline with my mouth shut and my fingers crossed. If it really gets bad, I’ll just watch from my car. I’m good at that. I spent most of two seasons watching from my car when they tried her as goalie. Mandy is NOT a goalie. Yikes.

I must say that we were pretty thrilled that the kids’ school basketball team came in second in their division during the recent school tournament. It is a NELHS tournament, hosted by the WELS Lutheran high school in Waco. A bunch of schools in Nebraska, and one from Kansas, play in either the A pool or the B pool in a two-day tournament.

The bigger schools have more than one team in the tournament. For example, one team might contain their eighth graders, another team has their seventh graders, and another team might have fifth and sixth graders. Their bigger teams usually play in the A pool. Their smaller teams play in the B pool, with the little schools, like our school.

The smaller schools generally only have enough players for one team. For example, our team had nine players, ranging from third grade through eighth grade. Mandy was our eighth grader. Plus we had three sixth grade boys and the rest of the team was made up of third and fifth graders. Our sixth grade boys are fairly decent basketball players, but we really were blessed with Mandy’s height under the basket to help get those rebounds and to attempt to “post up.” (The entire season Rick, the assistant coach, kept yelling at Mandy to “post up.” She finally yelled back at him during a game to quit yelling that because she doesn’t even know what that means. I’m fairly sure she never did figure out what that meant. Don’t ask me. I don’t know either.)

I should mention that earlier this year our school won the NELHS volleyball tournament in the B division. However, that was because we had our ace in the hole, Miss Club Volleyball Gold team middle hitter. Mandy was doing her spot serving and had a few plays at the net. She didn’t do any hitting, probably because no one else on the team knew how to set the ball. But that’s OK.

Being good at volleyball is one thing. Being good at basketball is an entirely different thing. Being able to jump and being tall is a good thing for both sports. But volleyball is not much of a contact sport. In basketball you have to be willing to box out and sometimes get other people’s sweat on you. This is not something Mandy does well. She often comes to the bench saying “Ewwwww, she dripped on me.” Plus, you have to be willing to get in there and “throw some ‘bows.” This is something that Mandy excels at. We were not aware of this until just this year. I guess all those seasons of pushing and shoving on the soccer field are coming in handy.

Mandy’s ability to push and shove were some of the highlights of the tournament for me. She always wanted to go up against the biggest or tallest player on the other team. She was always backing her butt into them, moving them out of the way so one of our boys could dribble in and take a shot. She also liked to fight for the rebounds. It was hilarious when she was the tallest one out there and she would come down from the basket with the ball, and then just hold it above her head, well out of the reach of everyone else on the court. That was fantastic. You go Big Red.

She did get a little rough, on occasion. For example, during two games she had to sit out a good portion of the third quarter because she had four fouls. Sometimes she couldn’t help but do her volleyball moves. She would try to swat the ball out of the other player’s hands, bringing her hand down in a volleyball hit. Most of the time this resulted in a foul. And one time she used her soccer shove to keep another player from dribbling in to make a layup. Unfortunately she used it on a little girl. When Big Red and the little girl made impact, the little girl ended up on the floor, crying. This was not good. Mandy ended up on the bench with tears in her own eyes. But when Mandy came back in, she ran over to the other bench first, hugged the girl, and told her she was sooooo sorry.

Mandy was quite a character. During most of her games she was cheering and joking on the court. She would always come out screaming at the beginning of the games, and joked with her opponent before the jump ball. A few of the refs got a kick out of the way she would ask what basket she was supposed to shoot at whenever the second half started. She didn’t want a repeat of an early wrong basket episode down in Plymouth. Let’s just say it is a good thing she is not an ace shot.

But while Mandy enjoyed “performing” out on the court, Joe was Mr. Slow and Steady wins the race. He didn’t run until he puked, which is fantastic. He used his keen football “catlike” skills under the basket to seal us a ton of rebounds. He is an awesome rebounder. It’s something he excels at on both of his basketball teams. And he keeps a cool head under the basket, and knows how to throw out his elbows and pivot to ward off the other team, until he can pass the ball to the point guard and jog back down the court.

I’m super proud of Joe. He doesn’t like to shoot the ball, but he forced himself to take some shots, sometimes dribbling into the basket to make them. He got fouled quite a bit and ended up shooting a lot of free throws. Unfortunately this is something he does not excel at. Oh well, there’s always next year for that. He also ended up on the floor quite a bit. The day after the tournament his knees were one solid black and blue bruise. He even wore a hole through his shorts getting “court burn” on one knee. Yikes. He still has the giant scab from that one.

And of course it was mild mannered Joe that caused the biggest drama for our team. At the final championship match, Joe tripped and caught the other guy’s knee with his nose. He laid on the court sobbing, and yelling that it hurts, it hurts. And yet I didn’t run out there. I stayed in my seat. He wasn’t dead, and I am only allowed to come out on the court over Joe’s dead body. (Because it is a fate worse than death for your mom to run out on the court. Once you’re dead, you are evidently beyond caring.) Rick did run over to him, which is OK because Rick is one of the coaches. Rick said he was afraid to pull back Joe’s hands, afraid he would see tons of blood, a smashed nose and broken teeth. But, it was just a bloody nose. We don’t think he broke his nose. It wasn’t crooked, although he said he felt it crack when it happened. Well, chicks dig sports scars, at least that’s what Coach Reed always says.

So the tournament overall was pretty exciting. We were hoping to win a couple games -- at least more than one game. We were expecting to finish somewhere in the middle, probably in the lower half. Let’s just say we weren’t getting our hopes up.

We played three games the first day. We won the first game against Plymouth. Then we played the second Good Shepherd team from Omaha. We didn’t think we would win; the game was pretty close. But somehow we finished the game with a one-point lead. Poor little Michael Hemphill. I think Mandy hacked him under the basket on several occasions. But yet he hugged her after the game, so it must not have been too painful. The third game of the day we knew we couldn’t win. Waco beat us by about 15 or 16 points earlier in the season, and we were expecting they would really kill us, considering it was our third day of the game and we really only had five or six kids that would play. Waco beat us by about 15 again. But we figure we were lucky. At least they didn’t beat us about 70-something to 4, like they did another team earlier in the season. Painful.

