Riley's Wrestling Career Starts, Then Ends.

Now that football season is over, Riley decided to try wrestling. Practice has been in the evenings until the last varsity football game (this Friday, since Hendrickson made it to the playoffs, go Hawks!) so last night David was waiting to pick Riley up and he came out on crutches. Not good.

Riley was wrestling with another kid, and his leg got twisted around and he fell on it wrong and when he went to stand up, he heard a pop.  So this morning we brought him to the school for the trainer to look at his knee, and she said it looked like his MCL and meniscus. I made him an appointment with the Pediatric Ortho that Regan saw for her broken arms, and we got right in. They did some x-rays but didn't see anything.

So they think he has a sprained ankle, and a badly sprained MCL. They don't think anything is torn, but they want him to wear this brace for 2 weeks and see if he gains any movement. If it still hurts, they will do an MRI then. Until then, rest it, no sports, and take it easy. Which means no football or drills or PT. Down time is never easy for him, so this will be interesting!

Hawks v. Raiders

Welcome to Texas High School Football, right? It was 100 degrees still at 5pm, HOT! And one side of the stadium is shaded, the home side thankfully, but everyone sat together to be in the shade anyway. It was Riley's first real freshman football game. I can't say I understood all that was going on, but you could tell it was a first freshman football game! There were fumbles, dead balls, etc. But, they all did great and there were some good plays. Riley is number 8, wide receiver and corner back. His undershirt kept coming un-tucked so you can tell which one is him because it looks like he's wearing a light gray fanny pack. I was surprised that most of the players seemed about his size. I always worry that he's going to be the smallest kid out there and get hit hard, but I think he's caught up with the boys his age (some of them) so he didn't look very small out there. Until the varsity football players came to watch the game, now those are some big boys! I dread our food bill if Riley keeps this up...

Anyway, here are some pictures from the game.  Here he is in the center, holding on to the other guy:

 Talking to the coach:

Swim Team

We are always on the hunt for something for Regan to do that she will like and enjoy doing. We've tried just about everything. It seems she is up for trying anything, but not up for finishing much. But, she loves to swim, BEGS us to go to the pool all the time, so we thought we would give swim team a try.

The first day of practice, she came over and said that was it, she was never coming back, her heart wouldn't stop BEATING!! But, by the next morning, she said she was willing to give it another try. I'm so glad she stuck with it because now she loves it and anxiously counts down the hours till it's 5:30 every day for practice!! She has a cute new shark swim cap, and some stylin' goggles, and she's doing a lot better in her strokes. Her first meet will be at the end of the month, and she's nervous, but I think she will do great.

UPWARD

Regan decided to try Basketball at church this year, with the Upward league. Let's just say we can now cross this off the list of things Regan will ever do again. She hasn't exactly enjoyed her season of basketball! But she looks cute in her uniform!

Skating

There's a new skating rink in Round Rock, and they have a home school day where the kids get to play sports for an hour on the sport court, then skate for 2 hours, then another hour of sports. The only problem is, it's on Wednesday which is when Riley and Regan are at their one day schools. But then I heard that the skate program was going so well, they decided to open it up to another day, Friday, so we were excited to go try it out. We set up our home school small group to go, and we were the only ones that showed up! We had a pretty good sized group though, and it was fun to have the whole rink to ourselves. Regan tried out rollerblades for the first time ever and Santa may have to bring her some this year!! The owner came out and played dodge ball with the kids, then gave the boys hockey sticks and pucks and let them play roller hockey on half the court while the girls skated on the other half. It was a lot of fun. The kids were worn out by the time we left!!

Homecoming

Riley's homecoming game was the day before I left for Romania, and I didn't get to see him play or take any pictures, but they took one of each player at half time with their "escort" and I felt bad that I missed it. But dad was there, and here's the picture, finally!

Are You Ready for Some Football?!

I love this picture. Riley is in the center, #28. He's not the smallest kid on his team, which is good, but there aren't many his size! He took a hard hit in the game and was down on the field for a bit. It was *really* hard as momma not to go running out on the field to check on my baby boy! I didn't think he would appreciate it. But he was okay, he landed on his arm wrong and bent his elbow the wrong way. I will be glad when football is over though, he comes home from every practice with a new bruise, and as much as he loves it, I hate it!

And this was our 17th wedding anniversary! I remember the first few kidless years where we would go to a nice dinner, or a movie, maybe a play or a trip. Now we're sitting in the sweltering heat watching football, followed by a victory brunch of breakfast tacos at Juan in a Million. I'm not complaining, I just think it's fun to see where life takes you!

