Working the System

I'm worried. Seriously. My kids make me laugh but also I'm a little/lot worried about Eddie. The other day I was telling him I had to work instead of playing. There was a pile of dishes from making Zucchini bread that I had to clean. Anyway Eddie says, "I hate work." I thought oh this could be a teaching moment so I started talking to him about the benefits of work and how some day he'll need to work to support himself because daddy and I weren't going to support him forever. He needed to be in school for us to support him. He came up with a solution rather quickly. "Fine I'll go to college. I'll take one class at a time and go to school every other day." I'm flabbergasted by his perceptiveness but also scared. He's not even in first grade and he's already figuring out how to work the system.

Volleyball is BACK!

Volleyball is back in season and I'm feeling it this morning. Last night I had a double header with my women's volleyball team. I have truly loved getting involved in volleyball. As a teenager and earlier I played soccer, I hated running so most often played goalie. I was almost forced into soccer. Not because my parents made me do it or anything like that but in a family with 8 kids and my being the 7th I did what all the older kids did. No one in our family had ever played volleyball, so I didn't. However my freshman year (granted my only year) at BYU I took a volleyball class and played intramural with some girls I knew from the gym. I really came to love the sport. Then when Michael and I were courting we'd play volleyball at Family Home Evening (a mostly social event on Monday evenings) in the Single's Ward that we attended church together. After we had been married a few years I found volleyball at our church again playing with other women from the Beaverton area. Then had to take a break while pregnant with Eddie. Then fast forward to living in Salem in about 2007 I started playing volleyball again at the Stake Center at church with men and women. There were anywhere from about 8-20 people that would come twice each week Late Spring through Fall. Some were more loyal than others and I like to consider myself among the loyals. At first I was pretty sucky but over time I got better and even invested in some knee pads. I played consistently with only taking breaks while pregnant with Ian and then came back as soon as I could after he was born. When we moved from Salem up to Portland I knew that volleyball would be one of the hardest things for me to leave behind, amongst my friends, ward, house, neighborhood and school. Michael promised that he'd support me in finding a new way to play volleyball and thanks to Portland Volleyball Association I'm able to play once again. I've played on several teams over the last year from Co-ed sand to womens. One season I was playing on three teams. I've since limited myself to one team per season, but I'm still willing to sub if you ever need a sub. I love it all and am so grateful to Michael for supporting me on my weird and yet healthy obsession.

Ian drinking lemon juice. He just kept going.