The next day I think we started as the third cede. We had to play Mt. Olive from Overland Park, KS. We looked terrible. They were ahead by 12 points in the third quarter and Mandy had four fouls. Things were dismal. Then somehow it turned around. Somehow we got a few steals and lay ups and started to catch up. Soon we were within a few points and it was close to the end of the fourth quarter. Then Joe put in a shot that put us up by one point. There were thirty seconds left and we had the ball. Joe and Braden just kept possession of the ball and passed it back and forth. Before the other team could steal or foul, the game was over and we won. We couldn’t believe it. And Mandy didn’t foul out. Miracles never cease. There was a thunderous amount of screaming and jumping and hollering. But enough about the moms, the kids were pretty happy too.

We played the second cede next, a Central Lutheran team from the Norfolk area. We didn’t think we could win, but we took the lead and kept it the whole game. In fact, we pressed the other team. It was incredible. Somehow we were going to the championship game. Of course it was against Waco again. Of course we knew we couldn’t win. But at least we knew we were getting a trophy. It was such an incredible accomplishment that it didn’t matter.

So we played Waco – and we got killed. We stayed within one point the first quarter. In fact we were ahead by a point every once and a while. We made Waco’s Coach Stern so concerned he had to actually take his jacket off. But then we lost momentum. I’m pretty sure our five starters were completely out of gas. Then Joe got injured and we kind of just folded. Mandy went the majority of the game without fouling. That was miraculous. However she had a big foul late in the game and I overheard her ask her dad if she could start using her fouls now. I noticed soon after she sat on the bench and the third graders went in. Evidently Rick wasn’t taking any chances.

Sure we got beat in the championship game, but the tournament overall was fantastic. Two trophies in one year. Wow. I think that is unheard of in all the years my kids have been at the school. Mandy and Joe are pretty proud they were able to earn two trophies for St. Marks. (Just don’t be expecting any trophies for track.) True, the second trophy is a lot smaller than the first. But it’s still exciting.

Yep, we’re excited about coming in second. It’s not a bad place to be. We’ve seen last place before. It is a bad place to be.

This weekend will be full of more sports. Joe has a MIT basketball tournament with his Spirit basketball team. Mandy is filling in as a sub for a Magic volleyball 17-year-old team on Sunday because it is short a couple players. Two more chances to come in number two? Who knows? One thing is for sure. Silver is our color.

                                      Our team intro at NELHS championship game

Wax On, Wax Off

If I am ever feeling a desire to count my blessings, I can always find an abundant list after I visit my Grandma’s apartment house.

I’m not saying everyone in the building that my Grandma owns is financially challenged – some are just starting out. But somehow the cops show up about 50-75% of the times Rick and I come to clean. So I think I’m safe to say that several of the residents are severely legally challenged.

If you do the math, that’s a lot of uniformed visits -- especially when you consider we clean/mow the grounds twice a month, and clean out the occasional apartment once every couple of months.

Rick and I take care of the building for my 90-year-old grandmother who has alzheimers. We take care of the hallways and laundry, mow, collect the laundry quarters, clean apartments that are vacated, and do general maintenance around the place. We fortunately don’t have to collect rent or find new tenants. Grandma has a manager that takes care of the money matters. We just do the grunt work, literally.

I got a pretty good idea of what we were in for when we were cleaning our second apartment a year or two ago. I asked Rick why the apartment door didn’t fit and had so much foam stripping around the edging. “Um, yeah,” he said, “that would be because the cops had to kick in the door so many times on the last tenant.” I guess the couple that lived there had domestic abuse issues that involved several 911 calls. So it’s that kind of neighborhood.

The apartment house is a real challenge. The family is in the process of selling the building, so along with keeping it clean and maintained, we need to watch our costs because we don’t want to sink a bunch of money into a building that they will hopefully soon be selling. But they’ve been selling it for quite a while. There’s not a huge market for a six-plex apartment in one of the lower-rent areas in Lincoln -- especially one that has such an interesting range of tenants.

I am not supposed to go to the apartment house by myself. One of the tenants is on the sex offenders list, so Rick always comes along when I clean the hallways and apartments. He likes to tinker around with mowing, raking, branch trimming, light bulb replacement, and any other random thing that someone could spend countless hours working on. Before we can leave, there’s always one more thing he has to do. Ugh. Good thing I’ve got solitaire on my phone. And just so you know, looks do not kill. In fact, Rick is pretty good at being totally oblivious to them.

Besides the sex offender (the one tenant we know will never leave because he will have a devil of a time find another place to live), we know pretty much everybody who lives in the place. We are relieved that one of the tenants has moved out, the one who would steal electricity by running an extension cord from his apartment into the laundry room. Yes, we are well aware of why a tenant might want to camouflage their electricity consumption. That is why we are glad they are gone.

We are currently cleaning out the apartment of one of his neighbor/friends who had a gang insignia scribbled on the woodwork right outside his apartment door. We aren’t sure if the move was caused by the graffiti, but it’s good riddance. Unfortunately magic eraser doesn’t seem to do the trick. It may require the use of the electric sander. Oh shucks, Rick might have to break out his power tools.

Actually this apartment is the fourth apartment we’ve had to clean in the last four months. The manager fills the apartments about as fast as we clean them. But oh boy, have we had some doozies. There is nothing more yucky than cleaning up after other people -- especially people who don’t plan on getting their deposit back.

Rick is getting to be an expert at repairing large holes in the drywall and I purchase my plastic gloves in bulk. If you don’t have to actually touch it with your bare skin and if you can kind of remove your thoughts from what you are cleaning, you can clean up about anything. Then you just throw those clothes away when you get home.

And we’ve cleaned up about everything. I won’t go into the list, because the list is long and gross. If I was to try to decide who was the worst renter we’ve cleaned up after, I think two renters might tie for the worst. One guy never cleaned. Never. And I’m certain he didn’t own a vacuum. There was black mold all over the ceiling of the bathroom, not to mention the black furry stuff growing in the shower. He liked rice (which we had to vacuum out of every drawer and cabinet), beans (which I had to scrape off the walls of his bedroom, really) and he liked fish. Not the nice filets you buy in the frozen department. He liked to clean his own fish. And the scales were everywhere: on the walls and the ceiling and the cabinets and the drawers. And fish scales do not come up easily. Yikes. Plus, he enjoyed his knives. He liked to stick them into the cabinet doors and the walls. The holes were lovely. They matched all the lovely holes he liked to punch in the doors in the apartment. I think we were able to patch two of the doors; most of the other doors we had to have a handyman cut to fit and stain to match the apartment. And he seemed like such a polite man. Yep, just lovely.