Hawks vs. Eagles

(He's #28, on the end, this is before game prayer)

Riley had his first football game of the season, in Houston. We weren't too thrilled with the whole idea of it. The game was scheduled for 2:00, he had to be there by 12:30, and the refs ended up getting lost and pushing ALL the games back by about 2 hours. So we spent a lot of time sitting in the bleachers, waiting. Then Riley's team played, and Riley didn't get to play much. I would have understood if the team was making winning play after winning play, yeah, don't mess with a good thing. But we got creamed by the Eagles, 23 to 0. The Hawks kept using the same team, making the same plays over and over and over. It was so frustrating to watch, and especially knowing that we just wasted a whole day, and Riley was wanting to play so bad! When he did get to go play, he did great, tackled the people he was supposed to and all that. It was just a frustrating day. Reinforcing my dislike for football.

Pfootball

Riley has been wanting to do tackle football for a LONG time now. Well since he isn't in gymnastics right now, we figured it would be a good time to try it out. It was very last minute, I was talking to Joe and they were taking Mark to practice, so we jumped in the truck and headed up there and we were lucky enough to get in the junior league. He looks SO small out there compared to some of those kids, but he says he can do it. They told him he would most likely be a wide receiver and he did a great job of catching the football every time they threw it at him. I just hope he learns to run *really* fast so he can avoid being tackled! And Joe and Regan tossed the ball around a bit, and that kept her mind off the heat for a while. Riley was ready to throw in the towel after 30 minutes or so. He's used to those indoor sports, the heat was new to him!

Hockey Day

One of our home school groups had a really awesome field trip that we got to go on. First, we got to go out in the morning and tour the new Cedar Park Center, home of the Texas Stars Hockey Team, and tour the facility. We were the first group to ever get to watch the Stars during practice. The kids loved it as we sat up in the party boxes and watched the practice, and listened to someone go over the "science" of hockey. Basically, the ins and outs, and some of the rules, and how they set up and tear down the rink for other events, it was very neat.

Then since we were over by our old house, that used to be my mom's, we drove over there, saw the old place, (it looks pretty much the same) and drove over by Grandma and Grandpa's old house that was right down the road from ours, but now was confusing because there is a giant toll road separating our houses now! We also went to Block House Creek Park, where I spent MANY an hour pushing kids on swings! Regan didn't remember the park, but Riley did, and we went hiking up the creek a ways. The weather has been gorgeous, but we were dressed for the ice rink, so we were melting out there!


Then later that evening we went back with our group for a real live hockey game! Regan wasn't too impressed, but Riley and his friend Jett loved it. Riley got an autograph from one of the hockey players, and then as we were leaving the arena, the cheerleaders were by the door, (I didn't even know they HAD cheerleaders for hockey!) so Regan wanted to meet them and get their autographs, and Riley of course had to get in on that too.


It was a fun day, and one of those rare ones where the planets align and the kids actually got along! In one picture, right before I snapped, Riley actually, on his own, put his arm around Regan. I wanted to scream, "You DO love her!" It was fun, and I'm hoping Spring is bringing out the best of all of us.

Star Center Meet

Today was Riley's first gymnastics meet for the traveling team. Thankfully it was in Austin so we didn't have to travel far! He has some coming up in other cities, so it was nice to get our feet wet here in town so to speak. He did really well. You could tell he was nervous, and there were a LOT of boys there. The age break down was 9 year olds, 10-11 year olds, and 12 and up. Some of the 9 year olds looked about 6 or 7, and some of those 11 year olds looked 16! The never ending gymnast-age issue. Anyway, he started on floor, slipped and lost his footing (almost everyone did, which makes me wonder what was up with their floor) but anyway, he won bronze on pommel horse, but I thought his best was parallel bars and rings. It was good to get the first meet out of the way and now he knows what to expect at the next one. Dave video taped so I'm sure we will have it on DVD for anyone who wants to see it. Until then, enjoy:

Ice Skating

We decided to go Ice Skating with some friends for New Year's Eve, and I thought it wouldn't be too crowded, a good time to go, but I was wrong, it was pretty crowded, but they still had fun. Well, Riley, Tristan and Merissa had fun, Regan hated every second of it. She begged me to skate, then begged me to take them off. Riley did pretty good, he loves it, and Merissa and Tristan even did well once they got the hang of it. It is sure cold in there, so after a few hours of that, and some begging and pleading for hockey sticks and a puck, we went home and all the neighbor kids grabbed brooms and they played hockey/broom ball in the street, they had a great time!

