Busy weekend

Since it rained a lot last Friday, soccer was cancelled last weekend. That meant that opening night ceremony and both opening games were wiped off our calendar. As a result, everything got pushed to this weekend. This weekend also marks the start of the new Religious Ed school year. Talk about having everything thrown at you at once.

Last night we spent a couple hours standing around on the soccer fields waiting for the girls to walk under a little carport with their team holding their team banner. It was a night that left some of us feeling a little bitter. In fact, it was kind of like rubbing salt in a wound. Madeline was on a great soccer team this past Spring. The coach was great, the families were great, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. For some reason, our team was not allowed to stay together for Fall soccer. Madeline and one of her current teammates were among the girls who were not able to stay with their coach. It was bad enough that they didn't have a coach for their team. Bryan stepped up and volunteered to coach, but it took nearly a month of constantly emailing the director of the division to finally get somewhere. That means the girls on Madeline's team were deprived of an entire month of being able to practice. Last night, we discovered that half of the spring team was still together, and in our place, were new "Mighty Ducks" families. The old team walked behind Madeline's team last night singing the team chant and blowing their duck whistles. The other outcast Ducks mom and I stood there feeling more than a little jaded as we watched our girls wistfully looking over at their old team. Even worse, we discovered that we play our old team this afternoon. Madeline has been upset that she's not on her team anymore for over a month. Our team is playing with no subs today (three of our players can't make it) against a team with great players and a lot of practice time under their belts. Madeline's team has had just three practices. I'm not looking forward to this afternoon. I know it's not a good attitude to have going into a game, but I don't expect the "Mighty Storm" to win. Madeline will likely spend a lot of time on net. She's a good goalie and we're going to need her.

I was supposed to be taking Ellie to a birthday party this afternoon, but we're going to have to forgo it. It's Madeline's first game of the season, and I need to be there to cheer her on. I'm team mom, so I think I probably belong at the game.

Provided Madeline's game ends early enough, I'll be able to rush her home to shower and get dressed so I can rush back out and take the kids to Mass. Since Religious Ed. starts tomorrow morning, I'm limited in when I can get them over to the church. If we don't get over there tonight, I'm going to have to drag them out of bed early tomorrow and take them to the 7:45AMMass. That's a scary prospect. I have a class to teach at 9:15AM, and I'm still not done preparing my lesson plan. I was up until Midnight last night working on my Flat Father Stanley's for the class. I made the prototype months ago, but I never got around to making the ones that I need for the class. I have so many things left to do before tomorrow morning. I'm praying that I don't get attacked by a pack of 5 year olds.

Tomorrow afternoon, Ellie will play her first soccer game. Her team is a pretty lively bunch of kids. They had a pretty good time playing with each other last night. I suspect she's going to have a lot of fun playing soccer this Fall.

Here's hoping the weekend goes smoothly. If I survive, expect to see some account of the events here tomorrow or Monday.