Susan’s Journal

I know that every parent says their child is the best… but tonight, what happened was nothing short of incredible, miraculous, and completely awesome.

Tonight was Rainlin’s basketball team’s championship game. They had beaten this team two times before, and Rain went into it saying no problem; but I warned her, you can’t let your guard down, and things can always change. Tonight, things changed.

At the beginning of the game, we were up by four. Less than ten minutes later, it was 4 to 10–and we were losing. We got up to 10, then they got up to 11. Then a girl on our team got two free throws because of a foul, and she MADE both of them! There was only thirty seconds left in the game, and we ended up winning 13 to 11. All the parents went ballistic, screaming and throwing their arms up and jumping out of their seat. Our little nine-year-old girls had come back from behind and won the championship game. The coaches grabbed the box of trophies, and we all headed to Cici’s.

Apparently Cici’s is the hot spot on a Friday night; there were no tables, and the line was out the door! Rain and I were the first ones in line, and Scott dropped Dylan off with us a few minutes later. The manager started passing out slices of pizza to the people waiting in line, and I said to him, “Hey, my daughter’s team just won the basketball championship, and they are all standing outside!” He smiled and brought them a couple pizzas too. The kids got such a huge kick out of getting “free pizza,” and it was impossible to explain to them that it wasn’t really free, it was kind of just like eating part of the buffet before we paid… kind of a hard concept to grasp.

Inside, Dylan and I sat with another mom and her son in a booth, and the dozen black-jerseyed basketball girls crowded around a couple tables in the middle of the restaurant. I told the other mom sitting with me that in the last couple minutes of the game, I had prayed. I said God, I know life isn’t all about winning, but it would be really nice right now. The other mom laughed out loud, and said she had been praying too. Whenever two or more of us are gathered in his name, I said to her…

They even had a cake for the girls! It was one of those cool cakes with a photo on it, and it was a photo of the basketball team. The girls all got a kick out of eating themselves The trophies they had won were huge… Rain was really thrilled about it. As we were leaving, the coach said to her… my son has been playing for years and years, and only has about two trophies this big… you should really cherish this one. I think that had a big impact on her too

What an excellent evening!

Another day, another long drive. Another night without the kids,another night with friends instead. Life carries on.

As I sit here, rubbing the oncoming sleep from my eyes, the kids are up in their beds now, hollering back and forth about the title of a Fall Out Boy song. As Rain asks if she can borrow the CD from Dylan, I holler up that they need to go to sleep, and that she can borrow it in the morning. It’s half an hour past bedtime, but both kids are squeaky clean with their teeth and hair brushed. I won’t last much longer. I was awakened by two long nightmares last night and a battery dying in one of the smoke detectors–which sends out a loud “beep” every 60 seconds. Incredibly annoying. I am very lucky I have some 9 volt batteries in the house. I probably need to buy more for when the rest die en masse.

There’s nothing better than spending the evening with my kids–picking them up, stopping at Wal-Mart, fixing dinner, doing school projects together, tucking into bed, spending ten minutes talking to each one before I kiss them good-night. Nothing else in the world could be better than that.

Today started so wonderful–I hooked up the doggies to the leashes and took them for a walk before work–and ended so terrible–with tears and gut-wrenching stress and emotions. I don’t feel like talking about it. It’s over now, though. At least for today. Today’s only got a half hour left.

Today was kind of a crazy day at church. I haven’t been sleeping much because I’ve been sick and haven’t been able to breathe out of my nose, so I started Sunday with very little sleep. After two stressful services of being on camera (stressful because one of our cameras is broken), I was definitely ready for an afternoon nap before the night service.

That wasn’t to be, though.

Scott came by to pick up a tool box, get Rain’s basketball shoes (I gave both kids a big big hug, I have missed them SO much the past couple days), and talk about some things. It was actually decent conversation, but it robbed me from an hour of that nap time.

After that, I just figured there wasn’t enough time for a nap, and with the weather incredibly beautiful, I would be a mean person if I didn’t take the doggies for a walk. So out we went. I planned on not taking longer than fifteen minutes or so, but that wasn’t to be either. Leia took a crap on one of the baseball fields (I’m smart enough now to carry a wal-mart bag around with me, Luke never poops when he walks so this is a new thing), and it seemed like every adult and child wanted to stop me to scratch Leia. The three-legged dog doesn’t get the attention he used to anymore, but I still love him the same.

Anyways, all that turned my fifteen minute walk into a half hour walk, and before I knew it–crap (in another context), I’m going to be late back for church! So I hopped in my car and zipped my way back two towns away.

Service went great–our nighttime service on Sundays is kind of designed for singles to meet up and hang out. I invited a friend, and he came and watched, and we went to a wing place after for dinner, then said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways.

At home, I kenneled up the doggies, put in pajamas, and collapsed in bed. It didn’t take me long at all to pass out. I was going to make a video blog post with some videos I took while walking the dogs, but I just didn’t get that far. Maybe tomorrow… maybe Tuesday…

I made a post a couple days ago about starting to hang pictures in my house… about how, for some reason, I had just never put any up since we moved in.

This afternoon, I was picking through some things in the garage when a picture frame caught my eye. What’s that, I wondered… and when I pulled it out, I drew a little gasp and thought to myself, “yaay!” It was this framed picture of two goofy baseball/softball photos I had taken of the kids. It turned out I wouldn’t have to wait until Sunday to hang pictures after all.

I put it right at the bottom of the stairs, so whenever you walk out of the house, you walk right by it. I’ve found myself at the bottom of the stairs for no particular reason a couple times since I hung it. It’s so nice to have my beautiful kids’ faces there on the wall for everyone to see.

And on this day,
February 23, 2003… heh, yeah, I’m never going to do THAT again.

I guess it started Thursday afternoon. I became stuffed up. Do you know how frustrating it is to try to sleep, when you can only breathe through your mouth? Of course you do–we’ve all been through that.

Tonight I was supposed to go out with a friend of mine and have a good time, but it was just a lost cause. I came home from work and flopped on the couch, slept off and on for a few hours, and finally just said screw it, I’m staying home.

I also broke one of my own rules and let Leia up on the couch. I had told the kids to let the couch be Luke’s territory, but he’s been better and better about having her around, and I felt like crap, so I just cuddled up with her in my arms, and we both snoozed a tiny bit.

I don’t feel sick to my stomach, I don’t feel achey, I don’t feel feverish–I just can’t friggin breathe. I hope this goes away soon.