But it ties with a young woman who left her basement apartment abandoned. We weren’t able to get inside for a month after the electricity had been turned off. When the electricity goes off, bad things happen. Especially when you leave food in the fridge and you leave the toilet plugged up for a month. Needless to say, it was very, very bad. Plus, Rick had to repair a large hole in the wall in the kitchen that was just about the right size for someone to have been thrown into, about shoulder high. And if that wasn’t enough, she obviously had a dog. She left the dog’s shampoo under the bathroom sink and sprinkles of his food in the hall closet. Just delightful, especially for a pet-free apartment.

The new manager told Rick that this last apartment – the one we are cleaning now -- is going to be a hard one to get ready. Rick checked it out and said, “na, we’ve had much worse.” The guy left the place full of broken furniture and mattresses, old food in the fridge, and an incredible patchwork of stains in the carpet. It took the good part of an afternoon to take out all the furniture for three guys. But the beauty of the neighborhood is that you just leave the furniture out by the dumpster and it will be gone in 30 minutes. Sometimes it’s gone before you can make your “Free” sign to put on it. Fantastic.

I know, I know, I paint such a pretty picture of apartment ownership. But we do have parts of our caretaking that we enjoy.

There is always, ALWAYS something going on there. Like I said, the cops show up about 50-75% of the time we are there. Sometimes they are simply serving someone some papers. One time they were bringing home a little girl who lived with her dad and was out wondering the streets alone. I know, nice. One time I was cleaning the basement apartment and got a front row seat for an altercation. I was actually cleaning the front basement window blinds when a police car comes screaming up the street with the blue lights blazing. They pull up on the curb directly in front of me and go running into the house next door. I could almost hear “Bad boys, bad boys” booming over the air waves. I stood there for a minute wondering what was going on, and then decide I probably shouldn’t be standing by the window, just in case any shooting will be taking place. Eventually they bring somebody out and put them in the back seat. Cool. Another time Rick and I were cleaning the hallways when we realized we might be in the wrong place at the wrong time. A girl and her family were moving her things out of one of the apartments. Apparently her boyfriend and his mother were not ready to move out just yet. It got a little intense and we quickly wrapped things up and got out of there before any shooting or fighting could begin. It’s just a laugh a minute.

Actually there are tenants that we really enjoy. There is a pair of Iraqi gentlemen who are SO meek and SO nice. I wasn’t quite sure what I thought of them when they first moved in. I was vacuuming in the hallway when one of the guys opened his door and started visiting with me. He asked me if I was there by myself. Whoa. Just whoa. I quickly told him that my large husband was just right outside the front door, mowing. I later realized that he was asking this because he was looking out for me. Rick has fixed a few things for them, and they invite him in to eat supper with them. They bring him a water bottle when he is out mowing in the summer. They are so nice. They told Rick that they moved to the United States to escape the jihad back home. We hope things work out for them. We always offer them first dibs to any furniture left in the apartments because they have been living without almost anything and sleeping on the floor. Super nice guys.

They make me laugh too. Apparently the sex offender and the gang member had an altercation in the hallway outside of the Iraqis’ door. The Iraqi gentlemen called the police and held their phone up to the crack in the door to let the 911 operator hear what was happening because they don’t speak English fluently. They then called the manager and said that someone had made a hole in the hallway wall that we might want to patch. The next time Rick and I went to the apartment, I checked the halls as I was vacuuming and didn’t see anything major, until, of course, I got to the very bottom of the stairs. A little hole, HA! There was a hole in the wall that reached from my ankles to above my shoulder. Someone evidently got thrown through the wall into the space under the stairs. And someone thought this tiny area under the stairs looked like a good place to sleep. So they moved in a blanket and a jacket and some other random items. It almost looked homey, as if you might want to curl up and take a nap. You just have to be sure you can sleep with one eye open.

Yep, you just don’t know what will happen next around that place. There is always something happening.

But, like I said, it makes me pause and count my blessings. First of all, I am grateful that Rick and I are able to house and feed our family. I am glad we have a yard for kids to play in with their dog. We are glad that we have never had a child returned to us after wandering alone in the street.

It makes me grateful for the invention of SOS pads and magic erasers. I am glad that Clorox bleach comes in big gallon jugs.

I am also grateful for the solid biceps I am building up from all the cleaning and wall washing I’ve been doing. (Rick never thinks the walls need painting. He always says we can just wash them. I’ll give you one guess who does the wall washing and who does the painting.) Granted, I may not be able to punch very hard if I ever need to defend myself. But, mind you, I can wax on and wax off with the best of them.

Presidents Day Classic

Some days I wonder who this person is, my 14-year-old daughter.

I always thought we were very alike, but I think I was wrong. True, we are similar in many ways. Between the two of us, there are never any awkward silences at our house. And who else would be my Dr. Who and Castle watching buddy? But while I enjoyed music and dance at her age, she is a lot more athletic than I ever was. And she has the never-quit mind of an athlete to match. Her determination astounds me.

Mandy’s volleyball team played at the Qwest Center this weekend in the President’s Day Classic. And they lost. Actually, they lost a lot.

Her team played traveling teams from Kansas City, Denver, Iowa City, and other cities in the Mid-West. It was an incredible assembly of girls in spandex shorts and ponytails. It was every teenage boy’s dream. There were 90-some volleyball courts setup in the Qwest Center and I heard there were more than 400 teams at the tournament in total. I think there were around 40 teams just in her 14-year age bracket. The sound of screaming girls and squeaking shoes was deafening. Volleyballs were flying everywhere. And the number of towering Amazon girls was dizzying. I can’t imagine where they buy jeans.

The first day of the tournament, the girls played three games and lost all of their sets. Of course, they were way out-matched. But the girls played hard and looked better after each game they played. Mandy played awesome Saturday and had some great hits and blocks. And her serving was awesome -- she only missed one. The girls came out of the day upbeat, ready to take on the next day.

The second day, the girls played three teams with which they were more equally matched. But somehow our team lost all three games. After they lost the first set of the first game, several players just quit trying. But Mandy didn’t quit. Every time they took the court, Mandy came out screaming and jumping and trying to pump the girls up. One of the moms said Mandy was the team cheerleader, trying to keep everyone upbeat. She was still screaming for the ball to make her hits and was still making spot serves. But even with a great cheerleader like Mandy, it wasn’t enough to win.

After the team lost the first set of the third game, most of the girls on the team were in tears, the fans had stopped cheering, and the coaches had quit talking. The girls walked out on the court very somber for their last set of the day.

