I have a confession--I love fall. This may come as a shock to those of you who know me (especially my husband who is a die-hard fallophile) because I have stood by summer my entire life as the best season of the year. In truth, as I'm getting older and life is about more than working on my tan by the pool, I'm finding myself appreciating the changes and natural wonders each new season brings. I'm lucky enough to live in a place where I can experience four distinct and beautiful seasons every year and as the weather is cooling down, I'm getting excited about celebrating autumn holidays, breaking out my sweaters and jeans and gathering around the fireplace.
I've also been excited about something else fall brings--soccer! I played tons of soccer in my youth and loved it. And I'm loving watching Elleke develop into a talented, agressive little player whose specialty is stealing the ball from other girls (sometimes on her own team) at all costs. She did a week-long soccer camp this summer where she improved her skills and increased her knowledge of the basics of the game. And she moved up a notch this year which means she's playing on a bigger field with five players at a time and with actual, uniformed referees. Big changes from last year. Tom is co-coaching her team (officially known as "The Cheetah Girls") and the girls are all having a blast.
Except for the first game of the year. Two Saturdays ago our cute little Cheetahs played against a team that looked like they played on the high school varsity football team in their spare time. These girls were big, fast and they ran all over us. It was hard to take for the girls and even harder for the parents. It was a total shutout. This was clearly not a game being played for fun.
During the carnage on the field, one of Ella's teammates, Tiana, who was sitting out for the quarter, came over to her mom with a sad, defeated look on her face and said, "Mom, I heard the girls on the other team talking and they said they didn't like our uniforms. That the colors were ugly." I couldn't help but laugh. The Cheetahs were getting destroyed out there. The other team could have said they were beating the tar out of our girls or that they didn't know how to play very well and they would have just shrugged their shoulders and walked away. But insulting their fashion? That was a dagger to the heart. Totally inexcusable and unforgiveable. It was a bad day all around. But last Saturday was much better (Cheetahs won 4-1, not that anyone was keeping score or anything...) and I don't care what those Dragons (or whatever they were) say, our girls are the most stylish ones on the field.
Oh, and one more thing I love about fall--BYU football! BYU-59 UCLA-0. Ranked #11. Need I say more? Lots of Cougar Fight Song singing around our house.
P.S. Did you see the new header. It's my first attempt and I have a feeling it's going to get better so stay tuned...
2 comments:
I also love fall. Always have. KJ started soccer this year for the first time, and is loving it! She's still a little timid with stealing the ball, though. Probably because the coach's daugther is so good at getting the ball from everyone.
She was hoping to get the pink jerseys, but she's happy with her red one.
We sang the cougar fight song too--great game! I think Jackson is starting to get the words down. I told Clark that your dad used to sing that to get you out of bed in the morning and I may just use it on our boys.
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