Skate Park

We took a short break from our emotional roller coaster to go to the skate park. Tristan spent the night last night and we had been planning on going, so we went for a little while. Riley likes to rollerblade there instead of skate board, Regan likes the playground, and the weather we've been having is just incredible. So we grabbed a lunch on the way and enjoyed some outdoor time. Riley's getting better out there, but it's hard to practice much when even at 11am you're getting overrun by the old men out there.

Ice Hockey?

Riley wants to do everything. He's in gymnastics 6 hours a week, and piano lessons, and he wants to add guitar lessons, tackle football, and ice hockey. And plenty more, but that's just what he's bugging us about this week. So I finally signed him up for a try-it hockey class and of course, he's hooked (in the green hoody). I don't know how in the world we would fit in anything else right now, especially when he wants to do it all and Regan wants to do nothing, and we're still trying to find her "thing".

Skate Park

I took Riley to the skate park, we were going to meet up with a home school group there, with older boys so he could meet some other kids his age that home school. Only one other family showed up though because of all the rain we had, but it turned out to be really nice, overcast, cool, a perfect day at the skate park! He wore his old rollerblades, and I didn't think about it, but as soon as we left, he took them off and he had HUGE blisters on the side of his feet. So now he's been googling rollerblades and found some nice $200 ones that he wants! That boy wants to do everything! But, this will probably be a weekly thing, at least while the weather is nicer, and next time he's going to bring his skateboard, and hope he can get better on that.

Upward Awards Ceremony

Tonight was the awards ceremony, and it was so cute. They had all the cheerleaders on the stage to do a cheer, and Pastor Joe spoke to the kids (and adults) about looking Upward, not looking back. Then all the kids got really cool backpacks that they love! We got our pictures and they all turned out cute, and then we celebrated by having dinner at mom's favorite, Chuy's!

Busy Times

Well, it's been busy around here again. Christmas break is O-VER. Here's pictures from the last game though:



That was Saturday. Monday was MLK, and David smoked meat, which is apparently how we celebrate holidays around here. Other than that, it was low key. Tuesday was the day I picked up Girl Scout Cookies and now I drive around with them in the back of my truck feeling like a drug dealer, "Hey, I got your Thin Mints, pay up." And today, I get to finish up with the kids science fair project because I've been subbing and we've been so busy we haven't gotten around to finishing it, and the science fair is, yep, tomorrow. I hated these when *I* was doing them, and here I am, STILL doing them! And I would love to say that the Merry Go Round will end soon, but it won't because we will be selling Girl Scout cookies at cookie booths for the next 6 weekends, along with Cheerleading and Basketball games, and I'm the cookie booth coordinator so I have to make sure that everyone has the booths they want, the times they want, and WAY behind on my laundry. Oh, and LOST starts back up tonight.

Game Day #1

So today was the big day, first Upward game of the season. Regan had to be there by 8:30 so she could stand on the sidelines with poms in the air shaking them as the players ran through, it was so cute. She has all of a sudden decided she's "too shy" to cheer in front of people. I told her we finish what we start, and then lied and said everyone would be watching the game anyway. It was cute, and the girls are all adorable in their uniform. I'll have to work on better pictures next week, the lighting in the church is HORRIBLE, so with flash, they have evil eyes, and without it's too dark.

Then we went to breakfast with Mimi and back in time to see Riley play. He did really well, even though his team lost, Riley scored several baskets for his team, one would have been a 3 pointer, and the crowd went wild! It was cute, those boys are ferocious! Can't wait to see how they evolve over the next few weeks.

Bowling

Regan and I were getting sick of all the testosterone and Xbox 360 playing going on around here, so we split for a girl day. We went shopping, bought us some crafty things to do together, and had lunch at one of our favorite burger places, Mooyah! and then I got my hair cut and brows waxed while she got a manicure. It was a last minute thing, but she enjoyed it, and it kept her occupied while I was in the chair. But I think she likes it, a LOT. I created a monster! But then we met up with the boys and for some black-light bowling at Main Event before cheerleading practice.

Basketball Practice

We went to Riley's Upward Basketball practice tonight, and watched him make some good shots, and played with my camera some. They have a devotional at every practice, which is great. Riley's pretty good out there, and their first game is this Saturday, should be interesting!