Then out of nowhere, Mandy jumps up in the air and starts screaming. One second she was stone faced, and the next she was a screaming lunatic. She screams at the top of her lungs and goes around the circle to each girl on the team, high fiving them, and then jumps up and down waving her arms in the air to pump up the crowd. Not only did she have the team laughing and her coaches busting a gut, the entire crowd was laughing, as well as the other team and the officials.

Of course her team lost the last set. And then they came back Monday and lost one last game. It was not a good day. In fact, it was a pretty dismal weekend altogether.

So if it was me, I would throw in the towel. I would be ready to call volleyball quits and chalk up the whole experience as a lesson learned. If it doesn’t go just right, I would rather not do it at all.

But not Mandy. I asked her if she was done with it – volleyball and her team. She said no. She said she loves volleyball. She still loves to play and she isn’t ready to give up.

She is clearly her father’s daughter. Good looking, good natured and just plain goofy.

I guess I can learn something from a 14-year-old. Just because you lose, doesn’t mean you are beaten. If you give up entirely, then you are truly the loser.

It’s a good thing Mandy bounces back so well. We’ve got another tournament this Friday and Saturday. We will have to switch gears for this one: it’s a school basketball tournament for grades 4 through 8. Both Mandy and Joe will play on the team together and Rick will assistant coach. Both Mandy and Joe will have to play almost all game, every game because we only have nine players that are out for basketball. And they are all sixth grade and younger, except for Mandy.

We will be evenly matched by a few teams. We will actually be able to beat one or two teams, unless they show up with unexpected help. And there are one or two teams comprised of mostly seventh and eighth graders that we will have to play who have about double the number of players we have. We are in the B pool, so we won’t have to play the big Omaha schools with all eighth graders. At least we have that going for us.

Anyways, we aren’t expecting to win or even come in second. But we will go out and have some fun. Joe will come down with some decent rebounds and hopefully try to shoot a few more baskets. Big Red (Mandy’s new court nickname) will try to own the lane and hack the crap out of anybody who tries to dribble up the middle. It should be highly entertaining if the kids don’t run out of gas before their last game (which of course is against the biggest B team).

So here we go again. I’m hoping Big Red doesn’t foul out and that Joe doesn’t puke after any of his games. And if anyone starts jumping up and down and screaming like a lunatic, this time I’ll have my camera ready and packed. And I think I’ll throw in a puke bag, just in case. With the way our luck is going, it can’t hurt to come prepared.

Postscript:

I wrote this blog a day or so ago, but have to add that things are looking up. The girls had a practice Wednesday night with the other Magic Gold team, team Umi. Mandy had a fantastic night. The director of the club said that Mandy and the middle hitter for the other team were the best passers on both teams. Middle hitters are generally bad at passing, because they don’t generally get low to get under the ball. (Bummer the two of them come out and are replaced by liberos when they play back row.) And Mandy is one of the fastest players on her team. Evidently that is also rare for a middle hitter. She was congratulated Wednesday night at practice for finishing her laps ahead of more than half of her team. And tonight (Thursday) at practice, she beat everyone on her team when they ran lines. She even streaked ahead of the fast little libero. The director and a coach from another team came over and gave her a high five for running so fast. So, hard work is paying off and her confidence is returning. Watch out in Hastings next weekend. I have a feeling Big Red will return jumping and screaming. She’s ready to go at it again. Better bring the ear plugs.

Basketball, Basketball, Basketball

Sometimes life has a real way of surprising you.

Sometimes your boyfriend turns you into a girl in front of your co-workers and sends you flowers at work (woohoo Carrie). Sometimes your son withstands a game of full-court press against an aggressive boys’ basketball team and doesn’t have to puke afterwards. Sometimes your daughter, who absolutely hates basketball, turns out to be a decent player.

The basketball season is just building up steam here in Lincoln. Along with the school team that both kids play on, our daughter Mandy is playing in a recreational basketball league for the YMCA in Lincoln. Unfortunately she absolutely loathes basketball. She lives for volleyball and adores soccer. But not so much basketball.

She’s tall, so her dad thought she should give basketball one last try before she goes to high school next year. She played basketball for the YMCA when she was in 5^th grade, but quit to give her full-time attention to volleyball.

She is loving her club volleyball team this year. They’ve come in second (or possibly third according to some accounts) in two out of the three volleyball tournaments they’ve played in.

Yeah, there was the one tournament they couldn’t win a game. But, that’s life I guess. The next day they played the other gold Magic team – the one that got third in that tournament – and beat them with their killer serves. Go figure.

She loves playing middle hitter and pounding the ball down on the other teams. She just loves to “play the net.” She came home from her last volleyball tournament this weekend and told me, “Apparently I can jump.” Evidently she got a bunch of awesome blocks at the tournament. The little flutter kick she does to get that tall body off the floor somehow works. Her volleyball coaches just love to make fun of her flutter jump. And I was so sad I had to miss it. I stayed behind to take Joe to his basketball game and watched his Spirit YMCA team beat the Fairbury 6^th grade team. He made the first basket of the game. Go Joe.

Anyways, she hates basketball. I’m not sure what it is about the game. I actually think it has more to do with the fact that she hasn’t consistently played it for years. Sometimes she doesn’t know where to be on the court. Sometimes she doesn’t have the perfect form. Sometimes she doesn’t remember what basket she is supposed to be shooting at. Yes, even on the basketball court she is a blond in a brunette’s body and has tried to make a basket for the other team. But fortunately it was during a school game and the basket didn’t go in (either time she shot it). What a goof.

Imagine our surprise this week when she walked into basketball practice and the first thing her coach said was that Mandy had a great game Sunday. Yea! Mandy’s team got beat Sunday, but she played an aggressive game under the basket. A few weeks ago her team played an 8^th grade team from Raymond Central that had three tall, big girls. (This was the game Mandy had to sit out most of the second half because she had four fouls throwing elbows and hacking the big girls under the basket.) This team played on our court immediately after our game Sunday. The coach from the Raymond Central team approached our coach after the game and told him that Mandy was a really good defensive player. He said he was impressed at how she was able to shut down the big girl in Sunday’s game, because the big girl scored lots of points on the Raymond Central team when they played her. YEA!

