A Full-filling Day

We had a busy Saturday and accomplished a lot! Started off with Santa's Workshop at church this morning...they didn't lay out all the projects this year like they've done in the past, so I didn't get to take a picture of all that was made. I know we finished two large mosaic pots, seven or eight baby blankets (five of which Jillian sewed! Thanks mom for teaching her to sew, she loves it!), several windchimes, birdfeeders, knitted hats, Christmas wreaths & ornaments, two large wooden benches, cards and letters to servicemen & women and 75 hygiene kits. These wonderful Christmas gifts go to various organizations like Helpline House, House of Hope, and LDS Humanitarian Services. I love this activity that our ward does every year. It's such a great way to start the holiday season. The kids were very involved. Nate said he did a little of everything and he was very helpful with Ben. Jillian and I sewed most of the time, Kylie and Brad worked mostly on the bird feeders and benches. I was too busy to take many pictures, but here are a few.

After we got home, Jillian, Ben and I (and one of their friends) raked leaves in the front yard. It was a beautiful, afternoon, warm for mid-November!

The kids have a "dig site" on the edge of the yard, basically a really big hole that they've dug, and they decided to fill it with the leaves so they could jump in to it and pretend they were swimming. I guess they didn't get to the swimming part, since Jillian said there were slugs on the leaves...

While we were raking, Brad and Nate went to Brad's parents and loaded up logs from a tree Brad cut up last week. More wood to split...yipee! When they returned and the kids were tired of raking, Brad and I were able to do some yard work together without interruption, which is a very rare occurance! It was nice to talk and spend time outside together cleaning off the sports court.

Then tonight was Nathan's first indoor soccer game. He's on a co-ed team, five girls, twelve boys, all freshmen, all rec-league players. They played another Bainbridge team which was a mix of grades, with most of the players from select teams. (Bainbridge has a rec-league and a select league, select being the more "serious" players.) They lost, 5 to 11, but I thought they did pretty well considering their competition. He hasn't played soccer for the past two years, so it was fun to watch him again. Sorry, no pictures, the action is way too fast paced for my camera!

Not a perfect day for soccer!

I'm hoping and praying that the absolutely perfect weather we had for the first two soccer games of the season is not over, that today's rain is just a temporary respite from the gorgeous blue skies and just-turning-crisp air. The rain today is of the grey, chilly, dripping-all-day-long, makes-me-want-to curl-up-in-a-fuzzy-robe-and-read-a-book-all-day-long variety, the kind we are so famous for in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Sigh! Our summer weather vanished too suddenly and I'm in mourning.

I was very worried this morning when I woke up and heard the rain. Ben HATES getting wet, to the point that he strips off his clothing if it gets even one tiny drip of water on it. At church, he will hold the sacrament tray out as far away from his body as he can reach and give a sigh of relief if it passes over without dripping on him. So when I heard the rain, terrible images ran through my head of him throwing a huge tantrum and trying to strip off his soccer uniform when he stepped out from under the umbrella to play in his soccer game this morning. He realized it was raining before we left the house, and said "Oh man, is it raining?" When I confirmed that yes it was, he started to get upset. I tried to be very nonchalant about it and said, "You know how when you go swimming and wear your swimming trunks you don't mind getting wet? Well, this is kind of like that. When you're playing soccer in the rain, your soccer clothes get wet, but you can take them off right after you're done." Somehow this made sense to him and he didn't say another word about it. He played the game in the rain, got nice and wet, and didn't complain or try to take off any clothing! Wow! I was completely amazed. He even sat in his wet clothes in the car and waited until we got home to change, even though I had brought a change of clothes with us. Can you say PROGRESS? Of course I forgot to bring the camera with me, so I didn't get any pictures of this miraculous event, but I promise it's true!

A Perfect Day for Soccer

Soccer season started today, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! The sun has finally come back and it was warm even at 9:00 in the morning. Days like this, I love soccer. Kylie is playing on the same team she's been on for the past four years. She has two great coaches and her team has really pulled together to become serious players. They won the game 6 to 2. Last year they were undefeated in the regular season and then lost all their play-off games.

Ben is playing for his first time and seemed to enjoy it. When I asked him after his game if he liked soccer or t-ball better, he said, "Definitely soccer!" Yay! That's what we like to hear!