4/8/17
A soccer mom is always running in 5 different directions. Today Mark got to experience a little bit of the running, while I truly was the soccer mom. He started the morning running Jayden to the Heckman’s with her horse where she went on to a rodeo. Then he drove the truck and trailer back home, ran to Luke’s soccer game, and finally he went to an afternoon roping practice. He enjoyed roping, said it was quite a shock going from hot heels to live cattle with super fast cattle. I was soccer mom, took Luke to his double header soccer games, at 11:45 and 2:15. It was a great day for soccer with temps reaching 76 with much wind. It was just nice to see the sun shine and enjoy the warmth. Mawgee, Mark, and Po came to watch the first game. Luke’s on a team with 4th graders and he and Alex are the only 3rd graders. Alex and Nathan are both on his team, go to our church, and are in our connection group and Amber G is the coach. His team did great and won their first game. It is fun to see the kids play with a strategy. They have forwards, guards, goalies, and sweepers. Luke got in and kicked the ball several times. The field is twice the size as last year now that he is older and he does a lot of running. The second game was a little tougher. The kids were a little tired by then and the other team didn’t exactly play by the rules. Needless to say, the didn’t win that game. Luke had fun and it was a nice day to be outside.
Jayden left early in the morning to attend a rodeo at Widmer’s. She tried a new strategy, something she had watched videos on and had a plan. She did 3 warm-ups working her drills. She ran a 14.5 barrel run, a 14.4 won it by a PRCA barrel racer and the arena record was a 14.2. She had a smokin run and took second place. She was beyond thrilled and we were so happy. Her friend Marlee, who runs PRCA and is a tough competitor ran that day too. She had a great run and Ace ran a faster time. Her and her mother were amazed at how well Ace did and were cheering with excitement. Jayden has done so much with her horse, she does all the exercising, all the training, and all the problem solving. She does research, reads, asks people on blogs, and watches videos to help improve. She learns and figures things out. There are so many barrel racers that take their horses to professional trainers, more than I ever realized. There are some local people that go to extreme measures taking their horses across the country to high dollar professional barrel trainers and bring them back in time to to start the season. I am just so proud of Jayden for taking her horse and making him the great athlete he is. It is so impressive to see her work and effort pay off. She is really something.
Jake was on his award 4H trip. He left Friday night at 5 for an overnight trip to the Omaha zoo. I took Jake to the bus and we waited in the car until it arrived. As we looked around at some of the kids going on the trip, I was worrying about Jake and hoping and praying he would have a good experience, I have to admit I was questioning it. He looked around and looked at me and said my famous quote,”It takes all kinds of kinds.” As in there are a lot of strange people in this world, but it does take all kinds of kinds and we are to accept and love them all. He was probably the only kid on the whole trip that didn’t know anyone. I felt bad sending him on a bus of 50 some kids. He found a farm boy and stuck by his side and made friends right away. He ended up having a great time and sent me photos and texts. He enjoyed every bit of it, meeting new friends, exploring the zoo, all the many different animals, and the bus ride. He got to sleep under the fish aquarium. They went to bed late after midnight and awoke at 6AM. They spent the day at the zoo and were back to Fort Dodge at 5. I could tell Jacob had a great time and was anxious to tell me all about it. Once he got off the bus and greeted me, I asked if I was going to get to meet his friends. He grinned and said ‘”Sure, she’s right over there,” as he smiled and waved to a girl. That was the biggest shock. He was all smiles and so excited. I didn’t want to embarrass either one of them so didn’t go and meet her, but he talked non stop about his new friends and the whole trip. He said the girl told him he was cool and smiled at him and talked to him a lot. Makes me laugh. He was feeling pretty good and confident. He also met a couple other farm boys that he got to know. I am so happy for Jake and proud of him for going on a trip like that and meeting new people. It was quite an experience. We were all home and had supper together by 8PM. Everyone had a lot to talk about over supper on this night. What a day!
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