For somebody who hates basketball, she can really own the lane on defense. If you attempt to drive the lane, be prepared to get pounded. At Sunday’s game, the big girl was dribbling the ball down the court and headed straight for Mandy in the lane. What Mandy should have done was set her feet and drawn a charge. It was a perfect setup for that situation. INSTEAD, what does Mandy do? She turns sideways, lowers her shoulder, and sends the big girl flying. It’s her soccer shoulder shove. She saves it for aggressive soccer players, plus a few 8^th grade boys at soccer camps and soccer jams. Unfortunately, this is not appropriate for basketball. As the big girl falls to the floor, Mandy is called for blocking with her body. Yeah, that’s about right. If that’s not a foul, then I don’t know what is.

Sooooo, after the game we asked Mandy why she didn’t take the charge. “I didn’t want to get hurt. If someone was going to hit the floor I would rather it be her than me.” Oh Mandy. We have to work on that whole “turn the other cheek bit” with her.

I have to admit, Mandy is not exactly the same person she was at this time last year. This year she has matured into a strong player on the court, and a strong personality off of it, as well. She still is extremely outgoing and makes tons of friends. She still is kind-hearted and always has a flock of little kids following her around. She still is goofy, talks a ton, and always is wearing a smile. But, she has found a self confidence that she was lacking last year to help her rally her team.

She has strong opinions, she strongly defends her friends, and she doesn’t back down from conflict or aggressive people. I’m not sure if this is because she no longer has her best friend Megan at school with her to help her fight her battles, or if it is because most of her new best friends are also strong athletes. They are busy girls who like to spend their time on the court and with one another. They prefer to hang out with the girls and have fun. Most of her friends are confident people, and they don’t seem to need to have a boyfriend to feel validated. I think that is fantastic. Heaven knows that 14-year-old girls have enough challenges. Keeping a boy in line shouldn’t be one of them.

I was talking to Megan’s mom today about that very subject. Megan was working on a homework assignment about teen dating for her teen issues class at East High School while we waited at the school kids’ basketball practice. We both said that if we knew back then what we know now, we would have never given most of the boys in high school a second chance or even a second thought.

I am well aware that Mandy is not completely immune to boys. Yes, I’ve seen her Facebook status. That’s her private life and I won’t talk about that here. I will say, however, that if she has a boyfriend or not, it isn’t the end of her world. (Isaac is a very nice boy. I am secretly cheering for Isaac.)

I’m not sure if she would have said the same thing last year at this time, but maybe everything happens for a reason. Maybe last year she wouldn’t have been a strong enough person to start fresh at a high school with 2,000 students. This year she can’t wait.

One thing I am sure about, focusing on the things she loves has made all the difference. She came home from volleyball tonight talking about all the great hits she made while they were scrimmaging the 15-year-old team. She has been working so hard at conditioning, practices, and individual training to improve her volleyball game, and it is really paying off. Tonight the director at the volleyball club told Rick that he has noticed how Mandy has been playing at the last few tournaments. He thinks maybe she should have been on the top 14-year-old gold team (the one her team beat at their last scrimmage). He said she is really a strong player. She is so happy and feels so good about what all her hard work has accomplished. It makes my heart so happy to see her proud of her accomplishments and have people compliment her on them, especially the coaches. It does her confidence a world of good to see her hard work pay off.

Granted, all her hard work may not pay off when it comes to her basketball team. She may still have a great game, but she probably won’t be able to prevent them from losing by 20 points. The coach has 10 players, so he splits each quarter with one set of five girls, and then the other set of five. It’s hard to sit on the bench when you want to go in and help your friends. But at least she comes home cheerfully chirping about her awesome baskets, or how she blocked some girl’s shot, or how she remembered which basket she should be shooting at the whole game. I’m not sure she still knows what it means to post up, sorry Rick.

Unfortunately her basketball team will have to play without her this weekend. We are headed to the three-day President’s Day Classic at the Qwest Center in Omaha. Three days of volleyball versus elite gold teams. There will be 90-some courts of volleyball being played all at one time. We will probably burn through a lot of gas this weekend getting Mandy to all her games, taking Joe to his games, and attending my niece’s baptism.

Rick and I are looking forward to watching lots of volleyball. Joe is looking forward to another Spirit game Sunday to see if he can score any more points or rip the ball out of anybody’s hands. Mandy is looking forward to having a lot of time hanging out with her friends, and to possibly catching a glimpse of a few boys at State Wrestling Saturday at the Qwest Center. Teenage boys in unitards. Like I said, she isn’t completely immune.

Miss This

Well, I hate to say I was right again, but I when you are right you are right. My sister did give me a mug for my birthday that says, “I’m not perfect, but I’m so close it scares me.”

This month I was right about jeans. (I’m right about once a month.) I told my sister Carrie that she needed some new jeans. The jeans she has been wearing just hang off her backside and drag on the ground so that the cuffs are all frayed. I tell her that she should get new jeans and that she will look nice. She refuses because she claims she doesn’t want anyone looking at her butt.

OK, so there probably are a lot of creepers downtown at the Bennett Martin library, but they are going to look at your butt if you are wearing nice jeans or not. So you might as well allow them to enjoy the scenery.

Old junky jeans have their place. Everybody owns several pairs of these. However, a person needs more than just old junky jeans. They need a few “going out” party jeans. Especially if they have a new BOYFRIEND. Am I wrong here? I don’t think so.

So where do you go if you want going out jeans? I’m thinking The Buckle.

Carrie does not love The Buckle. She enjoys shopping in the mens’ department of most stores or at Scheels. She thinks the sales people at The Buckle are a little uppity. I’m fine with that, as long as they bring me a dozen different pairs of jeans to try on that look good on me.

Carrie jokes about The Buckle game that her and her friends used to play. They would try to walk through the store, touch the back wall, and make it back to the door without a salesperson asking if they could help them with something. She says she doesn’t think anyone ever won.

Mandy and I love The Buckle. Last year I bought Mandy several pairs of jeans from Maurices, but then she went and lost about 10 pounds and needed some new pairs that didn’t fall off of her. I suggested The Buckle, because I have fond memories of buying jeans at The Buckle. I remember when we used to scoff at the $40 or $50 jeans when I was in high school. Now the jeans can be more than double that amount. Yikes.

So last year Mandy found several pairs that she just loved, plus a pair of cowboy boots. Yes, she does own a couple pair of Miss Me jeans. I think the Miss Me brand name is a real misnomer. They put so much bling on your backside that there is no way anyone could miss it. It could be Can’t Miss Me jeans, but evidently an M looks better on your back pocket than a C.

And the salesgirls were ever so helpful; they even suggested a few pairs of jeans that I might like while I was there. I thought, oh well, I’ve got nothing better to do. And then I was hooked. There is something about paying for a nice pair of jeans that are cut to fit nice and don’t fall down. So I bought a couple of pairs of jeans for myself and got several compliments. So now I have a pair or two of Miss Me jeans.

Before you make any judgments, you should know I am not the only mom out there with jeans from The Buckle. Now that I know what to look for, I see moms all over the place with jeans from The Buckle. If I’m going to plunk down a wad of money, I might as well get some benefit out of it too. And I guess I am not alone.

So I told Carrie I was taking her to The Buckle to get fitted and find her some nice jeans. She fights tooth and nail, but eventually gives in. She will not, and she repeats will not, get any sparkle-butt jeans. And so she buys three pairs. One has lots of extra sequins and sparkles. I’m sure her “special friend” will be bedazzled by her backside.

While I am on a roll, I talk her into shopping for a few new shirts. On our way through the open-air SouthPointe mall, Mandy makes us hurry up. Evidently she is so cold her sparkles are freezing off. You can take that statement however you want to take it.

After our evening of shopping, we head to a family outing with the boyfriend. I think the majority of the family is stunned when Carrie shows up with her sparkle-butt jeans. Then Sunday Carrie texted me to say she got six compliments on her new shirt at work. When you are right, you are right.

My next mountain to climb is finding makeup she will wear. I am contriving plans on how to accomplish this endeavor. Foundation, powder, blush, and mascara are a necessity. Eye liner and lipstick are never going to happen. I have to be realistic.

Then I just need to marry her off and my work here will be done. I know, I know. Baby steps, people, baby steps. But I wonder if Miss Me makes wedding apparel. It can’t hurt to ask.

Sports Lessons

Yesterday was a lesson in life, and actually a hard lesson to learn. Mandy’s volleyball team played in their first gold tournament, and it was a hard day. It was a real lesson for the girls. They played mostly Omaha elite gold teams. As I said, it was a difficult day.

Before I go any farther, I should probably say that if you are one of those people to whom winning comes easy, if you are one of those people whose team defeated every opponent, who succeeded at every try out, who won every election they ever took part in during their teen years, then you should probably stop reading. This blog is not for you; you won’t understand.

This blog is for those people who have had to play on teams that struggled. For the people who were on teams that played in elite tournaments and didn’t win a game. For the people who found themselves finishing just short of coming out on top. It’s a hard place to be and it makes a person question themselves and if it is all worth the struggle. It’s probably what makes people what they are. It also shows people what you are made of.

Before I go any farther, I should mention that Mandy’s team is not crap. Last weekend they played in another tournament at the same location that didn’t include solely Omaha gold elite teams and they finished third. (This is under discrepancy because Mandy says they finished third and Rick says they finished second, but whatever.)

But today the team just wasn’t playing at its best. Unfortunately the other teams were. Mandy’s team wasn’t completely spanked. They had some decent plays and they always got 15-20 points. But the other teams always reached 25 first.

It wasn’t a day that you could blame solely on one person, although sometimes it’s nice to try. Our back row just could not make decent passes to our setter. Mandy missed a couple of hits, but only missed one serve the whole day. We had some strong hits, but not enough to win. None of the teams we played were so good that we couldn’t have pulled ourselves together and won. In the middle of each set we would seem to lose concentration just long enough for the other team to go on a streak and gain momentum, enough that we couldn’t battle back and get a win.

During the first couple of matches, Mandy would get mad. She plays middle hitter, and so she plays mainly the front row. A libero comes in for her and the other middle after they serve and reach the back row. It was extremely frustrating to stand on the side when the back row was struggling and not do anything but yell encouragement from the side when all you want to do is get in there and help your friends. So when Mandy would get back in, she would scream for the ball and make some hard hits. That was about until almost the end of the round robin play.

By the time they played their last team in the round robin, they were starting to question if they would ever win. They were starting to question what they were doing there. They were starting to question if they should be playing volleyball at all. If you’ve ever been at this point, you know how they felt, and it’s a terrible place to be. If you’ve never been at this point, well you’ve been truly blessed and you should probably have stopped reading at the top of this blog.

It was a real lesson in character. There is one girl on Mandy’s team who I am just going to love forever. Mandy has played spirit volleyball with her before, but this is the first time they have been on a club team together. She has traditionally struggled. She has a killer serve and her hits can be incredibly hard. But those are on her good days. On her off days her serves miss the court and her hits go into the net. And in the past she has had a few more off days than good days. (Today, btw, was a good day.) But I will love this girl forever because she never gave up. I suppose this is what comes from playing through adversity. At the end of the day some of the girls were playing in tears, but this girl was still fighting and encouraging the rest of them. This is what strength of character is all about. We all could take a lesson in that.

There are a couple of girls on Mandy’s team that came over from the other Magic gold team last year. (Magic, Mandy’s volleyball club, has more than 50 14-year-old girls playing for them this year. So they have about five 14-year-old teams, two of them are gold teams. The head of Magic split last year’s gold team so that he could have two gold teams this year. I should also mention that the other gold team was at this same tournament and made it to the championship bracket after the round robin portion. But they lost in the first bracket there.) A couple of these girls gave up trying after the first two games. When they were in the last game of the round robin, these girls were just going through the motions. They didn’t serve their hardest, and they didn’t hit the ball hard. They just kind of lobbed it back over the net so they could get this thing over with and go home. Mandy tried to be the team leader and motivate everyone and get something going on, but these girls’ attitudes just crushed her. She wanted to win and she just could not get her head around how some girls couldn’t care about the rest of the team and couldn’t help fight for them. The real blow was when one of these couple girls was overheard laughing to a girl on the other Magic gold team about the team’s losses. How can you make fun of your own team? Fourteen-year-old girls are strange creatures.

They are also cruel creatures. We also got a lesson in how to be a poor winner. One of the moms was standing on the side of the court with her little kids, close to the bench of the other team we were playing at the time. The girls on the other bench were laughing at our team when we would make a mistake. Not quietly laughing. Very obviously laughing. I think I should point out that none of these girls played a perfect game. They also made mistakes. They really weren’t beating us by that many points so that anything was that funny. Also, I think these girls should remember that they were on the bench, not on the court playing the game.

The mother did what I don’t think I could have done. She spoke up. She told the girls on the other team, “Hey, not cool. What are you laughing about? They are trying just as hard as you are.” Clearly these girls haven’t lost enough games to know what good sportsmanship is. They either have never been taught how to be a good winner, or they have never known what it is like to end up the loser. It’s that tiny bit of spite in me that hopes that God has a sense of humor and that someday these girls will find themselves in the same situation, with someone laughing at them when they are down. Not cool.

But they day wasn’t a total loss. Oh, don’t misread that statement. We didn’t win the consolation round or anything like that. But after a dismal round robin, most of the team picked themselves back up, dusted themselves off, and played a competitive game in the consolation bracket. I don’t remember the score, but it wasn’t embarrassing, but we didn’t win either.

Before this game Mandy had had it. She said she was tired of always being on a team that loses. She didn’t think she could do this anymore. She had hit an all-time sports low. But out of the ashes, the phoenix rises. Of course, this wasn’t the movies so they didn’t win it all. After they ran some lines, they got together in a circle with their arms around each other and did some goofy cheers. They did some shuffle dances. They screamed and hollered and laughed and giggled. If only I had had my video camera. They decided not to beat themselves up and to make something out of the day. They had fun together off the court.

Then they went over and played one last game. After they lost, in true volleyball tournament fashion, they then had to ref the next game. There’s nothing like slapping you when you are down. At the volleyball tournaments the losing team always has to ref the next game for the team that just beat them. But nobody cried about it. They laughed and enjoyed being together.

Then we got in our cars and drove home. We hit Sam and Louie’s for some pizza when we got back to Lincoln. Joe regaled us with imitations of door-to-door fruit salesmen with strange carny accents. Don’t ask. He always knows how to make us laugh.

The girls have two weeks to practice until their next tournament. I hope their coach Taylor made lots of mental notes about what the girls need to work on so they can win a few matches in their next gold tournament. Because you don’t just quit trying after you have a bad day. Mandy said she wasn’t ready to quit playing volleyball yet. So that’s good.

This is her third year playing club volleyball, and the seasons generally start this way. At the beginning you lose more matches than you win, and you might only make it to the consolation round. But as the season goes on and you work on the things in which you struggle, and the girls have more practice playing together, and you get better. You start making it to the championship brackets, and maybe even the final championship game. Many of the teams we played Saturday have played together since they were little. This was only the second time Mandy’s team had ever played together. They will start to work together better and will work out the kinks.

And that’s what happens when you play hard competition. If you only wanted to win games, you could play at a lower level and wipe the floor with everyone. But would you get any better? Would you know what it takes to play with the elite teams? Would you know what it takes to try out for a Class A volleyball team? That’s why you pick yourself up and try again. To get better.

That’s what makes a person stronger. It’s easy to put yourself out there if all you ever do is win. But it takes a strong person to put yourself out there when it isn’t easy and when the chances are low. That’s when the wins are the sweetest and the accomplishments are the greatest.

So don’t feel sorry for our girls. True, they are starting out on the bottom. And I’m not going to pretend this is Hollywood and that they are going to climb all the way to the top.

But they are only going to get better and they are going to be better people for it. They will appreciate the wins when they come – because there will be some wins. The girls have the skills; they just need some fine tuning.

And I can truly say that they will appreciate how it feels to have the losses. No girl on our team will laugh or demean someone on a losing team. Winners have to learn to be gracious too. And I think that is also something to be just as proud of.

Silver and Green

Last night was the open house at Lincoln Southwest High School. Yep, Mandy finally made a decision. She wants to go to Lincoln Southwest, home of the Silverhawks and block scheduling. I guess now we are going to be buying a lot of green.

Strangely I am not as petrified as I thought I would be. Sure, I’m anxious about my little girl going to high school, especially a class A high school. But I’m feeling pretty good overall about how she will do and how she will fit in.

The block scheduling will be a novelty for us. She will have eight classes a school year. But she will take four 90-minute classes the first half of the year, and another four the second half. The idea, they said, is to concentrate on just the four subjects, accomplish more in each area during that time, and better prepare the students for that kind of concentrated study in college. Whoa. College. Let’s not be getting ahead of ourselves here. I know high school goes fast, but baby steps, people. Baby steps.

Mandy currently gets straight As, and has done so for the past couple of years. So she is interested in the DIF classes, which are the more challenging/advanced classes. Her friend Megan takes mostly DIF classes at East and gets As. Megan says Mandy should be able to handle it too. So I guess this will be the plan. Hard classes for 90-minutes each. Yikes.

I am happy she is ecstatic about high school. Rick printed off the course offerings from the Internet so she could start picking the classes she wants to take next year. We can’t believe how many classes they offer. Thankfully we are going to make an appointment in the next month or so with a counselor. That way she can make a plan as to which classes she needs as requirements each year for college prep. Then she can pick all the fun ones after she has her core classes taken care of.

The open house was really well done. Southwest has these student ambassadors that cheerfully approached the students with green folders containing all sorts of fun info when we walked in the doors. We followed the crowd into the gym and found a ton of friends Mandy knew from volleyball, soccer, and basketball. I guess being Miss Congeniality is paying off. The girl will have plenty of friends from day one. All these girls kept running up to her in the hallways, squealing with excitement. There’s nothing like dozens of squealing 14-year-olds except, maybe, dozens of squealing 14-year-olds at 2am.

It was about at this point of the evening that I realized that my daughter might possibly be a little more developed than 95% of her classmates. Not only was she much taller, but most of the other future freshmen looked like little kids. I mean, there were a few boys that were as tall as Mandy, but I didn’t see any girls that were even close to her in height. I know those girls are out there. Every volleyball team she plays has one or two middle hitters that are as tall as she is, but they evidently weren’t there last night. And man, did we hear about her height.

After the performances from the cheerleaders and the band, the dance squad, student testimonials, and the show choir, we got to check out all the activity booths. We, of course, went to the athletics area first. We met the volleyball coach, who says, “Oooooh a tall one.”

Mandy is anxious about trying out for high school volleyball. But it sounds as if there are quite a few teams at Southwest, so there is room for quite a few girls. They have a freshman team, a reserve team, a junior varsity and a varsity team. (I think I might have missed one or two.) The varsity finished 3^rd in state for 2011. I’m sure the competition is pretty fierce considering how many girls play club volleyball in Lincoln. So we will see.

Mandy, of course, has a great attitude about the whole thing. She says if she doesn’t make the high school team she will just play club ball in the winter again for Magic. It sounds as if there isn’t a lot of required strength conditioning for volleyball ahead of time. Mandy’s friend Megan had to go to the weight room a couple of times a week during the summer to get ready for volleyball and had to run a mile at tryouts. While Southwest doesn’t require it, strength conditioning in the weight room during the summer is strongly encouraged, the coach said.

Unfortunately for Rick, I believe the weight room is shared by the volleyball prospects and the football prospects. We already had a taste of this last summer at volleyball camp. On the first day of camp, I walked in the side doors of the school to go to the gym and walked directly into a mob of sweaty football players who were there for conditioning. They were lining up the hallway to the gym so they could scout out the volleyball girls as they made their way to volleyball camp. And you could read exactly what they were thinking on their faces. Mandy walked in the door behind me and hesitated at the door. She said, “Mom I don’t think this is the right door.” One of the boys quickly jumps up and says, “Oh yeah, you have to walk right down the hallway to get to the gym.” So we have to walk through a pack of leering high school boys, many who were shirtless, to get to camp. I didn’t get to talk to Mandy until I picked her up after camp that day. The first thing she said when she got in the car was, “Mom, I am SO going to that school.” Rick is in so much trouble.

So we hit the volleyball table and met the volleyball coach. Then we hit the soccer table to meet the soccer coach, a guy several inches shorter than our daughter. As Mandy walks up, he says, “And we even welcome tall players.” Yep, another tall comment. Of course he wanted to know if she liked to play goalie. I’m not sure Mandy will go for this, or if I am too keen on the goalie idea. Rick says that a lot of goalies end up getting stitches. I am not all for that. Also, Mandy wouldn’t be able to push and shove anybody out on the field. She lives for that kind of stuff when she is going after the ball. She is somewhat of a brawler.

It’s too bad we weren’t on the ball, or we could have gotten Mandy into hockey when she was younger. Hockey would be her ideal sport. She could crash other players into the side of the rink, and push and shove her way through the game. When we go to the Lincoln Stars games, she screams for the players to fight. It’s somewhat funny to see this sweet pretty girl get worked up. (However, I think there are a couple of boys who might disagree with that statement. Hell hath no fury…)

She likes to play aggressive, which is a little trying during her girls’ basketball games. Her Rec basketball team played their first games this weekend and Mandy had to sit out a good part of one of the games because she nearly fouled out. She and another tall, stocky girl were getting into it during one of the games going after the rebounds. If you know Mandy, especially if she has babysit for your kids, you would be very surprised how she can push and shove. I’m not wild about this side of her, but, as long as she leaves it all out on the court I suppose it’s OK. I just don’t want anybody getting punched in the mouth. Hell also hath no fury like a woman getting out rebounded.

But it’s not something we are going to have to worry about in high school. Mandy made sure to steer her dad clear of the girls’ basketball table. She says “absolutely not.” And when she makes up her mind -- that is that.

And that’s not the only sports table she skipped. Southwest has all kinds of sports Rick and I never had in high school. They have swim team, baseball, softball, tennis and even Trap. We thought about this one. But we will have to wait and see how Mandy’s shooting is this spring and summer. I guess Southwest has a really strong Trap program and has won a lot of trophies. The coach really works with the kids in the area middle schools to get them shooting early and it seems to be paying off.

Next we went into the huge entry way and were overwhelmed by the number of activities and clubs at Southwest. There were soooooo many tables. There were the ones that I remembered from school. There was the Student Council, FBLA, DECA, yearbook, debate, band, cheerleading, dance team, and chorus. But there was also Asian Caucus, newspaper, science Olympiad, recycling club, bowling, student ambassadors, service learning club, FCA, French club, Japanese club, orchestra, math club, theater/drama, and all sorts of other specialized stuff. If a kid wants to get involved in something, there are all kinds of clubs where they can find kids just like them to make friends.

Mandy hit the drama club table. She loves the school plays. She and her brother love to play villains, go figure. It’s funny to me how she so hates drama in her life (why she has sworn off boys for the time being), but she loves drama on stage and can really ham it up. I never attempted this in high school. The kids must get this from their dad. Rick played Captain Von Trap in his high school’s production of the “Sound of Music.” He had a whistle and sung the solo “Edelweiss” all by himself. What a dreamboat. Sigh.

When we first walked into this area, we found ourselves at the math club table. We had been so distracted by all the tables and people, that when we finally got our bearings, there were two math boys looking up at Mandy with big smiles on their faces. Rick says, “Man, they really wanted to show you their math trophies.” Who knew you could get trophies for math? And Rick, he’s always trying to see the bright side. He says, “Well, if nobody asks you to homecoming, there’s always the math club.”

It seems inconceivable that Mandy will soon be old enough to go to high school. It seems inconceivable that there are about 2,000 students at Southwest. I saw one of my old classmates, Julie, last night at the open house. She was taking her twin boys to the football table. She remarked how she also felt overwhelmed by how many students go to the school and the amount of things available to the kids. We came from a class of 54. We can’t imagine our kids in a class of 500.

But I think it will be OK. The high school kids there seemed to be having a great time. Everyone was incredibly friendly. When we were walking around -- dazed and confused -- a nice student ambassador boy walked right up to Mandy. He asked her if he could show her anything or if she had any questions. He was a very nice boy who had his last name on the back of his shirt. (Rick commented later that if they would ever get married, they should hyphenate their last name. Pewalski-Krushenisky would really be great on the back of a jersey.)

The people at the high school genuinely are interested in the kids. We saw the assistant principal, who we know from sports and way back at Kindermusik. We said hello and he started asking questions, but instead of directing his questions to me and Rick, he spoke directly to Mandy. I guess we are going to have to get used to her turning into a young adult and being out there on her own.

She is so ready. It will be OK. I feel good about it. She will make friends in sports, or find people with similar interests in the activities. And she already knows a bunch of girls who are squealing to have her at their school. I know she won’t get lost in the crowd. And if she does, she can always look over the top of it. Height has its advantages.

Go Silverhawks!

P.S. I had to add this little snip it, which I also put on my facebook wall, because this is so Mandy. On the way to volleyball practice from the Southwest open house last night, Mandy had to change into her practice uniform in the car. As she is sitting in just her bra, we pull up to the stoplight next to a police car. Mandy looks over and shrieks, then puts on her seat belt. Why did she put on her seat belt rather than her shirt? She explains, “I just didn’t want you to get a ticket.” She’s so thoughtful.